CHAPTER XVIIGoodbye to the Huan MinOut of Danger—Goodbye to Ching—Mr. Rashleigh's Report—at Hong-KongWritten by Commander TruscottI thank God that I am not lying under the muddy water rolling round the Hector Group, with Withers and those other poor fellows of ours.It was to Marshall and his marines that I owe my life, and I wish that it was in my power to repay them. In attempting to rescue young Ford that night he was captured, I had been shot clean through the body, below the left ribs, and two of the marines—I do not know which two, and they have never come forward to tell me—carried me back to the walls of that battery, whilst Marshall kept the Chinese at bay. It was Barclay who told them to carry me as gently and smoothly as possible, as this was my only chance, and they carried me as if I had been a baby asleep, although the Chinese were closing all around them. They got me down the mud shore, and into the barge, only just in time, and it was whilst I was being lifted in that Marshall received the blow on the head which knocked him over. There was a most desperate fight to save him, and then poor young Withers managed to drive them off with his gun.When they got me aboard theVigilant, Mayhew would not give me any opinion as to what my chances were. "Look here, Mayhew!" I told him, "I'm not a baby; tell me;" but he only said, "Wait for three days, and eat nothing till then. I cannot tell you before."I had to be content with that, and to lie in my bunk, with the pictures of my wife and my two boys smiling at me out of their frames, and watch the hands of the little clock she had given me crawling round its face, and wondering, whenever I had a twinge of pain inside me, whether the trouble which Mayhew feared had commenced, and whether the end was near.Mayhew used to come to my cabin half a dozen times a day, feel my pulse, and take my temperature. "Hungry still, Commander?" he would say, and smile and go away, and each time I would watch his face to see if the smile was only there to cover his real feelings. No one who has not been through a time like this can imagine how awful is the suspense.On the morning after the Skipper had come back with the landing parties, bringing Sally, her father, young Ford, and our missing men with him, Mayhew found my temperature and pulse normal. He gave a whoop. "You'll live to enjoy your pension all right, Truscott," and told me that I was practically out of danger. Barclay came in and confirmed his opinion. I lay back, too filled with emotion to speak. Those photographs seemed to smile even more at me—they represented all I had to live for—and life seemed very good.Neither of the doctors had had any sleep during the night, as they had been busy with the wounded, and Barclay looked pretty ghastly. He had had a blow on the head during the fight in that square, but fortunately the sword edge had been turned by his cap.The Captain came in almost immediately afterwards, growling very fiercely to hide his feelings. "Umph! I've kept back theRingdovetill I heard about you from Mayhew this morning. Going to send her up to Shanghai at once. I'll be off and write a letter to your missus. Umph! You want shaving—badly;" and he gripped my hand and went out again.I finished my letter home—as you can imagine I finished it—the sentry outside was waiting for it, I heard the boat shove off to take it to theRingdove, and I thanked God once more and felt inexpressibly at peace.At the same time that she heard the news of my wound, my wife would hear that I was out of danger, and this, too, caused me to be very thankful.Some little time afterwards the curtain was pushed aside, and young Ford's extremely disfigured face peeped through. I smiled at him, and he gave me a frightened cheerful smile and drew it back again.Poor little chap! he'd been pretty badly knocked about. I ought never to have let him go on that "fool" errand of his. But he was as happy as a lord, because he had saved the Skipper's life.In a week's time I was allowed to sit up for an hour or two a day, and in ten days' time to walk about a little.Then theRingdovearrived with six weeks' mails, and orders from the Admiral to proceed at once to Yokohama with the gunboats, to land all the wounded still requiring hospital treatment, and to join the flagship somewhere off the coast of Corea. We were to proceed with "despatch", as political complications in Europe threatened war with a country which maintained a considerable fleet in Chinese waters.The Captain of theHuan Minhad received orders by theRingdoveas well, and had to continue the search for the remainder of the pirates—those who had escaped in the junks.Ching and his Captain dined with our Skipper that night, and, for him, "Old Lest" was extraordinarily gentle. He felt, I am sure, that he was leaving them in the lurch, with all this work still in front of them, and thought it was hardly "playing the game", after the magnificent way in which they had helped us.I heard him tell Ching: "Umph! But for you, Ching, we should never have done it, never have rescued the little lass" (I saw Ching wince), "and everyone would have called 'Old Lest' a silly old fool. I only wish that we could stay and help you; but we can't. There's trouble comin' along, and the Admiral wants every ship he can get hold of, so we've got to be off." He grunted and growled a few times, and then burst out fiercely with, "'Old Lest' will never forget you."He gave Ching a photograph of himself, and a silver cup he had won years ago as a midshipman. It was the Admiral's cup for the Channel Fleet in the old days, and he valued it more than anything else he had in his cabin. I told Ching so afterwards, in order that he should appreciate it all the more.He had written to the Foreign Office as well, about Ching, and we all hoped that eventually he would get his promotion.To continue the search for the fugitive and scattered pirates was like hunting for the button in a Christmas pudding after the thimble and sixpence had been found—a good deal of trouble, and not worth the bother when you did find it.Little Sally was the thimble, and the yacht and the tramp steamer the sixpence, and we all knew well enough that Ching wanted the thimble, and didn't care in the least for anything else.He had told me that he was hoping to be sent back to Shanghai, and I know that he wanted another chance of seeing Sally, and that the prospect of cruising alone among those bleak, fog-bound islands, now that she had been rescued and had gone out of his life, was very dreary to him.Before he went back to his antiquated old tub, he was taken into the ward room, where they gave him a great "send-off". Everyone knew that but for him Sally would not have been rescued, everyone on board admired his pluck and gallantry, and everyone was extremely sorry to part with him.At daybreak next morning theHuan Mingot up her clumsy anchor and steamed away, and we all manned ships and cheered her as she passed us, and waited on deck till she had disappeared round the island, out of sight, and nothing of her remained but a dense cloud of oily black smoke."Umph! There goes a confounded fine chap", the Skipper growled, as he went below. We ourselves, with our gunboats, left shortly afterwards for Yokohama, and Parkinson in theOmahacame along too. There are small English and United States naval hospitals still kept up in this Japanese town, and all the bad cases were sent ashore to them.Parkinson, after having landed his, left for Chemulpo in Corea, and we gave him and his officers a great farewell dinner to commemorate the termination of the expedition.I did not take part in this, however, because Mayhew forced me to go to hospital with Whitmore, Ford, and seven others of our men.I was very loath to go, because I felt as fit as a fiddle, and war troubles were brewing, and my place ought to be on board. However much I dreaded a big naval war, there was always the chance of some promotion, and I hated to be left behind.However, Mayhew wouldn't hear of my coming, and we had to watch the oldVigilantsteam away past the breakwater without us.I rather fancy that the doctors were a little too careful about me, for, as a matter of fact, I never felt better in my life.Before theVigilantsailed, the Skipper brought "Blucher" up to the hospital to say goodbye to us, and told me many things. One was that he had allowed the old Scotch engineer, whom we had brought with us from the island, to go ashore and disappear."Umph!" the Skipper growled. "Had enough evidence to hang him a dozen times; but he helped our people in that house, and Ford and those two fellows would have been scuppered but for him, so I sent him ashore at night, gave him a ten-pound note, and told him to clear."The ten-pound note was out of his own pocket, I knew well enough.He was asking my opinion as to whom he should mention by name in his despatches, and, just as he was going, said, "Umph! Truscott, I sent that Report of Proceedings back to Rashleigh with a copy of Trevelyan's and young Ford's. Told him to rewrite his. Told him that I wouldn't forward it to the Admiral till I was satisfied with it, and he's written quite a different yarn. Umph! I told him what I thought of him—pretty plainly."Young Ford had been bothering me, time after time, to do something about that Chinese gun which Whitmore, Travers, and Marshall had captured, and which Rashleigh had claimed and kept. From all that I had gathered, especially from Whitmore, there was no doubt that Rashleigh had no earthly right to it. I took this opportunity of mentioning the subject."Umph! I know the fat little beggar's got no right to it. Thought he had when he asked me for it, so gave it him, and let him take it away; but when 'Old Lest's' given anything away—umph!—he don't go back on his word. It belongs to me, I suppose, and I can do what I like with it, eh?"After he had gone I let Ford know what he had said about that Report, and he was extremely delighted; but the possession of that gun still rankled very deeply, and I felt sure that he would not be content whilst it remained aboard theRingdove.From a few things Ford said, more or less under his breath, I had a dim suspicion that if it wasn't handed over to theVigilant, the gunroom meant to do something or other."What's the game?" I asked him; but he wasn't going to give away any secrets.For four weeks we were left to ourselves, and young Ford and myself were able to have many pleasant little excursions up country, and each day's excitement was the arrival of Reuter's telegram at the English Club on the Bund, with news of the gathering war clouds.As war seemed to be becoming imminent, both of us felt our position very keenly. Poor Whitmore with his smashed thigh was, of course, totally helpless, but, as I said before, I was as strong as a horse again, and Ford's arm did not entirely incapacitate him.Just, however, as we thought that war was only a question of hours, the war clouds disappeared, to our intense relief, and presently theVigilantcame back to pick us all up again, the Skipper having orders to proceed to Singapore, and to act as Senior Officer there till it was time for us to go home and pay off.I was fit for duty now, even Mayhew couldn't deny that, and right glad I was to get back to my work and to my own bunk.We called in at Nagasaki for coal, took in four hundred tons, and then left for Hong-Kong, where we arrived in the middle of June, just before the hot weather had commenced, and made fast to one of the buoys off Murray Pier.It was very pleasant being back there, and we were obliged to remain for a whole week, whilst the dockyard made a few slight repairs.The only other man-of-war in the harbour besides theTamarand the oldWyvern, moored off Kowloon, was theRingdove, secured to another buoy farther inshore.Young Ford can tell you better what happened there during that week than I can.As a matter of fact, I am not supposed to know anything about it, and don'tofficially.The 'Huan Min' steaming eight knotsThe 'Huan Min' steaming eight knotsCHAPTER XVIIIA Midnight AdventureSent to Hospital—The Subscription—The Sub's Plan—An Exciting Moment—Mr. Rashleigh Rages—Jim is SafeWritten by Midshipman FordI was very sorry indeed to say goodbye to Mr. Ching—we all were—and, of course, I had had such a lot to do with him in that walled house, that I ought to have been more sorry than anyone else.The day before we separated from theHuan Min, Mr. Lawrence and I went aboard her and had lunch with him. It was a funny kind of meal, and with only one hand I couldn't help myself very well, so Mr. Ching cut my food up into little pieces, and sent for a pair of chopsticks. If you have ever tried chopsticks, you will know that the first time you try them you cannot do much, and I could hardly pick up anything at all, and didn't do more than taste anything before the others had finished theirs, and my plate was taken away.They thought it was jolly amusing to watch me, and though I was as hungry as a hunter, I had to pretend that I wasn't, and that I didn't mind. There were all sorts of curious things there, and I had so wanted to eat them all.Afterwards, Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Ching began yarning about old times when they were midshipmen together in theInflexibleyears and years ago, so they didn't want me, and I slipped away and went round the ship, and when I saw any man who had been in the walled house that awful night, I shook him by the hand, because I was so glad to see him again.I think they liked me doing it, and they all grinned and saluted very smartly.Mr. Ching gave me one of the gold-lace dragons from the sleeve of one of his uniform coats. I wanted that more than anything, and still have it, and I gave him my stamp album. It only had a few stamps stuck in here and there, but there was a dark-red English penny stamp which, I believe, was rather valuable, and I had nothing else worth giving away. He seemed very pleased with it, and made me stick my name in it, so that he could remember me. I did hope that he would.Mr. Hobbs and Sally had not given him anything at all. Wasn't that nasty of them, after all he had done? But he still kept that tam-o'-shanter she had worn; I saw it in his cabin.Then theHuan Minwent off, to carry on hunting for pirates by herself, and we went up to Yokohama, and when we arrived, the Commander, Mr. Whitmore, myself, and seven of our men were sent to hospital.I rather liked going, because it was so uncomfortable on board, with only one useful arm; but then we heard that there might be a war, and it was perfectly horrid to see theVigilantsteaming away without us.Still, I Was jolly happy, because, after she had gone, the Commander told me all that the Captain had said about Mr. Rashleigh and his Report of Proceedings. That didn't square up everything, not by a long chalk. We wanted that gun, and we were going to have it, too, and before I'd been sent to hospital, Mr. Langham and everyone else in the gunroom had sworn to get it back, and had begun inventing plans for doing so.Then three weeks went by, my arm had been put in plaster again, and back theVigilantcame. There wasn't to be any war, and she took us all down to Hong-Kong, and we found the oldTynethere, which made me think of the first time I had seen her, and of how miserable and happy, in turns, I had been on board her.But just ahead of theTamarwas theRingdove, quite close to where we made fast to one of the outer buoys, and when she was swung by the tide in one position, we could see that Chinese gun just at the foot of her main mast.That made us all "bristle" up again and get most frightfully angry. We had almost forgotten all about it in the excitement of knowing that we were going south to Singapore, to wait for our relief ship to come out from England, and then go home to pay off.At dinner that night we were as hot about it as ever, and we made up our minds again to get it, somehow or other. It was jolly difficult to know how we could manage it, and nobody seemed to have any good schemes to suggest. Webster's idea was to run alongside during the dinner hour, when probably only the quartermaster would be awake, but that was silly. We couldn't possibly do it in the daytime, and we couldn't even think of a plan for doing it at night without being discovered. We knew jolly well that if we were found out, there would be a most awful fuss, and we should get into hot water with the Captain.We made such a jolly row, all shouting and suggesting things, and calling each other silly idiots, that Mr. Langham stuck his fork into a beam overhead.That is a signal for all the midshipmen and cadets to clear out of the gunroom, and as the last "out" always had his "extra" bill stopped for three days, so could not get any sardines or pickles from Ah Man, we were all out in a jiffy, and left Mr. Langham, Mr. Hamilton the big Engineer Sub, and the "A.P." to work out a scheme between them.They wouldn't let us come back again, and I know that they didn't decide upon anything; but during the middle watch that night something happened which showed us the way.It was Mr. Langham's "watch", and at about five bells there suddenly had been a lot of shouting under the bows, and he, the quartermaster, and the signalman had all run for'ard to see what was the matter, and found that a junk had fouled the buoy, drifted down against our bows, and carried away a mast.They got her clear, but it took a quarter of an hour to do it, and, of course, during that time there had been no one aft at all, and anything might have happened there without anyone knowing of it.Now, don't you see what the idea was?Mr. Langham didn't tell us what he was going to do exactly, for fear that we should be asses enough to talk about it to everyone, and that the "Ringdoves" would hear about it as well; but he went aboard theRingdovein the morning to see the navigator, who was a pal of his (except for the "gun question"), and came back again very excitedly."I had a good look at that gun, you chaps, without pretending to do so. The wheels are simply lashed down to some ring bolts, lashed down with rope, and we could cut them adrift as easy as winking."He and Mr. Hamilton went ashore together and came off late at night, and we all waited for them, and knew that something was in the "wind", but they wouldn't say what, and only told us that they wanted twenty pounds. Mr. Langham said that he would give ten (he was very well off) if we would subscribe the rest, and you may bet your best waistcoat we got that other ten pounds pretty quickly.We hadn't the faintest notion why he wanted it till two nights after, and then, just before "lights out" in the gunroom, he sent for us all and told us.My aunt! it was jolly exciting.He had bought a sampan—one of the Chinese sailing boats which used to bring us off from the shore if we missed the ordinary ship's boat—and had had two large holes made in the bottom, with plugs fitted in them and ropes made fast to each, so that a jolly good strong jerk would pull them out. He had had her loaded with stones, so that she would sink quickly after they'd been pulled out."I'm going to sail her across theRingdove'sbowsprit," he said, "and shall get my rigging foul of her, if possible. If I can't, I have a grapnel, and shall catch hold of her cable, and when the sampan can't drift away, I shall pull out those plugs and begin "hullabalooing" like a Chinaman. When she sinks I shall hold on to the buoy and go on squealing till the quartermaster comes along, and when he hears where I am he'll probably get into the dinghy to pick me up."I sha'n't be there when he comes," he added, grinning. Of course, in a small gunboat the only man on watch at night is the quartermaster, and if there wasn't much of a row, he probably would not call anyone else."Now, what you have to do is this"—we all got fearfully excited—"I've asked the Commander for his gig to-night, told him I wanted it for a special purpose, and he played the game and didn't ask for what, and said she needn't be hoisted out of the water. She's quite big enough to take the gun and carriage, and Hamilton and the 'A.P.' and six of the strongest of you mids have to go away in her at about half-past two in the middle watch. You must be down astern of her, not close enough to let her spot you, by a quarter to three, and then wait till you hear me start squealing."TheRingdovehas her dinghy made fast to the starboard boom to-night, so you'll have to pull alongside her port gangway as 'gingerly' as ever you can, get aboard and bring back the gun, and the carriage too, if you've got time. The trunnions of the gun are only secured in the carriage by bands, and there are pins in them which can be pulled out—well, a good many of you have seen them already. Don't worry about me; I'll swim back."That was the scheme which he and Mr. Hamilton had worked out between them, and it was jolly exciting. Mr. Hamilton was to go in charge of the gig, and as he was very strong—nearly as strong as the Sub himself—he had to do the lifting with Mr. Moore (the A.P.). Webster, Jones, and Jim Rawlings and three of the others were told off to pull the oars, because they were the strongest of the mids."Dicky", who was quite all right now, wasn't to go, because he was too excitable, and "Pongo" was too fat and useless. I wasn't going either at first, but I implored them to let me steer. I could manage with one hand, if they fixed up the wooden tiller the Commander used when he took the gig away sailing, and I said that I had some right to go, because the gun had fired at me so often. Jim backed me up, and Mr. Langham agreed that I had some right, but told me that I should have to sit on the gunwale, behind the stern sheets, so as not to crowd the boat too much.You may jolly well imagine that I didn't care where I sat or what I did, so long as I could take my share in the job.Presently Mr. Langham compared his watch with Mr. Hamilton's, and went ashore in a very old flannel suit; and we had to turn in and pretend to sleep, though that was impossible, and we kept on running up on deck to see what kind of a night it was.It turned out to be jolly dark, which was splendid; but there was only a very little breeze, and that was blowing from Kowloon, on the mainland, straight towards Hong-Kong. This was a nuisance, because it meant that Mr. Langham would have to beat off shore in the sampan, and as there would be a jolly strong tide running, it would be very difficult to just hit off the buoy and theRingdove'sbows, especially as he was going to do it single-handed.Mr. Hamilton was rather worried about this, and just after midnight he came along to Jim and told him he had better go ashore, find Mr. Langham, and help him sail her. Jim was about the strongest swimmer of all us mids; that was why he chose him. And Jim was jolly keen to go, and Mr. Hamilton pulled him ashore in the skiff, told him where he would find the sampan, and pulled back again.Well, I never thought the time for starting would ever come; but at last "four bells" struck, and we all dressed, Dicky helping me because of my arm, and we sneaked on deck like mice, and there was the gig waiting for us alongside.Mr. Trevelyan was the officer of the watch, and I heard Mr. Hamilton say to him, "Going for a little exercise, Trevelyan;" and heard him reply, "Well, good luck! I've got everything ready to hoist it in." So of course he must have known all about it.We crept down into the boat; I squatted in the stern, jammed my feet against the ribs there to prevent myself falling overboard, and we shoved off without making a sound, and pulled away till we were some way astern of theRingdove, catching hold of the next buoy to hers and hanging on to it.Then we waited in the dark.We couldn't see a single light in her except her "riding" light for'ard, and a very faint glimmer amidships, where the quartermaster ought to be. Presently five bells were struck aboard theVigilantand aboard the oldTamarastern of us, and a few moments afterwards we saw a light moving for'ard aboard theRingdove, her funny, "tin-kettly" bell was struck, the light came aft again, and we knew that the quartermaster, at any rate, was awake."Old Langham ought to be shoving off now," Mr. Hamilton whispered. It was so dark round us that we couldn't see twenty yards; but the shore lights lighted the water close in under Murray Pier, and we all kept our eyes turned that way, and presently saw a sail show out for a moment, and whispered, "There they come," and got terribly excited.One always forgets how excited one has been before, when other things happened, but really I do think that I was fearfully excited now—as much as I have ever been.We waited and waited, and got the oars ready, and then, all of a sudden, we heard a sound from the dark, as if something was knocking up against a buoy. I almost fell backwards overboard, but saved myself by clutching the tiller, and then there were most piteous yells, two different kinds, so that I knew Jim was there, and we shoved off and pulled very quickly."Port gangway!" Mr. Hamilton whispered to me, and I steered for it; and as we gradually crept under the stern, we saw the quartermaster's lantern moving for'ard and then saw it on the fo'c'stle.Mr. Hamilton had to help me steer her, there was such a strong tide running; but we were fearfully careful, and got the gig alongside, and Jones held on in the bows, and Mr. Hamilton and the "A.P." and Webster disappeared up the gangway in their bare feet, with a tackle the Bo's'n had given us. We could hear them very softly getting the gun out of the carriage, and the Chinese kind of yells were still going on, only more gently, and we heard the quartermaster sing out, "Who's there?" and presently he sung out, "Hold on, and I'll fetch the dinghy!"—though how he thought Chinamen could understand him I don't know.The lantern was thumped down on the fo'c'stle, and he climbed along the starboard boom, and in a very little while there was a splash of oars, and we knew that he was pulling to the buoy.I knew that we were all grinning, although we couldn't see each other, and imagined Mr. Langham and Jim swimming away out of sight; and I was rather nervous about Jim, because the tide was so strong, and it was quite five hundred yards back to theVigilant.However, there wasn't time to worry, as Mr. Hamilton and the "A.P." were coming down the ladder with the gun in their arms, and the gangway creaked at every step, and we were very frightened because the noise seemed so loud. They slid it down into the stern sheets on to a gymnasium mat we had put there to deaden the sound, and back they went. We heard something drop on the deck, and it seemed to make an awful row, and presently they came to the gangway again, and all of them were lifting the gun carriage, and they began lowering it into the boat with the tackle. You see, it was such an awfully awkward thing to handle, though it wasn't really very heavy.Then we were absolutely petrified with fear, for suddenly we heard Mr. Rashleigh's voice bawling for the quartermaster, and could hear him coming along from under the poop, cursing, and wanting to know where he was, and what all the noise was about.The gun carriage was only lowered halfway down, but Mr. Hamilton sang out very softly, "Stand clear!" and dropped the whole thing into the boat on top of the gun (I don't know how it was that it didn't break anybody), and they all jumped down in a heap, making a most fearful row. Jones slipped the boat rope for'ard, and we slid astern just as Mr. Rashleigh ran up to the gangway and began singing out and cursing, asking who it was, and what it was, and "Where's that quartermaster?"He was in a towering passion, and we could imagine what a jolly funny sight he must be in his bulgy pyjamas, with his round red face and his bald head, but were jolly glad that there wasn't any light for us to see him or he us. We hadn't moved a muscle—not even those who had fallen in a jumble on top of each other—and simply let the tide take us down right under the stern, where it was tremendously dark, and he couldn't possibly see anything.I don't think that he had discovered at first what had really happened, and kept cursing into the dark, but then must have found our tackle, for he was absolutely silent, and we guessed that he must have found that the gun wasn't there.By that time the quartermaster had come back, and the last we heard was a glorious row going on. My aunt! you should have heard him storming.We were well astern now, and Mr. Hamilton and the "A.P." and Webster disentangled themselves, and we got out the oars and pulled a roundabout way back to theVigilant. She was pitch dark, even the quarterdeck gangway lamps were turned off, and we had to feel our way very gingerly to the side. This was so that we shouldn't be seen getting the gun on board. The rest of the gunroom and most of the ward-room officers were up there, and had a tackle rigged, all ready, and got the gun and the carriage on deck in no time.They carried them for'ard to hide, and put the gun in the sand tank, covering it up with sand, and the carriage was taken to pieces and stowed away in one of the gunner's storerooms.We were all so excited, that I forgot all about Mr. Langham and Jim till Mr. Langham came dripping up the gangway, asking if everything was all right, and if Jim had turned up, as he had lost sight of him after leaving the buoy."A jolly strong tide's running, and it was about as much as I could do to get here," he said, rather out of breath, and rather anxiously.We all peered over the side, and tried to see his head coming along; but it was too dark to see anything at all, although Dicky and I went down to the foot of the accommodation ladder and looked along the surface of the water. Poor Dicky was almost off his head with fright. He kept on squeaking out: "Jim! Jim!" but daren't do it too loudly. And we listened, but there was no answer, and I, too, was quite frightened, and wished that we could do something, only it was so jolly difficult to know what to do, and no one dare make a great noise, or run a searchlight, or anything like that, for fear of having to wake the Captain or the Commander, and giving the whole show away.But Mr. Langham—just as he was, wringing wet—the "A.P." and Mr. Hamilton and four mids went away in the gig."He'll probably have drifted down with the tide, and will try and get hold of a buoy," Mr. Hamilton told me, and they disappeared in the darkness.I could not go down below, because I was so worried, and had the most horrid feelings inside me, which Dicky made worse by asking such silly questions. Everything was so horribly dark, and the tide was running so strongly, and I knew that Jim must be in fearful danger, although Mr. Trevelyan kept saying that he would turn up all right.I had forgotten all about the wretched gun, till someone—"Pongo", I think it was—said to Mr. Trevelyan, "Jolly to have the gun all right, sir, and the carriage. Isn't it, sir?" And Mr. Trevelyan answered, "What gun? I don't know anything about a gun. I've been forward with the quartermaster for the last quarter of an hour, and haven't seen anything."I believe that the silly ass would have begun telling him, if Mr. Trevelyan hadn't said, "What the dickens are you doing up here at this time? Go and turn in at once!"I really wasn't quite sure, then, whether he was "pretending" or not.We waited for nearly half an hour, we all were fearfully nervous, and Mr. Trevelyan kept on saying, "I shall have to wake the Commander if he doesn't come back in another three minutes," and would wait, and say it again. And at last he actually started to go down to the Commander's cabin, but before he had got halfway down, theTyne'smasthead signal lamp began winking and blinking."She's calling us up, sir!" the signalman sang out; and oh! it was such a relief, for she signalled, "Mr. Rawlings is aboard", and I was awfully thankful. She was right astern of us, quite half a mile, and he must have been drowned if he had missed her, as there was nothing astern of her, no buoys, or ships, or anything to hold on to.Dicky ran down below. He is such a soft-hearted chap.We signalled across that we would send for him, and three of the ward room officers, in their pyjamas, fetched him in the skiff, and I almost blubbed with delight when he came alongside, looking like a drowned rat, and pulling at an oar to warm himself.We got him down below and out of his wet things, and presently Mr. Langham and the others came back in the gig.They had pulled round all the buoys astern of theRingdoveand tried to find him, and alongside theTamar, hoping to find him there, and then, as a last chance, in a terrible state of fright, to theTyne, and had got the good news that he had just gone back in our skiff."I thought it was all U P," Mr. Langham said, and changed into dry things; and then we all had a sardine supper in the gunroom, and most of the ward-room officers came down too, and we were awfully happy and contented, and Jim and Dicky and I "whoofed" two whole tins of sardines between us. Jim told me that he was pretty nearly "done" when he managed to grab hold of theTyne'sgangway, and couldn't drag himself out of the water till he had sung out, and someone had come down and given him a hand.We had to be awfully quiet, for fear of disturbing the Commander, whose cabin was just overhead, and that was the only drawback to the supper.Then we all turned into our hammocks; but Jim and I were much too excited to sleep, and besides, we had eaten too much.Wasn't that a glorious night, and hadn't we jolly well got level with Mr. Rashleigh?"Worth the risk, every time," Jim whispered."But won't there be a glorious row to-morrow?" Dicky squeaked. He was frightened about it already.CHAPTER XIXThe Captain Receives a Present"Old Lest" Flares Up—Recaptured from the Ringdove—Sally AgainWritten by Captain Marshall, Royal Marine Light InfantryOld Truscott has asked me to write this chapter, because he says that he is so confoundedly busy paying off the oldVigilant, that he hasn't a moment to himself.That is his reason for not being bothered with the job; but for all that he manages to get into plain clothes all right, and fly to the beach and the bosom of his family, directly after evening "quarters" every day. He is so beastly happy, that I don't really mind shoving another chapter into this immortal book for him.Although it is three months since we left Hong-Kong, I shall never forget old Rashleigh, in frockcoat and sword, coming fuming on board there, and wanting to see the Skipper about that wretched pop-gun which he swore we had stolen from him during the night.I most distinctly remember having assisted to hoist something on board, at a most unusual hour of the night, but of course it was much too dark for anyone to be able to swear their Bible oath that it was his gun, though it certainly seemed to be wonderfully like it.I said "good morning" to him as kindly as I could, and mentioned the fact that we were having very seasonable weather for this time of the year; but he was most distinctly rude, and when I saw his little eyes sticking out of his head, squinting round the quarterdeck and expecting to see his gun there, I nearly died of laughing.His coxswain followed him up the ladder with some rope and blocks and flung them down on the deck."There's your confounded tackle you left aboard me last night. You're a confounded lot of burglars, the whole boiling lot of you," Rashleigh said to the Commander, and I am certain I could detect some slight traces of irritation in his manner.Old Truscott himself flared up then—I'd never seen him angry before—and cursed the coxswain for throwing the tackle on the quarterdeck, and ordered him to pick it up again. He then took the fat little sausage, stamping with rage and red as a lobster, down to see the Skipper, whilst the others hauled me into the battery, banged me on the back, and implored me in the most gentlemanly way to stow "'hee-hawing', like a whole pack of jackasses, you chump-headed son-of-a-sea-cook, or you'll be giving the whole show away".As Trevelyan had been the officer of the watch when the dastardly outrage was supposed to have taken place, he was sent for to throw some light on the subject, and after Rashleigh had gone away we heard from him all that had happened down there.Neither the Skipper nor Truscott actually did know anything about it at all, and when Rashleigh, like the blundering ass that he was, suggested that they both did, the Skipper naturally flew into a rage, and after Trevelyan and the quartermaster who had been on duty at the time had sworn blindly that they'd seen nothing come on board during their watch (they had taken jolly care to be out of the way whilst we hoisted it in), he roared out, "What have you to say to that?" and little Rashleigh didn't know what to say, but was so madly angry, and so certain that no other ship could have taken it, that he stammered out that he would like the ship searched."Search 'Old Lest's' ship for your lousy gun! You! You!——"Fortunately the Skipper could never do justice to his vocabulary when he really was angry, so could not think of any particularly appropriate epithets suitable for this occasion.But Rashleigh wasn't finished with yet, and stuttered out, "I'll report the whole thing to the Commander-in-chief!""Report till you're blue in the face!" the Skipper roared. "You've got no blessed right to the gun—no more right than the other gunboats; you got it under false pretences, in the first place;" and he shook his fists at him."If a gun and its carriage—umph!—can be taken off your quarterdeck without anyone knowing about it, you must run your ship in a pretty smart way. Umph! If you can't be trusted to keep it safely, I'll take jolly good care you don't get the chance again. You got it by a lie—yes, a downright lie—and if it does turn up aboard here, you can shout yourself hoarse for it. 'Old Lest's' blowed if he'll give it you again."The Skipper practically turned him out of his cabin, and ordered him to take the tackle back with him. Rashleigh was so furious when he went back, that he was quite white in the face; and I mentioned the fact to old Barclay as a phenomenon of medical interest, but he was so busy trying to prevent himself exploding with laughter, that the interesting information was wasted on him.It was lucky that we left Hong-Kong two days afterwards, for feeling ran so high between the two ships, that otherwise there would have been serious trouble ashore between our liberty men and hers.We steamed slowly away for "England, Home, and Beauty", with our paying-off pendant streaming from our masthead, and the gilt bladder at its end jumping about in the water astern of us, our wretched band blaring away "For Auld Lang Syne"—a most inappropriate tune for the "Ringdoves"—and "Rolling Home for Merry England", till we were halfway through Lyemoon Pass.The Commodore had made a "general signal"—"Cheer Ship"—and the unhappy "Ringdoves" had to climb on her nettings and give us three cheers as we passed, though little Rashleigh didn't appear on deck, as you may imagine. "Hardly what you'd call 'arty cheers," I mentioned to old Whitmore, who had been brought up on deck to see the last of Hong-Kong.We returned them with three absolutely "top hole" shouts, for there were only two people aboard who didn't know for certain that the gun was somewhere on board us—the Skipper and Truscott—and they all knew that the "Ringdoves" had no more right to it than the man in the moon, so cheered "according".We stayed a couple of months at Singapore, waiting for theFisgardto come out and relieve us.At last she arrived; we transferred some of the mids and cadets to her, cheered ship, and away we went for Colombo and home.I assure you, on my solemn "Alfred Davy", that till next morning neither the Skipper nor Truscott did know anything about that gun, however much they may have suspected. When I went on deck, the first morning after leaving Singapore, there it was, mounted on its carriage, just below the muzzle of our after eight-inch gun. A brass plate had been screwed on to the carriage and engraved with—"This gun was captured during the operations against Chinese pirates in the Hector Islands, and presented by the Officers and Ship's Company of H.M.S.Vigilantto Captain Chas. E. Lester, R.N., and Mrs. Lester".They had had the plate engraved ashore at Singapore.Of course the Skipper saw it directly he came up to "divisions" and "morning prayers", and it was as good as a play to watch his face.Truscott had been let into the secret an hour before, and he and the chief boatswain's mate asked the Skipper if he would mind accepting it."Mind accepting it?" he roared, when he'd read the inscription on the brass plate, and "Blucher" had sniffed round the wheels, "Mind accepting it? I'm proud to accept it, and the missus will be prouder still. Umph! You're a darned set of rascals! But that plate, wants something added to it. How about 'Recaptured from theRingdove'?"The men all laughed and guffawed. They were as pleased as "Punch"."There is something I'd like to have on that gun," he growled, more gently—"the names of those of us who were killed; and if the Commander and the chief bo's'n's mate will see to that, 'Old Lest''ll take it home with him. Umph! When we get home I'm going to try to get you a week's extra leave—for your active service—if none of you give the Commander any trouble at Portsmouth."The men were dismissed, and crowded for'ard, as happy as kings, and I heard the Skipper growl to, old Truscott, "Umph! you rascal, waited till we got off the China station, did you? Umph!""I knew nothing about it till this morning, I assure you, sir," he answered."Umph!" he grunted to me, "you're looking mighty pleased with yourself. What did you have to do with it, eh?""I did happen to lend a hand at hoisting in something very like it, sir.""You're a disgrace to the marines," he growled, and went below grandly pleased.
CHAPTER XVII
Goodbye to the Huan Min
Out of Danger—Goodbye to Ching—Mr. Rashleigh's Report—at Hong-Kong
Out of Danger—Goodbye to Ching—Mr. Rashleigh's Report—at Hong-Kong
Out of Danger—Goodbye to Ching—Mr. Rashleigh's Report—at Hong-Kong
Written by Commander Truscott
I thank God that I am not lying under the muddy water rolling round the Hector Group, with Withers and those other poor fellows of ours.
It was to Marshall and his marines that I owe my life, and I wish that it was in my power to repay them. In attempting to rescue young Ford that night he was captured, I had been shot clean through the body, below the left ribs, and two of the marines—I do not know which two, and they have never come forward to tell me—carried me back to the walls of that battery, whilst Marshall kept the Chinese at bay. It was Barclay who told them to carry me as gently and smoothly as possible, as this was my only chance, and they carried me as if I had been a baby asleep, although the Chinese were closing all around them. They got me down the mud shore, and into the barge, only just in time, and it was whilst I was being lifted in that Marshall received the blow on the head which knocked him over. There was a most desperate fight to save him, and then poor young Withers managed to drive them off with his gun.
When they got me aboard theVigilant, Mayhew would not give me any opinion as to what my chances were. "Look here, Mayhew!" I told him, "I'm not a baby; tell me;" but he only said, "Wait for three days, and eat nothing till then. I cannot tell you before."
I had to be content with that, and to lie in my bunk, with the pictures of my wife and my two boys smiling at me out of their frames, and watch the hands of the little clock she had given me crawling round its face, and wondering, whenever I had a twinge of pain inside me, whether the trouble which Mayhew feared had commenced, and whether the end was near.
Mayhew used to come to my cabin half a dozen times a day, feel my pulse, and take my temperature. "Hungry still, Commander?" he would say, and smile and go away, and each time I would watch his face to see if the smile was only there to cover his real feelings. No one who has not been through a time like this can imagine how awful is the suspense.
On the morning after the Skipper had come back with the landing parties, bringing Sally, her father, young Ford, and our missing men with him, Mayhew found my temperature and pulse normal. He gave a whoop. "You'll live to enjoy your pension all right, Truscott," and told me that I was practically out of danger. Barclay came in and confirmed his opinion. I lay back, too filled with emotion to speak. Those photographs seemed to smile even more at me—they represented all I had to live for—and life seemed very good.
Neither of the doctors had had any sleep during the night, as they had been busy with the wounded, and Barclay looked pretty ghastly. He had had a blow on the head during the fight in that square, but fortunately the sword edge had been turned by his cap.
The Captain came in almost immediately afterwards, growling very fiercely to hide his feelings. "Umph! I've kept back theRingdovetill I heard about you from Mayhew this morning. Going to send her up to Shanghai at once. I'll be off and write a letter to your missus. Umph! You want shaving—badly;" and he gripped my hand and went out again.
I finished my letter home—as you can imagine I finished it—the sentry outside was waiting for it, I heard the boat shove off to take it to theRingdove, and I thanked God once more and felt inexpressibly at peace.
At the same time that she heard the news of my wound, my wife would hear that I was out of danger, and this, too, caused me to be very thankful.
Some little time afterwards the curtain was pushed aside, and young Ford's extremely disfigured face peeped through. I smiled at him, and he gave me a frightened cheerful smile and drew it back again.
Poor little chap! he'd been pretty badly knocked about. I ought never to have let him go on that "fool" errand of his. But he was as happy as a lord, because he had saved the Skipper's life.
In a week's time I was allowed to sit up for an hour or two a day, and in ten days' time to walk about a little.
Then theRingdovearrived with six weeks' mails, and orders from the Admiral to proceed at once to Yokohama with the gunboats, to land all the wounded still requiring hospital treatment, and to join the flagship somewhere off the coast of Corea. We were to proceed with "despatch", as political complications in Europe threatened war with a country which maintained a considerable fleet in Chinese waters.
The Captain of theHuan Minhad received orders by theRingdoveas well, and had to continue the search for the remainder of the pirates—those who had escaped in the junks.
Ching and his Captain dined with our Skipper that night, and, for him, "Old Lest" was extraordinarily gentle. He felt, I am sure, that he was leaving them in the lurch, with all this work still in front of them, and thought it was hardly "playing the game", after the magnificent way in which they had helped us.
I heard him tell Ching: "Umph! But for you, Ching, we should never have done it, never have rescued the little lass" (I saw Ching wince), "and everyone would have called 'Old Lest' a silly old fool. I only wish that we could stay and help you; but we can't. There's trouble comin' along, and the Admiral wants every ship he can get hold of, so we've got to be off." He grunted and growled a few times, and then burst out fiercely with, "'Old Lest' will never forget you."
He gave Ching a photograph of himself, and a silver cup he had won years ago as a midshipman. It was the Admiral's cup for the Channel Fleet in the old days, and he valued it more than anything else he had in his cabin. I told Ching so afterwards, in order that he should appreciate it all the more.
He had written to the Foreign Office as well, about Ching, and we all hoped that eventually he would get his promotion.
To continue the search for the fugitive and scattered pirates was like hunting for the button in a Christmas pudding after the thimble and sixpence had been found—a good deal of trouble, and not worth the bother when you did find it.
Little Sally was the thimble, and the yacht and the tramp steamer the sixpence, and we all knew well enough that Ching wanted the thimble, and didn't care in the least for anything else.
He had told me that he was hoping to be sent back to Shanghai, and I know that he wanted another chance of seeing Sally, and that the prospect of cruising alone among those bleak, fog-bound islands, now that she had been rescued and had gone out of his life, was very dreary to him.
Before he went back to his antiquated old tub, he was taken into the ward room, where they gave him a great "send-off". Everyone knew that but for him Sally would not have been rescued, everyone on board admired his pluck and gallantry, and everyone was extremely sorry to part with him.
At daybreak next morning theHuan Mingot up her clumsy anchor and steamed away, and we all manned ships and cheered her as she passed us, and waited on deck till she had disappeared round the island, out of sight, and nothing of her remained but a dense cloud of oily black smoke.
"Umph! There goes a confounded fine chap", the Skipper growled, as he went below. We ourselves, with our gunboats, left shortly afterwards for Yokohama, and Parkinson in theOmahacame along too. There are small English and United States naval hospitals still kept up in this Japanese town, and all the bad cases were sent ashore to them.
Parkinson, after having landed his, left for Chemulpo in Corea, and we gave him and his officers a great farewell dinner to commemorate the termination of the expedition.
I did not take part in this, however, because Mayhew forced me to go to hospital with Whitmore, Ford, and seven others of our men.
I was very loath to go, because I felt as fit as a fiddle, and war troubles were brewing, and my place ought to be on board. However much I dreaded a big naval war, there was always the chance of some promotion, and I hated to be left behind.
However, Mayhew wouldn't hear of my coming, and we had to watch the oldVigilantsteam away past the breakwater without us.
I rather fancy that the doctors were a little too careful about me, for, as a matter of fact, I never felt better in my life.
Before theVigilantsailed, the Skipper brought "Blucher" up to the hospital to say goodbye to us, and told me many things. One was that he had allowed the old Scotch engineer, whom we had brought with us from the island, to go ashore and disappear.
"Umph!" the Skipper growled. "Had enough evidence to hang him a dozen times; but he helped our people in that house, and Ford and those two fellows would have been scuppered but for him, so I sent him ashore at night, gave him a ten-pound note, and told him to clear."
The ten-pound note was out of his own pocket, I knew well enough.
He was asking my opinion as to whom he should mention by name in his despatches, and, just as he was going, said, "Umph! Truscott, I sent that Report of Proceedings back to Rashleigh with a copy of Trevelyan's and young Ford's. Told him to rewrite his. Told him that I wouldn't forward it to the Admiral till I was satisfied with it, and he's written quite a different yarn. Umph! I told him what I thought of him—pretty plainly."
Young Ford had been bothering me, time after time, to do something about that Chinese gun which Whitmore, Travers, and Marshall had captured, and which Rashleigh had claimed and kept. From all that I had gathered, especially from Whitmore, there was no doubt that Rashleigh had no earthly right to it. I took this opportunity of mentioning the subject.
"Umph! I know the fat little beggar's got no right to it. Thought he had when he asked me for it, so gave it him, and let him take it away; but when 'Old Lest's' given anything away—umph!—he don't go back on his word. It belongs to me, I suppose, and I can do what I like with it, eh?"
After he had gone I let Ford know what he had said about that Report, and he was extremely delighted; but the possession of that gun still rankled very deeply, and I felt sure that he would not be content whilst it remained aboard theRingdove.
From a few things Ford said, more or less under his breath, I had a dim suspicion that if it wasn't handed over to theVigilant, the gunroom meant to do something or other.
"What's the game?" I asked him; but he wasn't going to give away any secrets.
For four weeks we were left to ourselves, and young Ford and myself were able to have many pleasant little excursions up country, and each day's excitement was the arrival of Reuter's telegram at the English Club on the Bund, with news of the gathering war clouds.
As war seemed to be becoming imminent, both of us felt our position very keenly. Poor Whitmore with his smashed thigh was, of course, totally helpless, but, as I said before, I was as strong as a horse again, and Ford's arm did not entirely incapacitate him.
Just, however, as we thought that war was only a question of hours, the war clouds disappeared, to our intense relief, and presently theVigilantcame back to pick us all up again, the Skipper having orders to proceed to Singapore, and to act as Senior Officer there till it was time for us to go home and pay off.
I was fit for duty now, even Mayhew couldn't deny that, and right glad I was to get back to my work and to my own bunk.
We called in at Nagasaki for coal, took in four hundred tons, and then left for Hong-Kong, where we arrived in the middle of June, just before the hot weather had commenced, and made fast to one of the buoys off Murray Pier.
It was very pleasant being back there, and we were obliged to remain for a whole week, whilst the dockyard made a few slight repairs.
The only other man-of-war in the harbour besides theTamarand the oldWyvern, moored off Kowloon, was theRingdove, secured to another buoy farther inshore.
Young Ford can tell you better what happened there during that week than I can.
As a matter of fact, I am not supposed to know anything about it, and don'tofficially.
The 'Huan Min' steaming eight knotsThe 'Huan Min' steaming eight knots
The 'Huan Min' steaming eight knots
CHAPTER XVIII
A Midnight Adventure
Sent to Hospital—The Subscription—The Sub's Plan—An Exciting Moment—Mr. Rashleigh Rages—Jim is Safe
Sent to Hospital—The Subscription—The Sub's Plan—An Exciting Moment—Mr. Rashleigh Rages—Jim is Safe
Sent to Hospital—The Subscription—The Sub's Plan—An Exciting Moment—Mr. Rashleigh Rages—Jim is Safe
Written by Midshipman Ford
I was very sorry indeed to say goodbye to Mr. Ching—we all were—and, of course, I had had such a lot to do with him in that walled house, that I ought to have been more sorry than anyone else.
The day before we separated from theHuan Min, Mr. Lawrence and I went aboard her and had lunch with him. It was a funny kind of meal, and with only one hand I couldn't help myself very well, so Mr. Ching cut my food up into little pieces, and sent for a pair of chopsticks. If you have ever tried chopsticks, you will know that the first time you try them you cannot do much, and I could hardly pick up anything at all, and didn't do more than taste anything before the others had finished theirs, and my plate was taken away.
They thought it was jolly amusing to watch me, and though I was as hungry as a hunter, I had to pretend that I wasn't, and that I didn't mind. There were all sorts of curious things there, and I had so wanted to eat them all.
Afterwards, Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Ching began yarning about old times when they were midshipmen together in theInflexibleyears and years ago, so they didn't want me, and I slipped away and went round the ship, and when I saw any man who had been in the walled house that awful night, I shook him by the hand, because I was so glad to see him again.
I think they liked me doing it, and they all grinned and saluted very smartly.
Mr. Ching gave me one of the gold-lace dragons from the sleeve of one of his uniform coats. I wanted that more than anything, and still have it, and I gave him my stamp album. It only had a few stamps stuck in here and there, but there was a dark-red English penny stamp which, I believe, was rather valuable, and I had nothing else worth giving away. He seemed very pleased with it, and made me stick my name in it, so that he could remember me. I did hope that he would.
Mr. Hobbs and Sally had not given him anything at all. Wasn't that nasty of them, after all he had done? But he still kept that tam-o'-shanter she had worn; I saw it in his cabin.
Then theHuan Minwent off, to carry on hunting for pirates by herself, and we went up to Yokohama, and when we arrived, the Commander, Mr. Whitmore, myself, and seven of our men were sent to hospital.
I rather liked going, because it was so uncomfortable on board, with only one useful arm; but then we heard that there might be a war, and it was perfectly horrid to see theVigilantsteaming away without us.
Still, I Was jolly happy, because, after she had gone, the Commander told me all that the Captain had said about Mr. Rashleigh and his Report of Proceedings. That didn't square up everything, not by a long chalk. We wanted that gun, and we were going to have it, too, and before I'd been sent to hospital, Mr. Langham and everyone else in the gunroom had sworn to get it back, and had begun inventing plans for doing so.
Then three weeks went by, my arm had been put in plaster again, and back theVigilantcame. There wasn't to be any war, and she took us all down to Hong-Kong, and we found the oldTynethere, which made me think of the first time I had seen her, and of how miserable and happy, in turns, I had been on board her.
But just ahead of theTamarwas theRingdove, quite close to where we made fast to one of the outer buoys, and when she was swung by the tide in one position, we could see that Chinese gun just at the foot of her main mast.
That made us all "bristle" up again and get most frightfully angry. We had almost forgotten all about it in the excitement of knowing that we were going south to Singapore, to wait for our relief ship to come out from England, and then go home to pay off.
At dinner that night we were as hot about it as ever, and we made up our minds again to get it, somehow or other. It was jolly difficult to know how we could manage it, and nobody seemed to have any good schemes to suggest. Webster's idea was to run alongside during the dinner hour, when probably only the quartermaster would be awake, but that was silly. We couldn't possibly do it in the daytime, and we couldn't even think of a plan for doing it at night without being discovered. We knew jolly well that if we were found out, there would be a most awful fuss, and we should get into hot water with the Captain.
We made such a jolly row, all shouting and suggesting things, and calling each other silly idiots, that Mr. Langham stuck his fork into a beam overhead.
That is a signal for all the midshipmen and cadets to clear out of the gunroom, and as the last "out" always had his "extra" bill stopped for three days, so could not get any sardines or pickles from Ah Man, we were all out in a jiffy, and left Mr. Langham, Mr. Hamilton the big Engineer Sub, and the "A.P." to work out a scheme between them.
They wouldn't let us come back again, and I know that they didn't decide upon anything; but during the middle watch that night something happened which showed us the way.
It was Mr. Langham's "watch", and at about five bells there suddenly had been a lot of shouting under the bows, and he, the quartermaster, and the signalman had all run for'ard to see what was the matter, and found that a junk had fouled the buoy, drifted down against our bows, and carried away a mast.
They got her clear, but it took a quarter of an hour to do it, and, of course, during that time there had been no one aft at all, and anything might have happened there without anyone knowing of it.
Now, don't you see what the idea was?
Mr. Langham didn't tell us what he was going to do exactly, for fear that we should be asses enough to talk about it to everyone, and that the "Ringdoves" would hear about it as well; but he went aboard theRingdovein the morning to see the navigator, who was a pal of his (except for the "gun question"), and came back again very excitedly.
"I had a good look at that gun, you chaps, without pretending to do so. The wheels are simply lashed down to some ring bolts, lashed down with rope, and we could cut them adrift as easy as winking."
He and Mr. Hamilton went ashore together and came off late at night, and we all waited for them, and knew that something was in the "wind", but they wouldn't say what, and only told us that they wanted twenty pounds. Mr. Langham said that he would give ten (he was very well off) if we would subscribe the rest, and you may bet your best waistcoat we got that other ten pounds pretty quickly.
We hadn't the faintest notion why he wanted it till two nights after, and then, just before "lights out" in the gunroom, he sent for us all and told us.
My aunt! it was jolly exciting.
He had bought a sampan—one of the Chinese sailing boats which used to bring us off from the shore if we missed the ordinary ship's boat—and had had two large holes made in the bottom, with plugs fitted in them and ropes made fast to each, so that a jolly good strong jerk would pull them out. He had had her loaded with stones, so that she would sink quickly after they'd been pulled out.
"I'm going to sail her across theRingdove'sbowsprit," he said, "and shall get my rigging foul of her, if possible. If I can't, I have a grapnel, and shall catch hold of her cable, and when the sampan can't drift away, I shall pull out those plugs and begin "hullabalooing" like a Chinaman. When she sinks I shall hold on to the buoy and go on squealing till the quartermaster comes along, and when he hears where I am he'll probably get into the dinghy to pick me up.
"I sha'n't be there when he comes," he added, grinning. Of course, in a small gunboat the only man on watch at night is the quartermaster, and if there wasn't much of a row, he probably would not call anyone else.
"Now, what you have to do is this"—we all got fearfully excited—"I've asked the Commander for his gig to-night, told him I wanted it for a special purpose, and he played the game and didn't ask for what, and said she needn't be hoisted out of the water. She's quite big enough to take the gun and carriage, and Hamilton and the 'A.P.' and six of the strongest of you mids have to go away in her at about half-past two in the middle watch. You must be down astern of her, not close enough to let her spot you, by a quarter to three, and then wait till you hear me start squealing.
"TheRingdovehas her dinghy made fast to the starboard boom to-night, so you'll have to pull alongside her port gangway as 'gingerly' as ever you can, get aboard and bring back the gun, and the carriage too, if you've got time. The trunnions of the gun are only secured in the carriage by bands, and there are pins in them which can be pulled out—well, a good many of you have seen them already. Don't worry about me; I'll swim back."
That was the scheme which he and Mr. Hamilton had worked out between them, and it was jolly exciting. Mr. Hamilton was to go in charge of the gig, and as he was very strong—nearly as strong as the Sub himself—he had to do the lifting with Mr. Moore (the A.P.). Webster, Jones, and Jim Rawlings and three of the others were told off to pull the oars, because they were the strongest of the mids.
"Dicky", who was quite all right now, wasn't to go, because he was too excitable, and "Pongo" was too fat and useless. I wasn't going either at first, but I implored them to let me steer. I could manage with one hand, if they fixed up the wooden tiller the Commander used when he took the gig away sailing, and I said that I had some right to go, because the gun had fired at me so often. Jim backed me up, and Mr. Langham agreed that I had some right, but told me that I should have to sit on the gunwale, behind the stern sheets, so as not to crowd the boat too much.
You may jolly well imagine that I didn't care where I sat or what I did, so long as I could take my share in the job.
Presently Mr. Langham compared his watch with Mr. Hamilton's, and went ashore in a very old flannel suit; and we had to turn in and pretend to sleep, though that was impossible, and we kept on running up on deck to see what kind of a night it was.
It turned out to be jolly dark, which was splendid; but there was only a very little breeze, and that was blowing from Kowloon, on the mainland, straight towards Hong-Kong. This was a nuisance, because it meant that Mr. Langham would have to beat off shore in the sampan, and as there would be a jolly strong tide running, it would be very difficult to just hit off the buoy and theRingdove'sbows, especially as he was going to do it single-handed.
Mr. Hamilton was rather worried about this, and just after midnight he came along to Jim and told him he had better go ashore, find Mr. Langham, and help him sail her. Jim was about the strongest swimmer of all us mids; that was why he chose him. And Jim was jolly keen to go, and Mr. Hamilton pulled him ashore in the skiff, told him where he would find the sampan, and pulled back again.
Well, I never thought the time for starting would ever come; but at last "four bells" struck, and we all dressed, Dicky helping me because of my arm, and we sneaked on deck like mice, and there was the gig waiting for us alongside.
Mr. Trevelyan was the officer of the watch, and I heard Mr. Hamilton say to him, "Going for a little exercise, Trevelyan;" and heard him reply, "Well, good luck! I've got everything ready to hoist it in." So of course he must have known all about it.
We crept down into the boat; I squatted in the stern, jammed my feet against the ribs there to prevent myself falling overboard, and we shoved off without making a sound, and pulled away till we were some way astern of theRingdove, catching hold of the next buoy to hers and hanging on to it.
Then we waited in the dark.
We couldn't see a single light in her except her "riding" light for'ard, and a very faint glimmer amidships, where the quartermaster ought to be. Presently five bells were struck aboard theVigilantand aboard the oldTamarastern of us, and a few moments afterwards we saw a light moving for'ard aboard theRingdove, her funny, "tin-kettly" bell was struck, the light came aft again, and we knew that the quartermaster, at any rate, was awake.
"Old Langham ought to be shoving off now," Mr. Hamilton whispered. It was so dark round us that we couldn't see twenty yards; but the shore lights lighted the water close in under Murray Pier, and we all kept our eyes turned that way, and presently saw a sail show out for a moment, and whispered, "There they come," and got terribly excited.
One always forgets how excited one has been before, when other things happened, but really I do think that I was fearfully excited now—as much as I have ever been.
We waited and waited, and got the oars ready, and then, all of a sudden, we heard a sound from the dark, as if something was knocking up against a buoy. I almost fell backwards overboard, but saved myself by clutching the tiller, and then there were most piteous yells, two different kinds, so that I knew Jim was there, and we shoved off and pulled very quickly.
"Port gangway!" Mr. Hamilton whispered to me, and I steered for it; and as we gradually crept under the stern, we saw the quartermaster's lantern moving for'ard and then saw it on the fo'c'stle.
Mr. Hamilton had to help me steer her, there was such a strong tide running; but we were fearfully careful, and got the gig alongside, and Jones held on in the bows, and Mr. Hamilton and the "A.P." and Webster disappeared up the gangway in their bare feet, with a tackle the Bo's'n had given us. We could hear them very softly getting the gun out of the carriage, and the Chinese kind of yells were still going on, only more gently, and we heard the quartermaster sing out, "Who's there?" and presently he sung out, "Hold on, and I'll fetch the dinghy!"—though how he thought Chinamen could understand him I don't know.
The lantern was thumped down on the fo'c'stle, and he climbed along the starboard boom, and in a very little while there was a splash of oars, and we knew that he was pulling to the buoy.
I knew that we were all grinning, although we couldn't see each other, and imagined Mr. Langham and Jim swimming away out of sight; and I was rather nervous about Jim, because the tide was so strong, and it was quite five hundred yards back to theVigilant.
However, there wasn't time to worry, as Mr. Hamilton and the "A.P." were coming down the ladder with the gun in their arms, and the gangway creaked at every step, and we were very frightened because the noise seemed so loud. They slid it down into the stern sheets on to a gymnasium mat we had put there to deaden the sound, and back they went. We heard something drop on the deck, and it seemed to make an awful row, and presently they came to the gangway again, and all of them were lifting the gun carriage, and they began lowering it into the boat with the tackle. You see, it was such an awfully awkward thing to handle, though it wasn't really very heavy.
Then we were absolutely petrified with fear, for suddenly we heard Mr. Rashleigh's voice bawling for the quartermaster, and could hear him coming along from under the poop, cursing, and wanting to know where he was, and what all the noise was about.
The gun carriage was only lowered halfway down, but Mr. Hamilton sang out very softly, "Stand clear!" and dropped the whole thing into the boat on top of the gun (I don't know how it was that it didn't break anybody), and they all jumped down in a heap, making a most fearful row. Jones slipped the boat rope for'ard, and we slid astern just as Mr. Rashleigh ran up to the gangway and began singing out and cursing, asking who it was, and what it was, and "Where's that quartermaster?"
He was in a towering passion, and we could imagine what a jolly funny sight he must be in his bulgy pyjamas, with his round red face and his bald head, but were jolly glad that there wasn't any light for us to see him or he us. We hadn't moved a muscle—not even those who had fallen in a jumble on top of each other—and simply let the tide take us down right under the stern, where it was tremendously dark, and he couldn't possibly see anything.
I don't think that he had discovered at first what had really happened, and kept cursing into the dark, but then must have found our tackle, for he was absolutely silent, and we guessed that he must have found that the gun wasn't there.
By that time the quartermaster had come back, and the last we heard was a glorious row going on. My aunt! you should have heard him storming.
We were well astern now, and Mr. Hamilton and the "A.P." and Webster disentangled themselves, and we got out the oars and pulled a roundabout way back to theVigilant. She was pitch dark, even the quarterdeck gangway lamps were turned off, and we had to feel our way very gingerly to the side. This was so that we shouldn't be seen getting the gun on board. The rest of the gunroom and most of the ward-room officers were up there, and had a tackle rigged, all ready, and got the gun and the carriage on deck in no time.
They carried them for'ard to hide, and put the gun in the sand tank, covering it up with sand, and the carriage was taken to pieces and stowed away in one of the gunner's storerooms.
We were all so excited, that I forgot all about Mr. Langham and Jim till Mr. Langham came dripping up the gangway, asking if everything was all right, and if Jim had turned up, as he had lost sight of him after leaving the buoy.
"A jolly strong tide's running, and it was about as much as I could do to get here," he said, rather out of breath, and rather anxiously.
We all peered over the side, and tried to see his head coming along; but it was too dark to see anything at all, although Dicky and I went down to the foot of the accommodation ladder and looked along the surface of the water. Poor Dicky was almost off his head with fright. He kept on squeaking out: "Jim! Jim!" but daren't do it too loudly. And we listened, but there was no answer, and I, too, was quite frightened, and wished that we could do something, only it was so jolly difficult to know what to do, and no one dare make a great noise, or run a searchlight, or anything like that, for fear of having to wake the Captain or the Commander, and giving the whole show away.
But Mr. Langham—just as he was, wringing wet—the "A.P." and Mr. Hamilton and four mids went away in the gig.
"He'll probably have drifted down with the tide, and will try and get hold of a buoy," Mr. Hamilton told me, and they disappeared in the darkness.
I could not go down below, because I was so worried, and had the most horrid feelings inside me, which Dicky made worse by asking such silly questions. Everything was so horribly dark, and the tide was running so strongly, and I knew that Jim must be in fearful danger, although Mr. Trevelyan kept saying that he would turn up all right.
I had forgotten all about the wretched gun, till someone—"Pongo", I think it was—said to Mr. Trevelyan, "Jolly to have the gun all right, sir, and the carriage. Isn't it, sir?" And Mr. Trevelyan answered, "What gun? I don't know anything about a gun. I've been forward with the quartermaster for the last quarter of an hour, and haven't seen anything."
I believe that the silly ass would have begun telling him, if Mr. Trevelyan hadn't said, "What the dickens are you doing up here at this time? Go and turn in at once!"
I really wasn't quite sure, then, whether he was "pretending" or not.
We waited for nearly half an hour, we all were fearfully nervous, and Mr. Trevelyan kept on saying, "I shall have to wake the Commander if he doesn't come back in another three minutes," and would wait, and say it again. And at last he actually started to go down to the Commander's cabin, but before he had got halfway down, theTyne'smasthead signal lamp began winking and blinking.
"She's calling us up, sir!" the signalman sang out; and oh! it was such a relief, for she signalled, "Mr. Rawlings is aboard", and I was awfully thankful. She was right astern of us, quite half a mile, and he must have been drowned if he had missed her, as there was nothing astern of her, no buoys, or ships, or anything to hold on to.
Dicky ran down below. He is such a soft-hearted chap.
We signalled across that we would send for him, and three of the ward room officers, in their pyjamas, fetched him in the skiff, and I almost blubbed with delight when he came alongside, looking like a drowned rat, and pulling at an oar to warm himself.
We got him down below and out of his wet things, and presently Mr. Langham and the others came back in the gig.
They had pulled round all the buoys astern of theRingdoveand tried to find him, and alongside theTamar, hoping to find him there, and then, as a last chance, in a terrible state of fright, to theTyne, and had got the good news that he had just gone back in our skiff.
"I thought it was all U P," Mr. Langham said, and changed into dry things; and then we all had a sardine supper in the gunroom, and most of the ward-room officers came down too, and we were awfully happy and contented, and Jim and Dicky and I "whoofed" two whole tins of sardines between us. Jim told me that he was pretty nearly "done" when he managed to grab hold of theTyne'sgangway, and couldn't drag himself out of the water till he had sung out, and someone had come down and given him a hand.
We had to be awfully quiet, for fear of disturbing the Commander, whose cabin was just overhead, and that was the only drawback to the supper.
Then we all turned into our hammocks; but Jim and I were much too excited to sleep, and besides, we had eaten too much.
Wasn't that a glorious night, and hadn't we jolly well got level with Mr. Rashleigh?
"Worth the risk, every time," Jim whispered.
"But won't there be a glorious row to-morrow?" Dicky squeaked. He was frightened about it already.
CHAPTER XIX
The Captain Receives a Present
"Old Lest" Flares Up—Recaptured from the Ringdove—Sally Again
"Old Lest" Flares Up—Recaptured from the Ringdove—Sally Again
"Old Lest" Flares Up—Recaptured from the Ringdove—Sally Again
Written by Captain Marshall, Royal Marine Light Infantry
Old Truscott has asked me to write this chapter, because he says that he is so confoundedly busy paying off the oldVigilant, that he hasn't a moment to himself.
That is his reason for not being bothered with the job; but for all that he manages to get into plain clothes all right, and fly to the beach and the bosom of his family, directly after evening "quarters" every day. He is so beastly happy, that I don't really mind shoving another chapter into this immortal book for him.
Although it is three months since we left Hong-Kong, I shall never forget old Rashleigh, in frockcoat and sword, coming fuming on board there, and wanting to see the Skipper about that wretched pop-gun which he swore we had stolen from him during the night.
I most distinctly remember having assisted to hoist something on board, at a most unusual hour of the night, but of course it was much too dark for anyone to be able to swear their Bible oath that it was his gun, though it certainly seemed to be wonderfully like it.
I said "good morning" to him as kindly as I could, and mentioned the fact that we were having very seasonable weather for this time of the year; but he was most distinctly rude, and when I saw his little eyes sticking out of his head, squinting round the quarterdeck and expecting to see his gun there, I nearly died of laughing.
His coxswain followed him up the ladder with some rope and blocks and flung them down on the deck.
"There's your confounded tackle you left aboard me last night. You're a confounded lot of burglars, the whole boiling lot of you," Rashleigh said to the Commander, and I am certain I could detect some slight traces of irritation in his manner.
Old Truscott himself flared up then—I'd never seen him angry before—and cursed the coxswain for throwing the tackle on the quarterdeck, and ordered him to pick it up again. He then took the fat little sausage, stamping with rage and red as a lobster, down to see the Skipper, whilst the others hauled me into the battery, banged me on the back, and implored me in the most gentlemanly way to stow "'hee-hawing', like a whole pack of jackasses, you chump-headed son-of-a-sea-cook, or you'll be giving the whole show away".
As Trevelyan had been the officer of the watch when the dastardly outrage was supposed to have taken place, he was sent for to throw some light on the subject, and after Rashleigh had gone away we heard from him all that had happened down there.
Neither the Skipper nor Truscott actually did know anything about it at all, and when Rashleigh, like the blundering ass that he was, suggested that they both did, the Skipper naturally flew into a rage, and after Trevelyan and the quartermaster who had been on duty at the time had sworn blindly that they'd seen nothing come on board during their watch (they had taken jolly care to be out of the way whilst we hoisted it in), he roared out, "What have you to say to that?" and little Rashleigh didn't know what to say, but was so madly angry, and so certain that no other ship could have taken it, that he stammered out that he would like the ship searched.
"Search 'Old Lest's' ship for your lousy gun! You! You!——"
Fortunately the Skipper could never do justice to his vocabulary when he really was angry, so could not think of any particularly appropriate epithets suitable for this occasion.
But Rashleigh wasn't finished with yet, and stuttered out, "I'll report the whole thing to the Commander-in-chief!"
"Report till you're blue in the face!" the Skipper roared. "You've got no blessed right to the gun—no more right than the other gunboats; you got it under false pretences, in the first place;" and he shook his fists at him.
"If a gun and its carriage—umph!—can be taken off your quarterdeck without anyone knowing about it, you must run your ship in a pretty smart way. Umph! If you can't be trusted to keep it safely, I'll take jolly good care you don't get the chance again. You got it by a lie—yes, a downright lie—and if it does turn up aboard here, you can shout yourself hoarse for it. 'Old Lest's' blowed if he'll give it you again."
The Skipper practically turned him out of his cabin, and ordered him to take the tackle back with him. Rashleigh was so furious when he went back, that he was quite white in the face; and I mentioned the fact to old Barclay as a phenomenon of medical interest, but he was so busy trying to prevent himself exploding with laughter, that the interesting information was wasted on him.
It was lucky that we left Hong-Kong two days afterwards, for feeling ran so high between the two ships, that otherwise there would have been serious trouble ashore between our liberty men and hers.
We steamed slowly away for "England, Home, and Beauty", with our paying-off pendant streaming from our masthead, and the gilt bladder at its end jumping about in the water astern of us, our wretched band blaring away "For Auld Lang Syne"—a most inappropriate tune for the "Ringdoves"—and "Rolling Home for Merry England", till we were halfway through Lyemoon Pass.
The Commodore had made a "general signal"—"Cheer Ship"—and the unhappy "Ringdoves" had to climb on her nettings and give us three cheers as we passed, though little Rashleigh didn't appear on deck, as you may imagine. "Hardly what you'd call 'arty cheers," I mentioned to old Whitmore, who had been brought up on deck to see the last of Hong-Kong.
We returned them with three absolutely "top hole" shouts, for there were only two people aboard who didn't know for certain that the gun was somewhere on board us—the Skipper and Truscott—and they all knew that the "Ringdoves" had no more right to it than the man in the moon, so cheered "according".
We stayed a couple of months at Singapore, waiting for theFisgardto come out and relieve us.
At last she arrived; we transferred some of the mids and cadets to her, cheered ship, and away we went for Colombo and home.
I assure you, on my solemn "Alfred Davy", that till next morning neither the Skipper nor Truscott did know anything about that gun, however much they may have suspected. When I went on deck, the first morning after leaving Singapore, there it was, mounted on its carriage, just below the muzzle of our after eight-inch gun. A brass plate had been screwed on to the carriage and engraved with—"This gun was captured during the operations against Chinese pirates in the Hector Islands, and presented by the Officers and Ship's Company of H.M.S.Vigilantto Captain Chas. E. Lester, R.N., and Mrs. Lester".
They had had the plate engraved ashore at Singapore.
Of course the Skipper saw it directly he came up to "divisions" and "morning prayers", and it was as good as a play to watch his face.
Truscott had been let into the secret an hour before, and he and the chief boatswain's mate asked the Skipper if he would mind accepting it.
"Mind accepting it?" he roared, when he'd read the inscription on the brass plate, and "Blucher" had sniffed round the wheels, "Mind accepting it? I'm proud to accept it, and the missus will be prouder still. Umph! You're a darned set of rascals! But that plate, wants something added to it. How about 'Recaptured from theRingdove'?"
The men all laughed and guffawed. They were as pleased as "Punch".
"There is something I'd like to have on that gun," he growled, more gently—"the names of those of us who were killed; and if the Commander and the chief bo's'n's mate will see to that, 'Old Lest''ll take it home with him. Umph! When we get home I'm going to try to get you a week's extra leave—for your active service—if none of you give the Commander any trouble at Portsmouth."
The men were dismissed, and crowded for'ard, as happy as kings, and I heard the Skipper growl to, old Truscott, "Umph! you rascal, waited till we got off the China station, did you? Umph!"
"I knew nothing about it till this morning, I assure you, sir," he answered.
"Umph!" he grunted to me, "you're looking mighty pleased with yourself. What did you have to do with it, eh?"
"I did happen to lend a hand at hoisting in something very like it, sir."
"You're a disgrace to the marines," he growled, and went below grandly pleased.