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+Project Gutenberg's On Board the Esmeralda, by John Conroy 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: On Board the Esmeralda
+       Martin Leigh's Log - A Sea Story
+
+Author: John Conroy Hutcheson
+
+Illustrator: W.H. Overend
+
+Release Date: April 16, 2007 [EBook #21107]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON BOARD THE ESMERALDA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+
+On Board the Esmeralda; or, Martin Leigh's Log
+
+by John Conroy Hutcheson
+_______________________________________________________________
+There is no doubt that John Hutcheson was a talented writer of books for
+teenagers.  Most of his books were about the sea, but few of them were
+as well-written as this one.  What is meant here is that his English
+style is very good, even when he brings in characters whose command of
+English is less perfect; and also that he drives his characters from one
+gripping situation to another.
+
+The hero, Martin Leigh, is the son of a brave British Naval officer, who
+was killed in Africa when the boy is very young. The mother also dies,
+and Martin is left an orphan, to be brought up by his father's brother.
+He has a horrible time in this family, and Aunt Matilda is his chief
+tormentor. Eventually he is sent to a cheap boarding school with a
+prospectus in no way matched by reality.  Again he has a horrible time,
+for several years, but is befriended by another boy, Tom.  One year, on
+Guy Fawkes' Day, they perpetrate a misdemeanour far beyond what they
+should have done, and are sentenced to be expelled.  They run away, and
+stow away in a little coaster.  When they are discovered, the captain
+beats them even worse than the Headmaster of their school had done.  So
+Martin, aged thirteen, has known nothing but hard times.
+
+He meets with nice people, has a while in which he gets his act
+together, and then goes to sea again.  This trip is full of adventure,
+near misses and disasters.  Fire at sea, wrecked on the southern tip of
+South Anerica, and finally back home to the kind people who had
+befriended him when he had that early chance to settle down.
+
+It is a well-written book, easy to read or to listen to, and I recommend
+it as one of Hutcheson's best.  N.H.
+________________________________________________________________
+
+ON BOARD THE ESMERALDA; OR, MARTIN LEIGH'S LOG
+
+BY JOHN CONROY HUTCHESON
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+EARLY DAYS.
+
+It is strange what trifling events--little things apparently in
+themselves--seem to have the power of shaping our different destinies,
+and colouring, so to speak, the whole course of our subsequent life!
+
+To illustrate this, I may state without exaggeration that, had it not
+been for Dr Hellyer's hat--taken in connection with the mischievous
+promptings of that madcap Tom Larkyns, my special chum at the time--it
+is more than probable that the grand climax which so abruptly brought my
+school-days to a close might have been averted; and, in that case,
+following out the argument, I should not have gone to sea; have never
+started on that disastrous voyage round Cape Horn which nearly
+terminated my then newly-commenced nautical career as summarily as my
+whilom academical studies had been put a stop to just previously; and,
+as a natural consequence, I should most certainly have never had the
+opportunity or necessity for spinning the present yarn.  But, perhaps,
+the best plan for me to pursue, in order to make you fully understand
+the matter in all its bearings, will be to "begin at the beginning," as
+your regular 'longshore professional storytellers say, in the good old-
+fashioned way, without any more backing and filling, and veering and
+hauling, which mode of progression, as every decent sailor knows, only
+tends to take a craft off her proper true course, and make lots of
+leeway; whereas, if we sail on free, with a fair wind and a steady helm,
+you'll soon be able to follow in my wake and form a correct opinion of
+your own as to the merits of my logical conclusions.
+
+I will now, therefore, put back again and select a fresh point of
+departure after this little bit of sea lawyering; so, here goes for a
+start in earnest!
+
+My name is Martin Leigh, and my mother died shortly after I was born,
+worse luck for me!  My father, who was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy,
+being within a year or two subsequently killed in action up the Niger
+river on the west coast of Africa, I was left an orphan at a very early
+age, without having ever experienced, even in my most remote childish
+recollections, those two greatest of all blessings--a mother's love and
+parental guidance--which many who have been more fortunate than myself
+to possess are, as I have frequently noticed in after-life, but too
+often in the habit of undervaluing and making light of.
+
+At the time of my birth, my father was abroad on service in the exercise
+of his profession, having no private fortune or other resources which
+would have enabled him to live at home on his half-pay; and on my
+mother's early death I was taken charge of at his request by his
+brother, a man considerably older than himself, with a wife and family
+of his own.  Of course, while my father lived he made over a portion of
+the _honorarium_ given him by a grateful country in return for exposing
+his life at the call of duty; but, on his suddenly succumbing to the
+effects of a murderous slug shot through the lungs, fired from the old
+flint musket of one of the King of Abarri's adherents, in the
+pestilential African stream up which he had gone to demolish a native
+stronghold that had defied the fetish of the British flag, this
+allowance for my support ceased, and I was thenceforth left a poor
+pensioner on my uncle's bounty.  I will do my relative the justice of
+stating that I do not believe he would have grudged the extra expense I
+entailed on his already well-populated household, had it not been for my
+aunt.  This lady, however, affectionately regarded me as an interloper
+from the very first; and I have a vivid memory, even now, of the
+aggravating way she had of talking about the food I ate and the clothes
+I wore out--although, goodness knows, my tailor's bill could not have
+amounted to much in those days, as I was invariably made the residuary
+legatee of my elder cousin Ralph's cast-off jackets and trousers, which,
+when pretty nearly dilapidated, used to be made over to my use, after
+being first cut down by my Aunt Matilda's own fair hands to suit my more
+juvenile proportions.
+
+To make a long story short, I could plainly perceive, young as I was,
+long before I had cut my eye teeth, that I was looked upon as an
+uncalled-for incumbrance by my relatives, senior and junior alike--Aunt
+Matilda never being dissuaded, by any fear of hurting my feelings, from
+continually speaking of my pauper condition, and throwing it, as it
+were, in my face, wondering in her hypocritical way what special sin she
+could have committed that she should thus be afflicted in having to
+"deny her own children their rightful bread," that I, miserable orphan,
+might "wax fat and kick," as she said; while my cousins, who were a very
+mean lot, dutifully followed the example set them by their mother, in
+making me "realise my position," as they termed their cruel tyranny.
+Uncle George used sometimes to take my part when some hazy recollection
+of his dead brother came before his mind, declaring that as long as he
+had a crust to spare I should not want; still, as the incessant dropping
+of water will in the end wear away stone, so my aunt's persistent
+nagging and iteration of my shortcomings in resisting my cousins'
+bullying had their due effect in time.
+
+The upshot was that, when I had just turned my twelfth year and had
+experienced a childhood of martyrdom which I trust few others situated
+like myself will ever have to undergo, my uncle came to the
+determination of sending me away to a cheap boarding-school at a
+distance, where I was to be taught and boarded and "found" for the
+munificent sum I believe of twelve pounds annually.  The proviso was, I
+may add, especially insisted on by my Aunt Matilda, that I was not to
+return "home"--I beg that hearty word's pardon for so misapplying it--
+for the holidays at any period whatever, but was to spend my whole time
+under the academical roof-tree until my pupilage should expire.
+
+Hitherto I had received no regular instruction whatever, and had it not
+been for the kind offices of a good-natured servant-maid, I would have
+been unable either to read or write.  Indeed, I believe the neighbours
+must have gossiped about my neglected state and the position I occupied
+in the house, where I had to perform all sorts of menial offices, and
+was hardly ever allowed out of doors, except on Sundays, when I had to
+go to the chapel which my aunt attended.  Be that as it may, at all
+events, I was told by my friend, the maid-servant aforesaid, that the
+minister of this chapel had remonstrated on my behalf.  Thence came the
+determination on my uncle's part to send me to school; for I am certain
+that if my dear aunt could have had her own way, without the fear of
+being talked about in the locality, she would much rather have entrusted
+me to the care of the parochial authorities.  However, in whatever way
+the matter was decided, I know that when I heard the news I felt
+inclined to jump for joy, considering "going to school," which is so
+dreaded at first by boys with happier homes than I had been accustomed
+to, would be a delightful deliverance from the misery to which I had
+been condemned from infancy in my uncle's house--living like an Ishmael,
+with every hand, save that of Uncle George and Molly the maid, raised
+against me.
+
+"Now, Martin," said my uncle, when he informed me of the result of the
+family council held on my case, "as I'm only a poor man, I'm straining a
+point and crippling my means in order to send you to school; but I am
+doing it so that you may be educated to earn your own living, which
+you'll have to do as soon as the three years expire for which I have
+contracted with Dr Hellyer; after that it will be out of my power to do
+anything further for you."
+
+"All right, uncle," said I, buoyantly, so carried away with excitement
+at the news that I almost felt kindly disposed towards my aunt, who was
+standing by, although she tried to damp my spirits as much as in her
+lay.
+
+"You are only throwing away your money, George," she remarked acidly to
+my uncle.  "He has always shown an ungrateful, thankless disposition;
+and his bad, undutiful temper will be certain to bring him to ruin!"
+
+"Let us hope not," replied uncle, placidly.  He was a quiet, easy-going
+business man, employed in the City, and used to let things quietly take
+their own course, except when sometimes they touched him too keenly to
+be left unnoticed.  He then went on addressing me:
+
+"You will have to be steady and diligent, making the most of your time;
+and the master will report to me every quarter as to your conduct and
+zeal in learning."
+
+"Nice reports they'll be!" interposed my aunt, mockingly.
+
+"Well, well," hurriedly concluded Uncle George, to get the thing ended
+as soon as possible.  "Your fortune is all in your own hands, and I hope
+and trust, if only for your father's sake, you will turn out well!
+Remember, that if Dr Hellyer gives a good general report of you at the
+end of your three years' term, I'll try to get you into a City warehouse
+or office; but if you behave badly, why, you'll have to shift for
+yourself, and go your own course, as I shall wash my hands of you!"
+
+There the conversation ended, with an intimation that I was to go to Dr
+Hellyer's school in three days' time.
+
+The interval passed like a whirlwind to me; for not only were my
+thoughts full of the new life on which I was entering, but there was in
+addition the very unusual bustle attendant on my being provided with a
+wardrobe--I for whom anything had been good enough before!  My uncle,
+however, had now made it a _sine qua non_ that I should be fitted out
+properly with decent clothes, and, consequently, my aunt was obliged to
+furnish me with a thorough rig, selected from my Cousin Ralph's surplus
+stock.  One thing pleased me in this better than all else!  It was that,
+instead of having my outer raiment composed, as previously, of Ralph's
+cast-off garments, I was measured for an entirely new suit of my own.
+This alone was an unexpected gratification; for I hated the fact of my
+being compelled to wear Ralph's discarded clothes.  It had been gall and
+wormwood to me.  I loathed myself for having to put them on, and loathed
+him as the malicious instrument that caused me to be so degraded--the
+more especially as my cousin would in "a friendly sort of way"
+frequently allude to the circumstance of the clothes having been
+formerly his, calling attention to my want of care in treating them
+properly!
+
+All things have an end, fortunately, and the morning arrived at last
+when I had to bid farewell to the villa on the outskirts of Islington
+where I had passed so many miserable years.  Molly, the servant-maid,
+was the only one in the house with whom I parted with any regret; and it
+was with feelings considerably more exultant than sad that I accompanied
+my uncle to the City in the omnibus which he always took to his place of
+business, that convenient vehicle passing by in its route the corner of
+the road where uncle lived.
+
+Arriving at the London Bridge terminus, Uncle George ensconced me and my
+box in a train, bound for Beachampton, at which retired and out-of-the-
+way little watering-place was situated Dr Hellyer's school.
+
+Handing me then my railway ticket and a two-and-sixpenny "tip," Uncle
+George gave me a hearty hand-shake, wishing me good-bye and a safe
+journey.
+
+"Mind you be a good boy, and pay attention to your lessons," he said.
+"And--listen, Martin--should you ever be in any serious trouble, you can
+write and let me know.  But mind," added Uncle George, "you mustn't
+forget, my boy, to address your letters to my office, and not to the
+villa; for your Aunt Matilda might not like the idea, you know, eh!"
+
+"All right, Uncle George," I answered.  "I will remember where to write
+to, never fear.  Good-bye now, and thank you for all your kindness to
+me."
+
+"Good-bye, Martin!" he echoed; and, as the train moved slowly out of the
+station, I really felt quite sorry to part with him; but, as the panting
+engine proceeded on its way, going faster as it emerged from the
+labyrinthic terminus on to the open line, dragging the groaning,
+wheezing, jolting carriages behind it--the clatter of the wheels and
+rattle of the coupling-chains keeping time with the puffs and pants of
+escaping steam--my temporary emotion at parting with Uncle George was
+banished by the exultant feeling of being set free, like a bird let
+loose from a cage.
+
+I was only conscious that I was flying along to new scenes and new
+surroundings, where everything would be fresh and novel, and entirely
+unlike what I had previously been accustomed to at Tapioca Villa.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+AT BEACHAMPTON.
+
+My journey "down the line" was a momentous matter to me in more ways
+than one; for, independently of the fact of its being the first
+opportunity I had ever had of riding in a railway train, it was while
+travelling down to Brighton, and thence along the endless south coast
+route past Shoreham and Worthing, that I had my first sight of the sea--
+that sea on whose restless bosom my floating home was to be made for
+many a year afterwards in good fortune and ill.
+
+I must confess, however, that this first view of the element did not
+impress me very greatly, in spite of the tendency of my mind at that
+period to take a rose-coloured view of everything new that came within
+range of my vision, so long as it was totally disconnected with old
+associations of the Islington villa; for, from the window of the third-
+class carriage, whence I was peering out eagerly to see all that was to
+be seen, the marine horizon that stretched out before my gaze appeared
+more like a large inverted wash-hand basin than anything else, with the
+ships that were going up and down Channel, seeming to be sailing in a
+curve along its outer rim; while, instead of the vivid hue of cerulean
+blue that had been pictured in my imagination as the invariable tint of
+Neptune's domain, the sober tone of the tumid element was that of a dull
+brownish-grey, reflecting the unwholesome leaden-tinged sky above, and,
+there being no wind to speak of, there wasn't the ghost of a ripple
+perceptible on its sullen, silent surface!
+
+Even novelty tires after a time, and long before I had reached my
+destination I had got heartily sick of railway travelling; so, I was
+very glad when, after changing carriages at a junction between Brighton
+and somewhere else on the line, sometimes going fast, sometimes slow,
+and thus crawling along landwise and seaward through miles of country
+for four hours or more, the train came to a standstill beside the
+platform of the little station to which I had been consigned on leaving
+London.
+
+"'Champt'n!  'Champt'n!" cried out somebody with a cracked voice, and
+this sound approximating to the name of the place I was looking out for,
+combined with the fact that the engine began vigorously to blow off
+steam, I became convinced that I had arrived at my goal; so, out I got
+from the uncomfortable and cushionless carriage in which I had performed
+the toilsome journey, not forgetting, you may be sure, the box
+containing my grand rig-out of new clothes, which Aunt Matilda would not
+let me wear on the journey for fear, as she said, of my spoiling them.
+This box I had carefully kept on a seat beside me, in full view of my
+watchful eye, all the way, lest some accident might befall it, although
+not another soul save myself occupied the compartment.
+
+When taking leave of me, Uncle George had said that some responsible
+person would meet me on my arrival at the station to take charge of me,
+from the "scholastic establishment;" and as I had conceived the most
+magnificent ideas of this place from a lithograph I had seen at the top
+of the prospectus referring to it, representing a palatial mansion
+standing in its own grounds, with a commanding view of the adjacent sea,
+I stared about the platform, expecting to see a gorgeous footman in
+livery or some other imposing personage, who would presently step up
+requesting me to take a seat in a coach-and-four or similar stately
+vehicle, and then drive me off in triumph to the educational mansion.
+
+But, lo and behold! no footman or imposing personage made his
+appearance; nor did any one seem to be on the look-out for my
+insignificant self.  My spirits began to sink almost to zero, which
+point they reached anon in the descending scale, when, as soon as
+everybody else who had come by the train had bustled out of the station,
+an old and broken-down looking porter, in a shabby velveteen jacket,
+standing on the other side of the line, shouted out to me across the
+rails in a tone of inquiry, and in a voice which I immediately
+recognised as that which had screeched out the name of the place as the
+train ran in--
+
+"B'y fur Hellyer's, hey?"
+
+I felt annihilated.
+
+"Do you mean to ask whether I am the new pupil for Dr Hellyer's
+establishment?"  I said--with some dignity, I flatter myself.
+
+But that horrible porter was not a bit abashed!
+
+"Yees," he drawled out in his cracked accents, with an intonation that
+clearly evinced the fact of his having been born in Sussex.  "Hellyer's
+school i' the village, b'y, that's wat I mean!  Y'er to come along o'
+me.  Poot yer box on yer shoulder and crass the line, young maister, an'
+I'll shoo yer way down."
+
+This was not to be borne.
+
+I had been treated like a menial in my uncle's household, and had
+perforce to bear it, but I had made up my mind on leaving Tapioca Villa
+that I should never be so degraded again if I could possibly help it.
+
+It wasn't likely, therefore, that I was now going to be at the beck and
+call of a railway porter, after all my boastful resolves--not quite!
+
+I flew into a passion at once: I felt inclined to kill the unfortunate
+man.
+
+"Come over and take up my box yourself, porter," I cried angrily, my
+face flaring up furiously as I spoke, I have no doubt.  "I shall not
+forget, either, to complain to Dr Hellyer about your insolence."
+
+"Ho, ho, ho, the-at be a good un," laughed the old man from his vantage-
+ground on the opposite platform.  "I thinks I say un neow, an' you a-
+talkin' 'bout I!"
+
+However, as I stamped my foot and repeated my order in a tone of
+command, he, evidently much surprised and obeying from the force of
+habit in one accustomed to yield to others, crossed over the line, the
+broad country yokel grin with which he had received my first reply,
+giving place to a surly look.
+
+"Y'er a foine young bantam," he muttered grumblingly in his wheezy
+cracked voice, as he stooped to raise my precious box, "but I specs,
+young maister, yer'll soon ha' yer comb cut, sure-ly!"
+
+I said nothing further to this sally, my anger having by this time
+evaporated; and the old man, poising the light load easily on one
+shoulder, walked leisurely out of the station without uttering another
+word, I following him also in silence.
+
+Proceeding along a straggling street, which was more like a country lane
+than anything else, with a few shops scattered about here and there at
+intervals, for more than half a mile or more--he in front with my box, I
+closely stepping in the rear--after turning sharp round to the right and
+then to the left, past a little corner building which seemed to be a
+wayside inn, but was triumphantly lettered "hotel" along the top of its
+gable end, we at length debouched on to a solitary-looking semi-deserted
+row of red-brick houses that occupied one side of a wild-looking, furze-
+grown common, which I could perceive faced the sea; the sound of the low
+murmurs of the waves on the beach alone breaking the stillness of the
+desolate scene.
+
+This terrace apparently consisted entirely of lodging houses, and it
+being the month of November, and the "season" of the little watering-
+place having closed, bills with "Apartments to Let" were exposed in the
+windows of almost all; almost, but not quite all, for my crack-voiced
+friend when he arrived about the middle of the row stopped in front of
+one of the most unprepossessing habitations of the lot, without any
+notice displayed like the others.  Here, putting down my box on the
+steps, he rang a side-bell that gave out a melancholy clang for a
+moment, and caused quite a bustle of excitement in the two adjacent
+houses, heads being popped out to see who the unexpected new-comers
+might be.
+
+"Here be un," said the old porter, taking off his leathern cap, and
+wiping his forehead with what looked like a tattered "Danger" flag that
+had been used up on the line and discarded from further service.
+
+"Oh!"  I ejaculated, having nothing further to say, for, on seeing the
+grand establishment I had anticipated dwarfed to such very humble
+proportions, I felt terribly small and contemptible in my own sight.
+The dignity that I had so recently aired at the old man's expense shrank
+into nothingness, and I was quite relieved that he did not take
+advantage of the opportunity to "put me down a peg or two."
+
+As a sort of sop to Cerberus, and in order to try and maintain my
+position of independence a few moments longer, I drew out the odd
+sixpence which Uncle George had put into my hand along with the two
+shillings of my tip, giving it to the old porter with the air of one
+with whom such trifling coins were as plentiful as blackberries!
+
+"Take that, my good man," said I, "for your trouble in showing me the
+way."
+
+"H'm!" he grunted between his teeth, but whether meaning to thank me or
+not, I could not say; and then, without waiting for the door to be
+opened, as I naturally imagined, he turned on his heel, and made off
+back again towards the station.
+
+I had to ring a second time at the side-bell before any person appeared
+to answer my summons; and then, sad be it to relate, the portal of the
+mansion was opened by a dirty, down-at-heels, draggle-tailed old woman
+instead of the staid, respectable man-servant who should have officiated
+as janitor to be in proper keeping with the brilliant prospectus before
+mentioned.
+
+"Oh, it's you, is it!" exclaimed the old woman, who had drawn back the
+door gingerly as if she had expected some one else on possibly a hostile
+mission, for an expression of relief came over her face when she saw
+only me; and then, ushering me into a little room leading out of the
+hall, she left me there, telling me to sit down.  I had brought my box
+in with me, you may be sure, otherwise this feat would have been
+impossible, as there was not a single chair in the apartment, the major
+portion of the furniture of the house, as I subsequently learnt, having
+been seized by the sheriff's officers for rent.
+
+My first interview with Doctor Hellyer did not last very long; but it
+certainly was to the point, so far as it went towards impressing me with
+his ponderous personality, for he was a big, smooth-faced, fat, oily
+man, with a crafty look in his little twinkling eyes.
+
+"Ah, Leigh--ah," said he on coming, presently, into the room, "you've
+come at last--ah?"
+
+This "ah-ing" of his was a confirmed habit, for he never seemed able to
+begin or end a sentence without dragging in the ejaculation.
+
+"Yes, sir," I replied, rising up from my box, and taking off my cap
+politely.
+
+"Ah--I've had a nice character of you from your aunt, my dear young
+gentleman," he proceeded, blinking his little ferret-like eyes
+furiously, and with a dubious sort of grin expanding his wide mouth,
+which was furnished with a set of teeth like a shark's.  "She tells me--
+ah--Master Leigh, that you are rude, and bold, and bad, and
+disobedient--ah--and that I shall have to keep a strict watch over your
+conduct; but I think--ah--you will find yourself in good hands here, my
+dee-er boy, really in good hands at last--ah!" and, smiling an ogreish
+smile, he rubbed the palms of the said members together up and down and
+over one another in a circular way as if he were kneading up a little
+ball of putty within them, and I was that ball!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+MY CHUM.
+
+Of course, as you may suppose, I offered no reply to this characteristic
+introductory address of Dr Hellyer, although the allusion he made to
+Aunt Matilda's treachery in trying to prejudice him against me--an
+attempt which, apparently, was as successful as it was intended to be--
+made me boil over with suppressed passion.  It was just like her, I
+thought!  I had hoped, on leaving Tapioca Villa, to have escaped the
+influence of her spiteful malignity; and yet here, at a distance, it was
+pursuing me still, when I really believed myself for ever beyond its
+reach.
+
+The reflection so maddened me that, as I was unable at the time to give
+vent to my anger, my face flushed up as it always did when I was so
+roused by my temper getting the better of me; and I dare say I looked
+like a bellicose young turkey-cock.
+
+My schoolmaster took advantage of the opportunity to "improve the
+occasion."
+
+"Ah, I see," he went on, "your aunt was quite right in her estimate of
+your disposition; but, my dear excitable young friend, I must--ah--give
+you fair warning that if you feel inclined to be rude at any time, you'd
+better not be rude here, and if you are bold--ah--you'll get bowled out!
+Ah--that was an unintentional pun, Leigh, but I don't think you'll find
+me joking when I have to come to the point.  Mind, I never flog a boy
+under any circumstances, but I've got an equally efficacious way of my
+own for making my pupils obey me, which never fails, and you'll probably
+have an early chance of getting familiar with it!  Oh no, I never flog,
+but I've a way of my own, Master Leigh, a way of my own--ah!"
+
+The infinite relish and gusto with which he repeated these last words of
+his are utterly indescribable; while the grin that overspread his fat
+countenance, wrinkling up its fleshy folds, can only be compared to the
+expression one sees carved out on those hideous gargoyles with which the
+architects of former days decorated the odd corners of our cathedrals.
+
+I couldn't help shivering in my shoes; and Dr Hellyer, noticing this,
+evidently thought that he had made sufficient impression for a start,
+for, dropping his terrible, rolling, ponderous voice, he spoke to me
+more amiably.
+
+"Now, leave your box here and it shall be taken up presently to the
+dormitory.  Come along with me and I'll introduce you--ah--to your
+schoolfellows."
+
+To hear was to obey; so, deserting my hitherto keenly-watched little
+property with many misgivings as to the chances of my ever setting eyes
+on it again, I followed Dr Hellyer out of the room and along a narrow
+passage that led directly to the back of the house.  Throwing open a
+door at the further end, a flight of short stone steps was disclosed,
+descending to a wide yard or garden--that is, if one solitary tree in a
+remote corner supplied sufficient vegetation to give the place such a
+name--where I could see a lot of boys of all ages and sizes jumping
+about and otherwise diverting themselves.
+
+"Ah--this is our--ah--playground, Leigh," explained the master, with a
+comprehensive wave of his arm; and, then, the chorus of yells, shouts,
+screams, and stray laughter that at first echoed through my ears, like
+the din of Pandemonium, having ceased as soon as the Doctor's presence
+in their midst was perceived by the boys, that worthy very briefly
+introduced me.
+
+"Here's a new boy--ah--make friends with him; but, ah--no fighting!"
+
+Having thus done as much as he thought necessary, the master withdrew,
+shutting the door that communicated with the house behind him; and I,
+going down the steps, with some little hesitation in the face of all the
+mass of boys who were now staring at me, with, it seemed to me, the
+concentrated look of one, found myself in a minute surrounded by them.
+
+I was just like a solitary pigeon amongst a flock of rooks, for all, as
+if with a single voice, began eagerly shouting out a series of the most
+personal questions, without giving me time to answer them individually.
+
+After a bit, the clamour somewhat ceased, and then a tall, slenderly-
+built chap, who appeared to be the cock of the school, came up to me,
+while the others formed a circle around us two, waiting for the upshot
+of their leader's action.  It was enough to make one feel nervous, for
+they all became suddenly silent, although I could see one or two nudging
+each other and grinning gleefully, as if some highly interesting episode
+was expected at my expense.
+
+"What is your name?" said the tall one.
+
+"Martin Leigh," I replied, civilly, seeing no harm in the question.
+
+"Oh, that's a fine name," observed my interlocutor, sneeringly; "I
+suppose you're the son of a duke, and a nobleman in disguise?"
+
+"No," said I, calmly, put on my mettle by hearing the others sniggering
+at their leader's wit, as they thought it--"my father was an officer."
+
+"That's a good one!" said the tall chap, with a stagey laugh; "I think
+he must have belonged to the Horse Marines--didn't he?"
+
+At this there was a chorus of chuckles from the surrounding boys, with
+cries of "Go it, Slodgers!" and other impertinent interruptions, causing
+my quick temper to fire up.
+
+"You're wrong again, `Mr Sharp,'" I said, angrily.  "He was an officer
+in the navy, and a gentleman--more than yours was, I should think."
+
+"You impudent young beggar, what do you mean?" retorted the tall boy,
+taking a step nearer me, and raising his hand as if to give me a slap on
+the face; "your father was a sweep, you hound!"
+
+"You lie!"  I yelled out, in a white heat with passion; and, without
+waiting for him to give me the first blow, I sprang up and planted my
+fist between his eyes, knocking him back so suddenly that he would have
+fallen but for the others advancing closer and shoring him up, as it
+were, by their pressure, so that he couldn't tumble down.
+
+"Oh, that's it, is it?" said my opponent, recovering himself at once
+quickly; and, before I could put up my hands, he had dealt me two
+swinging blows right and left, making my nose bleed and bringing me in a
+heap on to the ground.
+
+I was not beaten, however, for I was on my feet again in a second,
+dashing in madly at him; and, but for the intervention of another boy,
+not quite so tall as my antagonist, but with much broader shoulders and
+of heavier weight, who got in between us and prevented further
+hostilities, I should probably have come to sad grief.
+
+"Let him alone, Slodgers; he's only a new boy, remember," said this
+peacemaker, warning me off with one outstretched arm while he pushed
+back my antagonist with the other, as he was making for me again.
+
+"I know he's a new boy; but the cheeky young beggar has given me a black
+eye, confound him! and the Doctor is safe to see it when we go in.  I
+must pay him out for it, Larkyns; move away, and I'll thrash him within
+an inch of his life!"
+
+With these words, the tall boy, or Slodgers, as he was called, made
+another rush at me; but the other interposed once more, and this time
+more forcibly.
+
+"No, I tell you," said he, "let him alone, or I'll have to make you,"
+and he gave Slodgers a quiet sort of tap on the chest that had the
+effect of at once stopping his advance, the bully and coward, as he
+seemed to me to be, retiring sulkily to the corner of the yard under the
+tree, accompanied by two of his select cronies, grumbling in an
+undertone about "somebody's" meddlesomeness in interfering with "other
+people's business," although he did not take any further notice of the
+stalwart Samaritan who had thus come so opportunely to my aid, baulking
+the summary vengeance he had intended taking on my unhappy head.
+
+The other boys, too, were just as disgusted at the turn events had
+taken, for they had looked for rare sport in seeing me mauled by their
+champion.  They also now went off in a body, leaving my protector and
+myself alone together, close to the steps where the little fracas had
+occurred.
+
+"You are a plucky fellow," said my new friend, confidentially, as soon
+as the rest were out of hearing.  "I don't think Master Slodgers has had
+such a prompt lesson before to correct that nasty way he has of
+frightening every new boy that comes here; but I tell you what, though,
+you mustn't go hitting out at big chaps like that, you know!  Slodgers
+would have pounded you into a jelly if I hadn't interfered."
+
+"I dare say he would," I replied, passionately, not having yet quite
+calmed down--the sight of the blood dropping from my poor nose adding to
+instead of abating from my courage.  "But, I would have made him feel
+something first!  I don't care if he had killed me!  I would do the same
+again if he made fun of my father.  He said I told lies when I was
+telling the truth."
+
+"Well, well, that's all right," said my rescuer, soothingly.  "I've no
+doubt I should have struck him, too, if I had been in your place.  I
+like you for standing up to him so bravely, and that's the reason I took
+your part, independently of my always trying to stop his bullying.
+Slodgers is a cur at heart, and I dare say you would lick him in the end
+if you could hold out long enough, although I wouldn't advise you to
+tackle him until you know how to use your fists better, if I am not by!
+I think you said your name was Martin Leigh, to change the subject from
+the brute, eh?"
+
+"Yes," I answered, readily; "and I must now thank you for your kindness
+in coming to my help."
+
+"Oh, stow all that!  May I call you Martin?"
+
+"By all means," said I, gladly; "there's nothing I should like better."
+
+"All right then, that's agreed.  My name is Tom Larkyns, and you may
+call me Tom, if you like."
+
+"May I?"  I asked, deferentially, proud of his condescending to be on
+such cordial terms with me.  "Won't it sound too familiar?"
+
+"Nonsense," said he, laughing cheerily.  "We'll swear a bond of eternal
+friendship, like Damon and Pythias," and he squeezed my hand in his
+strong grip, as if he meant it.
+
+Tears came into my eyes; but not with pain.  It was at the happy
+consciousness that at last I had come across some one who really cared
+for me personally.  Uncle George's scanty amount of affection for me was
+due to the fact of my being his brother's child, while Molly, the maid-
+servant, the only one else who had ever evinced any kindly feeling
+towards me, had been actuated by pity for my forlorn and neglected
+condition amongst my own kindred; but Tom was my very own friend, mine
+by choice and selection.  Had he not singled me out and taken my part,
+besides asking me to be his comrade?  That alone would have made me his
+staunch ally, even without the proffer of his friendship; so, needless
+to say, I vowed there and then my fealty as his chum through thick and
+thin!
+
+Presently, Tom took me round to a side door of the house, through which
+admittance was gained to the kitchen, where, procuring some water, he
+helped me to stop the bleeding from my nose, caused by Slodgers' blow,
+and otherwise wash away the traces of the combat.  We subsequently
+returned to the "playground," Tom saying that we could remain there if
+we liked until the tea-bell rang, as it was a half-holiday, and there
+were no more lessons for the day.
+
+The other boys had mostly gone in by this time, disappearing in batches
+of twos and threes, tired of being out in the bare yard, and having
+exhausted all attempts at amusing themselves.  We remained here over an
+hour longer, walking up and down, exchanging confidences and forming the
+most wonderful plans of what we would do together bye-and-bye, not only
+while at school, but when we grew up and went into the world.  I, of
+course, told him all about my cruel bringing-up under Aunt Matilda's
+auspices, and he imparted the information that he was almost an orphan
+like myself; his father, who was a clergyman, having died early and left
+his widowed mother with a large number of children to support on a
+scanty income; whence the fact of his being at such a poor second-rate
+school as Dr Hellyer's, about which Tom then proceeded to unfold the
+most wonderful revelations.
+
+The master, he said, in spite of his generally having thirty boys at
+least, from whom he managed to get an income of six hundred a year or
+so, was always in hard straits, and at his wit's end for money;
+although, apparently, he could not have any great expenditure, the rent
+of the house or houses occupied by the school being cheap, his cost for
+the aid of masters not by any means excessive, and the boys' keep not
+too extravagant, judging by the meals they had.  Dr Hellyer was "an
+ignorant, uncultivated brute," Tom averred, and his degree of "Doctor"
+was only derived from the fact of his having paid ten dollars to an
+American university to air this specious prefix to his scholastic name!
+
+The whole school, my new friend told me, was a sham, for, instead of
+there being some dozen of masters, as stated in the prospectus sent to
+Uncle George, there were only two besides "The Doctor"--Mr Smallpage,
+the mathematical master, called by the boys "Smiley," on the _lucus a
+non lucendo_ principle, I suppose, because his face ever bore an
+expression of gravity; and Monsieur Achile Phelan, professor of foreign
+languages and dancing, christened by Tom Larkyns "The Cobbler," on
+account of his teaching a certain number of extra-paying pupils how to
+"heel and toe."
+
+Whatever was the reason for "The Doctor's" hardupishness, however, the
+fact was undeniable; and Tom said that for weeks at a time the
+establishment would be in a state of siege, from tradespeople coming
+after their "little accounts," which the master put off settling as long
+as he could.  The old woman who had opened the door to me, my chum
+stated, was popularly believed to be the principal's maternal relative,
+as she kept a watchful eye upon the portal, besides presiding over the
+interior economy of the school.  She was so sharp, Tom averred, that she
+could smell a "dun," experience having so increased the natural keenness
+of her scent.
+
+Sometimes, too, Tom said, when Dr Hellyer could get no credit with the
+butcher, they lived on Australian tinned mutton, which he got wholesale
+from the importers, as long as three months at a stretch; and once, he
+pledged me his word, when the baker likewise failed to supply any more
+bread by reason of that long-suffering man's bill not having been paid
+for a year, Dr Hellyer, not to be beaten, went off to Portsmouth and
+bought a lot of condemned ship biscuits at a Government sale in the
+victualling yard, returning with this in triumph to the school, and
+serving it out to the pupils in rations, the same as if they had been at
+sea!
+
+In the midst of all these interesting disclosures, a terrible drumming,
+buzzing noise filled the air.
+
+"What's that din?"  I asked Tom.
+
+"Oh, that's the tea-gong," he replied.  "We must go in now, as we'll get
+none if we are late, for the Doctor teaches punctuality by example."
+
+"He told me he had `a way of his own' for making his pupils obey him,"
+said I.
+
+"Did he?  Ah, you'll soon find out what a brute he is!  Let us look at
+your nose, though, Martin, before you go in.  You recollect what he said
+about not fighting, eh?"
+
+"Yes; does it look all right now?"  I asked, anxiously.
+
+"Pretty well," said Tom, critically examining the damaged organ.  "A
+little bit puffy on the off side but I think it will pass muster, and
+you'll escape notice if that sneak Slodgers doesn't split about his
+eye--which I believe you've pretty nicely marked for him."
+
+"Do you think he'll tell?"  I whispered to Tom as we ascended the steps
+and he turned the handle of the door leading into the house.
+
+"More than likely, if the Doctor pitches on to him!  He will spin a fine
+story about your having attacked him, too, to excuse himself; for he's a
+liar as well as a cur and a bully.  But, come on, Martin, look sharp!
+There's the second gong, and if we're not at table in our seats before
+it stops, it'll be a case of pickles!"
+
+With these words, Tom dashed into the passage with me after him; and,
+after racing up a bare, carpetless flight of stairs, I found myself in a
+wide large room, which, the evening having closed in, was lighted up
+only by a single gas-burner.  This made its bareness all the more
+apparent; for, with the exception of having a long table stretching from
+end to end--now covered with a semi-brownish white table-cloth, and cups
+and saucers and plates, not forgetting a monstrous big tin teapot like a
+Chinese junk, in the centre, and a couple of narrow deal forms without
+backs placed on either side for seats--the apartment had no other
+furniture, a broad shelf attached to the wall opposite the fireplace
+serving as a buffet, and an armchair at the head of the festal board,
+for the presiding master, completing its equipment.
+
+Tom had whispered to me as we went up-stairs that either "Smiley" or
+"The Cobbler" would officiate at the tea-table, those two worthies
+taking that duty in turn; but this evening, strange to say, whether in
+honour of my arrival or on account of some other weighty motive, the
+seat of honour at the end of the table was filled by the portly form of
+the head of the establishment.
+
+"By Jove!" ejaculated Tom, sliding into a vacant place along the form
+nearest the door, and motioning to me to follow his example,
+"something's up, or he wouldn't be here!"
+
+Tom's supposition proved correct.
+
+Something was "up" with a vengeance--at least as far as I was concerned.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+SCHOOL EXPERIENCES.
+
+As two or three others, late like ourselves, were scrambling into their
+places when Tom and myself took our seats, while the old woman who had
+opened the door for me was bustling about the table, filling a series of
+tin mugs from the Chinese junk teapot and passing them along towards the
+outstretched hands that eagerly clutched at them _en route_ downwards
+from the head of the board, I hoped that my damaged face would have
+escaped notice, but the master's ferret-eyes singled me out apparently
+the instant I entered the room, for he pounced on me at once.
+
+"Boy Leigh," he shouted out in his deep rolling voice, "stand up!"
+
+I obeyed the order, standing up between the table and the form on which
+I had been sitting; but Dr Hellyer said nothing further at the time,
+after seeing me come to the attitude of "attention," as a drill sergeant
+would have termed it, and there I remained while the other pupils
+proceeded with their meal.  You must remember that I was almost
+famishing, for I had had nothing to eat all day beyond the scanty
+breakfast which I was too much excited to eat before leaving my uncle's
+house at Islington in the morning; while the long journey by rail
+combined with the effects of the fresh sea air had made me very hungry.
+
+It may be imagined, therefore, with what wolfish eyes I watched the boys
+consuming the piles of bread-and-butter which the old woman distributed,
+after serving out the allotted allowance of tea in each pupil's mug!
+Tom looked up at me sympathisingly every now and then between the bites
+he took out of the thick hunches on his plate; but the fact of my
+starving state did not appear to affect his appetite.  This made me feel
+hurt at my chum's indifference to my sufferings, envying the while every
+morsel he swallowed, and wondering when my suspense would cease; and,
+although I had not then heard of the tortures of the classic Tantalus,
+my feelings must have much resembled those of that mythical person
+during this ordeal.
+
+At the expiration of, I suppose, about twenty minutes, within which
+interval every one of the busy crowd round the table had made short work
+of his portion, not leaving a crumb behind as far as I could notice, the
+master, pushing back his armchair, got on his feet, an example
+immediately followed by all the boys, and, all standing up, he said
+grace.
+
+This ended, the boys, with much shuffling of feet on the bare boards
+composing the floor of the apartment, were about to rush out _en masse_,
+when Dr Hellyer arrested the movement.
+
+"Stop!" he cried in stentorian tones, drowning the clatter of feet and
+whispering of voices; "the pupils will remain in for punishment!"
+
+Every face was turned towards him, with astonishment, expectancy, and
+dread marked in each feature; and, with a gratified grin on his broad
+flabby countenance, he remained for a moment or two apparently gloating
+with gusto over the consternation he had created, amidst a stillness in
+which you could have heard a pin drop.
+
+After holding all hearts for some time in suspense in this way, glaring
+round the room with an expression of diabolical amusement, such as a cat
+may sometimes assume when playing with a mouse before finally putting it
+out of its misery, Dr Hellyer spoke again.  It was to the point.
+
+"Boy Leigh," he exclaimed, "come here."
+
+I advanced tremblingly to where he stood.  Though I was pretty
+courageous naturally, his manner was so strange and uncanny that he
+fairly frightened me.
+
+"What is the matter with your nose?" was his first query, as soon as I
+had come up close to him, pointing with his fat forefinger at the
+injured member, which I had vainly thought would have escaped the
+observation of his keen eye.
+
+"I--I--I've hurt it, sir," said I, in desperation.
+
+"Boy Leigh, you are not truthful," was his answer to this, shaking the
+fat forefinger warningly in my face, rather too near to be pleasant.
+"You've been fighting already, and that against my express injunctions;
+and now, you attempt to conceal the effects of your disobedience by
+telling a falsehood--worse and worse!"
+
+"I--I really couldn't help it; it wasn't my fault, sir," I pleaded.
+
+"Ah, worse still!  He who excuses, accuses himself," said the stern
+Rhadamanthus.  "Boy Slodgers, approach."
+
+My whilom opponent of the playground thereupon came up to where I was in
+front of the Doctor; when on closer inspection, I could see that he was
+in a fair way of having a splendid pair of black eyes from the blow I
+had given him.  This was some satisfaction, and put a little more pluck
+into me as I faced my judge.  I trembled no longer.
+
+"Boy Slodgers, what's the matter with your eyes?" asked Dr Hellyer of
+the fresh culprit, in the same searching way in which he had
+interrogated me.
+
+"Please, sir, Leigh hit me, sir," said the sneak, glibly, in a whining
+voice that was very different to the bullying tone he had adopted when
+catechising me before our "little unpleasantness" occurred.
+
+"Ah--Leigh--ah--you see _my_ boys tell the truth," observed the Doctor
+parenthetically to me; and then, turning again to Slodgers, he said,
+inquiringly, "And, I suppose, you then--ah--returned his blow?"
+
+"Oh no, please, sir," replied he, confirming what Tom had told me of his
+inveracity; "I happened to have my hand up, sir; and, rushing at me in
+his fury, he ran against it, sir, that's all.  I wouldn't have hurt him,
+sir, for the world, as I know your orders, sir, about fighting."
+
+"Good boy!  I'm glad you pay attention to my wishes, Slodgers, and as
+the fight wasn't of your seeking, I'll let you off without an
+imposition, as I had at first intended.  You can go back to your place,
+Slodgers.  I see--ah--ha--too, you've been punished already, which is
+another reason for my leniency;" and so saying, the Doctor dismissed
+him.
+
+Would you believe it?  That cur went down the long room again with the
+most unblushing effrontery, after telling those flagrant falsehoods he
+had done about me!  I really don't know which I was the more angry
+with--at him, for cooking up that story about me, or with Dr Hellyer
+for believing him!  The latter had not done with me yet, however.
+
+"Now, my pugilistic young friend," he said to me aloud, so that all the
+boys could hear, "you and I have a little account to settle together.
+Hold out your hand!"
+
+Nerving myself up to the inevitable, I stretched out my right palm; and
+"whish"--with the sound that a flail makes when wielded by an
+experienced thresher--Dr Hellyer came down, right across my fingers,
+with a tingling blow from a broad flat ruler, which he must have kept
+concealed behind his back, as I had not seen it before.  He seemed to
+throw all his strength into the stroke.
+
+The pain made me jump, but I didn't cry out or make the slightest
+exclamation.  I would have bitten my lips through first; for all the
+boys were looking on, with the expectation probably of hearing me yell
+out--especially that sneak Slodgers, who, I made up my mind, should not
+be gratified by any exhibition of yielding on my part.
+
+"The other now!" cried the Doctor; and, "whack" came a second dose of
+the flat ruler on my left digits.
+
+"The right again!" sang out the big brute, I obeying without wincing
+after the first stroke; and so he went on, flaying my poor hands until
+he had given me six "pandies," as the boys called the infliction, on
+each, by which time both of my palms were as raw as a piece of ordinary
+beefsteak, and, I'm certain, far more tender.
+
+"That will do for a first lesson--ah--Martin Leigh," said my tormentor,
+when he had concluded this performance.  "You can go now, but, mark me,
+the next time I hear of your fighting you shall have a double portion!
+Boys, you're dismissed."
+
+With these parting words, Dr Hellyer waved me off; on which I followed
+slowly after the rest, who had at once rushed off from the room.
+
+Being the last, when I got outside the door, all the boys had
+disappeared, with the exception of Tom, whom I found waiting for me at
+the head of the stairs.
+
+I felt inclined to be indignant with him at first for not speaking up
+for me and contradicting the false statement of Slodgers; but Tom soon
+persuaded me that such a course on his part would probably only have
+increased my punishment and brought him in for it as well, without doing
+good to either of us, or harming the cur who had told such lies about
+me.
+
+"Dr Hellyer," said Tom, "always takes everything Slodgers says for
+gospel, and it's not a bit of use going against him when brought to
+book.  The only way for you to pay him out, Martin, will be to learn to
+use your fists properly, and give him a good thrashing some day when we
+are out of doors.  You will then only get some more `pandies' like what
+you had just now, and I think the gratification of punching his head
+ought to be worth that."
+
+"Right you are, Tom," I replied.  "I'm game for it: I will never feel
+happy till I make him acknowledge the lie he told to-day against me."
+
+"Bravo, that's hearty," said Tom.  "You're a big fellow for your age,
+and with a little training will soon be a match for that cur, as he's a
+coward at heart.  But, look here, Martin--see, I didn't forget you, as I
+believe you thought I did at tea-time.  I saved this for you, as I could
+see you were hungry."
+
+The good-hearted chap had managed to stow away a thick slice of bread-
+and-butter in his trousers pocket, and this he now brought out and
+handed to me.  It was dirty and greasy, and had little bits of paper
+sticking to it, from the mixed assortment of articles amidst which it
+had been crammed; but, as it was the first morsel of food I had given me
+after my long fast, I received it from my chum with the utmost
+gratitude, putting my teeth through it without delay.  I really think
+that it was the most appetising thing I had ever tasted in my life, up
+to the present, and I longed for more when I had finished it up,
+although, alas, no more was then to be had!
+
+Little as it was, however, this slight apology for a meal made me feel
+better and stronger; so, I told Tom, after I had swallowed the bread-
+and-butter, that I was fit for anything, which pleased him very much.
+
+"You're just the sort of fellow I thought you were," said he, clapping
+me on the back.  "I have been looking out for a chum like you ever since
+I came here, and we'll have fine times together, my boy!  But, come
+along now, and put your hands under the pump--the cold water will pain
+you at first, but it will do a world of good, and to-morrow the hands'll
+feel all right."
+
+So saying, Tom, catching hold of my arm, lugged me off down-stairs, and
+through a lot of mysterious passages and dark ways, to the wash-house at
+the back of the kitchen again.  Arrived here, he pumped away for a good
+half-hour on my hands, in spite of all my entreaties to the contrary;
+but, at the end of that time, although they were almost benumbed, the
+pain from the Doctor's pandies had passed away, and the palms, which had
+been previously almost rigid, had regained their flexibility.
+
+"There, that's enough for the present," said Tom, quite out of breath
+with his exertions at the pump-handle, kindly taking out his pocket-
+handkerchief and gently dabbing my hands with it until they were dry.
+"I think they'll do now, and won't pain you to-morrow; but you must try,
+old fellow, and avoid getting another taste of the Doctor's ruler till
+they're a bit more recovered."
+
+At that moment the gong struck up again its ringing, buzzing, drumming
+sound, and I pricked up my ears, in the vain hope of having a meal at
+last.
+
+"Is that for supper?"  I asked him, recollecting well what it had rung
+for before.
+
+"Oh no," answered Tom, "we never get anything else after tea here of an
+evening.  That's the call to go to sleep: `Early to bed, early to rise,'
+you know, Martin!  I didn't think it was so late; look sharp and follow
+me, and I'll show you the way to the dormitories.  There are two of
+them, and I don't know which room you'll be sent to--I hope mine, but
+we'll soon see, as `Smiley' arranges all that."
+
+Passing back through the same passages again by which we had descended
+from the eating-room--or "refectory," as Dr Hellyer styled that bare
+apartment--and up a second flight of stairs beyond, Tom leading the way,
+we finally reached a long chamber which must have stretched along the
+whole front of the house, immediately above the room devoted to meals.
+
+Some twenty beds were ranged down the length of this dormitory, in the
+same way as is customary in a hospital ward, some of them already
+occupied by boys who had quietly undressed, while the rest of the
+fellows were hurriedly pulling off their clothes and preparing their
+toilets for the night.
+
+At the door of the dormitory stood a tall, cadaverous-looking man of
+some fifty years or thereabouts whom I had not before seen.  To him Tom
+now briefly introduced me in the most laconic fashion.
+
+"New boy, Mr Smallpage," he said.
+
+"Oh, new boy--Leigh, I suppose, eh?" replied this gentleman in an absent
+sort of way--"Is he in your charge, Larkyns?"
+
+"Well, sir," said Tom, rather at a loss to answer this question, not
+wishing to tell an untruth and yet desirous for certain reasons that I
+should be associated with him, "I've made friends with him, that's all."
+
+"Ah, then, he can have that vacant bed next yours," decided Mr
+"Smiley," kindly, seeing Tom's drift.
+
+"Thank you, sir," said my chum in a gleeful tone at having his wish
+gratified.  "Come along with me, Martin, and I will show you your place.
+Is it not jolly?" he whispered to me as we proceeded up the room along
+the centre space left vacant between the two rows of beds lining the
+walls on either side, "why, it's just the very thing we wanted!"
+
+Tom's bed and mine were close to one of the windows in the front of the
+house, which fact delighted me very much, as I thought I should be able
+to see the sea as soon as I woke in the morning.
+
+My chum, however, threw a damper on this reflection by suggesting that,
+when the first gong sounded our _reveille_ at six o'clock AM, we should
+have such sharp work before us to dress and get down to the refectory in
+the quarter of an hour allowed us for the operation, that unless I
+wished to lose my breakfast--a dreadful contingency considering the then
+empty state of my body--I should have precious little time for star-
+gazing!
+
+Tom's mention of "shovelling on my clothes," as he delicately termed the
+act of dressing, immediately reminded me of my box, which I had quite
+forgotten all about ever since my leaving it behind me in the little
+room out of the hall on the termination of my first interview with Dr
+Hellyer.
+
+"I wonder where it is?"  I asked Tom.
+
+"Oh, it has been brought up-stairs all right.  The old woman would see
+to that," he said.
+
+"Then where is it?"  I inquired.  "I want my night-shirt now."
+
+"It is probably in the locker room," replied my chum, "shall I ask
+Smiley to let us go and see?"
+
+"Do, if you don't mind," said I; and Tom, whisking down the room in a
+somewhat neglige costume, readily obtained the requisite "permit of
+search."  He then beckoned me to follow him towards a second door
+communicating from the dormitory with a smaller apartment beyond, whose
+sides, I observed on entering within, were buttressed from floor to
+ceiling with a series of diminutive square wooden chests, ranged along
+the walls on top of one another, like the deed boxes noticeable in the
+private office of a solicitor in large practice, and all numbered in
+similar fashion, seriatim, with large black figures on their front
+faces.
+
+"Every boy has one of these lockers to stow his traps in," explained
+Tom, "and Smiley said you could have 31, next to mine, which is 30--just
+in the same way, old fellow, as our beds are alongside--good of him,
+isn't it?"
+
+"Yes," I replied, "he seems a kind chap."
+
+"He is," said Tom; "but, come, Martin, if your box is here you'd better
+bundle in your things at once, and leave it out on the landing for the
+old woman to take down again to the cellar, where all our trunks and
+such-like are kept."
+
+My box was soon found; and my scanty wardrobe being quickly removed to
+the numbered receptacle allotted to me, Tom and I returned to the
+dormitory, where, as I had taken care to bring back with me the garment
+I required for present exigencies, we both soon made an end of our
+toilets and jumped into our respective beds.
+
+I had expected that as soon as all the boys were under the sheets, the
+mathematical master would have left the room; but, no, "Smiley," much to
+my surprise, proceeded to undress, and occupy a large bed at the end of
+the dormitory close to the entrance.
+
+Under these circumstances, therefore, instead of the row that would
+otherwise have gone on, in the absence of any presiding genius of order,
+the room was soon hushed in quiet repose; and, the last thing I can
+recollect hearing, ere dropping to sleep, after wishing Tom a _sotto
+voce_ "good night," was the sound of the many-voiced sea as the waves
+whispered to each other on the beach--the gentle lullaby noise it made,
+to the fancy of my cockney ears, exactly resembling that created by the
+distant traffic of the London streets in the early hours of the morning
+to those living within the city radius.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+A SECRET CONSPIRACY.
+
+I awoke from a confused dream of having a quarrel with Aunt Matilda at
+Tapioca Villa about taking the tea-tray up to the parlour, and, in my
+passion at being condemned to exercise Molly's functions, kicking over
+the whole equipage, and sending all the cups and saucers flying down the
+kitchen stairs--where I could hear them clattering and crashing as they
+descended--to the far different reality that, instead of being still
+under my uncle's roof at Islington, I was actually at school at Dr
+Hellyer's.  And that dreadful gong which had interrupted my slumbers,
+and which must once have belonged to a mandarin of the most warlike
+tendencies, and of three buttons at least, judging by the din it was
+capable of, was banging away down-stairs and reverberating through the
+house; while the score of boys or so, who occupied the dormitory along
+with Tom and myself, were jumping out of bed and dressing as hurriedly
+as they could in the semi-darkness of the wintry morning, which the
+twinkling of the solitary gas-jet, still alight near the door, over
+Smiley's couch, rendered even more dusky and dismal by contrast.
+
+The windows were shrouded in a thick white fog, that had come up with
+the rising tide from the sea, which I was thus prevented from seeing had
+I the time to spare to look out; although, the thought of doing so never
+crossed my mind, for, independently of the noise of the gong and the
+scurrying of the other fellows out of the room as soon as they were
+partly dressed, being suggestive of my also hurrying on my clothes as
+quickly as I possibly could, I hardly needed Tom's reminder to "look
+sharp!"  Really, no sooner had I stood on my feet and been thoroughly
+roused, than I was assailed by such a feeling of ravenous hunger that it
+would have been quite sufficient inducement for me to make haste without
+any further spur to my movements.  I certainly did not intend to be late
+for breakfast--this morning at all events--and so I told Tom!
+
+Within less than two minutes, I think, I had scrambled into my shirt and
+trousers; and, throwing my other garments over my arm in imitation of
+Tom, I was racing along with him down to the lavatory in the lower
+regions where our ablutions had to be performed.  Thence, there was
+another mad rush up-stairs again to the refectory, which we reached
+before the second gong, calling us to the matutinal meal, had ceased to
+sound.
+
+Porridge, with mugs of skim sky-blue milk-and-water, and a couple of
+slices of bread-and-butter for each pupil, comprised the bill of fare;
+but it might have been a banquet of Lucullus from the way I did justice
+to it after my prolonged fast.  Noticing my voracity, the old woman,
+who, as on the evening before, acted as mistress of the ceremonies, gave
+me an extra allowance of porridge, which made me her friend
+thenceforth--at least at meal-times, that is!
+
+On breakfast being cleared away, the "refectory," by the simple process
+of removing the dirty table-cloth from the long table occupying the
+centre of the apartment, was converted into a school-room, Dr Hellyer
+coming in immediately after a third gong had rung for a short interval,
+and taking the armchair at the head--that seat of honour which had been
+temporarily filled by "the Cobbler" during our meal being vacated by
+Monsieur Phelan with much celerity as soon as the Doctor's expansive
+countenance was seen beaming on us through the doorway, "like the sun in
+a fog," as Tom whispered to me.
+
+The great man had not long taken his seat before he called me up to him,
+and, with many "ah's," interrogated me as to my acquirements.  He was
+evidently not greatly impressed with my proficiency; for, severely
+commenting on the ignorance I displayed for a boy of my age, he
+relegated me to the lowest class, under Mr Smallpage, or "Smiley," who
+set me tasks in spelling and the multiplication table, after which
+school regularly began for the rest.
+
+Books were produced in the most extraordinary and mysterious fashion
+from hidden cupboards, and desks improvised out of hinged shelves of
+deal affixed to the walls, and supported by brackets likewise movable,
+one of the forms along the centre table being shifted for the
+accommodation of those taking writing lessons; and, at intervals, Dr
+Hellyer had up a batch of boys before his throne of office, rigidly
+putting them under examination, varied by the administration of
+"pandies," and the imposition of ever so many lines of Caesar to be
+learnt by heart, when they failed in construing it.
+
+At sharp eleven, a large clock over the fireplace, with a round face
+like that of our podgy preceptor, telling the time, Dr Hellyer pushed
+back his chair as a sign that our morning studies were over; and the
+boys then all trooped out into the playground for an hour, coming back
+again punctually at twelve to dinner in the re-transformed room, at the
+summons of the inveterate gong.
+
+As the butcher had been lately conciliated apparently, there was no
+recourse to tinned meats of Australian or South American brand on the
+first occasion of my partaking of this meal at the establishment.  Roast
+beef, and plenty of it, was served out to us, with the accompaniment of
+potatoes and cabbage, vegetables being cheap at that time on account of
+the watering-place's season being ended; while such of the pupils whose
+parents paid extra for the beverage, in the same way as they did for
+French and dancing lessons from the "Cobbler," were supplied with a mug
+apiece of very small beer--the remainder, and far larger proportion of
+us, being allowed cold water "at discretion."
+
+After dinner came afternoon school, lasting till four o'clock; when
+followed another hour's diversion in the playground; and then, tea,
+similar to the repast I had been a spectator, but not partaker of, the
+evening before.  After tea a couple of hours' rest were allowed for
+reflection, in the same apartment, during which time the boys were
+supposed to learn their lessons for the next morning, but didn't--Dr
+Hellyer relegating his authority at this period of the day generally to
+Smiley, who went to sleep invariably when in charge of the room, or the
+Cobbler, who as invariably sneaked out and left the pupils to
+themselves, when the consequences may be readily imagined.
+
+At eight o'clock, to bring this category of our day's doings to a close,
+the final gong sounded a tattoo, sending us all aloft, like poor Tom
+Bowling, to the dormitories to bed.
+
+Such was the ordinary routine of our life at the Doctor's, according to
+my two years' experience, the only exception being that our meals
+varied, as to quantity and quality, in direct proportion to the Doctor's
+credit in the neighbouring town; for, I will do our preceptor the
+justice to state that, should fortune smile on him, in respect to the
+facilities afforded him by the tradespeople with whom he dealt, he
+treated us with no niggard hand and we fared well; while, should the
+fickle goddess Fortune frown, and provisions be withheld by the cautious
+purveyors thereof until ready money was forthcoming, then we suffered
+accordingly, there being a dearth upon the land, which we had to tide
+over as best we could, hoping for better times.  Every Wednesday and
+Saturday, too, there was no afternoon school, the boys on these half-
+holidays being either allowed additional exercise in the so-called
+"playground," or taken out for long dreary walks under the escort of
+Smiley or the Cobbler; and on Sundays we were always marched to church
+in state, be the weather what it might, wet or fine, Dr Hellyer leading
+the van on these high parade occasions--in full academical costume, and
+wearing a most wonderful sort of archdiaconal hat that had a very
+imposing effect--with the two assistant masters acting as the rearguard,
+and closing the procession.
+
+In summer we used to have more latitude in the way of outdoor exercise,
+the boys being taken down every morning to bathe in the sea, when the
+tide allowed, before breakfast; or, if the far out-reaching sands were
+not then covered with water, later on in the day.  We had also cricket
+and football on the common during the hours of relaxation spent in
+winter on the barren playground in the rear of the house.  Sometimes, in
+our solemn walks under charge of the under-masters, we occasionally
+encountered "the opposition school" or college fellows belonging to a
+large educational institution near us, when it was no rare occurrence
+for a skirmish to ensue between the two forces, that led to the most
+disastrous results, as far as subsequent "pandies" and impositions from
+the Doctor were concerned, or, rather, those who had to undergo them!
+
+This, of course, was in the working terms--when the school was in full
+blast, so to speak, and everything carried on by rule in regular
+rotation; but, at vacation time, when all the boys had dispersed to
+their several homes and were enjoying themselves, as I supposed, to
+their heart's content, in their respective family circles, the life that
+I led was a very different one.  As at my uncle's house, I was still the
+solitary Ishmael of the community, doomed to spend holidays and periods
+of study alike under the academical roof.
+
+The first of those educational interludes during my stay at the
+establishment occurred at Christmas, shortly after I had taken up my
+residence there, and the thought of all the jollity and merry-making my
+more fortunate schoolfellows would have at that festive season, about
+which they naturally talked much before the general breaking-up, made me
+feel very lonesome when left behind at Beachampton; although I did not
+for a moment desire to return to Tapioca Villa, in order to share the
+delightful society of my relatives there.  However, this feeling wore
+off in a few days, and long before the boys came back I had learnt to be
+pretty well contented with my solitary lot.
+
+But, when the midsummer recess came round, in due course, matters had
+altered considerably for the better on my being again left behind in my
+glory; and, but for the fact of being deprived of the close
+companionship of my constant chum Tom, I can honestly say that my life
+was far happier than when the school was going on as usual.
+
+I was alone, it is true, but then I had the great counterbalancing
+advantage of almost entire liberty of action, being allowed to roam
+about the place at my own sweet will and pleasure, with no lessons to
+learn, and the only obligation placed on me that of reporting myself
+regularly at meal-times; when, as the penalty for being late consisted
+in my having to go without my dinner or tea, as the case might be, and I
+possessed an unusually sensitive appetite which seldom failed to warn me
+of the approach of the hour devoted to those refections, even when I was
+out of earshot of the gong, I earned a well-founded reputation for the
+most praiseworthy punctuality--the lesson I had when I first arrived at
+the school having given me a wholesome horror of starvation!
+
+In my wanderings about the neighbourhood I explored the country for
+miles round.  As for the beach, I investigated it with the painstaking
+pertinacity of a surveying officer of the hydrographic department of the
+Admiralty mapping out some newly-discovered shore.  I knew every curve
+and indentation of the coast eastwards as far as Worthing, with the
+times of high and low water and the set of the tides, and was on
+familiar terms with the coastguardsmen stationed between Eastbourne and
+Preston and thence westwards.  Crabs, too, and zoophytes, sea anemones,
+and algae, were as keenly my study as if I were a marine zoologist,
+although I might not perhaps have been able to describe them in
+scientific language; while, should a stiff south-westerly gale cast up,
+as it frequently did amongst other wreckage and ocean flotsam and
+jetsam, fresh oysters torn from carefully cultivated beds further down
+the coast, none were sooner acquainted with the interesting fact than I,
+or gulped down the savoury "natives" with greater gusto--opening them
+skilfully with an old sailor's jack-knife, which was a treasure I had
+picked up amidst the pebbly shingle in one of my excursions.
+
+My chief resort, however, when I could steal away thither without being
+perceived from the school, was the quay close to the entrance to the
+harbour, at the mouth of the little river which there made its efflux to
+the sea.
+
+Here the small coasting craft and Channel Island steamers of low draught
+of water that used the port would lay up while discharging cargo, before
+going away empty or in ballast, as there was little export trade from
+the place; and it was my delight to board the different vessels and make
+friends with the seamen, who would let me go up the rigging and mount
+the masts to the dog-vane, the height of my climbing ambition, while
+telling me the names of the different ropes and spars and instructing me
+in all the mysteries of shipping life, in which I took the deepest
+interest.
+
+I was a born sailor, if anything.
+
+There is no use in my denying the fact I must have inherited it with my
+father's blood!
+
+Once, Dr Hellyer spying about after me, on account of my not having
+turned up either at dinner or tea--a most unusual circumstance--found me
+messing with the hands in the fo'c's'le of a coal brig.
+
+I recollect he pushed me along back to the school the whole way, holding
+me at arm's length by the scruff of the neck; and, besides the
+infliction of a round dozen of "pandies" and an imposition of five
+hundred lines of Virgil's Aeneid to learn by heart, threatened me with
+all sorts of pains and penalties should he ever catch me going down to
+the quay again.
+
+But, all his exhortations were of no avail!  Go to the harbour amongst
+the vessels I would, whenever I could get an opportunity of sneaking
+away unnoticed; and, the more I saw of ships and sailors, the more
+firmly I made up my mind to go to sea as soon as I saw a chance of
+getting afloat, in spite of the very different arrangements Uncle George
+had made for my future walk in life--arrangements that were recalled to
+my mind every quarter in the letters my relation periodically wrote to
+me after the receipt of the Doctor's terminal reports on my character
+and educational progress.  These latter were generally of a damaging
+nature, letting me in for a lecture on my bad behaviour, coupled with
+the prognostication, which I am sure really came from Aunt Matilda
+through this side wind, that unless I mended my ways speedily I should
+never be promoted to that situation of clerk in uncle's office which was
+being held open for me as soon as I was old enough, and the thought of
+which--with the enthralling spell of the ocean upon me--I hated!
+
+To tell the strict truth, these quarterly reports of Dr Hellyer in
+respect of my conduct were not wholly undeserved; for, with the
+exception of displaying a marked partiality for mathematics, which,
+fortunately for my subsequent knowledge of navigation, Mr Smallpage
+kindly fostered and encouraged to the best of his ability, my studies
+were terribly irksome to me, and my lessons being consequently
+neglected, led to my having impositions without number.  I believe I
+must have learnt the whole of Virgil by heart, although I could not now
+construe the introductory lines of the first book of the Aeneid; and as
+for history I could then, nor now, no more tell you the names of the
+Roman emperors, or the dates of accession of the various Kings of
+England, than I could square the circle, or give you the cubical
+contents of the pyramids of Egypt off-hand.
+
+The personal rows, too, that I got into with Dr Hellyer were
+innumerable; and I really think he wore out three flat rulers while I
+was a member of the school, in inflicting his dearly-loved "pandies" on
+my suffering palms.
+
+The most important of these, what I may term "private differences,"
+between my worthy preceptor and myself, after my first experience of his
+"way" of making the boys obey him, without flogging them, arose from the
+same cause--Master Slodgers, my enemy from the date of my entrance
+within the select academy, although, if you recollect, he did not "get
+the best of me" even then!
+
+Some six months after that memorable occasion, having developed much
+bone and sinew in the meantime, besides cultivating the noble art of
+self-defence under the tuition of my chum Tom, I challenged the lanky
+cur on the self-same ground where he had first assailed me; when I gave
+him such a beating that he could not leave his bed in the dormitory for
+nearly a week afterwards.  For this--what I considered--just
+retaliation, I received the encomiums of the majority of the fellows,
+who detested Slodgers for his sneaking as well as bullying ways with the
+youngsters; but Dr Hellyer, with whom he still continued a favourite,
+took my triumph in such ill part, that he treated me to no less than six
+dozen "pandies," incarcerating me besides in an empty coal cellar, on a
+diet of bread and water, in solitary confinement below for the same
+length of time that Slodgers was laid up ill in bed above stairs.
+
+However, after that day I had it all my own way with the boys, for I was
+strongly-built and thick-set for my age, looking two years older than I
+really was.  I could fight and lick all the rest of the fellows at the
+time, not excepting even Tom my instructor, although he and I were much
+too good friends to try conclusions on the point, and I was the
+acknowledged leader of the school.  Athletics, indeed, were my strong
+point, for I may say, almost without egotism, that I had so cultivated
+my muscles to the sad neglect of my proper studies, that I could swim
+like a fish, dive like an Indian pearl hunter, run swifter than anybody
+else, and play cricket and football with the best; but, as far as my
+real school duties were concerned, I'm afraid I was a sad dunce, as I
+was always at the bottom of my class.
+
+I am now approaching the period to which these reminiscences of my
+school-days have all along tended, albeit I have been a long time in
+reaching it.
+
+You may remember my calling your attention to the fact of the Doctor
+always marching us to church on Sundays, and heading the procession,
+wearing a most peculiar-looking hat the while?
+
+Well, "thereby hangs a tale," as a wise jester says in one of
+Shakespeare's plays.
+
+I had just completed my two years' residence under the academical roof;
+the summer vacation had come and gone; the boys were all back again at
+school, and settled down for the winter term; the month of October had
+flown by with unlagging footsteps; and November had come in, gloomy and
+dismal, with white fogs and sea mists--such as haunt some parts of the
+southern coasts in the autumn.
+
+The "Fifth" was a great anniversary at the establishment.
+
+If Guy Fawkes' Day were uncared for elsewhere, we at all events held the
+memory of the defunct conspirator in high reverence; and invariably did
+it such honour by the explosion of gunpowder, in the shape of squibs and
+crackers as our means afforded.
+
+The pocket-money of those having friends with long purses was saved up
+for weeks beforehand for this purpose; while any boys without a regular
+allowance had to "beg or borrow," so that they might contribute to the
+general fund.
+
+The couple of odd shillings Uncle George had slipped into my hand on
+leaving London, had, of course, melted away long ago, and, until this
+year, he never seemed to think of renewing the tip, supposing, perhaps,
+that I did not want anything, for I was too proud to ask him; but at
+Michaelmas, when my birthday came round--I was just fourteen then--he
+quite unexpectedly sent me a post-office order for half-a-sovereign in
+the possession of which I felt as rich as Croesus.
+
+Tom, naturally, was told of the arrival of this enormous treasure
+instantly.  Indeed, he accompanied me on the next half-holiday, when we
+were allowed out, to get the order cashed; but beyond expending about
+eighteenpence in hot three-corner jam tarts and ginger beer, at a
+favourite confectioner's patronised by the school, we devoted the sum to
+purchasing the best fireworks we could get for the money, carrying our
+explosives back to the school carefully concealed on our persons, and
+secreting them in our lockers.
+
+"We'll have such a lark!" said Tom.
+
+"Won't it be jolly!"  I chimed in, with equal enthusiasm--adding,
+however, a moment afterwards, as the reflection occurred to me, "What a
+pity, though, Tom, that the Fifth falls this year on a Sunday?  I
+declare, I never thought of it before!"
+
+"Nor I," said he, and both our faces fell six inches at least.
+
+But, Tom's soon brightened up again, as some happy thought flashed
+across his mind.
+
+"Why, it'll be all the better, Martin," he cried out, greatly to my
+surprise.
+
+"How can that be?"  I exclaimed, indignantly.  "The Doctor will never
+allow us to have our bonfire, I'm sure!"
+
+"Hush, you stupid," said Tom.  "I do declare your brains must be wool-
+gathering!  Stop a minute and listen to me."
+
+He then whispered to me a plan he had thought of for signalising "the
+glorious Fifth," in spite of Dr Hellyer, and in a manner which that
+worthy would never dream of.  It was a scheme quite worthy of Tom's
+fertile imagination.
+
+"Oh, won't it be a lark!"  I cried, when he had finished; and we both
+then burst into an ecstasy of laughter at the very idea of the thing.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+OUR PLOT AND ITS RESULTS.
+
+"Now, mind," said Tom, after a pause in our giggling, "we won't tell any
+one else about it!"
+
+"No," I agreed; "it will be all the more fun to keep it to ourselves,
+and, besides, there will be less chance of our being found out."
+
+True to our compact, not a word of our conspiracy was breathed to a soul
+in the school; and the eventful day approached at last, if not "big with
+the fate of Caesar and of Rome," pregnant with a plan for astonishing
+our master, and celebrating the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot in a
+manner never known before in the traditions of the establishment--
+although, perhaps, perfectly in keeping with the idea of the original
+iconoclast, whose memory we intended to do honour to in fitting manner.
+
+When Dr Hellyer awoke to the knowledge of the fact that the Fifth of
+November fell this year on a Sunday, had he generously made allowance
+for the patriotic feelings of his pupils, and allowed them to have their
+usual annual firework demonstration on the Saturday prior, which
+happened to be a half-holiday, the matter might have been harmoniously
+arranged, and Tom and I been persuaded at the last moment to abandon our
+daring enterprise--possibly, that is, though I doubt it much.
+
+But, no.  Dr Hellyer grasped the chance afforded him by the fortuitous
+cycle of dates as a splendid opportunity for putting down what had been
+a yearly _bete noir_ to him; and so, he rushed madly on to his fate.
+
+After dinner in the refectory, on the third of the month--two days
+beforehand, so as to give them clear notice of his intentions, in order
+not be accused of taking them unawares, and causing them to lay out
+their savings uselessly--just as the boys were going to rush out of the
+room for their usual hour's relaxation before afternoon school, he
+detained them, with a wave of his well-known fat arm and the sound of
+his rolling accents.
+
+"Boys," he cried, "wait a moment!  I have--ah--determined that--ah--as
+Guy Fawkes' day this year--ah--will be next Sunday, when--ah--of
+course--ah--you will be unable with any regard for the solemn
+associations--ah--of the--ah--Sabbath, be--ah--able to celebrate it in
+your usual fashion--ah--that--ah--you must--ah--postpone--ah--your--ah
+bonfire--ah--till next year."
+
+A loud murmur ran round the room at this, an expression of popular
+opinion which I had never heard previously in the school.
+
+The master, however, was equal to the occasion.
+
+"Silence!" he roared out at the pitch of his voice, making the ceiling
+ring again, dropping his "Ahs" and drowning the sibillation of the
+malcontents by sheer dint of making a superior amount of noise.  "Any
+boy I catch hissing, or otherwise expressing disapproval of my orders,
+had better look out, that's all!  There will be no celebration of Guy
+Fawkes' day here, do you hear me!  No, neither this year, nor next year,
+nor any year again, so long as I am master of this school!  You can
+disperse now; but, mark my words, any one found letting off a squib or
+cracker, or discovered to be in the possession of gunpowder, or other
+explosive compound, will have to render an account to me.  Boys, you're
+dismissed!"
+
+Bless you, when Dr Hellyer ceased speaking there was a silence that
+could almost be felt, and we all sneaked out of the room with
+corresponding quietude--adjourning to the playground as if we were going
+to attend a funeral instead of going out for diversion!
+
+But, it was a silence that meant mischief, a quietude that was next door
+to hatching a mutiny; and, when we had got outside, there was a general
+howl of indignation that the Doctor could not have helped hearing,
+although the door communicating with the house was closed and he was
+still in the refectory in front, while we were at the rear of the
+establishment.
+
+Of course, as was natural at such a crisis, the boys grouped themselves
+into little coteries, considering what should be done in such an
+unlooked-for emergency.  Even Slodgers, the sneak, pretended to be as
+angry as anybody, desiring to have revenge for the deprivation of our
+annual gala show; but Tom and I kept aloof from all, and held our own
+counsel, much to the disgust of Slodgers, as we could easily see, for
+the cur wanted to hear what we might suggest so that he could go and
+report to Dr Hellyer.
+
+We were too wary birds for Slodgers, however; we were not going to be
+caught, like young pigeons, with his chaff--no, we knew better than
+that!
+
+We agreed with the mass of our schoolfellows that the Doctor's arbitrary
+proclamation was an act of unmitigated tyranny and a "jolly shame;" but,
+beyond that, Slodgers could get nothing out of us, although we listened
+cordially to all the others had to say, and regulated our procedure
+accordingly.
+
+"I vote," said Batson, one of the big boys like Tom and I were now,
+"that we buy our fireworks on Saturday, in spite of what Old Growler has
+declared, and if he does not allow us to let them off in the evening,
+why we'll have `a grand pyrotechnic display,' as the newspapers say, at
+night in the dormitories."
+
+"Hear, hear!" shouted all the fellows in rapturous enthusiasm at such a
+bold idea; and even Tom and I wondered whether this plan would not be
+better than ours.  But it was only for a moment.  Reflection told us
+that the Doctor would certainly hear of our doings in time, through
+Slodgers, to nip the brilliant design in the bud ere it could be
+matured; so, while the majority of the boys devoted all their spare cash
+on the Saturday afternoon, when some of us were allowed to go into the
+town, in the purchase of squibs and crackers, and Roman candles, we
+declined all share in the enterprise on the plea of having no money--an
+excuse readily recognised, as the finances of most of the pupils were
+known to be not in a flourishing condition.
+
+While Batson and his confreres took advantage of the half-holiday to go
+out to buy these fireworks, Tom and I remained indoors, he on the plea
+of indisposition and I for the ostensible purpose of writing out an
+imposition; but we both utilised the time thus afforded us by artfully
+removing the store of combustibles we had already secreted in our
+lockers, bringing them down-stairs, and placing them for safety and
+concealment in the cellar below, where our boxes were kept.
+
+It was a timely precaution.
+
+Slodgers had evidently played the sneak as usual, although keeping up
+the semblance all the while of being one of the prime movers in the
+pyrotechnic display suggested by Batson.  Indeed, he went so far as to
+buy and bring home a shilling's-worth of detonating powder to aid the
+contemplated _feu de joie_; but, no sooner had the boys got in and gone
+up-stairs to arrange their clothes for Sunday, as was our custom before
+tea-time every Saturday afternoon, than Dr Hellyer, accompanied by
+Smiley and the Cobbler, and the old woman, who had the keenest eye of
+the lot for the detection of contraband stores, came round to the
+dormitories on an exploring and searching expedition.  There was a grand
+_expose_ of the conspiracy, of course, at once; for, the contents of all
+the lockers were turned out and the newly-purchased fireworks
+confiscated to the last cracker!
+
+"Ah--you can't deceive me!" exclaimed the Doctor, as he departed
+triumphantly, his arms and those of his assistants loaded with the
+spoils of their raid, "I told you I would not have any fireworks in my
+school this year, and shall keep my word, as you see!  You have only to
+thank yourselves--ah--for wasting your money!  But, for disobeying my
+orders the boys will all stop in next week on both half-holidays;" and,
+so concluding his parting address, with a triumphant grin on his huge
+round face, he went out, leaving the baffled conspirators in agonies of
+rage, swearing vengeance against the unknown spy who had betrayed their
+preparations.
+
+Tom and I were jubilant, however.  Nothing could have worked better for
+the end we had in view; as, after this failure of Batson, the surprise
+we intended for the Doctor would be all the more unexpected and
+correspondingly successful.
+
+It was a sad night, though, for the other fellows.
+
+When Sunday morning came, the boys got up grumbling, moody, defiant, and
+almost inclined to weep over their frustrated efforts; while Tom and I
+were so jolly that we could have sung aloud.
+
+We always breakfasted later on this day of the week, and after the meal
+was done generally lounged about the room while the old woman was
+clearing up, waiting till it was time for us to assemble for what we
+styled our "church parade;" but, this morning, the boys seemed out of
+sorts, and went back again up-stairs after they had finished, leaving
+only Tom and myself in the refectory, while the old woman was removing
+the breakfast things and putting on a clean table-cloth for dinner.  She
+quitted the apartment as soon as she had swept up the fireplace, placing
+enough coal on the fire to last till the afternoon, and otherwise
+completing her arrangements--then going down to the kitchen, from which
+we knew she would not emerge until we came back from church again, when
+it would be time to sound the gong for dinner--which meal was also an
+hour later on Sundays than on week days; and, being generally of a more
+sumptuous description, it required extra cooking.
+
+This was the opportunity Tom and I had waited for all along, in
+pursuance of our plan; so, long ere the old woman had reached her
+sanctum below, we were at work, having taken advantage of the time we
+were washing in the lavatory before breakfast to put our fireworks and
+combustible matter in our pockets, whence we now quickly proceeded to
+extract the explosive agents, and deposit them in certain fixed
+positions we had arranged beforehand after much consultation.
+
+Now, what I am going to relate I would much rather not tell about, as it
+concerns what I consider a very shameful episode in my life.  The only
+thing I can urge in extenuation of my conduct is the lax manner in which
+my earlier life was looked after in my uncle's house, where my worse
+passions were allowed full play, without that judicious control which
+parental guidance would perhaps have exercised on my inherent
+disposition for giving vent to temper, with no thought whatever of the
+consequences of any hare-brained act I might commit.  I narrate,
+therefore, the circumstances that led to my running away from school,
+merely because my mad and wicked attempt to injure Dr Hellyer is a
+portion of my life-history, and I wish to describe all that happened to
+me truthfully, without glossing over a single incident to my discredit.
+I thus hope that no boy reading this will, on the strength of my
+example, be prompted to do evil, with the malicious idea of "paying off
+a grudge."  I may add that I entirely take all the blame to myself, for,
+had it not been for me, Tom Larkyns, I am sure, would have had no hand
+in the matter; and you will see later on, if you proceed with my story,
+how, through the wonderful workings of Providence, I was almost
+subjected to the same terrible fate I had been the means of preparing
+for our schoolmaster; although, fortunately, the evil design I and Tom
+planned only reverted on our own heads.  Our diabolical scheme was more
+than a thoughtless one.  It might, besides, jeopardising the life of Dr
+Hellyer, have set fire to the house, when, perhaps, many of our
+schoolfellows might have been burnt to death.
+
+The first thing Dr Hellyer always did on entering the refectory when he
+returned from church was, as we well knew, to walk up to the fireplace,
+where he would give the bars a thorough raking out with the poker and
+then heap a large shovelful of coals on from the adjacent scuttle.  In
+this receptacle, Tom and I now carefully placed about a quarter of a
+pound of gunpowder with some squibs, the latter blackened over like the
+shining Wallsend knobs, so as to escape detection; and then, such was
+our fiendish plan, we concealed under the cushion of the Doctor's
+armchair a packet of crackers, connected with a long tiny thread of a
+fuse leading midway under the centre of the broad table, so that it
+could not be seen or interfered with by the boys' feet as they sat at
+dinner, along the floor to the end of the form where we usually sat,
+near the entrance to the apartment.
+
+"I shall manage to light this fuse somehow or other," Tom said, assuming
+the control of this infernal machine; and then, after going into the
+hall to get our caps, giving another look round the room when we came
+back, to see whether our preparations were noticeable, we awaited Dr
+Hellyer's summons to proceed to church--with calm satisfaction at the so
+far successful issue of our calculations.
+
+During our processional walk we were both in high glee at the grand
+"blowing up" that would happen on our return--a sort of "Roland for an
+Oliver" in return for the many different sorts of blowings up we had
+received at Dr Hellyer's hands at one time and another.  I was all the
+more excited, too, for I had made up my mind to attempt another exploit
+of which I had not even warned Tom, but which would probably throw his
+sublime conception into the shade.
+
+I had, in my visits to the different coasting craft in the harbour, been
+presented by a fisherman with a lot of very small fish-hooks.  These I
+had in the morning attached by thin pieces of thread to several fire
+crackers, which I intended for my own personal satisfaction to present
+to the Doctor, although in a way he would not relish or dream of.
+
+If there was one thing more than another that Dr Hellyer esteemed I
+think I have already sufficiently pointed out it was his dignity--to the
+glory of which the archdeacon's hat he always wore on Sundays eminently
+contributed; and, as may be believed, he venerated this head-covering
+accordingly.
+
+It was against this hat I contemplated taking especial proceedings now.
+
+Being held to be an outlaw to all ordinary discipline, the Doctor, to
+have me under his own eye, made me walk close behind him in the
+procession formed for our march to and from church.  Tom and some three
+or four other unruly members were also similarly distinguished; and, as
+walking two-and-two abreast we made such a long string, that the masters
+behind could not see what was going on in front, we usually had a good
+deal of fun in the rear of the Doctor, without, of course, his
+perceiving it, or the teachers betraying us.
+
+Watching my chance, soon after we came out of church on this eventful
+occasion, I dexterously managed to fasten the fish-hooks with the
+crackers attached not only to different points of the master's garments,
+but also to his hat; and, the scrunching of our feet on the gravel
+pathway from the village deadening the sound I made in scratching the
+match I used, I contrived to light the crackers before any one, save the
+boys immediately alongside of me, perceived what I was doing.
+
+Everything favoured me.
+
+Presently, whiz--crack--and the Doctor's coat tails flew up as if by
+magic, swaying to and fro in the air, although there was no wind; and
+the fellows, smelling a "rat" as well as the burnt powder, began to
+titter.
+
+"What is that?" said the Doctor, sternly, turning round and confronting
+us with an even more majestic deportment than usual.
+
+Of course, nobody answered; but, the crack, crack, cracking continued,
+and in another minute, with a bang, off went Dr Hellyer's hat!
+
+Nor was that all.  Putting up his hand, with a frantic clutch, to save
+his headgear from falling into the mire, it being a drizzling, mizzling,
+dirty November day, our worthy preceptor pulled away what we had always
+imagined to be a magnificent head of hair, but what turned out now, alas
+for human fallibility, only to be a wig!
+
+This was a discovery with a vengeance; and, as might have been expected,
+all the boys, as if with one accord, shouted with laughter.
+
+Dr Hellyer was speechless with indignation.  He was mad with pain as
+well, for in clutching at his hat he had got one of my fish-hooks deeply
+imbedded in the palm of his hand--a sort of just retaliation, I thought
+it, for all he had made me suffer from his cruel "pandies."
+
+He guessed who was the offender at once, as he caught me laughing when
+he turned round, with the end of the smouldering match still held
+between my fingers.
+
+"Oh--ah!  It is you, is it?" he gasped out, giving me a ponderous slap
+on one side of my face with the big broad hand that was uninjured, which
+made me reel and tumble down; but a second blow, a backhander on the
+opposite side of my head, brought me up again, "all standing."  Still,
+although I felt these gentle taps, I could not help grinning, which, of
+course, increased his rage, if that were possible.
+
+He certainly presented a most comical spectacle, dancing there before
+us, first on one leg and then on the other, his bulky frame swaying to
+and fro, like that of an elephant performing a jig, with the crackers
+exploding every instant, and his bald head surrounded apparently with a
+halo of smoke like a "nimbus."  The boys fairly shrieked with laughter,
+and even Smiley and the Cobbler had to turn their heads aside, to hide
+their irrepressible grins.  As for myself, I confess that at the moment
+of perpetrating the cruel joke, I felt that I wouldn't have missed the
+sight for anything.  I was really extremely proud of my achievement,
+although conscious that I should have to pay dearly bye-and-bye for my
+freak in the way of "pandies" and forced abstention from food; but I
+little thought of the stern Nemesis at a later period of my life
+Providence had in store for me.
+
+In a little time the crackers had all expended their force; when the
+Doctor, jamming down the wig and his somewhat crushed and dirty hat over
+his fuming brows, with a defiant glare at the lot of us, resumed his
+march homeward--taking the precaution of clutching hold of my arm with a
+policeman-like grip, as if he were afraid of my giving him the slip
+before he had pandied the satisfaction he clearly intended to have out
+of my unhappy body.  But he need not have been thus alarmed on the score
+of any attempted flight on my part, at least then; for I was quite as
+anxious to reach the school as he was to get me there.  Much as I had
+enjoyed this cracker scene, which I had brought about on my own account,
+I was longing to see the denouement of the deeply-planned plot, the
+details of which Tom and I had so carefully arranged before starting for
+church.  My little venture was nothing in comparison with what this
+would be, I thought.
+
+My ambition was soon gratified.
+
+Our little contretemps on the way had somewhat delayed dinner, which was
+already on the table on out arrival; so, without wasting any more time,
+Dr Hellyer marched us all in before him, still holding on to me until
+he had reached the top of the refectory, where, ordering me to stand up
+in front of his armchair, he proceeded as usual to poke the fire and
+then shovel on coals.
+
+Bang!
+
+In a second, there was a great glare, and then an explosion, which
+brought down a quantity of soot from the old-fashioned open chimney,
+covering me all over and making me look like a young sweep, as I was
+standing right in front of the fireplace, and came in for the full
+benefit of it.  I was not at all frightened, however, as, of course, I
+had expected a somewhat similar result as soon as the coals went on.
+
+Not so the Doctor, though.  With a deep objurgation, he sank back into
+his armchair, as if completely overcome.
+
+This was Tom's opportunity, and he quickly took advantage of it.
+Glancing slily down under the table, I could see him in the distance
+stoop beneath it and apply a match to the end of the fuse, which being a
+dry one at once ignited, the spluttering flame running along like a
+streak of lightning along the floor and up the leg of the chair on which
+Dr Hellyer was sitting--too instantaneously to be detected by any one
+not specially looking out for it, like myself.
+
+Poof--crack--bang, went off another explosion; and up bounced Old
+Hellyer, as if a catapult had been applied below his seat.
+
+You never saw such a commotion as now ensued.  Tom and I were the only
+ones who preserved their composure out of the whole lot in the room,
+although Dr Hellyer soon showed that, if startled at first, he had not
+quite lost his senses.
+
+He rushed at me at once, quite certain that as I had perpetrated the
+former attack on his sacred person while on the way from church, I must
+likewise be guilty of this second attempt to make a Guy Fawkes of him;
+and, striking out savagely, he felled me with a weighty blow from his
+great fist, sending me rolling along under the table, and causing me to
+see many more stars than an active astronomer could count in the same
+space of time--but I'm sure he had sufficient justification to have
+treated me even worse!
+
+"You young ruffian!" he exclaimed as he knocked me down, his passion
+getting the better both of his scholastic judgment and academical
+dignity, and he would probably have proceeded to further extremities had
+not Tom Larkyns started up.
+
+"Oh, please don't punish Leigh, sir," I heard him cry out as I lay on
+the floor, just within reach of the Doctor's thick club-soled boots,
+with which I believe he was just going to operate on me in "Lancashire
+fashion," as fighting men say.  "Please, sir, don't hurt Leigh--it was I
+who did it!"
+
+At this interruption, which seemed to recall him to himself, the master
+regained his composure in an instant.
+
+"Get up, boy!" he said to me, gruffly, spurning me away with his foot,
+and then, as soon as I was once more in a perpendicular position, he
+ordered me, sooty as I was, to go and stand up alongside of Tom.
+
+"Brothers in arms, hey?" chuckled our incensed pedagogue, pondering over
+the most aggravating form of torture which he could administer to us in
+retaliation for what we had made his person and dignity suffer.  "I'll
+make you sick of each other's companionship before I've done with you!
+Stand up there together now, you pair of young desperadoes, while the
+rest of the boys have dinner, which your diabolical conduct has so long
+delayed.  Mr Smallpage, say grace, please."
+
+"Smiley" thereupon performed the Doctor's usual function; then the
+fellows were helped round to roast mutton and Yorkshire pudding--Tom and
+I, both hungry as usual, you may be sure--having the gratification of
+smelling without being allowed to taste.
+
+This was Dr Hellyer's very practical first stage of punishment; he
+always commenced with starving us for any offence against his laws and
+ordinances, and then wound up his trilogy of penance with a
+proportionate number of "pandies" and solitary confinement.
+
+After dinner the other boys were dismissed, but Tom and I remained still
+standing there; Dr Hellyer the while seated in his armchair watching us
+grimly as if taking pleasure in our sufferings, and without uttering a
+word to either of us.
+
+The afternoon progressed, and the fellows came trooping in to tea at
+six, the old woman first arriving; to lay the cloth and put on the china
+teapot and tin mugs.  We, however, had to pass through the same ordeal
+as at dinner; there was none for us, for still the Doctor sat there in
+the armchair by the fire, looking in the dancing gleams of light like
+some old wizard or magician weaving a charm of spells which was to turn
+us into stone where we stood, if that process should not be rendered
+unnecessary by our being frozen beforehand from cramp through remaining
+so long in the one position.
+
+When the bed gong sounded, we heard the boys trooping up-stairs; and
+then Dr Hellyer rose at last.
+
+"Martin Leigh and Thomas Larkyns," he rolled out in his very deepest
+voice, making the ceiling of the refectory ring as usual.  "I intend to
+expel you from my school.  I shall write to your friends in the morning;
+and, in the meantime, you will be confined here until they come to
+remove you!"
+
+He then left the room, locking the door behind him, when the single jet
+of light from one burner went out suddenly with a jump, showing that he
+had turned the gas off at the main, and that we should not have a
+cheering beam to illumine our solitary vigil throughout the weary night.
+
+A little bit of fire was still flickering in the grate, however, and, by
+this feeble light Tom and I looked at each other in desperation.
+
+We were in a hobble, and no mistake!
+
+What was to be done?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+CATCHING A TARTAR.
+
+"Well, this is a nice mess we're in!" said Tom, after a moment's pause,
+during which we stared blankly at each other in front of the fire, which
+we had approached as soon as our janitor had departed.  My chum seated
+himself comfortably in the Doctor's armchair, which he drew near the
+hearth, putting his feet on the fender so as to warm his chilled toes;
+but I remained standing beside him, leaning against the chimney-piece.
+
+"Yes," I replied, disconsolately.  "It's too bad though; I say, old
+fellow, I'm awfully hungry!"
+
+"So am I," said Tom, "but I don't suppose we'll be able to get anything
+whatever to eat before morning--if the Doctor lets us have breakfast
+then!"
+
+"Oh, bother him!"  I exclaimed; "I'm not going to starve."
+
+"Why, what can we do, Martin?  I don't think you'll find any grub here.
+The old woman swept away every crumb, even from the floor, after tea; I
+was watching her like a dog after a bone."
+
+"What are we to do, eh?"  I repeated, cheerfully, my spirits rising to
+the occasion; "why, get away from this as soon as we can!"
+
+"Run away?" ejaculated Tom in astonishment.
+
+I nodded my head in the affirmative.
+
+"But how can we get out?"
+
+"I'll soon show you," I said, complacently.  "I thought we'd be placed
+in a fix after our lark, and I made my preparations accordingly."
+
+"By Jove, Martin, you're a wonderful fellow!" cried Tom, as I then
+proceeded to peel off my jacket and waistcoat, unwinding some twenty
+feet of thick cord, which I had procured from my sailor friends in the
+harbour and had been carrying about me all day, rolled round my body
+over my shirt, so as not to lacerate my skin--fearing all the while that
+the podgy appearance which its bulk gave to me would be noticed,
+although fortunately it had escaped comment.
+
+"We'll get down from the balcony outside the window by the aid of this,"
+I explained, as soon as I had got rid of the rope from about my person,
+coiling it up handily, first knotting it at intervals, so that we could
+descend gradually, without hurting our hands, already sore from
+"pandies."
+
+"And, once outside the house, why, we'll make off for the harbour, where
+I've no doubt my friends on board the coal brig, which was lying
+alongside the quay last Wednesday, when I was down there, will take us
+in, and make us comfortable."
+
+"My!" exclaimed Tom, "why, you're a regular brick, Martin.  One would
+think you had planned it out all beforehand!"
+
+"Just precisely what I did," I replied, chuckling at having kept my
+secret.  "I have determined ever since last summer to run away to sea at
+the first opportunity I got; and when you suggested our blowing up Dr
+Hellyer, and making a regular Guy Fawkes of him, I, thought it would be
+too warm for us here afterwards, and that then would be the time to
+bolt.  There is no use in our remaining now, to be starved first and
+expelled afterwards--with probably any number of `pandies' given us to-
+morrow in addition."
+
+"No," said Tom, agreeing with this pretty correct estimate of our
+present position and future prospects.  "Dr Hellyer will whack that
+ruler of his into us in the morning, without fail--I could see it in his
+eye as he went out of the room, as well as from that grin he put on when
+he spoke.  I dare say, besides, we won't be allowed a morsel to eat all
+day; we shall be kept here to watch the other fellows feeding--it's a
+brutal way of paying a chap out, isn't it?"
+
+"Well, I'm not going to put up with it, for one," said I, decisively.
+"You know, Tom, as soon as my uncle hears of my being expelled, prompted
+by Aunt Matilda, he will seize the chance of doing what he has long
+threatened, and `wash his hands of me,' and then, why I will be in only
+just the same plight as if I take French leave of Dr Hellyer now!"
+
+"My mother, though, will be grieved when she hears of this," put in Tom,
+as if hesitating what he should do.
+
+"Nonsense, Tom," I replied--still exercising the influence I possessed
+over my chum for evil!--"I am certain that if she knew that the Doctor
+had treated you as he has done, starving you and keeping you here all
+night in the cold out of your bed, she wouldn't mind a bit your running
+away from the school along with me; especially when I'm going to take
+you where you'll get food and shelter."
+
+This argument decided Tom at once.  "All right," said he, in the usual
+jolly way in which he and I settled all our little differences.  "I'll
+come, Martin.  But it is getting late.  Don't you think, too, we'd
+better look alive and start as soon as we can?"
+
+"I was waiting till we heard the Doctor snoring," I replied.  "Go and
+listen at the door; his room, you know, is on the other side of the
+landing, and you'll be able to tell in a minute whether he is asleep or
+not."
+
+Tom did as I requested, stealing noiselessly across the room for the
+purpose, returning quickly with the news that our worthy preceptor was
+fast in the arms of Morpheus, judging by the stentorian sound of his
+deep breathing.  Dr Hellyer had made a hearty dinner, in spite of our
+having upset his equanimity so unexpectedly.  He had likewise disposed
+of an equally hearty tea; so he was now sleeping soundly--his peaceful
+slumbers doubtless soothed with sweet dreams in reference to the
+punishment he intended inflicting on us on the morrow, not thinking for
+a moment, unhappy dreamer, that the poor birds whom he had, as he
+imagined, effectually snared and purposed plucking, would by that time,
+if all went well with our plans, have flown far beyond reach of his
+nervous arm!
+
+The master asleep, we had no fear of interruption from any one else, for
+the old woman took her repose in the back kitchen, out of earshot of
+anything happening in the front of the house, and Smiley and the Cobbler
+were probably snoring away as composedly as their chief in the
+dormitories above, of which they were in charge; so, Tom and I at once
+began operations for effecting our "strategic retreat" from the
+establishment.
+
+The windows of the refectory opened on to a narrow balcony that ran
+along the front of the house; and these, having heavy wooden shutters,
+fastened by horizontal iron bars, latching into a catch, we had some
+little difficulty in opening the one we fixed on for making our exit by,
+the bar securing it being some height from the floor and quite beyond
+our reach.
+
+However, as Tom magniloquently quoted, difficulties were only made for
+brave men--or boys--to surmount.  By lifting one of the forms as quietly
+as we could close to the window, and standing on this, the two of us
+managed to raise the iron bar from the catch and let it swing down,
+although the hinges made a terrible creaking noise in the operation,
+which we thought would waken Dr Hellyer up.  However, on going to the
+door to listen again, we heard him still snoring, so we then proceeded
+to unfasten the window, letting in the cold night air, that made us
+shiver as it blew into the room from the sea.
+
+It was quite dark when we got outside into the balcony, although we
+could see a star or two faintly glimmering overhead; while away to the
+westward, across the common, the red light at the pier-head marking the
+entrance to the harbour was visible.
+
+Like most watering-places in the "dead season," everybody went to bed
+early in the terrace; so that, although it could have been barely ten
+o'clock, not a light was to be seen from the windows of the neighbouring
+houses.
+
+"Just the night for a burglary!" said Tom with a snigger, on our
+cautiously looking round us to see if the coast was clear.
+
+"Yes," I chimed in, joyously, "only, we are going to burgle out, instead
+of breaking in;" and we then both had a hearty chuckle at this little
+joke.
+
+Still, no time was to be lost, now that we had got so far.  The next
+thing, therefore, to do, was to descend the balcony; and, here, my
+happily-thought-of rope ladder came in handily to deliver us from
+durance vile.
+
+Knotting it securely to the top rail of the balustrade, I gave it a
+strong tug or two to test its strength, making the balcony shake and
+tremble with the strain.
+
+"Do you think it will bear our weight?" asked Tom, anxiously, noticing
+me do this and feeling the vibratory movement.
+
+"Bear our weight, you shrimp," I rejoined, "why, it would hold forty of
+us, and Dr Hellyer too!"
+
+At this we both sniggered again, suppressing our merriment, however, for
+fear of being overheard; and then, drawing-to the shutter inside as
+close as I could, so that it should not show too plainly the fact of its
+being unbarred, and closing the window itself, which was a much easier
+task, we prepared to slide down to the pavement below.
+
+"I had better go first," I said to Tom, "I'm the heaviest; so, if I
+reach the ground all right, there'll be no fear of the rope giving way
+with you."
+
+Tom argued the point, considering that the question was one of honour,
+like that of leading a forlorn hope; but, on my saying that I had
+planned the enterprise and thereby was entitled by right to be the first
+to venture down, quite apart from the fact of my supplying the rope, he
+yielded gracefully.  Thereupon, without any more fuss, I got over the
+railings of the balcony, and holding on tightly to the frail cord with
+both hands, letting my legs drop, and then obtaining a grip below with
+my ankles, I allowed myself to slide down below, checking the rapidity
+of my descent by the knots I had previously placed there, a foot or so
+apart, for this especial purpose.
+
+I swayed round a bit, but the rope held firmly; and in a few seconds I
+was standing on the steps below, waiting for Tom to join me.
+
+He came down much easier than I did, from the fact of my holding the
+other end of our improvised ladder, thus preventing it from twirling him
+about in the same way as it had treated me, causing me almost to feel
+giddy.
+
+As soon as he stood beside me I coiled up the end of the cord, flinging
+it back with a dexterous heave, in the way my sailor friend had taught
+me, over the balcony again, so that the end of it might not be seen
+hanging down, and so betray us too soon should any passer-by notice it.
+
+"Come on, Tom," I then said, "a long good-bye to the Doctor's, my boy,
+the blessed place shall never see me again, if I can help it!  Let us
+make for the quay now, and get on board the brig if we can--that is,
+unless it be too late, in which case we must hide somewhere till the
+morning."
+
+"All right," he replied; and the two of us at once started off at a jog-
+trot up the terrace and along the road that led into the town.
+
+We were successful so far, but we were almost captured on the threshold
+of victory through an unforeseen contingency; for, just as we turned
+round the corner of the terrace by the country inn, or "hotel," which I
+had noticed on my way from the station when I first arrived at the place
+with Grimes, the cantankerous old railway porter escorting me to the
+school, who should we meet point-blank but that identical worthy!
+
+He was evidently going home to bed having just been turned out of the
+inn, which was shutting up for the night.  He had, apparently, spent a
+most enjoyable evening, for he seemed in good spirits--or, rather,
+perhaps had a pretty good amount of spirits or beer in him--as he reeled
+somewhat in his gait, and, although it was Sunday, was trying in his
+cracked falsetto voice to chant a Bacchanalian ditty assertive of the
+fact that he wouldn't "go home till morning!"
+
+But, in despite of being tipsy, he recognised us both instantly.  He was
+in the habit of coming constantly to and from the station to Dr
+Hellyer's with parcels, and was, besides, frequently employed by the
+Doctor in odd jobs about the house, consequently he was perfectly
+familiar with our faces--especially mine, which he had never forgotten
+since that little altercation I had with him on my first introduction.
+I believe the old fellow bore me a grudge for having spoken to him so
+peremptorily on that occasion, which even my present of sixpence had not
+been able to obliterate.
+
+He saw us now without doubt, as we passed by hurriedly, close to one of
+the street lamps which shone down full upon us; and, alert in a moment,
+he hailed us at once.
+
+"Hullo, you young vaggybones," he screeched out with a hiccup; "where be
+ye off ter now, hey?"
+
+We made no answer to this, only quickening our pace; and he staggered
+after us waveringly, wheezing out in broken accents, "I knows you,
+Master Bantam, I does, and you Tom Larkyns; and I'll tell the Doctor, I
+will, sure--sure--sure-ly."
+
+But, unawed by this threat, we still went on at our jog-trot until we
+were well out of his sight, when, retracing our steps again, we watched
+at a safe distance to see what he would do.  We were soon relieved,
+however, from any anxiety of his giving the alarm, for, although he
+attempted to take the turning leading down to the school, his legs,
+which had only been educated up to the point of taking him home and
+nowhere else after leaving the inn, must have refused to convey him in
+this new direction, for we could see him presently clinging to the lamp-
+post that had betrayed us, having a parley with the mutinous members--
+the upshot being that he abandoned any design he might have formed of
+going there and then to Dr Hellyer, postponing his statement as to what
+he had seen of us, as we could make out from his muttered speech, "till
+marn-ing," and mingling his determination with the refrain of the ditty
+he had been previously warbling.
+
+This was a lucky ending to what might otherwise have been a sad
+mischance, if Dr Hellyer had been at once made acquainted with our
+flight; so, devoutly thankful for our escape, we resumed our onward jog-
+trot towards the quay, which we reached safely shortly afterwards,
+without further incident or accident by the way.
+
+After being out in the open air a little while, the evening did not seem
+nearly so dark as we had thought when first peering out from the window
+of the refectory before making our final exit from the school.  Our
+eyes, probably, became more accustomed to the half-light; but whether or
+no this was the case, we managed to get down to the harbour as
+comfortably as if going there in broad day.
+
+The brig which I had been on board of on many previous occasions, the
+_Saucy Sall_, of South Shields, was lying alongside the jetty in her old
+berth, with a plank leading up to the gangway; and, seeing a light in
+the fo'c's'le, I mounted up to her deck, telling Tom to follow me,
+making my way forwards towards the glimmer.
+
+All the hands were ashore, carousing with their friends, with the
+exception of one man, who was reading a scrap of newspaper by the light
+of a sputtering dip candle stuck into a ship's lantern.  He looked
+rather surprised at receiving a visit from me at such a time of night;
+but, on my telling him the circumstances of our case, he made us both
+welcome.  Not only this, he brought out some scraps of bread and meat
+which he had stored up in a mess-tin, most likely for his breakfast,
+urging on us to "fire away," as we were heartily free to it, and
+regretting that was all he had with which to satisfy our hunger.
+
+This man's name was Jorrocks, and he was the first seafaring
+acquaintance I had made when I had timidly crept down to the quay two
+years before during the summer vacation; thus, we were now old friends,
+so to speak.  He told us, after we had polished the mess-tin clean, that
+the brig was going to sail in the morning, for Newcastle, with the tide,
+which would "make," he thought, soon after sunrise.
+
+"Why, that'll be the very thing for us," I exclaimed.  "Nothing can be
+better!"
+
+But Jorrocks shook his head.
+
+"I don't know how the skipper'd like it," he said doubtingly.
+
+"Oh, bother him," interposed Tom; "can't you hide us somewhere till the
+vessel gets out to sea; and then, he'll have to put up with our presence
+whether he likes it or not?"
+
+"What, hide you down below, my kiddies!" said the man, laughing.  "Why,
+he'll larrup the life out of you with a rope's-end when he finds you
+aboard.  I tell you what, he a'most murdered the last stowaway we had
+coming out of Shields two years ago!"
+
+"Never mind that," I put in here; "we'll have to grin and bear it, and
+take monkey's allowance if he cuts up rough.  All we want to do now is
+to get away from here; for, no matter how your captain may treat us, Dr
+Hellyer would serve us out worse if he caught us again!  Do help us,
+Jorrocks, like a good fellow!  Stow us away in the hold, or somewhere,
+until we are out of port."
+
+Our united entreaties at last prevailed, Jorrocks consenting finally to
+conceal us on board the brig, although not until after much persuasion.
+
+"Mind, though, you ain't going to split on who helped yer?" he
+provisoed.
+
+"No, Jorrocks, we pledge our words to that," Tom and I chorused.
+
+"Then, come along o' me," the good-natured salt said, and lifting the
+scuttle communicating with the hold forwards, he told us to get down
+into the forepeak, showing us how to swing by our hands from the coaming
+round the hole in the deck, as there was no ladder-way.
+
+"There, you stow yourselves well forrud," he enjoined, as soon as we had
+descended, chucking down a spare tarpaulin and some pieces of canvas
+after us to make ourselves comfortable with.  "Lie quiet, mind," he
+added as a parting injunction, "the rest of the hands and the skipper
+will be soon aboard, and it'll be all up if they finds you out afore we
+start."
+
+"All right, we'll be as still as if we're dead," I said.
+
+"Then, belay there," replied Jorrocks, shouting out kindly, as he
+replaced the hatch cover, which stopped up the entrance to our hiding
+place so effectually that the interior became as dark as Erebus.  "Good,
+night, lads, and good fortune!  I'll try and smuggle you down some
+breakfast in the mornin'."
+
+"Thank you; good night!" we shouted in return, although we doubted
+whether he could hear us now the scuttle was on.
+
+Thus left to ourselves, we scraped together, by feeling, as we could not
+see, the materials Jorrocks had supplied us with for a bed, on which we
+flung ourselves with much satisfaction, thoroughly tired out on account
+of the Doctor's having kept us standing up all day, in addition to the
+exertions we had since made in making our escape from school.
+
+The novelty of our new situation, combined with its strange
+surroundings, kept us awake for a little time, but we were too much
+fatigued both in body and mind for our eyelids to remain long open; and
+soon, in spite of our daring escapade and the fact that the unknown
+future was a world of mystery before us, we were as snugly asleep as if
+in our beds in the dormitory at Dr Hellyer's--albeit we were down in
+the hold of a dirty coal brig, with our lullaby sung by the incoming
+tide, which was by this time nearly on the turn, washing and splashing
+by the bows of the vessel lying alongside the projecting jetty, in its
+way up the estuary of the river that composed the little harbour.
+
+How long we had been in the land of dreams, and whether it was morning,
+mid-day, or night, we knew not, for a thick impenetrable darkness still
+filled the forehold where we were stowed; but, Tom and myself awoke to
+the joyful certainty that we were at sea, or must be so--not only from
+the motion of the brig, as she plunged up and down, with an occasional
+heavy roll to port or starboard; but from the noise, also, that the
+waves made, banging against her bow timbers, as if trying to beat them
+in, and the trampling of the crew above on the deck over our heads.
+
+We listened to these sounds for hours, unable to see anything and having
+nought else to distract our attention, until Tom, becoming somewhat
+affected by the smell of the bilge water in the hold as well as by the
+unaccustomed rocking movement of the brig, began to feel sea-sick and
+fretful.
+
+"I declare this is worse than the Doctor's," he complained.
+
+"We'll soon be let out," I said, "and then you'll feel better."
+
+But, the friendly Jorrocks did not appear; and, at length, wearied out
+at last by our vain watching, we both sank off to sleep again on our
+uneasy couch.
+
+After a time we woke up again.  There was a noise as if the hatchway was
+being raised, and then the welcome gleam of a lantern appeared above the
+orifice.
+
+It was Jorrocks come to relieve us, we thought; and so we both started
+up instantly.
+
+The hour for our deliverance had not yet arrived, however.
+
+"Steady!" cried our friend.  "We're just off Beachy Head, and you must
+lie where you are till mornin'; but, as you must be famished by now,
+I've brought you a bit of grub to keep your pecker up.  Show a hand,
+Master Martin!"
+
+I thereupon stretched out upwards, and Jorrocks, reaching downwards,
+placed in my grip our old acquaintance of the previous night, the mess-
+tin, filled with pieces of beef and potatoes mixed up together, after
+which he shoved on the hatchway cover again, as if somebody had suddenly
+interrupted him.
+
+I made a hearty meal, although Tom felt too qualmish to eat much, and
+then we both lay down with the assurance that our troubles would
+probably soon be over.
+
+I suppose we went to sleep again, for it seemed but a very brief
+interval, when, awaking with a start, I perceived the hatchway open.
+
+"Rouse up, Tom," said I, shaking him; "we'd better climb on deck at
+once."
+
+"All right," replied Tom, jumping up, and he was soon on the fo'c's'le,
+with me after him.
+
+"Who the mother's son are you?" a gruff voice exclaimed; and, looking
+round, I saw the skipper of the brig advancing from aft, brandishing a
+handspike.
+
+I immediately stepped forwards in front of Tom.
+
+"We've run away to sea, sir," I explained.
+
+"So I see," said the skipper, drawing nearer; "but, what right have you
+to come aboard my craft?"
+
+"We couldn't help it, sir," I answered, civilly, wishing to propitiate
+him.  "It was our only chance."
+
+"Oh, then you'll find it a poor one, youngster," said he grimly.
+"Boatswain!"
+
+"Aye, aye, sir!" responded Jorrocks, stepping up.
+
+"Do you know these boys?"
+
+"I've seen 'em at Beachampton," said our friend.
+
+"You don't know how they came aboard, eh?"
+
+"No, I can't say as how I can say, 'zactly, cap'en."
+
+"Well, then tie 'em up to the windlass and fetch me a rope's-end.  Now,
+my jokers," added he, turning to us, "I've sworn to larrup every
+stowaway I ever finds in my brig, and I'm a going to larrup you now!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+"A FRIEND IN NEED."
+
+Jorrocks had no option but, first, to proceed to pinion us, and then tie
+us separately to the windlass, using us as kindly as he could in the
+operation and with a sympathising expression on his face--that said as
+plainly as looks could speak, "I am really very sorry for this; but I
+told you what you might expect, and I can't help it!"
+
+He afterwards went aft to the skipper's cabin, bringing forwards from
+thence a stout piece of cord, with the ends frayed into lashes like
+those of a whip, which had evidently seen a good deal of service.  This
+"cat" he handed deferentially to the commander of the brig; who, seizing
+it firmly in his right fist, and holding the handspike still in his
+left, as if to be prepared for all emergencies, began to lay stroke upon
+stroke on our shoulders with a dexterity which Dr Hellyer would have
+envied, without being able to rival.
+
+It was the most terrible thrashing that either Tom or myself had ever
+experienced before; and, long ere the skipper's practised arm had tired,
+our fortitude broke down so, that we had fairly to cry for mercy.
+
+"You'll never stow yourself away on board my brig again, will you?"
+asked our flagellator of each of us alternately, with an alternate lash
+across our backs to give emphasis to his question, making us jump up
+from the deck and quiver all over, as we tried in vain to wriggle out of
+the lashings with which we were tied.
+
+"No, I won't," screamed out Tom, the tears running down his cheeks from
+the pain of the ordeal.  "I'll promise you never to put my foot within a
+mile of her, if you let me off!"
+
+"And so will I, too," I bawled out quickly, following suit to Tom.
+
+I can really honestly aver that we both meant what we said, most
+sincerely!
+
+"All right then, you young beggars; that'll do for your first lesson.
+The thrashing will pay your footing for coming aboard without leave.
+Jorrocks, you can cut these scamps down now, and find them something to
+do in the fo'c's'le--make 'em polish the ring-bolts if there's nothing
+else on hand!"
+
+So saying, the skipper, satisfied with taking our passage money out of
+our hides, walked away aft; while Jorrocks began to cast loose our
+lashings, with many whispered words of comfort, which he was afraid to
+utter aloud, mixed up with comments on the captain's conduct.
+
+"He's a rough customer to deal with--as tough as they make 'em," said
+he, confidentially, removing the last bight round Tom's body and setting
+him free; "but, he's all there!"
+
+"So he is," said Tom, with much decision, rubbing his sore shoulders.
+"I will vouch for the truth of that statement!"
+
+"And, when he says he'll do a thing, he allys does it," continued
+Jorrocks, in testimony to the skipper's firmness of purpose.
+
+"He won't flog _me_ again," said Tom, savagely, in answer to the
+boatswain's last remark.
+
+"Nor me," I put in.
+
+"Ah, you'd better keep quiet till you're ashore ag'in," advised our
+friend, meaningly.  "You won't find much more harm in him than you've
+done already; and bye-and-bye, when he's got used to seeing you about,
+he'll be as soft and easy as butter."
+
+"Oh yes, I can well believe that!" said Tom, ironically; but then,
+acting on the advice of Jorrocks, although more to save him from getting
+into a scrape on our behalf, than from any fear of further molestation
+from the skipper, against whom our hearts were now hardened, we bustled
+about the fo'c's'le, pretending to be awfully busy coiling down the
+slack of the jib halliards, and doing other odd jobs forward.
+
+Up to this time, neither of us had an opportunity of casting a glance
+over the vessel to see where she was, our attention from the moment we
+gained the deck having been entirely taken up by the proceedings of the
+little drama I have just narrated, which prevented us from making any
+observations of the _mise en scene_, whether inboard or over the side.
+
+Now, however, having a chance of looking about me, my first glance was
+up aloft; and I noticed that the brig was under all plain sail, running
+before the wind, which was almost dead aft.  Being "light," that is
+having no cargo on board beyond such ballast as was required to ensure
+her stability when heeling over, she was rolling a good deal, lurching
+from side to side as her canvas filled out to the breeze, with every
+fresh puff of air.
+
+Away to the left, over our port beam, I could see land in the distance,
+which Jorrocks told me was the North Foreland--near Margate--a place
+that I knew by name of course, although this information did not give me
+any accurate idea of the brig's whereabouts; but, later on in the day,
+when the vessel had run some fifteen or twenty miles further, steering
+to the north-east, with the wind to the southward of west, we passed
+through a lot of brackish mud-coloured water, close to a light-ship,
+that my friend the boatswain said was the Kentish Knock, midway between
+the mouth of the Thames and wash of the Humber, and it was only then
+that I realised the fact, that we were running up the eastern coast of
+England and were well on our way to Newcastle, for which port, as I've
+intimated before, we were bound.
+
+"Hurrah!" exclaimed Tom, when I mentioned this to him.  "We'll soon then
+be able to give that brute of a skipper the slip.  I won't stop on board
+this horrid brig a minute longer than I can help, Martin, you may be
+certain!"
+
+"Avast--belay that!" interposed Jorrocks, who was close behind, and
+heard this confession.  "Don't you count your chickens afore they're
+hatched, young master!  Take my word for it, the skipper won't let you
+out of his sight 'fore you've paid him for your grub and passage."
+
+"But how can he, when we've got no money?" asked Tom.
+
+"That makes no difference," said Jorrocks, with an expressive wink that
+spoke volumes.  "You'll see if he don't make you work 'em out, and
+that'll be as good to him as if you paid him a shiner or two.  You jest
+wait till we gets to Noocastle, my lad, and I specs you'll larn what
+coal-screening is afore you've done with it."
+
+"And what if we refuse?" inquired Tom, to whom this grimy prospect did
+not appear over-pleasant.
+
+"Why, there'll be larruping," replied the boatswain, significantly, with
+another expressive wink, and Tom was silenced; but, it was only for a
+moment, as he looked up again the instant afterwards with his usual
+bright expression.
+
+"Perhaps it will be wisest to make the best of a bad job, Martin, eh?"
+he said, cheerfully.  "We have only to thank ourselves for getting into
+this scrape, and the most sensible thing we can do now is to grin and
+bear whatever we've got to put up with."
+
+This exactly agreed with my own conclusions, and I signified my assent
+to the sound philosophy of Tom's remark with my usual nod; but, as for
+Jorrocks, he was completely carried away with enthusiasm.
+
+"Right you are, my hearty!" he cried, wringing Tom's hand in the grip of
+his brawny fist as if he would shake it off.  "That's the sort o' lad
+for me!  You've an old head on young shoulders, you have--you'll get on
+with the skipper, no fear; and me and my mates will make you both as
+com'able aboard as we can; theer, I can say no better, can I?"
+
+"No," replied Tom, in an equally hearty tone.
+
+The _Saucy Sall_ being only of small tonnage, she had a correspondingly
+small crew, seven men and a boy--including the skipper and Jorrocks, and
+excluding ourselves for the present--comprising "all hands."
+
+Of this number, one was aft now, taking his turn at the wheel, with the
+skipper standing beside him, while a couple of others were lounging
+about, ready to slacken off or haul taut the sheets; and the remainder,
+whose watch below it was, were seeing to the preparations for dinner--a
+savoury smell coming out from the fo'c's'le heads, that was most
+appetising to Tom and me, who were both longing to have once more a good
+hot meal.
+
+Presently, the skipper shouted out something about "making it eight
+bells," whereupon Jorrocks took hold of a marlinspike, which he had
+seemingly ready for the purpose, striking eight sharp, quick blows on a
+little bell hanging right under the break of the little topgallant
+fo'c's'le, with which the old-fashioned coaster was built.
+
+"That's the pipe down to dinner," he said to us in explanatory fashion.
+"Come along o' me, and I'll introduce you to yer messmates in proper
+shipshape way!"
+
+Thereupon, we both followed Jorrocks into the dark little den in the
+fore-part of the vessel, with which Tom had first made acquaintance the
+night we went on board, after escaping from Dr Hellyer's, now four days
+since--a long while it seemed to us, although only so short an interval,
+from the experiences we had since gained, and our entirely new mode of
+life.  The place was small and dark, with bunks ranged along either
+side, and a stove in the centre, at which one of the hands, selected as
+cook, was just giving a final stir to a steaming compound of meat,
+potatoes, and biscuit, all stewed up together, and dubbed by sailors
+"lobscouse."
+
+Most of the crew I already knew, from my visits to the brig during
+vacation time; but, Tom being a comparative stranger--albeit all of them
+had witnessed the "striking proof" of the honour the skipper considered
+our coming on board had done him--Jorrocks thought best to introduce us
+in a set speech, saying how we were "a good sort, and no mistake"; and
+that, although we were the sons of gentlemen, who had "runned away from
+school," we were going to shake in our lot with them "like one of
+theirselves."
+
+This seemed to go down as well as the stew, of which we were cordially
+invited to partake, that disappeared rapidly down our famished throats;
+and, thenceforth, we were treated with that good fellowship which seems
+natural to those who follow the sea--none attempting to bully us, or
+take advantage of our youth, and all eager to complete our nautical
+education to the best of their ability.  Perhaps this was principally on
+account of Jorrocks constituting himself our friend and patron, and
+keeping a keen eye on our interests in the food department, so as to see
+that we had a fair share of what was going; but, at any rate, thus it
+was, for, with the exception of the skipper, we had no reason to
+complain of the treatment of any one on board the brig, from the time we
+joined her in the surreptitious manner I have described, to the moment
+of our leaving her.
+
+Towards evening, the wind shifting more to the westwards and bearing on
+our quarter, the yards had to be braced round a bit and the jib sheet
+hauled in taut to leeward, giving Tom and me an opportunity of showing
+our willingness to bear a hand.  Otherwise, however, until we arrived at
+Newcastle there was little to do in the way of trimming sails, as the
+wind was fair all the way, giving no occasion for reefing or furling
+canvas until we got into port.  I don't believe, either, we were out of
+sight of land once during the progress of the voyage; for, the skipper,
+like the commanders of most coasting craft, hugged the shore in
+navigating to and fro between the different places for which he was
+bound, never losing sight of one prominent landmark or headland till he
+could distinguish the next beyond, in the day-time, and steering by the
+lighthouses and floating beacons, by night.
+
+If times had been easy for us so far, when we arrived at Newcastle we
+had terrible work to balance our good fortune in this respect.
+
+Talk of galley slaves! no unfortunate criminals chained to the oar in
+the old days of that aquatic mode of punishment ever went through half
+what poor Tom and I did at this great coal centre of the north--none at
+least could have suffered so much in body and spirit from the effects of
+a form of toil, to which the ordinary labour of a negro slave on a Cuban
+plantation would be as nothing!
+
+The skipper never allowed us once to leave the vessel to go ashore,
+although all the other hands went backwards from brig to land as it
+seemed to please them, without any restraint being apparently put on
+their movements; but, whether our stern taskmaster was afraid of our
+"cutting and running" before he had his pound of flesh out of us, or
+whether he feared being called to account under the terms of the
+Merchant Shipping Act for having us on board without our names being on
+the brig's books as duly licensed apprentices, when he might have been
+subjected to a penalty, I know not.  The fact remains, that there he
+kept us day and night as long as we remained taking in a fresh cargo of
+coals.  We never once set foot on land during our stay in port.
+
+And the work!
+
+We did not have to carry the bags of coal, as the rest of the crew did,
+from the wharf to the gangway of the vessel, as then we might have been
+seen; but we had to bear a hand over the hatches to shunt the bags down
+into the hold, into which we were afterwards sent with rakes and shovels
+to stow the rough lumps into odd holes and corners and make a smooth
+surface generally, until the brig was chock full to the deck-beams, when
+we couldn't even creep in on our hands and knees to distribute the cargo
+further!
+
+This job being finished, the hatches were battened down, and the brig
+made sail again for the south.
+
+This time, our destination was further along the coast westwards, the
+collier brig proceeding to Plymouth instead of returning to our previous
+port of departure--a circumstance which rejoiced us both greatly, as we
+should not have liked to have been landed again at the place we had
+left: Dr Hellyer, perhaps, would have been more pleased to see us than
+we should have been to meet him!
+
+The wind, on our return trip, was still westerly, and consequently
+against us; so I had no reason to complain of any lack of instruction in
+seamanship on this part of the voyage.  It was "tacks and
+sheets"--"mainsail haul"--and "bout-ship"--"down anchor" as the tide
+changed, and "up with it!" again, when the flood or ebb was in our
+favour--all the way from the Mouse Light to Beachy Head!
+
+In performing these various nautical manoeuvres, I had plenty of
+exercise aloft, so that my previous teaching, when I used to go down to
+the quay in the summer vacations on being left alone at school, stood me
+now in good stead; and in a little while I became really, for a lad of
+my years, an expert seaman, able to hand, reef, steer, and take a watch
+with any on board, long before we got to Plymouth!
+
+But, it was not so with Tom.
+
+The coal business, he thought, having no turn for colliery work, was bad
+enough; but, when it came to have to go aloft in a gale of wind and take
+in sail on a dark night, with the flapping canvas trying to jerk one off
+the yard, Tom acknowledged that he had no stomach to be a sailor--he
+preferred gymnastics ashore!
+
+Although, otherwise, I had found him bold and fearless to desperation,
+he now evinced a nervous timidity about mounting the rigging that I
+didn't think he had in him.  It seemed utterly unlike the dauntless Tom
+of old acquaintanceship on land.
+
+He said that he really "funked" going aloft, for it made his head swim
+when he looked down.  I told him that if he got in the habit of looking
+down at the water below whenever he ascended the shrouds, instead of its
+only making his head swim, as he now complained, it would inevitably
+result in his entire self being forced to do so!  However, he said he
+could not possibly help it, and really I don't believe he could.
+
+Some people are so constituted.
+
+The upshot was that the skipper, noticing his inefficiency in the work
+of the ship, made him his cabin boy, in place of the lad who had
+hitherto occupied that enviable position, and whom he now sent forward
+amongst the other hands in the fo'c's'le.
+
+But the change did not bring any amelioration to poor Tom's lot.  It was
+"like going from the frying-pan into the fire;" for, now, my unfortunate
+chum, being immediately under the control of the skipper, who was a
+surly, ill-tempered brute at bottom, he paid him out for his laziness in
+"shirking work," as he termed the constitutional nervousness that he was
+powerless to fight against--Tom coming in for "more kicks than
+halfpence" by his promotion to the cabin, and having "purser's
+allowance" of all the beatings going, when the skipper was in one of his
+tantrums.
+
+I got into a serious row with the brute for taking Tom's part one day.
+In his passion, the skipper knocked me down with his favourite
+handspike, giving me a cut across my temple, the scar of which I'll
+carry to my grave.  My interference, however, saved Tom and myself any
+further ill-treatment, as I bled so much from the blow he gave me and
+was insensible so long, that the men thought the skipper had killed me.
+They accordingly remonstrated so forcibly with him on the subject that
+he promised to let us both alone for the future, at least so far as the
+handspike was concerned.
+
+Fortunately, however, we were not much longer at the mercy of the
+brute's temper; for, the morning after this, we reached Beachy Head,
+anchoring there to await the ebb tide down Channel, and the wind
+chopping round to the north-eastwards, made it fair for us all the way,
+enabling us to fetch Plymouth within three days.
+
+Here, no sooner had the brig weathered Drake Island, anchoring inside
+the Cattwater, where all merchant vessels go to discharge their cargoes,
+than the skipper at once gave us notice to quit, almost without warning.
+
+"Be off now, you lazy lubbers," he cried, motioning us down into the
+_Saucy Sall's_ solitary boat, which had been got over the side, and
+which, with Jorrocks in charge of it, was waiting to take us ashore.
+"I'm glad to get rid of such idle hands; and you may thank your stars
+I've let you off so cheaply for your cheek in stowing yourselves away
+aboard my brig!  You may think yourselves lucky I don't give you in
+charge, and get you put in gaol for it!"
+
+"You daren't," shouted back Tom, defiantly, as soon as he was safely
+down in the stern-sheets of the dinghy.  "If you wanted to give us in
+charge, you ought to have done so in Newcastle, instead of making us
+work there for you like niggers.  I've a great mind to have you up
+before the magistrates for your ill-treatment!"
+
+This appeared to shut up the skipper very effectively, for he didn't
+offer a word in reply; and, presently, Jorrocks landed us at the jetty
+stairs, close inside the Cattwater.
+
+Our old friend seemed quite sorry to part with us; and, knowing our
+destitute condition, he kindly presented us with the sum of five
+shillings, which he said was a joint subscription from all hands, who
+had "parted freely" when they learnt that we were about to be turned
+adrift from the brig, but which I believe mainly came out of his own
+pocket.
+
+"Good-bye, my lads," were his last words.  "Keep your pecker up, and if
+you'll take the advice of an old sailor, I'd recommend you to write to
+your friends and go home."
+
+"Much he knows of my Aunt Matilda!"  I said to Tom, as we watched the
+good-hearted fellow pulling back to the old tub on board of which we had
+passed through so much.  "If he were acquainted with all the
+circumstances of the case I don't think he'd advise my going home at all
+events!"
+
+"I'm not quite sure of that, Martin," replied Tom, who was now
+thoroughly tired of everything connected with the sea, vowing that,
+after the experience he had gained, he would not go afloat again, to be
+made "Lord High Admiral of England!"
+
+"Well, we'll deliberate about it," said I, as we turned away from the
+jetty and walked towards the town, where our immediate intention was to
+enter a coffee-shop and get a substantial breakfast out of the funds
+which Jorrocks had so thoughtfully provided us with.
+
+Here, Tom's fate was soon decided; for, we had not long been seated in a
+small restaurant where we had ordered some coffee and bread-and-butter,
+which were the viands we specially longed for, than an advertisement on
+the front page of an old copy of the _Times_ caught my eye.
+
+It ran thus:--
+
+"If Tom L---, who ran away from school in company with another boy on
+the night of November the Fifth and is supposed to have gone to sea,
+will communicate with his distressed mother, all will be forgiven."
+
+"Why, Tom," said I, reading it aloud, with some further particulars
+describing him, which I have not quoted--"this must refer to you!"
+
+"So it does," said he.
+
+"And what will you do?"  I asked him.
+
+"Well, Martin, I don't like to leave you, but then you know my mother
+must be so anxious, as I told you before, that I think I'd better write
+to her."
+
+I suggested a better course, however, as soon as I saw he wished to go
+home; and that was, that, as his mother lived not very far from Exeter,
+he should take the balance of the money we had left after paying for our
+breakfast, and go off thither by train at once.
+
+This, after some demur, he agreed to; so, as soon as we had finished our
+meal and discharged the bill, which only took eightpence put of our
+store, we made our way to the railway station.
+
+A train was luckily just about starting, and Tom getting a ticket for
+half-price, he and I parted, not meeting again until many days had
+passed, and then in a very different place!
+
+When I realised the fact that Tom was gone, and that I was now left
+alone in that strange place, where I had never been in my life before, I
+felt so utterly cast down, that instinctively I made my way to the sea,
+there seeking that comfort and calm which the mere sight of it, somehow
+or other, always afforded me.
+
+I got down, I recollect, on the Hoe, and, walking along the esplanade,
+halted right in front of the Breakwater, whence I could command a view
+of the harbour, with the men-of-war in the Hamoaze on my right hand, and
+the Cattwater, where the _Saucy Sall_ was lying, on my left.
+
+I was very melancholy, and after a bit I sat down on an adjacent seat;
+when, burying my face in my hands, I gave way to tears.
+
+Presently, I was roused by the sound of a man's voice close at hand, as
+if of some one speaking to me.
+
+I looked up hastily, ashamed of being caught crying.  However, the good-
+natured, jolly, weather-beaten face I saw looking into mine reassured
+me.
+
+"Hullo, young cockbird," said the owner of the face--a middle-aged,
+respectable, nautical-looking sort of man--speaking in a cheery voice,
+which went to my heart; "what's the row with you, my hearty?  Tell old
+Sam Pengelly all about it!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+OLD CALABAR COTTAGE.
+
+I don't know why, excepting that the words had a kindly ring about them,
+in spite of the almost brusque quaintness of the address, that touched
+me keenly in the depressed state of mind in which I was; but, instead of
+answering the speaker's pertinent question as to the reason of my grief,
+I now bent down my head again on my arm, sobbing away as if my heart
+would break.
+
+But this only made the good Samaritan prosecute his inquiry further.
+
+"Come, come, stow that, youngster," said he, taking a seat beside me on
+the bench, where I was curled up in one corner, placing one of his hands
+gently on my shoulder in a caressing way.  "Look up, and tell me what
+ails you, my lad, and if Sam Pengelly can help you, why, there's his
+fist on it!"
+
+"You--you--are very k-kind," I stammered out between my long-drawn sobs;
+"but--but--no--nobody can--help me, sir."
+
+"Oh, nonsense, tell that to the marines, for a sailor won't believe
+you," he replied, briskly.  "Why, laddie, anybody can help anybody, the
+same as the mouse nibbled the lion out of the hunter's net; and, as for
+Mr Nobody, I don't know the man!  Look here, I can't bear to see a ship
+in distress, or a comrade in the doldrums; so I tell you what, young
+cockbird, raise your crest and don't look so peaky, for I'm going to
+help you if it's in my power, as most likely it is--that is, saving as
+how it ain't a loss by death, which takes us all, and which the good
+Lord above can only soothe, bringing comfort to you; and even then, why,
+a friendly word, and a grip o' some un's hand, sometimes softens down
+the roughest plank we've got to tread.
+
+"I tell you, my hearty," he resumed again, after a brief pause, during
+which my sobs ceased, "I ain't a going to let you adrift, now I've borne
+down alongside and boarded you, my hearty--that's not Sam Pengelly's
+way; so you'd better make a clean breast of your troubles and we'll see
+what can be done for 'em.  To begin with, for there's no use argufying
+on an empty stomach, are you hungry, eh?"
+
+"No," I said with a smile, his cheery address and quaint language
+banishing my melancholy feelings in a moment, just as a ray of sunshine
+or two, penetrating the surface mist, that hangs over the sea and land
+of a summer morning before the orb of day, causes it to melt away and
+disappear as if by magic, waking up the scene to life; "I had breakfast
+in the town about an hour ago."
+
+"Are you hard up?" was his next query.
+
+"No," I answered again, this time bursting into a laugh at the puzzled
+expression on his face; "I've got a shilling and a sixpence--there!" and
+I drew the coins from my pocket, showing them to him.
+
+"Well, I'm jiggered!" murmured the old fellow to himself, taking off the
+straight-peaked blue cloth cap he wore, and scratching his head
+reflectively--as if in a quandary, and cogitating how best to get out of
+it.  "Neither hard up or hungry!  I call this a stiff reckoning to work
+out.  I'd better try the young shaver on another tack.  Got any
+friends?" he added, in a louder key--addressing himself, now, personally
+to me, not supposing that I had heard his previous soliloquy, for he had
+merely uttered his thoughts aloud.
+
+This question touched me on the sore point, and I looked grave at once.
+
+"No," I replied, "I've got none left now, since Tom's gone."
+
+"And who's Tom?" he asked, confidentially, to draw me out.
+
+Thereupon, I told him of my being an orphan, brought up by relatives who
+didn't care about me, and all about my being sent to school.  I also
+detailed, with much gusto, the way in which Tom and I had made our exit
+from Dr Hellyer's academy, and our subsequent adventures in the coal
+brig, down to the moment when I saw the last of my chum as he steamed
+out of the Plymouth railway station in the Exeter train, leaving me
+desolate behind.
+
+My new friend did not appear so very much amused by the account of our
+blowing up the Doctor as I thought he would be.  Indeed, he looked quite
+serious about it, as if it were, no joking matter, as really it was not,
+but a very bad and mischievous piece of business.  What seemed to
+interest him much more, was, what I told him of my longing for a sea-
+life, and the determination I had formed of being a sailor--which even
+the harsh treatment of the _Saucy Sall's_ skipper had in no degree
+banished from my mind.
+
+"What a pity you weren't sent in the service," he said, meditatively, "I
+fancy you'd ha' made a good reefer from the cut of your jib.  You're
+just the very spit of one I served under when I was a man-o'-war's-man
+afore I got pensioned off, now ten year ago!"
+
+"My father was an officer in the Navy," I replied rather proudly.  "He
+lost his life, gallantly, in the service of his country."
+
+"You don't say that now?" exclaimed my questioner, with much warmth,
+looking me earnestly in the face; "and what may your name be, if I may
+be so bold? you haven't told it me yet."
+
+"Martin Leigh," I answered, promptly, a faint hope rising in my breast.
+
+"Leigh?--no, never, it can't be!" said the old fellow, now greatly
+excited.  "I once knew an officer of that very name--Gerald Leigh--and
+he was killed in action up the Niger River on the West Coast, while
+attacking a slave barracoon, ten years ago come next March--"
+
+"That was my father," I here interposed, interrupting his reminiscences.
+
+"Your father?  You don't mean that!"
+
+"I do," I said, eagerly, "I was four years old when Uncle George
+received the news of his death."
+
+"My stunsails!" ejaculated the old fellow, dashing his cap to the ground
+in a fever of excitement; and, seizing both my hands in his, he shook
+them up and down so forcibly that he almost lifted me off the seat.
+"Think of that now; but, I could ha' known it from the sort o' feeling
+that drew me to you when I saw you curled up here, all lonesome, like a
+cock sparrow on a round of beef!  And so, Lieutenant Leigh was your
+father--the bravest, kindest officer I ever sailed under!  Why,
+youngster, do you know who I am?"
+
+He said this quite abruptly, and he looked as if he thought I would
+recognise him.
+
+"No," I said, smiling, "but you're a very kind-hearted man.  I'm sure,
+to take such an interest in a friendless boy like me."
+
+"Friendless boy, be jiggered!" he replied--"You're not friendless from
+now, you can be sarten!  Why, I was your father's own coxswain in the
+_Swallow_, off the coast, and it was in my arms he died when he received
+that murdering nigger's shot in his chest, right 'twixt wind and water.
+Yes! there's a wonderful way in the workings o' Providence--to think
+that you should come across me now when you needs a friend, one whom
+your father often befriended in old times, more like a brother than an
+officer!  I thank the great Captain above,"--and the old fellow looked
+up reverently here to the blue heaven over us as he uttered these last
+words--"that I'm allowed this marciful chance o' paying back, in a poor
+sort o' way, all my old commander's kindness to me in the years agone!
+Yes, young gentleman, my name's Sam Pengelly, and I was your father's
+coxswain.  If he had ha' lived he'd have talked to you, sure enough,
+about me."
+
+"I'm very glad to hear this," said I; and so I was, for my hopeful
+surmise had proved true.
+
+"Well, laddie--you'll excuse my speaking to you familiar like, won't
+you?"
+
+"Call me what you please," I answered, "I'm only too proud to hear your
+kind voice, and see your friendly face.  I have had all nonsense about
+dignity and position knocked out of me long since!"
+
+"Well, perhaps, that's all for the best--though mind, Master Leigh,
+being your father's son, you mustn't ever forget you've been born a true
+gen'leman, and don't you ever do an action that you'll have cause to be
+ashamed on!  That's the only proper sort o' dignity a gen'leman's son
+need ever be partic'ler about, to make people recognise him for what he
+is; and, with this feeling and eddication, you'll take your proper place
+in the world, never fear!  Now, what do you think about doing, my lad?
+for the day is getting on, and it's time to see after something."
+
+"I'm sure I don't know," I replied.  "I should like to go to sea, as
+I've told you.  Not in a coasting vessel, like the coal brig, but really
+to pea, so as to be able to sail over the ocean to China or Australia;
+and, bye-and-bye, after awhile, as soon as I am old enough and have
+sufficient experience, I hope to command a ship of my own."
+
+He had shown such sympathy towards me, that I couldn't help telling him
+all the wild dreams about my future which had been filling my mind for
+the last two years, although I had not confided them even to Tom, for I
+thought he would make fun of my nautical ambition.
+
+Instead of laughing at me, however, my new friend looked highly
+delighted.
+
+"I'm blessed if you aren't a reg'ler chip of the old block," he said
+admiringly, gazing into my face with a broad smile on his weather-beaten
+countenance, that made it for the moment in my eyes positively handsome.
+"There spoke my old lieutenant, the same as I can fancy I hear him now,
+the morning we rowed up the Niger to assault the nigger stockade where
+he met his death.  `Pengelly,' sez he, in the same identical way as you
+first said them words o' yourn, `I mean to take that prah,' and, take it
+he did, though the poor fellow lost his life leading us on to the
+assault!  I can see, very plain, you've got it all in you, the same as
+he; and, having been a seafaring man all my life, first in the sarvice,
+and then on my own hook in a small way in the coasting line, in course I
+honours your sentiments in wishing to be a sailor--though it's a hard
+life at the best.  Howsomedevers, `what's bred in the bone,' as the
+proverb says, `must come out in the flesh,' and if you will go to sea,
+why, you must, and I'll try to help you on to what you wish, as far as
+Sam Pengelly can; I can't say more nor that, can I?"
+
+"No, certainly not, and I'm much obliged to you," I answered; for he
+made a pause at this point, as if waiting for my reply.
+
+"Well, then, that's all settled and entered in the log-book fair and
+square; but, as all this can't be managed in a minute, and there'll be a
+lot of arrangements to make, s'pose as how you come home along o' me
+first?  I'm an orphan, too, the same as yourself, with nobody left to
+care for or to mind me, save my old sister Jane, who keeps house for me;
+and she and I'll make you as welcome as the flowers in May!"
+
+I demurred for a moment at accepting this kind proposal, for I was
+naturally of a very independent nature; and, besides, the lessons I had
+received in my uncle's household made me shrink from incurring the
+obligation of any one's hospitality, especially that of one with whom I
+had only such brief acquaintanceship, albeit he was "an orphan"--a
+rather oldish one, I thought--"like myself."
+
+But my new friend would not be denied.
+
+"Come on, now," he repeated, getting up from the seat, and holding out a
+big, strong hand to me, with such a beaming, good-natured expression on
+his face and so much genuine cordiality in his voice, that it was
+impossible for me to persist in refusing his invitation; the more
+particularly as, seeing me hesitate, he added the remark--"leastways,
+that is, unless you're too high a gen'leman to consort with an humble
+sailor as was your own father's coxswain!"
+
+This settled the point, making me jump up in a jiffey; when, without
+further delay, he and I went off from the Hoe, hand in hand, in the
+direction of Stoke, where he told me he lived.
+
+It was now nearly the middle of December, six weeks having passed by
+since the memorable Sunday on which I and Tom had made a Guy Fawkes of
+Dr Hellyer, and run away from school--the intervening time having
+slipped by quickly enough while on board the coal brig at Newcastle, and
+during our voyage down the coast again--but the weather, I recollect,
+was wonderfully mild for the time of year; and, as we walked past the
+terraces fronting the Hoe, the sun shone down on us, and over the blue
+sea beyond in Plymouth Sound below, as if it had been a summer day.
+Indeed, no matter what the weather might have been, I think it would
+have seemed fine and bright to me; for, I don't believe I had ever felt
+so happy in my life as I did when trudging along by Sam Pengelly's side
+that morning.
+
+"You're a pretty strong-built chap for your age," said Sam, as we went
+along.  "I suppose you're close on sixteen, eh?"
+
+"Dear me, no," I laughed, light-heartedly.  "Why, I'm only just
+fourteen!  I told you I was four when my poor father was killed; and
+that, as you yourself said, happened ten years ago, so you can calculate
+yourself."
+
+"Bless me, so you must be by all accounts; but, sure, you look fully two
+years older!  Humph, you're a little bit too young yet to get
+apprenticed to the sea regularly as I thought of; but there's plenty o'
+time for us to study the bearings of it arter we fetch home.  Come
+along, step out.  I feel kind o' peckish with all this palavering, and
+thinks as how I could manage a bit of dinner pretty comfably, and it'll
+be just about ready by the time we reach Stoke, as Jane's mighty
+punctual to having it on the table by eight bells; step out, my hearty!"
+
+Presently, turning off from the main road into a sort of bye-lane, my
+conductor finally stopped before the entrance porch of a neat little
+cottage, standing in a large garden of its own, that stretched away for
+some distance on either side.  There was an orchard also in the rear,
+the fruit-trees of which, such was the mildness of the season, appeared
+ready to break into bud.
+
+"Here's my anchorage, laddie," said he, with a wave of his hand--
+indicating the extent of his property.
+
+"What a jolly little place!"  I exclaimed.
+
+"Yes," he replied, with pardonable pride, "I set my heart on the little
+cabin years ago--afore I left the navy--and I used to save up my pay and
+prize money, so as to buy it in time.  I meant it for mother, but she
+died before I could manage it; and then I bought it for myself, thinking
+that Jane and I would live here until we should be summoned for the
+watch on deck above, and that arter our time Teddy, my nephew, Jane's
+only boy, would have it.  But, not long arter we settled down comfably,
+poor Teddy caught a fever, which carried him off; and Jane and I have
+gone on alone, ever since, with only our two selves."
+
+"You must miss your nephew Teddy," I said, sympathisingly, seeing a
+grave look on his face.
+
+"Yes, laddie, I did miss him very much, but now, my cockbird," and here
+his face brightened up with another beaming smile, as he laid a meaning
+emphasis on his words, "but now I fancy, somehow or other, I'll not miss
+Teddy as much as I used to; d'ye know why?"
+
+"No," I said, hesitatingly, and somewhat untruthfully, for I pretty well
+guessed what he meant.
+
+"Then I'll tell you," he continued, with much feeling and heartiness of
+expression, "I've christened this here anchorage o' mine, `Old Calabar,'
+in mem'ry o' the West Coast, where I sarved under your father in the
+_Swallow_, as I told you just now; and, Master Leigh, as his son, I hope
+you'll always consider the little shanty as your home, free to come and
+go or stay, just as you choose, and ever open to you with a welcome the
+same as now?"
+
+What could I say to this?
+
+Why, nothing.
+
+I declare that I couldn't have uttered a word then to have saved my
+life.
+
+But he did not want any thanks.
+
+Pretending not to notice my emotion, he went on speaking, so as to allow
+me time to recover myself.
+
+"Rec'lect this, laddie," said he, "that my sister Jane and I have
+neither chick nor child belonging to either of us, and that your
+presence will be like sunshine in the house.  Come along in now, my boy.
+I'll give Jane a hail to let her know we're here in harbour, so that
+she can pipe down to dinner.  Hi--hullo--on deck there!" and, raising
+his voice, in this concluding shout--just as if he were standing on the
+poop of a vessel in a heavy gale of wind and hailing a look-out man on
+the fore-crosstrees--he opened the door of the cottage, motioning me
+courteously to enter it first.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+A WELCOME GUEST.
+
+The little hall, or passage way, opening out of the porch, in which I
+now found myself, was like the vestibule to a museum.
+
+It was crammed full, from floor to ceiling, with all sorts of curios,
+brought from foreign parts, evidently by the worthy owner of the
+dwelling, when returning home after his many cruisings in strange
+waters--conch shells from the Congo and cowries from Zanzibar; a
+swordfish's broken spear from the Pacific, and a Fijian war-club; cases
+of stuffed humming-birds from Rio, and calabashes from the Caribbean
+Sea; a beautiful model, in the finest ivory work, of a Chinese junk on
+one side, _vis-a-vis_ with a full-rigged English man-of-war on the
+other; and, above all, in the place of honour, the hideous body of a
+shark, displaying its systematic rows of triangularly arranged saw-like
+teeth, now harmless, but once ready to mangle the unwary!
+
+All these objects, of course, immediately attracted my attention, but I
+had not much time for glancing round the collection; for, almost as soon
+as we got inside the little hall, a bright-faced middle-aged woman, with
+jet-black hair and eyes, the very image of my new friend, only much more
+comely in feature, stepped forward from a room opening out of the other
+end of the passage.
+
+"Dear me, Sam, is that you?" she cried out in a voice closely resembling
+his in its cheery accents, although more musical by reason of its
+feminine ring; "I'm just dishing up, and dinner'll be ready as soon as
+the pasty's done."
+
+Her brother did not apparently pay any attention to this highly
+important announcement for the moment.
+
+"Come here, Jane," he said, "I've brought home a visitor."
+
+With this she advanced, courtesying, her face changing as soon as she
+came nearer and saw who the stranger was.
+
+"My, Sam!" she exclaimed, "who is he?  Why, he's the very image of poor
+Ted!" and she raised the corner of her apron to her eyes as she spoke,
+as if to stop the ready-starting tears.
+
+"Whoever do you think he is?" said Sam Pengelly, triumphantly; "look at
+him carefully, now.  No, Jane, my woman, I don't believe you'd ever
+guess!"
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Why, the son of my good old commander, Lieutenant Leigh, of the
+_Swallow_, him as I've spun you so many yarns about!  Why, Jane, my
+woman, I found the poor little laddie a desarted young orphan on the Hoe
+just now.  He's friendless, with never a home to go to; and so I asked
+him to come along o' me, saying as how you'd welcome him to `Old
+Calabar' the same as I."
+
+"And so I will, too, Sam," replied the other, coming up to me and
+speaking; "I'm main glad to see you here, young gentleman, for I've
+often heard Sam talk of your father, saying how good and kind he was to
+him.  You're heartily welcome to our little home.  My gracious, Sam!"
+she added, turning aside and using her apron again; "he's as like my Ted
+as two peas!  I can't help it!" and so saying, she threw her arms round
+my neck and kissed me.
+
+The action somewhat confused me; for, it was the first motherly caress I
+had ever experienced in my life.  Aunt Matilda, you may be sure, never
+once thought of so greeting me!
+
+"Avast there, Jane," laughed out Sam, much pleased at the way in which
+his sister had received me.  "What d'ye mean by boarding my prize in
+that fashion?  But I'm glad you think he's like Teddy--it will make it
+more like old times and home-like for us to have the laddie with us."
+
+"Aye, and he can have Ted's room," answered the other--all eagerness now
+to see to my being completely arranged for--"I think the poor boy's
+clothes will fit him too."
+
+"So they will, and just in time, too, for he wants a new rig," said her
+brother, casting a critical eye over my wardrobe, which had not been
+improved by my stay on board the coal brig.
+
+We then proceeded to enter a nice roomy old-fashioned kitchen, with a
+cleanly-scoured floor like the deck of a man-of-war, and all resplendent
+with rows of plates and burnished pewter pots and dish-covers, where we
+had, what I considered both then and now to be, the best dinner I had
+ever eaten in my life, winding up with an apple tart that had Devonshire
+cream spread over it like powdered sugar--a most unparalleled
+prodigality of luxury to my unaccustomed eyes and palate!
+
+Afterwards, I was shown a little room at the back, looking out into the
+garden, which had been formerly occupied by Teddy.  Of this I was now
+put in formal possession, along with a good stock of clothes which the
+bereaved mother had carefully preserved in the chest-of-drawers in one
+corner, just as if her boy had been still living, all ready for use.
+These, she now told me, with tears in her eyes, I was heartily welcome
+to, if I were not too proud to accept them, as, in wearing them, she
+said, I should make her think that she yet had poor Ted to comfort her,
+and I would take his vacant place in her heart.  The good woman,
+however, with housewifely care, brought up to the room a large tub with
+a plentiful supply of hot water and soap, so that I might have "a
+thorough wash," as she called it, before putting on the clean clothes.
+Thus, through the kind hospitality of brother and sister alike, before
+the day was out, I was as thoroughly at home in the household as if--
+having stepped into the lost Teddy's shoes metaphorically as well as
+practically--I had lived there for years!
+
+It would take a volume for me to tell of all the kindness I received
+from these people, the brother and sister vying with each other in their
+endeavours to make me feel comfortable and at ease with them in my new
+home.
+
+Sam Pengelly, thinking it the right thing to do, wrote to Uncle George,
+informing him where I now was; and saying, that, if my relatives had no
+objection, he should like to be allowed to look after my future as if I
+were his own son.
+
+To this a reply soon came, to the effect that, as I had of my own will
+thrown away all the advantages that had been secured for me in putting
+me to a good school and holding out the offer of a situation afterwards
+in a merchant's office, my uncle "washed his hands of me" on account of
+my ungrateful and abandoned behaviour; and that, henceforth, he did not
+care what became of me, nor would he be answerable for my support!
+
+"That's a good 'un," said Sam Pengelly, as he read this.  "That cranky
+Aunt Matilda, you told me about, laddie, must ha' had a hand in this,
+sartin; for, perhaps you don't know that I've diskivered as your uncle
+drawed what they calls a `compassionate allowance' from My Lords of th'
+Admiralty for your keep all them years they starved you under their roof
+and pretended you was livin' on their charity!"
+
+Sam Pengelly looked quite fierce and indignant as he made this, to me,
+new revelation.
+
+"Really?"  I asked him, eagerly.
+
+"Yes, laddie, it's true enough, for I've taken the pains to find it out
+for a fact from a friend o' mine at head-quarters.  Th' Admiralty allers
+give an annual 'lowance for the support of the childer o' them officers
+as is killed in action, that is when their folks are left badly off; and
+some one must ha' put up your uncle to this, for he took precious good
+care to draw it every year you was along o' him."
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad!"  I exclaimed, joyfully.  "I only wish, though, I had
+known it before, so that I could have thrown it back in Aunt Matilda's
+teeth when she used to tell me that I was robbing her children of their
+bread every meal I took in the house, taunting me with being only a
+pauper!"
+
+"Never mind that now," said Sam Pengelly--quite his composed, calm,
+genial self again, after the little ebullition he had given way to on my
+behalf.  "Better let byegones be byegones.  It is a good sailin'
+direction to go upon in this world; for your cross old aunt will be
+sartin to get paid out some time or other for her treatment o' you, I'll
+wager!  Howsomedevers, I'm glad we've got that letter from your uncle,
+though.  You see, laddie, it cuts them adrift altogether from any claim
+on you; and now, if you be so minded, you can chuck in your lot with old
+Sam and his sister--that is, unless you want to sheer off and part
+company, and desart us?"
+
+"Oh no, I'll never do that if I can help it," I replied, earnestly.
+"Why, I did not know what it was to be happy and cared for till I met
+you, and you brought me here to your home.  I shall never willingly,
+now, leave you here--that is, except you want me to."
+
+"Then, that'll be never," said he, with an emphasis and a kindly smile
+that showed his were no empty words.
+
+Nor did they prove to be as time rolled on.
+
+For many months after that casual meeting of ours on the Hoe, which I
+little thought was going to lead to such happy consequences, the little
+cottage at Stoke was my home in winter and summer alike; when Nature was
+gay in her spring dress, and when dreary autumn came; although, it was
+never dreary to me, no matter what the season might be.
+
+In the summer months I used generally to accompany Sam in the short
+trading trips he made in a little foretopsail schooner--of which he was
+the registered owner, and generally took the command--when we would
+fetch a compass for Falmouth or Torquay, and other small western ports;
+between which places and Plymouth the schooner went to and fro when wind
+and weather permitted.
+
+Sometimes, tempted by the inducement that early potatoes and green peas
+were plentiful and cheap at Saint Mary's, Sam would venture out as far
+as the Scilly Isles; and once, a most memorable voyage, we made a round
+trip in the little craft to the Bristol Channel and back--facing all the
+perils of the "twenty-two fathom sandbank" off Cape Cornwall, with its
+heavy tumbling sea.
+
+This was not time wasted on my part; for I had not forgotten my ambition
+of being a sailor, and now, under Sam Pengelly's able tuition I was
+thoroughly initiated into all the practical details of seamanship,
+albeit I had not yet essayed life on board ship in an ocean-going
+vessel.
+
+Sam Pengelly said, that, at fourteen, I was too young to be apprenticed
+regularly to the sea, and that it would be much better for me to wait
+until I should be able to be of use in a ship, and get on more quickly
+in navigation.  Going to sea before would only be lost time, for I could
+gain quite as much experience of what it was necessary for me to know in
+the schooner along with him, until it was time for me to go afloat in
+real earnest.
+
+This was what my old friend advised; and, although he declared himself
+willing to forward my wishes should they go counter to his own views, I
+valued his opinion too highly to disagree with it, judging that his
+forty years' experience of the sea must have taught him enough to know
+better than I about what was best in the matter.
+
+My life, therefore, for the two intervening years, after I had run away
+from school and before I went actually to sea, was a very even and
+pleasant one--cut off completely, as it was, from all the painful past,
+and the associations of Aunt Matilda and Dr Hellyer's.  I had heard once
+from Tom, my whilom chum, it is true, telling me that his mother had
+persuaded him to go back to the Doctor's establishment, and that I
+should not have any further communication from him in consequence--which
+I didn't; and there was the one letter from Uncle George to Sam
+Pengelly, "washing his hands of me," which I have already alluded to.
+With these, however, all connection with my former existence ceased; and
+I can't say I regretted it, cherished as I now was in the great loving
+Cornish hearts of Sam and Jane Pengelly.
+
+Sam would not let my education be neglected, however.
+
+"No, no, laddie, we must keep a clear look-out on that," he often said
+to me.  "If I had only had eddication when I was in the sarvice, I'd ha'
+been a warrant officer with a long pension now, instead o' having a
+short one, and bein' 'bliged to trust to my own hands to lengthen it
+out.  If you wants to be a good navigator, you must study now when
+you're young; for arterwards it will be no use, and you may be as smart
+a sailor as ever handled a ship, and yet be unable to steer her across
+the ocean and take advantage of all the short cuts and currents, and so
+on, that only experienced seamen and those well up in book knowledge can
+know about."
+
+Acting on this reasoning, he got the master of a neighbouring school to
+give me after-time lessons in mathematics and geography; and, in the
+course of a few months, I was able to be inducted into the mysteries of
+great circle sailing and the art of taking lunars, much to the
+admiration of Sam, whom I'm afraid I often took a delight in puzzling
+with trigonometrical phrases that sounded full of portentous difficulty,
+albeit harmlessly easy.
+
+As time went on, although I was happy enough at the cottage, I was
+continually asking Sam if he had found me a ship yet, he having promised
+to "keep his eye open" and let me know as soon as he saw a good
+opportunity of placing me with some captain with whom I was likely to
+learn my nautical calling well and have a chance of getting on up the
+ladder; but, as regularly as I asked him the question, the old salt
+would give me the same stereotyped answer--"No, laddie, our ship's not
+got into port yet.  We must still wait for an offing!"
+
+But at last, after many days, this anxiously awaited "offing" was, much
+to my satisfaction, apparently thought within reach by my old friend.
+
+One morning I did not accompany him as usual into Plymouth after
+breakfast, where the old fellow regularly proceeded every morning--never
+feeling happy for the day unless he saw the sea before dinner.  I was
+busily engaged trimming up a large asparagus bed in the garden, wherein
+my adopted mother took considerable interest.
+
+I recollect the morning well.
+
+It was just at the beginning of summer, and the trees were all clothed
+in that delicately-tinged foliage of feathery green, which they lose
+later on in the season, while the ground below was covered with fruit
+blossoms like snowflakes, a stray blue flag or daffodil just springing
+up from the peaty soil, gleaming out amidst the vegetable wealth around,
+and the air perfumed with a delicious scent, of the wallflowers that
+were scattered about the garden in every stray nook and corner.
+
+Sam was late on his return.
+
+"Eight bells," his regular hour, had struck without his well-known voice
+being heard hailing us from the porch; and it was quite half-past twelve
+before the customary shout in the porch of the cottage told of his
+arrival, for I was keeping strict watch over the time, having been
+rendered extra hungry by my exertions in the garden--our dinner being
+postponed till the missing mariner came.
+
+However, "better late than never," says the old proverb; and here he was
+now--although as soon as I saw him I noticed from his face that
+something unusual and out-of-the-way had happened, his expression always
+disclosing if anything was on or in his mind, and being a sad tell-tale.
+
+He did not wait to let me ask, though.
+
+"Hullo!" he cried, as soon as he came into the kitchen-parlour, where
+the principal meal of the day was invariably partaken of, "I've got some
+news for you."
+
+"A ship?"  I said, questioningly.
+
+"Yes--an A1 too, my hearty."
+
+"Hurrah!"  I exclaimed--"Going a long voyage?"
+
+"To Callao and back again, on a round trip."
+
+"Better and better still," I said, in high glee, in which Sam Pengelly
+shared with a kindred feeling, while his sister put up her apron to her
+eyes, and began to cry at the idea of my going to sea.  "Is she a large
+vessel?"
+
+"Aye, aye, my cockbird.  A barque of a thousand tons, or more, and her
+name's the _Esmeralda_."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+SIGNING ARTICLES.
+
+"She's loading at Cardiff--cargo o' steam coals, I b'lieve, for some o'
+them Pee-ruvian men-o'-war out there," explained Sam, presently, when
+the first excitement occasioned by his announcement of the news had
+somewhat calmed down.  "It's lucky, laddie, as how the schooner's all
+ready for sailing, as I thought o' fetching down to Saint Mary's morrer
+mornin', arter some new taties; but the taties must wait now, and I
+fancy as how this arternoon tide'll sarve jest as well for us--the
+wind's right fair for the Lizard, too!"
+
+"What, Sam--you don't mean that, really?" exclaimed Jane Pengelly, not
+expecting such a hurried sending of me off to sea.  "Surely not so soon,
+my man, eh?"  She was almost breathless with grief and surprise.
+
+"Aye, but I do mean it," persisted he.  "The shep's a loadin' now, I
+tell you, and she oughter start on her v'yage in a fortnight's time at
+th' outside; and if you reckon as how we'll take a week to reach
+Cardiff, we'll ha' no time to lose, for, if the wind changes arter we
+rounds the Longships, we'll ha' all our work cut out to beat up the
+Bristol Channel, in time to see the lad comf'ably off!"
+
+"My, Sam! couldn't you take the train across country to Cardiff, when
+you'd all ha' more time for getting ready, and I could see to mending
+all the poor dearie's things before he goes for--it'll be the last sight
+I'll ever see of his blessed face?"
+
+Jane Pengelly said this timidly, wiping her eyes carefully, with each
+corner of her apron in turn; for, she well knew her brother's horror of
+the railway, and all conveyances--indeed, he disliked any mode of land
+travelling, save on foot, or "on Shank's mare," as he called it, which
+was the plan he invariably adopted for reaching such places which he
+could not get to by water.
+
+"Why, Jane, my woman," Sam indignantly rejoined; "your brains must all
+be a wool-gathering!  Catch me and the lad agoing by that longshore
+schreechin', smokin', ramshacklin' fire engine, when we can ha' a boat's
+sound plank under our foot, and sail over the sea in a nat'ral sort o'
+way, such as we're born to!  You're the last person to think as how Sam
+Pengelly 'd desart his colours and bringing-up, for to go over to such
+an outlandish way o' fetching the port for which he's bound!  No, Jane--
+I ain't angry, but I feels hurt a bit on the h'insinivation--but there,
+let it be.  We'll go round to Cardiff in the schooner, as is as smart a
+little craft for a passage boat as ere a one could wish to clap eyes on,
+though I says it as shouldn't, and we'll start, laddie, this arternoon,
+as soon as the tide sets down Channel; so, you'd better see after your
+traps, and stow your chest when dinner's over--and then, we'll get under
+weigh, and clear outwards!"
+
+Little dinner, however, was eaten that day at the cottage,
+notwithstanding the fact that Jane Pengelly, as a reward for my industry
+in making up and remoulding her asparagus bed, had concocted a favourite
+Cornish dish for our repast, y'clept a "Mevagissey pie"--a savoury
+compound consisting of alternate slices of mutton and layers of apples
+and onions cut into pieces, and symmetrically arranged, the whole being
+subsequently covered with a crust, pie-fashion, and then baked in the
+oven until well browned; when, although the admixture seems somewhat
+queer to those unused to a Cornish cuisine, the result is not by any
+means to be despised; rather is it uncommonly jolly!
+
+Generally, this dish would have been considered a _tour de force_ on the
+table, and not much left of it after our united knife and fork play when
+operations had once begun; but now, albeit Sam Pengelly made a feeble
+pretence of having a tremendous appetite, failing most ridiculously in
+the attempt, while his sister heaped up my plate, we were all too much
+perturbed in our minds to do justice to the banquet.  So it was that the
+Mevagissey pie, toothsome as it was, went almost untasted away, Jane
+removing the remains presently to the larder--that was, as she said, but
+I could not help noticing that she did not return afterwards to clear
+away the dinner things and make matters tidy in the kitchen, as was her
+regular custom when we had finished meals.
+
+I soon found out the reason of this, when, on going up shortly
+afterwards to my little room, I discovered the soft-hearted creature
+bending over the sea-chest which I had been presented with--in addition
+to her son Teddy's clothes and other property--"having a good cry," as
+she said in excuse for the weakness.
+
+From some cause or other, she had taken to me from the moment her
+brother Sam first brought me to the cottage, placing me in the vacant
+spot in her heart left by Teddy's early death, and I am sure my own
+mother, if she had lived, could not have loved me more.
+
+Of course I reciprocated her affection--how could I help it, when she
+and her brother were the only beings in the world who had ever exhibited
+any tenderness towards me?
+
+Strangely enough, however, she would never allow me to call her "mother"
+or "Mistress Pengelly," as I wanted to--thinking "Jane" too familiar,
+especially when applied by a youngster like myself to a middle-aged
+woman.
+
+No, she would not hear of my addressing her otherwise than by her
+Christian name.
+
+"If you calls me Missis anything, dearie, mind if I don't speak to you
+always as `Master Leigh'--that distant as how you won't know me," she
+said; so, as she always said what she meant, I did as she wished, and
+she continued to style me her "dearie," that being the affectionate pet
+name she had for me, in the same way as her brother Sam had dubbed me
+his "cockbird," when he first introduced himself to me on the Hoe, a
+mode of address which he still persisted in.
+
+I may add, by the way, to make an end of these explanations, that Jane
+Pengelly had married her first cousin on the father's side, as the
+matter was once elaborately made plain to me; consequently, she was not
+compelled, as most ladies are, to "change her name" when she wedded
+Teddy's sire, and still retained after marriage her ancestral
+patronymic--which was sometimes sported with such unction by her
+brother, when laying down the law and giving a decided opinion.
+
+Partings are sad things, and the sooner they are over the better.  So
+Sam thought too, no doubt, for he presently hailed us both to come down-
+stairs, as time was up, and a man besides waiting with a hand-truck to
+trundle my chest down to the quay in the Cattwater, off which Sam's
+little schooner was lying.
+
+Thereupon, Jane giving me a final hug, my chest was bundled below in a
+brace of shakes, and Sam and I, accompanied by the man wheeling the
+truck, were on our way down the Stoke Road towards Plymouth--a lingering
+glance which I cast behind, in order to give a farewell wave of the hand
+to my second mother, imprinting on my memory every detail of the little
+cottage, with its clematis-covered porch, and the bright scarlet
+geraniums and fuchsias in full bloom in front, and Jane Pengelly's
+tearful face standing out amidst the flowers, crying out a last loving
+"good-bye!"
+
+We reached the schooner in good time so as to fetch out of the Sound
+before the tide ebbed, and, after clearing the breakwater, as the wind
+was to the northward of east, Sam made a short board on the port tack
+towards the Eddystone, in order to catch the western stream--which
+begins to run down Channel an hour after the flood, when about six miles
+out or so from the land, the current inshore setting up eastwards
+towards the Start and being against us if we tried to stem it by
+proceeding at once on our true course.
+
+When we had got into the stream, however, and thus had the advantage of
+having the tideway with us, Sam let the schooner's head fall off; and
+so, wearing her round, he shaped a straight course for the Lizard,
+almost in the line of a crow's flight, bringing the wind nearly right
+aft to us now on the starboard tack as we ran before it.  We passed
+abreast of the goggle-eyed lighthouse on the point which marks the
+landfall for most mariners when returning to the English Channel after a
+foreign voyage, close on to midnight--not a bad run from Plymouth Sound,
+which we had left at four o'clock in the afternoon.
+
+It was a beautiful bright moonlight night, the sea being lighted up like
+a burnished mirror, and the clear orb making the distant background of
+the Cornish coast come out in relief, far away on our western bow.  The
+wind being still fair for us, keeping to the east-nor'-east, Sam brought
+it more abeam, bearing up so that he might pass between the Wolf Rock
+and the Land's End, striking across the bight made by Mount's Bay in
+order to save the way we would have lost if he had taken the inshore
+track, like most coasters--and, indeed, as he would have been obliged to
+do if it had been foggy or rough, which, fortunately for us, it wasn't.
+
+By sunrise next morning we had fetched within a couple of miles of the
+Longships; when, bracing round the schooner's topsail yard and sailing
+close-hauled, with the wind nearly on our bow, we ran for Lundy Island
+in the British Channel.
+
+I never saw any little craft behave better than the schooner did now,
+sailing on a bowline being her best point of speed, as is the case with
+most fore and aft rigged vessels.  She almost "ate into the wind's eye;"
+and, although the distance was over a hundred miles from the Longships,
+she was up to Lundy by nightfall, on this, the second day after leaving
+home.
+
+From this point, however, we had to beat up all the way to Cardiff, as
+the easterly wind was blowing straight down the Bristol Channel, and
+consequently dead in our teeth, as soon as we began to bear up.  It was
+a case of tack and tack about--first a long leg over to the Mumbles on
+the starboard tack, followed by a corresponding reach towards Dunkery
+Beacon on the port hand; backwards and forwards, see-saw, turn and turn
+about, until, finally, we rounded Penarth Heads, arriving at our
+destination on the afternoon of our fourth day from Plymouth.
+
+We got to Cardiff none too early, either.
+
+The _Esmeralda_ having completed loading in her cargo sooner than the
+owners had expected, had cast-off from the jetty and was now lying in
+the stream off the harbour.  She was quite ready to start on her voyage,
+and seemed longing to be on the move, for her topsails were hanging
+loose and the courses were in the brails, so that they could be let fall
+and sheeted home at a moment's notice.
+
+We could see this for ourselves, as we rounded close under the vessel's
+stern when running into the harbour; and further particulars of the
+ship's readiness to set sail we learnt at the agent's ashore, with whom
+Sam Pengelly had been in communication for some time, unknown to me,
+with reference to having me articled as a first-class apprentice in one
+of their best ships.  The good-hearted fellow, too, without my
+knowledge, although I learnt this later on, had entered into an
+agreement to pay a good round sum as a premium for me in order that I
+might have accommodation aft and mess with the officers.
+
+Sam enlightened me about some of these particulars, mentioning the
+arrangements he had made for my comfort, while we were making our trip
+round to the Bristol Channel in the schooner, our departure from the
+cottage having been too hurried for me to gain any information on the
+point, save the great fact of my being about to go to sea at last.  The
+reason for the delay in this, Sam now explained to me, was on account of
+the absence of the _Esmeralda_ on a long round voyage to the China seas
+and back, my worthy old friend having picked that vessel out from
+amongst the many that had put into Plymouth since I had been with him,
+and which he had overhauled for the special purpose in view, because of
+her staunch sailing qualities and the clipper-like cut of her lines,
+besides his personal knowledge that she was "commanded by a skipper as
+knew how to handle a shep," as he said, "so as a b'y might expect to
+larn somethin' under him," and he had therefore set his heart on my
+going in her.
+
+We had not now been long at the agent's, from the windows of whose small
+office we could see the barque riding at her moorings, before this
+identical gentleman came bustling in as if in a most desperate hurry.
+
+"Why, here he is!" ejaculated Sam aside to me as he entered, saying to
+the other as he took off his cap with one hand and shoved out his other
+fist in greeting, "Sarvent, sir, Cap'en Billings; how d'ye find yourself
+since we last met in Plymouth Sound?"
+
+"Oh, is that you, Pengelly?" responded the skipper of the _Esmeralda_
+cordially, accepting Sam's proffered hand and shaking it heartily, "I
+was just thinking of you and your boy--have you brought him with you?"
+
+"Aye, there's the b'y," replied Sam, pushing me forward affectionately,
+"and a right good straight up and down youngster you'll find him, Cap'en
+Billings, with all the makings of a sailor in him, I tell you, sure's my
+name's Sam Pengelly!"
+
+"Well, I'll take your word for that," laughed the other.
+
+He seemed to me at first sight a genial good-tempered man--with rough
+reddish hair and beard, and a pair of merry twinkling blue eyes; but I
+could also see, from a quick sharp look he threw over me, reckoning me
+up from top to toe, that he'd all his wits about him and was used to
+command.
+
+He looked like one of those sort of fellows that wouldn't be trifled
+with when roused.
+
+"I'm glad to see you, Leigh, and have you with me," he said to me,
+affably--although he didn't offer to shake hands, some distance lying
+between the position of a skipper and an apprentice.  "You're lucky to
+be just in time, though, for we're all ready to sail as soon as the tide
+serves for us to cross the outer bar and be off.  Got all the papers
+ready, Mr Tompkins?"
+
+"Yes, captain," replied the agent.  "Here they are; Leigh and Mr
+Pengelly have just signed them."
+
+"All right then.  If you'll come along with me over to the Marine
+Superintendent's office," said Captain Billings, to us two, "we'll have
+the signatures witnessed to these indenture articles; and then the
+thing'll be all settled, and the boy can come aboard at once."
+
+"Heave ahead, my hearty," replied Sam.  "We're both ready and willing;"
+and thereupon we all adjourned to the presence of the responsible
+official of the port entrusted with the supervision of all matters
+connected with the mercantile marine, in whose presence I was formally
+bound apprentice to the captain of the _Esmeralda_.
+
+These preliminaries duly arranged, Sam Pengelly had some further
+dealings of a private nature with the captain and agent, in which the
+chinking of gold coin had apparently a good deal to do; and then he and
+I, at the skipper's invitation, taking our seats in a boat that was
+lying by the side of the jetty started off for the _Esmeralda_, whither
+Sam had previously directed one of the schooner's men to have my sea-
+chest removed while we went on to the agent's.
+
+Really, I could not explain the mingled feelings of hope, joy, pride,
+and satisfaction, that had filled my breast at the thought that I was
+really going to sea, and having the darling wish of my heart at last
+gratified--my contentment much increased by my overhearing a whispered
+comment of my new captain to Sam Pengelly, that I "wasn't a pigeon-toed
+landsman, thank goodness!"  He said he could see that from the manner in
+which I put my feet on the side cleats, as I got out of the boat and
+swung myself up to the gangway.
+
+"Now at length," thought I, speaking of myself in Sam's fashion, as if I
+were some other person--"Martin Leigh you are going afloat at last!"
+
+And, although I was only an humble reefer in the merchant service, whose
+spick-and-span uniform of blue serge and gold-banded cap had never yet
+smelt salt water to christen them, I felt as proud on first stepping "on
+board the _Esmeralda_" as Nelson must have done, when standing on the
+quarter-deck of the _Victory_ and seeing her close with the Spanish
+fleet immediately after his famous signal was displayed--"England
+expects every man this day to do his duty!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+MAKING "WESTING."
+
+She was a fine-looking barque--as Sam had explained to me beforehand,
+when first telling me the news of his having secured a berth for me
+aboard her--with a good forecastle and clean run of deck aft to the
+poop, saving a small deck-house amidships, on a line with the cook's
+caboose, where were the separate cabins devoted to the use of the
+boatswain and carpenter.
+
+Captain Billings showed us over her, pointing out the special
+arrangements for the comfort of his officers; and then, much to my
+surprise, and to that of Sam as well, for that matter, although he had
+stipulated for good treatment on my behalf, the skipper said that I
+could have an empty bunk to myself, alongside of the boatswain's
+quarters.
+
+It was almost too good to be true!
+
+"Why, laddie, you'll be a blessed sight better off than if you were a
+middy aboard a man o' war!" said Sam, exultantly; but, whilst he was
+engaged showing me how to put my chest and stow my things, so as to be
+easily within reach and yet out of the way, in order not to encroach on
+the limited space at my command, our attention was drawn away from the
+consideration of such personal matters by the loud hail of Captain
+Billings ringing through the ship fore and aft--
+
+"All hands, make sail!"
+
+The pilot had come off from shore in the same boat with us; and, as the
+only thing the _Esmeralda_ had been awaiting was the water to rise
+sufficiently for her to cross the bar, Cardiff being a tidal harbour,
+now that it was approaching the flood, it was time to make ready for a
+start.  We were going to make a move "while the day was yet young," so
+to speak, for it was only about five o'clock yet in the afternoon.
+
+On hearing the skipper's cry, Sam and I at once made our way aft up the
+ladder on to the poop, where Captain Billings was standing, shouting out
+his orders, according to the directions of the pilot standing beside
+him--that gentleman, while in charge, being commanding officer, having
+the precedence of a captain even on board his own ship!
+
+I was all eagerness to assist, and anxious to enter on my duties; but
+the skipper motioned me aside, saying that he'd put me into a watch and
+give me regular work to do as soon as we had got fairly to sea, for he
+"didn't want any idlers hanging round them to encumber the men."  So,
+acting on the principle that "a nod was as good as a wink to a blind
+horse," I sheered over to the other side of the deck.  Here, Sam
+Pengelly was standing by the taffrail, and from this coign of vantage we
+both watched with much interest the operation of getting the ship under
+weigh.
+
+The vessel's topsails, as I have mentioned before, were already cast
+loose from the gaskets and her courses hung in the brails, while she was
+lying in the stream, heading almost due south and facing the entrance of
+the harbour, into which the tide was still running and, consequently,
+keeping her cable as taut as a fiddle-string; but now, on the captain's
+command causing the hands to man the topsail halliards and run up the
+yards to the mast-head, the ponderous folds of canvas expanded with the
+wind, which was still to the nor'-east and blowing from aft, and the
+ship, in spite of the incoming tide, surged up to her anchor, bringing
+it right under her fore foot, thus slackening the strain on the cable.
+
+Another party of the crew, meanwhile, under the superintendence of the
+boatswain, had manned the windlass, bringing in the cable slack with a
+"slip-slap" and "click-clack" of the pall, as the winch went round, the
+moment the skipper's warning cry, "Hands up anchor," was heard from aft.
+
+"Hove short, sir," then sang out the boatswain.
+
+"Up with it, then, men," returned the skipper; and in another minute,
+for we were only in some six-fathom water, the anchor-stock showed
+itself above the surface and was run up to the cathead.
+
+Now, free from the ground, the bows of the vessel began to rise and fall
+as she curtsied politely to the stream, which was just on the turn,
+preparing to bid adieu to Cardiff harbour; so, Captain Billings himself
+jumped from where he had been standing, by the pilot's side, to the
+wheel, making the spokes rapidly fly round until the helm was hard up,
+putting the ship before the wind and steering towards the mouth of the
+harbour ahead.
+
+"Sheet home!" was the next order; and, with a "yo-heave-ho," the clews
+of the topsails were hauled out to the end of the yards, while the
+clewgarnet blocks rattled as the main sheet was brought aft; then, the
+yards were braced round a bit to the starboard and the vessel headed out
+into the Channel, with the wind on her quarter, on the port tack.
+
+"Hoist away the jib!" shouted out Captain Billings, on this much being
+achieved; when the _Esmeralda_ began to gather way, the bubbles now
+floating past astern as she commenced to move through the water--at
+first slowly, and then with more speed, as the sails, already set,
+filled and drew.
+
+"Look smart there, men, and run away with those halliards," echoed the
+mate, repeating the captain's order anent the jib; and the _Esmeralda_,
+being now well under control of her helm, a picked hand came aft to take
+Captain Billings' place at the wheel, of which he had retained charge
+until now, while another man was put in the main chains with the lead,
+heaving it at intervals and chanting out the soundings in a monotonous
+sing-song drawl of "By the mark, four," and so on, until we reached six-
+fathom water, and then "The deep nine!"
+
+All this time we had been heading over to the Somersetshire shore; but
+when we were a couple of miles or so out from Cardiff, the pilot told
+the skipper that it was time to come about, as we had got into the
+proper fairway of the Channel and our course now should be west instead
+of south.
+
+Captain Billings didn't need a second hint as to what he should do.
+
+"Hands 'bout ship!" he roared out the instant the pilot had spoken, the
+mate and boatswain repeating as before the order after him in turn, and
+the man at the wheel putting down the helm instanter.
+
+"Helm's a lee!" shouted the skipper, the head sheets being let go as he
+spoke, and the jib flattened on the vessel going into stays.
+
+"Raise tacks and sheets!" and the fore-tack and main sheets were cast-
+off, while the weather main brace was hauled taut.
+
+"Mainsail haul!" was the next order; when, on the heavy yard swinging
+round, the _Esmeralda_ came up to the wind slowly, as if casting a long,
+lingering farewell look at the Welsh coast, in deep regret at leaving
+it.
+
+The head yards were then braced round, the fore-tack boarded, and the
+mainsheet hauled aft; after which the spanker was set, and the men sent
+aloft to loosen the topgallant sails, the yards of which had been
+crossed while we were still at anchor, so as to be ready when wanted.
+The ship then filled away again on the port tack, starting off with
+renewed speed, in a due west direction now, down the Bristol Channel,
+with the wind, which was on her beam, blowing at the rate of about an
+eight-knot breeze.
+
+"We've made a good start, Pengelly," said Captain Billings, coming up to
+where we were still standing, rubbing his hands cheerfully together and
+seemingly much at ease now that we were well under way.  "It isn't often
+one gets a nor'-east wind at this time of year, hereabouts, and when we
+do chance upon it, why, there's no use in wasting it."
+
+"Sartinly not, Cap'en Billings," responded Sam; "them's jest my
+sentiments!  I suppose as you'll be a'most out of the Channel by
+mornin', if the wind holds?"
+
+"Aye, we ought to be off Ilfracombe soon after sunrise, the pilot says.
+Will you like to go ashore when we drop him there, eh?"
+
+"That'll do nicely, Cap'en," replied Sam.  "I only jest wanted for to
+see the last of the b'y, and I s'pected as how you'd land your pilot
+thereabout or at Bideford, where I told the man in charge o' my schooner
+to call in for me; but it don't matter much where I get ashore."
+
+"All right then," said Captain Billings; "so, now, as the ship's going
+on at a spanking rate, with no danger ahead and in charge of the pilot,
+suppose you and the lad come down to the cabin along with me and have a
+bit of something to eat, for it's getting late?  I dare say the
+steward'll find us some grub somewhere, though it's rather early in the
+voyage for regular meals."
+
+So saying, the skipper dived down the poop ladder, we two after him,
+when we found a well-spread table below, the sight of which pleased Sam
+as much as the appearance of my bunk--although, mind you, only on
+account of his interest in me, as there wasn't a bit of the gourmand
+about him.
+
+"See, my laddie," said he, nudging me, and speaking in a whisper.  "The
+cap'en ain't a going to starve you!"
+
+When we got on deck again, after a hearty meal, the sun had set and the
+evening was closing in; but, it was bright and clear overhead and the
+twinkling Nash lights, two white and one red, by Saint Donat's Castle,
+were well away to windward on the starboard hand.
+
+Although there was no necessity whatever for my keeping up, I was too
+much excited to turn in, even for the purpose of seeing how snug my new
+quarters were; so, Sam keeping me company, in order to have as much of
+me as he could--for the time was now approaching for our parting--he and
+I paced the poop all night, talking of all sorts of things, and planning
+out a wonderful future when I should be captain of a ship of my own.
+
+Early in the morning watch, the wind lulled down to a gentle breeze, as
+it frequently does in summer before sunrise.  This checked the ship's
+rate of speed through the water considerably, so staying our progress
+that, instead of our arriving off Ilfracombe close on to daylight, as
+Captain Billings had sanguinely reckoned, it was long past eight bells
+and the hour of breakfast, to which we were both again invited into the
+cabin, before we neared the headland marking the bay sufficiently for us
+to heave to and signal for the pilot's boat to come off and fetch him.
+
+We were not long detained, however.
+
+Hardly had the _Esmeralda's_ main-topsail been backed, ere a smart
+little cutter came sailing out towards us, with the familiar "P" and her
+number displayed on her spanker; so Sam hastened to bid his last
+farewell to me, making ready to accompany the pilot ashore.
+
+"Good-bye, my cockbird," said he, wringing my hand with a grip that made
+it wince again, a tremble the while in his voice and something
+suspiciously like a tear in his eye.  "Keep honest, and do your duty,
+and never forget your father, laddie, nor old Sam Pengelly, who'll be
+right glad to see you again when you return from this v'yage!"
+
+"Good-bye, and God reward you, Sam, for all your kindness to me," I
+returned, almost breaking down, and having to exercise all my self-
+command in order not to make an exhibition of myself before my new
+shipmates.  "I'll be certain to come and see you and Jane the moment I
+touch English ground again."
+
+"All right, my hearty, fare thee well," said he, stepping into the boat
+of the pilot after that worthy, while the _Esmeralda's_ sails were let
+fill again on the vessel resuming her course down the Bristol Channel;
+but, as I bent over the taffrail, and waved my hand to Sam for the last
+time, I could hear his parting hail in the distance, sounding as loud
+almost as if he were alongside.
+
+"Good-bye, my laddie, and good luck to the _Esmeralda_ on her v'yage.
+Cap'en Billings, remember the b'y!"
+
+"Aye, aye, my hearty, so I will," shouted out the skipper, cordially.
+"Good luck to you, Pengelly!" and then the pilot made in for the land,
+and the ship's yards were squared.  The royals were soon afterwards sent
+aloft, the wind having sprung up again steadily, still from the nor'-
+east, as the tide began to make, and we ran now before it, almost
+sailing free, so as to pass to the southwards of Lundy Island and
+weather Hartland Point, on our way out into the open sea.
+
+Captain Billings, seeing the wind so favourable, instead of hugging the
+land, determined to make all the westing he could at this the very
+outset of our voyage, in order to avoid the cross currents hanging about
+the chops of the Channel, and off the Scilly Isles--which frequently,
+when aided by the contrary winds they engender, drive a ship on to the
+French coast, and into the Bay of Biscay, thus entailing a lot of
+beating up to the northwards again to gain a proper westerly course.
+
+Under these circumstances, therefore, my skipper, who I could see thus
+early "had his head," as they say, "screwed on straight," taking his
+point of departure from Lundy, and so bidding farewell to the land which
+he didn't intend approaching again for the next few weeks if he could
+help it, kept a straight course by the compass due west for twenty-four
+hours, by the end of which time, and this was about noon on our second
+day out, we had cleared the Scilly Islands, passing some twenty leagues
+to the northward of the Bishop's Rock.  We were now well in with the
+Atlantic Ocean, and pursued the same direction, right before the wind,
+until we reached the meridian of 12 degrees 15 minutes West, when we
+hauled round more to the southwards, shaping a course to take us well to
+the westward of Madeira.
+
+Before this, however--that is, on our first day out, shortly after we
+had cleared Lundy Island, and when Sam and the pilot and his cutter were
+out of sight, and the ship clear of "strangers"--Captain Billings called
+a muster of all hands aft, when he divided the crew into two watches,
+officered respectively by the first and second mates.
+
+The "complement," as they say in the Royal Navy, of the _Esmeralda_, I
+may as well state here, consisted of the skipper, Captain Billings; the
+two mates, one occupying the proud position of "chief of the staff," and
+the other being merely an executive officer of little superior grade to
+one of the foremast hands; a boatswain, carpenter, sail-maker, cook,
+steward, and eighteen regular crew--the vessel, on account of her being
+barque-rigged, not requiring such a number of men in proportion to her
+tonnage as would have been necessary if she had been fitted as a ship,
+with yards and squaresails on the mizen-mast.
+
+When apportioning out the hands to their several officers, Captain
+Billings assigned me to the starboard watch, under charge of the second
+mate, telling the boatswain at the same time to "keep an eye upon me,"
+so as to have me thoroughly initiated into the practical part of my
+profession.
+
+I had not observed this latter individual previously, he having been
+employed forwards while I had been mostly on the poop ever since I had
+come on board the ship; now, however, that the skipper thus specially
+entrusted me to his care, I looked across the deck, when I noticed that
+his face seemed strangely familiar to me, although I could not exactly
+say how and where I had seen him before, although I puzzled my head in
+vain to guess who he was.
+
+But, my quandary did not last very long; for, on Captain Billings
+dismissing the men after the full-dress parade he had held on the
+quarter-deck, the boatswain came up to me with a genial grin on his
+hairy face.
+
+"Hullo, Master Leigh," said he, "Who'd a' thought of us two meeting
+ag'in like this?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE.
+
+"What!"  I exclaimed, in much amazement.  "Is it really you, Jorrocks?
+I can hardly believe my eyes!"
+
+"Aye, aye, it's me sure enough," replied my old ally of the _Saucy
+Sall_, shaking hands with great heartiness, as if he were really glad to
+see me again under such altered circumstances.  "It's me sure enough,
+Master Leigh--that is, unless I've got some double of a twin brother, as
+like me as two peas, a-sailing round in these latitudes!"
+
+There could be no question of his identity after I had once heard the
+tones of his well-remembered voice; but the beard which he had allowed
+to grow since I had last seen him had so completely altered the
+expression of his face, or rather indeed its entire appearance, that
+there was some excuse for my not recognising him at the moment.
+
+Jorrocks, however, he was without doubt; and, I need hardly say that I
+was quite as much pleased at this unexpected meeting as he seemed to
+be--albeit the sight of him, when I realised the fact that it was really
+himself and heard his cheery familiar accents, brought back in an
+instant to my mind the scene on board the coal brig that eventful day
+when the _Saucy Sall's_ surly skipper discovered that Tom and I had
+stolen a march on him, and treated us each to a dose of his sovereign
+specific for stowaways!
+
+"How is it, though, Jorrocks, that you've abandoned the brig?"  I asked
+him presently, when we had got over our mutual surprise at thus meeting
+in such an unlooked-for fashion.  "I thought you were a fixture there,
+and didn't know you were a regular sailor--I mean one accustomed to sea-
+going ships like this?"
+
+I said this with much dignity, being greatly impressed with the
+responsibility of my new position; and I'm sure I must have spoken as if
+I were a post captain at least, addressing some subordinate officer!
+
+Jorrocks, however, took my patronage in good part, although I could
+detect a faint cock of his eye, denoting sly amusement at my ridiculous
+assumption of superiority.  This he now proceeded to "take down a peg"
+in his roundabout way.
+
+"Why, bless you, Master Leigh, I sailed as able seaman in a China
+clipper afore you were born, and when I were that high!" he replied,
+laughing, putting his hand about a foot above the deck to illustrate his
+approximate stature at the period referred to, and representing himself
+to be at that time certainly a very diminutive son of Neptune.
+
+"You must have been very young, then," said I, a little bit nettled at
+his remark--thinking it a slur on my nautical experience, so bran-new as
+that was!
+
+But Jorrocks went on as coolly as if I had not cast a doubt on the
+veracity of his statement concerning his early commencement of sailor
+life.
+
+"Aye, aye," he answered, quite collectedly, "I grant I were young, but
+then you must rec'lect, my lad, I got the flavour o' the sea early in a
+lighthouse tower, where I was born and brought up, my father having the
+lantern to mind; and, since then, I've v'y'ged a'most to every part you
+could mention, and shipped in a'most every kind of craft, from an East
+Indyman down to a Yarmouth hoy.  Bless you!  I only took to the coasting
+line two or three years ago, when you and I first ran foul of each
+other; and the reason for my doing that was in cons'quence of my getting
+spliced, and the missus wanting me to take a 'longshore berth.
+Howsomedevers, I couldn't stand it long, being once used to a decent
+fo'c's'le in a proper sort of vessel v'y'ging o'er the seas in true
+shipshape fashion; and so, I parted company with the brig and came
+aboard the _Esmeralda_ eighteen months ago come next July--a long spell
+for a sailor to stick to one ship without changing, but then Cap'en
+Billings 's a good sort, and he made me boatswain o' the craft last
+v'y'ge but one, so I hopes to remain with him longer still."
+
+"You like him, then?"  I said, tentatively, looking him straight in the
+face.
+
+"Oh, aye--first-class," replied Jorrocks to my implied question, with
+much seriousness, "He's not only a good skipper--as good as they make
+'em, treating the hands as if they were men, and not dogs--but he's a
+prime seaman, and knows what's what in a gale, better nor most I've ever
+sailed with.  Howsomedevers, he'll stand no nonsense; and when he puts
+his foot down, you may as well give up, as you might sooner soft-sawder
+a trenail into a two-inch plank as get over him and shirk your duty!
+The old man, easy-going when you take him right, is as stiff as a
+porkypine when you runs foul of his hawse; so, you'd better not try on
+any o' them pranks o' yours you told me you and your messmate played off
+on your old schoolmaster, for Cap'en Billings has cut his eye teeth, my
+hearty."
+
+"Why, I wouldn't dream of such a thing," I exclaimed, indignantly, "what
+Tom and I did to Dr Hellyer was quite different, and served him right
+for his cruelty."
+
+"Aye, aye, that may be accordin' to your notion," said Jorrocks,
+sententiously; "but that schoolmaster were the skipper of his own ship,
+the same as Cap'en Billings is here aboard this here craft, and it ain't
+right to trifle with them as is set in authority over us!"
+
+I can't tell what I might have replied to this appropriate little sermon
+that Jorrocks delivered about the mischievous and dangerous trick that
+Tom and I conspired together to commit, and which I have often
+subsequently reflected might have led to the most disastrous
+consequences, and perhaps injured the Doctor for life; but, at that
+moment, Captain Billings, seeing my old friend and I chatting together,
+came over to leeward, where we were standing.
+
+"Hullo, boatswain!" he shouted out, "making friends with the youngster,
+eh?"
+
+"Why, bless you, Cap'en Billings," answered Jorrocks, touching his cap,
+"he and I are old shipmates."
+
+"Indeed!  I had no idea of his having been at sea before," said the
+skipper, apparently very much astonished at this news.
+
+"Oh, aye, sir, he has," returned my old friend, glad to be able to put
+in a good word for me, as he thought, after the little lecture he had
+just given me.  "He was on board a coal brig with me two years ago, a
+coasting craft that plied up along shore to Noocastle and back; and
+you'll find him no green hand, Cap', but a smart able chap, one that'll
+get out to the weather earing when there's a call to reef topsails
+sooner than many a full-grown seaman, for he knows his way up the
+rigging."
+
+"I'm very glad to hear that," said the skipper, turning to me, with an
+affable smile that lighted up his twinkling blue eyes.  "When Sam
+Pengelly told me you were a capable lad, of course, I naturally took his
+opinion to proceed more from personal bias than practical comment on
+your seamanship; but, now that I learn from Jorrocks here, on more
+independent testimony, that you're no novice on board ship and have
+already mastered the rough rudiments of your profession in the best way
+possible--that of having been before the mast as a regular hand--why,
+you'll be able to get on all the faster, and be able to command the deck
+by-and-by on your own hook.  How are you up in navigation, eh?"
+
+"I can take the sun, sir," said I, modestly, not wishing to blow my own
+trumpet.
+
+"Anything else?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I can work out a reckoning, I believe," I answered.
+
+"Ha, humph, pretty good!  I'll try you by-and-by, Leigh," said Captain
+Billings, turning aside for the moment to order the port watch to give
+one extra pull to the weather braces--"mind and bring out your sextant
+when you see me on deck at eight bells.  I suppose you've got one in
+your chest, eh?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir, Sam Pengelly gave me one," I replied, and the skipper then
+went into the cabin while Jorrocks and I resumed our interrupted
+conversation.
+
+My old friend took advantage of the opportunity to put me up to a good
+many wrinkles concerning my fellow-shipmates.
+
+The mate, Mr Macdougall, who was a tall, hatchet-faced Scotsman, with
+high cheek-bones and a very prominent nose--Jorrocks told me, in
+confidence--was a tight-handed, close-fisted, cross-tempered man, ever
+fond of displaying his authority and working the hands to death, under
+the plea of preventing their idling or "hazing," as he called it.
+
+"I advise you not to get into a row with him, Mister Leigh, if so as you
+can help it; 'cause, once a chap falls foul of him in any way, he
+neversomedevers by no chance forgets or forgives it, nohow."
+
+"I shan't give him the chance," I answered to this, with a laugh.  "I
+suppose he doesn't think himself greater than the captain!"
+
+"Ah, you just wait a bit 'fore you decide that p'int.  The first mate
+aboard a marchint ship is a sight more powerful than a judge on the
+bench, as you'll find out!  The skipper allers tells him what he wishes,
+and the mate sees to its being done, an' it depends what sorter fellow
+_he_ is, and not on the cap'en, as to how matters go on when a vessel's
+at sea; for, it's in his power for to make things pleasant like and all
+plain sailing, or else to cause the crew for to smell brimstone afore
+their time, I tell you!  That Macdougall, now, though you laugh in that
+light-hearted way, ain't to be trifled with, Mister Leigh, I warn you;
+and if you go for to raise his dander ag'in you, why, you won't find it
+worth grinning at, that's sartin, for he's as nasty as he's spiteful,
+and every man Jack of us hates him like pizen, and wishes he were out of
+the ship.  The skipper, I knows, wouldn't have him aboard if he could
+have his own way, but he's some connection of the owners, and he can't
+help himself."
+
+"All right, Jorrocks, I'll try and steer clear of him," I said, trying
+to look grave, for I saw the old sailor was in earnest, and only
+speaking for my good.  "I will endeavour to do my duty, and then he
+won't have any occasion to find fault with me."
+
+"Ah, but you'll have to do more than that; for, like most of them uppish
+chaps, if you don't truckle under to him and purtend as how he's the
+Lord Mayor, he's safe to be down on you."
+
+"I'm not going to crawl under any man's feet, first mate or no first
+mate!"  I said, proudly.  "Why, I'm a first-class apprentice, and the
+captain has rated me as third officer in the ship's books."
+
+"Now, Mister Leigh, don't you go on for being bumptious, now, my lad!"
+replied Jorrocks, laughing heartily at my drawing myself up on my
+dignity.  "A third officer or `third mate,' as we calls him, has a dog's
+berth aboard a ship if he doesn't lend his hand to anything and button
+to the first mate!  You needn't go for to really humble yourself afore
+that Macdougall; I only meant you to purtend like as how you thinks him
+a regular top-sawyer, and then you'll sail along without a chance of a
+squall--Mr Ohlsen, the second mate, in charge o' your watch, is an
+easy-going chap, and you'll get on well enough with him."
+
+"All right," I said in response, as if agreeing with his advice; but I
+formed my own resolution as to how I would treat the Scotsman should he
+try to bully me unjustly.
+
+He would find no cringe in me, I vowed!
+
+The rest of my shipmates, Jorrocks then went on to tell me, were a very
+jolly set of fellows, forming as good a crew as he'd ever sailed with--
+fit for anything, and all able seamen "of the proper sort."
+
+Haxell, the carpenter, he said, was a quiet, steady-going, solemn sort
+of man, with no nonsense about him, who kept himself to himself; while
+Sails, the sail-maker, whom I have omitted mentioning in his proper
+place as one of the officers ranking after the boatswain, was a cheery
+chap, who could sing a good song on Saturday night in the fo'c's'le;
+but, the life of the crew, Jorrocks said, was Pat Doolan, the cook, an
+Irishman, as his name would imply.  He was always ready to crack a joke
+and "carry on" when there was any skylarking about, besides willing to
+lend a hand at any time on a pinch.  Jorrocks told me "to mind and be
+good friends with Pat," if it were only for the sake of the pannikin of
+hot coffee which it was in his power to dispense in the early morning
+when turning out on watch in the cold.
+
+"Ah, you were not born yesterday, Jorrocks!"  I said, when he imparted
+this valuable bit of information to me, as one of the state secrets of
+the fo'c's'le.
+
+"No, Mister Leigh," he answered, with a meaning wink; "I've not been to
+sea, twenty year more or less, for nothing, I tell you."
+
+The steward--to complete the list of those on board--was a flabby half-
+and-half sort of Welshman, hailing from Cardiff but brought up in
+London; and, as he was a close ally of the first mate, I need hardly say
+he was no favourite either of my friend Jorrocks, or with the crew
+generally--all the hands thinking that he skimped the provisions when
+serving them out, in deference to Mr Macdougall's prejudices in the way
+of stinginess!
+
+The _Esmeralda_, therefore, carried twenty-seven souls in all of living
+freight, including the skipper and my valuable self, besides her
+thousand tons of coal or so of cargo; we on board representing a little
+world within ourselves, with our interests identical so long as the
+voyage lasted.
+
+While Jorrocks and I were talking in the waist of the ship to leeward, I
+observed the first mate, Mr Macdougall--who had the forenoon watch, and
+was in charge of the vessel for the time--approach close to the break of
+the poop, and stop in his walk up and down the deck once or twice, as if
+he were on the point of hailing us to know what we were palavering
+about; but something seemed to change his intention, so he refrained
+from calling out, as I expected, although he glowered down on Jorrocks
+and I, with a frown on his freckly sandy-haired face, "as if he could
+eat us both up without salt," as the boatswain said, on my pointing out
+the mate's proximity.
+
+I believe Mr Macdougall took a dislike to me from the first; and the
+skipper's apparent favour did not subsequently tend to make him
+appreciate me any the better, I could see later on.
+
+That very day, shortly before noon, when Captain Billings came out of
+his cabin with his sextant, and found me all ready for him with mine, in
+obedience to his order, I heard Mr Macdougall utter a covert sneer
+behind the skipper's back respecting me.
+
+"Hoot, mon," he said aside to Ohlsen, the second mate--"Old son of a
+gun" as the men used to call him, making a sort of pun on his name--"the
+old man's setting up as dominie to teach that bairn how to tak' a sight,
+you ken; did you ever see the like?  These be braw times when gentlefolk
+come to sea for schoolin', and ship cap'ens have to tak' to teachin'
+'em!"
+
+Ohlsen didn't reply to this save by a grunt, which might have meant
+anything, but I was certain Macdougall was trying to turn me into
+ridicule.
+
+Captain Billings, however, did not overhear the remark; and proceeded to
+test my accuracy with the sextant, making me take the angle of the sun
+and that of the distant land on the port bow.  He was delighted when,
+afterwards, I had worked out my calculations, based on the sight taken
+of the sun's altitude, and, deducting the difference of the ship's mean
+time from that observed, found out that our true position on the chart
+was very nearly 50 degrees 55 minutes 20 seconds North and 4 degrees 50
+minutes 55 seconds West, or about ten miles to the south-west of
+Hartland Point on the Devonshire coast.  It was all a labour of love,
+however, for the land was still within reach, and we had not long taken
+our "point of departure;" while soundings could still be had, if we
+wished, in thirty fathom water; so, there was no necessity for our
+taking an observation so early in the voyage.  The skipper only did it
+to test my knowledge, and he was perfectly satisfied with the result
+apparently.
+
+"Why, Macdougall," he said to the Scotsman, who was waiting by with an
+air of ill-concealed triumph on his face, hoping to hear of my failure
+to work out the reckoning, "he's a better navigator than you are!"
+
+This, you may be certain, did not please the mate, who muttered
+something of it's "all being done by guess work."
+
+But the skipper wouldn't have this at any price.
+
+"No, no, Macdougall," he replied, quickly, "it's all fair and square
+calculation, such as I couldn't have managed at his age;" then, turning
+to me, he added, kindly, "you stick to it, my lad, and you'll beat us
+all with the sextant before we get to Callao!"
+
+The captain desired me, also, to work out the ship's reckoning each day
+and to keep a log, the same as the first mate had to do, which that
+individual resented as a sort of check exercised upon him, and hated me
+accordingly.  As I afterwards found out, he was an extremely bad
+navigator, and ignorant of all the newest methods, such as Sumner's, for
+shortening calculation, consequently, he was afraid of his errors being
+discovered too easily if his log should be compared every day with mine.
+
+Unaware of all these kindly feelings towards me, Captain Billings filled
+up the measure of Mr Macdougall's wrath by inviting me to come into the
+cabin to dine with him that day at six bells, instead of waiting until
+the termination of Ohlsen's watch, and go in with him to the "second
+table," as it was termed, after the skipper and first mate had finished
+their repast--such being the etiquette in merchant ships.
+
+Macdougall almost boiled over with anger when he heard the skipper ask
+me.  His freckled face looked just like a turkey's egg--boiled!
+
+"Vara weel, vara weel, Cap'en Billings," said he, with a mock deference
+that little disguised his rage: "but I'd ha'e you to know that I didn't
+ship aboard here to mess wi' 'prentice lads."
+
+The skipper fired up in an instant, a light darting from his blue eyes
+which one would not have thought their liquid depths capable of.
+
+"And I would have you to know, Mr Macdougall," he retorted, quickly,
+uttering every word, however, with distinct emphasis, "that I'm captain
+of my own ship, and shall ask whom I please to my table.  Steward," he
+added, calling out to that worthy, who was just sauntering by into the
+cabin from the cook's galley with a covered dish in his hands, "lay a
+plate and knife and fork for Mr Leigh; and bear in mind that he dines
+with me every day when his duties allow!"
+
+"Aye, aye, sir," replied Owen Williams, proceeding on into his pantry
+with his dish, and I followed the skipper into the cabin shortly
+afterwards.
+
+This was undoubtedly a blow to the mate, as I thought, sniggering over
+the little episode at the time; but, Mr Macdougall did not forget the
+fact of my having been the occasion of his getting a "dressing down"
+from the skipper, and he debited it carefully in his account against me,
+determining to pay me out for it on the first convenient opportunity--a
+resolution that was carried out quite soon enough for me, as you will
+presently learn!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+IN THE HORSE LATITUDES.
+
+At noon on our second day out, running right before the north-east by
+east wind all the while and making but little southing, with our royals
+and studding-sails set, and everything that could draw--the _Esmeralda_
+averaging nearly ten knots an hour every time we hove the log from the
+time of our clearing the Bristol Channel--we had reached the meridian of
+12 degrees 15 minutes west; for Captain Billings wisely took advantage
+of such a favourable breeze, as I've remarked before, to get well to
+windward of the French coast, knowing well that we might shortly meet
+with westerly winds of a variable nature that would probably put us
+quite as far to the eastward as we should want--in the event of our
+making too much westing.
+
+However, having now gained such a good offing, we hauled our wind, and
+steered a west-sou'-west course, as previously mentioned, towards
+Madeira.
+
+Up to this time we had not started a brace, or loosed a sheet, the wind
+being fair from aft while we were steering to the west, and now well
+abeam, on our bearing up to the southward on the port tack; but, we had
+hardly made a couple of days' sail in our new direction, running down to
+the parallel of 45 degrees north, which we crossed in 15 degrees west,
+before the wind began to come in light puffs.  Shortly afterwards, it
+shifted round to the westward, backing occasionally to the east and
+south-east and causing us plenty of work in the way of tacking, first to
+starboard, and then to port again--the skipper striving all the while to
+keep all the westing he had made, and preserve a diagonal course for the
+Line; although the set of the Gulf Stream, in towards the coast of
+Portugal, gave us a lot of leeway to add to our dead reckoning.
+
+What with the baffling breezes and occasional calms, it took us another
+four days to get to the southwards of the Azores, passing them much
+further to the eastwards than Captain Billings had calculated on; but
+then a fresh wind sprang up from the north-west, bidding fair to last,
+which took us down to the thirty-fifth parallel in fine style, the
+_Esmeralda_ covering over three hundred miles between the morning of one
+day and noon the next.
+
+All hands now began hoping we were going to make a quick run of it after
+all, in spite of the tedious delays of the last few days; but it was a
+very fallacious hope, as we quickly found out.
+
+The favourable north-wester lasted another twelve hours, driving us down
+our latitudes on the starboard tack, the ship sailing pretty free, with
+the wind nearly abeam and all her canvas set that could draw, racing
+through the water like a crack cutter at a regatta; when, on the evening
+of our eleventh day out, by which time we had nearly reached the
+parallel of Madeira, although forty miles or so to the westward of the
+island, the breeze failed us all of a sudden, just close on to midnight,
+a dead calm setting in, accompanied by a heavy rolling swell.
+
+"Ah," said Jorrocks, who was sharing the first watch with me--Mr
+Ohlsen, the second mate, being ill and excused from duty--"we're now in
+the Hoss Latitudes, Mister Leigh, and may know what we've got to
+expect!"
+
+"Horse Latitudes?"  I repeated after him, inquiringly, thinking he was
+having a little joke at my expense, and taking advantage of my
+ignorance.
+
+"Aye, I ain't trying to bamboozle you, my lad!  They calls them so,
+'cause, in the old days, the West India traders that carried out hosses
+to the Windward Islands had frequently to throw 'em overboard during the
+shifts of wind and changes they had when they got hereabouts; for the
+weather can't be depended on for an hour at a time, it being calm, just
+as now, one minute, and the next a gale springing up strong enough to
+blow the masts out o' your ship 'fore you can let the sheets fly."
+
+"Oh!"  I exclaimed; "and, do you think there's any likelihood of a
+hurricane now?"
+
+"Can't say," replied Jorrocks, sententiously.  "We'd better give the
+skipper a hail; he left orders to be called if the wind dropped, or in
+case of any change."
+
+"All right," said I, turning to leave the poop.  "I will go down and
+rouse him at once, and I may as well knock up Mr Macdougall at the same
+time to relieve the deck, for it's past eight bells."
+
+"Aye, aye, do so, sir," responded the boatswain; so I hastened below to
+perform my mission, leaving him in charge until I returned.
+
+Captain Billings answered my call almost the instant I rapped at his
+door, coming from his cabin fully dressed, having turned in to his bunk
+"all standing," as if prepared for the summons; but the first mate was a
+heavy sleeper, and it took me more than ten minutes to rouse him, so
+that when I had gained the deck again the port watch had come on duty,
+the "starbowlines" having gone to their bunks as soon as relieved by the
+fresh hands.  Jorrocks, however, I noticed, remained still on the poop;
+and, knowing that he would not thus inconvenience himself by going
+without his proper "caulk," like the rest, unless there was some urgent
+reason--for he dearly loved his sleep when duty did not interfere with
+the indulgence--I stayed behind, too, the more especially as I
+remembered what he had said about there being the chance of a "blow."
+
+In the short time I had been away, a change was apparent, even to my
+unaccustomed eyes, unused as they were as yet to many nautical
+phenomena.
+
+The stillness of the atmosphere I had noticed when I quitted the deck to
+summon the skipper, had been succeeded by a series of light puzzling
+puffs of air; while, although the night was clear, with a few stars
+shining overhead, fleecy fragments of cloud were whirling about in
+eddies, some settling in heavy masses on the water and banking
+themselves round the horizon.
+
+But, the sea itself showed much the greatest sign of coming disturbance.
+The waves, no longer following each other in long heaving rollers, were
+curving upwards and jostling each other--like so many fiery coursers,
+suddenly thrown back on their haunches, by reason of being reined in
+when in the full burst of their mad career, and now champing their bits
+with angry impatience!
+
+There was, likewise, an alteration in the aspect of the ship.
+
+Captain Billings had already reduced his canvas, the topgallant sails
+having been taken in and the courses clewed up; and now, pretty nearly
+stripped of all her "drapery," like a gladiator entering the arena, the
+_Esmeralda_ appeared awaiting the issue of whatever decision the
+elements might arrive at--ready to take her part in the conflict should
+strife ensue between the opposing forces of the wind and waves; or, in
+the event of a contest being avoided through the disinclination of the
+storm fiend to "come to the scratch," equally prepared to spread her
+wings again and proceed on her voyage.
+
+"It's just a toss up now, whether we'll have it or not," whispered
+Jorrocks to me as we stood side by side together on the poop, watching
+the skipper, whose eyes were as intently riveted on the dog-vane at the
+main truck above.
+
+Just at this moment, Mr Macdougall came lazily sauntering up the poop
+ladder.  He did not see that Captain Billings was on deck; and, eyeing
+the change in the ship's appearance, exclaimed, angrily, with that
+Scottish burr of his, which was always more pronounced when he was
+excited--
+
+"Hoot, mon, wha' the dickens hae ye takken the sails off her--who
+ordered ye, I'd like ta ken?"
+
+He was addressing Jorrocks; but the skipper, who was annoyed by his late
+arrival to relieve the watch, answered him sharply--
+
+"I gave the order, Mr Macdougall, which you should have been up in time
+to have seen carried out; and, if you're a seaman and will just give a
+glance round, you'll soon see the reason why!"
+
+The first mate made no reply to this save to follow out the captain's
+suggestion of looking over the side; and what he saw there did not
+appear to give him any excuse for controverting the skipper's words;
+for, the clouds had now spread over the horizon--except to the
+southward, where it was still clear, and from which a short sharp gust
+of wind came every now and then, filling out the loose folds of the
+courses, and then, as it died away, letting them flap against the masts
+with a heavy dull sound as of distant thunder, an occasional streak of
+pale lightning darting across the sky to the north-west, where the
+heavens were most obscured, as if to bear out the illusion.
+
+"We're in for it now, for certain," said Captain Billings presently,
+noticing a faint stir in the air above amidst the whizzing clouds, the
+upper strata of which were going in a contrary direction to that in
+which the vane pointed, which was still to the south-east.  "Boatswain,
+rouse out the watch below!"
+
+Jorrocks thereupon immediately went forward towards the fo'c's'le,
+knocking with a marlinspike three times on the deck, and shouting out
+the well-known hail that every sailor knows but too well.
+
+"Tumble up there!  All hands shorten sail!"
+
+The men, who had hardly shifted their clothes and turned in, after being
+relieved by the port watch at eight bells, came tumbling up on deck
+hurriedly, and the skipper at once ordered the topsail and foresail to
+be reefed, spanker to be brailed up, and the main course furled; while
+the vessel was kept with her head to the southward, that is, as well as
+the cross sea and the fitful gusts of wind would allow, under her jib,
+fore and main-topsails and forecourse.
+
+Presently there was an ominous hum in the surrounding atmosphere, when
+the waves calmed down as if by magic; and then, a large rent disclosed
+itself in the sombre curtain of cloud to the north-west, the heavy
+masses of vapour that had been previously piling themselves along the
+horizon there and spreading up to the zenith falling back again and
+scurrying away in a retrograde direction, like skirmishers on a battle-
+field driven-in on to their supports by a rush of cavalry trying to cut
+them off.
+
+"Here it comes!" shouted out Captain Billings, ordering the hands at the
+same time to "stand by" the braces and topsail halliards; and, almost
+ere the crew could get to their respective posts, the clouds had
+disappeared, with what seemed a supernatural celerity from the heavens,
+letting the clear blue sky be seen again and the bright twinkling stars
+peep down to see what all the fuss was about, all being calm and easy up
+there!
+
+Thanks to the skipper's precautions, the outburst of the gale did not
+take the _Esmeralda_ aback, as would most probably have been the case if
+the first mate had been in charge of the deck, when we should have most
+likely lost our spars, if the vessel had not foundered, as frequently
+happens when a ship is caught unprepared; as it was, she only winced
+slightly, with a shiver through her frame, as the wind struck her on the
+quarter, the masts and yards creaking and the topsails expanding with a
+sound like that of an explosion as they were blown out to their fullest
+extent, almost jumping from the bolt-ropes, and then her hull lay over
+to leeward while she began to push through the water, driven along
+before the blast at racehorse speed.
+
+"Ease off those starboard braces there, and haul in to leeward?" cried
+out Captain Billings, directing the man at the wheel by a wave of his
+hand to put the helm down slightly, so as to bring her head more up to
+the wind; but this was more than the steersman could do unaided, the
+vessel--carrying out the analogy I recently used--resembling a vicious
+charger that had taken the bit between his teeth--so, Mr Macdougall at
+once sprang to help the steersman, when the two together managed, by
+exerting all their united strength, to jam the spokes round so that the
+ship's head was brought over to the south-west, bearing off then with
+the wind before the beam.
+
+The north-west gale was then blowing with tremendous force and
+increasing to the power of a hurricane each instant as it whistled
+through the cordage, wailing and shrieking like the lost souls in
+Dante's "Inferno."  The momentarily quiet sea, too, had got up again,
+and was now covered with huge broken waves--raised aloft in pyramids one
+moment, and the next scooped out into yawning valleys, into which the
+vessel plunged, with a shock that made her timbers vibrate with the
+sledge-hammer thud of the bows meeting the billows full butt, the
+concussion causing columns of spray to be thrown up that came in over
+the cathead, drenching the fo'c's'le and pouring in a cascade into the
+waist, whence the broken water, washing aft along the deck, forming a
+lake on the lee-side, where the scuppers were level with the sea, from
+the ship's heeling over.
+
+We were still carrying too much sail; and this the skipper was as quick
+as any one to perceive, although he was anxious to pursue his course as
+long as he could, and make as much capital as he could out of the north-
+wester in his way to the Line.
+
+"Hands shorten sail!" accordingly was the repeated cry; and, knowing
+what was wanted, the crew were soon racing up the shrouds to close-reef
+the topsails, although the force of the wind nearly pinned them to the
+rigging like spread eagles, and they had hard difficulty in gaining the
+yards, and working out along the foot-ropes, especially on those to
+windward.
+
+The topsail halliards had of course been let go before this, and the
+loose sails were filled out like balloons, so that it took some time to
+get in the bunt and tie the reef points; but it was at last done, and we
+returned to the deck--I being especially triumphant at having out-paced
+one of the smartest topmen in the ship, in gaining the weather earing of
+the foretop sail before him, and completing my task so quickly as to get
+down on deck before some of the rest had yet left the yard.
+
+Captain Billings, I was pleased to see, noticed my activity, giving me
+an approving smile, which more than counterbalanced the scowl that
+Macdougall greeted my reappearance with below; but all such thoughts
+were soon banished by the skipper's fresh order to go aloft and take in
+the topsail we had only just close-reefed, the vessel being buried too
+much by the head.
+
+Away up the rattlins we all climbed again; while those below, on the
+halliards being started by the run, began hauling on the clewlines and
+buntlines, bagging up the sail so that we could hand it easier.  It was
+stiffer work furling it than the reefing had been; but, at length this,
+too, was accomplished, albeit I nearly narrowly got knocked off the
+yard-arm by the flapping back of the folds of canvas in my face as the
+wind caught the leech sideways.  We then returned once more to the more
+substantial platform of the deck, glad enough to get down safe again.
+
+"Let go the jib halliards!" was the next command, some of the hands
+starting forwards to man the down haul; but the moment the halliards
+were cast loose, the accommodating sail saved us any further trouble in
+the way of stowing it, by blowing clean away to leeward with a report as
+if a small cannon had been fired off on the fo'c's'le--floating out
+against the dark background of the sky like a child's kite whose string
+has parted and let it go to grief, tumbling down from its soaring
+height, and disappearing in the dim distance to leeward, where the
+clouds had already vanished.
+
+The ship was now only under her close-reefed main-topsail and reefed
+foresail, all the rest of her canvas having been taken off her by
+degrees; still, she laboured so greatly, and got such a list to
+leeward--with the topmasts bent like fishing rods under the strain,
+while the weather shrouds were as taut as fiddle-strings, and those on
+the port side hung limp and loose through the stretching of the
+rigging--that the skipper saw she would not stand driving any more.  The
+only thing now to be done, he thought, was to lay her to, so that, as he
+could not get her any further on her forward journey, she should not, at
+all events, lose the progress she had already made save by leeway drift,
+which of course was unavoidable.
+
+"Ease down the helm!" he cried to the two men, who were now necessary at
+the wheel, while the fore-tack was boarded, the lee braces hauled aft,
+and the mainyard braced in, when the ship was brought up to the wind,
+bowing and scraping, and taking in tons of water over the fo'c's'le, in
+this operation, that washed everybody off their legs in the waist,
+bundling them away to leeward in a bunch.
+
+For a time the _Esmeralda_ now behaved very well, the mizen trysail
+being set to steady her, although, being hove to on the starboard tack,
+she drifted sideways, before the fierce north-west gale, making as much
+leeway towards the south and east as if she had been running free; but,
+presently, there was a loud crack heard forwards, and Haxell, the
+carpenter, came up to the skipper on the poop, looking even more serious
+than usual as he crawled aft under shelter of the bulwarks.
+
+"The foremast is sprung, sir," said he in a melancholy tone of voice, as
+if he were announcing the fact of his just going to be hanged.
+
+"Is it serious?" asked Captain Billings.
+
+"Aye, aye, sir, it's all that," replied Haxell.  "There's a big flaw
+close under the slings of the foreyard.  It won't stand the pressure of
+that foresail ag'in it much longer, Cap'; and it'll be safe to carry
+away presently."
+
+"Then we must relieve it before that happens," said the skipper, giving
+orders for us to furl the foresail and hoist the fore-topmast staysail
+in its place, for that would serve to keep control of the helm, he
+thought.  The ship required some headsail, and this would not try the
+damaged mast so severely as the foresail had done, with its wide extent
+of canvas.
+
+By the time all these different manoeuvres had been essayed and effected
+it was broad daylight.  It was a fine morning, too, although the wind
+was still blowing a hurricane and the sea was fearfully high and choppy,
+for there wasn't a cloud to be seen in the heavens, while the sun was
+shining down with almost tropical heat; but, in spite of its looking so
+bright, we hadn't done with the nor'-wester yet.
+
+Towards mid-day, when we found from observation that we were in latitude
+27 degrees North and longitude 18 degrees West--nearly abreast of the
+island of Palma in the Canaries, and a terrible distance to the eastward
+of our position on the previous day, thus showing all the leeway we had
+lost--the wind increased so much in strength that it blew now with even
+greater force than at its first onset the evening before on the breaking
+out of the gale.
+
+This was not all, either.
+
+The heavy waves that dashed against the ship as she headed them, broke
+upon her bows with such fury that it seemed every moment as if they
+would beat in the timbers; while, every now and then, some billow
+mightier than its fellows would force her head away, making her fall
+off, and then, the succeeding sea would take her broadside on, hurling
+tons of broken water on her decks that would have soon filled her had
+not the hatches been battened down, which precaution had been taken when
+we first reduced sail.
+
+The situation became serious on this being repeated several times during
+the afternoon, for there was great danger of the vessel being any moment
+thrown on her beam ends, when there would certainly be a clean sweep
+made of everything on board and the _Esmeralda_ be speedily converted
+into a floating wreck!
+
+Captain Billings accordingly called a council of his officers, I
+standing by and listening to what Mr Macdougall and Jorrocks advised
+should be done in the emergency.  These both, however, came to the same
+opinion as the skipper, that scudding would be the best course to pursue
+under the circumstances--although, like him, they were well aware that
+the difficulty which faced us all consisted, not so much in running
+before the wind, as in managing to get the vessel's head round so as to
+do it without broaching or letting her to.
+
+Still, the manoeuvre had to be tried as a last resource.
+
+"I don't see that anything else can be done," said Captain Billings,
+with a more anxious look on his face than I had ever noticed there
+before.  "I only hope we'll manage it successfully; for, if we once get
+broadside on in the trough of this sea, she'll never rise out of it,
+with the heavy cargo she carries, and so it will be a case of Davy
+Jones' locker for the lot of us!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+"A LITTLE UNPLEASANTNESS."
+
+"Say, Cap', we'll have to strip her first," suggested Jorrocks, when it
+was thus decided to carry out the contemplated measure for the relief of
+the ship--"if we don't do that, we'll have every stick taken out of her
+as soon as we try to wear her!"
+
+"Oh, aye, boatswain, I haven't forgotten that, you may be sure," said
+the skipper; and the hands were then once more sent aloft to furl the
+main-topsail, while the mizzen trysail was hauled down and the braces
+manned, so as to help the vessel round with the yards the moment the
+helm was put up.
+
+It was a ticklish job, though.  The utmost care was necessary in order
+that the manoeuvre might be successfully accomplished.
+
+Should one of the heavy rollers strike her after she had once yielded to
+the influence of the rudder and while coming round with the wind, before
+she had fully paid off--thus presenting her stern to the attack of her
+stubborn assailants even as she now faced them, like a stag at bay or a
+cat fronting a bull-dog--why, the gale would undoubtedly catch her
+broadside on.  In such a case, the _Esmeralda_ would be exposed at her
+weakest point to the full force of the wind and sea, in the same way as
+the deer or cat turning tail to its pursuer--with what result we on
+board could readily anticipate, even without the skipper's warning
+words!
+
+As Jorrocks expressed it, in the event of such a catastrophe happening,
+"It was all Lombard Street to a China orange we'd lose the number of our
+mess and sarve as food for fishes!"
+
+Everything, therefore, depended on our seizing the right moment for
+putting the helm up and bringing her head round, the critical period
+being that between the onslaught of one of the rollers and the advent of
+the next; when, if the vessel answered her helm smartly, rising out of
+the trough of the sea ere the following wave had time to reach her, she
+would be away scudding in front of the gale safely, before many minutes
+would be past and the present peril might then be a thing to look back
+upon with feelings of thankfulness and satisfaction.
+
+Captain Billings explained this to Jorrocks, while all the remaining
+canvas was being stripped off the vessel, with the exception of the
+fore-topmast staysail, which was still retained in order to assist in
+forcing her head round when all was ready for trying the hazardous
+experiment.
+
+"You know what I want, Boatswain," he said, sending Jorrocks forwards to
+watch for a favourable opening between the following waves and turn the
+ship--"the moment you see our chance, give the word; and then, Heaven
+help us to get round in time and not broach-to!"
+
+"Aye, aye, sir, I knows what you want," answered Jorrocks, who then
+proceeded to crawl as carefully towards the fore-chains, as the
+carpenter had come aft--bending down beneath the protection of the
+weather-bulwarks as he crept along the waist, and holding on by a stray
+rope's-end here and there to preserve his balance--although he did this
+as much to prevent exposing his body as leverage for the wind to force
+the vessel over to leeward before the proper time, as to shield himself
+from its boisterous buffeting.
+
+Arrived at the point he had selected, Jorrocks drew himself up gingerly
+into the fore-rigging, his hat blowing from off his head and his hair
+streaming out before the wind the instant he abandoned the shelter of
+the bulwarks.  However, he had not long to remain in that exposed
+position.
+
+He had waited to stand up until he heard the blow of one of the heavy
+billows as it careered before the gale, coming against the bows in due
+rotation, and the instant he heard this he raised himself erect at once,
+receiving part of the deluge that broke over the cathead in a fountain
+of spray on his exposed head and hairy face, the impromptu shower bath
+making him appear like a dripping merman fresh from the briny deep.
+
+Jorrocks, however, did not mind the cold bath.  He had much more serious
+matter on hand to take notice of it, beyond giving himself a shake like
+a retriever fresh from a dip.
+
+Looking over the side to windward, as quickly as he dashed the water
+from his eyes, he noticed that the following wave succeeding the one
+which had just delivered its attack, was quite two cable lengths off--a
+more than usually long interval between the waves as yet.
+
+It seemed like an interposition of Providence in our favour, I thought,
+noticing the lull from my station on the poop almost as soon as Jorrocks
+perceived it in the bows, and I feared he would have missed the
+opportunity.
+
+But the boatswain was too good a seaman for that.  The very instant the
+reflection crossed my mind that he would be too late, for the whole
+thing happened in the "wink of an eye," he raised his right hand high in
+the air, standing up to his full height on the bulwarks, while holding
+on to the ratlines of the foreshrouds--thus allowing his body to act as
+a sort of additional headsail to aid the fore-topmast staysail, which,
+as I've said before, was the only rag the ship had on her, in forcing
+her bows round.
+
+Captain Billings was watching Jorrocks even more intently than I; and,
+without a second's delay, the moment the latter gave the signal that the
+critical point for action had arrived, he roared out in a voice of
+thunder, "Hard up with the helm, hard up, my men, for your lives!"
+
+Mr Macdougall and the two seamen who were standing on either side of
+the wheel, clutching hold of the spokes and holding on to them with all
+their might, shifted it round almost as quickly as the skipper's order
+was given.  But they had to put all their strength into the task to
+overcome the resistance of the dead weight of the hull, aided as that
+was by the mountain of water pressing it back upon them and thus
+resisting their efforts to shift the helm over to port.
+
+For a brief space of time, hardly an instant though it seemed an
+eternity, the ship appeared somewhat sluggish to respond to the movement
+of the rudder, hanging in stays and settling down into the great valley
+of water that loomed on our lee; but the next moment a glad cry of
+relief burst from all as she answered her helm, a wavering motion of her
+bows denoting this being then perceptible.
+
+"Now, men, look alive," cried the skipper.  "Cast-off those lee braces
+here; haul round to windward sharp, and square the yards!"
+
+These orders were executed as rapidly as they were given, the hands
+being ready at the braces, and only waiting for the word of command to
+ease the yards round.  When these were squared, however, the fore-
+topmast staysail fluttered and filled with a jerk that made the foremast
+crack and tremble, the vibration shaking the ship to her centre and
+penetrating even as far as to the deck beneath our feet as we stood
+awaiting the issue of the operation--the very planks "creeping" with the
+concussion caused by this and the bows meeting the send of the sea.
+
+But the power of the little staysail forward, and the effect of the
+exposed surface of the boatswain's body in the rigging, both catching
+the wind at the same time, settled the matter.
+
+Without making any further opposition to our wishes, the _Esmeralda_
+payed off handsomely; and, rising up on the crest of an enormous green
+roller, that had swept up to overwhelm her, but which now passed
+harmlessly under her keel instead, she surged through the water,
+gathering way every moment as she showed her heels to the gale,
+careering over the stormy billows before the blast like a mad thing, as
+if rejoicing in her freedom after so long being forced to lay to--
+although the fore-topmast staysail, which had done such good work in
+getting her head round, parted company as soon as the yards were braced
+round, blowing away to atoms, and floating off in the distance in the
+same kite-like fashion in which the jib had previously disappeared.
+
+The loss, however, seemed to affect the ship's speed but little, for she
+scudded off under bare poles at as great a rate as if she had all her
+canvas set, and was running before a ten-knot breeze.
+
+"Thank Heaven!"  I heard Captain Billings exclaim in a low voice, taking
+off his cap reverently, as soon as we were safely round before the wind;
+and I could see his lips move as if in silent prayer.  In this, I
+confess, I joined with all my heart; for, if ever in my life I
+experienced the feeling of religious emotion which causes us to express
+our gratitude for rescue from peril, I had that feeling then!
+
+The _Esmeralda_, though, was not out of all danger yet.
+
+There was still the fear of her being pooped by the following waves,
+which now raced after, in anger at her having escaped their clutches;
+so, to lessen this possibility, the skipper had the reefed main-topsail
+set again, and the mizzen trysail once more hoisted, so that the ship
+might get through the water faster than the pursuing rollers.  The
+strain on the masts was tremendous; but, fortunately, everything held,
+and under the impetus of this additional sail power she doubled her
+speed, bidding defiance to the harpies of the ocean that had so nearly
+worsted her in the combat.
+
+It was just four bells in the afternoon watch when we got her head round
+before the wind, although it was not until nearly midnight that the
+hurricane blew itself out, the wind then dropping almost as suddenly as
+it had sprung up twenty-four hours before.
+
+During all this time, only one of the watches had a short spell below,
+and neither the skipper, Jorrocks, nor I, had ever left the deck after
+the gale had begun--the only exception being Mr Macdougall, who had
+turned in for a caulk when we were lying-to.  Had it not been, however,
+for the praiseworthy exertions of Pat Doolan, the Irish cook, I do not
+believe we should have been able to hold out so long.
+
+The willing fellow, despite the series of liquid avalanches that were
+constantly flooding the ship as she took in the green seas over her
+bows, managed in some wonderful way or other to keep his galley fire
+alight, supplying us with a grateful cup of hot coffee at intervals
+through the harassing night; and, late in the afternoon, when we were
+all utterly exhausted, he served out to each of us, much to our
+surprise, a pannikin apiece of the most delicious pea-soup I ever
+tasted--"It was enough," as one of the men said on receiving the welcome
+refreshment, "to have put life in a post!"
+
+This was while our struggle with the elements yet lasted; but as soon as
+that was over, and when all fear of peril was dispelled by the lulling
+of the gale, the inevitable reaction after such protracted exertions
+without any recuperative rest became painfully apparent, and I was not
+at all sorry when Captain Billings told the hands belonging to the port
+watch that they might go below.
+
+"And I fancy, Mister Leigh," said Jorrocks to me, "we can go down and
+turn in too; for we ain't a going to have another such a blow in a hurry
+again for a month of Sundays!"
+
+Nor did it look like it either, the stars twinkling away in a cloudless
+sky, and the night being perfectly bright and clear, although there was
+no moon, while the rollers were rolling less angrily, as if the ocean
+were hushing itself down into repose at last.
+
+There was nothing, therefore, to keep me on deck any longer; so,
+following the example of my old friend Jorrocks, I speedily sought my
+bunk, and, turning in, did not wake again until nearly noon on the
+following day--the good-natured skipper having given orders to Mr
+Macdougall not to disturb me when the starboard watch was relieved in
+the early morning, saying that I had earned my rest fairly by rolling
+two days' duty into one, which, indeed, I believe I had!
+
+I was up on deck again, however, in time to "tak' the soon," as the
+Scottish mate termed it in his north-country accent, for I was anxious
+to see how far the gale had driven the vessel off her proper course.
+
+It was our thirteenth day out, counting from the time we "took our
+departure," as navigators say, from Lundy Island; and both the skipper
+and I made it out, after working the reckoning, that we were as far down
+as the twenty-fifth parallel, although a good deal to the eastward of
+what our true position should be--the leeway we had made while lying-to,
+and our subsequent scudding for nearly twelve hours before the north-
+wester, having taken us much too close in towards the African continent,
+thus causing us to lose all that westing we had secured on our first
+start from the Bristol Channel, and which we had afterwards so carefully
+preserved, even amidst the baffling winds of the middle latitudes.
+
+Still, this mortifying conclusion had a redeeming feature.
+
+If we were too far to the eastwards, we were as assuredly beyond the
+region specially designated by Jorrocks as the "Horse Latitudes," where
+the calms of Cancer hold sway; for, now, setting all plain sail before a
+steady breeze from off the land, we soon managed to run into the regular
+north-east Trades, picking them up in the next degree or two we ran down
+to the southward.
+
+From this point, keeping on the starboard tack again, with the wind well
+on our beam, we ran for the Line; but before crossing the equator, Mr
+Macdougall and I, between whom relations had been somewhat strained
+almost from our first introduction, came to an open rupture, the "little
+unpleasantness" happening in this wise.
+
+Mr Ohlsen, the second mate--"Old son of a gun," as the crew called him,
+from his taciturn manner of going about his work--was still on the sick
+list; and Captain Billings, who had expressed himself much pleased with
+my behaviour since I was on board, especially during the storm, had
+assigned the performance of this gentleman's duties to me.
+
+At this Mr Macdougall was extremely indignant, remonstrating with the
+skipper for putting so young a lad as myself in such an important post
+as that of second mate.
+
+"What are your reasons for objecting to him?" asked Captain Billings.
+
+"Why, the loon's but a bairn," said Mr Macdougall, at a nonplus for
+some objection to my promotion.
+
+"If he's young," answered the skipper, "he's got a man's courage and a
+seaman's aptitude, which is more than I can say for some aboard here!"
+
+"Hoot, mon, d'ye mean to eenseenuate?"
+
+"I insinuate nothing," interrupted Captain Billings, hotly.  "If the cap
+fits you, why, you can wear it!  Leigh is a strong, sturdy fellow, worth
+any two hands on a yard; and, as for navigating, he can work out a
+reckoning better than--than myself!"
+
+"That mebbe, that mebbe, I dinna gang for to denee that stat'ment,
+Cap'en," said the Scotsman, sneeringly, implying that I or anybody else
+might easily eclipse the skipper's powers of calculation; "but I hae my
+doots, mon, I hae my doots."
+
+"You can `hay' your grandmother if you like," retorted Captain Billings,
+decisively; "still, it's my order that Leigh acts as second mate until
+Mr Ohlsen is able to return to duty.  I'm captain of this ship, Mr
+Macdougall, please remember!"
+
+This was the invariable expression the skipper always made use of when
+he had made up his mind to anything, so the mate knew that there was no
+use in his trying to argue the point any further, and he left the poop,
+where the altercation had taken place, in a towering rage.  This his
+freckles plainly showed, his equanimity not being restored by the ill-
+concealed titters of the men standing by, for they had overheard most of
+what had been said, and repeated the substance of the conversation to me
+afterwards.
+
+I was, it is true, only sixteen at the time; but, being a sturdy, broad-
+shouldered chap, I looked all two years older; and I really do not think
+the skipper complimented me too strongly when he said I was worth a
+couple of hands on a yard, for, during my experience in the coal brig
+under Jorrocks' tuition, I had acquired considerable proficiency and
+dexterity in most of a seaman's functions, which aptitude I had further
+improved while sailing in Sam Pengelly's schooner between the various
+ports between Plymouth and the Land's End for two years nearly at a
+stretch afterwards.
+
+My nautical education, too, as I have already mentioned, had not been
+neglected all the time I had been waiting to get on board a sea-going
+ship, for since I had joined the _Esmeralda_ I had not lost a single
+opportunity for developing my book learning by practical examples in
+seamanship, Captain Billings encouraging me to persevere whenever he saw
+me inclined to laziness, and giving me all the advantage of his own
+training and experience; so that, by this time, I believe I was almost
+as competent to take charge of the ship on an emergency and navigate her
+to her destination, as if I had passed the Trinity House examination and
+received a first mate's certificate like Mr Macdougall, whom in the
+mathematical part of navigation I could beat easily.
+
+Of course, I was not up in sailor lore as to atmospheric changes and
+those signs and tokens which it takes a long apprenticeship to the sea
+thoroughly to learn; but in the ordinary work of the ship I was second
+to none, the men, with whom I was a prime favourite, thanks to Jorrocks,
+acknowledging that I could reef, hand, and steer, with any of them.
+
+Mr Macdougall was jealous of me--that was the reason of his animosity;
+so he took advantage of every chance he had to discount the captain's
+favour by making me in the wrong, to prove his assertion as to my
+incompetence to take charge of a watch.
+
+One day I had taken an observation at noon as usual, the skipper of late
+leaving that operation entirely to me, for he knew Mr Macdougall would
+be certain to get a sight too, if only in order to have a wrangle with
+me as to the right position of the ship.  Having made out the reckoning
+with a stop watch, I was busily engaged marking out our place on the
+chart on top of the cabin sky-light, as it was a fine day, with a pair
+of callipers and parallel rulers, when the Scottish mate came up to me.
+
+"And whaur d'ye find us the noo?" said he, insinuatingly, to me.
+
+"We're in 1 degree 35 minutes north, and 28 degrees west; and I think
+ought to alter our course a trifle more to the southward to avoid the
+Saint Paul islets, which we must be heading for direct, steering south-
+west as we are now."
+
+"Whaur d'ye mean, bairn?  There's no land near us, I ween, save the
+Rocas, and that is far awa' to the westwar'."
+
+"I tell you," said I, positively, with perhaps a good deal of
+bumptiousness, "we're heading on straight for those rocks there marked
+on the chart!"
+
+"Why, ye're mad--a stork staring loon!" retorted Mr Macdougall, in the
+most irritating way; "ye'd better gang awa' to schule again."
+
+"I think you had," I answered; "I have forgotten more than you ever
+learned!"
+
+Now this was very rude and impertinent for me to remark to a man so much
+older than myself, and my superior officer; but I did not reflect at the
+moment what I said to my tormentor, for he used to nag at me every day
+about the very same point--my taking the sun and working out the
+reckoning.  It was a very sore subject with him ever since the skipper
+praised me at his expense on our first day out.
+
+At all events, rude or not, my reply had the desired effect of
+exasperating Mr Macdougall to the last pitch of endurance, for he was
+very easily excited.
+
+"Gin you say that ag'in, ye onmannerly loon," said he, foaming with
+passion, his pale complexion becoming paler, which made the freckles
+stand out prominently, "I'll knock ye doon."
+
+"Will you?"  I cried, "you just try it, that's all!"
+
+He did; and down I went on the deck, as flat as a pancake, from a well-
+directed blow of his brawny fist!
+
+I was not beaten, however.
+
+Jumping up, I faced him again, only to undergo a repetition of the
+flooring process; when, seeing that I with my boy's strength was no
+match for him as yet, and losing my temper quite as much as he had done,
+I seized a large snatch-block which was lying by on the deck close to my
+hand, hurling it at his head with all my force.
+
+The mate started back in terror, for the missile only missed him by half
+an inch, and if it had struck him would most certainly have killed him
+on the spot, although I did not think of that when I pitched it at him;
+and, just at that moment, I heard Captain Billings' voice behind us.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+BREAKERS AHEAD!
+
+"Hullo, steady there--belay that!" exclaimed Captain Billings, half-way
+up the poop ladder, which he was ascending hastily, two steps at a time,
+"Mr--Mr Macdougall--Martin Leigh!  What's this disgraceful row about?"
+
+I had quickly picked up a handspike when I saw that I had missed my aim
+with the snatch-block, while my antagonist--who, to do him justice, had
+plenty of pluck, and had only been startled for the moment by the heavy
+missile hurtling through the air close to his projecting nose--was
+advancing to attack me again with his fists clenched, a savage look the
+while on his face, as if he meant to settle me this time; but, on this
+interruption from the skipper, we both relinquished our hostile
+attitudes, Mr Macdougall slinking towards the binnacle, as if
+innocently engaged in studying the bearings of the compass there, and I
+dropping the handspike incontinently.
+
+There was a ringing tone of command in the skipper's voice which meant
+that he intended to be obeyed; but mixed with this, beyond a slight
+suspicion of surprise at the unexpected scene which met his gaze, there
+was a good deal of subdued irritation, which really was not to be
+wondered at.
+
+He had been having an afternoon nap in his cabin, which was situated
+immediately below the deck where the mate and I had been rehearsing the
+little drama I have just detailed; and the noise we had made with "the
+movements of the piece," to speak theatrically, having very
+unceremoniously disturbed his slumbers before the period he generally
+allowed himself for his "forty winks" had expired, his temper was not
+sweetened thereby beforehand, only just needing the unseemly _fracas_
+which he noticed on coming on the poop to send it up to fever-heat.
+
+I had never seen Captain Billings so angry since I had been on board the
+_Esmeralda_; his blue eyes fairly flashed forth fire!
+
+He took no notice of me at first, advancing towards the chief mate.
+
+"Mr Macdougall," said he, sharply, "I call upon you for an explanation
+of this--this--discreditable affair!"
+
+"Yon dratted loon, Capting, sought me life!" replied the other, glibly.
+"He hove a snatch-block at me, and takkin' the pairt of my ain defeence
+I was gangin' to poonish him a wee when ye came on deck."
+
+"And did you give him no occasion for behaving so insubordinately, sir?"
+asked the skipper, looking Mr Macdougall straight in the face with a
+piercing glance, as if defying him to answer him untruthfully.
+
+But the mate was too old a hand at "spinning a yarn," as sailors term
+dealing in fictitious statements.  He could utter a falsehood without
+winking once!
+
+"Nae, sir," said he, as cool as a cucumber, making no reference to the
+fact of his having twice knocked me down before I retaliated on him, "I
+did naething to the loon, naething at a'!  I only joost reprovit him a
+wee for his bad language and inseelance, ye ken, an' he oops wi' yon
+block an' heaves at me puir head.  It's joost a marcy o' Proveedence he
+did nae knockit me brains oot!"
+
+Fortunately for the Scotsman, his good or bad angel was in the ascendant
+at this moment, substantiating this incomplete account he gave as to
+what had happened.  As luck would have it, too, Captain Billings had
+only got up the poop ladder in time to take heed of the latter part of
+the fray, and thus the evidence of his own eyesight corroborated
+apparently the mate's assertion, that I had made a most unjustifiable
+assault on him.
+
+Greatly incensed, therefore, he now turned on me.
+
+"I saw the assault myself, Mr Macdougall; so I don't merely take your
+word alone for it.  What have you got to say, Leigh, in excuse for your
+outrageous behaviour?  It's--it's scandalous; I could thrash you
+myself!"
+
+My pride, however, was roused by the fact of his having accepted the
+mate's explanation without asking me for any explanation first, and so
+condemning me unheard; consequently, without taking into consideration
+the thought that it was only proper that Captain Billings should support
+the authority of his chief officer unhesitatingly, I answered him rather
+pertly, only feeling my own wrong, and not considering what was the
+skipper's obvious duty.
+
+"If you believe Mr Macdougall," I replied, in a rude, off-hand way,
+"there's nothing for me to say."
+
+"You ungrateful young hound!" cried out the skipper, who, if angry
+before, was now as mad as a hatter at my impudence.  "That's the thanks
+I get, is it, for favouring you and promoting you out of your station!
+Listen; consider yourself disrated from this instant--do you hear?"
+
+"Yes, I hear, Captain Billings," said I, in a sullen voice.
+
+"Then, heed sharply, my lad," he retorted.  "Get off this deck and go
+forward.  Your place, henceforth, sir, will be in the fo'c's'le, along
+with the other hands; and the sooner you lug that chest of yours out of
+the spare bunk I gave you amidships, the better!"
+
+This was a terrible downfall; but, of course, there was no use my
+arguing against the skipper's decision, the master of a merchant ship
+being lord paramount on board his own vessel, and having the power to
+make and unmake his officers, like a nautical Warwick, the whilom
+creator of kings!
+
+So, much chapfallen, I withdrew from the poop; and, abandoning all my
+dignities as acting second mate and first-class apprentice, proceeded to
+make myself at home with the crew forward--much against the grain, I
+confess, although the men received me cordially, and took my part, not
+only from their liking for me personally, but from their hatred of the
+chief mate as well.
+
+Mr Macdougall, I could plainly see, was cock-a-hoop at my disgrace,
+from the malicious grin on his freckled face.
+
+His triumph, however, was not very long-lived.
+
+On making me relinquish my functions on the quarter-deck, the skipper
+had sent for Jorrocks, telling him that he would have to take charge of
+Mr Ohlsen's watch in my place.
+
+"But I doesn't know nothing o' navigation, Cap'," said the boatswain,
+who felt keenly my abasement, and was loth to "step into my shoes," as
+it were.
+
+"Oh, never mind that," replied the skipper.  "Mr Macdougall will give
+you the courses to steer; and, if anything particular happens--which I
+don't expect, with the wind we have now and us in the open sea--why, you
+can call me."
+
+"Aye, aye, sir," answered Jorrocks, being thus foiled in his attempt at
+getting me reinstated, which he thought might have been the case on his
+pleading his inability to con the ship; and so, when Macdougall went
+below with the starboard watch at eight bells in the afternoon, the
+boatswain took charge of the deck with the relief hands--the mate
+telling him still to keep to the same west-sou'-west course which I had
+suggested to Mr Macdougall, a couple of hours or so before, should be
+altered to a more southerly one, and the controversy about which had
+caused that "little unpleasantness" between us, which had terminated so
+disastrously for myself.
+
+To explain this matter properly, I should mention that, when, on our
+thirteenth day out, after the cessation of the north-westerly gale that
+had driven us to the south of the Canaries, Captain Billings discovered
+that we were so near in to the African coast, in taking advantage of the
+wind off the land he had perhaps committed an error of judgment in
+making an attempt to recover our lost westing, instead of pursuing a
+course more directly to the southwards; for, in the early part of the
+northern summer, the Equatorial Current begins to run with greater
+rapidity towards the west, causing vessels to lose much of their true
+direction, and the most experienced navigators recommend crossing this
+stream at right angles, if possible, so as to get beyond its influence
+as speedily as circumstances will permit, at least at that time of year,
+when an easterly passage of the equator is advisable.
+
+However, the skipper acted for the best, wishing to get well to the
+windward of Cape Blanco and the contrary currents and variable breezes
+generally encountered in that vicinity; and so, the _Esmeralda_ had
+therefore continued on a diagonal course across the equatorial stream
+even after we had picked up the regular north-east Trades, until we had
+reached the meridian of 25 degrees West, when we had run as far south as
+8 degrees 15 minutes North.
+
+Here, we lost the Trades that had blown us so far on our route, entering
+into the second great belt of calms met with in the Atlantic to perplex
+the mariner when essaying to pass either to the north or south of the
+equator--a zone of torpidity, known popularly under the name of the
+"Doldrums," which was originally derived most probably from the old
+Portuguese phrase _dolorio_, "tormenting."
+
+This belt of calms separates the two wind zones of the north-east and
+south-west Trades, which meeting here, their opposing forces are
+neutralised, and the air they bring with them from the colder regions of
+the north and south, becoming rarified by the heat of the equator,
+passes up into the higher atmosphere, producing a stagnation of the wind
+currents; and hence ensue calms that vary in duration according to the
+position of the sun, whether north or south of the Line, calms that are
+sometimes accompanied by tremendous rain showers, and sometimes varied
+with frequent squalls and thunder and lightning, followed sometimes by
+thick fogs hanging on the surface of the water.
+
+The belt of the Doldrums has an average width of some six degrees, or
+about five hundred miles of latitude, roughly speaking; and in crossing
+it we were not much more favoured than most navigators, having to knock
+about for seven days under a sweltering tropical sun--taking advantage
+of whatever little breeze we could get that aided our progress to the
+equator, until we emerged from the retarding influence of this zone of
+inactivity, some three degrees to the northward of the Line, when we
+fortunately succeeded in sailing into the south-east Trades almost
+before we expected.
+
+We had, however, lost some little way eastwards through the sweep of the
+Guinea current, a stream which seems strangely enough to take its rise
+in the middle of the ocean, and makes a sudden set thence towards the
+Bight of Benin; so, Captain Billings, who appeared to be prejudiced on
+the subject of the western passage of the equator, instead of now trying
+again to shape a true south course towards our point of destination,
+Cape Horn, directed a parallel so as to fetch the Brazilian coast.  The
+ship, consequently, after leaving the Doldrums was steered south-west
+and by west, a direction which, if preserved, would have run us on in a
+straight line to the Rocas, a dangerous reef stretching out into the sea
+off the westward peak of the island of Fernando Noronha, some eighty-
+four miles out from the mainland to the northward of Cape Saint Roque.
+
+This was on our thirtieth day out from the Bristol Channel, two days
+before the first mate and I had come to loggerheads; and since then the
+vessel had kept on in the same course, closing with the equator each
+hour under the steady south-easterly breeze which we had with us, on the
+port tack, and speeding even more rapidly to the west than our skipper
+imagined--for, through the set of some current to the northward and
+westwards, our dead reckoning showed a wide discrepancy from the
+position of the ship by observation, as I made it on the day of the
+row--when, as I've stated, the skipper, feeling indisposed, had left me
+to take the sun, knowing that the mate would check my calculations.
+
+But, as things turned out, the altercation which occurred completely
+took off the attention of Captain Billings from the subject; and, as I
+left the chart which I had been using on the top of the cabin sky-light
+when he ordered me to quit the poop without informing him of the serious
+error I had discovered, and Mr Macdougall, wise in his own conceit and
+confident that he and the dead reckoning were both right, did not hint
+of the ship's course being wrong, on we went, with all our canvas
+spread, racing into the teeth of a danger which the skipper never dreamt
+of our being near.
+
+The weather was now beautifully fine, the breeze tempering the heat of
+the sun, and flying fish and albicore playing around the vessel as we
+neared the equator; while, occasionally, a school of whales would spout
+to windward, or a shoal of porpoises, having a game of high jinks as
+they leaped out of the water in their graceful curves one after the
+other, would cross our bows backwards and forwards in sport, apparently
+mocking our comparatively slow progress through the sea in contrast to
+their own rapid and graceful movements, and showing how easily they
+could outstrip us when they so pleased.
+
+I was standing on the fo'c's'le head, sadly looking out over the bows,
+while the light lasted, at the moving panorama of Nature around me; the
+dancing waves curled up on either side of the catheads as the vessel
+plunged her forefoot down, and streaming aft in a long wake to leeward;
+the cloudless sky above; the vast solitary expanse of the horizon; the
+leaping fish and spouting whales--keenly alive to everything and yet my
+mind full of all my grievances, being especially wrathful with the
+skipper for accepting Mr Macdougall's statement against me, without
+first allowing me to utter a word in my own defence.
+
+It was worse than tyranny, I thought, this arbitrary conduct in
+disrating me unjustly!
+
+I remained here till I heard one bell strike soon after the second dog-
+watch commenced; for I was waiting for Jorrocks to be relieved, as I
+wished to speak to him in order to get him to put in a word for me with
+Captain Billings, when he had calmed down and could listen to reason.
+While I was waiting, the evening closed in, the sun having not long set;
+for, in the tropics, night succeeds day with startling rapidity, there
+being no twilight to temper the transition between bright sunshine and
+darkness--the one ensuing almost immediately after the other without any
+"toning down," as painters express it, to lessen the effect of the
+change.
+
+Hearing, as I fancied, a whale spouting nearer than usual--these
+monsters of the deep making a noise as they eject the water through the
+spout-holes on top of their heads in a fountain of spray, after drawing
+it with their gills, like surf breaking on a distant shore--the sound
+somehow or other took back my thoughts to the chart, and I suddenly
+remembered what I had told the mate about the danger of the ship
+approaching the Islets of Saint Paul.
+
+These are a cluster of rocks, called by the early Portuguese navigators
+the Penedo de Saint Pedro, lying almost in mid-ocean, close to the
+equator, in latitude zero degrees 55 minutes 30 seconds North, and
+longitude 29 degrees 22 minutes West; and, from the water being beyond
+soundings in their immediate neighbourhood, they must form the peak of
+some submarine mountain range.  They are only about sixty feet or so in
+height clear above the level of the sea; and, consequently, being only
+visible at a comparatively short distance off--not more than a couple of
+leagues at the outside, even in broad daylight--and situated as the
+shoal is in the direct track of the trade wind, the rocks form a source
+of great peril to mariners traversing their bearings, especially at
+night time, nothing existing to give warning of their proximity until a
+vessel may be right on to them, as it were.
+
+Thinking of all this, which I had read in the "Sailing Directions for
+the North Atlantic," a book which the skipper had lent me to study, in
+order to perfect me in navigation, I felt a sudden fear lest the ship
+should be wrecked on the reef, making up my mind to tell Jorrocks about
+the error I had discovered in our position on the chart, which I
+determined to ask him to fetch for me, so as to show it to Captain
+Billings.
+
+Jorrocks, however, was a long time coming forwards after being relieved
+from charge of the deck by Mr Macdougall, remaining some little time
+talking to him on the poop; so that it was nearly two bells, and quite
+dusky, when he made his way to where I was standing looking out for him,
+I having asked one of the hands to say that I wanted to speak with him.
+
+"Well, Mister Leigh," he said, on making his appearance, "here I am at
+last; better late nor never, as the old folks say!  But that blessed
+Scotchman would have a long yarn with me, about goodness knows what!"
+
+"I'm glad you've come," I replied; and then I  went on to tell him about
+my fears of peril to the ship from our vicinity to the Rocks of Saint
+Paul, which I was certain we were approaching every mile we ran further
+west.
+
+But the boatswain was almost as incredulous of our being near the shoal
+as the first mate had been in the afternoon.
+
+"Bless you, Mister Leigh, we're miles to windward of that place," said
+he with a laugh.  "But it's allers the way with your young navigators as
+is full chock up to the bung with book larnin' and hasn't had no real
+'sperience o' the sea yet!  They allers fancy all sorts o' dangers that
+your old seamen who've been a v'yage or two never thinks o' reckonin'
+on!"
+
+However, the good-natured fellow, seeing how earnest I was in the
+matter, promised to take the chart to the skipper, who was lying down in
+his cabin again, feeling far from well of late, as, indeed, his looks
+lately showed--and we were all afraid he had caught the same sort of low
+fever like Mr Ohlsen, the second mate.
+
+"An; I'll tell him as mildly as I can, Mister Leigh, of this here mare's
+nest as you've found out, so as not to make him angry with you again."
+
+"Thank you, Jorrocks," I replied heartily; but, just at that moment,
+hearing the whales making a noise quite close to the ship's side as I
+thought--although I could not see them within the limited circle of
+dusky light to which the surrounding gloom narrowed my vision, I said,
+"What a row those whales are making, are they not?  They're quite near,
+and yet, although it's not dark enough yet to hide them from our gaze,
+there's not a trace of one in sight!"
+
+Jorrocks cocked his head on one side and listened; but in an instant
+there was a striking alteration in the quizzical look with which he had
+at first regarded me, under the evident idea that I had discovered
+another "mare's nest."
+
+"By Jingo, Mister Leigh, you're right after all!" he exclaimed, his face
+turning pale as if with sudden fright.
+
+"What, do you think we're running on the rocks I spoke about?"  I asked,
+anxiously.
+
+"Aye, not a doubt of it," he answered, in the same quick way, bending
+his head again to listen over the side.  "Either them identical ones, or
+else we're on the Rocas off the Brazilian coast."
+
+In another moment, however, if in doubt previously, his suspicions were
+apparently confirmed; for, springing up again, and rushing aft as if he
+were suddenly possessed, Jorrocks roared out at the pitch of his voice--
+the words ringing like a trumpet note through the ship--
+
+"Breakers ahead on the weather bow!  Hard up with the helm--hard!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+PAT DOOLAN "CARRIES ON."
+
+Jorrocks's cry to put the helm up was instantly obeyed by the man at the
+wheel, who jammed it hard-a-port with all his strength.  The hands
+belonging to the watch on duty, at the same time, knowing with the
+aptitude of seamen what this order necessitated, rushed to the lee
+braces, easing them off without any further word of command, while those
+on the weather side were hauled in, thus squaring the yards and getting
+the ship round before the wind, when she ran off to the north-westwards,
+on a course almost at right angles to her former direction--which was on
+a bowline, with the sou'-south-east wind nearly on her beam.
+
+"Hoot mon, what d'ye mean?" shouted Mr Macdougall, when he had
+recovered from the surprise which the unexpected order of the boatswain,
+so rapidly carried out, had caused.  "Are ye gone clean daft?"
+
+But Jorrocks had no need to explain the reason for his interference with
+the mate's duties.
+
+As the vessel payed off, the sound of surf, loudly thundering against
+some rocky rampart projecting from the deep which opposed the onward
+roll of the ocean billows, was heard louder and louder; and, in another
+instant, Mr Macdougall and those who stood beside him on the poop held
+their breath with awe as the _Esmeralda_ glided by a triangular-shaped
+black peak that seemed as high as the foretopsail yard--so closely that
+they could apparently have touched it by merely stretching out their
+hands, while over it the waves, driven by the south wind, were breaking
+in columns of spray, flakes of which fell on the faces of all aft, as
+they looked over the side, and trembled at the narrowly-avoided danger.
+
+"Whee-ew!" whistled Jorrocks through his teeth.  "That were a squeak,
+an' no mistake!"
+
+It was.
+
+We had been saved by a miracle.
+
+Five minutes, nay, half a minute longer on our previous course, and the
+_Esmeralda_ would, with the way she had on her, have been dashed to
+pieces on the jagged teeth of these isolated rocks standing in mid-
+ocean, when never a soul on board would have lived to tell the tale of
+her destruction; for, in the pale phosphorescent light emitted by the
+broken water surrounding the crag, some of the sailors averred, as we
+sheered by, that they saw several sharks plunging about--ready to devour
+any of us who might have tried to swim ashore had the vessel come to
+grief.
+
+It was an escape to be thankful for to Him who watches over those who
+travel on the treacherous seas, and protects them from its perils "in
+the night, when no man seeth!"
+
+A dead stillness prevailed for a moment on board after the bustle of
+wearing the ship round had ceased, so that you might have heard a pin
+drop, as the saying is, although in the distance away astern the
+melancholy cadence of the waves breaking on Saint Paul's Islets was
+borne down to us on the wind.  As I stood in the waist, whither so far
+aft I had followed Jorrocks, I could have caught any words spoken on the
+poop above me, but I noted that Mr Macdougall didn't utter a syllable
+in continuance of the reprimand he had begun against the boatswain for
+his "officiousness," as he apparently considered his order to put the
+ship off her course.  He was terror-stricken on realising the motive for
+the boatswain's interference; however, before he had time to open his
+mouth again, the skipper, who had been roused up by the sudden commotion
+on the deck over his head, rushed past me up the poop ladder like
+lightning.
+
+Captain Billings' first look, sailor-like, was aloft; and noticing the
+vessel was before the wind, while the spanker, which had been eased off,
+prevented him from seeing the shoal we had so narrowly avoided, he
+turned on the mate for explanation.
+
+"Hallo, Macdougall!" he exclaimed, "what's the reason of this, eh?"
+
+But the mate did not answer at once.  He still seemed spellbound.
+
+"We've just wore her, sir," said Jorrocks, stepping forwards, and
+accompanying Captain Billings as he made his way to the binnacle.
+
+"So I see," drily replied the skipper, after a hasty glance at the
+standard compass.  "But what has been the reason for thus altering the
+course of the ship?  I gave orders for her to be steered south-west by
+west; and here we are now heading direct up to the northward again!
+What's the reason for this, I want to know?  Speak, now, can't you?"
+
+Macdougall, on this second inquiry being directed to him by the
+skipper--who for the moment seemed to ignore the boatswain's presence
+beside him--mumbled out something about the rocks, but he spoke in so
+thick and indistinct a voice that Captain Billings believed he was
+intoxicated.
+
+"Rocks, your grandmother!" he cried angrily.  "The only rocks hereabouts
+are those built up in your brain through that confounded bottle you're
+always sucking at below!"
+
+"Indeed, sir," put in Jorrocks at this point, taking the mate's part,
+"Mr Macdougall's right, Cap'.  We've just had the narrowest squeak of
+going to the bottom I ever 'sperienced in all my time.  Look there, sir,
+o'er the weather taffrail, an' you'll see summat we pretty nearly ran
+foul of just now--it were a risky shave!"
+
+Captain Billings, somewhat puzzled by the boatswain thus "shoving his
+oar in" for a second time unasked, cast his eyes in the direction
+pointed out to him, where, now lighted up by the newly risen moon, could
+be distinctly seen the Penedo de San Pedro, with the surf breaking over
+it in sheets of silver foam.
+
+He recognised the place in a moment, having passed close by the spot on
+a previous voyage; and he was greatly astonished at our being in its
+near vicinity now.
+
+"Good gracious!" he ejaculated, "what an escape we must have had; but
+how came we near the place at all?"
+
+"That I can't explain, sir," replied Jorrocks meaningly.  "Perhaps,
+though, as how there was something wrong in the ship's position on the
+chart to-day."
+
+"Ha, humph!" muttered the skipper to himself.  "This comes of my being
+ill and entrusting my duties to other hands; but I'll never do it again,
+I'll take care!  Mr Macdougall," he added aloud, "I beg your pardon for
+what I said just now in the heat of the moment, and I hope you'll excuse
+it, as I was greatly flurried, and do not feel very well yet.  What
+position did you place the vessel in to-day, by the way, when you took
+your observation at noon?"
+
+This was a ticklish question, and the mate hardly knew how to answer it,
+recollecting, as he did in an instant, what I had said--of our being
+much further westwards than the skipper thought.  Even if he did not
+agree with me, the point should have been referred to Captain Billings,
+as it so vitally concerned the interests of all on board.  Almost
+tongue-tied, therefore, now by his former silence on the subject, he
+temporised with the difficulty, determined not to be cornered if he
+could help it.
+
+"'Deed an' I mad' it e'en the same as the deed reck'nin' cam' to,
+Cap'en, a wee bit to the westwar' o' twenty-seven, and close to the
+leen."
+
+"Then your sextant must have been out of order, or your calculations
+wrong," replied the skipper, shortly.  "We are evidently much to the
+westwards of your reckoning.  How did you observe the danger--was there
+a man on the look-out?"
+
+"Nae, sir, I didna think we required yon," answered Macdougall, now at
+his wit's end for a reply.
+
+"No, I should think not," said Captain Billings, in his dry way; "but
+who was it that warned you in time to wear the ship?"
+
+"Mister Leigh, sir," put in Jorrocks, thinking the time now come to
+speak up for me.  "He heard the noise of the breakers first, and called
+my 'tention to 'em, and I then sung out to put the helm up."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated the skipper, quite taken aback by my name being thus
+suddenly brought up by Jorrocks--just as he was thinking of me and my
+recent shortcomings, as he afterwards explained to me.
+
+"Yes, sir," continued my old friend the boatswain, believing it best to
+push the matter home, now he had once introduced me on the carpet; "and
+he begged me to tell you, sir, as how he'd left his chart on the cabin
+sky-light, where he'd jotted down summat as he'd diskivered when taking
+the sun, before the rumpus arose 'twixt him and Muster Macdougall."
+
+"Chart!" interposed the mate, making a step towards the sky-light, and
+trying to throw the tarpaulin that was hanging there over it whilst
+pretending to drag it off, "I see no chart here."
+
+"Why, here it is," exclaimed the skipper, noticing one end of the roll,
+which projected from beneath the tarpaulin; and, pulling it out, he
+walked back again towards the binnacle, by the light of which he
+inspected my tracing of the ship's path on the chart carefully.
+
+"Pass the word forwards for Martin Leigh," he cried out presently; and
+I, listening below in the waist, just under the break of the poop, to
+all that had transpired, very quickly answering to the call of my name
+as it was sung out by Jorrocks, mounted up the poop ladder, and advanced
+aft to where Captain Billings stood.
+
+"Leigh," said he, quietly, "I have sent for you to explain matters about
+this chart.  Did you take an observation to-day as I told you?"
+
+"Yes, sir," I replied.
+
+"And did you agree with Mr Macdougall?"
+
+"No, sir," said I, unable to avoid the joke, "we didn't agree--we fell
+out, as you saw!"
+
+Jorrocks burst out laughing at this, and even the skipper himself
+couldn't repress a smile--although he bit his lips to hide it, seeing
+the first mate scowling at me as if he could eat me up without salt, for
+he was afraid of the truth now coming out.
+
+"Don't be impudent, Leigh! you know what I mean well enough.  Did your
+calculation agree with that of Mr Macdougall?" asked Captain Billings
+again.
+
+"No, Captain Billings," I answered, this time gravely enough.  "I found
+that our dead reckoning was nearly thirty leagues out, some set of
+current having carried us considerably to the westward; but when I told
+this to Mr Macdougall, he called me a fool."
+
+"Why did you not come and report the matter to me?"
+
+"Well, sir, I didn't have time to," I said.  "When Mr Macdougall spoke
+to me in that way, I suppose I gave him a cheeky retort, for he
+threatened to knock me down."
+
+"And then?" asked the skipper, when I paused here, not wishing to tell
+of my being floored.
+
+"Why, I dared him to touch me," I continued, "and he did knock me down."
+
+"Did he?  I heard nothing of this before!  I thought that you had
+attacked Mr Macdougall first--indeed, he told me so himself!"  Captain
+Billings said, with much surprise, eyeing the first mate suspiciously.
+
+At this point, an unexpected witness stepped forth in my defence, in the
+person of Haxell, the taciturn carpenter.  This individual seldom spoke
+to any one unless previously addressed; so his voluntary testimony on my
+behalf was all the more striking and effective, especially as it was
+given in the very nick of time.
+
+"Aye, but the lad didn't," now sang out Haxell, who had come up on the
+poop without any one previously noticing him.  "I saw Mr Macdougall
+knock him down twice afore ever he raised his hand ag'in' him."
+
+"The deuce he did!" exclaimed the skipper, indignantly; and then turning
+on the first mate, he gave him another "dressing down" before all the
+men, such as I never heard given to any one before.  It, really, almost
+made me feel sorry for him!
+
+"You lying thing!" he cried to Mr Macdougall in withering accents, the
+scorn of which was more than I could express in words.  "I can't call
+you a man, and you aren't a sailor, by Jove, for sailors don't behave
+like that to poor friendless orphan boys!  You have told me a heap of
+falsehoods about this whole occurrence from first to last, and I despise
+you from the bottom of my soul for the way in which you have acted
+throughout.  I'm only sorry we're at sea, for you shouldn't stop an hour
+longer in my ship if I could help it!"
+
+"But, Cap'en," interposed Mr Macdougall, feebly, trying to ward off the
+storm of the skipper's wrath, "the ill favourt loon provokit me, and was
+mair than inseelent."
+
+"Phaugh, man!" exclaimed Captain Billings, with intense disgust.  "Don't
+try and excuse yourself; it only makes matters much worse!  I don't mind
+your knocking the lad down, and I daresay Leigh would forgive you for
+that, too; but what I am indignant at is the fact of your telling such a
+gross lie about the transaction, and allowing me to take an unjust view
+of the quarrel--making me disrate the young fellow, and punish him as I
+did, under a false, impression of what his conduct had been, all of
+which a word from you might have altered!  Besides, just think how in
+your conceited ignorance you nearly wrecked the ship and sacrificed all
+our lives through your refusal to take a hint from the lad as to our
+position.  Why, I don't mind receiving a suggestion from the humblest
+foremast hand any day!"
+
+"But--" put in the mate again, trying to defend himself.
+
+His appeal, however, was in vain, for the skipper would not listen to
+him for a moment.
+
+"You had better go below, Mr Macdougall," he said.  "I cannot speak
+calmly to you now, and the sooner you're out of my sight the better for
+you!  But stop a minute," he added, as if on after reflection.  "As you
+were present when I disrated Leigh--on the ground mainly of your false
+statements as to his having assaulted you without any provocation on
+your part, which has now been proved to have been false--it is only
+right that you should also be present at the restoration of the lad to
+his former post.  Leigh!"
+
+"Here, sir," I replied to this last hail of the skipper's, on his
+completing his reprimand to the mate.  I anticipated, of course, what
+was coming, and my heart gave an exultant thump, almost "leaping into my
+mouth," as the saying is.
+
+"I'm sorry, my boy, I did you a wrong this afternoon," said Captain
+Billings, stretching out his hand kindly to me as he spoke.  "I hope,
+however, you'll forgive me, and bear no malice.  I now wish you to
+return to your duties as acting second mate in Mr Ohlsen's place until
+he's fit and well again; and I trust you'll have no further
+disagreements with any of the officers of the ship."
+
+"Thank you, sir," I answered respectfully, accepting the hand he offered
+and giving it a cordial shake.  "I will be very careful of my conduct in
+future, and I'm sorry for being impertinent to Mr Macdougall--"
+
+I turned here towards where the first mate had been standing; but he had
+disappeared, so the skipper accepted the apology I intended for him, on
+his behalf in his absence, making short my _amende honorable_.
+
+"Never mind him now, my lad," he said, waving his hand as if dismissing
+Mr Macdougall from further consideration.  "He's gone below, and joy go
+with him, if he's got any conscience!  And, by the way, Leigh, I shan't
+forget that you've saved all our lives to-night by your timely warning."
+
+"It was more Jorrocks than I, sir," I interposed here, stopping the
+skipper's thanks.  "I thought the sound of the breakers was caused by a
+lot of whales blowing near us; but he knew better, and he it was who
+sang out to the helmsman."
+
+"Well, well, we won't argue the point," replied Captain Billings,
+laughing.  "I will say you both had a hand in it, if that'll suit you
+better; but now, to end the controversy, you can go and turn in to your
+old bunk, as I intend keeping the first watch till we're safe on our
+right track again."
+
+To hear was to obey, although, before I left the poop, the _Esmeralda_
+having got well away from the perilous rocks that had nearly been her
+ruin, I had the satisfaction of seeing her hauled round again up to the
+wind, with her head pointing south, thus resuming her proper course
+towards Cape Horn--only now with a more southerly pitch, sailing close-
+handed on the port tack.
+
+Towards four bells in the morning watch we achieved the wonderful
+nautical feat of "Crossing the Line," and, as I was on deck at the time,
+interviewing Pat Doolan in order to coax some coffee out of him, the
+Irish cook had a joke or two at my expense, under the plea of
+christening me on my entrance into Neptune's rightful "territory"--if
+that term be not a Hibernian bull, considering the said territory is
+supposed to lie below the sea!
+
+It was only our thirty-third day out, and some of the hands were
+congratulating themselves on our having got so far on our journey, many
+vessels knocking about the equator when within reach of it for days
+frequently before they can accomplish the passage.
+
+"Be jabers!" said Doolan, "I call to mind once whin I was goin' from Noo
+Yark to Australy in a schooner with a cargo o' mules--"
+
+"Lor', here's a bender coming now!" interrupted one of the crew with a
+laugh.
+
+"Whisht, now!" ejaculated the cook indignantly.  "Sure an' it's the
+trooth I'm tell'n ye, an' niver a lie!  Whin I were a goin' to Australy
+in this here schooner, we kept dancing about hereabouts till a lot ov
+them blessed mules died, an' in coorse we hove 'em overboard as soon as
+they turned up their toes."
+
+"That's a good un!" put in Jorrocks, who was standing by.  "This is the
+fust time I ever heard tell of a mule having toes!"
+
+"Well, hooves thin, if you likes them betther," said Pat, a little upset
+by this correction.  "But, as I was a sayin' when this omahdaun here
+took the word out ov me mouth, unlike the raal gintleman he ginerally
+is--"
+
+"Stow that flummery," cried Jorrocks, putting his hands before his face,
+under pretence of blushing at the compliment; but Doolan took no notice
+of him further, proceeding with his yarn.
+
+"Whin we hove them mules over the side, I noticed one as was coollured
+most peculiar, all sthripes ov black on a white skin, jist like one ov
+them zaybrays they haves in the sarcus show, an' they're called so, by
+the same token, 'case they brays like a donkey and comes over the zay,
+you see?"
+
+"Aye, we see," said the hands, winking at each other and whispering that
+Pat was "carrying on finely this morning!"
+
+"Well, bhoys, as I was a sayin'," continued the narrator, serving out
+pannikins of hot coffee to the watch the while, and so attending to duty
+and pleasure in the same breath, "I notic't this sthripy mule when it
+was chucked over the side at the beginning of the month.  It was last
+August twelvemonth as how we was crossing the Line; and, after pitching
+the poor brute over, we sailed on and on--would you belayve it?--aye,
+for thray weeks longer, as I'm a living sinner, whin one foine mornin',
+jist the same as this now, the look-out man sings out as he says a boat
+floating ahid ov the schooner!  Our old man, thinkin' there might be
+sowls in the blissid thing, puts the vessel off ov her coorse to fetch
+to windward ov it; and blest if what the look-out man thought was a boat
+wasn't the self-same carkiss ov that there sthripy mule we hove over
+three weeks before!"
+
+"You'll do," was the comment of Jorrocks to this story.  "You 'mind me,
+Pat, of a yarn I heard once about an old lady and a chap who knew how to
+`bowse his jib up,' same as yourself."
+
+"What was that?"  I asked, seeing that Jorrocks looked as if he were
+primed up to fire off another story, and only needed a little pressing
+to make him reel it out.
+
+"Lord, Mister Leigh, it ain't nothing to speak of," he began, with a
+preliminary hitch of his trowser stocks; "it's only what them book-
+people calls a nanny goat."
+
+"An anecdote, eh?"  I said.  "Well, that'll be all the better.  Heave
+ahead with it now you're on the tack."
+
+"All right, then," replied Jorrocks.  "Here goes.  You must know as how
+this old lady were going over the Atlantic for the fust time, being on a
+voyage from Falmouth to Saint Kitts, in the West h'Indies; and she were
+mighty curious, when she had rekivered from sea-sickness, about all the
+strange sights o' the h'ocean, pestering the cap'en to death with
+questions.
+
+"One day she tackled the old man 'bout flying fish.  `Bless me, Mr
+Capting,' she says, `is it really true as how there be fishes as fly
+hereabouts?'
+
+"Now, it were just on to noon that day, and the old man was busy 'bout
+taking a sight o' the sun, the same as you're so handy with, Mister
+Leigh; so he says to the old lady, `I'm engaged, mum, at present, but if
+you axes that man there at the wheel while I goes below, he'll tell you
+all about it.'
+
+"So, as soon as he dives down the companion to take the time of the
+chronometer below, the old lady goes up to the helmsman--all bridling up
+and curtseying down, the same as a ship in a heavy head sea.
+
+"`Good-morning, Mr Sailor,' says she.
+
+"`Mornin',' says the man at the wheel, who was a rough old shellback,
+and didn't waste his words like Pat Doolan here.
+
+"`Is it really true, Mr Sailor,' says the old lady, `as how there are
+fishes in the sea in these latitoods, as can fly in the air, like birds?
+The capting told me to ax you, or I wouldn't trouble you.'
+
+"`Bless you, mum, no trouble at all,' answered the man.  `In course
+there be flying fish hereabouts; you'll see flocks of 'em presently.'
+
+"`And are they very large, Mr Sailor?' says the old lady.
+
+"`Large, mum?' repeats the helmsman, looking around as if in search of
+something to liken the size of the fish to.  `Why, I've seed em as big
+round as--aye, as the stump of that there mizzen-mast there!'
+
+"`My good gracious!' screams the old lady, `Why, they must be larger nor
+crocodiles!'
+
+"`Aye, all that,' says the man, as cool as you please.  `The last voyage
+I was on, my mate was in the foretop of the vessel I was in, looking out
+to windward, when pop jumps one of 'em right down his throat!'
+
+"`And the fish was as big as the mizzen-mast there?' says the old lady,
+curious like, in her surprise at the chap's awful bender; although she
+didn't misdoubt his telling her the truth, for she would ha' took in
+anything!
+
+"But he was too fly for her, was my joker!
+
+"`You mustn't speak to the man at the wheel!' says he, gruffly; and so
+he got out cleverly from answering any more questions on the point--
+smart of him, wasn't it?"
+
+I could not help laughing at this story, the other hands joining in the
+merriment; all of us, though, wondering how Pat Doolan would take it.
+
+The Irishman, however, did not consider there was anything personal in
+it.  Other people's pulls at the long-bow always seem much more apparent
+than one's own!
+
+"Ov coorse that chap was takin' a rise out of the ould lady," he said
+parenthetically; "but what I tould you ov the mule was thrue enough."
+
+"What! do you mean to say that you were sailing away from the carcase
+for three weeks and came across it again?"  I inquired, with a smile.
+
+"Not a doubt ov it," replied the Irishman, stoutly, "and going good
+siven knots an hour by the log, too, at that!  I rec'lect that v'yage o'
+mine in that schooner well, too, by the same token!  It was there I
+found that Manilla guernsey ov mine so handy ag'in' the could."
+
+"A Manilla guernsey?" said Jorrocks, in much amazement.  "I know what
+Manilla cables are, and I've heard tell o' Manilla cigars, though I've
+never smoked 'em; but a Manilla guernsey--why, who ever came across sich
+an outlandish thing?"
+
+"Be jabers, I have, boatswain," cried Pat Doolan.  "Sure, an' I made it
+mysilf; so, if you'll listen, I'll till ye all about it."
+
+"Hooray, here's another bender!" sang out the chaps standing by; but,
+seeing that the cook appeared as if he would turn rusty if they showed
+any further incredulity at his statements, they composed their
+faces--"looking nine ways for Sunday," as the phrase goes; or, like the
+Carthaginians when the pious Aeneas was spinning that wonderful yarn of
+his which we read about in Virgil, in the presence of Queen Dido and her
+court, _conticuere omnes et ora tenebant_!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+CAUGHT IN A PAMPERO.
+
+"Sure an' you must bear in mind, messmates," commenced Pat, coming
+outside his galley and leaning against the side in free-and-easy
+fashion, "when I wint aboord that vessel in Noo Yark, I was a poor
+gossoon, badly off for clothes, having no more slops than I could carry
+handy in a hankercher."
+
+"Not like your splendiferous kit now," observed Sails, the sail-maker,
+with a nudge in Jorrocks' ribs to point the joke--the cook's gear in the
+way of raiment being none of the best.
+
+"No, not a ha'porth ov it," proceeded the Irishman, taking no notice of
+the sarcastic allusion to his wardrobe.  "To till the truth, I'd only
+jist what I stood up in, for I'd hard times ov it in the States, an' was
+glad enough to ship in the schooner to git out ov the way ov thim rowdy
+Yankees, bad cess to 'em!  They trate dacint Irishmen no betther nor if
+they were dirthy black nayghurs, anyhow!  How so be it, as soon as I got
+afloat ag'in, I made up my mind to git some traps togither as soon as I
+could."
+
+"Let you alone for that!" interposed Sails again, maliciously.
+
+"Arrah, be aisy now, old bradawl and palm-string, or I'll bring ye up
+with a round turn!" exclaimed Pat, getting nettled at the remark.
+
+"Why can't you let him be?" cried the rest, thereupon.  "Heave ahead,
+cooky;" and, so encouraged, the Irishman once more made a fresh start,
+declaring, however, that if he were once more interrupted they'd "never
+hear nothing" of what he was going to tell them, "at all, at all!"
+
+Peace being then restored, he resumed the burden of his tale.
+
+"As soon as the ould schooner was riddy to start with all thim mules
+aboard, we got a tugboat to take us in tow down the harbour out to the
+Narrows, as they calls the entrance to Noo Yark Bay; and whin the tug's
+hawser was fetched over our bows to be fastened to the bollards I sees
+that the rope's a bran-new Manilla one.
+
+"`Aha,' thinks I, `that's a foine pace of rope anyhow!  I'll have a bit
+ov you, me lad, to stow away with my duds; mayhap ye'll come in handy
+by-and-bye!' and so saying to meeself, I sings out to the chap on the
+tugboat a-paying out the hawser, to give me some more slack, and he
+heaves over a fathom or two more, which allowed me to cut off a good
+length, lavin' plenty yit to belay around the bollards; an' whin no one
+was lookin' I takes the pace ov cable below and kicks it away in the
+forepeak, so as I could know where to foind it forenenst the time I
+wanted for to use it.
+
+"Well, we sailed away from Sandy Hook down to the Line, an' sailed and
+sailed, losin' most of our mules, and making no headway, as I've tould
+you, until at last we got into the south-east Trades, same as this ship
+is now, and fetched down the coast to Cape Horn.
+
+"Presently, it begins to get so could, that for want of clothing I was
+nearly blue-mouldy with the frost in the nights, until I could stand it
+no longer; but none ov the chaps had any duds to spare, an' I was clane
+out of me head what for to do.
+
+"One evening, howsoever, whin I were that blue with could as I could
+have sarved for a Blue Pater if triced up to the mast-head, a sinsible
+kind ov idea sthruck me.
+
+"`Be jabers,' sez I to mesilf, `I'm forgettin' that pace of Manilla
+hawser I've got stowed away; sure an' it'll make an illigant overall!'
+
+"No sooner I thinks that, than down I goes to the forepeak, where I
+found me rope all right; and thin, thin and there, boys, I unreaves the
+strands, making it all into spun yarn--you know, I s'pose, as how I'm a
+sail-maker by rights, like Sails here, and not a reg'ler cook?"
+
+"The deuce you are!" ejaculated Sails; "you never told us that before."
+
+"No fear," replied Pat.  "Faix, I don't till you iverythin' I knows--I
+larnt better nor that from the monkeys in Brazil, old ship!"
+
+"But what did you do with the Manilla hemp arter you unrove the hawser?"
+asked Jorrocks, his curiosity now roused by the matter-of-fact way in
+which the Irishman told his story--relating it as if every word was "the
+true truth," according to the French idiom.
+
+"Why, you omahdaun, I jist worked it into a guernsey, knitting it from
+the nick downwards, the same as the ladies, bless 'em! do them woollen
+fallals that they wear round theirselves."
+
+"You wove it into a guernsey?" cried Sails, in astonishment.
+
+"Aye, I did that so," returned Pat; "and wore it, too, all round Cape
+Horn!"
+
+"Then let me look at you a little closer," cried the sail-maker, pulling
+Doolan towards him, and passing his hand over his nose.
+
+"What the blazes are ye afther, man?" asked Pat, not being able to make
+out what the other meant by handling him in that fashion.
+
+"Only seeing if you had my mark," said Sails, calmly; "and here it is,
+by all that's powerful!"
+
+"Your mark, Sails?  What on airth d'ye mane?"
+
+"Why, whenever I sews up a chap in his hammock as dies at sea, which
+I've often had to do as part of the sail-maker's duty in the many ships
+I've been in, I allers makes a p'int of sticking my needle through the
+corpse's nose, to prevent him slipping out of his covering."
+
+"What!" ejaculated the Irishman, startled for the moment out of his
+native keenness of wit; "an' is it m'aning to say as it's a could corpus
+I've been, an' that I've bin did an' buried in the bottom of the say?"
+
+"Aye, aye, my hearty," answered Sails, with great nonchalance.  "And
+I've sewed you up in your hammock, too, for sarten--that is, just as
+sure as you fetched across that there streaky mule of yourn, arter
+sailing over the ocean for three weeks, and made a guernsey frock out of
+a Manilla hawser!"
+
+There was a regular shout of laughter from all hands at the sail-maker
+thus turning the tables so completely on the Irishman, who got so angry
+at our merriment for the moment that he retired within his caboose,
+slamming the half-door too, and declaring that not a single mother's son
+of those present should have the taste of hot coffee again in the
+morning watch!
+
+However, Pat's fits of temper were as evanescent as they were quickly
+produced, and presently he was laughing and talking away as if he had
+not been offended, enjoying the joke Sails had against him almost as
+much as any of the others.
+
+Two days after crossing the Line we sighted the Rocas, on passing the
+parallel of Fernando Noronha, where the Brazilians have a penal
+settlement; and, on the third day, we cleared the Cape of Saint Roque,
+which is the most projecting point of the South American continent--
+stretching out, as it does, miles into the Atlantic Ocean, while the
+coast-line on either side of it trends away in a wide sweep, away
+westwards, north and south, back from the sea.
+
+After passing Saint Roque, we ran down our latitudes rapidly, the south-
+east Trades keeping with us until we had reached the twentieth parallel;
+and we fetched Rio on our forty-second day out.  This was not bad time,
+considering the great distance we were driven out of our way by the
+gale, and the fact of our subsequently knocking about for a week in the
+Doldrums.
+
+With regard to matters on board the ship, I may state here, that, from
+the date of that eventful night when the _Esmeralda_ had so
+providentially escaped being wrecked on the Rocks of Saint Paul, and
+Captain Billings, after "dressing down" the mate, had restored me to my
+former position aft, Mr Macdougall had not spoken a single word to me,
+although I had made many overtures of peace towards him, wishing the
+matter to drop--nothing being so unpleasant as to be on awkward terms
+with any one with whom one is brought in constant contact, especially
+when the daggers-drawn parties are cooped up together in a vessel on the
+high seas.
+
+But, no; he would not accept the olive branch.
+
+When it was time for me to relieve his watch, the mate invariably sent
+one of the hands to summon me, telling me through the same medium the
+course to be steered, and giving what orders were necessary for the
+working of the ship, so that there should be no occasion for any
+conversation between us; and it likewise happened that when we were on
+deck together, as was frequently the case during the day, he always
+walked on the weather side of the poop, while I took the leeward place--
+that is, unless the skipper was there too, when of course the latter
+promenaded the more honourable beat, and I walked by his side, while Mr
+Macdougall had the lee-side then all to himself.
+
+At meal-times also, in the cabin, he took care that we should not meet,
+never coming in until after I had left the table, and always rising up
+to go on deck should I enter while he was there.
+
+The mate held aloof in a similar fashion from the skipper, the two never
+interchanging a word save with reference to the navigation of the
+vessel.  He seemed, indeed, to have sent us both to Coventry, although
+Captain Billings made no comment to me on his conduct; but I did not
+fail to notice--what indeed was the popular belief through the ship--
+that, if the first mate was paying us out in this way, he did not forget
+to "take it out of the crew" in another and very practical mode of his
+own, which was by driving them as hard as a workhouse superintendent in
+charge of a lot of poor paupers.
+
+To return to the ship and her voyage, I should observe that, after the
+south-east Trades failed us--succeeded for a short spell by light
+variable winds, as we kept well away from the coast, and so perhaps
+missed the land breeze that we might have had--we picked up the south-
+west monsoon, which carried us past Rio Janeiro.
+
+The term monsoon, or "monsun," I may explain, is derived from an Arabic
+word, _mausim_, meaning "a set time, or season of the year;" and is
+generally applied to a system of regular wind currents, like the Trades,
+blowing in different hemispheres beyond the range of those old customers
+with which ordinary voyagers are familiar.
+
+From Rio we ran down in five days to the Plate River, having fine
+weather and making pretty good sailing all the time, as indeed we had
+done since crossing the Line; but, arrived off Monte Video, we soon had
+warning that our quiet days of progress through the water on one tack,
+without shifting a brace or starting a sheet, were numbered with the
+fortunate things of the past.
+
+One morning, just when we were in latitude 34 degrees 55 minutes south,
+and 55 degrees 10 minutes West, or nearly a hundred miles off the wide
+estuary of the Rio de la Plata, I noticed a peculiar phenomenon.
+
+The wind was blowing from the northward of west, while the atmosphere
+was bright and clear, so that the horizon was extended to almost double
+its ordinary distance; but, although no land was to be seen anywhere in
+sight, myriads of little winged insects began all at once to hover over
+us, just as if we were close in shore under the lee of some tropical
+forest, while our hands, clothes, faces, and the ship's rigging as well,
+began to be covered with long, white, hair-like webs, similar to those
+woven by spiders in a garden shrubbery!  I couldn't make it out at all,
+feeling inclined to view the matter as one of those extraordinary freaks
+of Nature, which even science is unable to throw any light on--phenomena
+that are every now and then exhibited to us, as if only to show our
+ignorance of the workings of the invisible Power around us guiding the
+movements and physical cosmogony of our sphere; but Jorrocks, who was a
+thorough seaman, believing in portents, and thinking that everything
+unusual at sea was sent for a purpose, and "meant something," advised my
+calling the skipper.
+
+"I 'specs, Mister Leigh," said he, "as how there's a squall brewing, or
+summat, for they're pretty plentiful down here when the wind bears round
+to the west."
+
+"All right, Jorrocks; I'll give him a hail," I replied; and leaving the
+boatswain in charge of the deck, it being my watch, I went down to wake
+up the skipper, he having only turned in just before I came on duty.
+
+"How's the glass?" asked Captain Billings, as soon as I had roused him
+and told him what I had observed.
+
+"I didn't think of looking at it, sir," I replied.
+
+"Then do so at once," he said; "a sailor should never fail to consult
+his barometer, even when the weather is apparently fine, for it gives
+warning of any change hours, perhaps, before it may occur.  It is an
+unswerving guide--more so than the wind and sky in some latitudes."
+
+I hastened now to look at the instrument, and noticing that it had
+fallen, I reported the fact to the skipper as he was dressing.
+
+"Ah," said he, "then that has occurred since I turned in;" and,
+completing his toilet rapidly, he soon followed me on deck, whither I
+returned at once.
+
+In the short interval of my absence below, however, there was a marked
+alteration in the scene.
+
+The wind had dropped to the faintest breeze, which presently, too, died
+away, succeeded by a dead stillness of the atmosphere, while the sea
+became like glass, except where an occasional heave of the unbroken
+surface betrayed the restless force beneath that seeming calm; and,
+instead of the clear sky and wide-stretching horizon melting into the
+azure distance, which had previously struck me with admiration, a thick
+haze had crept up over the heavens from the westwards, which, extending
+right up to the zenith, had soon shut out the bright sunlight, making it
+darker than night--the air becoming at the same time chill and cold.
+
+I had not much leisure, though, to note the pictorial effects of the
+scene; for I heard the skipper's voice behind me.
+
+"By Jove, Leigh!" he exclaimed, "we're going to have one of those
+pamperos, as they call them, that come off the mouth of the Plate; and
+we'll have all our work cut out for us to be ready in time.  Call the
+other watch, boatswain!"
+
+"Aye, aye, sir," replied Jorrocks; and quickly his familiar hail rang
+out fore and aft, as he rapped on the scuttle forwards--
+
+"All ha-a-ands take in sail!"
+
+We were carrying a full spread of canvas at the time; but the men,
+tumbling out of their bunks with a will, not having had much of that
+sort of work lately, were soon clambering up the rigging, furling the
+royals and topgallant sails--I amongst them, you may be sure, having
+been the first, as usual, on the main royal yard.
+
+"Now, men, take in the flying jib," cried Captain Billings, when we had
+come below, having so far stripped the ship for the coming fight; and
+the headsail was stowed, the spanker and trysail were brailed, the
+courses hauled up and the yards squared, when we awaited the attack of
+the pampero.
+
+"It'll soon be on us now," said the skipper, seeing that the heavens
+became blacker and blacker to the westwards; and presently it came!
+
+A streak of vivid lightning shot out from the blue-black storm-clouds
+that were hung over the ship like a funeral pall, lighting up the
+surrounding gloom and making it appear all the more sombre afterwards
+from the momentary illumination; and then, with a crash of thunder--that
+seemed as if the sky above was riven open, it was so awfully loud and
+reverberating--the tornado burst upon us, accompanied by a fierce blast
+of wind, that almost took the ship aback, and would have sent her down
+beneath the water in an instant to a certainty if we had been under
+sail.
+
+"Let fly everything!" shouted the skipper; and the halliards being cast
+loose, the topsails came down on the caps by the run; when the
+_Esmeralda_, paying off from the wind, began to exhibit her old form of
+showing her heels to the enemy--tearing away through the sea with all
+her sheets flying.
+
+Along with the pampero came a terrific shower of hail that lacerated our
+faces and almost took away our breath for the moment; but, never heeding
+this, on the skipper issuing his orders, we were up aloft again reefing
+topsails in a jiffey, and, as soon as the halliards had been manned and
+the yards rehoisted, the courses were furled and the jib hauled down,
+the fore-topmast staysail being set in its place.  Everything being now
+made snug, the vessel was brought once more round to her course on the
+starboard tack, heading a little to the westward of south.
+
+To the hail succeeded a heavy storm of rain; and then, the pampero
+having blown itself out by its sudden frenzy, a short calm now came on,
+after which the wind chopped round to the old quarter, the southwards
+and eastwards, bringing us back again to the port tack as we steered
+between the Falkland Islands and the South American continent--keeping
+in closer to the land now, for any fresh wind that might spring up would
+be certain to come from off shore.
+
+The day of the pampero, however, did not pass by before another incident
+happened on board the _Esmeralda_.
+
+When "all hands" were called, of course Mr Macdougall came up too; and,
+although he did not go aloft the same as I did to help in reefing
+topsails and furl the canvas--for he was neither so young nor so active
+as myself, and besides, it was not his place as first mate of the ship
+thus to aid the crew in doing the practical part of their duty--yet, on
+deck, he was of much assistance to the skipper in seeing that his
+different orders were promptly executed at the moment required; being
+not chary either of lending a hand at a brace when help was necessary,
+and exerting himself as much as any one, in a way very unusual for him.
+
+So now, when the pampero had passed away and the excitement was over,
+Captain Billings, in his joyful exuberance of feeling at the _Esmeralda_
+having weathered the peril, went up to him and shook hands cordially.
+
+"Hurrah, Macdougall!" he exclaimed, "the old barquey has been too much
+for my River Plate bully of a pampero."
+
+"Aye, mon, she's weethered it weel, I ween," replied the mate, accepting
+the proffered pledge of restored friendship; and he was shaking away at
+the skipper's fist as if he was never going to relinquish its grasp,
+when, suddenly, the calm came on that I have mentioned, and the sails
+flapped against the masts heavily, shaking the ship and making the
+rigging vibrate.
+
+Both Mr Macdougall and the skipper looked aloft, impelled by the same
+instinct, as they stood aft, the mate close to the taffrail; when, at
+that instant, the spanker boom swinging round, the lee sheet--not being
+hauled taut--caught the mate athwart his chest and swept him
+incontinently over the side!
+
+I was on the opposite side of the deck, witnessing with much
+satisfaction the mode in which he and the skipper had made up their
+differences, the feud having lasted for over a fortnight; but, on seeing
+the accident, was for a moment horror-struck.
+
+However, I soon recovered myself.
+
+"Man overboard!"  I shouted out, with all the power of my lungs; and
+then, without hesitation, I plunged after Mr Macdougall into the sea.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+ON FIRE IN THE HOLD!
+
+The wind had dropped to a calm, as I've mentioned, just before this; but
+the sea was still running high, with those heavy waves that get up in a
+moment in the lower latitudes as soon as it begins to blow.  But I never
+thought of this when I plunged in to the mate's rescue.
+
+When I was at Dr Hellyer's, the only two things I ever really learnt
+that were of any use to me in my after-life were, a substantial
+grounding in mathematics--thanks to "Smiley"--which subsequently made
+the study of navigation easy to me when Sam Pengelly put me under charge
+of a tutor; and, secondly, the art of swimming, the place where the
+school was situated and the practice of taking out the boys on the beach
+for the purpose every day, offering great facilities to any one with the
+least aptitude for taking to the water and possessed of a desire to
+learn how to support himself in it.
+
+Now, therefore, I found the second of these acquirements to stand me in
+good stead--the consciousness of knowing how to swim, not only giving me
+the courage to leap over the vessel's side after the unfortunate man,
+but also enabling me to decide what to do when I found myself battling
+with the waves on my errand of succour.
+
+The _Esmeralda's_ quarter was a good height from the sea level; so, on
+my diving off, what with this and the impetus of my leap, I went
+considerably below the surface, coming up panting for breath some
+distance away from the ship, which, having still a little way on her,
+besides offering a considerable surface of hull for the waves to act
+upon, was drifting further and further off each instant.
+
+I had no concern about this, though, the only impression on my mind
+being the necessity of getting hold of Mr Macdougall as soon as I
+could; and when I had recovered from the half-suffocating feeling
+produced by my impromptu long dive beneath the Atlantic rollers, I
+raised myself on the top of one of these, and proceeded to look for the
+first mate, who ought, I thought, to be pretty close to me.
+
+The water struck bitterly cold, as I trod it down in order to elevate
+myself as much as I could and so have a wider view around, for it made
+my limbs feel as if cramp was coming on; but I kicked out vigorously,
+and the sensation passing off I began to feel more at home in the water,
+and as confident as if I were bathing off the shore at Beachampton--
+albeit I was now having a bath in the middle of the Southern ocean, with
+my ship almost half a mile from me by this time!
+
+I did not see Mr Macdougall anywhere at first, so I feared that the
+force with which the boom sheet had come against his chest might have so
+injured him as to paralyse his movements when he fell overboard; but,
+presently, when I rose on the crest of another huge rolling billow that
+took me up a little higher aloft, I saw him struggling in one of the
+watery valleys between the ridges of the waves about half a cable's
+length away to the windward of me, so that I was between him and the
+ship, whose sails alone now were all I could see of her from my low
+position in the water.
+
+Catching sight of him, at once inspired me with fresh courage, making me
+as buoyant as a cork; and I faced the task before me, offering up a
+heartfelt prayer that I might accomplish it successfully.
+
+"Hold up, Mr Macdougall!  I'm coming to help you!"  I cried out as
+loudly as I could, for he seemed just then, from the look of despair I
+saw on his face, to be on the point of chucking up his hands and
+allowing himself to sink to the bottom, impressed probably with the
+hopelessness of attempting to reach the vessel.  Then, striking out with
+a good strong breast-stroke, which is worth all your fancy side business
+in rough water, I made towards him; although, having to go against the
+set of the sea, I found it much harder work than merely keeping myself
+afloat, which was all that I had previously tried to do, without
+actually swimming.
+
+He did not hear my shout, being to windward; but, when I rose presently
+on another wave-crest nearer him, I could perceive that he saw me, from
+the way in which he raised one of his arms in his excitement--the effect
+of which was, of course, to cause his head to go under and make him
+believe his last hour was come.
+
+"Help, help!" he screamed, when he got above the surface again,
+spluttering out words and water together; "I'm droonin', mon--help, mon,
+help!"
+
+I could hear him distinctly from my being to leeward, and as I was much
+nearer to him now, I cried out again to encourage him--
+
+"Hold on, Mr Macdougall!  I'll be with you in a minute!"
+
+Then, with half a dozen strong, sturdy strokes, aided by a wave that
+worked him towards me, I was by his side.
+
+He was utterly exhausted, having, like most unpractised swimmers, pumped
+himself out by splashing about with short jerky movements of his hands
+and legs, which only wearied him without advancing him through the
+opposing billows or assisting him to keep up; and, on my coming up to
+him, as all drowning men in similar circumstances invariably do, he made
+a frantic clutch at me, when, if he had succeeded in grasping me, we
+should both have sunk to the bottom.
+
+But I took very good care he should not touch me, for Tom Larkyns and I
+when at Hellyer's used to make a practice in fun of pretending we were
+going down when out bathing, and the one or other of us who acted the
+part of rescuer would always study how to approach the feigning drowner,
+so as to help him effectually without incurring any risk of being pulled
+below the surface; so, on Mr Macdougall stretching out his clutching
+hands, endeavouring to get hold of me, I was quite on my guard to avoid
+his grip.
+
+Diving below him, I seized him by the back of the neck, his long sandy
+hair, which was streaming with water, enabling me to take a firm grip.
+
+"Don't try to hinder me," I cried hurriedly between breaths, for the sea
+was very rough, and it wasn't easy to speak.  "Keep perfectly quiet, and
+I'll save you."
+
+The Scotsman gave a wriggle or two, but, like most of his countrymen, he
+had a good deal of common sense and self-command, which made him remain
+passive after a bit; when, throwing myself on my back, I floated,
+dragging his head across my body, so that he might rest awhile and
+recover himself before trying to swim towards the ship.
+
+Presently he endeavoured to look round, so as to see who it was that had
+come to his assistance.
+
+"Hold hard!"  I said.  "You mustn't move, or I'll have to let you go;"
+for, I can state, it was a difficult job supporting him in that way, and
+it took all my paddling to keep our united weight up.
+
+"Ah!" he exclaimed, "I ken the voice--eet's you, Leigh, eesn't it?"
+
+"Yes, Mr Macdougall, it's me," said I.  "Do you feel better now?"
+
+But he did not answer me for a moment, although I felt a tremble go
+through his frame.
+
+A moment afterwards, with what sounded like a sob, he cried out, "You
+brave laddie!  To theenk that you of all ithers should ha' coom to save
+a reckless loon lik' me, the noo!  It's a joogement on me for me cruel
+leeing again' you, boy; you've heapit coals o' fire on me head!"
+
+"Never mind that now, Mr Macdougall," I said.  "We've got to see about
+getting back to the ship, and then we can let bygones be bygones!  Have
+you got your breath back now?"
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"Do you think you can manage to put a hand on my shoulder, and rest
+quiet in the water while I tow you along?"
+
+"Aye, I'll try it, laddie."
+
+"Mind, you mustn't clutch hold of me too hard," I cried; and, easying
+him off from my chest, I turned round again in the water.
+
+He sank about a foot at first from the change of position, but, keeping
+strict heed to my injunctions, and gripping my shoulder with a grasp of
+iron, he was presently floating half alongside and half behind, with his
+head well out of the water, as I struck out to where I could still see
+the ship as we rose every now and then at intervals on the crests of the
+following waves; although, when we descended again between the
+intervening hollows, we seemed shut in by a wall of sea.
+
+The pampero having blown off from the pampas inland--whence the local
+name for these tornadoes--had come from the westwards, and, of course,
+the set of the waves, even after the wind had ceased to move them,
+continued in a south-westerly direction, whither the _Esmeralda_ had
+also been carried away from us, the exposed surface of her hull drifting
+her more rapidly away than such tiny atoms as we presented to the
+influence of the rollers.  When, therefore, Mr Macdougall was so far
+recovered as to permit of my attempting to regain the ship, she was
+already quite a mile off, if not more!
+
+As I looked at her distant sails, which came in sight when we got atop
+of the billows, they seemed to be gliding further and further away each
+fresh time that I saw them, showing that there was no wind; so, knowing
+that a boat would have to pull all that distance against a heavy head
+sea in order to fetch us, I almost despaired of our being picked up.
+
+No one but those who have undergone a similar experience, can imagine
+the utter loneliness that strikes upon the heart of a solitary swimmer,
+struggling in the middle of the ocean for dear life.  The sea never
+looks so terribly wide and vast as then, the sky never so far off, as he
+gazes upwards in piteous entreaty; while the elements appear to mock his
+puny efforts to reach the receding vessel containing his comrades of a
+moment ago, who now seem basely leaving him to perish!
+
+These thoughts flashed through my mind as I struck out in the direction
+of the _Esmeralda_.  All the sins and omissions of my past life then
+rose before my mental kaleidoscope, making me conscious of my
+unpreparedness to die, and yet want of justification to live; but I
+struck out bravely nevertheless, and I need hardly say, I did not
+whisper a word of my fears to the mate, who kept silent and motionless
+the while, without incommoding my efforts.
+
+My strokes got slower and slower, for the wash of the sea over us every
+now and then was terribly fatiguing; for, although I was very strong for
+my age, and powerfully built, still the strain of supporting Mr
+Macdougall besides myself, was more than I was able to manage--the
+strongest man couldn't have done it.
+
+He saw this even before I did, and took away his hand from my shoulder.
+
+"Let me bide, laddie," he said.  "You've doon your best to save me, but
+you canna do't mair; gang awa' and save your ain sel'."
+
+"No I won't, Mr Macdougall," I cried, stopping and treading water for a
+minute or two, while he imitated my example.  "If I'm saved, you shall
+be saved; and if you drown, I'll drown too!"
+
+"That's bravely said, laddie," he replied, "but your streength will na
+let you bear my lumpy karkus.  I'm a meesereeble sinner, ye ken, and
+it's na richt as a brave lad lik' you should lose his ain life for a
+worthless loon lik' me!"
+
+"No more of that, Mr Macdougall!"  I cried, stoutly.  "I made up my
+mind to try and save you when I jumped overboard after you; and save you
+now I will, with God's help--so there's no use trying to prevent me!
+Now put your hand on my shoulder again, for it's time for us to be
+moving on after our rest."
+
+The short "spell off" from swimming had rested me, and I struck out once
+more with renewed vigour, my progress with the mate in tow being now
+much more rapid, for the sea was calming down, beginning to feel the
+cessation of the wind.
+
+"We'll reach the ship, never fear!"  I said presently, seeing her still
+in the distance when we rose upon a wave from the watery abyss in which
+the previous dialogue had taken place.
+
+"I hope so, laddie, I hope so," said Mr Macdougall, but his words did
+not sound very cheering, and I went on swimming hard, saying nothing
+further.  By-and-bye, just when my strength began to fail again, and I
+felt that I could never get over the distance that separated us from the
+vessel, I saw to my joy a large object floating near.
+
+"Hullo!"  I cried, "here's a boat, or raft, or something in sight; cheer
+up, Mr Macdougall, we're saved!"
+
+But, he was so worn out with the exposure, and his previous efforts to
+keep up before I went to his assistance, that he had now almost lost the
+power of speech, only moaning something like "Eh, laddie?" behind me.
+
+I saw, therefore, that I must now trust entirely to my own exertions for
+our joint safety--the more so since that, as the mate lost his
+consciousness, although still keeping hold of me in the way I had
+directed him, his limp, passive weight pressed me down lower and lower
+in the water; so, putting out all my energies for a final effort, and
+clenching my teeth together with grim determination, I struggled
+forward, swimming as hard as I could towards the floating object I had
+seen, and which I had caught sight of only just in time.
+
+One stroke--two--three--and a roller throws me back again.  I renew the
+contest--another stroke, accompanied by as vigorous a kick out as I can
+manage, with Mr Macdougall's prostrate body touching my legs; and
+then--I clutch hold of the thing at last--hurrah!
+
+It was a large hencoop, which used to be fixed on the starboard side of
+the _Esmeralda's_ poop; so I suppose some one must have pitched it
+overboard after me the moment I gave the alarm.
+
+But, no matter when it was sent adrift or why, it now saved both our
+lives; for I don't believe I could have swum a stroke further, while as
+for Mr Macdougall, he was already like a man dead.
+
+There was a piece of rope lashed round the coop, and with this I at once
+made the mate fast to it, raising his head well up, and shouting in his
+ears to revive him.
+
+In a minute or two, he opened his eyes, and appeared more like himself,
+a smile spreading over his face, as if in thankfulness for escaping
+death.
+
+As for me, I was as right as a trivet now that I had come across such a
+splendid raft; and, climbing on top, and balancing myself so as not to
+let it lurch over, I proceeded to look for the ship--which I had almost
+forgotten while striving to reach this nearer haven of refuge.
+
+No sooner, however, had I mounted the hencoop, which floated nearly a
+foot above the surface, even with my weight on it--for it was a big
+piece of woodwork, with plenty of timber in it, and as light as a cork--
+than I felt a faint current of air blowing in my face from a direction
+quite opposite to that of the drift of the waves, the tops of which now
+began to curl and break off.
+
+"Hullo, the wind has changed!"  I sang out to Mr Macdougall, as he
+looked up at me to hear my report; and then, glancing round, there I saw
+the _Esmeralda_, with her yards squared, approaching us rapidly, the
+breeze having caught her up long before it reached us.
+
+I could have shouted aloud for joy.
+
+"Cheer up, Mr Macdougall!"  I said, repressing my emotion as much as it
+lay in my power.  "The ship is making for us, and we'll be on board
+again in a brace of shakes."
+
+"Nae, ye're jookin', laddie!" he cried despairingly.  "She'll never
+reach us 'fore dark."
+
+"Aye, but she will, though," I replied, as she was nearing us so fast
+that I could now see her hull, which had before been invisible; and,
+almost as I spoke the words, she rose higher and higher, until I could
+make out an object at the mast-head like a man on the look-out for us
+and signalling, for I could see his arms move.
+
+"Hurrah! she's coming up fast now!"  I cried, to convince Mr
+Macdougall; when, seeing my excitement, he at last believed the good
+news, the effect on him being to cause him to burst into a passion of
+tears, of which I took no notice, leaving him to recover himself.
+
+Presently, I could not only perceive the _Esmeralda_, but a boat also
+ahead, to which the man I had noticed in the foretop was making motions.
+
+"We're all right now, Mr Macdougall," I said.
+
+"I thought they wouldn't desert us!  They have launched a boat, and it
+is pulling towards us now.  Let us give them a hail; raise your voice,
+sir--one, two, three--now then.  Boat ahoy!"
+
+The mate did not help the chorus much, his voice being too weak as yet,
+and his lungs probably half full of salt water; but still, he joined in
+my shout, although those in the boat were too far off to hear it.
+
+"We must hail them again," I said, "or else they'll pass to windward of
+us.  Come, Mr Macdougall, one more shout!"
+
+This time our feeble cry was heard; and a hearty cheer was borne back
+down on the breeze to us, in response, the men in the boat pulling for
+us as soon as they caught our hail.
+
+In another five minutes, it seemed, but perhaps it was much less--the
+tension on one's nerves sometimes making an interval of suspense appear
+much longer than it really is--the _Esmeralda's_ jolly-boat was
+alongside our little raft, with the two of us tumbled into the stern-
+sheets, amidst a chorus of congratulations and handshakings from
+Jorrocks, who was acting as coxswain; and, before we realised almost
+that we were rescued, we were safe on board the old ship again.
+
+It was all like a dream, passing quite as rapidly!
+
+The skipper, when I climbed the side ladder which had been put over for
+us, assisted up by a dozen pairs of willing hands, almost hugged me, and
+the crew gave me three cheers, which of course gratified my pride; but,
+what I valued beyond the praises bestowed on me for jumping overboard
+after Mr Macdougall--which was a mere act of physical courage which
+might have been performed by any water-dog, as I told Jorrocks--was the
+consciousness that I had made a friend of one who had previously been my
+enemy, returning good for evil.  It was owing to this only, I fervently
+believe, that my life was preserved in that perilous swim!
+
+Mr Macdougall was ill for some days afterwards, the shock and exposure
+nearly killing him; still, before the end of the week he was able to
+return to duty, a much changed man in every respect.  Thenceforth, he
+treated the men with far greater consideration than previously, and he
+was really so painfully humble to me that I almost wished once or twice
+that he would be his bumptious, dogmatic old self again.  However, it
+was all for the best, perhaps, for we all got on very sweetly together
+now, without friction, and harmony reigned alike on the poop and in the
+fo'c's'le.
+
+The south-easterly wind, which had sprung up so fortunately for our
+rescue, lasted the _Esmeralda_ until she had run down the coast of
+Patagonia to Cape Tres Puntas, some three hundred and twenty miles to
+the northward of the Virgins, as the headlands are called that mark the
+entrance to the Straits of Magellan.
+
+Of course, our skipper did not intend to essay this short cut into the
+Pacific, which is only really practicable for steamers, as the currents
+through the different channels are dangerous in the extreme, and the
+winds not to be relied on, chopping round at a moment's notice, and
+causing a ship to drop her anchor in all sorts of unexpected places; but
+he intended to go through the Straits of Le Maire, instead of going
+round Staten Island, and thus shorten his passage of Cape Horn in that
+way.
+
+However, when, on our fifty-ninth day out, we were nearing the eastern
+end of Staten Island, the wind, which had of late been blowing pretty
+steadily from the northward of west, hauled round more to the southward,
+and being dead against the Le Maire channel, we were forced to give the
+island a wide berth, and stand to the outside of it.
+
+It was fine light weather, with clear nights, all the time we had been
+sailing down the coast; for we could see the Magellan clouds, as they
+are called, every evening.  These are small nebulae, like the Milky Way,
+which occupy the southern part of the heavens, immediately above Cape
+Horn, whose proximity they always indicate.
+
+Shortly after our passing Staten Island, however, a change came, the
+wind blowing in squalls, accompanied by snow and sleety hail, and the
+sea running high as it only can run in these latitudes; but still,
+everything went well with us until we were about 55 degrees South and 63
+degrees West, when a violent gale sprang up from the north-west.
+
+Everything was hauled down and clewed up, the ship lying-to under her
+reefed main-topsail and fore-topmast staysail, and Captain Billings was
+just saying to me that I was now going to have "a specimen of what Cape
+Horn weather was like," when I noticed Mr Macdougall--who had been
+making an inspection of the ship forwards--come up the poop ladder with
+his face much graver than usual, although, as a rule, his expression of
+countenance was not the most cheerful at any time.
+
+"Whatever is the matter with Mr Macdougall?"  I said to Captain
+Billings.  "I'm certain something has happened, or he would not look so
+serious!"
+
+"Bless you, Martin, you mustn't judge by his phiz.  I daresay the men
+have only been skylarking in the fo'c's'le, and it doesn't please him."
+
+But it was something far more important than that which had occasioned
+the gravity of the mate's face, as the skipper soon heard; for, on Mr
+Macdougall coming up close to us, he whispered something in the
+skipper's ear which made him turn as white as a sheet.
+
+"Martin, Martin," he said to me, dropping his voice, however, so that
+the men might not hear the terrible news before it was absolutely
+necessary to tell them, "the coals are on fire in the main hold!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+THE LAST DISASTER.
+
+After the first shock of surprise at the alarming intelligence--the most
+awful that can be circulated on board a ship, and one that fills up the
+seaman's cup of horrors to the brim--Captain Billings quickly recovered
+his usual equanimity.  He was his own clear-headed, calm, collected self
+again in a moment.
+
+"How did you discover it?" he asked the mate, in a low tone.
+
+"I was ganging forwarts," said Mr Macdougall, in the same hushed key,
+so that only Captain Billings and I could catch his words, "when a' at
+once I smeelt somethin'--"
+
+"Ah, that raking flying jibboom of yours wasn't given you for nothing!"
+whispered the skipper, alluding to the mate's rather "pronounced" nose.
+
+"Aye, mon, it sairves me weel," said Mr Macdougall, feeling the ridge
+of his nasal organ with much apparent satisfaction, and then proceeding
+to finish his statement.  "But I could no meestake the smeel, the noo."
+
+"Something burning, I suppose?" said the skipper interrogatively.
+
+"You're right, Cap'en; the smeel was that o' boornin' wood and gas."
+
+"What did you do then?" asked Captain Billings.
+
+"I joost slippet off the main hatch, and the smeel was quite
+overpowerin', enough to choke one! so I e'en slippet the hatch on again,
+walking forwarts so as not to alarm the crew; and then I cam' aft to
+tell your ain sel'."
+
+"You did right," said the skipper.  "I'll go presently and have a look
+myself."
+
+Captain Billings' inspection proved that the mate's fears were but too
+well-founded; so he immediately had the pumps rigged by the watch on
+duty--"all hands" not being called yet, as the vessel was lying-to, and
+there was not much work to be done.  But a lot of water was pumped into
+the hold, after which the hatches were battened down, and we hoped the
+fire would die out from being smothered in this way.
+
+Meanwhile the north-westerly gale increased to almost a hurricane, the
+ship taking in great seas over her bows that deluged the decks, so that
+the waist sometimes was all awash with four feet of water on it; but
+this did not trouble us much, for of the two elements the sea was now
+the least feared, as we hoped that the one would check the spread of the
+other.
+
+Next day, however, when the gale lightened a little, and the _Esmeralda_
+rode easier, still head to sea, the men complained that the fo'c'sle was
+getting too hot for them to live in it, although the temperature of the
+exterior air was nearly down to freezing point.
+
+This looked ominous; so Captain Billings, determining to adopt more
+stringent measures to check the conflagration that must be raging below
+in the cargo, caused the hatches to be opened; but such dense thick
+volumes of smoke and poisonous gas rolled forth the moment the covers
+were taken off, that they were quickly battened down again, holes now
+being bored to insert the hose pipes, and another deluge of water pumped
+into the hold, forwards as well as amidships.
+
+"I don't know what to do," said the skipper to Mr Macdougall.  "If it
+were not for this gale I would try to run for Sandy Point, where we
+might get assistance, as I've heard of the captain of a collier once,
+whose ship caught fire in the cargo like mine, careening his ship ashore
+there, when, taking out the burning coals, he saved the rest of his
+freight and stowed it again, so that he was able to resume his voyage
+and deliver most of the cargo at its destination.  But this wind is
+right in one's teeth, either to get to Sandy Point or fetch any other
+port within easy reach."
+
+"We moost ae just trust to Proveedence!" replied the mate.
+
+"Oh, yes, that's all very well," said the skipper, impatiently.  "But,
+still, Providence expects us to do something to help ourselves--what do
+you suggest?"
+
+"I canna thaenk o' naught, Cap'en," replied Mr Macdougall, in his
+lugubrious way.
+
+"Hang it, neither can I!" returned the skipper, as if angry with himself
+because of no timely expedient coming to his mind; but just at that
+moment the gale suggested something to him--at all events in the way of
+finding occupation!
+
+All at once, the wind, which had been blowing furiously from the
+northwards, shifted round without a moment's warning to the south-west,
+catching the ship on her quarter, and heeling her over so to leeward
+that her yard-arms dipped in the heavy rolling sea.
+
+For a second, it seemed as if we were going over; for the _Esmeralda_
+remained on her beam ends without righting again, the waves breaking
+clean over her from windward, and sweeping everything movable from her
+decks fore and aft; but then, as the force of the blast passed away, she
+slowly laboured up once more, the masts swaying to and fro as if they
+were going by the board, for they groaned and creaked like living things
+in agony.
+
+"Put the helm up--hard up!" shouted the skipper to the man at the wheel;
+but, as the poor fellow tried to carry out the command, the tiller "took
+charge," as sailors say, hurling him right over the wheel against the
+bulwarks, which broke his leg and almost pitched him over the side.  Had
+this occurred it would have been utterly impossible to have saved him.
+
+Mr Macdougall and I immediately rushed aft; and, the two of us grasping
+the spokes, managed to turn the wheel round with our united strength;
+but it was too late to get the ship to pay off, for, a fresh blast of
+wind striking her full butt, she was taken aback, the foremast coming
+down with a crash across the deck, carrying with it the bowsprit and
+maintopmast, the mizzen-topmast following suit a minute afterwards.
+
+This was bad enough in all conscience, without our having the
+consciousness that besides this loss of all our spars, making the vessel
+a hopeless log rolling at the mercy of the winds and waves, our cargo of
+coals was on fire in the hold, forming a raging volcano beneath our
+feet!
+
+Fortune was cruel.  Mishap had followed on mishap.  The powers of evil
+were piling Ossa on Pelion!
+
+The skipper, however, was not daunted yet.
+
+All hands had rushed aft, without being specially called, roused by the
+crash of the falling spars, so he immediately set them to work with the
+hatchets fastened round the mainmast bitts, cutting away at the
+wreckage; and then, as the clouds cleared away and a bit of blue sky
+showed itself aloft, Captain Billings expressed himself hopeful of
+getting out of the meshes of that network of danger in every direction
+with which we seemed surrounded.
+
+"Look alive, men, and don't despair," said he to the crew, encouraging
+them; for they were almost panic-stricken at first, and it was all that
+Jorrocks and I could do to get them to ply their tomahawks forwards and
+cut away the rigging, which still held the foremast with all its top-
+hamper attached to the ship, thumping at her sides as the lumber floated
+alongside, trying to crunch our timbers in.  "Look alive, men, and put
+your heart into it; all hope hasn't left us yet!  The gale has nearly
+blown itself out, as you can see for yourselves by that little bit of
+blue sky there overhead, bigger than a Dutchman's pair of breeches; so,
+as soon as the sea goes down a little, we'll hoist out the boats, so as
+to have them handy in case we have to abandon the ship, should the fire
+in the hold get too strong for us, although I don't fear that yet, my
+hearties, for the water may drown it out soon, you know.  But work away
+cheerily, my lads, and clear away all that dunnage, so that we can set a
+little sail presently on the mainmast and mizzen, which we still have
+standing, when we can make a run for some islands lying close by under
+the lee of Cape Horn, where I'll heave her ashore if I can; but, if the
+vessel don't reach the land, you needn't be afraid of not being able to
+do so in the boats, which we can take to as a last resource, so there's
+no fear of your lives being lost, at any rate!"
+
+"Hurray!" shouted out Jorrocks, leading a cheer; and Pat Doolan
+seconding him heartily, the hands started at the rigging with greatly
+renewed vigour, slashing at the shrouds and stays until they parted, and
+the foremast was at last cut away clear, floating astern on the top of
+the rolling waves.
+
+"There it goes!" cried the skipper, "and joy go with it for deserting us
+in that unhandsome way!"
+
+"Ah, sir," observed Haxell, the carpenter, who was standing close beside
+him now, quiet a bit after exerting himself like a navvy in helping to
+clear the wreck, "you forgets as how the poor dear thing never recovered
+that spring it had off Madeiry!"
+
+"No; for it has lasted well, nevertheless, and I oughtn't to complain of
+it now," said Captain Billings, with a responsive sigh to the
+carpenter's lament over the lost foremast.  Haxell looked upon all the
+ship's spars as if they were his own peculiar private property, and
+spoke of them always--that is, when he could be induced to abandon his
+chronic taciturnity--as if they had kindred feelings and sensibilities
+to his own!
+
+The dark threatening clouds which had enveloped the heavens for the past
+twenty-four hours now cleared away, although the wind still blew pretty
+fresh from the south-west, and the sun coming out, Captain Billings told
+me to go and fetch my sextant in order to take an observation so as to
+ascertain our true position; for, first with the north-easter, and then
+with the squall from the south, we had been so driven here, there, and
+everywhere, that it was difficult to form any reasonable surmise as to
+where we really were--especially as there was a strong current supposed
+to run round Cape Horn from the Pacific towards the Atlantic Ocean at
+certain tides.
+
+I fetched my sextant and took the sun; and I may say confidently to all
+whom it may concern that this was the last observation ever made by any
+one on board the ill-fated _Esmeralda_!
+
+The skipper checked me in the time, from the chronometer in the cabin;
+and when I had worked out the reckoning, we compared notes on the poop.
+
+"What do you make it?" said he.
+
+"56 degrees 20 minutes South," I said.
+
+"And the ship's time makes us about 66 degrees West.  Ha! humph! we must
+be about forty miles to the south of Cape Horn; and, by Jove," he added,
+looking to the north-west, where the blue sky was without a fleck save a
+little white cloud, like the triangular sail of a boat, seen dimly low
+down on the horizon, "there's my gentleman over there, now!"
+
+The knowledge of the vessel's position appeared to give the skipper
+greater confidence; and, the waves ceasing to break over us, although
+the huge southern rollers swept by in heavy curves, he gave directions
+for getting some tackle rigged to launch the long-boat, which, although
+it was right in the way, had escaped injury when the foremast fell.  At
+the same time, the mainsail and mizzen staysail were set, and the vessel
+steered in the direction of that Cape which she seemed destined never to
+round.
+
+"We'll run for the Wollaston group," said the skipper--"that is, if the
+fire will let us stop aboard till we reach there; and if not, why, the
+less distance there will be for us to trust ourselves to the boats in
+this strong sea."
+
+No time was lost in making preparations to quit the ship, however--
+provisions and stores being brought up from the steerage by the steward
+and a couple of seamen who were told off to help him.
+
+In the last few hours the fire had made considerable headway; for thin
+wreaths of smoke were curling up from the deck forwards, where the pitch
+had been melted from the seams, and the heat was plainly perceptible on
+the poop, accompanied as it was by a hot sulphurous smell.
+
+"Be jabers, I fale like a cat on a hot griddle," said Pat Doolan, as he
+danced in and out of the galley, engaged in certain cooking operations
+on a large scale which the skipper had ordered; "I'll soon have no sowl
+at all, at all, to me cawbeens!"
+
+The men laughed at this, but there was a good deal of truth in the
+joking words of the Irishman, as, although washed with water, the deck
+was quite unbearable to one's naked foot.
+
+It was now early in the afternoon, and the long-boat and jolly-boat were
+both launched and loaded with what stores were available, the skipper
+personally seeing that each was provided with a mast and sails and its
+proper complement of oars and ballast--barrels and barricoes containing
+water being utilised to this latter end, thus serving for a double
+purpose.
+
+Other things and persons were also attended to.
+
+Mr Ohlsen, the second mate, and Harmer, the seaman who had had his leg
+broken when thrown against the bulwarks--and who, by the way, had the
+injured limb excellently set by Mr Macdougall, who had passed through a
+hospital course in "Edinbro' Toon," he told us--were brought up from the
+cabin in their cots, being both invalids.  The skipper likewise secured
+the ship's papers and removed the compass from the binnacle; while I, of
+course, did not forget my sextant and a chart or two which Captain
+Billings told me to take.  The foremast hands having also selected a
+small stock of useful articles, all of us were ready to leave the vessel
+as soon as she gave us notice to quit.
+
+The fire was waxing hotter and hotter, the curling wreaths of smoke
+having expanded into dense black columns of vapour, and an occasional
+tongue of flame was licking the edges of the coamings of the fore
+hatchway, while sparks every now and then went flying up in the air and
+were wafted away to leeward by the wind.
+
+"She can't last much longer now without the flames bursting forth," said
+Captain Billings.  "The sooner we see about leaving her the better now.
+Haul up the boats alongside, and prepare to lower down our sick men."
+
+"Hadn't we better have a whip rigged from the yard-arm, sir?" suggested
+Jorrocks.  "It'll get 'em down more comfortable and easy like."
+
+"Aye, do; I declare I had forgotten that," said the skipper; "I'm losing
+my head, I think, at the thought of the loss of my ship!"  He spoke
+these words so sadly that they touched me keenly.
+
+"No, no, Cap', you haven't loosed your head yet, so far as thinking
+about us is concerned," observed Jorrocks, who was watching the man he
+had sent out on the mainyard fasten a block and tackle for lowering down
+the cots of the two invalids.  I'm sure we all acquiesced in this hearty
+expression of the boatswain's opinion, for no one could have more
+carefully considered every precaution for our comfort and security than
+the skipper, when making up his mind to abandon the ship.
+
+No further words were wasted, however, as soon as the boats were hauled
+alongside.
+
+Mr Ohlsen and Harmer were lowered down carefully into the long-boat,
+and the provisions, with the captain's papers and instruments, were
+subsequently stowed in the stern-sheets by the side of the invalids.  A
+similar procedure was then adopted in reference to the jolly-boat, only
+that there were no more sick men, fortunately, to go in her; and the
+skipper was just about mustering the hands on the after part of the main
+deck, below the break of the poop, when there was a terrible explosion
+forwards, the whole fore-part of the ship seeming to be rent in twain
+and hurled heavenward in a sheet of flame as vivid as forked lightning!
+
+I don't know by what sudden spasm of memory, but at that very instant my
+thoughts flew back to my boyish days at Beachampton, and my attempt to
+blow up Dr Hellyer and the whole school with gunpowder on that
+memorable November day, as I have narrated.  The present calamity seemed
+somehow or other, to my morbid mind, a judgment on my former wicked
+conduct--the reflection passing through my brain at the instant of the
+explosion with almost a similar flash.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+HERSCHEL ISLAND.
+
+"Maircy on us!" exclaimed Mr Macdougall, who at that moment was just
+gingerly passing down the standard compass to Jorrocks, the boatswain,
+standing up in the stern-sheets of the long-boat alongside, and
+stretching up his hands as carefully to receive the precious instrument;
+and the sudden blinding flash of the explosion and concussion of the air
+that it caused, almost made him drop this in his fright.  "Whateever on
+airth ees that noo?"
+
+"Matter?" repeated the skipper after him coolly, taking in cause and
+effect at a glance.  "Why, the gas generated by the heated coal in the
+hold has blown out the forepeak, that's all!  It is providential,
+though, that the wrench which the foremast gave to the deck-beams and
+bulkhead there when it carried away, so far weakened the ship forwards
+as to enable the gas to find vent in that direction, otherwise the
+entire deck would probably have been blown up--when it would have been a
+poor look-out for all of us here aft!"
+
+"Gudeness greecious!" ejaculated the mate again, blinking bewilderedly,
+like an owl unexpectedly exposed to daylight; but Captain Billings did
+not waste time in any further explanations or unnecessary words.
+
+"I hope nobody's hurt!  Run forwards, Leigh, and see," he said to me.
+
+Fortunately, however, all had escaped without a scratch, although
+fragments of the knees and other heavy portions of the vessel's timbers
+had been hurled aloft and scattered in all directions, as if a mine had
+been sprung below--the woodwork descending afterwards in a regular
+hailstorm on our heads, blown into small pieces no bigger than matches,
+and mixed up with a shower of blazing sparks and coal-dust, making us
+all "as black as nayghurs," as Pat Doolan said.
+
+The stump of the foremast, in particular, described a graceful parabolic
+curve in the air, coming down into the water in close proximity to the
+bows of the long-boat--where, under the supervision of the boatswain,
+the steward and the carpenter were stowing provisions under the thwarts,
+making the two almost jump out of their skins.  It descended into the
+sea with the same sort of "whish" which the stick of a signal rocket
+makes when, the propelling power that had enabled it previously to soar
+up so majestically into the air above being ultimately exhausted, it is
+forced to return by its own gravity to its proper level below, unable to
+sustain itself unaided by exterior help at the unaccustomed height to
+which it was temporarily exalted.
+
+And in this respect, it may be observed here, although I do not believe
+the remark is altogether original, that a good many human rockets may be
+encountered in our daily life, which exhibit all the characteristic
+points and weaknesses of the ordinary material model that I have likened
+them to--composed of gunpowder and other explosive pyrotechnic
+substances, and familiar to all--for, they go up in the same brilliant
+and glorious fashion, and are veritable shining lights in the estimation
+of their friends and the fickle testimony of public opinion; only, alas,
+to descend to the ordinary level of every-day mortals, like the rocket-
+stick comes down in the end!
+
+I need hardly say, though, that I had no thought of these reflections
+now; for, immediately after the explosion forwards, the flames which
+mounted aloft with it burst forth with full vigour, released from the
+confined space of the hold to which they had been previously limited,
+and the entire fore-part of the ship, from the waist to the knight-
+heads, became a mass of fire, the cavity disclosed by the riven deck
+adjacent to the fo'c's'le being like a raging volcano, vomiting up
+clouds of thick yellow smoke from the glowing mass of ignited coal
+below, which almost suffocated us, as the ship went too slowly through
+the water for the vapour to trail off to leeward.
+
+The mainmast was still standing, with the mainsail set before the
+southerly wind, that was blowing in towards the land, the force of the
+explosion not being vented much further aft than the windlass bitts;
+but, almost as we looked, tongues of flame began to creep up the main
+rigging, and the huge sail was presently crackling away like tissue
+paper to which a lighted match has been applied, large pieces of the
+burning material being whirled in the air.
+
+The heat now became unbearable, and Captain Billings, much to his grief,
+saw that the time had come for him to abandon the ship.
+
+"We must leave her, Leigh," said he to me, with as much emotion as
+another person might have displayed when wishing a last farewell to some
+dearly-loved friend or relative.  "There is no good in stopping by the
+old barquey any longer, for we can't help her out of her trouble, and
+the boats may be stove in by the falling mainmast if they remain
+alongside much longer.  Poor old ship! we've sailed many a mile
+together, she and I; and now, to think that, crippled by that gale and
+almost having completed her v'yage, she should be burnt like a log of
+firewood off Cape Horn!"
+
+"Never mind, sir," said I, sympathisingly.  "It has not happened through
+any fault of yours."
+
+"No, my lad, I don't believe it has, for a cargo o' coal is a ticklish
+thing to take half round the world; as more vessels are lost in carrying
+it than folks suppose!  However, this is the last we'll ever see of the
+old _Esmeralda_, so far as standing on her deck goes; still, I tell you
+what, Leigh, you may possibly live to be a much older man than I am, but
+you'll never come across a ship easier to handle in a gale, or one that
+would go better on a bowline!"
+
+"No, sir, I don't think I shall," I replied to this panegyric on the
+doomed vessel, quite appreciating all the skipper's feelings of regret
+at her destruction; but just then the flames with a roar rushed up the
+main hatch, approaching towards the poop every moment nearer and nearer.
+
+This at once recalled Captain Billings from the past to the present.
+
+"Have you got everything aboard the boats?" he sang out in his customary
+voice to Mr Macdougall, his tones as firm and clear as if he had not
+been a moment before almost on the point of crying.  "Are all the
+provisions and water in?"
+
+"Aye, aye, an' stoowed awa', too, Cap'en," answered the mate, to whom
+had been entrusted the execution of all the necessary details.  "A very
+thin's aboord, and naething forgot, I reecken."
+
+"Then it's time we were aboard, too," said the skipper.  "Boatswain,
+muster the hands!"
+
+Jorrocks didn't have to tap on the deck with a marlinspike now to call
+them, in the way he used to summon the watch below to reef topsails in
+the stormy weather we had off Madeira and elsewhere; for the men were
+all standing round, ready to start over the side as soon as the skipper
+gave the word of command to go.
+
+Captain Billings then called over the list of the crew from the muster
+roll, which he held in his hand along with the rest of the "ship's
+papers"--such as the _Esmeralda's_ certificate of registry, the manifest
+of the cargo, and her clearance from the custom-house officers at
+Cardiff; when, all having answered to their names, with the exception of
+the two invalids, Mr Ohlsen, and Harmer, the seaman, both of whom were
+already in the long-boat, the skipper gave the word to pass down the
+gangway, apportioning seven hands in all to the jolly-boat, under charge
+of Mr Macdougall, and the remainder of our complement to the long-boat,
+under his own care.
+
+Including the invalids, we were seven-and-twenty souls in all--now
+compelled to abandon our good ship, and trust to those two frail boats
+to take us to the distant coast of Tierra del Fuego, of which we were
+not yet even in sight; and it was with sad hearts that we went down the
+side of this poor _Esmeralda_ for the last time, quitting what had been
+our floating home for the two months that had elapsed since we left
+England, for the perils we had encountered in her had only endeared her
+the more to us!
+
+Captain Billings was the last to abandon the ship; lingering not merely
+until we had descended to the boats, seven in one and nineteen as yet
+only in the other without him, but waiting while we settled ourselves
+along the thwarts; when, turning round, he put his feet on the cleats of
+the side ladder and came down slowly, looking up still at the old
+vessel, as if loth to leave her in such an extremity.
+
+The jolly-boat had been already veered astern on receiving her allotted
+number, the long-boat only waiting alongside for the skipper, with a man
+in the bows and another amidships, fending her off from the ship's side
+with a couple of boat-hooks, so that the little barque should not dash
+against the hull of the bigger one, now she was so loaded up--a
+collision would have insured destruction to all in her, the huge billows
+of the Southern Ocean rolling in at intervals, and raising her so high
+aloft as to overtop the ship sometimes, and again carrying her down
+right under the _Esmeralda's_ counter, thus making her run the risk of
+being stove in every instant.
+
+It was too perilous a proximity; so, as soon as Captain Billings had got
+down into the stern-sheets, he gave the order to shove off.
+
+"Easy her away gently, men," he said, as he took up the tiller lines,
+watching with a critical eye the movements of the men amidships and in
+the bow, as they poled the boat along the side of the ship until it
+passed clear of her by the stern.  "Be ready there with your oars,
+sharp!"
+
+In another moment the boat was tossing about in the open sea, the height
+and force of the waves becoming all the more apparent now that we had
+lost the protection of the _Esmeralda's_ lee.  The flames just then, as
+if angry at our having escaped them, darted up the mizzen rigging, and
+presently enveloped the poop in their blaze, so that the whole ship was
+now one mass of fire fore and aft, blazing like a tar-barrel.
+
+The skipper would have liked to have lain by and seen the last of the
+vessel, but there was too much sea on, and the wind seemed getting up
+again; so, knowing how treacherous the weather was in the vicinity of
+the Cape of Storms, he determined, for the safety of those under his
+charge, to make for the land as speedily as possible--an open boat not
+being the best craft in the world to be in, out on the ocean, when a
+gale is about!
+
+As Captain Billings could see, the wind was blowing on shore, in the
+very direction for us to go; and, as the rollers were racing towards the
+same goal, the only way for us to avoid being swamped by them was to
+travel at a greater rate forwards than they did, or else we would
+broach-to in the troughs of the waves, when a boat is apt to get for the
+moment becalmed, from the intervening wall of water on either side
+stopping the current of air, and taking the breeze out of her sails.
+
+The long-boat was fitted with a couple of masts, carrying a large
+mainsail and a mizzen, both of which the skipper now ordered to be set,
+the former close-reefed to half its size.  A bit of a staysail was also
+hoisted forwards in place of the jib, which was too large for the wind
+that was on; and then, it was wonderful to see the way the long-boat
+began to go through the water when the sail was put on her!  She fairly
+raced along, dragging astern the jolly-boat, which we had taken in tow,
+the little craft leaving a curly wave in front of her cutwater, higher
+than her bows, and looking as if it were on the point of pouring over on
+top of those in her.
+
+It was now late in the afternoon of this, our sixty-third day out of
+port; and, as the sun sank to rest in the west, away in the east,
+according to our position in the boat, there was another illumination on
+the horizon.
+
+It was that caused by the burning ship.  But it did not last so long:
+the fire of coals and wood could not vie with that of the celestial orb.
+
+We could still see the blazing hull, as we rose every now and then on
+the crest of the rollers; while, when we could not perceive it from the
+subsidence of the waves under the boat's keel, making us sink down, a
+pillar of smoke, floating in the air high above the _Esmeralda_ in a
+long fan-like trail, and stretching out to where sky and sea met in the
+extreme distance, told us where she was without any fear of mistake.
+
+Soon after we had quitted the vessel the mainmast, when half consumed,
+tumbled over the side; and, presently, the burning mizzen, which had
+been standing up for some time like a tall fiery pole, disappeared in a
+shower of sparks.
+
+The end was not far off now.
+
+As we rose on the send of the next sea, Captain Billings, by whose side
+I was sitting in the stern-sheets of the long-boat, grasped my arm.
+
+"Look!" he said, half turning round and pointing to where the burning
+ship had last been seen.
+
+She was gone!
+
+The smoke still hung in the air in the distance, like a funeral pall;
+but the wind was now rapidly dispersing it to leeward, there being no
+further supply of the columns of cloud-like vapour that had originally
+composed it.
+
+Soon, too, the smoke had completely disappeared, and the horizon was a
+blank.
+
+"All's over!" cried the skipper, with a heavy sigh.
+
+All was over, indeed; for, whatever fragments of the ill-fated
+_Esmeralda_ the remorseless fire may have spared, were now, without
+doubt, making their way down to the bottom of that wild ocean on which
+we poor shipwrecked mariners were tossing in a couple of frail boats--
+uncertain whether we should ever reach land in safety, or be doomed to
+follow our vessel's bones down into the depths of the sea!
+
+Night fell soon after this; but the long-boat still held her way,
+running before the wind, and steering a nor'-nor'-west course by
+compass.  We had now been going in that direction some two hours or
+more, and the skipper calculated that we were some thirty miles off the
+Wollaston Islands, which we ought to fetch by daylight next morning.
+
+Fortunately, it was a bright clear night, although there was no moon,
+only the stars twinkling aloft in the cloudless azure sky; and, thus, we
+were able to watch the waves so as to prevent them pooping us when two
+seas ran foul of each other, which they frequently did, racing against
+the wind, and eager, apparently, to outstrip it.  Still, the most
+careful steering was necessary, and Jorrocks had to have out an oar
+astern, in order to aid the skipper's control of the tiller, when he put
+the helm up or down suddenly so as to get out of the wash of the
+breakers.
+
+The jolly-boat, too, occasioned us much uneasiness; for when the tow-
+rope slackened at these moments of peril, she ran the chance of slewing
+round broadside on to the sea.  However, thanks to the interposing aid
+of Providence, we got through the dangers of the night, and day dawned
+at last.
+
+It was a terribly anxious watch, though, for all hands--especially for
+the skipper and Jorrocks, and the men told off to hold the sheets of the
+sails; for these latter couldn't be belayed, having to be hauled taut or
+let go at a moment's notice.
+
+With the advent of day came renewed hope, in spite of our not being able
+yet to see land--nothing being in sight ahead or astern, to the right or
+the left, but the same eternal sea and sky, sky and sea, which the
+rising sun, although it lent a ray of radiance to the scene, only made
+infinitely more dreary and illimitable.
+
+Towards noon, however, away on the port bow, the peak of a snow-topped
+mountain was perceived just above the horizon.
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Captain Billings.  "There's our old friend Cape Horn!
+Another couple of hours straight ahead, and we ought to rise those
+islands I was speaking of.  Do you see the Cape?" he shouted out across
+the little intervening space of water to Mr Macdougall in the jolly-
+boat.
+
+"Aye, aye--and it's a glad seeght!" replied the mate, to which statement
+all hands cheered.  Some provisions, which, through the thoughtful
+precaution of the skipper and the assistance of Pat Doolan, had been
+cooked before being placed on board, were now served out around--the
+long-boat the while steadily progressing on her course, now hauled a bit
+more to the westwards of north.
+
+About three o'clock in the afternoon another cheery hail broke the
+stillness that reigned amongst us; for we were all too anxious to talk,
+and those of the crew who were not attending to the sheets of the sails
+had composed themselves to sleep, under the thwarts amidships and on the
+gratings aft.
+
+"Land, ho!"
+
+The cry came from a man on the look-out in the bows; and the
+announcement was received with a ringing shout, for the heavens were
+beginning to get overcast, and the wind was rising, promising that,
+should we be compelled to remain afloat another night, we should not
+find it quite so pleasant as our experiences of the past one, in spite
+of what we then thought the dangerous character of the following waves;
+and, if it came on to blow in addition, the heavy running sea which we
+had then to contend with would be mere child's play in comparison with
+what we might expect would get up in an hour or two.
+
+But, the nearness of the land led us to hope that we should not
+experience any further risk of being swamped.  Long before sunset we
+approached it close enough to see where we were going.
+
+The nearest shore was that of an island, with high mountain peaks, but
+of little apparent extent, looking, as we saw it, barely a mile long.
+Near this were three or four other islands, although further to the
+northwards; while on the extreme left, some miles to the westwards, was
+the high snow-white peak which the skipper had said was Cape Horn,
+standing on a little island of its own that stretched out into the sea
+to a more southerly point than any of the other islets composing the
+archipelago.
+
+"Why, sir," said I to Captain Billings, "I always thought that Cape Horn
+was part of the mainland, jutting out from the end of Tierra del Fuego--
+that's what my school geography taught, at all events!"
+
+"Oh, no," he replied.  "It is on an island, sure enough, as all mariners
+know, although these chaps that write books for schools may not think it
+island enough to mention the fact.  Where it stands is called Horn
+Island, and the next large one beyond it Wollaston Island; but I'm going
+to make for that little one ahead, as it is the nearest."
+
+"And what is that called?"  I asked.
+
+"Herschel Island, after the great astronomer," answered the skipper.
+"I've been here before, my lad, and recognise the whole lot of them, and
+that is how I come to know about 'em."
+
+"Are any people living there?" said I, presently, the boat nearing the
+island so quickly that we could see a line of white beach, with the
+waves breaking on it, lying below the chain of mountain ridges that ran
+across it "fore and aft," as a sailor would describe it.
+
+"Only cannibals," replied the skipper, placidly.
+
+"Cannibals on Herschel Island, and we going there!"  I exclaimed, half
+astonished, half frightened.
+
+"Aye, they are there or thereabouts; but, at all events, we're going to
+land on Herschel Island, as it's a case with us of any port in a storm!
+Look out there, forwards!" he called out a moment or two after to the
+men.  "Be ready to down the mainsail when I give the word.  Steady with
+the sheets.  Now!"
+
+And, with a grating noise, the boat's keel struck the shore, carried
+forwards on the top of a huge wave, whose backwash, however, dragged us
+back into the deep the next second, slewing the head of the boat round
+at the same time, so that she hung broadside on.
+
+"Out oars, men--out oars for your life!" shouted the skipper, seeing the
+terrible danger that now threatened us in the very moment of safety;
+but, before the order could be executed, the long-boat was upset, and we
+were all tumbling about in the surf!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+AN AUSTRAL AURORA.
+
+A wild cry went up to Heaven as we struggled for dear life in the water,
+battling with the under-tow of the in-rolling waves, which tried to drag
+us down in their angry clutches; but first one and then another emerged
+dripping on the sands, even Mr Ohlsen having saved himself without
+help, although he had been snugly tucked up in his hammock a moment
+before, and was lying down in the stern-sheets when the boat capsized.
+
+Poor Harmer, however, whose broken leg was only fresh set, and the bones
+not united, was unable to put out a hand on his own behalf, and seeing
+he had not gained the beach with the others, I looked eagerly about for
+him, knowing that in his crippled state it was almost impossible for him
+to have got ashore.
+
+Just then, his head appeared some twenty feet out from the land, in the
+midst of the boiling surf, with his hands stretched out in mute entreaty
+to us, appealing for succour as he was being carried out rapidly to sea.
+
+Who could refrain from venturing in again to rescue him?
+
+Certainly not I; and, as I dashed in, Pat Doolan followed my example,
+the cook uttering a wild Irish yell that had the effect of animating
+several of the rest of the sailors to lend us a helping hand, although
+they had not the pluck to dash in too.
+
+"Hooroo, boys!" he shouted.  "Follow me leader, ye spalpeens, and let us
+say who'll raich the poor drowning chap first!  Ould Oireland for iver!"
+
+He reached Harmer almost as soon as I, and the two of us took hold of
+him together--the poor fellow, however, being already insensible, made
+no effort whatever to keep up and help himself, and was absolutely limp
+in our grasp.
+
+We managed to swim back in with our burden on the top of a roller, well
+enough; but when we tried to secure our footing on the shore, the under-
+tow took us out again, although Pat Doolan flung himself face downwards
+on the sand, clutching it with one of his hands while he held the half-
+drowned man with the other in the same way as I did.  Once, twice, we
+made the attempt; and yet, in spite of our desperate struggles, both of
+us putting forth all our strength, the backwash of the waves laughed at
+our resistance, floating us back again out into deep water.  At our
+third try, however, and it would have been the last, for we were both
+exhausted by this time, the men on the beach--who had formed a line
+holding on to one another, Jorrocks being foremost and Captain Billings
+next, wading in up to their necks in the sea--managed to catch hold of
+us, when we were dragged out by sheer force; Pat and I, with Harmer
+between us, all lumped together in a confused mass, and the hands
+hauling us in with a "Yo, heave ho!" as if they were pulling at the
+topsail halliards or getting the main tack aboard!
+
+My swim after Mr Macdougall was nothing to this, although I had then
+battled with the sea for over an hour, while now the Irishman and I had
+not been ten minutes over our fight with the remorseless waves; but it
+was a terrific contest whilst it lasted, and albeit we had both come off
+victorious, thanks to the timely assistance of our comrades, we were
+nearly worsted, and so utterly pumped out that another five minutes of
+it would have ended the matter very differently.  As it was, I had to
+lie on the sands, whither Jorrocks had lifted me beyond the reach of the
+tide, for a considerable period before I could either move or speak,
+while Pat Doolan was in an equally sorry plight.
+
+When I at last gained my voice, I stammered out a question--
+
+"How's Harmer?"  I asked, anxiously.
+
+But Captain Billings, who was beside me, lifting up my head tenderly
+with his arm placed round me, shook his head sadly.
+
+"Poor fellow," he said; "you did your best, but he must have been gone
+before you reached him.  He's quite dead--you were too late to save
+him!"
+
+I declare this news affected me more than all I had gone through; and,
+whether from weakness, or from the reaction after such violent exertion
+producing a feeling of hysteria, I cannot tell; all I know is, that I
+turned my face away from the kind-hearted skipper who was supporting me,
+and cried like a child--I, who thought myself then a man!
+
+Meanwhile, as I found out when I had recovered from my emotion and was
+able to stand up and look about me, my shipmates had not been idle in
+trying to retrieve the effects of our unfortunate landing; for which the
+skipper upbraided his own carelessness, laying the blame on himself, and
+saying that he ought to have known better than to have tried to rush the
+boat in with such a ground swell on!
+
+The tow-rope of the jolly-boat had been cast-off shortly before we
+approached the shore, Captain Billings hailing Mr Macdougall and
+telling him to bring her head to the sea, and lay off until we got
+ashore; so, there she was, riding in safety, about half a cable's length
+out, beyond reach of the surf, while we were tumbling about in it after
+the long-boat had upset us so unexpectedly without ceremony.
+
+Mr Macdougall was about to pull in at once, on seeing the
+_contretemps_, but the skipper, the moment he fetched the shore, and
+before I had gone in after Harmer, had directed him still to keep off
+and get a line ready to heave in, as by that means those in the jolly-
+boat would not only be able to land in a better way than ourselves, but,
+also, some portion of the stores of our boat might be recovered, as well
+as the craft itself--the long-boat having only turned over, and still
+floating in the midst of the breakers, bobbing up and down bottom
+upwards.
+
+This task was now being proceeded with by all hands.
+
+Forming again a line, as when they had dragged Pat Doolan and myself
+out--the men holding each other's hands, for they had no rope as yet to
+tackle on to--several articles near in shore had been already picked up;
+and, now that I was all right again, the skipper at once set about
+getting the jolly-boat in, besides trying to secure the long-boat.
+
+Each, amongst other necessary parts of his equipment, had been provided
+with a coil of strong half-inch line, in addition to their proper
+painters, and on Captain Billings singing out to the first mate, and
+telling him what to do, the jolly-boat with her six oars manned was
+backed in just beyond reach of the surf.  The end of the line, which Mr
+Macdougall held ready with a sounding-lead attached to it to make it
+swing further, was then hove ashore.
+
+It fell short, some ten feet out in the midst of the eddy caused by the
+backwash, but the leading hand of the long-boat's crew, after one or two
+dives in the surf, in which he got knocked down and rolled over,
+succeeded finally in grasping the sounding-lead.
+
+Then, with a loud hurrah, the end of the line was hauled in towards us,
+communication being thus established with those in the jolly-boat.  The
+stay the rope afforded steadied her in the water, so that she rode more
+easily, which made the next operation, that of getting hold of the
+overturned long-boat, more practicable, and not as likely to jeopardise
+her safety as would otherwise have been the case.
+
+The coil of rope was fully a hundred feet long, and of sufficient length
+to pass twice between the jolly-boat ashore and back again, leaving a
+few spare yards over; so, first throwing over a grapnel to anchor her
+head out to the sea, the water being only some three fathoms deep where
+she was riding, and the men in her being now wanted for something else
+besides rowing to keep her from drifting in, the other end of the line
+was belayed, and the boat easied in with the utmost care, two of the
+hands still keeping to their oars, until she reached the wrecked boat.
+
+Then Haxell, the carpenter, pluckily volunteered to jump over the side,
+and try, by diving underneath, to catch hold of the long-boat's painter
+or some of her headgear, all attempts to reach such by the aid of a
+boat-hook being impossible from the motion of the two boats in the
+restless water.  After a bit, the taciturn but useful man obtained the
+object in view, dragging out from below the long-boat's stern the very
+tow-rope with which we had been previously pulling the jolly-boat along
+while sailing towards the land, before casting her off, and our
+subsequent upset.
+
+This rope was now fastened to the shore-line with a double hitch, and
+our lot on the beach hauling in, we presently had the satisfaction of
+seeing the stern of our own craft working in towards us, the jolly-boat
+still remaining out beyond reach of the rollers, until the long-boat had
+grounded; when, seeing a proper opportunity, she too was got in safely--
+without, however, any previous upset, like ours, and indeed without her
+taking in any perceptible quantity of water so as to damage her cargo or
+give her crew a ducking, all of whom, with the exception of Haxell, who
+of course had sought a bath of his own accord, getting to land dry-shod,
+unlike us, who had been drenched from head to foot, and were now
+shivering with cold, the temperature of the air being below freezing
+point.
+
+It was now high-water, as Captain Billings observed from the marks on
+the shore; so, as nothing more could then be done towards getting the
+long-boat further in and righting her, and the hands were pretty well
+tired out with their exertions, he called a rest as soon as the jolly-
+boat was hauled up well beyond reach of the waves, which still broke
+threateningly on the beach--impelled by the force of the wind, now
+blowing a stiff gale from the south-west, and covering the beach with
+breakers that sent showers of foam over us, even when we had moved many
+yards away.
+
+"Spell O!" sang out the skipper.  "Boatswain, pipe down the men to
+dinner."
+
+We had to encroach on the jolly-boat's stores, the provisions being
+divided between the two boats although our craft, being the larger of
+the two, had of course carried the major portion.  This could, however,
+only now be looked upon as lost; for the seawater must have spoilt
+everything eatable.
+
+However, as the crew had gone through a good deal of hardship, the
+skipper did not attempt to ration them down to any smaller allowance on
+this our first evening on Herschel Island; and so, when a fire was built
+up, and some hot coffee brewed by Jorrocks, who usurped Pat Doolan's
+functions on this occasion, the Irishman being still too weak from his
+efforts to rescue poor Harmer to be of much use yet, we all had a hearty
+meal, feeling much the better thereby.
+
+After this, the skipper told the men to lie down round the fire, which
+we found very grateful when the sun had set, besides its enabling us to
+dry our wet clothes; but the crew were warned that they would have to
+rouse up about midnight, when Captain Billings expected the tide would
+have gone down sufficiently to enable us to get the long-boat out of
+danger, and turn her over on the beach beyond high-water mark.
+
+I confess that I went off to sleep at once; and neither the shaking of
+Jorrocks, nor the noise the men made in righting the long-boat, served
+to wake me up till it was broad daylight next morning, when I opened my
+eyes to find the sun shining down on a calm sea that hardly made a
+ripple on the beach, with the long-boat upright in her proper position,
+alongside the jolly-boat, and high and dry ashore.
+
+There was a delicious smell of something cooking in one of Pat Doolan's
+galley pots, hung gipsy fashion over a roaring fire, and superintended
+by the Irishman, now himself again.  A large tent had also been rigged
+up by the aid of the boat sails and tarpaulins, making the place have
+the appearance of a cosy encampment, and offering a pleasant change to
+the desolate look it had worn the previous afternoon--when the sea was
+roaring in, hurling a deluge of foam on the beach, and we, wet and
+forlorn, were endeavouring to save the flotsam and jetsam of the long-
+boat's cargo.
+
+"Sure an' you're a foine gintleman, taking it aisy," said Pat Doolan,
+when I went up to him.  "An' is it a pannikin o' coffee you'll be afther
+wanting, this watch?"
+
+"I shouldn't refuse it if you offered it," said I, with a laugh.
+
+"Be jabers, you're the bhoy for the coffee!" he replied cheerily.  "An'
+its meeself that's moighty proud to sarve you.  Sure an' I don't forgit
+how you thried, like a brave gossoon, to save that poor chap last
+night!"
+
+"Ah!"  I ejaculated, feeling melancholy when he thus brought up Harmer's
+fate, which had passed out of my mind for the moment.  "But you did your
+best, too, Pat."
+
+"Bad was the bist then, alannah, bad cess to it!" said he.  "There, now,
+Mister Leigh, dhrink your coffee an' ha' done with it.  The poor chap's
+gone, and we can't call him back; but have you heard tell of the news?
+Misther `Old-son-of-a-gun' is moighty bad this morning, too, and the
+skipper think's he's a going too, by the same token!"
+
+"Indeed!"  I cried, turning towards the tent, seeing Captain Billings
+standing close by it.  The news was too true.  The wetting and shock to
+the system had completed what a low fever had begun, and Mr Ohlsen's
+days--nay, hours--were numbered.  Ere the sun had again set, we had to
+mourn the loss of the second of our shipmates!
+
+Towards evening of this day, the wind got up again even more fiercely
+than it had done the night before--the heavy southern billows rolling in
+again upon the beach with a terrible din, although they could do no harm
+now to either of our boats, both being snugly sheltered beyond their
+reach.
+
+But when it grew dark, we witnessed a wonderful phenomenon.
+
+It made many of the seamen believe that they were dreaming over again
+the scene connected with the burning of the _Esmeralda_; while others
+went almost wild with terror, fancying that the end of the world was
+come--or that, at all events, the natural display we saw of the greatest
+wonder of the arctic and antarctic worlds, was a portent of fresh
+disasters to us, greater than all we had already passed through!
+
+The heavens were as black as death all around, with no moon.  Not a star
+to be seen; when, all at once, the whole horizon glowed with a living
+fire, lighting up the ocean in front of us, and reflecting upwards and
+outwards from the snow-covered peaks on the background of water beyond
+the beach.  The wave-tossed surface of the sea changed to a bright
+vermilion tint, making it look like a lake of raging flames.  Through
+the crimson sky, streaks of brighter light shot across at intervals from
+right to left, and back again from left to right, in coruscations of
+darting sparks that would ever and anon form themselves into crosses and
+diamonds of different shapes; while, in the middle of this wonderful
+transformation scene, the wind blew with immense force, howling over sea
+and land with a wild shriek and deep diapason, accompanied by blinding
+showers of hail and sleet and snow, that made us all creep under the
+folds of the canvas of our tent for shelter.
+
+"What is this?  What does it mean?"  I asked Captain Billings, who
+seemed the only one of us unmoved by the unwonted sight, that had as
+much terror as grandeur about it.
+
+"It is what is called an Austral aurora--the _aurora Australis_, as
+scientific men term it; though, how it is caused and what it is
+occasioned by, I'm sure I can't explain to you, my lad.  All I know is
+this, that it is never seen in the vicinity of Cape Horn without a stiff
+gale and rough weather following in its track; so we had better all of
+us look out for squalls!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+"ALL THE WAY ROUND."
+
+The skipper was right in his prognostication about the weather; for,
+during the next few days, we experienced a terrible gale from the south-
+west, snow falling without intermission all the time, and making huge
+drifts to the windward of the island, while even in sheltered places it
+was over four feet deep, with the pile continually increasing as the
+flakes drove down in one steady stream.
+
+Of course, it was bitterly cold, but, knowing what sort of climate the
+vicinity of Cape Horn rejoiced in, Captain Billings, before abandoning
+the ship, had ordered the men to bring all their warm clothes with them,
+he himself adding to the stock with all the spare blankets he could find
+in the cabin; and now, although these things were amongst the stores of
+the long-boat when she capsized, they fortunately escaped being thrown
+into the sea and lost on her "turning the turtle," for they were
+securely fastened below the thwarts, so when the boat was recovered they
+were still to the good all right--with the exception of their being
+thoroughly soaked in sea water, which an exposure before Pat Doolan's
+fire, and a hang-out in the fresh breezy air, soon remedied.
+
+It was now the month of August, about the coldest time of the year on
+the coast of Tierra del Fuego, or "The Land of Fire," as this portion of
+the South American Continent was somewhat inappropriately christened by
+its original discoverer, the veteran navigator Magalhaens.  He called it
+so, when he sailed round it in 1520, from the fact of the natives
+lighting watch-fires in every direction as soon as his ship was
+perceived nearing any of the channels transecting the archipelago, as if
+to give warning of his approach, a practice still pursued by the Tierra
+del Fuegans up to the time present, as all voyagers round Cape Horn well
+know.
+
+However, in spite of the inclemency of the season, we made ourselves
+pretty comfortable.  We had lost the greater portion of the three
+months' stock of provisions we had taken with us; but still we had
+enough to last for three or four weeks, and Captain Billings hoped to
+spin out our store by the aid of the different species of wild fowl
+which frequented the islands, in addition to the abundant supply of fish
+that the southern waters contain--that is, until, as we hoped, some
+passing ship should pick us up and convey our little party to more
+civilised regions.
+
+But, while the snowstorm lasted, we all suffered more or less from the
+severity of the weather, many of the men having their feet and hands
+frostbitten, and poor Mr Macdougall almost losing his nose!
+
+"I say," said Sails to Pat Doolan, on seeing that worthy shivering while
+trying to re-light the fire--which an avalanche of snow, descending from
+a precipitous rise above the site of our tent, had suddenly buried,
+along with the cook's pots and pans, just as he was preparing our
+morning meal, on the fourth day of the storm--"how about that Manilla
+guernsey o' yourn now, old flick?  Guess it would come in handy, eh!"
+
+"Be jabers, an' it would that," replied the Irishman, with much
+heartiness; "I only wish I had it across me back now, and I was aboard
+that schooner ag'in; an' faix, I'd die happy!"
+
+Pat's fire was soon lighted again; but the fall of snow from above,
+without any previous warning, might have caused serious injury to some
+of us if it had come down in the night.  It quite broke down our tent,
+and it took us some hours' hard work, using broken oar-blades for
+shovels, to dig away the immense heap of frozen debris that the
+unexpected slip of the accumulation on the top of the cliff had caused.
+Really, if the avalanche had fallen when we were all inside and asleep,
+perhaps not one of us would have escaped alive, as it must have been
+many tons in weight!
+
+We thought, from the continuation of the snowstorm, that we would have
+to endure all the miseries of an antarctic winter; but, towards the
+evening of the fourth day, the south-westerly gale gradually lost its
+force, shifting round a bit more to the northwards.  Strange to say,
+although the wind now came from what, in our northern latitudes, we
+esteem a colder quarter, it was ever so much warmer here, on account of
+its passing over the warm pampas of the Plate before reaching us, the
+effect of which soon became apparent in the melting of the snow on the
+ground as rapidly as when a thaw takes place at home.  Properly
+speaking, however, the snow rather may be said to have dried up than
+melted, for it was absorbed by the air, which was dry and bracing.
+
+The flakes, that had up to now continued coming down without cessation,
+also ceased to fall--much to our satisfaction, as I need hardly add;
+for, albeit it is very nice to look out from a warm, well-furnished room
+at the beautiful winter garb of Nature, and highly enjoyable to go out
+snowballing, when you can leave it off and go indoors to a jolly fire
+when you like, it was a very different matter to us now to experience
+all the discomforts of those dreadful, icy, spongy, little feathery
+nuisances penetrating beneath every loophole they could find entrance
+to, in the apology for a tent that we had, and to have our clothing
+sodden by it, our fire put out, and our blood congealed.  Perhaps even
+the most ardent snow-lover would lose his taste for the soft molecules
+under such circumstances!
+
+On the fifth day, the sun appeared again, when Captain Billings took
+advantage of the opportunity for getting an observation as to our
+position, using Mr Macdougall's sextant, his own and mine having gone
+to the bottom when the long-boat was upset.  The skipper, I may add, had
+also to make use of the mate's watch--the chronometer that had been
+brought from the ship having shared the fate of the other instruments,
+standard compass and all having passed into the safe keeping of old
+Neptune and his Tritons, who, if they cared about the study of
+meteorology, had a rare haul on this occasion!
+
+The observation he now obtained only confirmed the skipper's previous
+impression that we were on Herschel Island, one of the Hermite, or Cape
+Horn group, the mountainous peaks of which are mainly composed of green
+stone, in which hornblende and feldspar are more or less conspicuous,
+and the presence of iron very apparent, some of the rocks being
+intensely magnetic, causing the needle of a little pocket compass I had
+to execute all sorts of strange freaks.
+
+When the weather got fine, we took a walk round the island as far as the
+ridge that bisected it would allow, finding the elevated ground clothed
+with thickly growing trees, principally a species of spruce fir called
+the antarctic beech, which runs to a height of some thirty or forty
+feet, with a girth of five or six feet.  It is a magnificent evergreen,
+and would look well on an English lawn, for it has a splendid spreading
+head.
+
+Beside this beech, there was a pretty little laurel tree, and the
+arbutus, which one of the sailors, who was from Devonshire, would
+persist in calling a myrtle bush, although the skipper showed him the
+berries to convince him to the contrary.  There was also a sort of wild
+strawberry plant plentiful enough about, running like a vine over the
+rocks under the cliff; but there was nothing like what we call grass to
+be seen anywhere, only clumps or tussocks of a fibrous material like
+hemp, with long, ragged, straggling ends.
+
+So much for the botany of the island; as for the living creatures,
+"barring ourselves," as Pat Doolan would have expressed it, there were
+"race horses," "steamer" ducks, and penguins, besides a species of wild
+goose that we had seen off the Falkland Islands, and which Sails
+described to me as being so tough that a shipmate of his, who was once
+trying to gnaw through the drumstick of one when in Stanley Harbour, had
+his eye knocked out by the bone "fetching back" sharply through the
+elasticity of the tendon which his teeth missed hold of--a tough morsel
+to chew away at, if the yarn be true, eh?
+
+But, amongst all these specimens of animated nature, we did not see a
+trace of any of the natives--a fact which I took care to point out to
+the skipper, expressing my belief that he had only been romancing about
+the "cannibals," as he termed them.
+
+He, however, denied this.
+
+"No, my lad," he said.  "The natives of this coast are a small,
+barbarous race of beings, whom one can hardly call men.  They go about
+in the inclement climate without a rag of covering on, save a bit of raw
+sealskin which they shift from shoulder to shoulder as a protection
+against the wind, just as we get a vessel's sails round on the port or
+starboard tack.
+
+"The inhabitants of one island are hostile to those of the next, killing
+them, and eating them too, whenever they have the chance!  They have no
+sort of government, as most other islanders, even the most savage, have,
+and, of course, no laws--in which perhaps they are all the better off.
+They never cultivate the soil, or do anything for a living, as we would
+say at home; and they mainly occupy the sea-shore, living on whatever
+mussels they can manage to pick up, and the blubber of any occasional
+fish they come across.  I'm told they also eat that toad-stool we see
+growing on the beech trees; and if they'd do that, they'd eat anything!
+Sometimes they venture out long distances to sea in their rude canoes,
+like catamarans, which they contrive out of a couple of branches of a
+tree and sealskins sewn together with fish-gut, but they never go
+without their blessed fire, though--always carrying it along with them
+wherever they go, up the mountains, on the beach, in their frail boats,
+the live embers resting always in the latter on a bed of leaves--the
+reason for this solicitude being, not that they are followers of
+Zoroaster and worship the god of fire, but because they know the
+difficulty they would have in rekindling it again if they once allowed
+it to go out, as Pat Doolan suffered ours to do the other day, when you
+know the consequences, eh?"
+
+"Yes, I remember well," I said, laughing.  "We hadn't another match
+left, none of us having thought of bringing a supply from the ship, save
+a box which one of the men in the jolly-boat fortunately had in his
+pocket that first evening of our landing.  Then we wanted a fire badly,
+and couldn't build one until he got ashore, and this box was expended up
+to the last match; so, on the second occasion, Mr Macdougall had to
+snap off nearly all the caps he had for his gun before he could get a
+light, the snow having damped them.  Oh, yes, I remember Pat's fire
+going out very well!"
+
+A day or two after this conversation I had the chance of corroborating
+the skipper's statement about the natives.
+
+We had now been on the island nearly a fortnight, and our stores were
+becoming rapidly diminished; for we were now only twenty-five in all,
+since Mr Ohlsen and the seaman Harmer had died, but still this was a
+large number to provide for out of the scanty stock we had left us
+through the loss of nearly two-thirds of our provisions by the upsetting
+of the long-boat--the few perishable articles saved when we righted her
+again being uneatable from the effects of the salt water, which turned
+the meat putrid and converted our flour and biscuit into the most
+unpalatable paste.
+
+Captain Billings had hoped that some of the sealing schooners that
+rendezvous about the neighbourhood of Cape Horn, in search of the
+blubber and skins of the marine animals frequenting the shoals there,
+would have put in ere this and taken us off the inhospitable shore on
+which we had been forced to take refuge, or else that some passing ship
+homeward bound or sailing west into the Pacific would have picked us up;
+but, never a sail hove in sight, and, as our provisions daily grew less,
+although the men had been rationed down to a couple of biscuits and an
+ounce of salt pork per day, something had to be done, or else starvation
+would quickly stare us in the face!
+
+The skipper therefore summoned Mr Macdougall to a consultation, at
+which I also was allowed to be present, for our sad plight had united us
+all together on the most brotherly terms, if I may so speak of the
+relations both the mate and Captain Billings bore towards me--although
+the skipper had always remembered Sam Pengelly's exhortation on parting
+with me when he left me in his charge, to "remember the b'y!"
+
+I think, too, I have already mentioned that since I had helped to save
+his life, Mr Macdougall had not only completely changed in his
+treatment towards me, but was an altogether different man in every
+respect.  The men used to say, "That bath of salt water washed all the
+confounded bumptiousness out of him!"
+
+"I have determined--that is, if you agree with me, Macdougall," said the
+skipper, when we had assembled in the tent, pointing with his ringer to
+a spot on a chart of the coast that he had brought with him from the
+_Esmeralda_, and which the wetting it had received in our spill among
+the breakers had not damaged very materially, for it looked right enough
+now, spread out on top of Mr Macdougall's chest, he being lucky enough
+to get his safe on shore--"I have determined," repeated Captain
+Billings--"that is, if you agree with me--to make a tour of inspection
+of the neighbouring islands, to see if we can get any help or some
+provisions to keep us going until a ship passes."
+
+"That's weel, vara weel," said Mr Macdougall, with an approving cough.
+
+"And if our quest should be unsuccessful, why, we must proceed to Good
+Success Bay--that point to the south-east of the mainland, opposite
+Staten Island--where there'll be more chance of our intercepting a
+vessel."
+
+"Hech, mon, but it's a gude long deestance, I reecken?" replied the
+mate, in a questioning way.
+
+"About a hundred miles I make it," said the skipper, measuring the space
+on his chart with his fingers, for lack of a pair of callipers.  "But,
+with the southerly and westerly wind that we nearly always have here,
+the boats ought to fetch the place in a couple of days at most."
+
+"Vara weel, Cap'en, I'm ae weelin' to agree to eenything; but I misdoubt
+tak'ing to the sea since more in yon open boat.  'Twas only the grace o'
+Proveedence that saved us in landin' here, and we didna get clear off
+then!"
+
+"No, we didn't," said the skipper, with a chuckle.  "But we won't essay
+that long trip yet awhile--at all events, not until we are forced to.
+We will try the islands near us first; and then, if we meet with no luck
+there, why, we'll shape a course for Good Success Bay."
+
+"All richt, I'm agree'ble," answered Mr Macdougall, quite satisfied
+that we were not going to put to sea again in a hurry in our frail
+craft, which were indeed not very staunch to brave the perils of the
+open sea; so it was decided, accordingly, that the jolly-boat, with a
+picked party, should proceed the next day on a surveying tour amongst
+the neighbouring islands.
+
+The following morning, therefore, Captain Billings, Jorrocks, and I,
+with three of the sailors--Mr Macdougall being left behind at his own
+request in charge of the remainder of the crew--started on the
+investigating expedition, directing the boat first towards a small
+island lying-to the westwards, and the closest to us of all that we
+could distinguish from the beach where our camp was.
+
+This island, however, we found to be uninhabited, and even more bare and
+sterile than the one we had landed on; so, hoisting the small lugsail
+which the jolly-boat carried, we made over more to the north-west,
+towards Wollaston Island, the largest in the archipelago, and about the
+same distance away from us that the Isle of Wight is from Selsea Bill.
+
+On reaching this we found a couple of native families living on the
+shore in rude huts, composed of the branches of trees, and with mud and
+stones heaped over them.  The people were the ugliest I had ever seen,
+being more like baboons than men and women.  They were dwarfish in
+stature, the tallest of the party not exceeding five feet in height, and
+the majority of the others quite a foot shorter.  I noticed also, as the
+skipper had told me, that their apparel was of the very scantiest
+possible, consisting only of a piece of sealskin, which was movable, so
+that it could be placed on the most convenient side for protecting them
+against the weather.
+
+They were not able to help us much, looking miserably off; but they were
+hospitable enough, offering us some mussels and fish, and berries
+similar to those we had seen on the arbutus trees on our own island.
+
+If they could not assist us materially, they put us up to one thing, and
+that was how to catch fish; for, although we had seen many of them
+jumping in the water, and swimming about the beach in front of our
+encampment, we had been unable to capture any, owing to there not being
+a single hook brought in the boats; and, sailors not being accustomed to
+use pins about their garments, we could not make use of these for a
+substitute.
+
+The Tierra del Fuegans had a rare dodge to supply the deficiency.  They
+fastened a limpet to the end of their lines, and, heaving it into deep
+water, the fish readily gorges it; when, before he can bring it up
+again, they pull him out, and thus they get their fish without losing
+their mussel.
+
+"They're just like Turks!" cried Captain Billings, with a broad grin on
+his face.
+
+"Why?" asked I, knowing that something funny was coming.
+
+"Because they're regular musselmen!" said the skipper, laughing out
+loudly at the old joke, Jorrocks and I, of course, joining in.
+
+The natives spoke some sort of gibberish of a language which we could
+not understand; nor could we make them comprehend what we wished to
+learn with reference to the sealing schooners, although the skipper
+shouted out the word "ship" to them as loudly as he could bawl, thinking
+thereby to make himself more intelligible.
+
+Seeing, therefore, that we could do no good by remaining here, we
+started back for Herschel Island to rejoin our companions, getting there
+before it was dark--much to our own relief and to that of Mr
+Macdougall, who was anxiously looking out for us.
+
+For another fortnight we remained here, experiencing the utmost
+privation, for our stock of provisions gradually dwindled down, our two-
+biscuit ration being reduced to one, then to half-a-one a day, and then
+to none at all, when all of us had to eat berries with the little piece
+of salt pork served out to us, and an occasional fish that we sometimes
+succeeded in catching in the native fashion.
+
+At last, at the beginning of September, the skipper determined that all
+hands should put to sea again in the two boats, in order to make our way
+across the intervening gulf of water to Good Success Bay, at the extreme
+south-east point of Tierra del Fuego, opposite to Staten Island, on the
+other side of the Strait of Le Maire.
+
+This plan was adopted, and we launched the boats, now much lighter than
+when they originally had left the poor _Esmeralda_, for they had nothing
+now to carry but ourselves, save water, our provisions being all
+exhausted.
+
+For three days and nights we suffered terribly from hunger, besides
+being buffeted about by adverse winds; but, happily, the fourth morning
+brought us relief, although we had not yet got in sight of Staten
+Island.
+
+Far away on the horizon, on our starboard hand, Jorrocks saw a ship
+standing to the westward; so, rigging up the long-boat's sails again--
+for the wind was contrary to the course we had been trying to fetch, and
+we had hauled them down in despair, allowing the boats to drift about on
+the ocean without heart or energy--we made a board to the south, so as
+to cut off the vessel as she steered towards Cape Horn, taking the
+jolly-boat in tow behind us, for she spread such little canvas that she
+could not keep up with the larger boat.
+
+Fortunately, the wind held, and the ship did not change her course; so,
+about mid-day, we came up with her.
+
+She was a London vessel, the _Iolanthe_, bound to Valparaiso; so her
+captain, seeing that we were shipwrecked mariners in distress, took us
+on board at once, and treated us like brothers, without waiting even to
+hear our story about the loss of the _Esmeralda_.
+
+In thirty days more we were landed at Valparaiso.
+
+Here, by rights, I ought to finish my yarn, for I said when I began that
+I was only going to give a full, fair, and truthful statement as to how
+I came to go to sea, and of my escape, just by "the skin of my teeth,"
+as the saying goes, from the perils of the ocean off Cape Horn on this
+first voyage; and now, as the _Esmeralda_ got burnt and her keel and
+bottom timbers are lying beneath the waves--the catastrophe terminating,
+of course, my voyage in her, to which this story only refers--what
+relates to myself further on is of no concern to any one!
+
+However, not to leave you in suspense, I'll tell you how I got back home
+again to old England, although it was by a terribly roundabout route.
+
+When we arrived at the _Iolanthe's_ port, Captain Billings took passage
+home in the mail-steamer for Mr Macdougall and himself, as well as for
+three of the hands who wished to return to their native country; but the
+rest preferred to run the risk of picking up a ship and working their
+way back in that way, so as to have some little money on the landing,
+the wages due to them from the _Esmeralda_ ceasing from the day of her
+loss.
+
+The men of the mercantile marine have to put up with some hardship in
+this respect, for, when a vessel in which they may have shipped comes to
+an untimely end, like our unfortunate barque, they not only lose all
+their traps and personal belongings, but their wages as well--that is,
+beyond the period at which they actually assisted in working the ship,
+although they may have signed articles for a three years' voyage.
+
+The skipper offered to take me home, too, but I was of the same opinion
+as the majority of my late shipmates.  I did not desire to go back on
+Sam Pengelly's hands, like a bad penny, especially as I liked what I had
+seen of the sea in spite of its perils; so, when I mentioned this to
+Captain Billings, he said that although he would prefer my coming back
+to England with him and waiting till he got a fresh ship, he would not
+interfere with my wishes as to finding another berth at once.  Indeed,
+he added, he already knew of one, as an old friend of his who commanded
+a ship just leaving Valparaiso for Australia had told him that he wanted
+a third mate.
+
+"And if you like," said the skipper, "I'll recommend you to Captain
+Giles for the post."
+
+"I shall be only too glad," I replied.  The skipper did so; and the
+whole thing was settled off-hand, I signing articles with my new captain
+the same day, shortly before my late one left in the mail-steamer, which
+was just on the point of starting.
+
+I took a cordial farewell of Captain Billings, promising that as soon as
+I got back to England, from the voyage I was just starting on, I would
+look him up.  He promised, likewise, to give me a berth on board any
+ship he commanded--should the Board of Trade not withhold his
+certificate after the inquiry that would be held on the loss of the
+_Esmeralda_ on his arrival home; and I may as well state here, that the
+officials entirely exonerated him from any blame in the destruction of
+the ship and cargo, putting the matter down to one of the ordinary risks
+of commercial life.
+
+The skipper also promised to see Sam Pengelly for me, and to tell him
+how I was getting on.  These mutual engagements being gone into, I and
+Jorrocks, having shaken hands with Captain Billings and Mr Macdougall,
+the latter of whom said he would "never forget me as long as he lived,"
+were both making our way along the front of the one long street that
+Valparaiso consists of, thinking of taking off a boat soon to our new
+ship, the _Jackmal_, lying out in the offing--for Jorrocks, learning
+that Captain Giles wanted a boatswain, and knowing that I was going with
+him, agreed to go to sea with him in a moment--when, all at once, who
+should we come full butt on but the very last person in the world I
+expected to see here.  I thought he was still at Dr Hellyer's, at
+Beachampton, cramming for an Oxford scholarship, as far as I knew to the
+contrary--who but--
+
+Yes!--
+
+Tom Larkyns, my old chum, who acted so wickedly in concert with me, when
+we blew up the schoolmaster and ran away to sea!
+
+His uncle, he told me, had a foreign agency here; and the old gentleman
+having written home to his mother offering Tom a situation, he had at
+once been sent out at his own wish, preferring such a life greatly to
+that of going to the university and afterwards having to take holy
+orders, that being the only opening held out to him in England.
+
+Tom also related that the Doctor had become a bankrupt, and the school
+broken up; but I was unable to hear anything further about the scene of
+my past misdeeds and experiences of "pandying" and "way of his own" of
+my former master, for while we were yet chatting together, Captain Giles
+came up, saying he was going off to the _Jackmal_ at once, and would
+like Jorrocks and myself to come on board with him, as he intended
+sailing that afternoon.
+
+So, wishing Tom good-bye, before many hours were over I was again
+floating on the deep.
+
+From Valparaiso, we sailed to Sydney; then, taking a cargo of all sorts
+of "notions," as the Yankees say, we went on to Singapore; going thence
+to Bombay, in ballast.  From India we proceeded back again to Australia,
+going to Melbourne this time; finally coming home to England, round the
+Cape of Good Hope--a good two years after I joined my new ship; for it
+was in October that I landed in Liverpool, while I had started away from
+Cardiff in the _Esmeralda_ two years and five months previously exactly.
+
+I was, however, all the better for my absence; for I had saved up over a
+hundred and fifty pounds, and I had grown a big strapping chap, with
+whiskers and beard in a small way, of which I was very proud.
+
+Need it be asked where I first bent my steps on leaving my ship at
+Liverpool?
+
+Why, to Plymouth, of course!
+
+I got there early in the morning; and, being acquainted with Sam
+Pengelly's every-day practice, I knew exactly where to come across him,
+that is, unless he should happen to be ill; for every morning--except
+Sunday, when he always went to church, unless he chanced to be on board
+his little foretopsail schooner, which was not likely at this time of
+the year--he was invariably to be found on the Hoe, seated on one of the
+benches in front of Esplanade Terrace, looking over at the vessels out
+in the Sound, below and beyond.
+
+Here I sought him; and here I found him, sure enough!
+
+He did not see me coming; so, going behind the seat on which he was
+sitting, I clapped him suddenly on the back, exclaiming at the same
+time, in slight paraphrase of his old address to me that memorable
+December day when I first heard his friendly voice--
+
+"Hallo, old cockbird!  How are you?"
+
+Gracious me, you should only have seen him jump!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+AT HOME AGAIN.
+
+Sam Pengelly started up, and looked at me as if he thought I was a
+ghost.
+
+"What, laddie, is it you really?" he exclaimed, peering into my face
+with his own, which, usually as florid as a peony, was now all white
+with emotion; while his lips trembled nervously as he spoke.  "Why," he
+said, after a close inspection to see whether I was actually Martin
+Leigh or else some base impostor assuming his voice and guise, "it _is_
+the young cockbird, by all that's living--ain't I glad!"  And, then,
+throwing his arms round me in a bear-like hug, he almost squeezed every
+particle of breath out of my body.
+
+"Now, come along," he said presently, when he could speak again, the
+kind-hearted fellow's joy choking him at first, and preventing him from
+uttering a syllable; though he sighed, and drew his breath again in a
+long sigh like a sob, and finally cleared his throat with a cough that
+might have been heard on Drake Island.
+
+"Where?"  I asked.
+
+"Why, to Old Calabar Cottage, in course!" he replied, indignantly.  "Do
+you think Jane won't be glad to see you?  Why, she's been fretting her
+heart into fiddle-strings arter you all these last six months that you
+never wrote, thinking you was gone down to Davy Jones's locker!"
+
+"I'm very sorry I couldn't write from Melbourne," I said.  "We were so
+hurried that I had hardly time to get once ashore.  You got my other
+letters, though, eh?"
+
+"Oh, aye," replied Sam, as we went along the familiar old Stoke road
+that I knew so well, although it was now so long since I had seen it.
+"You've been main good in writin', laddie, an' I don't know what Jane
+would ha' done without your letters.  She thinks you're Teddy still, I
+believe, and seems to have got fonder than ever of you since you left.
+Do you know what the woman did when Cap'en Billings came to tell us how
+he'd seen you, and you was goin' on first-rate?"
+
+"No, I'm sure I can't say," I answered.
+
+"Blest if she didn't throw her arms round his neck and kiss him--just
+because he had last seen you!"
+
+I did not laugh at this, as Sam did; I only thought of the great
+affection, which, so undeserved by me, I had drawn from Jane Pengelly's
+great heart!
+
+Presently, we came in sight of the cottage.
+
+There it was, porch, creepers, and all, just as I had left it, only now
+the glow of the fuchsias had gone, with that of the scarlet geraniums
+and other flowers of summer; still, the autumn tints of the Virginian
+creeper, hanging down in festoons of russet and yellow and red from the
+roof, gave all the colouring that was wanted.
+
+Sam opened the door and walked in, as usual; but it was before his usual
+time for returning from Plymouth, so Jane came out of the kitchen in
+surprise--this I could hear, for I remained without in the porch till he
+had warned her of my coming.
+
+"Deary me, Sam, you are early," she said.  "Why, the pasty won't be done
+for an hour and more."
+
+"What, have you got a Mevagissey pie ag'in for dinner?"
+
+"Yes, Sam," she replied.
+
+"Now, that's curious," Sam said.
+
+I could almost have felt certain that I knew what he was doing when he
+spoke those words in that way.  He must have taken off his hat and begun
+scratching his head reflectively with the other hand, I'm certain!
+
+"Curious?" repeated Jane.  "Why?"
+
+"Why, because we had it for dinner when the poor laddie left us."
+
+"Deary me!" exclaimed Jane, her voice full of alarm.  "There's no
+tidings of any harm come to he, surely!"
+
+"No, no, Jane, my woman," said he, "the lad's all right; 'fact, I've--
+I've seen him this morning."
+
+"This morning!" cried she, all excitement.  "Why, what are you holding
+the door back for?  It's him--he's here!"
+
+And, in another moment, my second mother, as I shall always call her,
+was clinging round my neck with almost more than a mother's love for
+me--if that were possible!
+
+"Deary me!" she said a little while after, "isn't he like Teddy, now?"
+
+Sam burst out laughing.
+
+"Why, Teddy was a slim boy of fourteen, and this laddie here's a fine
+strapping fellow, nearly six feet high, and as broad in the beam as a
+Dutch sloop!"
+
+However, Jane wouldn't be convinced but that I was the very image of her
+own lost child; and, as I had all her wealth of affection in
+consequence, I'm sure I have no reason to complain.
+
+I took up my quarters at "Old Calabar Cottage," as Sam loved to hear
+people call it, rolling out the full name himself with great gusto; and,
+in a little while, as things went on in the old way, I got so accustomed
+to everything around me that I could almost fancy my first voyage and
+the burning of the _Esmeralda_ were a dream, as well as all my later
+experiences of the sea.
+
+But, after a time, I began to long again to be on the deep, desiring
+once more to be daring its dangers and glorying in that "life on the
+ocean wave" which, once tasted by the true-born sailor, can never be
+given up altogether.  I had just begun to deliberate with myself as to
+what sort of ship I should seek, and whither I would prefer to voyage
+for my next trip, when Sam came back from Plymouth one morning brimful
+of news.
+
+"Well, laddie--who d'ye think I met to-day?" he called out to me, almost
+before he was quite inside the house.
+
+"I'm sure I can't guess," I replied.  "Who?"
+
+"Why, Cap'en Billings, my cockbird!"
+
+"Captain Billings!"  I said, with surprise.  "I thought he was in
+China."
+
+"No, but he's going there this voyage."
+
+"This voyage?"  I repeated questioningly, after Sam had said the words.
+
+"Aye, laddie; he's got a bran' new ship, which the owners of the
+_Esmeralda_ have had built, and just made him skipper of.  And, what do
+you think, laddie?"
+
+"I'm sure I can't tell," said I.
+
+"He's going to have a bran' new second mate, who he hears has just got
+his certificate from the Trinity House Board--that is, if he'll accept
+the berth under his old captain."
+
+"What!"  I exclaimed, breathless with excitement, "does he offer to take
+me with him as he promised?"
+
+"Aye, laddie, the berth's open to you if you'll have it, he says.  Will
+you go?"
+
+"Go?"  I repeated, "of course I will!"
+
+And so it came about that I am going to sail under my old skipper again.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's On Board the Esmeralda, by John Conroy Hutcheson
+
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