Blue Jackets Part 31

"Yes, sir, I'm very sorry," I said; then, anxiously, "But you are sure you are not hurt, sir?"

"Tut, tut! I told you no, boy. There, there, I don't mean that. Not even scratched, Mr Herrick. You can go to your messmates now with an adventure to tell them," he added, smiling; "only don't dress it up into a highly-coloured story, about how your superior officer relaxed the strict rules of dishipline; do you hear?"

"Yes, sir, I hear," I said, and I left him going to join the captain, while I went down and told Barkins what had been going on, but I had not been talking to him five minutes before I heard a heavy splash as if something had been thrown over the side.

"What's that?" said Barkins, turning pale.

I did not answer.

"Sounds like burying some one," he whispered. "Don't say poor old Blacksmith has gone?"

"No no," I said. "I know what it is. Wait till I've told you all I have to tell, and then you'll know too."

He looked at me wonderingly, and I completed my account of the scene in the black-hole place.

"Oh, I see," he cried; "it was the Chinaman?"

I nodded carelessly, but I felt more serious than ever before in my life, at this horrible sequel to a fearful scene.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

A DISAPPOINTMENT.

"Very jolly for you," said Barkins, as we cast anchor off Tsin-Tsin a couple of mornings later. "You'll be going ash.o.r.e and enjoying yourself, while I'm condemned to hobble on deck with a stick."

"I say, don't grumble," I cried. "Look how beautiful the place seems in the sunshine."

"Oh yes, it looks right enough; but wait till you go along the narrow streets, and get some of the smells."

"Hear that, Smithy?" I said to our comrade, who was lying in his berth.

"Grumbles because he can't go ash.o.r.e, and then begins making out how bad it is. How about the fox and the grapes?"

"If you call me fox, my lad, I'll give you sour grapes when I get better. Where's your gla.s.s?"

I took down my telescope, adjusted it for him, and pushed his seat nearer to the open window, so that he could examine the bright-looking city, with the blue plum-bloom tinted mountains behind covered with dense forest, and at the shipping of all nations lying at the mouth of the river.

"S'pose that tower's made of crockery, isn't it?" said Barkins, whose eye was at the end of the telescope.

I looked at the beautiful object, with its paG.o.da-like terraces and hanging bells, and then at the various temples nestling high up on the sides of the hills beyond.

"I say," said Smith, "can't you tell Mr Reardon--no, get the doctor to tell him--that I ought to be taken ash.o.r.e for a bit to do me good?"

"I'll ask him to let you go," I said; but Smith shook his head, and then screwed up his white face with a horrible look of disgust.

"Oh, what a shame!" he cried. "He gets all the luck;" for a message came for me to be ready directly to go ash.o.r.e with the captain in the longboat.

It meant best uniform, for the weather was fine, and I knew that he would be going to pay a visit to some grand mandarin.

I was quite right; for, when I reached the deck a few minutes later, there was Mr Brooke with the boat's crew, all picked men, and a strong guard of marines in full plumage for his escort.

The captain came out of his cabin soon after, with c.o.c.ked hat and gold lace glistening, and away we went for the sh.o.r.e soon after; the last things I saw on the _Teaser_ being the two disconsolate faces of my messmates at the cabin window, and Ching perched up on the hammock-rail watching our departure.

I antic.i.p.ated plenty of excitement that day, but was doomed to disappointment. I thought I should go with the escort to the mandarin's palace, but Mr Brooke was considered to be more attractive, I suppose, and I had the mortification of seeing the captain and his escort of marines and Jacks land, while I had to stay with the boat-keepers to broil in the sunshine and make the best of it, watching the busy traffic on the great river.

Distance lends enchantment to the view of a Chinese city undoubtedly, and before long we were quite satiated with the narrow limits of our close-in view, as well as with the near presence of the crowd of rough-looking fellows who hung about and stared, as I thought, rather contemptuously at the junior officer in Her Majesty's service, who was feeling the thwarts of the boat and the hilt of his dirk most uncomfortably hot.

"Like me to go ash.o.r.e, sir, to that Chinesy sweetstuff shop, to get you one o' their sweet cool drinks, sir?" said one of the men, after we had sat there roasting for some time.

"No, thank you, Tom Jecks," I said, in as sarcastic a tone as I could a.s.sume. "Mr Barkins says you are such a forgetful fellow, and you mightn't come back before the captain."

There was a low chuckling laugh at this, and then came a loud rap.

"What's that?" I said sharply.

"This here, sir," said another of the men. "Some 'un's been kind enough to send it. Shall I give it him back?"

"No, no!" I cried, looking uneasily sh.o.r.eward; and at that moment a stone, as large as the one previously sent, struck me a sharp blow on the leg.

"They're a-making c.o.c.kshies of us, sir," said Tom Jecks; "better let two of us go ash.o.r.e and chivvy 'em off."

"Sit still, man, and--"

_Whop_!

"Oh, scissors!" cried a sailor; "who's to sit still, sir, when he gets a squad on the back like that? Why, I shall have a bruise as big as a hen's egg."

"Oars! push off!" I said shortly, as half-a-dozen stones came rattling into the boat; and as we began to move away from the wharf quite a burst of triumphant yells accompanied a shower of stones and refuse.

"That's their way o' showing how werry much obliged they are to us for sinking the pirates," growled Tom Jecks. "Oh, don't I wish we had orders to bombard this blessed town! Go it! That didn't hit you, did it, sir?"

"No, it only brushed my cap," I said, as the stones began to come more thickly, and the shouting told of the keen delight the mob enjoyed in making the English retreat. "Pull away, my lads, and throw the grapnel over as soon as we are out of reach."

"But we don't want to pull away, sir. They thinks we're fear'd on 'em.

There's about a hundred on 'em--dirty yaller-faced beggars, and there's four o' us, without counting you. Just you give the word, sir, and we'll row back in spite o' their stones, and make the whole gang on 'em run. Eh, mates?"

"Ay, ay!" said the others, lying on their oars.

"Pull!" I cried sharply, and they began rowing again; for though I should have liked to give the word, I knew that it would not only have been madness, but disobedience of orders. My duty was to take care of the boat, and this I was doing by having it rowed out beyond stone-throwing reach, with the Union Jack waving astern; and as soon as the stones fell short, and only splashed the water yards away, I had the grapnel dropped overboard, and we swung to it, waiting for the captain's return.

The men sat chewing their tobacco, lolling in the sun, and I lay back watching the crowd at the edge of the water, wondering how long the captain and his escort would be, and whether the prisoners would be given up.

"Hope none o' them pigtailed varmint won't shy mud at the skipper," said one of the men, yawning.

"I hope they will," said Tom Jecks.

"Why, mate?"