* * * * *By the end of August we were made fast to the north railway jetty at Portsmouth, and, as I knew they would—my troubles began. They were mostly connected with unpaid bills, so I won't bother you with them; but it was Grainger, my trusty servant, who was more angry at them bothering me than I was myself."'Ere's a 'ome-comin', sir," he said mournfully, as he was packing my gear and snorting at the condition of my worn-out plain clothes; "'ere's a 'ome-comin', and arter all we've done for "The Corps", to say nothink of the wound in your for'ud, and that 'ere jab in the leg, and those trouses and serges, abso—lutely ruinationed. We can't 'ardly turn you out fit to march the de—tachment into barracks, sir, that we can't."One thing gave him a little pleasure, and that was producing an eyeglass which he'd carefully preserved in a corner of a drawer. I thought that I had broken my last one before leaving Aden, but he had been keeping this one to make certain that, when the time came for marching into barracks, I should have one jammed in my port optic. "They'll think there's summat gone wrong with us, sir, if you don't 'ave it—up in the hofficers' mess."Some of us had expected to be made a fuss of when we arrived at Portsmouth; but it was four months since the papers had been full of our exploits, and everyone had forgotten all about them—and us.Old "B.-T.'s" leg was all right again, and he and I got Old Bax to advance us some pay, and had a couple of days in London together. We ran up against—whom do you think? Old man Hobbs and Sally—my little princess looking absolutely sweet. They had come along across Canada.We helped them choose a dressing-bag for Ching, of theHuan Min. It was fitted with more things than I dreamt could be crowded into a bag—everything gold-mounted, and costing a small fortune.What the Christopher Columbus old Ching would do with it, "B.-T." and I couldn't think; and we knew, jolly well, that the only thing he would want to find in it was my little princess herself.We dined with them at their hotel, and next night "stood" them a theatre, and supper afterwards.Old "B.-T." wasn't in very good form, because I'd cut him out with the little princess—my little princess—and he'd been saddled with old man Hobbs, and didn't like it a little bit.They'd asked us to spend some of our leave with them up in Scotland; but "B.-T." had the "hump", and refused, though you may bet your life I was going, if I could only raise enough money to pay my fares.* * * * *"What d'you think of me getting married?" I asked Grainger, when he brought my breakfast the morning after my return to the ship."Who's it this time, sir?""What d'you say to a princess?""If she be a real princess, sir," he snorted, "she won't darn your socks, so won't be no 'elp to me. You don't want none of them sort, sir. You want one of 'em steadyin' kind of ones, if you don't mind me a-sayin' so, sir.""Just you wait and see," I told him.I had asked them to come down to Portsmouth, to see the oldVigilantagain, and they did. They stayed there till we paid off, and I had a great deal of difficulty to boom the others away from my little princess, but managed it fairly successfully.At last the great day of paying off did arrive, the white ensign and the pendant were hauled down, and we all began scattering to the winds.Everyone said goodbye to everyone else, and I shook hands with dear "Old Lest"."Umph! Where are you going?" he asked."Going to march the detachment into barracks, sir.""Umph! I know that. What are you doing with your leave?""Going up to Scotland, sir.""Umph!" he growled. "That's it, is it? When you get tired of Scotland, come down and get a bit of shooting with 'Blucher' and me. The missus will be glad to see you.""Thank you very much, sir, but I hope not to get tired of Scotland as soon as that," and marched down the gangway to the shore for the last time. The old sergeant-major reported the detachment present; I sung out, "Royal Marines! At'shun! Shoulder arms! Left turn! Quick march!" and we left the oldVigilant, which had been our home for three years, and embarked in a tug for Clarence Victualling Yard, at Gosport, where headquarters' band was waiting to play us into barracks.I left Grainger behind to bring all my gear across later on.CHAPTER XXHome AgainPaying Off—Home AgainWritten by Midshipman FordJim Rawlings, Dicky Morton, and I had been such a very short time on the China station, that we all three ought to have gone to theFisgardwhen she came out to relieve us.But just after we had reached Singapore, the Captain asked me whether I wanted to go home with him in theVigilant, and though I felt an awful brute at leaving Jim and Dicky, I simply jumped at the chance. I wanted to see them at home so much, and go back to Upton Overy and see people nod at each other, and know that they were saying, "That be Master Dick who saved the Cap'en's life," that I forgot all about the other two. I was jolly sad to see them go aboard theFisgardwith their chests, and they were jolly sad too. Dicky was quite well now, and not half the ass that he had been when he first joined.What made them more sad than anything else, was not being able to see the Chinese field gun given to the Captain. We gave it to him the morning after they left, when we were at sea. He was awfully delighted with it. You could see that by the way he patted it, and ran his fingers over it, and lifted it out of its carriage to test his strength, grunting and growling splendidly.I wrote to tell Jim all about it, and sent the letter from Aden.Before we left Singapore, we got the English papers with the accounts of all our fighting, and I was awfully proud to see my name in among the severely wounded, and rather expected that they would make a great fuss of us all at Portsmouth. They didn't, however, and when I went ashore to give "Blucher" a run, and got out of the dockyard gates on to the "Hard", I was disappointed that people didn't take the least notice; you know the funny sort of feeling one has. I kept on thinking whether any of them had an idea that I had been the captain of the junkSally, and had been all that terrible night in the walled house.Wasn't it strange for Mr. Hobbs and Sally to turn up there whilst we were paying off? A lot of our chaps think that she's "spoony" on Captain Marshall, but I rather think that she'd be "spoony" on anyone who was tall and good looking—if he took any notice of her.Mr. Travers thinks so too, because I heard him tell Captain Marshall so; but he only "hee-hawed", and said something about "sour grapes".She was jolly smartly rigged out, and Webster said she looked a perfect "knock out"; and she came down into the gunroom one afternoon with Captain Marshall, and, I suppose, had forgotten about poor old Withers, because she wanted to play the piano. Mr. Langham sent for the armourer to force the lock, and it was Miller who came, and she recognized him, and asked him if he remembered carrying her across the garden in that walled house. He got frightfully red and out of breath, and scratched a lot of veneer off the piano.Mrs. Lester came to stay at Portsmouth, and was jolly nice to me. She came so that the Chinese gun could be properly presented to her, and the men were awfully pleased.You remember Martin, the marine, and how he had made me so tired by telling me so often about having tried to save my life. Well, this had taught me not to remind people about things like that, so I never even led up to it; but Mrs. Lester said awfully jolly things about my having shot that brute. She had brought messages from my mother and Nan, and from lots of people; but my mother couldn't come herself, because she couldn't afford to, and I had to wait to see her till we "paid off", and I went on leave.I did go to see Mrs. Scroggs and all Scroggs's children. She had come to live quite close to Portsmouth, and Sharpe, the petty officer, came with me, and we had a very "weepy" time, because she was so miserable, and cried a great deal, and said that it was awfully hard to make both ends meet on her pension, even with what we had subscribed. The children were all growing up, and wanting boots and things, and had most tremendous appetites.I was jolly glad to get away, and I'm certain that Sharpe was.Mrs. Lester went back two or three days before we actually did "pay off", and then came the morning when we all said goodbye. The marines marched away, and the bluejackets streamed ashore with their bags on their shoulders to go on leave, and cabs came rattling up to take us to the station.I did intend to walk, because all my heavy gear had gone to the "outfitters", and I only had two small bags and some paper parcels with that boat's ensign and the presents for Nan and my father and mother; but the Captain called out, "Comin' with me, Dick?" and I actually went with him and "Blucher" in his cab, with "Willum" sitting up on the box, and right the way to Upton Overy with him in a first-class carriage. He paid for it, too, and gave me some grub at Salisbury, and a ripping tea at Exeter.We didn't get to Upton Overy till ten o'clock at night, and I was so jolly excited, and so fearfully proud of being with the Captain, that I couldn't feel tired; and when we ran into the station they fired off fog signals, and there were flags all over the place. Old Puddock, the station master, opened the door, and Mrs. Puddock "bobbed" behind him, and I caught sight of my mother under a lamp, and forgot all about my bags and parcels, and rushed across to her."Blucher" nearly went off his head with joy, and chased Mr. Puddock's cat till it turned round and faced him, and then he forgot about it. I do believe that everyone in Upton Overy was waiting outside, and there were more flags in the streets, and a triumphal arch, and Mrs. Lester was waiting in one of the carriages. Everyone was cheering like mad, and the fishermen had taken the horses out of the carriage and were going to pull the Captain up to The House.My mother and I slipped away—I'd asked Puddock to send up my things—and got home, and it was grand being back again, though my father was very worried, and hardly cheered up when he saw me. My mother had told me how miserable he was, and that I must be very quiet and not talk too much or too loudly, so that rather took the gilt off the gingerbread.Even when I showed them the white ensign with the bullet holes in it, and told them all about it, he only said that it was a shame to send a child like me away on such a job, and said it was time to be going to bed, and he was thankful that I wasn't a cripple for life after having my arm smashed."He'll be all right to-morrow," my mother told me, and I showed her my arm, and the places where the bullet had gone through it, and moved my fingers, and picked up heavy things to show her that it really was quite strong, and that I should not have to leave the Service and simply stay at home and be an expense to them, and we just hugged each other, and I went to bed presently.I was up again very early in the morning, and ran down to the beach to see all my chums in the fishing boats, and they "bucked me up" splendidly. They all crowded round, and had heard about everything—everything—and they told me all the news, and that Ned the Poacher was in prison, and his wife and children had gone to the workhouse, and that old Gurridge was coming back at the end of the week and wanted to see me, and I slipped back in time to prevent my mother worrying about where I'd gone, and after breakfast I rushed up to The House.The Captain was there in his old shooting suit, with a gun over his shoulder, and "Blucher" was careering all over the flower beds, and not stopping when he was told to. "Umph! I'll shoot that dog if he don't come to heel when I tell him," the Captain grunted, and I ran off and managed to catch him. I knew jolly well that old "Blucher" might have destroyed every flower in the place if he wanted to, for anything the Captain would have done to him."What became of you, Dick, last night? The missus waited for you and your mother till we couldn't wait any longer. Umph! Must go down and see her and the Parson after lunch."I very much hoped that he wouldn't, because I was afraid my father would say something to him about sending me away in charge of that junk. I told him about Ned the Poacher and his wife."Umph! Serve the beggar right; we'll see what we can do about his missus and the kids. Umph! Go in and see the girls, and then come along with 'Blucher'. I'm going after rabbits."I'd brought a Chinese embroidered skirt for Nan, and she simply loved it, and I couldn't get away, and didn't want to, and presently the Captain began bellowing "that he couldn't wait till Domesday", and Nan said, "I'll come too", and we raced each other round to the stables to get "Blucher's" chain, and off we went.It was awfully ripping, and "Blucher" gave us no end of a time, pulling us about whenever the Captain fired his gun.* * * * * * * *[Transcriber’s note: the source book had running headings on its odd-numbered pages. In this etext, those headings have been combined into an introductory paragraph at the start of each chapter.]*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOKFORD OF H.M.S. VIGILANT***
* * * * *
By the end of August we were made fast to the north railway jetty at Portsmouth, and, as I knew they would—my troubles began. They were mostly connected with unpaid bills, so I won't bother you with them; but it was Grainger, my trusty servant, who was more angry at them bothering me than I was myself.
"'Ere's a 'ome-comin', sir," he said mournfully, as he was packing my gear and snorting at the condition of my worn-out plain clothes; "'ere's a 'ome-comin', and arter all we've done for "The Corps", to say nothink of the wound in your for'ud, and that 'ere jab in the leg, and those trouses and serges, abso—lutely ruinationed. We can't 'ardly turn you out fit to march the de—tachment into barracks, sir, that we can't."
One thing gave him a little pleasure, and that was producing an eyeglass which he'd carefully preserved in a corner of a drawer. I thought that I had broken my last one before leaving Aden, but he had been keeping this one to make certain that, when the time came for marching into barracks, I should have one jammed in my port optic. "They'll think there's summat gone wrong with us, sir, if you don't 'ave it—up in the hofficers' mess."
Some of us had expected to be made a fuss of when we arrived at Portsmouth; but it was four months since the papers had been full of our exploits, and everyone had forgotten all about them—and us.
Old "B.-T.'s" leg was all right again, and he and I got Old Bax to advance us some pay, and had a couple of days in London together. We ran up against—whom do you think? Old man Hobbs and Sally—my little princess looking absolutely sweet. They had come along across Canada.
We helped them choose a dressing-bag for Ching, of theHuan Min. It was fitted with more things than I dreamt could be crowded into a bag—everything gold-mounted, and costing a small fortune.
What the Christopher Columbus old Ching would do with it, "B.-T." and I couldn't think; and we knew, jolly well, that the only thing he would want to find in it was my little princess herself.
We dined with them at their hotel, and next night "stood" them a theatre, and supper afterwards.
Old "B.-T." wasn't in very good form, because I'd cut him out with the little princess—my little princess—and he'd been saddled with old man Hobbs, and didn't like it a little bit.
They'd asked us to spend some of our leave with them up in Scotland; but "B.-T." had the "hump", and refused, though you may bet your life I was going, if I could only raise enough money to pay my fares.
* * * * *
"What d'you think of me getting married?" I asked Grainger, when he brought my breakfast the morning after my return to the ship.
"Who's it this time, sir?"
"What d'you say to a princess?"
"If she be a real princess, sir," he snorted, "she won't darn your socks, so won't be no 'elp to me. You don't want none of them sort, sir. You want one of 'em steadyin' kind of ones, if you don't mind me a-sayin' so, sir."
"Just you wait and see," I told him.
I had asked them to come down to Portsmouth, to see the oldVigilantagain, and they did. They stayed there till we paid off, and I had a great deal of difficulty to boom the others away from my little princess, but managed it fairly successfully.
At last the great day of paying off did arrive, the white ensign and the pendant were hauled down, and we all began scattering to the winds.
Everyone said goodbye to everyone else, and I shook hands with dear "Old Lest".
"Umph! Where are you going?" he asked.
"Going to march the detachment into barracks, sir."
"Umph! I know that. What are you doing with your leave?"
"Going up to Scotland, sir."
"Umph!" he growled. "That's it, is it? When you get tired of Scotland, come down and get a bit of shooting with 'Blucher' and me. The missus will be glad to see you."
"Thank you very much, sir, but I hope not to get tired of Scotland as soon as that," and marched down the gangway to the shore for the last time. The old sergeant-major reported the detachment present; I sung out, "Royal Marines! At'shun! Shoulder arms! Left turn! Quick march!" and we left the oldVigilant, which had been our home for three years, and embarked in a tug for Clarence Victualling Yard, at Gosport, where headquarters' band was waiting to play us into barracks.
I left Grainger behind to bring all my gear across later on.
CHAPTER XX
Home Again
Paying Off—Home Again
Paying Off—Home Again
Paying Off—Home Again
Written by Midshipman Ford
Jim Rawlings, Dicky Morton, and I had been such a very short time on the China station, that we all three ought to have gone to theFisgardwhen she came out to relieve us.
But just after we had reached Singapore, the Captain asked me whether I wanted to go home with him in theVigilant, and though I felt an awful brute at leaving Jim and Dicky, I simply jumped at the chance. I wanted to see them at home so much, and go back to Upton Overy and see people nod at each other, and know that they were saying, "That be Master Dick who saved the Cap'en's life," that I forgot all about the other two. I was jolly sad to see them go aboard theFisgardwith their chests, and they were jolly sad too. Dicky was quite well now, and not half the ass that he had been when he first joined.
What made them more sad than anything else, was not being able to see the Chinese field gun given to the Captain. We gave it to him the morning after they left, when we were at sea. He was awfully delighted with it. You could see that by the way he patted it, and ran his fingers over it, and lifted it out of its carriage to test his strength, grunting and growling splendidly.
I wrote to tell Jim all about it, and sent the letter from Aden.
Before we left Singapore, we got the English papers with the accounts of all our fighting, and I was awfully proud to see my name in among the severely wounded, and rather expected that they would make a great fuss of us all at Portsmouth. They didn't, however, and when I went ashore to give "Blucher" a run, and got out of the dockyard gates on to the "Hard", I was disappointed that people didn't take the least notice; you know the funny sort of feeling one has. I kept on thinking whether any of them had an idea that I had been the captain of the junkSally, and had been all that terrible night in the walled house.
Wasn't it strange for Mr. Hobbs and Sally to turn up there whilst we were paying off? A lot of our chaps think that she's "spoony" on Captain Marshall, but I rather think that she'd be "spoony" on anyone who was tall and good looking—if he took any notice of her.
Mr. Travers thinks so too, because I heard him tell Captain Marshall so; but he only "hee-hawed", and said something about "sour grapes".
She was jolly smartly rigged out, and Webster said she looked a perfect "knock out"; and she came down into the gunroom one afternoon with Captain Marshall, and, I suppose, had forgotten about poor old Withers, because she wanted to play the piano. Mr. Langham sent for the armourer to force the lock, and it was Miller who came, and she recognized him, and asked him if he remembered carrying her across the garden in that walled house. He got frightfully red and out of breath, and scratched a lot of veneer off the piano.
Mrs. Lester came to stay at Portsmouth, and was jolly nice to me. She came so that the Chinese gun could be properly presented to her, and the men were awfully pleased.
You remember Martin, the marine, and how he had made me so tired by telling me so often about having tried to save my life. Well, this had taught me not to remind people about things like that, so I never even led up to it; but Mrs. Lester said awfully jolly things about my having shot that brute. She had brought messages from my mother and Nan, and from lots of people; but my mother couldn't come herself, because she couldn't afford to, and I had to wait to see her till we "paid off", and I went on leave.
I did go to see Mrs. Scroggs and all Scroggs's children. She had come to live quite close to Portsmouth, and Sharpe, the petty officer, came with me, and we had a very "weepy" time, because she was so miserable, and cried a great deal, and said that it was awfully hard to make both ends meet on her pension, even with what we had subscribed. The children were all growing up, and wanting boots and things, and had most tremendous appetites.
I was jolly glad to get away, and I'm certain that Sharpe was.
Mrs. Lester went back two or three days before we actually did "pay off", and then came the morning when we all said goodbye. The marines marched away, and the bluejackets streamed ashore with their bags on their shoulders to go on leave, and cabs came rattling up to take us to the station.
I did intend to walk, because all my heavy gear had gone to the "outfitters", and I only had two small bags and some paper parcels with that boat's ensign and the presents for Nan and my father and mother; but the Captain called out, "Comin' with me, Dick?" and I actually went with him and "Blucher" in his cab, with "Willum" sitting up on the box, and right the way to Upton Overy with him in a first-class carriage. He paid for it, too, and gave me some grub at Salisbury, and a ripping tea at Exeter.
We didn't get to Upton Overy till ten o'clock at night, and I was so jolly excited, and so fearfully proud of being with the Captain, that I couldn't feel tired; and when we ran into the station they fired off fog signals, and there were flags all over the place. Old Puddock, the station master, opened the door, and Mrs. Puddock "bobbed" behind him, and I caught sight of my mother under a lamp, and forgot all about my bags and parcels, and rushed across to her.
"Blucher" nearly went off his head with joy, and chased Mr. Puddock's cat till it turned round and faced him, and then he forgot about it. I do believe that everyone in Upton Overy was waiting outside, and there were more flags in the streets, and a triumphal arch, and Mrs. Lester was waiting in one of the carriages. Everyone was cheering like mad, and the fishermen had taken the horses out of the carriage and were going to pull the Captain up to The House.
My mother and I slipped away—I'd asked Puddock to send up my things—and got home, and it was grand being back again, though my father was very worried, and hardly cheered up when he saw me. My mother had told me how miserable he was, and that I must be very quiet and not talk too much or too loudly, so that rather took the gilt off the gingerbread.
Even when I showed them the white ensign with the bullet holes in it, and told them all about it, he only said that it was a shame to send a child like me away on such a job, and said it was time to be going to bed, and he was thankful that I wasn't a cripple for life after having my arm smashed.
"He'll be all right to-morrow," my mother told me, and I showed her my arm, and the places where the bullet had gone through it, and moved my fingers, and picked up heavy things to show her that it really was quite strong, and that I should not have to leave the Service and simply stay at home and be an expense to them, and we just hugged each other, and I went to bed presently.
I was up again very early in the morning, and ran down to the beach to see all my chums in the fishing boats, and they "bucked me up" splendidly. They all crowded round, and had heard about everything—everything—and they told me all the news, and that Ned the Poacher was in prison, and his wife and children had gone to the workhouse, and that old Gurridge was coming back at the end of the week and wanted to see me, and I slipped back in time to prevent my mother worrying about where I'd gone, and after breakfast I rushed up to The House.
The Captain was there in his old shooting suit, with a gun over his shoulder, and "Blucher" was careering all over the flower beds, and not stopping when he was told to. "Umph! I'll shoot that dog if he don't come to heel when I tell him," the Captain grunted, and I ran off and managed to catch him. I knew jolly well that old "Blucher" might have destroyed every flower in the place if he wanted to, for anything the Captain would have done to him.
"What became of you, Dick, last night? The missus waited for you and your mother till we couldn't wait any longer. Umph! Must go down and see her and the Parson after lunch."
I very much hoped that he wouldn't, because I was afraid my father would say something to him about sending me away in charge of that junk. I told him about Ned the Poacher and his wife.
"Umph! Serve the beggar right; we'll see what we can do about his missus and the kids. Umph! Go in and see the girls, and then come along with 'Blucher'. I'm going after rabbits."
I'd brought a Chinese embroidered skirt for Nan, and she simply loved it, and I couldn't get away, and didn't want to, and presently the Captain began bellowing "that he couldn't wait till Domesday", and Nan said, "I'll come too", and we raced each other round to the stables to get "Blucher's" chain, and off we went.
It was awfully ripping, and "Blucher" gave us no end of a time, pulling us about whenever the Captain fired his gun.
* * * * * * * *
[Transcriber’s note: the source book had running headings on its odd-numbered pages. In this etext, those headings have been combined into an introductory paragraph at the start of each chapter.]
[Transcriber’s note: the source book had running headings on its odd-numbered pages. In this etext, those headings have been combined into an introductory paragraph at the start of each chapter.]
[Transcriber’s note: the source book had running headings on its odd-numbered pages. In this etext, those headings have been combined into an introductory paragraph at the start of each chapter.]
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOKFORD OF H.M.S. VIGILANT***