By Conduct and Courage Part 2

"Good, my boy! you are quite right not to decide in a hurry. It is a serious thing for a young chap to make a choice like that; but it seems to me that, being without friends as you are, and having made enemies of all the people of your village, it would be better for you to get out of it as soon as possible."

"I quite see that; and really I think I could not do better than pa.s.s a few years on a man-of-war, for after that I should be fit for any work I might find to do."

"Well, sleep upon it, lad."

Will sat down on the low wall in front of the station and thought it over.

After all, it seemed to him that it would be better to be on a fine ship and have a chance of fighting with the French than to sail in a merchantman. At the end of five years he would be twenty, and could pa.s.s as a mate if he chose, or settle on land. He would have liked to consult Miss Warden, but this was out of the question. He knew the men who had pursued him well enough to be sure that his life would not be safe if they caught him. He might make his way out of the station at night, but even that was doubtful. Besides, if he were to do so he had no one to go to at Scarborough; he had not a penny in his pocket, and would find it impossible to maintain himself until Miss Warden returned. He did not wish to appear before her as a beggar. He was still thinking when a shadow fell across him, and, looking up, he saw his friend Tom.

"I have come round to see you, Will," he said. "I don't know what is to be done. Nothing will convince the village that you did not betray them."

"The thing is too absurd," Will said angrily. "I never spoke to a coast-guardsman in my life till to-day, except, perhaps, in pa.s.sing, and then I would do no more than make a remark about the weather. Besides, no one in the village has spoken to me for a month, so how could I tell that the lugger was coming in that night?"

"Well, I really don't think it would be safe for you to go back."

"I am not going back. I have not quite settled what I shall do, but certainly I don't intend to return to the village."

"Then what are you going to do, Will?"

"I don't know exactly, but I have half decided to ship as a boy on one of the king's ships."

"I should like to go with you wherever you go, but I should like more than anything to do that."

"It is a serious business, you know; you would have to make up your mind to be kicked and cuffed."

"I get that at home," Tom said; "it can't be harder for me at sea than it is there."

"Well, I have not got to decide until to-morrow; you go home and think it over, and if you come in the morning with your mind made up, I will speak to the officer here and ask him if they will take us both."

CHAPTER II

IN THE KING'S SERVICE

Before morning came Will had thought the matter over in every light, and concluded that he could not do better than join the navy for a few years.

Putting all other things aside, it was a life of adventure, and adventure is always tempting to boys. It really did not seem to him that, if he entered the merchant service at once, he would be any better off than he would be if he had a preliminary training in the royal navy. He knew that the man-of-war training would make him a smarter sailor, and he hoped that he would find time enough on board ship to continue his work, so that afterwards he might be able to pa.s.s as a mate in the merchant service.

Tom Stevens came round in the morning.

"I have quite made up my mind to go with you if you will let me," he said.

"I will let you readily enough, Tom, but I must warn you that you will not have such a good look-out as I shall. You know, I have learnt a good deal, and if the first cruise lasts for five years I have no doubt that at the end of it I shall be able to pa.s.s as a mate in the merchant service, and I am afraid you will have very little chance of doing so."

"I can't help that," Tom said. "I know that I am not like you, and I haven't learnt things, and I don't suppose that if I had had anyone to help me it would have made any difference. I know I shall never rise much above a sailor before the mast. If you leave the service and go into a merchantman I will go there with you. It does not matter to me where I am.

I felt so before, and of course I feel it all the more now that you have saved my life. I am quite sure you will get on in the world, Will, and sha'n't grudge you your success a bit, however high you rise, for I know how hard you have worked, and how well you deserve it. Besides, even if I had had the pains bestowed upon me, and had worked ever so hard myself, I should never have been a bit like you. You seem different from us somehow.

I don't know how it is, but you are smarter and quicker and more active. I expect some day you will find out something about your father, and then probably we shall be able to understand the difference between us. At any rate I am quite prepared to see you rise, and I shall be well content if you will always allow me to remain your friend."

Will gratified the sub-officer later by telling him that he had made up his mind to ship on board one of the king's vessels, and that his friend and chum, Tom Stevens, had made up his mind to go with him.

The c.o.xswain looked Tom up and down.

"You have the makings of a fine strong man," he said, "and ought to turn out a good sailor. The training you have had in the fishing-boats will be all in your favour. Well, I will let you know when the lieutenant makes his rounds. I am sure there will be no difficulty in shipping you. Boys ain't what they were when I was young. Then we thought it an honour to be shipped on board a man-of-war, now most of them seem to me mollycoddled, and we have difficulty in getting enough boys for the ships. You see, we are not allowed to press boys, but only able-bodied men; so the youngsters can laugh in our faces. Most of the crimps get one or two of them to watch the sailors as the boys of the village watch our men, and give notice when they are going to make a raid. I don't think, therefore, that there is any fear of your being refused, especially when I say that one of you has got into great trouble from refusing to aid in throwing us off the scent when a lugger is due. If for no other reason he owes you a debt for that."

Three days pa.s.sed. Will still remained at the coast-guard station, and men still hovered near. Tom came over once and said that it had been decided among a number of the fishermen that no great harm should be done to Will when they got him, but that he should be thrashed within an inch of his life. On the third day the c.o.xswain said to Will:

"I have a message this morning from the lieutenant, that he will be here by eleven o'clock. If you will write a line to your friend I will send it over by one of the men."

Tom arrived breathless two minutes before the officer.

"My eye, I have had a run of it," he said. "The man brought me the letter just as I was going to start in the boat with my uncle. I pretended to have left something behind me and ran back to the cottage, he swearing after me all the way for my stupidity. I ran into the house, and then got out of the window behind, and started for the moors, taking good care to keep the house in a line between him and me. My, what a mad rage he will be in when I don't come back, and he goes up and finds that I have disappeared! I stopped a minute to take a clean shirt and my Sunday clothes. I expect, when he sees I am not in the cottage, he will look round, and he will discover that they have gone from their pegs, and guess that I have made a bolt of it. He won't guess, however, that I have come here, but will think I have gone across the moors. He knows very well how hard he has made my life; still, that won't console him for losing me, just as I am getting really useful in the boat."

The lieutenant landed from his cutter at the foot of the path leading up to the station. The sub-officer received him at the top, and after a few words they walked up to the station together.

"Who are these two boys?" he asked as he came up to them.

"Two lads who wish to enter the navy, sir."

"Umph! runaways, I suppose?"

"Not exactly, sir. Both of them are fatherless. That one has received a fair education from the daughter of the clergyman of the village, who took a great fancy to him. He has for some years now been a.s.sisting in one of the fishing-boats and, as he acknowledges, in the spying upon our men, as practically everyone else in the village does. When, however, Miss Warden told him that smuggling was very wrong, he openly announced his intention of having nothing more to do with it. This has had the effect of making the ignorant villagers think that he must have taken bribes from us to keep us informed of what was going on. In consequence he has suffered severe persecution and has been sent to Coventry. After the fight we had with them the other day they appear to think that there could be no further doubt of his being concerned in the matter, and four men set out after him to take his life. He fled here as his nearest possible refuge, and if you will look over there you will see two men on the watch for him.

He had made up his mind to ship as an apprentice on a merchantman, but I have talked the matter over with him, and he has now decided to join a man-of-war."

"A very good choice," the officer said. "I suppose you can read and write, lad?"

"Yes, sir," Will said, suppressing a smile.

"Know a bit more, perhaps?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, if you are civil and well behaved, you will get on. And who is the other one?"

"He is Gilmore's special chum, sir. He has a brute of an uncle who is always knocking him about, and he wants to go to sea with his friend."

"Well, they are two likely youngsters. The second is more heavily built than the other, but there is no doubt as to which is the more intelligent.

I will test them at once, and then take them off with me in the cutter and hand them over to the tender at Whitby. Now send four men and catch those two fellows and bring them in here. I will give them a sharp lesson against ill-treating a lad who refuses to join them in their rascally work."

A minute later four of the men strolled off by the cliffs, two in each direction. When they had got out of sight of the watchers, they struck inland, and, making a detour, came down behind them. The fishermen did not take the alarm until it was too late. They started to run, but the sailors were more active and quick-footed, and, presently capturing them, brought them back to the coast-guard station.

"So my men," the lieutenant said sternly, "you have been threatening to ill-treat one of His Majesty's subjects for refusing to join you in your attempts to cheat the revenue? I might send you off to a magistrate for trial, in which case you would certainly get three months' imprisonment. I prefer, however, settling such matters myself. Strip them to the waist, lads."

The orders were executed in spite of the men's struggles and execrations.

"Now tie them up to the flag-post and give them a dozen heartily."