by T. T. Jeans
*CHAPTER XVI*
*Ford saves "Old Lest's" Life*
The Vigilant to the Rescue--Rushing the Gun--Ford is Miserable--The Ringdove Steals the Gun--Ford Bucks up Again--Mr. Rashleigh and the Gun--The Burial at Sea--Letters from Home--A Letter from Nan
_Written by Midshipman Ford_
Before I tell you anything else, I must tell you this--it is the onlything I can think about at present, and has wiped out all the silly, andidiotic, and bad-tempered things I have ever done--I have saved CaptainLester's life.
But for me--Dick Ford, a midshipman only just out of the _Britannia_, aworm, I suppose you would call me--he would be dead now, and Mrs. Lesterand Nan and his other girls, and all Upton Overy, would be awfullymiserable, and everybody else who had ever known him.
I just look at him when he's striding up and down the quarterdeck, andthink that now, in a way, he belongs just a little bit to me. I knowthat his coxswain, and the signalman, and any number of others who werenear him when the Chinese broke our square, saved his life a greatnumber of times; but you have read what Captain Marshall wrote, and knowwhat happened, and what, by good luck, I was able to do, so I don't mindin the least sharing him with all of them, so long as I know that a bitof him does belong to me.
You see, I knew all the time that I'd really only made an ass of myselfwhen I was captured, and had my arm broken, and all that, and thatinstead of helping him in any way, I really had only muddled up hisplans. Just before we began the march back to the coast, Jim and I hada long yarn about what was best for me to do, and the only thing hecould suggest--you know, of course, that I only had one arm to use--wasfor me to keep as close to the Captain as he would let me, and alwayshave my revolver handy, in case any Chinese did get near him. Jim saidthat there was always the chance of some chaps trying to rush us, and itwas the only thing he could think of, and as the Captain only had hisbig oak stick, and never thought of danger to himself in the leastlittle bit, I might make myself useful. Well, that is why I am soabsolutely happy--I feel now as though nothing can ever make me feelreally miserable again, for long--because if anything does begin to doso, I just think about Captain Lester, and that stops it.
When I finished telling you about that awful night in the walled house,we had heard the sound of the Maxim gun firing, and knew that theCaptain was coming along to rescue us. That made us all "buck up"tremendously, and the fog lifted a little, and it began to grow lighter,and we could just see the wall and the half-closed gateway, and some ofthe dead people lying about, and presently we heard the sound of firingcoming nearer, and began to think that another half-hour would bringthem to us, and that Sally would then be absolutely safe.
The pirates were not worrying us at all--there had hardly been a shotfor the last two hours--and we guessed that most of them had gone awayto try and stop the Captain coming.
We even walked about the space inside the walls and counted the deadbodies--there were forty-seven--and peeped through the two gateways, andcollected some more Mauser rifles and any amount more ammunition. Wemade a fire too, and found some food in the house, and tried to makeSally eat some breakfast, but she couldn't touch anything, and went tosleep again.
"We even walked about the space inside the walls andcounted the dead bodies."]
We thought that everything was going on jolly well. My arm was notnearly so painful--I had had some sleep; Mr. Ching was very cheerful;Sally and Mr. Hobbs were both sound asleep; and Miller and the oldScotchman were coiled up asleep as well. Martin, the marine--well, I'mnot certain whether I cared much for him--kept on grumbling about hisarm, and reminding me that he wouldn't have broken it or been takenprisoner but for having tried to save me. That rather irritated meafter a time. Mr. Ching and I were listening to the sound of thefiring, and looking through a window in the direction from which itcame, watching the fog clearing away from the low land on that side,when all of a sudden there came a roaring noise out of the fog, andsomething struck the house close to us with a crash, and we heard stonesfalling on to the ground below.
We ran to where it had struck, and found holes big enough for me toclimb through in both the front and back walls.
Mr. Ching gasped out, "They must have brought up a field gun;" and welooked, but the fog wasn't thin enough yet for us to see anything. Hewas very frightened, and ran up to that little square room with the ironshutters, and came down with Sally in his arms, took her out of thehouse and laid her down behind the wall, where it was very thick. Hewas only looking frightened because of her, I know that, and that he wasjust like Captain Lester in never being frightened about himself.Martin and Mr. Hobbs came scooting out too.
They kept on firing that gun, and sometimes they hit the wall andsometimes the house; and presently Miller, who had woke up, peeped overthe wall, and said he could see the gun, and he lifted me up to lookover, and I saw it as well, under some trees, about five hundred yardsaway, along the ridge on which the house was standing. He and Mr. Chingand the bluejackets began firing at the men round it; but they couldn'tsee it clearly because of the smoke it made and the fog, and as theydidn't really know how to sight the Mauser rifles properly, they didn'tseem to be able to hit anybody.
At any rate, we couldn't stop it firing, and it was knocking the houseto pieces.
Then a shot struck the top of the wall, and made a gap in it, and stoneswent flying round, and one struck a bluejacket sitting down, not farfrom where Sally was, still asleep, struck him on the head, and killedhim. Mr. Ching didn't know what to do, because he was so worried lestshe should be hurt; and two or three more came along, all hitting thewall, and it was jolly unsafe to stay anywhere near it, so we made hergo and lie down behind a very big stone or rock behind the house, andleant some planks of wood against it to make a kind of roof to keep offfalling stones.
Her father crept under them too.
If the firing became more dangerous, Mr. Ching did think of lowering herdown a shallow well in the garden under the trees, but that was neverwanted.
The rifle and Maxim firing became very heavy, and we could hear itcoming rapidly nearer, and the fog, which was still lying very densebelow the house, now swept away, and we could see that there were flatpaddy fields there with a small hill on the other side. It was gloriousto be able to look all round again, and suddenly Chinamen went flyingdown our side of that hill opposite, and we could hear cheering, andthen, in a minute or two, some dark figures, waving their arms overtheir heads, came on to the sky line, and we knew that they were ourpeople, and we all cheered tremendously.
You can have no idea what we all felt like, because, although we wereexpecting them, it was quite a different feeling when we actually sawthem.
"Look there, Miller!" I shouted. "There's a dog there running backwardsand forwards;" and Miller spotted it too, and I knew that it must bejolly old "Blucher", and that the Captain must be there.
Mr. Ching asked me if I could signal to them, and I managed to do so,climbing up to the top of the square room, and getting out through ahole which the field gun had made in the roof. I was so fearfullyexcited and happy, that I forgot all about the danger from the gun, andMr. Ching helped me up and steadied my feet, and I waved a long bamboo,and signalled in Morse that we were all well, but that the gun was doingdamage. I saw some tiny little flags waving to say that the signalmanwith the Captain had read it, and then Mr. Ching pulled me down, andonly just in time, because the field gun made two more holes close by,almost immediately afterwards.
I was too much excited to worry about the gun in the least--we allwere--and went and watched them over the wall at the side, and saw somedark figures come racing down the hill, and presently others whom I knewwere marines came along after them and joined up in the paddy fields,and I thought I could recognize Mr. Travers and Captain Marshall bytheir long legs. It made me go just a little hot all over to seeCaptain Marshall, because I hadn't forgotten what he had said when I had
run away from the bullets, near those burning huts, and didn't quitewant to see him.
There was a lot more rifle firing and machine-gun firing farther to theright, and the field gun stopped shooting; but we couldn't see themarines and those others now, because they had got across the paddyfields and were under the brow of our ridge. We could hear themcheering, however, though they were out of sight, and the noise seemedto be going towards the gun, and we knew that they were charging it, andsimply held our breath and watched Chinamen dodging about, round it, andunder the trees, and firing downhill.
Then they began bolting away out of sight--we knew what we should see ina moment or two, and held our breath--and almost directly afterwards awhole crowd of our people went dashing across the open space, and sweptround the gun.
We all jumped down, made a rush for the gateway, cheering like mad, andwaving, and then I saw someone jump on top of the field gun and wave hiscap, and knew that it was Jim Rawlings. I was certain of it, and Millersaid he thought it was too, and this simply added everything to the joy,because I had been wondering and worrying whether he was killed or badlywounded--ever since Miller had told me that he had seen him knocked downtwo nights ago, when Mr. Whitmore's party was retreating, and justbefore he himself had been captured.
I felt all "bubbly" inside, and didn't quite know what to do, and feltvery "sniffy", and ran towards the gun, with Miller and Mr. Ching and alot of his men. Before we could get to it, the first lot of our peoplehad gone off after the Chinese, who were running away; and the next lotof people I saw was a company of American bluejackets, with their longthin Captain in front of them. He gripped my hand and said he was"right glad to find us alive", asked after Sally, and rushed on to thehouse, his old-looking First Lieutenant shouting out, "Guess things arereal bully," as he followed him. Then Mr. Rashleigh and the "Ringdoves"came running up, clustered round the gun, and began cheering. Dr.Hibbert gave me a cheery wink, and Mr. Rashleigh patted me on the backand hurt my arm, and I hadn't forgiven him for that unfair report ofhis, and hated him touching me.
I heard him tell his coxswain to take the gun back to the _Ringdove_,and I thought that he couldn't possibly have known that our people hadcaptured it first; so I told him about it, and that they had only gonein pursuit of the Chinese, but he took no notice of me, and I forgot allabout it in the excitement of seeing Captain Lester coming stridingalong, puffing and blowing, "Blucher" barking and prancing ahead of him,running up and smelling the gun and one or two dead bodies verygingerly. Then he spotted me, and came wriggling up to be patted.
The Captain looked very sourly at me and growled out, "Where's that chapChing, and the little lass and Hobbs?" and wanted to know whether Martinand Miller were with me. I must have looked a most awful sight, I know,because I could still only just manage to see out of my left eye bylifting up the lid with my fingers, and of course I was covered withmud, and my left sleeve was dangling down, and my arm was inside mymonkey jacket, where the old Chinaman had bandaged it. But, for allthat, he didn't even ask me how I was, and that made me miserable.
"Pongo" came panting along after him, and when he had recovered hisbreath, I asked if the Commander had landed with them.
It was then that I heard that he had been shot through the body, andthat Dr. Mayhew didn't know whether he would live or die. That made mefeel even more wretched, and the Captain, hearing me ask about him,turned round and growled: "If you hadn't been such a blamed littleidiot, he'd never have been shot. Umph! His little finger is worthmore than all you confounded young midshipmen--umph!--put together;" andhe stalked off to meet the American Captain.
"Pongo" told me that Dicky was going on all right, and then wanted toknow all about my arm, and my face, and everything that had happened;but I wanted to be left alone and be miserable, and went away and hidsomewhere--I didn't care what happened; and wanted to run away and getkilled, or something like that, till I heard Jim's voice calling for me.And he found me and comforted me a little, and said that Dr. Barclay didnot think that the Commander would die, but that Dr. Mayhew wouldn't sayfor certain till another day had gone by. But all the joy and theexcitement had gone out of me, and I felt wretched and ill, and had abit of a "weep", and didn't mind Jim seeing me, not in the least, and hecleared out and left me, and went away to Mr. Whitmore and presentlycame back, and told me all about Mr. Whitmore's party, and how they'dhad a pretty tough job getting back to the boat, and never got halfwayto the gun. He hadn't been wounded at all--he didn't even rememberfalling down--so Miller must have made a mistake. He was awfully keento see over the house, and went everywhere, and before I could stop himhe poked his nose into the little room place where they had put Mr.Hoffman and five dead bluejackets, and that made him feel rather ill.
Everybody seemed to come up after this. Dr. Barclay had a look at myarm, and I saw the corners of his mouth go down. "'Twill be a longjob," he said, and did it up again as comfortably as he could. Millerhad coiled himself up behind the wall, and was fast asleep, and so wereMr. Ching and most of his bluejackets--I would have done anything in theworld for them. Old Sharpe came up to have a yarn, and cheered me up alittle, and Captain Marshall caught sight of me, and came along and saidsomething nice, and I knew that he was sorry, and I was so longing forsomeone to be pleasant that I made friends. He didn't "hee-haw" either,as I expected he would, when he first saw my face, and he told me thatthe Commander knew that I had sent off that message in the letter whichthe Englishman had written, and was pleased about it. This cheered me alittle.
But the Captain took no notice of me, and every time he passed, my heartjust felt like lead inside me, and everyone seemed to know that I was indisgrace, even old "Blucher".
It seems silly to say so, but I did fancy that he was not soaffectionate as he usually was, and it hurt me.
Then they brought a dead man along with his face covered up, and someonetold me that it was Wilkins, the marine bugler, who had helped me to setfire to one of those huts, and throw stones at the dogs, and that mademe sadder than ever again.
Both of the landing parties must have managed to slip through in the fogwithout really running up against many of the Chinese; but now they wereswarming all round us, and there was so much to do to keep them off,that I was left alone, and got into a safe corner, and watched the shipsfiring at the town and the six-inch gun. Sally had been put in a safeplace, so the Captain didn't care in the least where their shells went;and a good many did come pretty close to us, and one of the _Vigilant's_eight-inch shells didn't burst, and came roaring overhead, and fell intothe paddy fields below.
Presently a number of houses in the town caught fire, and a lot of theChinese ran away to try and put the fires out, so that we were not somuch worried with them.
I wasn't there when the mandarin came to see the Captain, and didn'thear that he had brought the Englishman's head with him till afterwards,and by that time so many sad things had happened, that I did not feel sovery sorry for him.
Then we began our retreat, and it was just before we started that Jimsuggested that as I only had one arm, the best thing that I could do wasto stick quite close to the Captain. He offered me his revolver, but Istill had that one the Englishman had given me, and a good manycartridges for it were still in my pocket, so I got him to load it forme. He said a lot of things to buck me up before he went away, and Itried to feel happier, but it wasn't much of a success, at any ratewhilst I was near the Captain. You see, he didn't even notice me. Ithought that perhaps he would send me away from him, but not noticing mehurt me almost more, and I didn't want to talk to "Pongo", because hewas nearly as much an idiot as "Dicky", and though he tried to buck me"up", he only made me want to kick him. He would keep going at it, too,and I was jolly glad whenever he had to run on a message for theCaptain, and left me alone.
I saw Captain Marshall and Mr. Travers rush the hill opposite us, andthen we had to follow them across the paddy fields, very slowly, becausewe had eight wounded men to carry. Eight men from the _R
ingdove_dragged that Chinese gun along behind us, and Jim came up when we werehalfway across. He had caught sight of the gun, and was simply furious,because it wasn't their gun at all, and we both told Mr. Trevelyan so,and he was just as angry.
"Have you said anything to the Gunnery Lieutenant?" he asked.
Jim had told him, but he wasn't going to do anything. He thought thatthe Captain had probably given Mr. Rashleigh permission, so wasn't goingto be mixed up with it, and we couldn't speak to the Captain himself.
We got across all right, but Captain Parkinson lost a lot of people inthe rearguard when he left the walled house, and that meant more woundedfor us to carry, and then we dragged on again, and Mr. Travers andCaptain Marshall had a fearful time when they tried to leave their hill.They did it splendidly, and it was grand to see their men walkingbackwards down the hill, with their bayonets all sticking out at thebrutes above them, and when they ran back, Mr. Travers and CaptainMarshall and two or three men had to stop and keep the Chinese fromkilling a wounded man who had fallen almost in front of their feet--theywere so close behind them. We saw Mr. Langham rush back from the Maximgun and pick him up and carry him along, whilst the others kept theChinese off, and we all cheered. It was a grand sight, and it washedout a lot of silly things Mr. Langham had done to us in the gunroom.
After that we had seventeen people to carry, which meant very slow work,and then the Captain took charge of the rearguard, because it was themost dangerous place, and I kept close to him and saw that my revolverwas all right; but nothing much happened, and we cleared out back towithin half a mile of the shore, where that beastly fog began.
I never even saw Sally all this time, because Mr. Ching's bluejacketsstood in a ring all round her, touching shoulders, so that none of thebullets that were always coming along should touch her. I did see herskirt once when we were halted, and she was sitting on the ground in themiddle of them; but that was all.
We all joined up together then, and went as fast as we could, and thefog rolled all over us and shut out everything. It was perfectly awful,and we seemed to lose each other and then find each other again, timeafter time, and there were all our people shouting, and trying to form asquare all round us, and farther away in the fog Chinamen were yellingand gradually getting round our flanks, and at last they were even aheadof us.
It was then, that the Captain spoke to me for the first time, andordered me to try and find Captain Parkinson, and tell him to close hismen on the centre, so as not to have too broad a front, and to go veryslowly. I did manage to find him, after stumbling into a ditch andhurting my left arm, and very nearly losing my revolver, and was onlyable to get back to the Captain because his bugler kept on sounding"G's".
Just being taken notice of bucked me up again very much, and when theChinese suddenly rushed against our square, making a most awful noise, Iwasn't really frightened--I didn't want to live unless I could dosomething to wipe out everything that I had done wrong--and this was mychance, I thought. I was shoved about from side to side, and jammed inamong a lot of our men, and was so small, that the brutes perhaps didn'tsee me, and somehow or other I managed to keep near the Captain, and hiscoxswain, and the signalman, and I think I helped them keep the Chineseoff him. I know that my revolver was empty when the fighting left off,and I had tried very carefully not to fire except when a Chinaman wasalmost touching. I had been knocked over by our own men just before thefinish, and lost the Captain, but found him again, and got one of thesignalmen to reload the revolver.
I have often been asked whether I was frightened, and people think thatI am only putting on "side" when I tell them I was not. But I wasn't,not in the least, because, as you must understand by now, from all Ihave written, I was too frightfully miserable and too ashamed of myself.
Well, you know what happened, and that I managed to kill a brute whopretended to be dead and tried to kill the Captain, as he was carryingSally away from those dead bodies round the Chinese gun.
The Captain did not say anything about it at the time, but that didn'tstop me being happy in the least. I didn't want thanks, I was simplysatisfied to have done it--all by myself, too--with lots of peoplelooking on, so that there could not be any mistake about it. Jim soonheard about it, and found me, and gave my good arm a squeeze and wentoff. I had heard Captain Marshall "hee-hawing" about Ching looking asif he was walking on "air", and I didn't know what he meant at the time;but now I knew, for I felt that I was walking on air too, and forgot myarm and my face and of being so tired--forgot everything except havingsaved the Captain--and I'm certain that Mr. Ching could not have feltmore happy than I did.
I still stuck to the Captain, although he didn't say anything to me, andeven when I heard that Withers had been killed, I couldn't feel as sadas I ought, though he was really a chum of mine.
Presently, when all the terrible number of wounded had been patched up,we brought them and the dead down to the sea, and when we got thatsignal out of the fog from the _Omaha's_ siren, we settled down to spendthe night on the shore, behind a damp bank, and made some fires, andtried to make the wounded comfortable round them. When the Captain hadseen to everything, he went over to one of the fires and sat down tolight a cigar, as he had run out of matches. I think that he must havebeen a little tired.
I sat down behind him, with "Pongo" and "Blucher", and presently heturned round--he could see my face by the light of the fire, and I wastrembling all over for him to say something--and he growled out,"Haven't improved the look of your face, Dick!"
Well, I simply ran down towards the sea and hid in the fog, and sat downin the mud and cried for joy. No one else could see me, and I didn'tmuch care if they did, for I felt too happy to describe it to you. Iknew that everything was wiped out at last.
Of course he never cared a little bit about himself, so probably neverthought it was such a splendid thing to save his life, or worth thetrouble of thanking me for doing so. That is why he hadn't done it, inso many words; but just that "They haven't improved the look of yourface, Dick!" was all I wanted, and I was too shy to go back for a longtime, till I got so cold that I had to, and found Jim there and toldhim, and he squeezed my arm again, and I know that he was as happy as Iwas. He hadn't got hurt all day, not even in the fight in the square.He'd been knocked under a Maxim carriage whilst he was trying to helpMr. Whitmore get into some safe place, after his leg had been broken,and had nothing but a few bruises to show. He really was rather worriedabout having nothing else to show for it.
He was still bubbling over with anger about that gun. He disliked Mr.Rashleigh even more than I did, and he hated him having it. We couldn'tdo anything, although Captain Marshall said that he had no right to itwhatsoever. Mr. Travers, with his leg jolly painful, didn't want to beworried about anything, and Captain Parkinson was too sad about hisFirst Lieutenant having been killed to think of anything else. He didsay, "Guess your marines had gone by when my boys came up, and thatlittle fat chap was behind me--some."
"I actually stood on it, sir! Didn't you see me, Dick?" Jim told him,and I told Captain Parkinson that I had seen him, too, from the gatewaywith my own eyes, and that was a long time before anyone else came insight.
He wouldn't say anything, so we went away and sat down close to theCaptain, and began talking about it--you know what I mean--talking justloudly enough for him to hear, if he wanted to; but we were both toofrightened to talk too loudly, and I don't think that he did hear.
It was grand to see the fog rolling away in the morning, and to see thegunboats showing up, and when it cleared away altogether, it was granderstill to watch them peppering the Chinese with shells whenever they cameout in the open. Then the boats came along, and you should have seenold "Blucher" scrambling into the first _Vigilant's_ boat that ran upthe beach. It made everyone laugh.
I was sent back with the second batch of wounded, and Dicky met me atthe gang-way, looking awfully white and scared. He told me that theCommander was doing all right; but I wasn't allowed to see him
, and Dr.Mayhew was almost off his head with worry and work, and hadn't time totalk to me.
When I saw my face in the looking-glass I didn't wonder why people hadsmiled whenever they saw me. The left side was all purple and black,and my forehead was raw, and my left eye and upper lip all swollen.
Old Ah Man burst into tears, when he saw me--he was a funny oldchap--and went away and kicked his Chinese stewards and "makee learn"boys, and brought me some beef tea and custard, and cried again when heheard that Withers had been killed.
Then I had a hot bath, Dicky helping me, and turned into my hammock, andit wasn't till next morning that my arm was properly dressed and putinto plaster of Paris.
I knew, even before I went on deck, by the noise of the bell beingstruck every two minutes, that the fog had come on again. It was denserthan ever, if that was possible, and we had to switch on the lights allover the ship to see our way about.
At midday we buried Withers and the five men belonging to the _Vigilant_who had been killed--buried them overboard. Captain Lester had broughtthem off from shore, because he feared that if he buried them there theChinese would dig them up and mutilate them.
It was most awfully solemn and depressing, in that damp, raw fog, withour bells tolling and our colours half-masted and dripping down limply.Out of the fog, on each side of us, the gunboats' bells were tolling,for they were burying their dead too, and the noise seemed to throbright through you. The Chaplain read the funeral service over the sixbodies, covered with Union Jacks, and lying in a row on the quarterdeck,Withers being the smallest and being placed farthest aft, because he wasan officer, and the Captain stood behind them, without moving a muscle,and looking terribly stern.
The marines fired three volleys, and "A" and "B" companies fired anotherthree volleys, and then the two bluejacket buglers sounded the "LastPost" six times, and each time, as the last note died away, there was asplash, and I felt as if something icy cold had struck me right in themiddle of the back.
I did not dare to look at anyone except the Captain. Then the bandplayed a cheerful march, Mr. Lawrence sang out--"Ship's company! Rightand left turn! Quick march!" and the men marched for'ard into thebattery, very silently, looking over the side at the water as they wentthrough the battery screen door.
"Hoist the colours!" the Captain said, and went below. His lips werevery tightly squeezed together. No one could eat any lunch, we were allso miserable, and no one even heard Captain Marshall "hee-hawing" for along time--not for days and days.
But the Commander's third day had gone by, and Dr. Mayhew and Dr.Barclay, both of them, said that he would get well, and that cheered usall; and in a couple of days or so the Captain began to get angry again,and to grunt and growl at everybody, which was another good sign, andcheered us up a great deal. He was fearfully angry about the fog; forit settled down and never lifted for four days, and was so thick that wecould do nothing all that time, and of course the Captain had only halffinished his job, and wanted to burn the town and the junks andrecapture the yacht.
It did lift on the fifth day, and when the gunboats stood inshore andthe Captain landed, with everyone who was well enough to land, there wasno one there to oppose him, and only about twenty small junks stillremaining in the creek. The pirates had simply cleared out in all thebig junks and escaped in the fog, and before they left they had set fireto the yacht and the tramp steamer, and these were simply completewrecks. Jim told me that they were nothing but bent and warped iron.
The Captain was in a terrible rage about it; but I don't see how hecould blame himself, and it was only lucky that the fog had liftedduring the morning on which we had all got off.
He burnt the rest of the town and destroyed the six-inch gun; and theChaplain went ashore, with a firing party, and read the funeral serviceover the graves of Mr. Hoffman and Wilkins, the marine bugler, and firedthree volleys, and the bluejacket drummer-boy used Wilkins's own bugleto sound the "Last Post". When this was done, and when the _Huan Min_had towed away some of the junks and burnt the others, we all steamedback to Tinghai.
The _Ringdove_ was sent up to Shanghai to communicate with the Admiral,and took with her our mails. I wrote a most gorgeous letter to mymother, and you can imagine what tremendously exciting letters we allhad to write home.
Jim was in charge of the boat that took the mail bags across to her, andhe came back red with anger. "They've got that gun all burnished andpolished, just abaft the mainmast--I saw it;" and that made us all,everyone in the gunroom, angry again. We had almost forgotten about itin the excitement of getting back to Tinghai and writing home.
Sally and Mr. Hobbs went in her, but before they went Mr. Langham coaxedher down into the gunroom to cut those ribbons across the piano. Shewas very nervous and uncomfortable, and just as she was going to do itwith Webster's dirk, someone suggested that Withers's ought to be used,so we went away and fetched it from his chest. When she knew whose itwas she cried, and we all felt horribly "snuffy", and then she openedthe piano and sat down, but only touched one note and burst into tearsagain. Mr. Langham pulled out his big handkerchief, shoved it into herhands, and she ran away.
Directly she had disappeared Mr. Langham locked the piano and threw thekey through the scuttle into the sea.
When the _Ringdove_ came back she brought six weeks' mails, and that wasthe first thing that really cheered us up. We were quite happy.
I had six long letters from my mother, the first I had had since leavinghome, and I sat on my chest in a corner by myself and read them, and itwas very jolly to hear all that had happened at home; but they made memiserable, for although she tried to write cheerfully, I knew that shewas really very worried. You see, my father would put all the littlemoney he had into silly swindly things which he saw advertised in thepapers, and my mother often told me that some of the religious papershad more swindling advertisements in them than ordinary daily papers,and of course my father, being a parson, often saw these. I don't knowmuch about it, but she used to tell me that if he saw an advertisementtelling anyone to send, say, five pounds to a man and he would be sureto make it into ten or twenty pounds in a week--by some certain plan hehad invented for dealing in stocks and shares--my father would nearlyalways do it, if he could manage to scrape any money together.
I know that my mother often cried about it, and I've often heard himsay, "Well, my dear, they seem to know what they are talking about.They can't be all swindlers, or else the editors wouldn't print theiradvertisements, so I'll just try, this once."
He always lost his money, and I know, for a fact, that my mother onlyhad one new dress all the time I was on the _Britannia_, so as to haveenough money to pay for me there.
I know that this is rather a "sniffy" chapter, but I can t help it, andI'm telling you just what happened, and how I felt about everything.
The Captain sent for me before I had read my letters more than twice,and I shoved them into my chest and ran aft to his cabin.
He was sitting at his knee-hole table in his shirt sleeves, smoking acigar, with heaps of letters all around him, and "Blucher's" head closeto his elbow.
"Good news from home, I hope, Ford? Here's something for you from mygirl Nan," and he gave me a folded-up piece of notepaper with "Dick"scrawled across it.
I was running out again when he gurgled: "Arm all right? Let me see youmove your fingers. Umph. You'll be all right. Umph! I wrote to themissus to tell her you'd shot that chap who tried to cut me down; wroteto your mother too, to tell her you were going on well--told her aboutit as well. Umph!"
"Did you really, sir?" I gasped. "Thank you very much indeed, sir!"
"Umph! Do you know where we are going? Yokohama!--to-morrow; got ordersto-night; off you go."
I rushed off to tell everybody, and was awfully happy again--everyonewas; but what made me so happy was to know that Captain Lester himselfhad written about me saving his life, and that everyone at Upton Overywould know about it. I knew how my mother would love her letter, andkeep i
t, and read it over and over again. Nan wrote an awfully spiderykind of a fist, and wanted me to bring her a whole lot of "curios" whenwe came home. She said that I had promised to do so, and that this wasjust a "reminder". It was jolly to hear from her, and she sent her loveto old "Blucher", and wanted to know whether he had had any of his"fits" lately.
My face was nearly all right again by this time, but the forehead wasdarker on the left side, and Dr. Barclay said that he thought it wouldalways be like that.
I didn't really mind, because it would always be something to show, andto remind me of everything.
As a matter of fact, I was rather pleased about it, but had to pretend Iwasn't.