Harry Milvaine; Or, The Wanderings of a Wayward Boy

by Gordon Stables

it is years since I wrote in this strain, but the cruelties go onnow as then. Oh! boys of happy England, raise your voices wheneveropportunity occurs against cruelty and against oppression of every kind,whether against the tyranny that crushes the poor that the rich may liveluxuriously, or cowardly crime that ties a helpless dog or cat to thevivisection table.

  Harry managed to endear himself to all hands. He was, indeed, thefavourite of the ship. But he did not neglect his education; Mr Wilsonwas a good teacher of practical navigation and practical ship's work,and in a month or two he had made a man of Harry, or a sailor at allevents.

  Captain Hardy soon found out that the boy could shoot, so he gave him ashort, light double-barrelled rifle, and Harry used to go out regularlyto stalk seals, when the old sealing commenced. Dangerous work attimes, and our hero had more than one ducking by slipping into the seabetween the icebergs.

  The dog Harold always went with the boy Harry, and although mastiffs arenot called water-dogs, still on one occasion, when his young master fellinto the sea, dog Harold sprang after him, and supported him untilassistance came.

  Harry's opportunity of proving his gratitude came soon after this.

  While out walking one day with the dog, they were suddenly startled bythe awful roar of a huge bear. The brute appeared immediately afterfrom behind a hummock of ice, and prepared for instant action.

  The great mastiff's hair stood on end with rage, from skull to tail. Hegave Bruin no time to think, but sprang at once for his throat.

  It was indeed an unequal contest, and would speedily have been all overhad not young Harry shown both pluck and presence of mind. He rushedforward, and, biding his chance, fired both barrels of his rifle at onceinto the bear's neck behind the ear.

  He actually clapped the muzzle there before he drew the triggers.

  What mattered it that the recoil threw him on his back, Bruin was slain,and Harold the dog was saved, though sadly wounded and torn.

  Before the month of May the _Inuita_ had a good voyage on board. Shecontinued, however, to follow the old seals north as far round asSpitzbergen. The character of the ice now entirely changed: instead offields of flat floe, with hummocks here and there, which put Harry inmind, as he traversed them, of a Highland moorland in mid-winter, therewere pieces large enough to have crushed a ship as big as Saint Paul'sCathedral.

  The mountains, too, on the islands among which the _Inuita_ sailed wererugged and grand in the extreme, and the colours displayed from theterraced cliffs of ice and rock, when the sun shone on them, were moreresplendent than any pen or pencil could describe.

  Around these islands were walruses in abundance, and many fell to theguns.

  Going shoreward one day over the thick bay ice, to enjoy with Mr Wilsonand some others some sport among the bears, Harry, who was foremost, wasstartled beyond measure to notice the ice ahead first heave, then crackand splinter, while a moment afterwards a head, more awful than anightmare, was protruded.

  Harry's fear--if fear it could be called--was however but momentarily:next moment his rifle was at the shoulder, and the monster paid his lifeas the penalty for his curiosity.

  In a month the _Inuita_ was--what her captain wished her to be--full tothe hatches with blubber and skins.

  Then all sail was set for merry England.

  There was nothing but joy now on board, nothing but jollity and fun.

  The men had a ball almost every night, with singing and story-telling tofollow.

  "I do believe, my dear boy," said Captain Hardy to Harry one evening,"that _you_ have brought all the luck on board. Well, now, I'm going totell you a secret."

  "I don't want you to, you know."

  "Oh, but I want to tell somebody," said the captain, "and it may as wellbe you. It is this: As soon as I get my ship cleared and paid off atHull, I am going straight back to Lerwick to ask Miss Mitford if shewill be my wife."

  "Oh, I'm sure she will be glad to!" Harry said.

  "Tell me, boy, what makes you think so?"

  "Well, because she told me you were the best man in the service, and thetears were in her eyes when she said so."

  "God bless you for these words, dear lad. And you'll come and see ussometimes, won't you? I'm going to leave the sea and settle down in apretty little farm near Hull."

  "That I will, gladly," said Harry.

  In course of time the ship arrived safely in harbour. Her owners weredelighted at Captain Hardy's success, and made him a very handsomepresent.

  Some weeks after this, when the _Inuita_ was dismantled and lying indock, Hardy, with Harry and Harold the mastiff, suddenly appeared atBeaufort Hall.

  I leave the reader to imagine the joy that their presence elicited. Butit was quite affecting to see how his mother pressed her boy to herbreast, while the tears chased each other over her cheeks.

  Eily went wild with joy, and when honest Andrew met his friend Harryagain, and shook him by the hand, he could not speak, so much was heaffected, and he had to take five or six enormous pinches of snuff byway of accounting for the moisture in his eyes.

  Captain Hardy was a welcome guest at Beaufort Hall for many days.

  "Your dear boy," he said, "has had a terribly rough first experience ofa life on the ocean wave, but he has braved it well, and that is morethan many boys of his age would have done. But I tell you what it is,"he added, "Harry Milvaine _will_ be a sailor."

  "I fear so," said his mother, sadly.

  "Ah, my dear lady, there is many a worse profession than that of anhonest sailor."

  "But the dangers of the deep are so great, Captain Hardy."

  "Dangers of the deep?" repeated this kindly-hearted sailor. "Ay, andthere are dangers on the dry land as well. Think of your terriblerailway smashes, to say nothing, madam, of the tiles and chimney-potsthat go flying about on a stormy day."

  Mrs Milvaine could not keep from smiling.

  But our wilful, wayward Harry had it all his own way, and three monthsafter this he was treading the decks of a Royal Navy training ship, abold and brisk-looking naval cadet.

  From the training ship, in good time, after having passed a verycreditable examination indeed, he was duly entered into the grand oldservice.

  His first ship--if ship it could be called--was H.M. gunboat, the_Bunting_.

  Harry was going to a part of the world where he was bound soon to getthe gilt rubbed off his dirk.

  Book 2--CHAPTER THREE.

  H.M. GUNBOAT "BUNTING" IN CHASE--A DARK NIGHT'S DISMAL WORK.

  It was a night of inky darkness. All day it had been squally, with amore or less steady breeze blowing between each squall, and the sea hadbeen greatly troubled; but now the wind had nearly fallen, the waveswere crestless, foamless, but still they tossed and tumbled about sothat the motion on board Her Majesty's gunboat the _Bunting_ wasanything but an agreeable one. There could be but little danger,however, for she was well off the land, pretty far out, indeed, in theIndian Ocean.

  Every now and then there was the growling of distant thunder; every nowand then a bright flash of lurid lightning. But between these flasheswas a darkness that could be felt, and never a star was visible. Norcould there be, for at sunset the clouds seemed a good mile thick.

  The _Bunting_ had been in chase most of the afternoon, but nightfall putan end to it.

  It was in the days--not so long ago--when Said Maja reigned Sultan ofZanzibar, and all the coast line from near Delagoa Bay in the south tobeyond Bareda in the north was more or less his sea-board. It was inthe days when the slave trade in this strange wild city of the coast wasflourishing in all its glory, the Sultan having liberty from ourgovernment to take slaves from any one portion of his dominions toanother. Hundreds of dhows, nay, but thousands, then covered thatportion of the Indian Ocean which laves the forest shores of EasternAfrica. They were either laden with slaves, or returning empty to fetchanother cargo.

  Our cruisers boarded all they met, but it was but seldom one fell intoour hands as a prize, for these
cruel and reckless dealers in humanflesh found no difficulty in obtaining a permit from the Sultan'sministers to carry on their inhuman traffic. A bribe was all that wasnecessary, and the words, "Household slaves of H.M. the Sultan," in thecertificate, were all that was necessary to set British law and Britishcruisers at defiance.

  These dhows were and are still manned and officered by Arabs--gentlemenArabs they term themselves. Many of these men are exceedingly handsome.I have often admired them in the slave market, both the old and theyoung. Let me try to describe them:

  Here, then, is a young gentleman Arab, probably about twenty-five yearsof age.

  He wears a kind of gilded night-dress of snow-white linen, which reachessome distance below the knee; around the waist of this is a gilded andjewelled sword-belt, supporting a splendid sword, and probably jewelledpistols. Over this linen garment may be a little jacket of crimson withgold braid, worn loose,