CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.
CONCLUSION.
"Keep at it, my lads, until she strikes!" cried the young commander, ashe fell.
Captain Saltwell had meantime, seeing what would occur, ordered two gunsto be run out at the after ports. Scarcely had they been fired when anofficer, springing into the forecastle of the French ship, waved his hatand shouted that they had struck.
Oliver and Jack, on looking round for Rayner, and seeing him bleeding onthe deck, forgetful of everything else, sprang aft to his side. At thatmoment the crew raised a cheer of victory; Rayner feebly attempted tojoin in it. He was carried below. With anxious hearts his officers andcrew waited to hear the report of the surgeon.
It was Oliver's duty to go on board and take possession of the prize.Unwillingly he left his friend's side. Of the _Lily's_ crew five hadbeen killed, and many more beside her commander, wounded. But Oliversaw, as he stepped on board the prize, how much more severely she hadsuffered. Everywhere lay dead and dying men. How dread and terrible afact is war! A lieutenant, coming forward, presented his sword.
"My captain lies there," he said, pointing to a form covered by a flag."The second lieutenant is wounded below; three other officers are amongthe dead. We did not yield while we had a chance of victory."
"Yours is a brave nation, and I must compliment you on the gallant wayin which you fought your ship," answered Oliver, in the best French hecould command.
To lose no time, the prisoners were removed, the prize taken in tow, andall sail made for Plymouth.
At length the surgeon come on deck.
"The commander will do well, I trust," he said; "but I shall be glad toget him on shore as soon as possible. As soon as I had extracted thebullet, he sent me off to look after the other wounded men, saying thatthey wanted my care as well as he did."
The crew on this gave a suppressed cheer. It would have been louder andmore prolonged, but they were afraid of disturbing the commander and theother wounded men.
All were proud of their achievement as they sailed up Plymouth Soundwith their prize in tow, but no one felt prouder than Jack Peek.
"I knew Captain would do something as soon as he had the chance," he hadremarked to Brown, who greatly shared his feelings.
Rayner was at once removed to the hospital. As he was unable to hold apen, Captain Saltwell wrote the despatches, taking care to give duecredit to the active commander of the corvette.
A short time afterwards Oliver carried to the hospital--to which he hadnever failed to pay a daily visit--an official-looking letter.
"Ah! that will do him more good than my doctoring," said the surgeon, towhom he showed it.
Oliver opened it at Rayner's request. It was from the Lords of theAdmiralty, confirming him in his rank, and appointing him to command the_Urania_ (the English name given to the prize), which, being a fine newcorvette, a hundred tons larger than the _Lily_, had been bought intothe service.
"It will take some time to refit her, and you will, I hope, be aboutagain before she is ready for sea," said Oliver. "I have brought amessage from my mother, who begs, as soon as you are ready to beremoved, that you will come and stay at our house. She is a good nurse,and you will enjoy more country air than you can here."
Rayner very gladly accepted the invitation. Neither Oliver nor MrsCrofton had thought about the result, but before many weeks were overCommander William Rayner was engaged to marry Mary Crofton, who hadgiven him as loving and gentle a heart as ever beat in woman's bosom.He told her how often he had talked about her when away at sea, and howoften he had thought of her, although he had scarcely dared to hope thatshe would marry one who had been a London street boy and powder monkey.
"I love you, my dear Bill, for what you are, for being noble, true, andbrave, and such you were when you were a powder monkey, as you call it,although you might not have discovered those qualities in yourself."
He was now well able to marry, for his agents had in their hands severalthousand pounds of prize-money, and he might reasonably hope to obtainmuch more before the war was over.
Our hero was well enough to assume the command of the _Urania_ by thetime she was ready for sea. Oliver, as his first lieutenant, had beenbusily engaged in obtaining hands, and had secured many of the _Lily's_former crew. The commander had some time before sent for Jack Peek, andurged him to prepare himself for obtaining a boatswain's warrant.
"Thank you, sir," said Jack; "but, you see, to get it I must read andwrite, and that's what I never could tackle. I have tried pothooks andhangers, but my fingers get all cramped up, and the pen splits open, andI have to let it drop, and make a great big splash of ink on the paper;and as for reading, I've tried that too. I know all the letters when Isee them, but I can't manage to put them together in the right fashion,and never could get beyond a, b, ab, b, o, bo. I might in time, if Iwas to stick to it, I know, and I'll try when we are at sea if I can geta messmate to teach me. But while you're afloat I'd rather be yourcoxswain, if you'll give me that rating; then I can always be with you,and, mayhap, render you some service, which is just the thing I shouldbe proud of doing. Now, sir, there's Tom Fletcher; he's got plenty oflearning, and he ought to be a good seaman by this time. If you were torecommend him to be either a gunner or a boatswain, he'd pass fastenough."
Rayner shook his head. "I should be happy to serve Tom Fletcher for oldacquaintance' sake, but I fear that although he may have the learning,as you say, he has not got the moral qualities necessary to make a goodwarrant officer. However, send him to me, and I'll have a talk with himon the subject."
Jack promised to look after Tom, whom he had not seen since the _Lily_was paid off. He returned in a few days, saying that he had longsearched for him in vain, until at length he had found him in a lowhouse in the lowest of the Plymouth slums, his prize-money, to theamount of nearly a hundred pounds, all gone, and he himself so drunkthat he could not understand the message Jack brought him.
"I am truly sorry to hear it," said Rayner. "But you must watch him andtry to get him on board. If he is cast adrift he must inevitably belost, but we will try what we can do to reform him."
"I will gladly do my best, sir," answered Jack. When the _Urania_ wasnearly ready for sea, Jack did contrive to get Tom aboard of her, butthe commander's good intentions were frustrated, for before the shipsailed he deserted with could not again be discovered.
Of this Rayner was thankful, as he must of necessity have done whatwould have gone greatly against his feelings--ordered Tom a flogging.
Honest Brown, however, who had gone to school as soon as the _Lily_ waspaid off; received what he well deserved, his warrant as boatswain ofthe corvette he had helped to win. He had shortly to go to sea in adashing frigate, and from that he was transferred to a seventy-four, inwhich he was engaged in several of England's greatest battles.
Some years passed, when after paying off the _Urania_, as Rayner waspassing along a street in Exeter, he heard a stentorian voice singing averse of a sea ditty. The singer, dressed as a seaman, carried on hishead the model of a full-rigged ship, which he rocked to and fro,keeping time to the tune. He had two wooden legs in the shape ofmopsticks, and was supporting himself with a crutch, while with the handat liberty he held out a battered hat to receive the contributions ofhis audience. Occasionally, when numbers gathered round to listen tohim, he exchanged his song for a yarn. As Rayner approached he wassaying, "This is the way our government treats our brave seamen. Herewas I fighting nobly for my king and country, when a Frenchman's shotspoilt both my legs, and I was left to stump off as best I could onthese here timber toes without a shiner in my pocket, robbed of all myhard-earned prize-money. But you good people will, I know, be kind topoor Jack, and fill this here hat of his with coppers to give him acrust of bread and a sup to comfort his old heart.
"`Come all ye jolly sailors bold, Whose hearts are cast in honour's mould, While England's glory I unfold, Huzza to the _Arethusa_!'"
Sudd
enly he recognised Captain Rayner, who, from being dressed in plainclothes, he had not at first observed. He started, and then began, withan impudent leer, "Now, mates, I'll spin you another yarn about anEnglish captain who now holds his head mighty high, and would notcondescend to speak to poor Jack if he was to meet him. We waspowder-monkeys together, that captain and I. But luck is everything.He went up, and I went down. That's the way at sea. If all men hadtheir deserts I should be where he is, in command of a fine frigate, ina fair way of becoming an admiral. But it's no use complaining, and soI'll sing on--
"`The famed _Belle Poule_ straight ahead did lie, The _Arethusa_ seemed to fly, Not a brace, or a tack, or a sheet did we slack On board of the _Arethusa_.'"
"No, no, mate, you was not aboard the _Arethusa_!" cried Jack Peek, whohad followed his captain at a short distance, and looking Tom in theface. "You was not aboard the _Arethusa_. I'll tell you what kept youdown. It was conceit, idleness, drink, and cowardice; and I'll tell youwhat gave our brave captain his first lift in the service. It was histruthfulness, his good sense, his obedience to the orders of hissuperiors. It was his soberness, his bravery; and if you, with yourlearning and advantages, had been like him, you too might have been incommand of a dashing frigate, and not stumping about on one wooden leg,with the other tied up to deceive the people. It's hard things I'msaying, I know, but I cannot stand by and hear a fellow who ought toknow better running monstrous falsehoods off his reel as you have beendoing. You might have borne up for Greenwich, and been looked after bya grateful country; or you might have saved money enough to have keptyourself in comfort to the end of your days; but it all went in drinkand debauchery, and now you abuse the government for not looking afteryou. Howsumdever, Tom Fletcher, I'm very sorry for you, and if you'llknock off this sort of vagabond life, which brings disgrace on the nameof a British sailor, I'll answer for it our good captain will exert hisinfluence and get you a berth in Greenwich or elsewhere, for he hasoften spoken about you, and wondered where you were a-serving."
Jack Peek had probably never made so long a speech in his life. It wasperhaps too long, for it enabled the old sailor to recover his presenceof mind, and looking at Jack with a brazen countenance, he declared thathe had never seen him before, when off he went as fast as he could walkon his wooden stumps, and turning down a by-lane was lost to view.
Jack had to hurry on to overtake his captain. It was the last time hesaw Tom Fletcher alive; but he afterwards heard that a man answering hisdescription, who had been sent to prison as a rogue and a vagabond, hadsubsequently been killed in a drunken quarrel with another seaman of thesame character.
Jack had followed his old friend and captain from ship to ship, and atlength having overcome the difficulty not only of the alphabet, but ofpothooks and hangers, he obtained his warrant, and for several years hadcharge of one of the ships in which he had fought and bled, now laid upin Portsmouth harbour.
In the course of years there was found in the list of English Admiralsthe names of Sir William Rayner, KCB, John Saltwell, and Oliver Crofton.
THE END.
From Powder Monkey to Admiral: A Story of Naval Adventure Page 37