Paddy Finn Part 51

I tried to rouse up the skipper, but for some time could not succeed.

When he opened his eyes, by the stupid way he stared at me, it was very evident that he had been drunk, and had scarcely yet recovered. I told him that a northerly breeze had sprung up, and that we had already lost some hours of it. At last, getting up, he came on deck, and ordered his crew to heave up the anchor and make sail; but this they could not have done without Larry's and my a.s.sistance.

As I hoped that the skipper would soon recover, I did not trouble myself much about the matter. He had brought the stores he had procured in a couple of hampers, which I found on deck. They contained, as I afterwards discovered, not only provisions, but sundry bottles of whisky.

There being a fresh breeze, the little hooker ran swiftly along over the blue ocean; the Eddystone being soon left astern and the Lizard sighted.

The skipper told me he intended to run through the pa.s.sage between the Scilly Islands and the main.

"If the wind holds as it does now," he said, "we'll be in Cork harbour in a jiffy. Shure the little hooker would find her way there if we were all to turn in and go to sleep till she gets up to Pa.s.sage."

"As I'm not so confident of that same, captain, I must beg you to keep your wits about you till you put me ash.o.r.e," I observed.

He gave me a wink in reply, but said nothing.

During the day I walked the deck, going into the cabin only for meals.

The skipper spent most of his time there, only putting up his head now and then to see how the wind was, and to give directions to the man at the helm. From the way the crew talked, I began to suspect that they had obtained some liquor from the sh.o.r.e, probably by the boat which brought the skipper off. Not being altogether satisfied with the state of things, I offered to keep watch. The skipper at once agreed to this, and suggested that I should keep the middle watch, while he kept the first.

Before I went below the wind veered round almost ahead. The night, I observed, was very dark; and as there was no moon in the sky, while a thick mist came rolling across the water, had I not supposed that the skipper was tolerably sober I should have remained on deck; but, feeling very sleepy, I went below, though thinking it prudent not to take off my clothes. I lay down in the berth just as I was. I could hear the skipper talking to the man at the helm, and it appeared to me that the vessel was moving faster through the water than before. Then I fell off to sleep.

How long I had slept I could not tell, when I was awakened by a loud crash. I sprang out of my berth, and instinctively rushed up the companion ladder. Just then I dimly saw a spar over me, and, clutching it, was the next moment carried along away from the deck of the vessel, which disappeared beneath my feet. I heard voices shouting, and cries apparently from the hooker. The night was so dark that I could scarcely see a foot above me. I scrambled up what I found must be the dolphin striker of a vessel, and thence on to her bowsprit.

"Here's one of them," I heard some one sing out, as I made my way on to the forecastle of what I supposed was a ship of war.

My first thought was for Larry.

"What has become of the hooker?" I exclaimed. Has any one else been saved?

The question was repeated by the officer of the watch, who now came hurrying forward.

No answer was returned.

"I fear the vessel must have gone down. We shouted to her to keep her luff, but no attention was paid, and she ran right under our bows," said the officer.

"I'm not certain that she sank," I answered. "She appeared to me to be capsizing, and I hope may be still afloat."

"We will look for her, at all events," said the officer; and he gave the necessary orders to bring the ship to the wind, and then to go about.

So dark was the night, however, that we might have pa.s.sed close to a vessel without seeing her, though eager eyes were looking out on either side.

Having stood on a little way we again tacked, and for three hours kept beating backwards and forwards; but our search was in vain.

The vessel which had run down the hooker was, I found, H.M. brig of war _Osprey_, commander Hartland, on her pa.s.sage home from the North American station.

"You have had a narrow escape of it," observed the commander, who came on deck immediately on being informed of what had occurred. "I am truly glad that you have been saved, and wish that we had been able to pick up the crew. I have done all I can," he said at length, "and I feel sure that if the hooker had remained afloat, we must have pa.s.sed close to her."

"I am afraid that you are right, sir," I said, and I gave vent to a groan, if I did not actually burst into tears, as I thought of the cheery spirits of my faithful follower Larry being quenched in death.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

A VISIT TO FRANCE.

"What is the matter?" asked the commander in a kind tone.

"I had a man on board who had been with me ever since I went to sea," I answered. "We had been through dangers of all sorts together, and he would have given his life to save mine."

"Very sorry, very sorry to hear it," he said in a kind tone. "Come into my cabin; I'll give you a shake-down, and you must try to go to sleep till the morning."

I gladly accepted his offer. The steward soon made up a bed for me; but after the dreadful event of the night, I found it more difficult than I had ever done before to close my eyes. I kept thinking of poor Larry, and considering if I could have done anything to save him. I blamed myself for turning in, when I saw the half-drunken condition of the skipper. His crew probably were in the same state, and had neglected to keep a look-out. I at last, however, went to sleep, and didn't awake till the steward called me, to say that breakfast would be on the table presently.

I jumped up, and, having had a wash, went on deck. The officers of the brig received me very kindly, and congratulated me on my escape.

Presently a master's mate came from below, and looked hard at me for a moment, and then, stretching out his hand, exclaimed, "Why, Paddy, my boy! is it yourself? I'm delighted to see you."

I recognised Sinnet, my old messmate on board the _Liffy_.

"Why, I thought you were a lieutenant long ago," he said, after we had had a little conversation. "For my part I have given up all hopes of promotion, unless we get another war with the French, or Dutch, or Spaniards; but there's no use in sighing, so I take things as they come."

"That's much as I must do, and as we all must if we would lead happy lives," I answered.

It cheered me up to meet Sinnet, and we had plenty of talk about old times. A strong north-westerly breeze was blowing, and the brig, under plain sail, was slashing along at a great rate up Channel. I hoped that she would put into Plymouth, but somewhat to my disappointment I found that she was bound for Portsmouth. I was now summoned by the captain's steward to breakfast, and a very good one I enjoyed. When I told the commander where I was going when the hooker was run down, he said that he thought it very likely he should be sent round to the Irish coast, and that if I liked to remain on board he would land me at the first port we might touch at near my home. Next day we ran through the Needles' pa.s.sage, and brought up at Spithead, where the _Osprey_ had to wait for orders from the Admiralty. As we might sail at any moment, we were unable to go on sh.o.r.e. Though I was the commander's guest, I several times dined with the midshipmen, or spent the evening in the berth.

Our berth in the _Liffy_ was not very large, but this was of much smaller dimensions, and had in it the a.s.sistant-surgeon, two master's mates, the master's a.s.sistant, all grown men, besides two clerks and four midshipmen. It was pretty close stowing, when all hands except those on watch were below, and the atmosphere, redolent of tobacco-smoke and rum, was occasionally somewhat oppressive. As the brig had been some time in commission, the greater part of the gla.s.s and crockery had disappeared. There were a few plates of different patterns, which were eked out with platters, saucers, and two or three wooden bowls. The bottoms of bottles, two or three tea-cups without handles, and the same number of pewter mugs, served for gla.s.ses. Three tallow dips stuck in bottles gave an uncertain light in the berth. Salt beef and pork with pease-pudding, cheese with weevilly biscuits, const.i.tuted our fare till we got to Spithead, when we obtained a supply of vegetables, fresh meat, and soft tack, as loaves are called at sea. The ship's rum, with water of a yellowish hue, formed our chief beverage; but the fare being what all hands were accustomed to have, no one, except the a.s.sistant-surgeon, a Welshman, who had lately come to sea, grumbled at it.

I wrote to my uncle to tell him I was safe; for, having said I was coming by the hooker, as she would not arrive, my family, I conjectured, might be alarmed at my non-appearance. I also mentioned the loss of poor Larry, and begged the major to break the news to his family. Their great grief, I knew, would be that they would not have the opportunity of waking him. I also wrote to Nettleship to tell him of my adventure, and enclosed a letter to the captain, begging that in consequence my leave might be prolonged.

After we had been three days at anchor, the commander, who had been on sh.o.r.e, told me on his return that he had received orders to proceed at once to Cork, and that he would land me there. We had a quick pa.s.sage, and as soon as we had dropped our anchor in the beautiful bay, Captain Hartland very kindly sent me up, in a boat under charge of Sinnet, to Cork.

Having fortunately my money in my pocket when the hooker went down, I was able to hire a horse through the help of the landlord of the "Shamrock" hotel, and as I knew the road thoroughly I had no fear about finding my way. Having parted from my old messmate Sinnet, I started at dawn the next morning, intending to push on as fast as my steed would carry me. I had somewhat got over the loss of Larry, but it made me very sad when I had to answer the questions put to me about him by the people of the inns where we had before stopped.

"And to think that him and his fiddle are gone to the bottom of the say!

Och ahone! och ahone!" cried Biddy Casey, the fair daughter of the landlord of the inn, the scene of our encounter with the irate sow.

It was late in the evening when I reached Ballinahone, and as I rode up the avenue I saw a tall figure pacing slowly in front of the house. It was my uncle. I threw myself from the saddle, and led my knocked-up steed towards him. He started as he turned and saw me.

"What, Terence, is it you yourself?" he exclaimed, stretching out his hands. "You have been a long time coming, and I fancied your ship must have sailed, and that you could not obtain leave."

I told him that I had twice written, but he said that he had not received either of my letters.

"You come to a house of mourning, my boy," he continued, "though I doubt not you'll have been prepared for what I have to tell you."

"My father!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, he's gone; and really from the condition into which he had fallen, it was a happy release, at all events to the rest of the family, who could not watch him without pain."

"And my mother?" I answered anxiously.

"She is slowly recovering, and I think that your arrival will do her good," he said. "Maurice and his young wife have come to live at the castle, and they get on very well with your sisters and their husbands.

But what has become of Larry?" he asked, looking down the avenue, expecting to see him following me.