Roger Kyffin's Ward
Page 26
regularly the next morning.They were told that they might lie down between the guns on the maindeck, sentries being placed over them as if they were prisoners.
Harry was only too thankful to find a quiet spot where he might stretchhis weary limbs and finish his slumbers, which had been so rudely brokenduring the first part of the night. He was too sleepy even to think.He dreamed that the fray was renewed, for the most strange, wild, andunearthly sounds assailed his ears: shrill whistles, hoarse bawlings,fierce oaths, the stamping of feet and rattling of ropes, and shouts ofall sorts, creating the wildest uproar he had ever heard.
"Yes, he's alive, only drunk, maybe," said a gruff voice in his ear.
"No, he's not drunk, only worn out pretty well, as you or I would be ifwe had not had a sleep for three or four nights. He's young, you see."
These words were spoken by Jacob Tuttle, who, putting his arm underHarry's shoulders, helped him to get up, and saved him from knocking hishead against the gun-carriage under which he had been sleeping. Forsome seconds he felt stupefied. The whole ship, which was so quiet whenhe lay down, was now in a state of what appeared to him the wildestconfusion--officers issuing their orders in no very gentle voices orrefined language, and men rushing here and there, stamping along thedecks with their bare feet, swaying up yards, and bending sails,hoisting in stores, and lowering casks and cases into the hold. Harry,when he saw the number of men and size of the ship, began to hope thathe might avoid the recognition of the captain.
"I'll keep out of his way," he thought, "and if Mabel does not tell himof my intention of going to sea, though he may think Andrew Brown verylike Harry Tryon, he may possibly not dream of asking questions on thesubject."
After breakfast the first-lieutenant went through the usual examinationof the pressed men, and entered them under different ratings in theship's books. In those days muscle and activity were the qualificationsmost valued. Harry was able to answer in a satisfactory way thequestions put to him, and was at once rated as an able-bodied seaman,and, greatly to Jacob's satisfaction, was placed in the same watch andmess with him.
"I'll show you what to do, Harry," he said, "and you'll turn out as gooda seaman as any on board."
The following day the ship went out to Spithead.
Harry wrote two letters, no easy task amid the multitude of persons onboard, male and female visitors of all sorts, at whose language andconduct Harry's heart sickened. It was well that it did so. Better bedisgusted with vice than witness it unconcerned. Very often our youngsailor was interrupted, his paper saved with difficulty from profanehands. Still at last the letters were finished. One was to Mabel. Hedid not describe the scene by which he was surrounded. He told hersimply that he had taken the final plunge, was now a seaman sworn toserve his king and country, but hoped soon to be an officer, entreatingher not to mention his name to her father, and sent a message to MadamEverard and Paul Gauntlett. He entreated her to think kindly of him,and assured her that his own heart would be faithful to death.
Poor Mabel! the letter did not give her much pleasure. "As if I shouldever cease to think of him," she said to herself. "Oh, that he had beenbetter guided."
He wrote also to Mr. Kyffin, directing the letter wisely to his privatehouse, for he thought it more than probable that Silas Sleech wouldotherwise take possession of it. The letter was a long one, tolerablycoherent on the whole. He confessed all that had occurred, made noexcuses for himself, nor did he accuse Sleech. He dated his letter fromthe "Brilliant," begging his guardian to reply to it, in the hope thatan answer might reach him before the ship sailed. Day after day passedby, and no answer came.
Harry heard with some considerable trepidation that Captain Everard wasexpected on board. He saw his gig coming off. The sides were manned,and the captain passed through the gangway to the quarter-deck, touchinghis hat in return for the salute offered him by the marines drawn up oneither side. He glanced his eye aloft, and then along the deck.Everything was in excellent order. Harry, who was nearer than he couldhave wished, stood his gaze steadily. He spoke a few words of approvalto the first-lieutenant, and then went down below. Harry saw at aglance that Captain Everard on shore and Captain Everard in command of afrigate were two somewhat different characters. As the captaindisappeared, Blue Peter was run up to the mast-head. It becamegenerally known that the ship was to sail the next day; her destination,the North American Station and the West Indies. Harry's heart sank whenhe heard this.
"I may be away then three, perhaps four long years," he said to himself."What changes may take place in the meantime! Yet I may have betteropportunities of distinguishing myself than on the home station. Iought to be thankful."
Harry, as he looked round the decks, could not conceive how order couldever spring out of the fearful disorder which had seemed to prevail.
The ship was crowded with visitors. Boats in great numbers hungalongside, in which the boatmen were quarrelling with each other, whileeager Jews endeavoured to find their way on deck to obtain payment ofdebts which they alleged were due to them from the seamen. Harry hadlittle fear at this time of being recognised, the captain beinggenerally employed in the cabin. He was watching what was goingforward, when he saw a wherry standing up under sail from the westwardtowards the ship.
"Is that the `Brilliant'?" asked a voice from the boat, in which satthree persons--the boatman, his boy, and a young woman.
"Ay, ay," was the answer.
The sail was lowered and the boat stood up alongside.
"May I come on board?" asked a gentle female voice, as the boat reachedthe gangway ladder.
"That you may, and welcome," was the answer; "but you will not have longto stay, as the ship's going to sea directly."
Harry thought he recognised the countenance of the speaker. Assisted upgallantly by the quartermaster stationed at the gangway, the young womanstood on the deck. She looked round with a somewhat scared andastonished gaze, but no sooner did her eye fall on Harry, who waswatching her, than she ran towards him.
"Oh! Mr. Tryon, is it you, indeed? Can you tell me if Jacob Tuttle ison board? He came away without telling me that he was again going tojoin his ship, and I only heard just now from a friend of his atPortsmouth that he was on board the `Brilliant.' He would never wish, Iknow, to go and leave me without one farewell, and so I cannot make itout."
Harry recognised in the speaker Mary Cull, Mabel's trim littlewaiting-maid. Jacob was aloft at the time, engaged in some work on themaintop-gallant yard. He had been too busily occupied to see thedifferent boats coming to the ship. Now, however, the task completed,he happened to cast his eyes down on deck, and even at that distancerecognised the figure though he could not have seen the pretty featuresof Mary. He observed, however, that she was talking to Harry. Theknife he was using, which hung round his neck by a rope yarn, was thrustinto the breast of his shirt, and quick as lightning he came glidingdown the backstay close to where the two were standing. Mary gave ashriek of terror when she saw him, thinking that he was falling. Beforeeven she could utter another exclamation of alarm, he sprang nimbly ondeck and stood by her side.
"Mary," he said, "have you come to look for me? I would not have comeaway without wishing you good-bye if I had thought I was not going to beback again pretty soon, but I was pressed aboard this ship, and had nochance of going back to see you and mother. You know I am a poor handat writing, and I could not ask my friend here to trouble himself aboutthe matter, and so, Mary, that's the long and the short of it. I loveyou, girl, that I do, and love you now more than I ever thought I would;but, Mary, I did not think you cared for me, that's the truth on't, andnow I know you do," and Jacob took Mary's willing hand in his, andlooked into her eyes with an honest glance which must have convinced herthat he spoke the truth, whatever he might before have done.
"Jacob, I did not tell you I loved you before, because you did not askme, but still I thought you knew I did, and as for Tom Hodson you wasjealous of, I never cared a pin for him, a
nd he's gone and 'listed for asoldier."
Harry listened to this conversation not unamused. He understood thewhole history in a minute. Jacob had left home in a huff, jealous ofthe attentions Mary was receiving from a rival, and now he was goingaway, to be parted from her for many years, perhaps never to return. Hecould not help comparing Jacob's position to his own. Poor Mary was intears. Jacob was vowing with earnestness that he would from henceforthever be faithful to her.
"No, Mary, no, I am going among negresses and foreigners, black andbrown girls of all sorts, and do you think I would take up with one ofthem and leave you?" And Jacob laughed at his own suggestion. "No,that I would not, not to be made port admiral, nor a king on his throneeither. Mary, I was a fool to come