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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Two Shipmates, by William H. G. Kingston
+
+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: The Two Shipmates
+
+Author: William H. G. Kingston
+
+Release Date: March 4, 2008 [EBook #23051]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWO SHIPMATES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+The Two Shipmates, by William H.G. Kingston.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+This is only a short book, taking no more than three and a half hours to
+read aloud, but it is beautifully written, and it packs a punch.
+
+The two people designated as shipmates start off at the beginning of the
+book as reasonably close friends, but a weakness for alcohol causes Dick
+Bracewell to behave more and more badly, while the real hero, Ralph
+Michelmore, despite being taken by the Press-gang, behaves more and more
+nobly as the story progresses.
+
+Ralph is already Mate of the Amity when pressed into the Royal Navy, but
+he had accidentally gone out that evening without his "Protection", a
+document attesting to his rank in the Merchant Navy.  He had that very
+evening become engaged to Jessie, who waits for him for years.
+
+With a couple of curious twists it all works out well in the end; Ralph
+is reunited with Jessie, and the wicked shipmate, Dick, meets a suitable
+doom.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+THE TWO SHIPMATES, BY WILLIAM H.G. KINGSTON.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+The stout trading brig _Amity_, Samuel Mudge master and part owner, was
+gliding up Plymouth Sound on a summer's evening towards her accustomed
+berth in Catwater, a few years before the termination of the last war
+between England and France.  She had no pilot on board; indeed, her crew
+averred that the old craft could find the way in and out of the harbour
+by herself; at all events, her master knew it better than most men
+trading from the port, as did his young mate, Ralph Michelmore.
+
+The last rays of the setting sun were glancing on the topgallant
+mast-heads of the brig when her anchor was dropped, and by the time her
+sails were furled and all was made snug the gloom of night had settled
+down on the Pool, and twinkling lights began to appear from the houses
+on shore.
+
+"You'll be wishing to go on shore, my boy," said the old master, as
+Ralph, the duties for the day over, came into the cabin to join him at
+tea, which the boy had just placed on the table.  "There'll be some one
+who'll be right glad to see thee, lad;" and the speaker looked up at the
+mate, whose handsome countenance beamed with pleasure, a slight blush
+rising on it as he answered--
+
+"Thank you, sir; thank you heartily.  I should very much like to pay
+Mistress Treviss--and--and her granddaughter a visit.  I had few
+opportunities of seeing them when we were last in port, and as we have
+been long on this trip they may be anxious about us.  But would not you
+prefer going on shore yourself, captain?  It's my duty to remain on
+board."
+
+"No, do you go, as I tell ye," replied the kind old master.  "I'll stay
+on board and look after the ship.  But I say, lad, take your protection
+with you.  The press-gangs are sure to be out, and you may chance to
+fall in with one of them."
+
+"Thank you, sir, I have it here," said Ralph, producing a tin case from
+his pocket; and hurriedly swallowing his tea without sitting down, he
+went into his cabin to rig himself in his shore-going suit.
+
+Ralph's father, the commander of a merchant vessel, and an old friend
+and shipmate of Captain Mudge, had been lost at sea, washed from the
+deck in a heavy gale, leaving his wife and young child but ill provided
+for.  The widow, a truly Christian woman, exerted herself to the utmost
+of her strength to support and educate her boy, but when he was about
+fourteen years of age her health gave way, and she died, committing him
+to the charge of good Captain Mudge.
+
+Ralph, who had set his heart on going to sea, was taken as an apprentice
+on board the _Amity_ the next voyage she made.  By his steadiness,
+intelligence, and activity, he soon became a prime seaman.  When on
+shore he studied navigation, and as soon as his time was out, Captain
+Mudge, the berth being vacant, made him his mate.  Most of the crew
+heartily congratulated Ralph on his promotion, for they acknowledged
+him, young as he was, to be the best seaman among them.  The only one
+who grumbled was Dick Bracewell, who had also been an apprentice on
+board the _Amity_, and being a year older than Ralph, and a very fair
+sailor, considered that he had superior claims to promotion.
+
+"I'm not going to quarrel with you about the matter, Ralph," he said,
+though he looked very much inclined to do so.  "If the skipper chooses
+to favour you that's not your fault; but you can't expect me, as good a
+man as yourself you'll allow, to be jumping here and there at your
+orders; and so as soon as we get back to Plymouth I shall take my chest
+and clear out of the old ship for good.  I shall easily get a berth as
+mate on board another craft, and if we meet again we shall be as good
+friends as ever, I hope."
+
+"No doubt about that, Dick," answered Ralph; "I am sorry, however, that
+you have made up your mind to leave us; still it's but natural, I own."
+
+"Ay, I should think so," said Dick, walking forward.
+
+Dick might have been as active and bold a seaman as Ralph, but the
+captain had, notwithstanding, ample reason for refusing to make him his
+mate, for he was known to be wild on shore, and was often far from
+attentive to his duty on board; while, though he professed to have
+learned navigation, his calculations were not to be depended on.  Still,
+being good-natured and brave as need be, he was liked by the rest of the
+crew, in spite of being thoughtless and inclined to give way to temper.
+Ralph had a sincere regard for him.  He saw his shipmate's errors, but
+believed him possessed of redeeming good qualities, and hoped that he
+would in time amend his bad ways.
+
+Dick kept to his intention, and on reaching Plymouth bade his old
+captain and shipmates good-bye.  This occurred about a couple of years
+before the time we are speaking of, and since then Ralph had heard
+nothing of Dick Bracewell.
+
+No sailor takes long to dress.  Ralph was quickly ready, and a fine
+young fellow he looked as he stepped back into the cabin habited in what
+the old captain called his "shore-going toggery."  Promising to be on
+board again before midnight, he jumped into a boat which had just come
+alongside, and told the waterman to pull for the landing-place.
+
+"You must keep a sharp look-out not to fall in with the press-gangs,
+master," observed the latter.  "They are out every night, and are in no
+ways particular on whom they lay hands."
+
+"Thank you," answered Ralph; "I've no cause to fear them, and am not
+going where they are likely to be looking for their prey."
+
+Ralph had proceeded a few paces after landing, when he heard steps
+behind him and felt a hand placed on his shoulder.  Turning round he saw
+a sailor-like man, who exclaimed, "What, Ralph Michelmore, old chum!
+Don't you know me?  I am Dick Bracewell.  I'm sure I can't be mistaken
+in you, for I saw the _Amity_ come in at sunset, and hoped to fall in
+with you, though I'd no fancy to go on board, do you see."
+
+"And I'm right glad to meet you, Dick," said Ralph, grasping the other's
+proffered hand.  "Where have you been all these years?"
+
+"Knocking about in one craft or another, and seeing something more of
+the world than you have in your jog-trot old tub, I fancy," answered
+Bracewell, with a laugh.  "I've just come back from a voyage to the West
+Indies, with my pockets full of shiners, which I'm going to try and get
+rid of in enjoying myself.  Come along, Ralph, and help me.  I only
+stepped on shore for the first time just as you did, so I've not begun
+yet."
+
+"Thank you, Dick; you mean it kindly, but I'm on my way to see some
+friends, and have promised to be on board again to-night," said Ralph,
+as they walked on together.
+
+"What, not take a glass or two of grog with an old shipmate!" cried Dick
+in an aggrieved tone.  "Come, come, man, just for once be social."
+
+"Even if I ever took liquor, which I don't, I haven't time to stay with
+you," said Ralph, firmly; adding, after a moment's reflection, in the
+hope of preventing his companion from committing the folly he meditated,
+"Instead of doing as you propose, come along with me to see an old lady
+and her granddaughter.  They are great friends of mine, and will welcome
+you for my sake; indeed, I'll confess that I hope some day to marry the
+little girl."
+
+"No, no, my boy; I should be left to do the polite to the old dame,
+while you make love to the young one," answered Dick, with a hoarse
+laugh, which Ralph did not like.  "That sort of thing is not to my
+taste; still, to please you, if you'll come in here and do as I want
+you, I'll think about it."  The door of a public-house stood temptingly
+open.  Dick endeavoured to drag in Ralph, who however resisted manfully,
+and tore his arm away from his companion's grasp.
+
+"Once more hear me, Dick," he said, unwilling to abandon his old friend
+without another effort to save him.  "If you take one glass you'll take
+another and another, till you won't know what you are about, and then
+ten to one you'll fall into the hands of crimps who'll fleece you of
+every shilling in your pocket, or you'll get picked up by a press-gang
+and be carried on board a man-of-war, not to regain your liberty for
+years to come."
+
+"Don't preach to me, Ralph; I know how to take care of myself; so if you
+go on I'll follow you, and you shall see that I'm as sober as a judge,"
+answered Dick, and with a laugh he darted into the public-house.
+
+Ralph, though eager to be with his friends, waited a minute or more in
+the hope that he might come out, and then, as he did not appear,
+reluctantly walked on.  At length, having passed through the town, he
+reached a small cottage in the outskirts, with a few yards of garden in
+front.  Passing through the wicket-gate he stopped for a moment at the
+door.  The window was partly open, and he could hear a sweet voice
+reading.  He caught the words; they were from the Book of Books, which
+he had learned to know and value.  He was unwilling to interrupt the
+reader.  She stopped, however, having come to the end of the chapter.
+He knocked.  "May I come in?" he asked.  "Oh, granny, it is Ralph!"  The
+words were uttered by the same person who had just ceased reading, but
+in a very different tone.  He well knew the sweet voice.  His heart beat
+quick.  He heard the speaker come flying to the door.  In a moment it
+was opened.  "Jessie, my own dear Jessie!" he exclaimed, as he pressed
+the hand of a fair blooming girl, who welcomed him with a bright smile.
+
+"I hoped that you might come to-day, and yet as the hours drew on I
+began to fear that I might again be disappointed," she said, as she
+looked up affectionately into his face.  "How slow the _Amity_ must have
+sailed!"
+
+"She is like other craft, not able to make way without wind, and we had
+scarcely a cup-full all the voyage round from the Thames; besides which,
+we were detained there much longer than usual; but she has safely
+reached port at last," he answered; adding, as he advanced into the room
+towards a neatly-dressed old lady in a high mob-cap, seated in an
+arm-chair, with knitting-needles in her hands and spectacles on her
+nose,--"And how is Mrs Treviss?"
+
+"Ever glad to see thee, dear Ralph," answered the old lady, trying, not
+without difficulty, to rise, till the young man springing forward
+quietly made her sit down again.  "In spiritual health I am well--the
+Lord be praised for all His mercies; but bodily infirmities creep on
+apace with old age, and remind me that my earthly course is well-nigh
+run."
+
+"I hope that you will live many years to be a blessing to us, granny,"
+said the young sailor, affectionately, taking her hand.
+
+"I am ready to remain if it is the Lord's will," she answered.  "And now
+tell me, Ralph, how is good Captain Mudge?  I hope that he will pay me a
+visit before he sails again, as I want much to talk to him on a matter
+of importance."
+
+"He is tough and hearty as ever; he will, I am sure, come and see you,"
+said Ralph.
+
+Mrs Treviss, however, did not entirely occupy the young sailor's
+attention.  He and Jessie had a good deal to say to each other of
+especial interest to themselves as they sat side by side, Jessie's hands
+having found their way into those of Ralph.  At last Mrs Treviss
+reminded her that their guest might possibly be hungry, and that it was
+full time for supper, which she, in obedience to her grandmother, got up
+to place on the table.  "How neat-handed and graceful in all her
+movements she is!" thought Ralph, as his eyes followed her about the
+room; and they were seldom off the door watching for her return when she
+went into the kitchen to warm up the old dame's posset and prepare some
+other viands.  Mrs Treviss took the opportunity of her absence to speak
+to Ralph on a subject which he found especially interesting.  "If I was
+younger and stronger I would not give you this advice I am about to do,"
+she said.  "I would say, wait for a few years till you have the command
+of a ship, and Jessie is older and better able than now to keep house
+and have the cares of a family, but as I fear my poor son-in-law, her
+father, Captain Flamank, will never more be heard of, and I may ere long
+be called to my rest, she will have no one in this world to protect her
+but you; and so it's my wish that you should marry as soon as you can
+manage to spend a few weeks on shore."
+
+"Then that may be at once," exclaimed the young lover, delighted.  "The
+_Amity_ requires some repairs, and the captain is much in a mind, unless
+a good freight offers, to go into dock, and his wish to serve me may
+settle the matter.  I little thought when I came up this evening what
+good news you had in store for me; I can never thank you enough."
+
+"Nay, Ralph, though I love you, it's my grandchild's welfare I have at
+heart, for I can with perfect confidence confide her to you," said the
+old lady, taking Ralph's hand and looking him earnestly in the face.
+"You will cherish her and watch over her, and guard her from all evil."
+
+"Indeed I will, if health and strength is given me," he answered
+solemnly.
+
+"For that we must trust to God," said Mrs Treviss.  "All we can do is
+to exercise the sense He has given us, and guard against the dangers we
+know may occur.  I have therefore made my will, and left the very small
+property I possess to Jessie; but most of my income, as the widow of a
+warrant-officer killed in action, ceases at my death, so that as a
+single woman she would be but poorly off, though she will have something
+to help keep house."
+
+"I would as willingly marry her if she had not a sixpence," exclaimed
+Ralph, warmly.  "More willingly I could not, but it would be a
+satisfaction to know that I was saving her from poverty or from having
+to toil for her living."
+
+"I know you will, Ralph, and I believe you, so say no more about that,"
+observed Mrs Treviss.  "If your good captain settles to put the _Amity_
+into dock, you may perhaps marry some day next week.  You can ask
+Jessie, and I don't think she will say you nay."
+
+Ralph was pouring out his thanks from the bottom of his heart, with all
+the ardour of a young sailor, when Jessie returned.  He would at once
+have broached the subject had not Mrs Treviss given him timely warning
+that by so doing he would considerably interfere with the supper
+arrangements.  Jessie therefore went back to the kitchen and returned
+several times, unaware of the interesting conversation which had taken
+place, though she might have observed the animated expression of her
+lover's countenance.  When all was ready and they sat down to table
+Ralph ate so little that Jessie began to fear he was unwell, and she at
+last could not help looking up affectionately in his face and asking him
+if such was the case.
+
+"Oh no, I never felt better in my life, Jessie; and so happy!" he
+answered.
+
+Perhaps she herself might just then have had some suspicion of the
+truth, for she forgot to eat any more; and shortly afterwards her
+granny, getting up, hobbled out of the room.  The young people were
+alone, and, as may be supposed, Ralph did not lose much time in telling
+Jessie what Mrs Treviss had said, and asking her if she would consent
+to the arrangement.  Jessie was as ready to obey her granny's wishes as
+Ralph could desire, and as he told her there would be no difficulty in
+obtaining a licence she consented to fix the following Monday for their
+wedding-day, if he could, as he hoped, remain in Plymouth.  He was
+naturally very sanguine in the expectation of being able to obtain a
+holiday.  He even thought that, should the _Amity_ be offered a freight
+which could not be refused, Captain Mudge would propose getting another
+mate for the voyage, as it was summer time; not that he should like him
+to do that.  Jessie thought that Captain Mudge would not hesitate about
+having the _Amity_ repaired.  How could he, when so important an event
+depended on his decision!  At length granny came back into the room,
+with a smile on her countenance, and, sitting down in her arm-chair,
+looked up at the tall clock in the corner, which had gone "tick! tick!
+tick!" unheeded for an hour or more since supper.
+
+"Well, my dears, is it all settled?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," answered Ralph.  "Jessie has promised to make me the happiest
+young fellow alive next Monday--though I am wonderfully happy for that
+matter at present,"--and jumping up he kissed granny's hand and thanked
+her again and again for the gift she had bestowed on him, and then he
+ran back to Jessie's side.
+
+At that instant there came several thundering blows on the door from a
+heavy cudgel, and a gruff voice cried out, "Open in the King's name;"
+while another was heard to say, in a lower tone, "Go round to the back
+and look out that he does not escape by that way."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+When Dick Bracewell entered the tavern, he intended merely to take a
+glass of liquor, just to show his independence, and then to follow his
+friend.  He, however, found a shipmate, Tom Joyce, in the bar, who
+easily persuaded him to take a second, followed, naturally, by a third;
+and then, his spirits raised, he was induced to accompany his companion
+to a dancing hall attached to a public-house in one of the back streets
+not far off.  Upwards of fifty seamen were collected, many of them
+half-seas-over, when a press-gang, to whose commanding officer notice
+had been given of what was going forward (very likely by the landlord
+himself), rushed in, and, after a severe struggle, captured whole of
+them, including Dick and Tom, who, having only just fallen into the
+trap, were the most sober of the party.
+
+While the more unruly were carried down at once to the boats, Dick and
+Tom with a few others were marched along by the larger part of the
+press-gang, who were evidently intent on making further captures.
+
+The two captives had their wits wide awake, and were not without hopes
+of effecting their escape.
+
+The press-gang went on till they reached the outskirts of the town, when
+they brought up before a neat little cottage.  Three men were sent round
+to the back-door, while five others advanced to the front entrance and
+knocked loudly.
+
+"That's where Widow Treviss lives; she's not one to harbour seamen,"
+Dick heard one of the party observe.
+
+"Nol Hedger says he marked a prime seaman go in there not two hours
+ago," answered another.  It at once occurred to Dick that they were
+speaking of Ralph Michelmore.
+
+"Poor fellow!  It's where the young girl lives he's going to marry.  If
+they get hold of him they'll not mind her tears and prayers, but will
+carry him off, like the rest of us, to serve the king.  However he has a
+protection, and has a chance of getting off, I hope."
+
+The blow on the door was, repeated.
+
+"Open in the King's name," shouted the officer.
+
+"I always obey that authority," answered Dame Treviss, from within,
+"Ralph, unlock the door."
+
+The door was thrown open, and the seamen, led by their officer, rushed
+in.  The old dame sat calmly in her chair, while Ralph, with Jessie
+clinging to his arm, stood in the centre of the room.
+
+"Why have you come here at this time of the evening, my friends?" asked
+Mrs Treviss, with all the composure she could command.
+
+"Because, old lady, we have information that you are harbouring seamen
+wanted for his Majesty's service, and, if I mistake not, here stands one
+of them, and a likely lad too," answered the officer, a rough old
+master's mate, well accustomed to such work, as he laid his hand on
+Ralph's arm and made a sign to his men to seize him.
+
+"Oh, no, no!  You cannot take him!  You will not be so cruel--you shall
+not have him," cried Jessie, clinging tightly to her intended husband.
+
+"Don't be frightened, dear Jessie, they cannot take me, I have my
+protection," said Ralph, trying to free himself from the officer's
+grasp.
+
+"Let go my arm, and I will show you the paper which proves that I am
+mate of the _Amity_, and a protected man," he added, turning to the
+officer.
+
+"Never took a fellow yet who didn't try to make out that he was
+protected.  However, if the young woman here won't make such a fuss
+we'll let you overhaul your pockets for your protection."
+
+Ralph was released, and began to search in his pockets.  Poor Jessie
+stood by, still trembling with alarm, and anxiously watching him.
+
+"Oh!  You must have it, Ralph," she exclaimed in a plaintive tone, as
+she saw that he did not produce the important document.  "Oh!  Let me
+try," and she plunged her hands eagerly into his pockets.  She uttered a
+cry of dismay when it was not to be found.
+
+"I must have forgotten to take it out of my other jacket when I dressed
+to come on shore," said Ralph; "I had it just before I left the brig, I
+know.  Don't be alarmed, Jessie dear, all will come right; Captain Mudge
+will send it to me, or, if the officer will permit me to go on board,
+I'll get it--I will, indeed, sir," he added, addressing the old mate,
+"and will, on my honour, return with it to any place you may name; I
+will, on my honour."
+
+"That sort of note, I tell you, don't pass current with us, my lad,"
+answered the old mate, more moved perhaps by Jessie's agony of grief and
+terror than from his gruff manner and language might have been supposed.
+"It's hard lines for you, I'll allow, as matters stand, I see; out
+cheer up, my good girl, many another man has had to serve his Majesty
+for a year or two and come home with his pockets full of rhino to set up
+house.  As to the protection, I knew from the first that was all fudge;
+so as we've lost too much time already palavering about it, come along,
+my brave fellow, without more ado."  As he spoke he again seized Ralph
+by the arm, and three of the men stepped forward to assist him.
+
+Poor Jessie clung to Ralph frantically, entreating that he might be
+allowed to remain.  "He will bring you the paper to-morrow; I can answer
+for him, and so can my grandmother.  He never told a falsehood in his
+life; he would not deceive even you," she exclaimed.  "Oh, let him go!
+Cruel, cruel men!"
+
+"The young man speaks only the truth," said Dame Treviss, trembling with
+agitation as she rose from her chair and tottered to her grand child's
+assistance.
+
+While two of the men had seized Ralph, another was about to tear Jessie
+from him, when the dame took the poor girl in her arms.
+
+"Take off your hands, lads, and I will accompany you without attempting
+to escape," he said, and the men releasing him he bore Jessie to the
+little horse-hair sofa, where he placed her by the dame's side,
+bestowing on her a loving kiss as he did so.
+
+Having released himself gently from her arms, "Now I am ready to
+accompany you, sir," he said, and walked steadily towards the door.
+Perhaps even then the king's officer might have felt that the merchant
+seaman was, morally, his superior.
+
+The dame, fearing that Jessie might be exposed to some rough treatment
+should she attempt to stop Ralph, held her in her arms till he had
+reached the door.  She cast a fond look at him as his captors hurried
+him away.
+
+The door was closed--he was gone!  She listened with aching heart to the
+retreating steps of the cruel press-gang as they bore off their
+prisoners, till the sound died away in the distance.  In vain her
+grandmother tried to console her; a fearful foreboding filled her gentle
+bosom that she might never see him more, and she refused to be
+comforted.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+As soon as Ralph Michelmore was in the road, though he had offered no
+resistance, he was roughly thrust into the midst of the press-gang, who
+again closed round their prisoners.  The officer called off the men on
+the watch at the other side of the house, and gave the order to proceed
+back to the boats.  They had not gone far when Ralph felt one of his
+fellow captives stumble up against him, evidently to attract his
+attention.
+
+"Hist, old ship!  I'd have given a year's wages rather than have seen
+you in the hands of the gang," whispered the man, whom he knew at once
+to be Dick Bracewell.
+
+"Thank you, Dick," answered Ralph.  "I am vexed with myself for not
+having brought my protection with me.  I shall, however, get it
+to-morrow, without doubt, so I shall be all right.  I am sorry though to
+find that you have been pressed."
+
+"It's little odds to me where I am, but much to you whether you keep
+your liberty, according to what you told me about that young girl,"
+answered Dick, in the same low tone.  "Now, depend on't, they'll take
+good care you don't receive your protection, for I've found out that we
+are to be shipped this very night aboard the _Falcon_, now lying in the
+Sound, and that she sails for a foreign station--the East Indies, they
+say--to-morrow morning.  Bless ye, old ship!  Before Captain Mudge can
+bring you your protection we shall have run the Eddystone out of sight."
+
+This information made Ralph very anxious, for he had too much reason to
+fear that it was correct.  Dick fancied that some of the press-gang were
+observing him, and was silent for some time, though not idle with his
+fingers, walking on as if resigned to his fate.  Once more he stumbled,
+apparently without intending to do so, against Ralph.
+
+"Hist, mate!  You'd like to get your liberty, and come what may I've
+made up my mind to help you," he whispered.  "My hands are free.  In
+half a minute we shall be close to some dark lanes, and more than one
+hiding-place I know of.  I'll knock the fellow down nearest to you, and
+then do you run for it."
+
+"I cannot do it, Dick; I promised not to run, and I must not break my
+promise," answered Ralph.
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" cried Dick; "if those fellows made you give a promise
+it's their look out."
+
+"A promise is a promise in God's sight, however made," said Ralph.
+
+"Then you don't care for the young girl you talked of marrying," said
+Dick, again lowering his voice.
+
+"I'd give my life for her sake," answered Ralph.
+
+"That's not the question.  Come, here's the place; say the word and
+you'll be free," whispered Dick, not attending to his last remark.
+
+"No, I cannot," answered Ralph firmly.
+
+"An obstinate man will have his own way, and be sorry for it
+afterwards," exclaimed Dick, in a tone of vexation.  "But I'll see what
+I can do in spite of you; there'll be another chance further on."
+
+Dick staggered on as if he were still half-seas-over, gradually
+increasing his distance from Ralph till he got alongside his friend Tom.
+The latter was in no mood for talking, but he listened eagerly to what
+Dick had to say.
+
+"Ay, give the word, and I'm ready," answered Tom, after listening for
+some time; "only just help me to get my hands out of limbo."
+
+Dick had managed to liberate his own hands, and it was the work of a
+moment to free his companion's, the darkness preventing their guards
+from observing them.
+
+They had by this time reached a street close to the water, though at
+some distance from where the boats were waiting.  Suddenly the
+press-gang were assailed by the wildest shrieks and cries and showers of
+abuse, uttered by a number of women and boys, who rushed out from some
+narrow courts or other places where they had been concealed.  They did
+not confide their attack to words, but, supported by some men, who,
+however, kept at a safe distance behind them, they opened a volley of
+brickbats and stones at the heads of the sailors.  The latter turned to
+defend themselves and drive off their assailants, who nimbly retreated,
+when pursued, in all directions, redoubling their shrieks and cries.
+The officer, well knowing the object of the attack, shouted to his men
+to stand fast; but some amid the din did not understand what he said,
+and few were willing to obey his orders.
+
+Tom, whose hands had been freed, tripped up the man nearest him, and
+dashed down the street towards the water, followed by two of the
+press-gang.
+
+"Now's your time, mate," cried Dick, seizing Ralph by the arm; "come
+along."
+
+"I cannot," answered Ralph, firmly; "I promised to remain.  Save
+yourself if you can."
+
+"You're a fool then," exclaimed Dick, and, springing past some of the
+press-gang attacked by those in front, he dashed through the crowd.  He
+was, however, pursued, and quickly brought back.
+
+"Luck's against me, hearties, but I'm not the lad to pipe my eye," he
+exclaimed, in a tone of bravado.  "Just give me another chance, and I'll
+show you who has the fastest pair of heels."
+
+The sailors laughed at Dick's sally, and thought him a hearty good
+fellow, though they did not neglect, for all that, to lash his hands
+more securely than at first.
+
+In the meantime Tom had reached the wharf, but finding one side blocked
+up, had doubled, in the hope of escaping in another direction, when he
+saw two of the press-gang close to him.  Numerous vessels of all sizes
+lay in the harbour.  Dread of having to serve on board of a man-of-war
+made him desperate.  Without hesitation he plunged into the water, and
+swam off, hoping to reach one of the vessels, on board which he might be
+received and concealed.  His pursuers, expecting a flogging should he
+escape, dashed in after him.  The heads of the three men could scarcely
+be discerned when the officer, with the main body, reached the quay.  In
+vain he shouted to Tom to return and not to risk his life, while he
+ordered some of his men to push off in a boat and overtake the swimmers.
+No boat was, however, to be found afloat in the neighbourhood.  Some
+were hauled up on a slip, but they were under repair, and no oars were
+in them.  The people who had been mobbing the press-gang had collected
+on the quay, keeping at a safe distance, and they now uttered cries of
+encouragement to Tom to persevere, while they hurled execrations on the
+heads of his pursuers; their voices, joined with those of the shouting
+seamen, creating the wildest possible uproar.  In a short time the
+splash of oars was heard, and a boat was dimly seen at some distance
+from the shore.  The officer shouted to the people in her to take his
+men on board, but his orders were unheeded.
+
+Almost within hail lay the _Amity_.  Could Ralph once get on board her
+he was safe.  At that moment he caught sight of a lad running by.
+
+"Here, boy," he cried out, in spite of the growls of some of the
+press-gang near him, "there's a golden guinea for you if you'll get
+aboard the _Amity_, tell Captain Mudge that his mate, Ralph Michelmore,
+has been pressed, and ask him to bring my protection, which he will find
+in my jacket pocket, on board the _Falcon_.  She sails to-morrow early,
+so there is no time to be lost; or, if you can get off at once--and you
+shall have thirty shillings if you do--he may overtake us before we
+reach the boats."
+
+"Trust me, mate," answered the lad, a sharp young mud-larker.  "I should
+just like the feel of a little earnest-money, though, to show that I am
+not being sent on a fool's errand."
+
+The seamen laughed, and told the boy that such was very likely to be the
+case.  Ralph, however, found a crown piece in his pocket.
+
+"Here, my lad," he said, giving it to the boy; "notwithstanding what
+they say, I will trust you.  What's your name, that I may know you
+again?"
+
+"I'm sometimes called Peter Puddle, and sometimes Muddy Legs, and all
+sorts of names, for that matter; but I'm no ways particular."
+
+"Well then, Peter Puddle, be smart about it, and gain the rest of your
+reward," said Ralph.
+
+The lad, with a shout of delight, taking the money, ran off, and Ralph
+was left in doubt whether or not he would fulfil his commission.
+
+The sailors laughed even more than before.  "It's easy to see who's the
+fool now," observed one of them.
+
+The attention of the party was, however, quickly recalled to what was
+going forward in the harbour.  The boat before seen could be discerned
+dimly in the distance through the gloom, and from the same direction
+there came the sound of oars splashing, or people struggling in the
+water, and loud cries and shouts mingled with fierce oaths, while now a
+piercing cry rang through the night air.  Some of the press-gang were
+eager to jump in and swim to their shipmates' assistance, but the
+officer forbade them, ordering three or four to make another search for
+a boat.  At length the sounds of struggling ceased, but which party had
+been defeated it was impossible to ascertain.
+
+The sound of oars in the water was now heard, and a boat was observed
+slowly approaching the shore.  She reached at length the jetty near
+which the man-of-war's men were standing.  Some of them went down to
+meet her, and a shout proclaimed that their shipmates had returned,
+though without a prisoner.  The two men were lifted out of the boat, not
+having strength to walk.  Their arms and shoulders were fearfully
+battered and bruised, and the head of one of them was cut open.  They
+had reached the boat, when they were attacked by the men in her with
+oars and stretchers, and they would have been drowned had they not got
+hold of the gunwale, and, in spite of opposition, clambered on board,
+and, after a desperate struggle, turned the occupants out, just at the
+moment that another boat came up.  The men, they believed, had been
+taken on board her, as had, they supposed, the escaped prisoner; and, at
+all events, she had made off and got out of sight.
+
+Followed by a collection of men, women, and boys, still shouting and
+hurling abuse at them, the press-gang, moving on, at length reached the
+boats.  Ralph and Dick were among the first not over gently hauled on
+board; the rest of the captives were as quickly as possible shoved in
+after them; a strong party of the press-gang remaining on shore to keep
+back the mob, which seemed inclined to make a rush at the last, for the
+purpose of rescuing some of their friends.  Their courage, however,
+failed them.  The last of the man-of-war's men leaped on board, the
+order to shove off was given, and the boats proceeded down the Sound,
+followed by the yells and execrations of the people on shore.
+
+"They'll hurt their own throats more than they do us," observed an old
+seaman who was pulling at the thwart on which Ralph and Dick sat.  "It's
+hard lines, though, you think, for yourselves, mates, I dare say; but
+before long you'll be used to a life aboard a man-of-war, and be as
+ready to press others as we were to press you."
+
+"Justice is justice; and I shall never think it right to press men
+against their will," answered Ralph.  "I, however, hope to be free
+to-morrow, as I have a protection which will be brought on board to me."
+
+"Don't count too much on that, mate," said the old sailor; "when they've
+got a man, they're not in a mind to let him go.  It's wisest to make the
+best of a bad job, and that's what I advise you to do, my hearty."
+
+"If I had only myself to think of, I would," said Ralph, liking the tone
+of the old sailor's voice; "but I was to be married next week, and it's
+bitter hard to be parted from the girl one loves, and harder for her."
+Ralph's voice trembled as he spoke.
+
+"Ay, mate, hard, very hard!" answered the old sailor, in a sympathising
+tone; "I know what it is.  I was pressed the very day I had married as
+sweet a young girl, and as good too, as an honest man would wish to have
+for his wife.  I had five years of it out round the Cape without ever
+hearing a word of her, but I knew she would be true to me, and that kept
+my heart up.  I got home at last, with plenty of prize-money to set up
+house, but she was gone.  They showed me her grave.  It might have been
+worse--I know that--still it seemed as if the life had been crushed out
+of me.  I left my money with her childless mother, and volunteered
+aboard the first ship I heard of fitting out for a foreign station.
+From that day to this I've been at sea, turned over from one ship to
+another, and never saved a sixpence.  I wish I had.  I'd have got your
+discharge, that I would, if money could have done it."
+
+"Thank ye, from the bottom of my heart, old friend," said Ralph, warmly.
+"Maybe I shall get my protection paper in time, and be set free."
+
+"Wish I could say I thought so.  But you'll know at least that there's
+one aboard the _Falcon_ who can feel for you, and that's something; ay,
+and will stand your friend if there's a chance.  Cheer up!  Cheer up!
+Here we are, close alongside the frigate."
+
+The pressed men, with Ralph and Dick among them, were sent down to the
+lower deck, and placed under charge of a sentry.  They were allowed to
+stretch themselves on (as Dick, while bemoaning his fate, remarked) "the
+softest planks they could find," for the remainder of the night.
+
+It seemed but a moment after Ralph had at length fallen asleep, that he
+heard the boatswain's shrill whistle and the deep rough voices of his
+mates rousing up all hands, while the pale light of early morning
+streamed down through the hatchways.  The next cry which reached him
+was, "Hands aloft; loose sails."  Other orders were issued; he knew too
+well their meaning; preparations were being made for immediately putting
+to sea.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+Poor Jessie had wished at once to hasten on board the _Amity_, to obtain
+the assistance of Captain Mudge, and to get Ralph's protection, but her
+grandmother persuaded her to remain till the morning, as, not knowing
+where Ralph had been carried, she was sure nothing could be done till
+then.
+
+Daylight came at length, and Jessie, receiving a loving embrace from her
+grandmother, set out.  With a prayer for her safety, Mrs Treviss
+watched the young girl, who, like a bird released from its cage, flew
+rather than walked, as she made her way in the grey light of the early
+morn in the direction of the port.
+
+At last she reached the landing-place, some way off which Ralph had told
+her the _Amity_ lay.  There were several boats made fast to the shore,
+or moored off it; but no watermen were about.  In vain she looked along
+the quays on either hand; no one was stirring.  Here and there, on board
+some of the vessels, men were seen just coming up the fore hatchways on
+deck, but they were too far off to hear her voice had she called to
+them.  She felt ready to give way to tears at the delay, when every
+moment might be so precious.  At length she saw, through the veil of
+morning mist which still hung over the mirror-like surface of the
+harbour, a small boat approaching the landing-place.  A boy was paddling
+her at his ease, singing as he slowly dipped his oars in the water.  She
+hurried down to meet him, as, standing up, he gave a few more strokes
+and brought the boat to shore.
+
+"Well, Miss, what's it you want?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, boy, will you take me off to the _Amity_?" said Jessie.  "She lies
+not far away from the shore, and I will pay you well."
+
+"Now that is curious," exclaimed the lad, the same Peter Puddle by name
+to whom Ralph had entrusted his important commission.  "I was to have
+gone aboard her for a young chap who was pressed last night and had left
+his protection behind him, but I got another job and couldn't, though I
+am agoing when I've had breakfast."
+
+"Pray take me off at once, for every moment may be of consequence,"
+cried Jessie.  "I want to see the captain about the same young man, and
+he will, I am sure, give you some breakfast."
+
+"Well, step in, Miss, then," said Peter, offering his hand to help her,
+while he kept the boat close to the shore with his boat-hook.  "I
+thought might be that the skipper would just hear what I'd got to say,
+and then kick me down the side again, as the chances are many I've met
+with would do."
+
+"Oh no! no!  Captain Mudge will treat you kindly and reward you for the
+trouble you have taken," said Jessie, as Peter began to pull away from
+the shore.
+
+"As to trouble, Miss, I can't boast much of that, seeing I didn't go
+when I said I would," answered Peter, in a greatly changed tone.  "I
+like you, for you speak kindly to me; and I'm sorry I didn't go when I
+promised; for, as you say, Miss, there's no time to be lost.  He was
+taken aboard the _Falcon_, and she is to sail this morning for the
+Indies, so that if he goes in her he won't be back again for many a long
+year."
+
+This information increased poor Jessie's agitation and anxiety.
+Fortunately, the boat was soon alongside the _Amity_: Peter hailed the
+deck.  One of the crew looked over the side, and seeing Jessie, called
+the captain, who quickly made his appearance, while in the meantime the
+accommodation ladder had been lowered.
+
+"What brings you here at this hour, my dear girl?" he exclaimed, with a
+look of anxiety in his countenance as he descended the ladder to help
+Jessie up the side.  "Has anything happened to my mate?"
+
+"Oh, yes, Captain Mudge; he has been pressed, and will be carried off to
+sea if we do not take him his protection," answered Jessie as she
+reached the deck, no longer able to restrain her tears.  "That boy knows
+all about it."
+
+Peter Puddle was called up, and gave the message he had received from
+Ralph with sufficient clearness.
+
+"No time to be lost indeed," exclaimed the captain.  "Dear me! dear me!
+poor Ralph!  We'll make our way down the harbour as fast as sails and
+oars will send us along, and save him if we can.  Lower the boat, lads,
+and take your breakfasts with you."
+
+Jessie, in spite of her anxiety, did not forget her promise to Peter;
+and the captain told him to go forward and get some food, which Toby
+Trott, the cabin boy, would give him.  Peter pulled one of his shaggy
+locks and hastened to the caboose, where the cook was busy blowing up
+the fire, the grey smoke from which had just begun to curl in light
+wreaths towards the blue sky.  In the meantime, Jessie accompanied the
+captain into the cabin.
+
+"I reminded him to take his protection just as he was going ashore.  He
+must have lost it, I fear, on his way," observed the latter.
+
+But Jessie was not so easily convinced of that.  She hurried down to
+Ralph's berth, and eagerly put her hand into one of the pockets of his
+jacket hanging up inside the door; her countenance fell.  She tried the
+other pocket; "Yes, here it is!" she exclaimed in a joyful tone, drawing
+out a tin case and examining it.  "Oh, Captain Mudge, let us go with it
+at once."
+
+"As soon as you have had a cup of coffee, my dear girl; I cannot let you
+start without that," answered the kind old captain.  "Careless fellow!
+I am angry with him for giving you so much anxiety; but the fright he
+has had will be punishment enough you think, I daresay.  Come, come,
+Jessie, don't cry; any man might have done the same.  He just forgot in
+his eagerness to see you that he had changed his jacket.--Here comes the
+coffee."  The captain poured out a cup for her, but she could only take
+a few sips, while he hurriedly swallowed his breakfast.  The boat was
+soon ready.  Jessie was handed into her, and the old captain taking his
+seat, with four stout hands to row, they shoved off from the vessel's
+side.  They had got to a short distance off, when Peter Puddle looked
+over the bulwarks.  "'Mind the mate of the sovereign he promised," he
+shouted.  "I'll stay aboard till you come back."
+
+"Never fear, lad; you'll get it if he is set free," answered the
+captain.
+
+"Oh! he must, he will be freed," cried poor Jessie, who did not like the
+captain's "if."
+
+"I hope so, my dear girl, but we must be prepared for disappointment,"
+he said, in a soothing tone.  "I have had a good deal in my time, though
+I know that God orders all for the best, and He has given me strength to
+bear it."  He spoke for some time in the same strain.  "It's still a
+dead calm, and the ship cannot sail without a breeze, though all the
+Lords of the Admiralty were to order her to get under weigh, that's one
+comfort," he continued.  "So cheer up, Jessie, cheer up."  The boat had
+got out of the Catwater, and was making good progress down the smooth
+waters of the Sound, with its high, richly-wooded shores on either side.
+Far ahead, at the entrance of the harbour, lay several ships-of-war and
+a fleet of merchantmen.  The topsails of the largest, as well as those
+of the merchant vessels, were loosed and hung in the brails, and
+Blue-peter was flying from their mast-heads.  It was evident that they
+were prepared for sea.  Poor Jessie's anxiety increased.  Now and anon a
+catspaw had passed across the mirror-like surface of the water, just
+rippling it for an instant, and then leaving it again placid as before.
+Others now followed in quick succession.  The sails and flags of the
+ships, hitherto hanging listlessly against the masts, began to blow out,
+and a vessel close-hauled was seen in the offing, gliding quickly across
+the mouth of the harbour.
+
+"Step the mast, lads," said the captain; "we shall feel the breeze
+presently, and the canvas will help us along.  Keep the oars going
+though."  The sail was quickly hoisted and rigged out with a boat-hook,
+while the sheet was passed aft to the captain.  The crew pulled more
+lustily than ever, for they saw that the frigate was preparing to sail,
+and were eager to rescue their mate, who was beloved by all of them.
+The breeze every moment increased.  Poor Jessie, unable to speak from
+anxiety, her heart sinking within her, kept her eyes fixed on the ships,
+while the captain every now and then bent down to look at them under the
+foot of the sail.  "In oars, lads," he said at length, for the boat was
+skimming so fast over the water that they were of no further use.  Still
+the wind blew stronger and stronger.  They were within half a mile of
+the frigate.  The loud sound of a gun fired from her side boomed over
+the water; it was followed by another--the signal for weighing.  The
+head-sails of the merchantmen were sheeted home, and in quick succession
+their bows turned seaward and they glided away from their anchorage.
+The _Falcon_ had not yet moved.  They were now so near the frigate that
+the men in the tops and on the yards and swarming up the rigging could
+clearly be distinguished, while the boatswain's shrill whistle and the
+voices of the officers were distinctly heard.  A groan escaped from the
+old captain's breast as the head-sails were let fall and sheeted home.
+The yards, hitherto backed against the mast, were swung round, and the
+huge anchor appeared rising above the water.  Poor Jessie uttered a cry
+of grief, for she understood too well that there was now no hope of ever
+getting alongside.  At that instant a person was seen to spring into the
+main rigging: Jessie held out her hands to him--it was Ralph.  He must
+have recognised the boat as she approached.  He waved a farewell to
+Jessie.  No words reached her ear; but she saw, or fancied that she saw,
+his lips moving.  Standing up, she seemed as if about to spring towards
+her intended husband, but the old captain holding her back, she uttered
+a piercing cry and sank down senseless in his arms.  He could not tell
+whether Ralph had seen what had happened; he had indeed enough to do in
+attending to Jessie and steering the boat.  Recollecting the protection,
+he held up the case containing it; but it was unnoticed, or at all
+events unheeded.  He heard one of his seamen remark, "Now's his time!
+If he was to slip overboard and swim to us, we'd pick him up fast
+enough, and they'd not heave-to to send after him."  The sailors in the
+boat beckoned eagerly to Ralph, who could not have misunderstood their
+signals.  The temptation to him must have been very great; but whether
+or not he intended to make the attempt they could not tell, for at that
+moment three men sprang into the rigging and he was dragged down on deck
+out of sight.
+
+Happily for Jessie, she did not see what had occurred.  The ship had
+paid off before the wind and was rapidly gathering way: her after-sails
+were let fall, her topgallant sails hoisted, and under a crowd of canvas
+she majestically glided out of the Sound.
+
+The boat had got a considerable way up the harbour before Jessie gave
+signs of returning consciousness.  The old captain sat watching her with
+the affectionate care of a father.  With a deep sigh she at length
+recovered, and a flood of tears relieved her aching heart.  She turned
+her eyes seaward and gazed long and steadfastly at the proud ship which
+bore Ralph away, till the man-of-war could no longer be distinguished
+from the crowd of other vessels which surrounded her.  The good old
+captain could fully sympathise with her in her grief, for he himself
+felt very sad at having his mate, whom he loved as a son, taken so
+unjustly away from him.
+
+As the boat passed the _Amity_, Peter Puddle looked over the side and
+hailed, "Haven't you got the mate in?"
+
+The captain shook his head.
+
+"Then I've lost my guinea," cried Peter; "but I mind more about the
+mate, that I do."
+
+"Never mind your guinea, lad.  I'll see after you.  Stay on board till I
+come back," answered the captain.
+
+They soon reached the shore.  Captain Mudge insisted on escorting Jessie
+home, for he could not bring himself to leave her till he had seen her
+safe with her grandmother, who would, he fancied, comfort her better
+than he could.  On reaching home, Jessie, throwing herself into her
+granny's arms, gave way to her tears.
+
+"It will do her good, and Ralph won't find fault with her when he hears
+of it," observed the old captain.  "Fine young man, that mate of mine,
+Mrs Treviss.  He's a great loss to me, no doubt about that; but it may
+turn out for his good after all.  Shouldn't be surprised, as I said to
+Jessie just now, if he was to come back an officer in his Majesty's
+Service.  He'd not be the first pressed man who has risen to be an
+admiral.  We can all pray for him too, you know, Mrs Treviss; and
+that's a great comfort, isn't it?"
+
+Jessie in a short time became calm again, and even looked up and smiled
+at her kind old friend.  Captain Mudge had a good deal of business to
+attend to, so after a short chat, promising to return soon to see how
+they were getting on, he took his departure.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+The _Falcon_ sailed down Channel with her convoy of merchantmen.  She
+was to see them safe across the Atlantic to different ports in the West
+Indies, and then to proceed on her voyage to the East.
+
+Early in the morning, Ralph, with the other pressed men, had been sent
+up on deck and their names duly entered in the ship's books.  Still he
+had a lingering hope that Captain Mudge would come off in time with the
+protection.  How cruelly that hope was disappointed has been seen.  With
+intense anxiety he had watched for the boat: he had seen her at length
+approaching.  Already the capstan had been manned, and the men were
+tramping round against the pawls, the fifes playing merrily, to run the
+anchor up to the bows.  While stationed at the fore-topsail braces, as
+he looked through a port he had recognised Jessie in the _Amity's_ boat.
+The temptation to bid her farewell was greater than he could resist.
+The brace was belayed: he sprang into the rigging that Jessie might see
+him.  A midshipman observing the boat, and thinking that he was about to
+spring overboard to her, ordered him to be seized, and suddenly he found
+himself dragged down on deck and placed under charge of the
+master-at-arms for attempting to desert.
+
+Ralph had now more reason than ever to be cast down.  The offence with
+which he was charged was a serious one, yet the consciousness that he
+had no intention of committing it supported him.  For long he was kept
+in suspense, while the ship with her attendant merchantmen was making an
+offing from the land before shaping a course down Channel.  At length he
+was conducted between two marines to the quarter-deck, where Captain
+Shortland and his officers were standing and a large portion of the crew
+were assembled.
+
+"I must have you understand, my lads, that I intend to maintain strict
+discipline on board this ship.  I shall have an eye on those who do
+their duty, and on those who neglect it.  I never forgive an offence,
+and shall severely punish drunkenness, insubordination, and desertion,
+or attempt at desertion: and I intend to make an example of the man who
+was, I am informed, about to try to desert from the ship."  And the
+captain looked at Ralph, who stood between his guards.  All eyes were
+turned towards him.  "What is his name?" asked the captain of the first
+lieutenant.  On being told, he continued, "Ralph Michelmore, after
+having entered as one of this ship's company, you were about to desert
+to a boat which had come off to receive you, and I shall give you two
+dozen lashes as a warning to yourself and others for the future."
+
+"I had no intention of deserting, sir," answered Ralph, firmly.  "The
+boat brought off the master of the brig to which I belong, with my
+protection, and I could easily have slipped through a port had I wished
+it."
+
+"And I can say, sir, that Ralph Michelmore speaks the truth.  He's an
+old shipmate of mine, and I never heard him tell the shadow of a lie,"
+said Dick Bracewell, stepping aft and doffing his hat.  "He could have
+made his escape before he was brought aboard if he'd had a mind to do
+it, but he wouldn't because he'd passed his word that he'd stay quiet,
+and the officer who pressed us knows it and can say so if he likes."
+
+The old mate who had commanded the press-gang, and was now attending to
+his duties on the lower deck, was sent for, and at once corroborated
+what Dick had said, explaining at the same time the circumstances of
+Ralph's capture.
+
+"I believe you, and you may return to your duty," said the captain,
+looking at Ralph.  "For your sake I am sorry that you were pressed,
+though I am glad to have got so smart a seaman as you appear to be; and
+if you turn out as I expect, you may have no reason to regret that you
+were compelled to join this ship.  Pipe down."
+
+The men went below or forward to their respective duties.
+
+"Well, my lad," said the old sailor who had spoken to Ralph in the boat,
+coming up to him, "I'm right glad you've got out of that scrape, and, as
+I said afore, if ever you want a friend you'll find Jacob Crane a
+staunch one.  I can feel for you, lad; I can feel for you."
+
+"Thank you, Jacob," answered Ralph, putting out his hand to grasp that
+of the speaker, who wrung his heartily.
+
+"Have you ever before served in a King's ship?" asked Jacob.
+
+"No, I have never so much as been on board one before," said Ralph.
+
+"Then I can be of use to you in putting you up to a thing or two," said
+old Jacob, and forthwith he began to explain the way in which the duty
+was carried on.
+
+Ralph listened attentively, and made such good use of the knowledge he
+had gained that he was able from the first to do his duty as well as any
+one.  He was fortunately stationed at the gun of which Jacob was
+captain, and the old sailor took pains to instruct him in handling it.
+Naval gunnery not being in those days the art it has since become he was
+soon a proficient.
+
+"How, my lad, came you to say that you have never before served on board
+a man-of-war?" asked the first lieutenant one day, observing his
+activity.
+
+"Nor have I, sir," answered Ralph, touching his hat.  "I never handled a
+gun before I joined this ship."
+
+"You do very well, then, and may look out for a higher rating before
+long," observed Mr Handsel, passing on.
+
+This remark somewhat raised Ralph's spirits.  The captain himself had
+observed his activity and neat appearance, and the thorough way in which
+he did everything to which he put his hand.  One day the signalman was
+on the sick-list.  The post is a responsible one when a number of ships
+are sailing in company, as a watch has to be kept on the whole fleet and
+signals constantly made and answered.  The captain sent for Ralph, and
+after a few questions directed him to attend to the duty.  He performed
+it with his usual attention and intelligence.  It kept him also on the
+quarter-deck and under the eyes of the officers.  As is customary, the
+midshipmen assembled under the master each day at noon and at other
+periods with their sextants or quadrants to take observations.  Some of
+the younger ones Ralph remarked handled their instruments rather
+clumsily, and evidently did not understand their use.
+
+"I say, Dickenson, for the life of me I cannot manage to shoot the old
+sun with this thing, it only puts my eyes out; and yesterday again my
+day's work was all wrong somehow or other," said Mr Paul Chandos, a
+youngster who had just come to sea, to another midshipman who had also
+not been many months in the Navy.
+
+"I'm sure I can't help you," answered Dickenson, a gawky lad, with a
+hopeless glance at his quadrant.  "It seems a very useless expenditure
+of our valuable eyesight when it's the proper business of the master,
+and those fellows the master's assistants, to find out whereabouts the
+ship is."
+
+"Still, I should like to know how to use this thing properly, for the
+captain is sure to find out if I don't; and besides, some day I may have
+command of a vessel, and I should look very foolish if I didn't know how
+to find my way in her," said young Chandos, putting the quadrant to his
+eye and imitating the master, who with the rest of the midshipmen stood
+at some distance off.
+
+"It will be so long before either of us have that chance that I don't
+intend to trouble myself about the matter," answered the other
+midshipman, swinging his quadrant backwards and forwards as if he felt
+inclined to throw it overboard.  Still Chandos persevered.
+
+"If you like, I shall be happy to show you how to take an observation,
+and the way to work it out," said Ralph, touching his hat, though he
+felt more compassion than respect for the youngster.
+
+"I wish you would, Michelmore," answered young Chandos, in a grateful
+tone; "I have been bothering away day after day and haven't liked to ask
+any one."
+
+Ralph took the quadrant, and having first placed it to his own eye, made
+Chandos hold it while he showed him how to use it, and to watch for the
+moment when the lower edge of the sun seemed to touch the horizon before
+it rose again.
+
+"There--there--I never saw it do that before," exclaimed the young
+midshipman.  "Thank you, Michelmore, you are a good fellow: and now just
+work it out for me in this pocket-book, will you?"
+
+Ralph, having in the meantime taken a glance round at the different
+ships of the fleet, very rapidly in a few figures did as requested.
+
+It happened that the captain had just before come on deck, and,
+unnoticed, was an observer of the scene.  He had remarked, too, the way
+in which Ralph had assisted the youngster without neglecting his proper
+duty.  The master and his assistants, with the rest of the midshipmen,
+had taken their instruments below when he went aft to where Ralph was
+standing.  "I see, Michelmore, you know how to take a meridional
+observation," he observed.  "Do you understand much of navigation?"
+
+"I take an interest in the study, sir, and am considered a fair
+navigator," answered Ralph, modestly.
+
+"Have you made many voyages?" asked the captain.
+
+"Several, sir, up the Mediterranean, to Lisbon, Madeira, and the Baltic,
+as mate," said Ralph.
+
+"You consider yourself competent, then, to navigate a vessel in any part
+of the world," observed the captain, after a short pause.
+
+"Yes, sir; I should have no fears as to the correctness of my
+observations," answered Ralph, modestly, though he spoke with
+confidence.
+
+"I will consider what can be done, and will not lose sight of you,"
+observed the captain, walking away.
+
+There were grumblers and discontented men, as there are on board most
+ships.  Dick Bracewell was among them.  He soon got tired of the strict
+discipline, grumbled at being compelled to turn out neatly-dressed and
+clean, and at being only allowed to smoke his pipe at certain times and
+in one part of the ship, and more than all at having his grog stopped,
+or being compelled to drink it mixed with nine parts of water when he
+had neglected his duties or broken through any regulations, as was not
+unfrequently the case.  Having had a good deal of money in his pocket
+when pressed, he was able to buy from others their allowance of grog.
+
+At length, one evening when Ralph went below, to his sorrow he found his
+old shipmate unusually uproarious, now singing and shouting, now ready
+to quarrel and fight with any one who interfered with him.  Ralph was
+doing his best to get him to sit down quietly by himself, when the
+hammocks were piped below and the men sprang up on deck to bring them
+down from the hammock-nettings.  "I'm off for mine," cried Dick, getting
+on his legs and staggering along the deck.  "I look as sober as a judge,
+whatever I may be, though I feel very jolly."  Ralph tried to stop him,
+but Dick, breaking from his friend, scrambled up the ladder, shouting
+out, "I'm a free man, and no one shall stop me from doing what I
+choose."  His shouts drew the attention of one of the officers towards
+him.  He was ordered aft with his hammock, carrying which, he went
+staggering along till he rolled over with it on the deck.  In vain he
+tried to get on his feet, so he lay still, with just enough
+consciousness left to know that he was in a sad scrape, without a chance
+of getting out of it till his back and the cat had become acquainted.
+The officer of the watch, knowing that it would be useless to speak to
+him, sent for two marines, between whom he was taken below and forthwith
+placed in irons, thus to remain till he had recovered his senses.  The
+inevitable consequence followed.  The next morning Dick received two
+dozen lashes as a punishment for drunkenness.
+
+Dick, who had been one of the merriest fellows on board, now became
+morose and surly, even to his best friends; and as the men were afraid
+of selling him their liquor, he could not drown his care, as he would
+have tried to do had he been able.  "Don't talk to me, Ralph," he said
+one day when his old shipmate was trying to arouse him to a better state
+of mind.  "I'm determined to take French leave, and you're not the man I
+think you, if you try to stop me."
+
+"I have always been your friend, Dick, and I should prove that I am so
+still if I prevented you from doing a mad thing, which would be sure to
+bring you into a worse condition than you are now.  You would, most
+probably, be retaken, or should you escape, you would to a certainty get
+drunk, spend all your money, and be left a beggar in a strange land."
+
+"I've a notion that I can take as good care of myself as you, or any
+other man, though you have been mate of the _Amity_, and expect some day
+to walk the quarter-deck of this ship," answered Dick, with a scornful
+laugh, his old feeling of envy of Ralph reviving in his mind.  "I shall
+have to touch my hat and `sir' you, while you top the officer over me.
+Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+Ralph had some time before, while in friendly converse, somewhat
+incautiously, perhaps, expressed his hopes to Dick, who then seemed
+cordially to sympathise with him.  He felt hurt at Dick's remark, though
+not the less anxious to serve him.  Before he could reply the
+boatswain's whistle was heard, and the crew were piped on deck to muster
+at divisions.
+
+No one was allowed to be idle on board.  The men were constantly
+exercised at the guns, or in the use of the small arms, or in shortening
+and making sail, the frigate sometimes dropping astern to whip up the
+laggards, then crowding on again to recover her former position in the
+van of the fleet.  Ralph was now regularly employed as a signalman.
+While he was thus constantly on the quarter-deck, not only young
+Chandos, but several of the other midshipmen, were glad to get his
+assistance in taking observations and in working out their day's work.
+The master was glad to be relieved of the trouble of instructing them,
+and the captain was pleased to encourage the young man and to give him
+an opportunity of keeping up his knowledge.
+
+Old Jacob Crane also congratulated him on his good prospects.  "I'm glad
+to think on't, lad," he said, in a hearty tone.  "You've the right stuff
+in you, and you've what's better than all, a firm trust in God, and a
+wish to do your duty in His sight.  You'll do well wherever you are.
+I've never seen men like you fail."
+
+"In saying that you unjustly condemn yourself, I suspect," observed
+Ralph.
+
+"No, not unjustly," answered Jacob.  "I did not understand that truth in
+my younger days, and only learned it of late years, when too late to do
+much towards altering my condition among my fellow-men.  Mind, I don't
+say that I'm not much the better for it even now, for I'm happy and
+contented and fear no evil; but I remember what the Bible says, `Honour
+thy Creator in the days of thy youth.'  Those who do not, have bitterly
+to regret it when they grow old, even though they then learn to know and
+serve Him.  The sins of our youth find us out, there is no doubt about
+that; and I envy you, Michelmore, who will not have to look back to the
+many misspent years that I do."
+
+It was now Ralph's part to direct his friend to the only sure source of
+comfort--God's loving message to man, as found in His Word, "The blood
+of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin," when by loving obedient faith
+the sinner takes hold of the promises.  Thus the one assisted the other.
+Ralph indeed required support.  Jessie was never out of his mind.  Her
+granny was old and infirm, and might soon be taken from her; and then,
+should Captain Mudge be away, what would she do?  "She has not, that I
+know of, dear girl, a friend on whom she can depend," thought Ralph.
+"Yes, she and I have one in heaven on Whom we both rely.  To Him I will
+pray for her, as she will, I know, for me."  Earnestly and faithfully
+Ralph did pray, and he did not fail to obtain that answer which true
+prayer always receives.  He was supported, and his heart comforted.
+
+The fleet was now approaching Jamaica, and Ralph was more actively than
+ever engaged in making and answering signals.  Port-Royal, to which most
+of the ships were bound, was reached at length, when another man-of-war
+took charge of the rest to escort them to their destinations.
+
+Dick had not concealed from those he could trust his intention of
+deserting.  Ralph had done his utmost to dissuade him from his foolish
+intentions, and though he would not inform the officers, he determined
+to keep a watch over his friend and stop him if he could.  A boat, which
+came alongside directly the frigate dropped anchor, brought the news
+that the yellow fever was raging on shore, with orders that no one
+should leave the ship.
+
+"You have lost your chance, Dick, and I am glad of it," said Ralph.
+
+"Not so sure of that," answered Dick; "I'm a pretty good swimmer, and
+can make my way on shore if I've a mind for it."
+
+"Don't be so mad, Dick, as even to think of such a thing," said Ralph.
+"Haven't you heard of Port-Royal Jack, the big shark?  He will be sure
+to catch you if you make the attempt."
+
+Dick looked incredulous, but the accounts he heard from his other
+shipmates of the number of people Port-Royal Jack had swallowed made him
+hesitate about putting his resolve into execution.
+
+The next day the frigate, having taken in fresh provisions and water,
+put to sea, and Ralph hoped that Dick would be in a better mind before
+they again entered a port.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+The _Falcon_ had got some way to the south of the Line.  Ralph was now a
+quartermaster, a position in which only seamen of merit and experience
+are placed.
+
+It was night, and unusually dark for that latitude.  A gentle breeze
+filled the frigate's canvas as she glided over the calm ocean with the
+wind on the larboard quarter.  Ralph was in the watch on deck, stationed
+near the man at the helm.  Now he glanced his eyes aloft to ascertain
+that the sails drew properly, now at the binnacle to see that the proper
+course was kept; then he took a look on either side round the horizon.
+
+Ralph had turned his eyes to the south-east, when he observed a vivid
+flash.  It looked like lightning.  Another and another flash followed in
+quick succession.  He made his report to the officer of the watch.  The
+flashes continued.  There could be no doubt about the matter, an action
+was taking place.  A midshipman was sent to inform the captain.  As soon
+as he came on deck all hands were called and the yards braced up, a
+course was steered which would carry the frigate to windward of the
+combatants.  There could be no doubt one of them was English and if the
+smaller of the two, the appearance of the _Falcon_ would probably turn
+the tables.  In the meantime the drums beat to quarters and the usual
+preparations were rapidly made for battle.  Till near enough for the
+night-signals to be distinguished it was important that their approach
+should not be discovered, as it was as likely to discourage a friend as
+to overawe a foe, or what was of more consequence, might induce a foe to
+try and escape.  All lights on board were therefore carefully shaded as
+the frigate stood on towards the combatants.  Suddenly the flashes
+ceased: still, as the bearing of the strangers had been taken, there
+would be no difficulty in discovering them.  The crew of the _Falcon_
+waited in vain for a renewal of the flashes.  The fight was over.  Which
+was the victor was the question.  Ralph heard the subject discussed by
+the officers on the quarter-deck.  They expressed their fears that there
+would be no fighting.
+
+"An English ship would not have given in so soon," observed the first
+lieutenant.
+
+"Not unless she is the smallest," answered the purser, who was addicted
+to croaking.
+
+"Then we shall have the satisfaction of retaking her and thrashing her
+captor into the bargain," said Mr Handsel.
+
+"But what if her captor is bigger than we are?" asked the purser.
+
+"Thrash him notwithstanding," said the first lieutenant, laughing.
+
+"It is possible that more than two vessels were engaged," remarked the
+captain.  "We shall know, however, before long.  Have the night-signals
+ready, Mr Handsel.  We must take care not to fire into a friend."
+
+The excitement on board increased as the frigate, moving at the rate of
+two or three knots an hour, drew near the spot where it was expected
+that the strangers would be discovered.  The men stood at their guns
+prepared to open the ports and run them out when the order should be
+given.  The magazines were open and powder and shot passed up.  The
+surgeon and his assistants were below in the cockpit, making their
+arrangements for the duties they might have to perform; looking to their
+instruments, their bandages and styptics, and rigging their
+amputation-table.
+
+"How do you feel, Paul?" asked Dickenson of young Chandos.  "If we could
+see the enemy I shouldn't mind; but, for my part, I don't like this sort
+of work in the dark, I confess."
+
+"I was thinking of home and my mother and sisters," answered Chandos.
+"I used to long to be in a battle, and I should be sorry to miss it, but
+I wish it was over.  I would rather have to look back at it than
+forward."
+
+"So would I, provided I hadn't lost an arm or a leg or been killed
+outright," said Dickenson, in a dolorous tone.
+
+"I haven't thought about being killed, and I hope that neither you nor I
+will be," answered Chandos; adding, "I shouldn't mind, perhaps, a bullet
+through my arm or leg for the honour and glory of the thing, and to talk
+about when we get home."
+
+"I'm sure I don't want any such honour and glory, and I wish you
+wouldn't speak about such things," groaned out Dickenson.  "Perhaps we
+shan't have a fight after all."
+
+"I hope we shall, though," exclaimed his more plucky messmate; "that is
+to say if it does not last too long.  I could hold out for an hour or
+so, but then I think I should begin to wish it was over."
+
+"Beg pardon, young gentlemen; you'd hold out better after the first hour
+than for the first five minutes," observed old Jacob Crane, who had
+overheard the conversation.  "Just let us exchange a couple of
+broadsides and you'd think no more about the matter than if you were
+snowballing each other.  I know the stuff you're made of too well to
+doubt that."
+
+"Thank you, Crane, for the compliment," said Chandos; "but do you think
+we shall have a fight?"
+
+"Sure on't," answered the old man; "just look out over the larboard bow
+and you'll see three ships hove to, and some bright lights in the stern
+of the biggest of them.  She's a lumping frigate if she isn't something
+larger, and though our signal has been hoisted some time she hasn't
+answered it."
+
+The midshipmen, whose eyes were not so well accustomed to pierce the
+gloom of night as were old Jacob's, had at first some difficulty in
+distinguishing the three ships, though they saw the bright lights he
+pointed out.  Gradually the frigate drew near, and the tall masts and
+widespread canvas of the strangers appeared clearly enough against the
+sky, like large phantoms stalking across the waters.  Still the private
+signal remained unanswered.  There could be no longer any doubt that the
+largest ship was an enemy, and that she had captured one or both of the
+others.  Notwithstanding her apparent superiority, Captain Shortland did
+not hesitate about attacking her.  Sail was shortened, and the frigate
+stood on with topsails, jib, and spanker set, so as to be thoroughly
+under command.  It was no longer necessary to keep the ports closed.
+The order to open them and to run out the guns was given, and at the
+same time the crews of the guns were cautioned not to fire a shot till
+they heard the word of command.  The hearts of the coolest beat quicker
+than usual when about midnight the _Falcon_ drew within a mile of the
+enemy.  The lights from the fighting lanterns of the latter, which
+exhibited two rows of ports, with only a small space between them, gave
+her a most formidable appearance.  She evidently carried many more guns
+than the English frigate.
+
+"What's the odds, lads," cried old Jacob, when some of the men near him
+remarked this.  "It isn't the number of guns a ship carries will give
+her the victory, it's the way they are fought, and we'll soon show the
+mounseers how we can handle ours."
+
+In a short time the enemy filled his sails, the two ships thus nearing
+each other more rapidly; then suddenly he hove in stays when on the lee
+bow of the _Falcon_, and his guns thundering forth, sent their shot
+flying through her rigging, the only serious effect, however, of which
+was to bring down her jib.  The _Falcon_ crew stood ready, the captains
+of the guns with lanyards in hand eager to fire in return, but no order
+came.  Captain Shortland knew that he could depend on the steadiness of
+his crew, and was reserving their fire for a shorter and more effective
+distance.  Several more shots hurtled through the air around them.
+
+"The weathermost of the smaller ships Is firing at us, sir," observed
+the first lieutenant to the captain.
+
+"Never mind that, we can settle with her by-and-by," was the answer.
+
+Thus the _Falcon_ stood majestically on as if not a foe were near.
+
+Though Ralph had never before seen a shot fired in anger, he stood at
+his post close to the wheel as calm and collected as the oldest seaman.
+
+The eager crew had not much time to wait, before, by a clever manoeuvre,
+the frigate had been brought with her starboard broadside to bear
+directly on the stern of the French ship at less than pistol-shot
+distance.  At the same moment the order to fire was passed along the
+decks and rapidly obeyed.  Every shot went crashing into the French
+ship, raking her fore and aft, and probably killing the men at the
+wheel; for before she had time to alter her position the _Falcon_ luffed
+into the wind, just scraping clear of her spanker-boom, and shooting up
+to leeward, let fly the whole of her other broadside with terrible
+effect into her opponent.  So rapidly had this manoeuvre of the English
+frigate been performed, that several of the Frenchman's weather guns
+went off after she had passed to leeward.  The action was now carried on
+broadside to broadside, the position in which British seamen most
+delight.
+
+"Aim low, my lads! aim low!" was the oft repeated order of the officers
+in charge of the guns, as they moved along the decks; not that there was
+much necessity for it, as the men had got a good mark before them, and
+were pounding away at it as fast as they could load and run out their
+guns.  The Frenchmen were at the same time vigorously returning their
+fire, but as if intent on crippling their foe and then taking her at a
+disadvantage, they sent most of their shot flying through her rigging,
+bringing blocks and spars and ropes in thick showers down on deck.
+Though most of the enemy's shot flew high, others came whizzing between
+the men's heads, crashing into the sides of the frigate, or knocking
+away her bulwarks.  Several of the crew had been wounded and carried
+below, but as yet two only had been killed, their bodies being drawn
+aside, when it was found that they were really dead, out of the way of
+their shipmates at the guns.  Hitherto Ralph had escaped unhurt, though
+the head of one of the men at the wheel close to him had been taken off
+by a round shot, and an officer near him had been struck to the deck.
+By the lurid glare from the quick succeeding flashes and the light of
+the lanterns, he caught a glimpse of Dick working away manfully at one
+of the upper deck guns, he, like most of the crew, stripped to the
+waist, with a handkerchief tied round his head.  Now he was visible, now
+he was concealed by the clouds of smoke which, circling round and then
+rising in the air, formed a dark canopy over the combatants.  Young
+Chandos was not far off.  Whatever might have been his sensations at
+first, he was collected enough now to attend steadily to his duty, and
+the work going on was a pretty severe trial to young nerves.  The
+midnight battle raged fiercer and fiercer.  A shot came flying by.
+Ralph felt that he was hit severely in the arm, and was compelled to
+summon another man to the wheel; but binding up his wounded limb, he
+stood as before at his post.  Not many minutes afterwards a round shot
+struck the bulwarks, sending splinters flying in every direction.  At
+the same moment Ralph, who had his eye on the captain, saw him stagger,
+and springing forward, caught him with his unwounded arm just as he was
+falling to the deck.  Others gathered round.  It was evident that he had
+been most seriously wounded.  In vain he endeavoured to speak, but
+becoming senseless was carried below.  Lieutenant Handsel at once took
+the command, making his clear voice, as he issued his orders, heard amid
+the wild din of battle.  For an hour and a half the engagement had raged
+on and yet was as furious as ever.  The lieutenant of marines, a tall,
+handsome young man, was cut almost in two by a round shot soon after the
+captain had fallen, and several more men were hit.  Aloft, however, the
+damage was far more severe than on deck; the running rigging hung in
+festoons, the standing rigging was cut to pieces, every sail was riddled
+through and through, and the masts and yards were badly wounded in many
+places.  Judging by the crashing sound which came back from the French
+ship after each broadside fired by the _Falcon_, and the white splinters
+which flew from every part of her upper works, she was in a still worse
+plight.  Still her crew kept up a hot fire.  The young midshipmen, and
+even others, might possibly have begun to wish that the battle was over.
+
+"Keep at it, my lads!" was the cry passed along the decks; "she'll soon
+give in."
+
+Broadsides had been exchanged: another proceeded from the _Falcon_; but
+none came in return.
+
+"Cease firing!" cried Lieutenant Handsel; and as soon as all was silent
+he hailed the enemy and asked if she had struck.  No reply was made.
+Again the _Falcon_ opened fire; but as the Frenchmen did not return it,
+she at once ceased, and a second time the lieutenant hailed, but no
+answer was made.
+
+"We must give them more of it!" he shouted.
+
+At that instant, the smoke clearing away, it was seen that the rigging
+of the French ship was swarming with men, who were endeavouring to loose
+their topgallant sails, apparently with the intention of escaping.  Some
+of the crew of the _Falcon_ were ordered aloft to set theirs while the
+rest let fly another thundering broadside.  Before the Frenchmen had
+time to descend, the mizenmast of their ship fell over the side, and
+several must have been plunged into the water; not a minute afterwards
+the main-mast, fore-mast, and bowsprit followed, and she lay a helpless
+wreck on the ocean.
+
+Loud cheers burst from the throats of the British crew, and hearty
+shakes of the hand were exchanged among them.  Before the question was
+asked, a voice came from the French ship, crying out that she had
+struck, and entreating that the English frigate would not again fire.
+
+"No fear of that," was the answer; "what ship is she?"
+
+"The French frigate _Concorde_," replied the officer who spoke.  "Send a
+boat, I pray, for we have none left."
+
+Three boats which had escaped injury were instantly lowered, and Mr
+Handsel, not aware that Ralph was wounded, ordered him to go in one of
+them.  When he reached the deck of the prize, such a scene of horror as
+he had scarcely imagined met his sight.  The boats, booms, the wheel,
+capstern, binnacle, and indeed all the upper portions of the ship, were
+cut to pieces; the bulwarks were destroyed and the starboard side almost
+beaten in, while the decks, slippery with gore, were literally strewn
+with the dead and badly wounded.  The French captain, two lieutenants,
+several junior officers, and fully sixty men were killed, and two other
+lieutenants and eighty men were wounded.  A young officer with his arm
+in a sling, who by the death of his superior had succeeded to the
+command, presented his sword in token of submission to the third
+lieutenant of the _Falcon_.  It was at once returned to him with a
+compliment to his bravery and an expression of sympathy, and an
+assistant-surgeon was sent for from the _Falcon_ to attend to the
+sufferers.  Ralph was the first person the young man spoke to on coming
+on board.
+
+"You are hurt, Michelmore," he said, in a friendly tone; "I must look to
+you at once;" and by the light of a lantern he dressed Ralph's arm,
+which greatly needed care.  "I fear that our good captain is mortally
+wounded; but he has not forgotten you, for as soon as he came to himself
+he ordered his clerk to make out your appointment as a midshipman and
+signed it, though he could scarcely hold a pen.  You'll come in for your
+share of prize-money as such, and be placed on the quarter-deck; so I'll
+congratulate you, my lad.  There, now you'll do; but I must get you sent
+on board again, you're not fit for work here."
+
+Ralph very unwillingly obeyed the order he received to return to the
+_Falcon_.  When he had reached her he would not even then go below; but
+though he was unable to handle a rope, having reported himself to Mr
+Handsel, he received directions to superintend a party of men in
+refitting the rigging.  There was work indeed for every one; for though
+the _Falcon_ had suffered less than her antagonist, her masts and spars,
+wounded in various places, required to be fished and the standing
+rigging to be spliced, to enable her to make sail and go in chase of the
+two other ships just before captured by the _Concorde_.  Happily it fell
+perfectly calm; and thus, while the prizes could not escape, time was
+obtained for repairing damages.  There was not a moment to be lost, for
+every one knew that should a breeze spring up before the rigging had
+been set to rights, the tottering masts would to a certainty go over the
+side.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+Daylight found the _Falcon's_ crew still hard at work, the prisoners on
+board the _Concorde_ being assisted by the English seamen taken out of
+the two merchant vessels.  The latter were South Sea whalers, furnished,
+as was not unusual in those days, with letters of marque, and returning
+home from round Cape Horn with full cargoes and a considerable amount of
+booty.  They lay, their sails all set, about two miles off, waiting for
+a breeze to make their escape.  Their masters, who had been found as
+prisoners on board the _Concorde_, were eager to attempt their recovery,
+and offered to man the _Falcons_ boats with their crews, and to lead an
+expedition against them.  Mr Handsel, however, at first considered that
+it would be extremely hazardous, and he could not spare the necessary
+number of men for the enterprise.  So busy were all hands that no
+inquiries had been made about the killed and wounded.  Few perhaps even
+thought of their shipmates writhing in agony below.  The voices of
+several officers wont to be heard were silent, and not a few of their
+messmates were missed from among them.  At length there was a rumour
+that their brave captain was even worse hurt than was at first
+supposed--it was soon whispered that he was dying--and then came the
+news that he was dead.  Many a tear was dropped from the eyes of his
+hardy crew, which the loss of their own messmates had failed to draw
+forth.  But there was no time to express their sorrow.  All hands had to
+work on as hard as ever.  The carpenters, having secured the masts and
+spars, were busy with the boats.  Mr Handsel at length determined to
+send an expedition to recapture the whalers, which, fortunately lying
+rather more than a mile apart, could not assist each other.  Ralph
+offered to go in one of the boats; as it was his left arm which was
+wounded, he could steer or handle a cutlass with his right.
+
+"Yes, you will go in charge of the gig as an officer; Mr Symonds will
+take command of the expedition in the pinnace; the masters of the
+whalers will go in the other boats: should Mr Symonds fall, the command
+will devolve on you," said Mr Handsel.  Mr Symonds was a master's
+mate; one of the lieutenants being wounded and the other on board the
+_Concorde_, he was the next in rank able to go.  Four boats were quickly
+in the water, the last nail being driven in by the carpenter as they
+were being lowered.  Their crews were armed with pistols and cutlasses.
+It was resolved to attack the nearest vessel first; and as she was said
+to be the fastest sailer, should she be captured, it was hoped that the
+other would be quickly overtaken.  Old Jacob and Dick were with Ralph.
+The boats shoved off from the ship's side and pulled for the nearest
+whaler.  As they approached she opened a hot fire, on which Mr Symonds
+ordered them to keep apart and to steer for her stern.  One of the
+masters in charge of the pinnace did not hear the order.  Ralph saw that
+she was struck several times.  Mr Symonds's boat also suffered.  He
+with the second cutter dashed on, the others following: one boarded on
+each quarter.  The Frenchmen had to quit their guns and to defend
+themselves with pikes and pistols, but their assailants quickly swarmed
+on board, Ralph, in spite of his wounded arm, getting up the side with
+Jacob's assistance.  The fight on deck was short.  The prize-crew gave
+way, and in three minutes the English were in possession of the ship.
+Ralph looked round for Mr Symonds.  He lay dead in the stern of his
+boat, and Ralph found himself in command of the prize.  The master of
+the whaler just captured was also killed.  The other was badly wounded,
+and several of their men had fallen.  Having secured the prisoners and
+released the crew below, he ordered the boats to tow ahead towards the
+other whaler.  As they approached she opened her fire, but by steering
+to the eastward he kept directly ahead of her, out of range of her guns.
+Getting still nearer, he brought his broadside to bear on her, when the
+Frenchmen, to avoid the consequences, hauled down their colours.  She
+was quickly taken possession of, when the prize-crew were secured and
+the Englishmen remaining on board were released.  As each vessel had six
+boats they in a short time were towed near to the _Falcon_.  As they
+approached they were received with a loud cheer, and Mr Handsel ordered
+Ralph to take command of the first re-captured, the _Eagle_, and to send
+all the hands he could spare to assist in refitting the _Concorde_ and
+setting up jury-masts.  Of the other vessel, the _Penguin_, her only
+surviving mate took charge; for both had fought bravely, and had not
+struck till after a long chase, and when several officers and men had
+fallen.  Both vessels had also so severely suffered in hull and rigging,
+that it would have been dangerous without undergoing repairs to proceed
+on their voyage.
+
+Lieutenant Handsel therefore determined to proceed with all the ships to
+Rio de Janeiro, the nearest port in the Brazils.  Ralph could scarcely
+believe that he was not in a dream when he thus found himself in command
+of a fine ship, with the probability of having to navigate her home.
+Should, however, a fitting man be obtained at Rio to take charge of her,
+he would be superseded and have to return to the _Falcon_.  He naturally
+hoped that no one would be forthcoming.  He should then realise his
+fondest hopes--be united to Jessie--with a good sum from his prize-money
+and pay as captain of the _Eagle_ with which to set up house.  He might
+then rejoin the navy as an officer, or obtain his discharge, or go back
+to the _Amity_, should Captain Mudge wish him to do so.  "I will not be
+ungrateful to my kind old friend, though I suspect that Jessie would
+wish me to remain in the service; and though I entered unwillingly, I
+should now be sorry to leave it," he thought.  "Perhaps I may rise still
+higher--others have done so--why should not I, if I do my duty, and my
+life is preserved?"
+
+Ralph quickly got accustomed to his new position.  His scanty crew
+acknowledged that they had never had a better captain.  They were kept
+of necessity at work, but he made that work as light as possible by
+setting them to do it in the best way it could be done, and only
+ordering them to do what was absolutely required.  Sailors, as indeed is
+the case with most classes of men, are very quick in discovering when
+they have an efficient officer placed over them who knows his duty.
+Insubordination and mutiny are generally the consequences rather of the
+ignorance and sloth of the captain than of tyranny.
+
+Fortunately, the calm continued.  The decks were washed clean of their
+bloody stains; the dead were committed to their ocean graves, and their
+shipmates, if they did not forget, soon ceased to talk about them.
+Jury-masts were rigged on board the _Concorde_, and a breeze at length
+springing up, the four ships, thus partially repaired, made sail for
+Rio.
+
+Old Jacob and Dick had accompanied Ralph on board the _Eagle_.  It was
+an unfortunate circumstance for the latter.  Spirits were more easily
+obtained than on board the frigate, and he very soon became quarrelsome
+and mutinous.  Ralph, not observing his state, had directed him to
+perform some duty.
+
+"Not for you, or any man like you.  You, who were before the mast only
+yesterday--you think you can top the officer over me, do you?  I told
+you I wouldn't stand it, and I won't," exclaimed Dick, reeling about and
+flourishing his arms as his excitement increased.
+
+The whaler's crew laughed, and some of the rougher characters even
+encouraged Dick with their applause.
+
+Ralph knew that discipline must be maintained, though ready himself to
+bear any insult, and most unwilling to punish his former messmate.  A
+boat from the _Falcon_ was alongside.  He ordered the boatswain and some
+other men on whom he could depend to seize Dick and lower him into her.
+It was done before the unhappy man knew what was happening.  Ralph then
+wrote a note to Lieutenant Handsel, saying that the proceeding was
+necessary to prevent worse consequences, but begging that, as Bracewell
+had behaved bravely in the action, his offence might be overlooked.
+Dick stormed and raged when he found himself being carried back to the
+frigate, and vowed that he would be revenged.  Ralph regretted what had
+happened, the more as he had hoped that, by keeping Dick on board the
+_Eagle_, he might have prevented him from attempting to desert.  He
+resolved, however, as soon as they arrived at Rio, to go on board the
+_Falcon_ and to try and bring him to reason.  Though the distance to be
+run was not great, they were very long about it.  Light winds and calms
+prevailed, and when there was a breeze, the other ships had to wait for
+the _Concorde_, which, under jury-masts, made but slow progress.  At
+length land was sighted, and all hoped to get in the next day.  As,
+however, evening drew on the weather looked very threatening.  Dark
+clouds gathered rapidly in the sky.  Squalls in quick succession swept
+over the ocean, and a heavy sea got up, in which the ships plunged and
+rolled as they made their way towards the harbour's mouth.  Night coming
+down on the world of waters, the rest were ordered by a signal from the
+_Falcon_ to stand off the land till daylight.  Ralph trembled for the
+masts of the _Eagle_, and was still more anxious about those of the
+_Falcon_, The night became very dark, and the gale increased.  The
+lights from the other ships could be distinguished at some distance
+apart.  The _Falcon_ and _Penguin_ appeared to be making fair way, and
+the _Eagle_ behaved very well, but the _Concorde_ was evidently dropping
+astern.  Ralph had kept his eye on her lights.  They grew dimmer and
+dimmer.  It was doubtful whether she was even holding her own.  The
+_Eagle_ was under close-reefed topsails, and could with difficulty carry
+them.  A perfect hurricane was blowing dead on shore.  "Lord help those
+on board the prize!  I can nowhere see her lights," exclaimed old Jacob,
+who had been looking out to leeward.  "She must have carried away her
+jury-masts, or her canvas has blown to ribbons, I fear.  If not, we
+shouldn't have lost sight of her."
+
+Ralph looked in vain in the direction in which he had last seen the
+lights of the _Concorde_, while those of the frigate and the whaler were
+clearly visible, the former about a mile ahead of the _Eagle_, and the
+latter rather further off, astern.
+
+"If the wind doesn't change soon there'll go a good lump of prize-money
+and the lives of a good many poor fellows," observed old Jacob.
+
+"But won't she be able to steer for the harbour, Crane?" asked young
+Chandos, who was, however, thinking more of his two messmates and others
+on board than of prize-money.
+
+"It will be a hard matter to find it, even if they can steer the ship at
+all: and considering the way we knocked her about, it will be a wonder
+to my mind if she doesn't go to the bottom before morning," answered old
+Jacob with a sigh.
+
+The anxious night passed away.  When day dawned, it was found that the
+ships were nearer the land, notwithstanding all their endeavours to beat
+off it, than they had been on the previous evening.  Many a glass was
+turned westward in search of the _Concorde_, though the hope of
+discovering her was slight.  Not a trace of her was to be seen.  She,
+with her prize-crew, had probably foundered or gone on shore at the
+moment her lights had disappeared.  Still it was thought possible that
+she might have been driven into some bay, or between high rocks, and be
+concealed by them from sight.  Soon after dawn the _Falcon_ made the
+signal to bear up for the harbour.  She leading, and the two re-captured
+whalers following, they stood towards it.  Though the sea broke
+impetuously on the rocks on either side, they safely entered the
+magnificent harbour of Rio de Janeiro, and dropped their anchors off the
+town.
+
+Lieutenant Handsel at once applied to the authorities for guides, and a
+party was sent off, under the master and purser, to search the coast to
+the northward for the wreck of the _Concorde_, and to assist any of the
+crew who might have escaped.  The sea was still too rough to allow of an
+expedition by water.  Ralph in the meantime was ordered to return to the
+_Falcon_ with Mr Chandos and the men-of-war's men who had accompanied
+him on board the _Eagle_.  Mr Handsel then told him that as there was
+no probability of an English master being found at Rio to take the
+_Eagle_ home, he should direct him to do so, and would furnish him with
+a document which would enable him to obtain a passage to rejoin the
+_Falcon_ in India, should he desire to remain in the navy.  "I would
+strongly advise you to do so," he added; "and it will not be my fault it
+you do not gain promotion."
+
+Ralph heartily thanked his commander, and begged that he might be
+allowed to defer his decision till his arrival in England.  Before going
+on shore, which he had to visit to obtain workmen for the repairs of the
+_Eagle_, he went below to speak to Dick Bracewell.  He hoped to soothe
+his anger and to persuade him to give up his intention of deserting.  He
+did not see him as he went along the decks.  He ascertained that he had
+not formed one of the exploring party.  He sent others to search for
+him, but he was nowhere to be found.  A number of shore-boats had been
+going backwards and forwards all day between the ship and the shore, and
+Ralph had too much reason to fear that Dick had smuggled himself into
+one of them and made his escape.  He felt it his duty to inform the
+commander, that watch might be kept to prevent others from following so
+bad an example; and he received orders to take a couple of men and to
+bring back the deserter if he could be found.  He first returned to the
+_Eagle_ to warn the boatswain, who was in charge, to look sharply after
+their own men.
+
+"Half are drunk already, and as they have somehow or other managed to
+get liquor on board there is no fear of them," was the unsatisfactory
+answer.
+
+Ralph could only hope that the boatswain himself would keep sober, and
+as he could not remedy matters by remaining, he pulled on shore.  Having
+obtained an interpreter and guide from the British consul, he commenced
+his search for Dick.  After looking for him for some time, he heard that
+an English seaman, answering to his description, had been seen to enter
+a house in the neighbourhood of the town.  Though it was now nearly dark
+he set off at once in the hopes of finding him before he could make his
+escape.  He knew that he was acting really a kind part towards Dick, who
+would, if left on shore, soon fall a victim to intemperance and the
+unhealthy climate.  The house was reached.  The inhabitants appeared to
+be very much surprised at the visit, and though they allowed a search to
+be made for the runaway, they protested that they had never seen or
+heard of him.  With much regret Ralph returned to the quay to go on
+board his ship.  As he and his party approached the shore they observed
+a bright glare in the sky over the harbour.
+
+"As I'm alive, there's a ship on fire," exclaimed one of the seamen.
+"Hope it isn't our frigate."
+
+"It is one of the ships which came in this morning, at all events,"
+observed the guide.
+
+Ralph with an anxious heart hurried down to the quay, where a number of
+people were already collected.  A ruddy glare extended far and wide over
+the harbour from a fiery mass which floated on its surface, lighting up
+the buildings and the figures of the people on the shore, and the ships
+at anchor off it.  Among them lay the _Falcon_, her sides and lofty
+masts and rigging brought prominently into view.  At some distance from
+her was the _Penguin_; and what was Ralph's dismay when he discovered
+that the burning ship was the _Eagle_.  His impulse was to go off at
+once to her--but what aid could he render?  Already the flames were
+bursting through her hatchways and ports and encircling her masts and
+spars.  The oil and casks in her hold once having ignited, no human
+means could extinguish the conflagration.  He looked for his boat.  A
+boy alone was in her; the men, as was to be expected, had gone off to a
+wine-house, and only just having heard that a ship was on fire, came
+reeling down to the quay, uttering exclamations of surprise when they
+discovered that she was their own.  Having tumbled into the boat they
+were sufficiently sober to row, and Ralph ordering them to shove off,
+steered for the unfortunate _Eagle_.  Numerous boats were moving about,
+and some around her, and he hoped, therefore, that the people on board
+had been rescued.  It made him fear, however, that all hope of saving
+the ship had been abandoned.  Still it was his duty to get on board if
+he could, to ascertain that every possible effort had been made.  He had
+passed through an outer circle of native boats, and was dashing on, when
+he was hailed by a man-of-war's boat, but not hearing what was said, he
+was still continuing his course, and would soon have been close to the
+ship, when there came a thundering report as if a whole broadside had
+been fired.  Her mizen mast shot up into the air, followed by a large
+portion of the afterpart of her deck and bulwarks and interior fittings;
+some parts in large pieces, others rent into numberless burning
+fragments, which hung suspended in the air, and then in a thick fiery
+shower came hissing down into the water, the lighter bits reaching
+considerably beyond where the boats lay.  Ralph had scarcely time even
+to get his boat round before the shattered pieces of burning wood began
+to fall thickly round his boat, threatening in an instant to sink her,
+and to kill any one who might be struck.  Happily no one was hurt.  The
+downfall of the wreck ceased; still the fire in the forepart of the ship
+was raging on, when the bows and bowsprit rose in the air surrounded by
+flames which, tapering up into a vast cone of fire, suddenly disappeared
+as, the stern sinking first, the water swept over the remainder of this
+hapless ship, and all was instantly dark, except here and there where
+the smouldering ends of spars and planks floated above the calm surface
+of the harbour.  Ralph with a sad heart pulled on board the _Falcon_,
+feeling himself reduced from the position of captain of a fine ship to
+that of a master's assistant; and what weighed still more on his
+spirits, that he had no longer the prospect of returning to England and
+to his dear Jessie.  He was thankful to find that the boatswain and most
+of the crew of the _Eagle_ had been rescued, with the exception of three
+unhappy men who, overcome by liquor, had been suffocated below.  The
+whole of the survivors entered on board the _Falcon_--indeed, they were
+not offered a choice.  A dozen of her best hands were also taken out of
+the _Penguin_--such being the custom of the times, when a King's ship
+wanted men.  Their places were filled by Portuguese and other
+foreigners, thirty of whom were shipped by the _Falcon_ to make up her
+complement, in addition to a few runaway English seamen reduced to
+beggary, and sent on board by the consul.  The exploring party returned
+without a survivor from the _Concorde_, a few pieces of wreck alone
+having been found as evidence of her fate.  Such is the sad result of
+warfare.  Three hundred human beings had lost their lives on board the
+four ships, two only of which now remained afloat.  Ralph did his utmost
+to discover Dick, but without success, and at length he began to fear
+that he had been drowned in trying to make his escape, or had--not an
+unlikely occurrence--been murdered on shore.  The _Falcon_, her repairs
+being completed, and Mr Handsel having written his despatches to send
+home by the _Penguin_, and having given himself an acting order as
+commander, sailed for the East Indies.
+
+Ralph, as may be supposed, did not fail to write to Jessie and Captain
+Mudge by the _Penguin_, and to leave duplicates of two letters with the
+consul, to be forwarded by another opportunity.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+Poor Jessie Flamank had good cause to be sad.  For long she hoped
+against hope.  Whenever the door opened her heart beat quick, and she
+looked up half ready to spring from her seat in expectation that her
+Ralph would appear.  Her kind granny was unwilling to say anything which
+might quench the hope which kept up her spirits, yet the dame knew full
+well that Ralph was too good a seaman to be allowed his liberty.
+Captain Mudge looked in every evening when his work on board the _Amity_
+was over for the day, and did his utmost to comfort Jessie.  He would
+not say, however, whether he thought that Ralph would come back soon,
+but he told her that he was sure to get on well, and be better off in
+many respects than on board the brig.  "As to danger," he continued, "to
+my mind a man is as safe in one place as in another.  God, remember,
+looks after those who trust in Him; they would be in a bad case if they
+had no other protection than such as they can find for themselves; so I
+don't see, Jessie, that any of us can do more for him than we are doing,
+that is, praying heartily for him.  As I always say, it's a blessed
+thing that we can do that for ourselves and others, though we can do
+nothing else for our own or their help."
+
+Jessie did trust to God, but her trial was hard to bear notwithstanding.
+Still it made her throw herself more than she might otherwise have done
+on His fatherly care, and she felt her heart lightened in a way she had
+not supposed possible.  She had abundance of occupation; for Mrs
+Treviss was accustomed to take in needlework, to assist her limited
+means, and as her eyesight had of late become dim, Jessie endeavoured to
+relieve her by labouring with redoubled diligence.
+
+Kind-hearted Captain Mudge seldom came to the cottage without some
+welcome present, which he said he had received as a gift from a brother
+skipper just returned from a foreign voyage.  One day it was a Dutch
+cheese, another a few pounds of choice tea, or a box of dried fruit or
+some bottles of wine, and so on.  One day, when the package was larger
+than would have been becoming for him, master of the good brig _Amity_,
+to carry through the streets, he was followed by a boy wheeling it along
+in a barrow.  The lad, who was dressed in a neat sailor-like costume,
+set it down in the passage and was going away, when Jessie recognised,
+in spite of his changed appearance, her young tatterdemalion boatman,
+Peter Puddle.  "What, Peter, I scarcely knew you again," she said.  "You
+must stop and have something to eat."
+
+"Thank ye, miss, I'm not hungry, as I used to be," he answered, in a
+tone of satisfaction.  "Captain Mudge has taken me aboard the _Amity_,
+and I get as much grub as I want, though I shouldn't mind a bit of bread
+and cheese, thank you."
+
+Jessie invited Peter into the kitchen and placed before him a loaf of
+bread and some cheese, to which, notwithstanding his assertion, he did
+ample justice.  She observed that he had improved in his manners as well
+as in his appearance.  Before beginning to eat, he said grace exactly in
+the words the captain used and in the same tone.  He told her that
+Captain Mudge had given him an outfit, and was teaching him to read and
+say his prayers, and was ever so kind in all sorts of ways.  "Oh, miss,
+there isn't no one like him," he added.  "And only to think if I'd gone
+off at once that night and hadn't picked those fellows up, I might have
+saved your young man from going to sea in the frigate.  I be main sorry,
+you may depend on't; but I'll do all the captain tells me, that I will."
+
+Jessie sighed.  "The men might have lost their lives had you not picked
+them up, though it was, indeed, careless of you to forget your
+commission," she said.  "But what I have to forgive I heartily do
+forgive, and I hope that you will obey Captain Mudge, and follow his
+advice."
+
+"That I will, miss, and thank you, too, for speaking so kindly to me,"
+answered Peter warmly.  "I hope I may have a chance of showing that I am
+grateful, some day, though it isn't likely, I'll allow."
+
+The _Amity_ was at length ready for sea.  She was bound out to Riga for
+staves, a somewhat dangerous voyage in the autumn.  Captain Mudge came
+to wish the widow and her granddaughter farewell.  "I've got a fresh
+mate," he said, "a decent lad; but he isn't like Ralph, and I doubt if
+he's much of a navigator."
+
+"Good-bye, Jessie, good-bye; heaven bless and protect you; keep a good
+heart, my girl, you'll see Ralph back some day," were his last words, as
+he wrung her hand at the porch and hurried down the road.
+
+When he had gone, Jessie felt that she had lost the truest friend she
+possessed in the world next to her granny, and she could not help
+fearing that the days of her only relative were numbered.  Every week
+Jessie saw a marked change in her.  She could no longer get up and
+downstairs without the greatest difficulty, her eyesight grew worse, and
+her trembling fingers refused to hold a needle, while she could scarcely
+convey her food to her mouth.  In one respect she had not changed: her
+mind remained clear and her trust in God as firm as ever.  She knew that
+she was dying, though she was loth to say so to her grandchild, who
+would thus be left alone in the world.  "God will look after the dear
+one," she said often to herself; "He is ever the father of the
+fatherless, and will not forsake her."  She longed, however, for the
+return of Captain Mudge, but though it was the time for him to be back,
+no news had come from him.  A letter at last arrived from Ralph, written
+from the West Indies, which gave her an account of his prospects of
+promotion, and cheered her up.  He was well and as contented as could
+be, and she was thankful for that; still it compelled her to abandon all
+hopes of his speedy return.  When his next letter arrived, giving an
+account of the battle and of the loss of the _Eagle_ and of his own
+bitter disappointment, she was sitting by the death-bed of Mrs Treviss.
+Had it not been for the burning of the _Eagle_, Ralph might even now
+have been with her, but instead, he had certainly gone to that far, far
+off Indian Ocean, where he might be kept for years.  Jessie restrained
+her tears that she might not disturb her grandmother's last hours.
+
+Mrs Treviss, who was thinking of Captain Mudge, asked faintly if he was
+coming.
+
+"No hope of it, dear granny," she answered, in a faltering voice.
+
+"God's will be done!  Trust to Him!  Trust to Him!" whispered, the old
+woman, closing her eyes as if she were weary and wanted sleep.
+
+Jessie sat long watching her anxiously.  There was no movement.  She
+took her hand.  It was icy cold.  Her granny was dead, and she was alone
+in the world.  The doctor some time after looked in and found the young
+girl still seated by the bedside.  He sent a woman, Dame Judson by name,
+to assist her, and promised to make arrangements for the funeral, but he
+had a large family of his own, and could do little more except in the
+way of sympathy and advice.  Mrs Treviss was carried to her grave,
+Jessie being the only mourner, while Dame Judson walked by her side to
+afford her support.
+
+When she came back to her solitary home she could not for some time
+arouse herself from her grief, though Dame Judson, a motherly sort of
+woman, tried her best to console her.  Jessie, however, felt that it was
+necessary to consider what she should do for her support.  The cottage
+was hers, and she had about ten pounds a year left her, the interest of
+a sum in the hands of Messrs. Grayson and Company, shipowners, of
+Plymouth.  She could make something by her needle, but scarcely
+sufficient, though she was resolved to try her best.  She would have let
+her cottage and looked for a situation as a lady's-maid or a
+nursery-governess, but then should Ralph come back he would be
+disappointed at not finding her there, and she might not even hear of
+his return, so she would not entertain the idea for a moment.  She might
+find an old lady to lodge with her, and her last idea was to open a
+school for little girls.  She had no one to consult with.  Worthy Dame
+Judson hadn't an idea above charing; with her neighbours she was but
+slightly acquainted.  Messrs. Grayson and Company had paid her
+grandmother's interest regularly, but were not pleasant people to speak
+to.  They had been part owners with her father in the _Dolphin_, the
+ship in which he had been wrecked.  Having neglected to insure her they
+had lost a good deal of money by the circumstance, and being especially
+narrow-minded entertained an ill feeling even for poor Jessie herself,
+which they exhibited whenever she went to their office.  She had been to
+a good school in Exeter, but the lady who kept it, and who would have
+been of great assistance, was dead, and the school broken up.
+
+The clergyman of the church Jessie attended, on hearing of her
+unprotected condition, immediately called on her to offer such
+consolation and assistance as he had the power to bestow.  He was,
+however, the vicar of an extensive parish, which, in addition to its
+usual large number of poor, contained at the time very many widows and
+orphans of the soldiers and sailors killed during the long protracted
+war, who demanded all his sympathy and attention.  Having also but a
+limited income, insufficient for the extensive demands on his purse, he
+was unable to afford her any pecuniary assistance.  His visits, few and
+far between, like those of angels, as they of necessity were, afforded
+her much comfort and support, as he never failed to urge her to seek for
+that strength from on high which will always be granted when asked for
+with a believing heart; and to place her reliance on Him who orders all
+for the best, though man, with his finite powers of mind, often fails to
+perceive it.
+
+The only other person she could consult was Mr Barry, the apothecary,
+and he had but little time to give his thoughts to the subject.
+
+The _Amity_ had in the meantime gone back to London, and had made
+several other distant voyages without returning to Plymouth.  The
+captain had written to her, but on each occasion had again sailed
+without receiving her replies, and was thus not aware of her
+grandmother's death.  At length a letter reached him while he lay in the
+Thames, and in his answer he promised to come and see her without fail
+at the end of the next voyage.  A long time passed after this, and no
+tidings came of him.  She lived on in hopes, however, of his promised
+visit, till at length she heard from Mrs Judson of a rumour that the
+_Amity_ was lost with all hands.
+
+"But don't ye take on so now, my dear," exclaimed the good woman when
+she saw the effect her announcement had produced.  "We often hear of
+vessels going to the bottom which are all the time snug in some port or
+other, and perhaps the _Amity_, which has to be sure been a terrible
+long time missing, will come back some day with her old captain all
+right."
+
+These remarks slightly revived poor Jessie's hopes, but weeks and weeks
+went by and the old captain did not appear.  Still she thought that the
+_Amity_ might have been captured by the enemy and be in some foreign
+port; but the brokers had not heard from Captain Mudge, and even though
+a prisoner he would have managed to send a letter.  She had long been
+expecting also to hear from Ralph.  She was certain that he would have
+written if he had had the opportunity, but no news came of him.  India
+was a long way off, and letters were often six months or even a year in
+coming, she knew.  She was, therefore, though anxious, not alarmed, but
+she could not help watching with a beating heart each day at the hour
+the postman was wont to pass her door, in the expectation that he would
+stop with a letter in his hand.
+
+Months and months passed, none came.  Her heart sickened, her cheeks
+grew pale.  Again Dame Judson was the bearer of bad tidings.  "She
+didn't wish to alarm Miss Flamank, not she, but she had heard a report
+that one of his Majesty's ships had been lost in the Indian seas with
+all hands, and she was greatly afraid that it might be the _Falcon_.
+There were many other ships, though, on the station, and it might just
+as likely be one of them."
+
+Jessie had never before fainted in her life, but she would have fallen
+to the ground had not Mrs Judson caught her and carried her to the
+sofa.  The good woman was dreadfully frightened, for she thought that
+Jessie was dead, and that she had killed her by her incautious
+announcement.  She tried all the usual expedients to restore animation,
+and at length the poor girl opened her eyes, but there was a pained yet
+vacant expression in them which the dame could not fail to remark.
+
+Mr Barry happened soon afterwards to look in to say that he had the
+promise of four or five pupils, but he at once saw that poor Jessie
+would be unable to receive them for a long time to come.  For weeks she
+remained in a sadly prostrated state, attended by Dame Judson, who
+looked after her, as she said truly, without hope of fee or reward.
+Youth and a good constitution prevailed at length, and Jessie recovered
+her health, though her heart seemed crushed, and she was unable to exert
+herself as she knew was necessary to obtain a livelihood.  Poor girl!
+she felt utterly alone in the world.  Still, though the news of the
+_Falcon's_ loss was confirmed beyond all doubt, and the widows and
+children of her officers and crew entitled to pensions had received them
+she heard, she herself would not abandon all hope of seeing Ralph.  Had
+she not prayed to God that he might be preserved from all dangers with
+the truest faith? and oh, how earnestly! though, as in duty bound, she
+had added, "Thy will be done."  She even now tried from her heart to
+repeat those words and to bow meekly to the will of her Heavenly Father.
+"He knows what is best, and does all for the best, as granny used to
+tell me, and as the kind vicar often says," she repeated to herself; "I
+am sure of that, though I cannot see it in this case, but that arises
+from my blindness and little faith."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+Kind Mrs Judson had gone to her own house.  Jessie was seated at her
+work near the window for the sake of the light on an evening in the
+spring of the year, when she saw a man in a sailor's dress pass the
+garden gate, then stop and make inquiries of a passer by.  Presently he
+came back, and opening the gate, knocked at the door.  Her heart beat
+violently.  He was a stranger, not at all like Ralph; but could he have
+brought news of him?  She flew to open the door.
+
+"Beg pardon, ma'am; are you Jessie Flamank?" asked the stranger, pulling
+off his hat with a sailor's courtesy.
+
+"Oh, who are you?  Oh, tell me why you have come!" exclaimed Jessie,
+scarcely able in her agitation to utter the words.
+
+"Why, do you see, I'm an old shipmate of one you knew once upon a time,
+and I thought as now I was at Plymouth I'd come and look you up and see
+how you were getting on, and have a talk about him," answered the man,
+stepping in as Jessie made way for him.
+
+"Then do you bring me no news of him--of Ralph Michelmore?" she asked,
+in a trembling voice.
+
+"Not what you may call news; seeing as how it's better than two years
+since I last set eyes on my old messmate," answered the stranger, taking
+a chair, while Jessie, unable to support herself, sank into the one she
+had left.  "He told me all about you," he continued, "how you were to be
+married when he was pressed along with me and others, and so I came to
+know you: and, said I to myself, now that he's gone, poor fellow, and
+she's all forlorn-like, maybe, I'll try and comfort her a bit."
+
+Poor Jessie!  This strange address from the rough sailor, though
+apparently kindly meant, had anything but the effect intended, for she
+burst into tears.
+
+"Now don't take on so," said the sailor, "I didn't think as how I'd have
+made you cry, or I wouldn't have talked about Ralph.  Maybe he wasn't
+lost with the old _Falcon_.  I've known men turn up after ever so many
+years, whom I thought fathoms deep below the waves long afore.  Not but
+what he'd have been sure to come back to you if he could, that's
+certain."
+
+"You have not told me who you are.  How did you escape from the
+shipwreck?" said Jessie, at length becoming calm enough to speak.
+
+"I've had a purser's name [see note 1] for some time past, but I don't
+mind telling you I'm Dick Bracewell, who sailed along with Captain Mudge
+in the _Amity_ once upon a time," answered her visitor.  "And as to how
+I escaped, why I'd left the ship after we took the Frenchman and put
+into Rio, and I didn't know but what Ralph was still aboard her, and a
+lieutenant by that time, till I heard when I came ashore last that she
+was lost with all hands."
+
+Jessie did not quite like Dick's way of speaking, still it was a
+melancholy satisfaction to her to talk of Ralph; and as her visitor
+appeared to mean kindly, she did not express any wish that he would take
+his departure.  He sat and sat on telling her many particulars about
+Ralph while on board the _Falcon_; how well he had behaved in the
+action, and how he had been made an officer, and been placed in command
+of the _Eagle_, Dick did not, however, tell her everything that had
+occurred regarding himself; but though he was not aware of it his tone
+betrayed the feeling of jealousy which he had entertained, and which her
+quick perception detecting, did not raise him in her estimation.  At
+last she had to tell him that it was getting late, and to beg that he
+would go away.
+
+"Well, I hope that I may call again and spin another yarn about old
+times," he answered, as he took up his hat.
+
+She did not like to say no, and yet his conversation had not left a
+pleasant impression on her mind.  When she had closed the door behind
+him, she sat down and cried bitterly.  It seemed to her more certain
+than ever that Ralph was lost.  Her evening reading of the Bible and her
+prayers, that solace of the afflicted, restored calmness to her mind.
+
+Day after day Dick Bracewell came to pay her a visit, and, believing him
+to have been Ralph's particular friend, she did not like to decline
+seeing him.  He told her that after he had left the _Falcon_ he had
+joined a privateer, which had been wonderfully successful; that they had
+taken a rich Spanish galleon and many other valuable vessels, and that
+he, having become one of the mates of the ship, had had a large share of
+prize-money; enough, he declared, to set him up as an independent
+gentleman for life.  To wind up his good luck he had come home in charge
+of the last prize they had made, which was fully as rich as any of the
+rest.
+
+"My old shipmate, he that's gone, told me that I should be ruined if I
+left the frigate, but he was wrong, you see," added Dick.  "He thought,
+too, that I hadn't the sense to take care of my money, if I got any; but
+I had had a sharp lesson or two, and I made up my mind not to touch
+liquor, whether afloat or ashore, and I've kept to it for better than
+two years."
+
+Jessie had heard Ralph mention Dick Bracewell once or twice, but knowing
+nothing about his character, did not doubt the truth of his statements.
+Still Dick had not, as he supposed, gained her confidence.  His frequent
+visits were, as might have been expected, noticed by Jessie's
+neighbours, and Dame Judson looked in one morning on purpose to tell her
+of the remarks she had heard, and to give her advice on the subject.
+She concluded by saying, "If you think that he is worthy of you, my
+dear, which I don't, why, there is nothing to say.  You are your own
+mistress, and can marry him when--"
+
+"I marry him!" interrupted Jessie.  "Oh, Mrs Judson, how can you think
+of such a thing?  I did not suppose that he or any one else dreamed for
+a moment that I fancied he was making up to me, or I would not have
+received him after his first visit.  Do, Mrs Judson, stay with me
+to-day, and if he comes tell him that I cannot see him, and beg that he
+will not come again."
+
+Mrs Judson very readily consented to do as Jessie wished.  She had made
+inquiries about Dick Bracewell, and did not altogether believe in the
+capture of the Spanish galleon, though she heard that he had come ashore
+from a prize brought into Plymouth to be sold.  The dame had brought her
+work, and took Jessie's usual place by the window to watch for Dick.
+She had not been there long before she saw a young sailor approach the
+house, and, without stopping, walk straight up to the door.  "That isn't
+Dick Bracewell.  I wonder who he can be," she exclaimed, as a knock was
+heard.
+
+"Can it be Ralph?" gasped out Jessie, rising from her seat.
+
+"Oh, no, my dear, he's much too young-looking.  You mustn't have such a
+fancy.  I'll see what he wants," said the dame, going to the door.
+
+"Please, ma'am, does Miss Flamank still live here?" asked the young
+sailor.
+
+"What do you want to say to her?" said the dame.
+
+"I've a great deal to say to her, and I think shell know me when I tell
+her who I am," replied the sailor.
+
+"Do let him come in, Mrs Judson," exclaimed Jessie, eagerly, her heart
+beating with the belief that she should hear news of Ralph.
+
+The stranger, doffing his hat, advanced into the room and stood before
+Jessie with a smile on his countenance as if expecting instantly to be
+recognised.  "I thought, Miss Flamank, that you'd have known me," he
+said at length; "I've never forgotten you and your kindness to me.
+Don't you remember Peter Puddle?"
+
+"Oh! yes, yes; indeed I do," exclaimed Jessie, putting out her hand.
+"And is the _Amity_ not lost?  Is Captain Mudge still alive?"
+
+Peter shook his head.  "I wish I could say there was any chance of
+that," he answered.  "When the old brig went down in the dead of night,
+I was left afloat on a hen-coop, which the old captain had just before
+cast loose and told me to cling to, for all our boats were stove in.
+And I never saw him, nor any one belonging to the _Amity_ alive again.
+Next morning I was picked up by a ship bound out to the West Indies, and
+I've been knocking about in those seas ever since.  The captain had
+taught me navigation, and, what was better still, to read the Bible; and
+as I just did what that tells me to do, I got a good character aboard.
+I was made third mate, and the other two dying, I became first mate for
+want of a better man; though I was very young for such a charge.  But I
+did my best, and the captain was satisfied, and says that, as he didn't
+want a better, I should sail with him again next voyage.  We sailed for
+home at last, bound for London; but having sprung a leak, and carried
+away our fore-mast, we put into Plymouth for repairs--and that's how
+I've been able to come up to see you.  But I've not yet spun all my
+yarn.  Tell me, Miss, have you never got any letters from me?"
+
+"No," answered Jessie, "I have not received a single letter from abroad
+for three long years or more," and she sighed sadly.
+
+"I thought 'twas so when I got no answers to three I wrote," said Peter.
+"What I had to tell you was this,--that just before the brig went down
+the captain made fast to the hen-coop a bag with fifty golden guineas in
+it, and charged me, if I escaped, to take it to you.  I unlashed it and
+managed to get it into my pocket just before I was hoisted on board.
+There would have been small chance of my keeping it, however, if I had
+not fallen among honest people; but when I came to know the captain, I
+was sure that it would be safe in his hands, so I gave it into his
+charge, and he stowed it away for me, and showed me where it was kept.
+If he hadn't done this I should have lost it, for a few months ago, when
+we were down in the Bay of Honduras, we were chased and overtaken by a
+schooner under Spanish colours.  Her crew, a set of fellows of all
+nations, calling themselves privateer's-men, though they were more like
+pirates, robbed us of everything they could lay hands on, and all the
+specie they could find belonging to the captain and owners, and had
+begun to scuttle the ship, and would, no doubt, have set fire to her
+besides and carried off our boats, when an English man-of-war hove in
+sight, bringing up a strong breeze.  The pirates, some of whom I was
+sure were Englishmen, in spite of their dress, for I heard them
+speaking, and should know two or three of them again, made off, and
+allowed us to stop the auger holes and pump out the water.  Their
+schooner, being a fast craft, escaped; but the man-of-war, having seen
+us safe on our way to Barbadoes, went back to look for her.  If she
+didn't find her, she would at all events have made those seas too hot
+for the pirate.  I was better pleased than anything else that your money
+was saved, and here it is all right, just as the captain did it up for
+you."
+
+As Peter spoke he placed on the table before Jessie a small
+weather-stained canvas bag, and, undoing the string, counted out fifty
+guineas.
+
+"They are all right," he continued, "and my heart is lightened of the
+thought I've always had that I might lose them, though I would have made
+it up to you somehow or other--that I would."
+
+Tears choked Jessie's utterance as she thought of the kind captain who
+had remembered her in his last moments, and of the sturdy honesty and
+faithfulness of Peter.
+
+"I am, indeed, grateful to you as I am to Captain Mudge," she said at
+length; "but surely you are entitled to some of this."
+
+"Not a dollar would I touch, not if all the judges in the land were to
+order me to take it," answered Peter, replacing the money in the bag,
+which he tied up and pressed into her hands.  "There, it's all for you,
+and I wish you knew how happy I am to give it to you safe at last."
+
+Before Jessie could reply there was a knock at the door.  Mrs Judson
+went to open it.  "Miss Flamank cannot see you," Jessie heard her say.
+
+"She never sent that message," exclaimed Dick Bracewell, brushing by her
+and entering the room.  He cast an angry glance at Peter, as if he
+considered him an intruder, and advanced to shake hands with Jessie.
+She drew back, greatly annoyed at his conduct.
+
+"Mrs Judson told you I was engaged," she said.
+
+"She told me you couldn't see me; but when a man loves a girl, and knows
+pretty well that she likes him, he isn't to be stopped by trifles," he
+answered, throwing himself into a chair, as if he felt perfectly at
+home.
+
+A feeling of indignation prevented Jessie from saying anything.
+Meantime Peter had been narrowly eyeing her unwelcome visitor, and,
+stepping up to him, said--
+
+"You've just come from the West Indies, mate, I've a notion?"
+
+"Yes, I've been in those seas," answered Dick, for, having told Jessie
+so, he could not deny the fact.
+
+"I thought as much; and we met there not long ago in a way I'm not
+likely to forget," said Peter, quietly.  "Maybe you don't remember me,
+but I do you, I can tell you; and there are not a few of the crew of the
+_Kate_ who will remember you, too, if they set eyes on you."
+
+Dick; taken by surprise, turned pale, and declared he did not know what
+the young man meant; but Peter again minutely described how his ship had
+been boarded by pirates on the Spanish main, and positively asserting
+that Dick was one of them, advised him, if he valued his life and
+liberty, to clear out of Plymouth without delay.
+
+Dick, as might have been expected, swore that the young man, as he
+called Peter, was mistaken; but shortly after, observing that it was
+clear he was not wanted, took up his hat, and, without much
+leave-taking, hurried out of the house.
+
+Jessie, who feared that Peter was right in his suspicions, thanked him
+for giving Dick the warning.
+
+"He was once, at all events, Ralph Michelmore's friend, and I should
+have grieved if you had been the means of bringing him to punishment,"
+she said.
+
+"I'd not hurt him, Miss Jessie, on any account," answered Peter; "but as
+I judged by the way you spoke to him that he was not welcome, I thought
+I would just say what would make him keep away for the future."
+
+Peter remained to dinner and amused Jessie and Mrs Judson with an
+account of his adventures, in all of which his honesty and courage were
+remarkable, though he was not aware that what he said exhibited it.
+
+"That's what the right training of good Captain Mudge has done for him,"
+observed Mrs Judson, when he had gone.  "I remember him a regular
+pickle; and, if he had been left to himself, he would have been a
+vagabond all his life, like many others who have had no kind friends to
+look after them."
+
+Peter's warning had not, it appeared, been lost upon Dick Bracewell; for
+from that day Jessie saw him no more.
+
+Peter came constantly, while he remained in Plymouth, to see her.  At
+his last visit he put the sum of thirty pounds into her hands.  "I want
+you to take this, Miss Flamank, and to spend any of it you like," he
+said, while a blush spread over his sunburnt countenance.  "It's my
+savings since I was picked up by the _Kate_, and I always intended it
+for you.--Well, if you won't accept it as a gift, remember, if what
+happens to many a sailor happens to me, it will be yours.  Now, don't
+say no, and you'll make me more happy than I can tell you."
+
+Peter would take no refusal, so at last Jessie consented to receive the
+money, though she resolved not to spend it on any account.  After Peter
+had sailed, Jessie lived on much as before, except that with the money
+she had received she was able to obtain many of the necessaries she had
+before denied herself.  Still her pale cheek told of a sad heart, and
+though more than one young man well to do in the world asked her to
+become his wife, she remained faithful to the memory of her lost Ralph.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Note 1: A fictitious name sailors who have deserted generally assume to
+escape recognition.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+The _Falcon_ proceeded on her voyage to India.  Though she was refitted
+as thoroughly as was possible in a foreign port, her commander had no
+wish to encounter another enemy with so large a proportion of his crew
+untried and inexperienced.  He did his utmost, however, to get them into
+efficient order, and every day that the weather permitted they were
+exercised at the guns, as well as at making and shortening sail, and
+taught the use of the small arms.
+
+Ralph Michelmore was fully occupied, and had but little time to think of
+his bitter disappointment at not returning home in the _Eagle_.  By the
+time the _Falcon_ reached the Hoogly, the crew had been brought into
+excellent order, and were highly complimented by the admiral on the
+station.  There being no post-captain to supersede him, Mr Handsel
+received an acting order to continue in the command.  The _Falcon_ was
+allowed just time to take on board a fresh supply of powder, shot, and
+other stores and provisions, when she was ordered to proceed in search
+of an enemy's cruiser, said to have captured several English merchantmen
+in the southern part of the Indian Ocean.  She was supposed to be a
+heavy frigate, equal, if not superior, in force to the _Falcon_, but
+neither Captain Handsel nor any of his ship's company had the slightest
+doubt as to what would be the result of an action should they be
+fortunate enough to fall in with her.
+
+A sharp look-out was kept, and the ocean traversed in all directions for
+several weeks, but no traces of her could be discovered, till at length
+a prize she had taken only two days before was re-captured.  Her
+probable whereabouts having been ascertained from the prisoners, the
+prize being sent on to Calcutta, the _Falcon_ under all sail steered in
+the direction where it was hoped the enemy would be found.  The stormy
+season was approaching.  The weather, indeed, had already changed for
+the worse; but still Captain Handsel was unwilling to return to port,
+when on the point, as he hoped, of meeting the long looked-for foe.
+
+A strong breeze was blowing from the northeast, and the frigate was
+steering south, under all the canvas she could bear.  The crew had just
+been piped to breakfast.
+
+"A sail on the lee bow," shouted the look-out at the mast-head.
+
+Ralph was sent aloft to examine the stranger.  She was standing
+close-hauled to the northward.  From the squareness of her yards, he had
+little doubt, seen even at that distance, that she was a man-of-war, but
+as the two ships were rapidly nearing each other, the matter would soon
+be decided.  The course of the _Falcon_ was altered so as to intercept
+the stranger.  Suddenly, however, the latter was seen to wear ship, and,
+setting more sail, to stand away before the wind.  The _Falcon_ was
+already carrying as much as she could well stagger under; still, eager
+to overtake the fugitive the captain ordered the topgallant sails to be
+loosed, and on flew the _Falcon_, like the bird from which she took her
+name, in chase of her expected prey.  A stern chase is proverbially a
+long chase.  It seemed doubtful, after the lapse of several hours,
+whether she was gaining ground on the stranger.  The evening was drawing
+on: the gale was increasing.
+
+"Hand the topgallant sails!" shouted the captain.  The crew were going
+aloft when there came a loud crash.  The fore and main topgallant masts
+were carried away.  Two poor fellows were struck--one fell dead on the
+deck, the other was knocked overboard.  To heave-to was impossible.  The
+wreck of the masts was cleared away, and two reefs taken in the
+topsails, and the courses brailed up.  The frigate flew on at her utmost
+speed.  It was now almost night, and it was feared that the chase would
+escape in the darkness.  Still it was possible, with the heavy gale
+blowing, that she might continue on the course she was steering.
+
+When darkness came down over the ocean the chase could still be seen
+through the night-glasses, standing as before.  As night, however, drew
+on, clouds gathered thickly in the sky, the obscurity became greater,
+the gale heavier, and after a tremendous squall, which struck the
+frigate, had passed over, those on the look-out could nowhere discern
+the chase.
+
+The captain, however, did not believe that she had hauled her wind, and
+hoped to come up with her perhaps with her masts gone.  The master,
+after speaking with the captain, had gone below to examine the chart,
+but even that could not be relied on, as the part of the ocean they were
+then in, was, in those days, but imperfectly known, and prudence
+dictated that they should heave-to till daylight.
+
+The captain, in the meantime, expecting every instant again to sight the
+chase, kept the ship on her course.  Ralph was standing aft with his two
+young messmates, Chandos and Dickenson, who had become much attached to
+him.
+
+"What do you think of it, Michelmore?  I don't like running into the
+darkness as we are doing," observed the former.
+
+"The darkness will not hurt us, and provided there are no rocks or
+shoals in our course we may run on as safely as in the daytime,"
+answered Ralph.  "I examined the chart, and the nearest islands marked
+on it are, if they are correctly laid down, full fifty leagues to the
+south of us, though there are some shoals rather nearer."
+
+The master, who had been below, returned hurriedly on deck, and spoke to
+the captain.
+
+"If so, we'll heave the ship to," was the answer.
+
+Scarcely had the order been given to "Put the helm a-lee," than the
+look-out forward shouted "Breakers ahead!" and the next instant a
+fearful crashing sound was heard.  The ship quivered from stem to stern,
+the tall masts rocked, and those on deck, unable to hold on to the
+bulwarks, were thrown off their feet.  It was a moment of intense
+suspense.  The head-sheets had been let fly.  Would the ship answer her
+helm?  No.  A tremendous sea met her bows, sweeping over her deck, and
+carrying several men in its relentless grasp into the raging surf to
+leeward.  Again she struck, with greater violence than before; the next
+sea hove her on her beam ends.  The carpenter reported twelve feet of
+water in the hold, and rapidly increasing--a rock had gone through her.
+The captain ordered the masts to be cut away.  He had abandoned all
+hopes of saving the ship, and his only thought now was how to preserve
+the lives of his people.  A party of the crew, led by Ralph and other
+officers, with gleaming axes quickly severed the weather rigging, and a
+few strokes were sufficient to send the tall masts, with their spars,
+crashing over to leeward.  The furious seas in quick succession struck
+the devoted ship, carrying away her bulwarks, and destroying several of
+her boats.  The officers and crew were collected on the quarter-deck,
+for the stern of the ship having swung round it was least exposed to the
+assaults of the waves.  Ralph had sought out his two young friends,
+Chandos and Dickenson, wishing to help them if he could.  Looking over
+the larboard quarter, he observed that the water in that direction was
+less broken than elsewhere, and he felt sure that he saw the land rising
+to a considerable height at no great distance.  He told the captain that
+he thought he might reach the shore, and, if it was inhabited, bring
+assistance to the ship.  A small boat hung at the after-davits capable
+of carrying four or five people.
+
+"You can try it," said the captain; "choose any two of the men on whom
+you can rely to accompany you, and take these two youngsters," touching
+Chandos and Dickenson on the shoulders, "there will be less risk for
+them than by their remaining on board, I fear.  Remember, Michelmore, if
+you escape, that I was in chase of an enemy when the ship was lost, and
+that there was an error in the chart.  Heaven bless and preserve you!"
+he wrung Ralph's hand as he spoke.
+
+The two young midshipmen were placed in the boat, which was carefully
+lowered, with Jacob Crane, and another man, Ned Hawkins, whom Ralph
+selected, he himself following.  He put Jacob at the helm, confident of
+the old man's judgment, and got out an oar, the rest doing the same.
+Sheltered by the wreck, the boat at first floated in comparatively
+smooth water, but scarcely had her head been got round than she was in
+the foaming waves, which rolled in towards the shore.  They, however,
+did not break as they did at the fore part of the ship, and Ralph knew
+from this that she had struck on the extreme point of a reef, and he
+hoped that, could the remaining boats or rafts be launched, his
+shipmates might yet be saved.  Anxious to communicate this information,
+he directed Jacob to steer back to the ship, but after pulling for some
+time they found that they had made no progress, and it became evident
+that a strong current was sweeping round the point, and that their
+utmost efforts would be in vain.  The boat's head was therefore once
+more turned towards the shore.  The current, however, swept them at a
+rapid rate to the westward, so that they soon lost sight of the ship.
+Not a glimpse either of the land could be obtained, and they began to
+fear that they should be carried out to sea.
+
+"Never say die if we are," observed Jacob; "it may be better for us than
+having to run through the surf with the chance of being rolled over and
+over in it."
+
+The storm raged with greater fury than before.  Jacob advised, as the
+only hope of preserving their lives, that they should keep the boat's
+head to the sea, and allow her to drift on till daylight, when they
+might discover some spot where they could attempt to land with a
+prospect of success.  In spite of all their efforts the seas continually
+washed into the boat, and compelled the two midshipmen to work hard at
+baling out the water, while Ralph and Ned Hawkins, with their two oars,
+kept the boat in a right position.  Their anxiety about the fate of
+their shipmates prevented them from contemplating as much as they would
+otherwise have done the perils of their own situation.  To return to the
+wreck was impossible; to land in safety seemed equally so.  At any
+moment a raging sea might overwhelm them, and it required their utmost
+strength and skill to avert the catastrophe.  Now and then, as the boat
+rose to the summit of a billow, Ralph fancied that he could distinguish
+through the darkness the dim outline of the coast, and as its form had
+changed since first seen, he was convinced that they were still drifting
+along it.  He feared that, unless the direction of the current changed,
+they might be carried far away out to sea, when death from hunger and
+thirst must be their lot; still, trusting in God's mercy, he did his
+utmost to keep up the courage of his companions.  The midshipmen behaved
+as became them, not a word of complaint escaping their lips, while every
+time a sea broke on board, Chandos cried out, "Hurrah, here's more work
+for us; bale away, Dickenson; we must clear her before the next comes."
+It seemed, indeed, wonderful that so small a boat could live in such a
+sea.  Thus the night wore on.
+
+At dawn of day Ralph discovered, less than half a mile to the
+south-west, a rocky point, the extreme eastern end, he supposed, of a
+somewhat elevated island, along the northern coast of which they had
+been drifting during the night.  The light rapidly increased, while the
+clouds cleared away, and the wind abated.  As far as the eye could reach
+to the westward appeared an unbroken line of raging surf, into which,
+had the boat been carried, her destruction would have been certain.  He
+pointed out to his companions how mercifully they had hitherto been
+preserved; "and if we can get round yonder point we shall be in smooth
+water, under the lee of the island, and shall probably without
+difficulty get on shore," he added.
+
+Once more he cast an anxious look westward, but not a trace of the wreck
+could be seen.  Had the _Falcon_ and her gallant crew been totally
+engulfed by the waves?
+
+"I fear that it's all over with them," said Jacob; "I don't think we
+could have come so far as to lose sight of the wreck altogether if she
+still hung together."
+
+The boat's head was now cautiously got round, and the midshipmen
+resuming their oars, they pulled away in a direction which would enable
+them to round the point clear of the surf.  They were round it at last,
+but a fringe of black rocks, over which the sea leaped and foamed,
+warned them to keep at a distance.  On and on they rowed.  The coast was
+uninviting.  No trees were to be seen; no signs of human habitation.  At
+length a small sandy bay appeared, with high rocks on either side of it,
+while beyond was a valley, its sides clothed with trees and green
+herbage.  No spot could be more desirable.  Pulling in, they landed, and
+hauled up their boat on the beach.
+
+"We are not ashamed, I hope, of thanking Him who preserved us through
+the dangers of the last dark night, and asking Him to take care of us
+for the future," said Jacob.
+
+"No, indeed," answered Ralph and the midshipmen, and at once they knelt
+down on the sand, and, led by the old man, together offered up their
+prayers to the All Merciful One, to Whom they acknowledged their safety
+was alone due; for vain would have been all their efforts and skill
+without His aid.  Rising from their knees, they set off in search of
+water, and their eyes were soon gladdened by the sight of a clear stream
+running down the valley.  Having quenched their thirst, they looked
+about for food.
+
+They had not gone far when, to their surprise, they saw close under the
+hill, shaded by trees, a well-built hut, evidently not the habitation of
+a savage.  They hurried towards it, expecting to find the occupant
+within.  No one appeared.  The door was open.  They entered.  There was
+a bedstead with the clothes still on it, a fireplace built of rough
+stone, the ashes of a recently burning fire within it.  Hung against the
+wall were several cooking utensils, and on some shelves were arranged
+some plates and dishes and cups and knives and forks.  In the centre of
+the hut was a cabin table, and placed round it were three chests, which
+had apparently served as seats.  They contained only a few old shoes and
+worn-out clothes.  No books or writing materials were found, or anything
+to show who had been the occupants of the hut.  If it had contained any
+articles of value, they had been carried away.  Both Ralph and Jacob
+were of the opinion, from the workmanship of the chests and table, that
+they were French.  As no food was found in the hut, they were eager to
+continue their search for some.  At a short distance off was a small
+garden, but it had lately been dug up, and all the vegetables and roots
+it had contained had been carried off.
+
+"It's my opinion that there were three people who messed together in the
+hut.  One lived in it--either the captain or another officer--and the
+other two slept elsewhere," observed Jacob.  "We shall find their
+roosting place not far off.  One thing seems certain, that they are not
+here now, and there's little doubt that a vessel visited the place
+lately, and that they and everything of value were carried away by her,
+as well as the produce of the garden."
+
+Ralph and the rest thought that Jacob was probably right in his
+conjectures.
+
+"Well, I can't make it out at all," exclaimed Jacob, who had gone ahead
+of his companions.  He pointed, as they came up, to three long, narrow,
+grass-covered mounds on a level spot at some distance from the hut.
+They were evidently graves.
+
+"If the poor fellows lie there they can't have got away; but, then, how
+could the last have managed to bury himself?"
+
+Chandos remarked that perhaps there were four people, and that a
+survivor had performed that office for the rest; but the old man was
+positive that there were only three, as he had counted that number of
+plates and knives and forks, and had, moreover, found three worn-out
+pairs of shoes.  Their hunger put a speedy end to the discussion, and
+made them continue their search for food.  Birds flitted by them, but
+they had no fowling-pieces, and in vain they tried to knock some down.
+Berries and some larger fruits hung temptingly on the trees out of reach
+above their heads.
+
+"Those birds do not live upon nothing," observed Chandos.  "If we cannot
+catch them, we may at all events eat the fruit they live on."
+
+"A bright idea," exclaimed Dickenson.  "I see a big fellow pecking away
+at a yellow, juicy-looking fruit up there.  Depend on it, he finds it
+ripe.  Now, if you and Ned will give me a hoist, I can manage to reach
+the lowest branch, and though the boughs might break with the weight of
+a heavier man, they will bear me--if not, look out and catch me."
+
+Dickenson, with the aid of Chandos and Ned--the first of whom mounted on
+the others' shoulders--soon clambered up the tree, and though the
+branches bent with his weight, he managed to throw down several ripe
+fruit.  Having put two or three in his pocket, he retired to the inner
+end of a branch to stop the cravings of hunger, while Chandos and Ned
+were employed in the same way below.  The fruit had stones in the
+centre, and was more mealy and much richer than a pear.
+
+Ralph and Jacob had in the meantime gone down to the beach to collect
+mussels or other shell-fish.  Chandos shouted to them, but as they did
+not hear him, he set off with a supply of the fruit in his pockets.
+They had found shell-fish in abundance, and had collected as many as
+they could require.  Having no means of lighting a fire, they were
+obliged to eat them uncooked; but notwithstanding this, with the aid of
+the fruit, they contrived to make a hearty meal.  Having thus somewhat
+recruited their strength, although they would gladly have thrown
+themselves on the ground and gone to sleep, they determined at once to
+set out in search of any of their shipmates who might have escaped from
+the wreck.  The distance, Ralph feared, would, however, prove
+considerable, and tax their strength to the utmost.  He proposed,
+therefore, that the midshipmen should remain behind, and, after taking
+the rest they required, employ themselves in searching for food.
+
+"No! no! we'll hold out as well as any of you," exclaimed Chandos.  "If
+our friends require help, the more there are to give it the better."
+
+As Ralph could not object to this he agreed that they should come.
+
+The bay in which they had landed looked towards the rising sun, and was
+thus near one end of the island, while the wreck had occurred, Ralph
+calculated, close to the other.  They would have probably ravines to
+cross, hills to ascend, and other impediments to encounter.  Having
+collected as many shell-fish and fruit as they could carry, they--
+notwithstanding their expected difficulties--set out with sturdy hearts,
+determined to overcome them.
+
+The country was generally rocky and barren.  Bleak hills destitute of
+vegetation, narrow ravines, and savage gorges appeared on every side.
+Often it seemed impossible that they could make any further progress;
+but after several hours spent in climbing and scrambling they at length
+reached the point for which they had been directing their course, on the
+north-western shore.  As they approached it they observed a few spots of
+a more fertile character, and below them on level ground, forming the
+shores of a small bay, waved several cocoa-nut and other tropical trees.
+As no other huts were seen, or any plantations, they were convinced
+that the island was uninhabited.  Their chief attention was, however,
+directed seaward in search of the wreck.  Though the wind had gone down,
+the surf still beat furiously along the whole line of coast, so that no
+boats or rafts could have reached the shore in safety.  About half a
+mile off rose, from amid a mass of foam, the black rugged points of a
+reef, now for a minute in sight, now concealed by the heavy rollers
+which dashed over them and came rushing on with an angry roar towards
+the cliffs which formed that end of the island.
+
+"That must be the reef on which the frigate struck," said Ralph, with a
+deep sigh, and tears of manly sorrow sprang to his eyes.  "Poor fellows!
+Not one can have escaped."
+
+"It's too likely," said Jacob, gazing at the spot; "the ship must have
+fallen off the reef, and the current would have swept her and all on
+board away."
+
+The rest of the party shared Ralph's grief, but they had no time to
+indulge in it.  He was anxious to examine the coast on the bare
+possibility of any one having been washed on shore alive, and they then
+would have to search for water and some sheltered spot where they might
+pass the night.  With some difficulty they descended the cliffs to the
+first line of beach they could discover, which extended for some
+distance towards the east.  Here and there lighter pieces of the wreck
+strewed the shore, but the heavier fragments had been carried away by
+the current.  The wreck would serve for fire-wood, but then they had no
+means of lighting a fire, and none of the pieces were large enough to be
+of use towards building a hut.  They did not therefore stop to collect
+them, but pushed on, still not without some faint hopes that one or more
+of their shipmates might have reached the shore alive on planks or
+spars.  The midshipmen, though their spirits kept them up, were,
+however, much fatigued, and were longing to find a sheltered spot where
+they might stop and rest.
+
+An object in the surf now caught their sight, some way ahead, at a spot
+free from rocks.  Hastening forward they found that it was a cask, and
+after several efforts, at the risk of being carried off by the sea, they
+succeeded in rolling it upon the beach.  It was full of beef, which,
+though they were compelled to eat it raw, greatly restored their
+strength.  Further on a tangled mass of rigging had already been thrown
+on the shore.  Perhaps a human being might be found among it.  They ran
+on, eager to examine it.  It consisted of spars and ropes and torn
+canvas.  The latter might assist to form a roof for a hut, if not large
+enough for a tent.  They were cutting it clear, when Chandos discovered
+the stock of a musket, with part of the barrel broken off, rolled up in
+its folds.
+
+"That will not be of much use as we have no powder or shot," observed
+Dickenson.
+
+"No, but see, the lock and flint are still on it," answered Chandos.
+"Hurrah!  We shall now have the means of lighting a fire."
+
+This success encouraged them to make further search.  Several casks of
+pork, and flour, and other provisions, an invaluable iron saucepan with
+the lid tightly jammed on, as well as two sea-chests, with clothing and
+numerous useful articles, rewarded their labours.  The wide bay they had
+before seen was reached at last.  The extent of fertile ground was
+smaller than they had supposed, and but few cocoa-nut trees grew on it.
+Still, as the evening was advancing, and a sheltered nook near a rill of
+water was discovered, they settled to go no further.  While Ralph with
+Jacob and Ned were putting up a rough hut the midshipmen collected some
+dry grass and broken branches.  As they were hunting about they
+discovered several fungi growing near the roots of the trees.
+
+"This stuff looks very like tinder," said Chandos.  "Let us try if it
+will take a spark."
+
+He produced the flint from the lock of the musket.  In a few minutes, by
+dint of blowing and puffing, they had a blazing fire, and the iron pot
+with a piece of beef in it was put on to boil.  The flour, though
+damaged by the salt water, supplied them with cakes cooked under the
+ashes.  They had now no longer the fear of suffering from starvation.
+After an ample meal they lay down to rest, and it was broad daylight
+before any of the party awoke.  The next day they resumed their search
+along the shore.  More casks of beef and pork were secured, and numerous
+other articles.  Among the things in one of the chests was a Bible,
+which being enclosed in a leathern case had escaped injury.  The owner
+had apparently but seldom opened it.  To Ralph and his companions it was
+of unspeakable value.  Though he had been accustomed to read the
+Scriptures on a Sunday on board ship he had seldom gone to them for
+guidance and strength on other days in the week.  Now morning and
+evening he read aloud from the precious volume, which from henceforth
+became the source of comfort and support to the castaways.  Several days
+were spent in collecting whatever the sea had thrown on the shore from
+the wreck, but not a human body was found.  Probably the ship had broken
+suddenly up, and all on board had been engulfed together.  Having dried
+the contents of the chests, and stored them and their provisions in the
+hut, they returned to the bay in which they had landed.  Its attractions
+being far greater than those of any other part of the coast, in addition
+to its possessing a well-built abode, they resolved to settle there.
+
+The direct distance across the island was less than three miles, and by
+a bird's-eye survey from the highest point in the centre, they
+calculated that the most practicable path would be about five miles.  By
+this they at once set about removing their goods; carrying them in some
+parts on their shoulders, and in others dragging them on a truck, built
+out of wreck timber.  The whole north shore presented no safe
+landing-place, or could they have taken them round by sea much labour
+would have been saved.  One of the most welcome prizes was a bundle of
+fish-hooks, found in the boatswain's chest.  Lines were easily
+manufactured, and less than an hour's fishing gave them food for the
+day.  Birds were frequently caught in snares; and roots and fruits were
+not wanting.  Thus, sterile as the island at first appeared, they had
+reason to be thankful that it supplied them with everything absolutely
+necessary for sustaining life.
+
+The end of three months found them settled in the hut, following an
+almost regular routine of labour.  Men-of-war's men, from their
+training, dislike idleness; and the three young officers and the two men
+cut out ample employment for themselves during every hour of the day.
+They did not fail, however, to discuss every possible means of escaping.
+
+The midshipmen and Ned proposed to raise the sides of their small boat
+and to put to sea in her in the hopes of reaching India, or of finding
+some inhabited island at which ships were likely to touch, so that they
+might ultimately find their way home.
+
+To this proposal Jacob Crane strongly objected, though Ralph was at
+first rather inclined to favour it, desperate as it appeared.
+
+"Nothing we can do to the boat can make her fit for a long voyage, even
+if the weather should prove fine," observed Jacob.  "To my mind, we
+ought to be thankful at being as well off as we are.  God has mercifully
+saved our lives and placed us here, and here we should be content to
+remain and make the best use of our time till He thinks fit to send us
+relief.  If we were likely to be starved, or if there were savages
+threatening to kill us, the case would be different.  It then would be
+perfectly right for us to put off in our boat, and we might trust to Him
+for protection.  If we had been supplied with tools, it might then have
+been our duty to try and build a vessel large enough for the voyage to
+India or the Cape of Good Hope; but we haven't got them, and there isn't
+a shipwright among us.  Perhaps some vessel may be wrecked on the coast,
+and we may be the means of saving the lives of the people aboard her.
+Depend on it God has always got a purpose in all that He does or allows,
+though we don't see it--that's my firm belief--therefore I say again,
+let us be content with the blessings God has sent us, and be resigned to
+His will."
+
+Jacob's argument decided Ralph, and won over the rest of the party.
+
+Though their boat was not large enough for a voyage, they made frequent
+trips in her along the coast, and were by her means able to catch many
+more fish than they could have caught from the rocks.
+
+A few seeds were found in the hut, and several plants which had been
+left in the ground sprang up, so that they were able to restore the
+garden, which had been destroyed, and also greatly to increase its size.
+
+The discovery of some strong fibre enabled them to manufacture twine,
+which served not only for fishing-lines, but as they improved in the art
+of making it, they produced a fishing-net of fair size.  With this they
+caught at times far more fish than they could consume, so they pickled
+the remainder with salt collected from the hollows of the rocks, and had
+consequently a supply during stormy weather.
+
+Happily in one of the chests were a couple of books on navigation, and
+three or four others of an interesting character.  By means of the first
+Ralph was able to give instruction to the midshipmen in the science so
+necessary to them in their professional career.  He also made the model
+of a ship's deck and rigging, which, while it afforded a source of
+amusement, gave them a more thorough knowledge than they possessed of
+seamanship, while the other books were read till nearly got by heart.
+Thus the youngsters' time, which might otherwise have been utterly lost,
+was usefully employed.
+
+Flagstaffs were erected on high points at the northern and southern
+sides of the island: and a board was nailed to the former, with a
+direction carved on it to their cove.  They were constantly on the
+look-out; but months and months went by and not even a distant sail was
+seen, to give them hopes that deliverance was near.  At length, even
+Ralph began to fear that they were doomed to a life-long imprisonment on
+that unknown islet.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+Bells were ringing; bonfires blazing throughout England.  The battle of
+Waterloo had been fought.  Peace, broken by the return of Napoleon from
+Elba, was restored; and the great agitator of Europe was a captive on
+board a British man-of-war, about to sail for Saint Helena.  Though the
+nation was rejoicing, the hearts of many of all ranks, who had lost
+loved ones on the field of battle, were mourning.
+
+Jessie Flamank was not alone in her sorrow.  She was resigned; but time
+had not assuaged it, nor lessened her tender love for Ralph's memory.
+She had, of late, ample work, as several ladies in the neighbourhood who
+had heard her history were in the habit of sending for her to assist in
+making dresses for their families.  Among them was a Mrs Chandos, whose
+husband, Colonel Chandos, had just returned home wounded from Waterloo,
+in which battle their only son had fallen.
+
+The bereaved mother, while arranging the mourning for her little girls,
+spoke of him to Jessie, adding, with tears in her eyes, "His younger
+brother perished on board the _Falcon_, five years ago, in the Indian
+Ocean."
+
+Jessie naturally became deeply interested in the poor lady, and could
+not help telling her that her intended husband was an officer in the
+same ship.
+
+"We long hoped against hope that some might have escaped, and that our
+son might be among the number," said Mrs Chandos; "but now we know that
+we have lost both our brave boys."
+
+"All things are possible with God, ma'am; He orders all for the best; we
+should trust Him," answered Jessie, gently.
+
+Scarcely had she reached home, when a young sailor, whom she at once
+recognised as Peter Puddle, hurried up to the door.
+
+"Oh, Miss Flamank, I am so glad to find you!" he exclaimed eagerly; "I
+have been twice to the house, and was afraid that you had left it.  May
+I come in?"
+
+Jessie assured him that he was welcome.
+
+"I have news for you.  Wonderful news, which you little expected to
+hear," he continued.
+
+"Oh, tell me!  What is it?" cried Jessie, gasping for breath, and her
+heart beating violently.
+
+"I had always heard say, what you thought also, that your father,
+Captain Flamank, perished at sea; now I've got to tell you that he
+didn't, for I've seen him, and he is alive and well, and he sent me on
+to tell you that he would be with you soon."
+
+"My father alive!" ejaculated Jessie.  Is she to be blamed if she felt
+disappointed at hearing his name instead of Ralph's as she had expected?
+Her affection for her father, long supposed dead, however, quickly
+revived, and she became eager to welcome him home.
+
+Peter told her that the captain of the ship to which he himself belonged
+having died at the Cape of Good Hope, it became necessary for the
+consignees to find another.  That one had been selected who, with other
+officers, had just arrived after having been prisoners to the French for
+several years in a remote island in the Indian Ocean.  The crews of the
+captured vessels had been sent away and exchanged; but the officers had
+been detained till the termination of the war, for fear that they might
+give information to the English of the position of the island, the
+favourite rendezvous of French privateers.
+
+"You may suppose how surprised I was to hear that our new captain's name
+was Flamank," continued Peter.  "I at once told him that I knew you, and
+how kind you had been to me, and soon found that he was your father.  He
+seemed never tired of asking me questions about you, and so of course I
+gave him a full account of all that I thought would interest him.  He,
+in return, told me a great deal about himself.  His ship had not been
+wrecked, as was supposed, but had been captured by a French privateer,
+on board which he had been taken.  She was shortly afterwards wrecked on
+an island in the Indian Ocean, when the Frenchmen attempted to reach the
+shore in their boats, leaving the prisoners on board.  The boats were
+swamped, and all in them perished.  Notwithstanding this, most of the
+prisoners having built a raft, pushed off on it and shared their fate.
+Captain Flamank and two others, seeing signs of the gale abating,
+refused to join them, and the next day landed safely in a sheltered
+cove, in the neighbourhood of which they took up their abode, having
+brought on shore a large store of provisions and everything they
+required from the wreck before she went to pieces.  His two companions,
+one of whom was wounded, died, and he was left alone for several years
+till taken off by another French privateer.  From what the captain said
+I have an idea that he thinks of going back there if he has an
+opportunity, as he had hidden away no small amount of treasure, taken
+out of the wreck, which he didn't tell the French privateer's-men of,
+for more reasons than one.  First, he couldn't speak their lingo;
+secondly, as bad weather was coming on, they were in a hurry to be off;
+and as it was property which their countrymen had taken from English
+vessels, he had no fancy to let them get it.  But I've still another
+strange thing to tell you.  Soon after the captain was taken aboard the
+privateer, she was chased by an English frigate during a heavy gale.
+The privateer narrowly escaped shipwreck on the island they had left;
+and it was the opinion of the Frenchmen, and the captain thinks they
+were right, that the frigate was cast away.  There can be no doubt that
+she was the _Falcon_, and he thinks that some, if not all the crew, may
+have escaped, and be still living on the island."
+
+Jessie was making many eager inquiries on the subject, when Peter,
+looking at his watch, jumped up, and telling her that she would soon see
+the captain, hurried away.  Before an hour was over she was clasped in
+her father's arms.  He had much to hear from her of her numerous trials
+and difficulties, and she in return longed to learn more about his
+adventures and the supposed wreck of the _Falcon_ than Peter had told
+her.  He confirmed in all points the account she had heard.
+
+"It has always been supposed, I find, that my ship, the _Dolphin_, was
+driven on shore during a hurricane in the Indian Ocean, and that all on
+board had perished," continued Captain Flamank.  "The report was brought
+home as you know by another English ship, the _Chieftain_, which had
+been in company with us.  She herself narrowly escaped the outer end of
+a reef, and was driven far away to the southward, and her master having
+observed our perilous position, and not again falling in with us,
+naturally concluded that we had been lost.  This I have only lately
+learned.  We were truly in great danger, but happily, being carried
+through an opening in the reef, were able to anchor in safety under the
+lee of the land.
+
+"We congratulated ourselves on our escape.  Scarcely, however, had we
+made sail after the gale was over, than we saw standing out of a bay, a
+short distance off, which a lofty headland had concealed from us, a
+large ship which we soon knew to be a French privateer.  In vain we did
+our utmost to escape, while we fired our stern guns in the hopes of
+crippling her.  She soon ranged up alongside, when, finding that further
+resistance would be useless, with a sad heart I hauled down my flag.  I
+was at once transferred to the privateer with several of my men, and a
+prize-crew was put on board the _Dolphin_, which sailed to the
+northward.  As I never heard of her again, I suspect that she went down
+in a hurricane before she reached her destination.  The privateer
+cruised for some time in the southern part of the Indian Ocean, and
+after taking another prize with a large amount of specie, which was of
+course removed on board her, she one night was wrecked on a small rocky
+island, of the existence of which no one appeared to be aware.  I will
+not describe the horrors which ensued.  All discipline was lost, each
+man, regardless of the rest, thinking only how he could secure his own
+safety."
+
+Captain Flamank then gave Jessie a full account of the occurrences of
+which Peter had already told her.
+
+"The years spent on that lone island, especially after the death of my
+two companions, were indeed sad ones," he continued.  "Often I believed
+that I should never again see the face of a fellow-creature.  I thought
+of you, too, my child, left as I feared you would be when your
+grandmother was taken away, alone in the hard, cruel world, with no one
+to protect you from its snares, or to help you in your distress."
+
+"But God protects those who trust in Him, and He never forsook me, but
+sent me kind friends who gave me all the help I needed," exclaimed
+Jessie, looking up in her father's face.
+
+"I know that now, Jessie, but I did not then.  I should have borne my
+misfortunes much better had I done so," he answered.  "That good young
+fellow Peter, my mate, first put the truth before me on the voyage home.
+Many men would not dare to speak as faithfully to their captain as he
+did to me.  He got me to read the Bible, and showed me throughout the
+Psalms God's numberless gracious promises to those who trust to Him, and
+His boundless love to sinful men in the Gospels, and what ample rules
+under all circumstances in life He has afforded us in the Epistles."
+
+"Peter did not tell me of this," said Jessie.
+
+"No, I should have supposed that he would not," answered her father; "he
+is too modest and humble to boast of anything he has done.  I need not
+tell you, after the years I had spent in solitude, with what joy I
+welcomed the sight of a ship approaching the island.  It was greatly
+damped, however, when I discovered that she was French.  Still I
+resolved if I could to go on board her, hoping ultimately to make my
+escape.  The very day before the wreck I had discovered the latitude and
+longitude we were in, and had noted it in my pocket-book, so that I
+could calculate the exact position of the island.  I had also buried all
+the treasure which my companions and I had landed, and had raised over
+it a mound exactly resembling those I had placed over their graves.  I
+thus should be able at any time to find the spot, I thought, while no
+one else was likely to disturb it.  On ascertaining from the Frenchmen
+who landed that their ship was a privateer, and that they were still at
+war with the English, I said nothing about the treasure, determined
+rather to let it remain concealed for ever than allow them to possess
+it, for I knew that though I might claim it they would without scruple
+take it from me.  Of this I was convinced from the way in which they
+pulled up all the vegetables in my garden and carried off everything of
+value which they found in the hut.  Among other articles were my
+sextant, chronometer, and nautical almanacks, which I had brought in my
+chest from the _Dolphin_, though unable to use them on board the
+privateer till the day I spoke of.  The chronometer I had carefully
+wound up every day, and it was still going when I returned to the wreck.
+I was thus able when on the island to verify my previous calculations
+and to ascertain its exact position.
+
+"Having claimed the sextant and chronometer when I was carried on board,
+I was told that they were no longer mine, and care was taken that I
+should not ascertain the ship's position.  In short, for several days I
+was kept below, so that I could not even discover the course we were
+steering.  From what I overheard, however, I found that three days after
+leaving the island we were chased during a heavy gale by an English
+frigate, when we narrowly escaped destruction on a reef at its western
+end, on which it was supposed the frigate had been cast away.  She, I
+have no doubt from what I have since heard, was the _Falcon_, to which
+Ralph Michelmore belonged.  From my own experience, I have hopes if such
+was the case that some of the people may have reached the shore, and are
+still living there."
+
+"Oh, father!  I cannot doubt it; and that Ralph is among them,"
+exclaimed Jessie, clasping her hands.
+
+"I pray for your sake, my child, that he may be," said Captain Flamank.
+"Such scenes as took place when I was wrecked in the privateer are not
+likely to have occurred on board a well-disciplined man-of-war.  After
+again, as I have described, narrowly escaping shipwreck, I began to hope
+that the time when I should be free and able to return to England was
+approaching.  Notwithstanding the vigilance of the Frenchmen, I managed
+on several occasions to creep on deck at night, when a glance at the
+stars in the clear sky overhead assured me that the ship was steering to
+the northward, and as I supposed to one of the French settlements in
+India.  What was my surprise, therefore, to find one morning that we
+were standing towards a small hilly island, with the appearance of which
+I was totally unacquainted.  On being seen by the captain I was sent
+below, and when I was allowed to return on deck I discovered that we
+were in a completely land-locked harbour, with several other ships at
+anchor, most of which I knew from their build to be English.  Lofty
+cliffs circled nearly round the harbour, concealing the masts even of
+the largest ships from being seen by any passing stranger.  In one place
+the land sloped more gradually from the water, and on it were a number
+of huts, mostly well-built and of considerable size, forming a regular
+village.  Some way above the village were several more huts surrounded
+by a high palisade with a gateway, before which paced a couple of
+sentries.  I had not had much time to make my observations when I was
+ordered into a boat, and on landing was at once conducted up to the
+last-mentioned group of huts.  Entering the gate I was led into a hut
+close to it, in which sat an officer who told me that I must consider
+myself a prisoner of war, and that as the English shut up the French who
+fell into their hands in Porchester Castle, I had no reason to complain.
+I urged that I had not been taken prisoner, and that after years of
+absence from my home I was anxious to return there.  He shrugged his
+shoulders, smiling grimly, and made no reply.  I found between thirty
+and forty persons living within the palisade, most of them masters and
+mates of captured ships.  Several had been there from nearly the
+commencement of the war.  They told me that they were strictly watched,
+and that they found it impossible to send letters home to inform their
+friends of their fate.  Civilians and common seamen had of late not been
+allowed to land, but had been sent away immediately; the object of the
+French being, it was evident, to conceal this convenient rendezvous of
+their privateers from the enemy.  I found this account too true, and
+though I made many attempts to send letters to you I was unable to
+succeed.  We were not otherwise harshly treated, but we all pined for
+freedom, and great was our joy when peace was concluded, and we were
+sent off to the Cape.  Care was even then taken to prevent us from
+learning the exact position of the island of our captivity; but we
+ascertained it pretty correctly, and should another war break out it is
+not likely to be again used for the same purpose.  On reaching the Cape
+I at once obtained, as you know, the command of a ship, and thus had no
+means of informing you of my existence before my arrival."
+
+Much more interesting conversation, as may be supposed, passed between
+the father and daughter.
+
+Jessie was very anxious to repeat what she had heard to her friend Mrs
+Chandos, and Captain Flamank consented to accompany her to the house of
+that lady.  What mother could listen to such a narrative without the
+hope arising that her son might be among those who had escaped?  Colonel
+Chandos, though less sanguine than his wife, was willing to make every
+effort necessary to ascertain the truth.
+
+With the aid of the friends of other officers of the _Falcon_, a fine
+brig, the _Hope_, was chartered and quickly fitted out, Captain Flamank
+taking the command of her, with Peter as one of his mates.  A picked
+crew having been easily obtained, she sailed on her long voyage.
+
+Jessie knew that she must pass many anxious months before the brig could
+return; but would not He Who had restored her father to her have
+preserved also her still fondly loved Ralph?  She had many kind friends
+to comfort and encourage her; and the warm sympathy of Mrs Chandos
+assisted greatly to keep up her spirits.
+
+We might follow the _Hope_ on her course.  We can picture the delight of
+the exiles as they saw a brig, with English colours flying, heave-to off
+the bay, and her boat approach the shore.  We can imagine their
+surprise, as they warmly grasped his hand on landing, when Captain
+Flamank announced himself as the former occupant of the hut, and, after
+the first greetings were over, led them to the spot which they had
+supposed was a grave, and with their assistance unearthed the
+long-hidden treasure.
+
+We need scarcely speak of the eager questions Ralph put to the captain
+about Jessie, or say that before night the exiles with the treasure were
+on board the brig, and that she was on her homeward voyage.
+
+Seven months had passed since the _Hope_ had sailed, and Jessie had
+begun anxiously to count the days and hours as they went slowly by.
+That her Ralph would return she felt sure.  Often she went to a spot
+whence she could gaze down the Sound, in expectation of seeing the brig
+with her white canvas spread gliding up it; but as often was she
+disappointed.  Many a vessel left the harbour with a favouring breeze
+which kept the homeward bound at a distance.  She had one day been asked
+to visit Mrs Chandos, with whom she was seated, when voices were heard
+in the hall, and soon afterwards the colonel entered the room.
+
+"Prepare yourselves for a joyful event," he said, looking at his wife
+and Jessie.  "Some young naval officers have just arrived, and if you
+will accompany me, Miss Flamank, I will lead you to the dining-room,
+where you will find one of them whom you know."
+
+As they left the room a stranger sprang by them, and Jessie heard Mrs
+Chandos exclaim, "My son!  My own dear boy!"  In another instant Jessie
+was weeping tears of joy, supported in the arms of Ralph.
+
+They were soon joined by her father and Dickenson, who, after spending a
+few hours with his friends, set off to afford a happy surprise to his
+own family in Hampshire.
+
+Their voyage home had been prosperous, excepting the loss of a man
+overboard who had joined the brig at the Cape.
+
+"He was in a wretched condition, produced by drunkenness; but the
+captain could not refuse him a passage," observed Ralph.  "I knew him
+directly he came on board, though he entered under a feigned name, as my
+old shipmate Dick Bracewell; but I don't think he recognised me.  He no
+longer appeared the smart seaman he once was; indeed, he could with
+difficulty perform his duty.  I intended, however, to make myself known,
+and to speak to him with earnestness and kindness, when during the only
+gale we encountered, directly after leaving the Cape, he fell from the
+fore-topsail yard, and before an effort could be made to save him he had
+sunk for ever."
+
+Jessie did not till long afterwards tell Ralph of the way his old
+shipmate had behaved to her.
+
+"I forgive him," said Ralph.  "When a man once leaves the right course
+and takes to drinking as unhappy Dick did, it is impossible to say of
+what vile actions he may be guilty."
+
+Ralph and Jessie were married shortly after the return of the _Hope_.
+And Chandos, who acted as best-man to his old messmate, declared that it
+was the happiest day of his life.
+
+They neither of them again went to sea, Ralph having been appointed to
+the coastguard, in which service he obtained a situation for Jacob
+Crane; while Captain Flamank enjoyed an ample competency from the
+treasure he had brought home in the _Hope_.  Of that vessel, which the
+captain purchased, honest Peter, in the course of a few years, obtained
+the command.  She proved a more fortunate craft than the _Amity_, and
+being well formed, and well manned, and well commanded, never failed to
+bring in to him and her liberal owner a good return.
+
+Ralph and Jessie enjoyed many years of happiness, ever acknowledging
+that all the trials and anxieties through which they had gone had been
+ordered for the best, and ever grateful for the present blessings
+bestowed on them.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Two Shipmates, by William H. G. Kingston
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