Blue Lights: Hot Work in the Soudan Part 14

"Why, I thought it was blowing a gale _now_!" returned Miles. "At least it seems so, if we may judge from the pitching and plunging."

"Ah, lad, you are judging from the landlubber's view-point," returned the sergeant. "Wait a bit, and you will understand better what Molloy means when he calls this only a `capful of wind.'"

Miles had not to wait long. The gale when fully "brewed up" proved to be no mean descendant of the family of storms which have tormented the celebrated bay since the present economy of nature began; and many of those who were on board of the troop-ship at that time had their eyes opened and their minds enlarged as to the nature of a thorough gale; when hatches have to be battened down, and the dead-lights closed; when steersmen have to be fastened in their places, and the maddened sea seems to roar defiance to the howling blast, and all things movable on deck are swept away as if they were straws, and many things not meant to be movable are wrenched from their fastenings with a violence that nothing formed by man can resist, and timbers creak and groan, and loose furniture gyrates about until smashed to pieces, and well-guarded gla.s.s and crockery leap out of bounds to irrecoverable ruin, and even the seamen plunge about and stagger, and landsmen hold on to ring-bolts and belaying-pins, or cling to bulkheads for dear life, while mighty billows, thundering in-board, hiss along the decks, and everything, above, below, and around, seems being swept into eternity by the besom of destruction!

But the troop-ship weathered the storm n.o.bly; and the good Lord sent fine weather and moderate winds thereafter; and ere long the soldiers were enjoying the sunshine, the sparkling waters, and the sight of the lovely sh.o.r.es of the blue Mediterranean.

Soon after that broken bones began to mend, and bruises to disappear; and our hero, thoroughly recovered from his accident, as well as greatly improved in general health, returned to his duties.

But Miles was not a happy man, for day by day he felt more and more severely that he had put himself in a false position. Besides the ever-increasing regret for having hastily forsaken home, he had now the bitter reflection that he had voluntarily thrown away the right to address Marion Drew as an equal.

During the whole voyage he had scarcely an opportunity of speaking a word to her. Of course the warm-hearted girl did not forget the important service that had been rendered to her by the young soldier, and she took more than one occasion to visit the fore part of the vessel for the purpose of expressing her grat.i.tude and asking about his health, after he was able to come on deck; but as her father accompanied her on these occasions, the conversation was conducted chiefly between him and the reverend gentleman. Still, it was some comfort to hear her voice and see her eyes beaming kindly on him.

Once the youth inadvertently expressed his feelings in his look, so that Marion's eye-lids dropped, and a blush suffused her face, to hide which she instantly became unreasonably interested in the steam-winch beside which they were standing, and wanted to understand principles of engineering which had never troubled her before!

"What _is_ the use of that curious machine?" she asked, turning towards it quickly.

"W'y, Miss," answered Jack Molloy, who chanced to be sitting on a spare yard close at hand working a Turk's head on a manrope, "that's the steam-winch, that is the thing wot we uses w'en we wants to hoist things out o' the hold, or lower 'em into it."

"Come, Marion, we must not keep our friend from his duties," said Mr Drew, nodding pleasantly to Miles as he turned away.

The remark was called forth by the fact that Miles had been arrested while on his way to the galley with a dish of salt pork, and with his shirt-sleeves, as usual, tucked up!

Only once during the voyage did our hero get the chance of talking with Marion alone. The opportunity, like most pieces of good fortune, came unexpectedly. It was on a magnificent night, just after the troop-ship had left Malta. The sea was perfectly calm, yet affected by that oily motion which has the effect of breaking a reflected moon into a million fragments. All nature appeared to be hushed, and the stars were resplendent. It was enough, as Jack Molloy said, to make even a bad man feel good!

"Do 'ee speak from personal experience, Jack?" asked a comrade on that occasion.

"I might, Jim, if _you_ wasn't here," retorted Molloy; "but it's not easy to feel bad alongside o' _you_."

"That's like a double-edged sword, Jack--cuts two ways. W'ich way d'ee mean it?"

"`W'ichever way you please,' as the man said w'en the alligator axed 'im w'ether he'd prefer to be chawed up or bolted whole."

Concluding that, on the whole, the conversation of his friends did not tend to edification, Miles left them and went to one of the starboard gangways, from which he could take a contemplative view of Nature in her beautiful robe of night. Curiously enough, Marion chanced to saunter towards the same gangway, and unexpectedly found him there.

"A lovely night, Mr Miles," she remarked.

Miles started, and turned with slight confusion in his face, which, happily, the imperfect light concealed.

"Beautiful indeed!" he exclaimed, thinking of the face before him--not of the night!

"A cool, beautiful night like this," continued the girl--who was of the romantic age of sixteen--"will remain long, I should think, in your memory, and perhaps mitigate, in some degree, the hardships that are before you on the burning sand of Egypt."

"The memory of this night," returned Miles, with fervour, "will remain with me _for ever_! It will not only mitigate what you are pleased to call hardships, but will cause me to forget them altogether--forget _everything_!"

"Nay, that were impossible," rejoined Marion, with a slight laugh; "for a true soldier cannot forget Duty!"

"True, true," said Miles dubiously; "at least it ought to be true; and I have no doubt is so in many cases, but--"

What more he might have said cannot now be told, for they were interrupted at the moment by Captain Lacey, who, happening to walk in that direction, stopped and directed Miss Drew's attention to a picturesque craft, with high lateen sails, which had just entered into the silver pathway of the moon on the water.

Miles felt that it would be inappropriate in him to remain or to join in the conversation. With a heart full of disappointment and indignation he retired, and sought refuge in the darkest recesses of the pantry, to which he was welcome at all times, being a great favourite with the steward.

Whether it was the smell of the cheese or the ketchup we know not, but here better thoughts came over our hero. Insignificant causes often produce tremendous effects. The touching of a trigger is but a small matter; the effects of such a touch are sometimes deadly as well as touching. Possibly the sugar, if not the cinnamon, may have been an element in his change of mind. At all events it is safe to say that the general smell of groceries was a.s.sociated with it.

Under the benign influence of this change he betook himself to the berth of the chief ship's-carpenter, with whom also he was a favourite.

Finding the berth empty, and a light burning in it, he sat down to wait for his friend. The place was comparatively quiet and retired.

Bethinking himself of the little packet which he had received at Portsmouth, and which still lay unopened in the breast-pocket of his sh.e.l.l-jacket, he pulled it out. Besides a Testament, it contained sundry prettily covered booklets written by Miss Robinson and others to interest the public in our soldiers, as well as to amuse the soldiers themselves. In glancing through "Our Soldiers and Sailors," "Inst.i.tute Memories," "Our Warfare," "The Victory," "Heaven's Light our Guide,"

"Good-bye," and similar works, two facts were suddenly impressed upon his mind, and strongly illuminated--namely, that there is such a thing as living for the good of others, and that up to that time he had lived simply and solely for himself!

The last sentence that had fallen from the lips of Marion that night was also strongly impressed upon him:--"a true soldier cannot forget Duty!"

and he resolved that "Duty" should be his life's watchword thenceforward. Such is the influence that a n.o.ble-minded woman may unconsciously have over even an unsteady man!

Soon after this the troop-ship reached the end of her voyage, and cast anchor off the coast of Egypt, near the far-famed city of Alexandria.

CHAPTER NINE.

OUR HERO MEETS A FRIEND UNEXPECTEDLY IN PECULIAR CIRc.u.mSTANCES, AND HAS A VERY STRANGE ENCOUNTER.

Miles Milton's first experience in Alexandria was rather curious, and, like most surprising things, quite unlooked for.

The troops were not permitted to land immediately on arrival, but of course no such prohibition lay on the pa.s.sengers, who went off immediately. In the hurry of doing so, the clergyman and his family missed saying good-bye to Miles, who happened to be on duty in some remote part of the vessel at the time, and the sh.o.r.e-boat could not be delayed. This caused Mr and Mrs Drew much regret, but we cannot add that it caused the same to Miss Drew, because that young lady possessed considerable command of feature, and revealed no feeling at all on the occasion.

Miles was greatly disappointed when he found that they had gone, but consoled himself with the hope that he could make use of his first day's leave to find them out in the town and say good-bye.

"But why encourage hope?" thought Miles to himself, with bitterness in his heart; "I'm only a private. Marion will never condescend to think of _me_. What have I to offer her except my worthless self?" (you see Miles was beginning to see through himself faintly.) "Even if my father were a rich man, able to buy me out of the army and leave me a fortune-- which he is not--what right have I to expect that a girl like Marion would risk her happiness with a fellow who has no profession, no means of subsistence, and who has left home without money and without leave?

Bah! Miles, you are about the greatest goose that ever put on a red coat!"

He was getting on, you see! If he had put "sinner" for "goose," his shot would have been nearer the mark; as it was, all things considered, it was not a miss. He smarted considerably under the self-condemnation.

If a comrade had said as much he would have resented it hotly, but a man is wonderfully lenient to himself!

Under the impulse of these feelings he sought and obtained leave to go into the town. He wished to see how the new Soldiers' Inst.i.tute being set up there was getting along. He had promised Miss Robinson to pay it a visit. That was his plea. He did not feel called upon to inform his officer of his intention to visit the Drews! That was quite a private matter--yet it was the main matter; for, on landing, instead of inquiring for the spot where the new Inst.i.tute was being erected, he began a search among the various hotels where English visitors were wont to put up. The search was successful. He found the hotel, but the family had gone out, he was told, and were not expected back till evening.

Disappointment, of course, was the result; but he would wait. It is amazing what an amount of patience even impatient men will exercise when under the influence of hope! There was plenty of time to run down and see the Inst.i.tute, but he might miss his friends if they should chance to come in and go out again during his absence. What should he do?

"Bother the Inst.i.tute!" he muttered to himself. "It's only bricks an'

mortar after all, and I don't know a soul there."

He was wrong on both of these points, as we shall see.

"What's the use of my going?" he murmured, after a reflective pause.

"You promised the ladies of the Portsmouth Inst.i.tute that you'd go to see it, and report progress," said that extraordinary Something inside of him, which had a most uncomfortable way of starting up and whispering when least expected to do so.

"And," added Something, "every gentleman should keep his word."