Salt Water Part 16

The sergeant, amused by the way d.i.c.ky took up his joke, and seeing there was no use detaining us, consented not to molest us. We then invited ourselves to go to the guard-house, where we pa.s.sed the remainder of the night, with our cigars to comfort us. I am sorry to say that we did not go back to try and find the owners of the coach, that we might apologise to them for having inflicted so much injury on their property, which we ought certainly to have done. We none of us thought anything more would come of it.

"Oh!" said d.i.c.ky Sharpe, rubbing his hands, "the owners will think that the old coach grew tired of waiting all by itself, so ran down the hill to get warm."

We resolved therefore to say nothing about the matter. The next day, while it was my watch on deck, we were ordered to send a boat to bring off a party of ladies from the sh.o.r.e. d.i.c.ky, who belonged to the boat, went in her. As they reached the ship, and the sides were manned to receive them, I saw that Mr Vernon was in the boat, accompanied by Major and Miss Norman, and several other ladies and gentlemen. The care with which he handed her up the side, and the attention he paid her, as he showed the party round the decks, convinced me still further that what I had heard last night was the truth. Adam Stallman accompanied them; he was grave, but kind and courteous as usual, and seemed to take great pains to answer all the questions, some of them not a little ridiculous, which were put to him. Mr Vernon invited him to join the luncheon-party in the ward-room, so I did not see what followed.

As soon as the boat was hoisted in, d.i.c.ky came up to me.

"I say, D'Arcy," said he, "it's all blown, and we are in for it, I guess."

"What's blown?" I asked.

"Why, the coach affair, of course," he replied. "As we were coming off they were all talking of it, and Mr Vernon said he was very sure I was one of the chickens, so there was no use denying it. If it gets to the captain's ears we shall have our leave stopped, and I shan't have a chance of seeing little Miss Smaitch again."

We consulted long what was to be done, but could come to no decision on the subject. After the guests were gone, Adam Stallman came down into the berth.

"Youngsters," said he, "I suspect both of you were engaged in the destruction of the coach last night. Is it not so?"

We confessed the truth, and told him exactly how it happened.

"Did you endeavour to find out the owners, and to make them all the amends in your power for the mischief you had committed?"

We owned that we had not.

"You neglected your bounden duty, then," he observed. "You should recollect that every act of meanness committed by a British officer brings discredit on the cloth. When a man is guilty of a fault, he but increases it if he neglects to make reparation for it. Now, if I get leave for you to accompany me on sh.o.r.e, will you follow my directions?"

We promised we would. "Well then, we will find out the owners of the coach, and you must go and tell them that you are very sorry for the mischief you committed, explain how it happened, and beg their pardon.

I do not think you can exactly offer to give them a new coach; nor would they expect it, probably."

At this d.i.c.ky looked very blue; but he could not escape from his promise, and he soon mustered a sufficiency of moral courage to carry him through the work. I was, I own, very glad in being thus supported in doing what I felt was right.

In the afternoon we went on sh.o.r.e, and set off at once to the scene of our adventure: The fragments of the coach had been removed. Climbing up the lane, we made inquiries at the top--at least Adam, who spoke Italian, did--for any family from the country who might be stopping at a house near at hand.

"Oh, you want Signora Faranelli, whose coach was run away with last night by some ragam.u.f.fins!" said the master of a small shop where we inquired.

"The same," answered Adam.

"She and her daughters are staying with Signor Bianconi at the big house, there."

Adam led us to the house indicated.

"I feel in a great funk," whispered d.i.c.ky; "don't you, D'Arcy? What shall we say?"

"The truth," said I. "It's the only thing we can say. Tell our tale from beginning to end."

We sent in our cards, with a message to say that two naval officers wished to speak to Signora Faranelli. Adam said he should wait outside for us, and told us to make haste. We were speedily requested to walk upstairs, and were ushered into a room full of company, when a very pleasing, kind-looking lady came forward and inquired to what cause she was indebted for the honour of our visit. As I knew Sharpe would make some mistake, I had offered to act as spokesman, and at once told the whole of our tale.

"Oh, it was very naughty in the carriage to run away with you," she replied, in a good-natured tone, in somewhat broken English; "and it was very stupid in my servants to leave it standing on the top of the hill, though but natural that you, on a rainy night, should take shelter within it. I had been told that it was purposely sent rolling down the hill by a party of tipsy naval officers, and I was resolved to complain of them; but the frank way in which you have come forward to explain the matter removes all disagreeable feeling on the subject, and I am very happy to make your acquaintance."

d.i.c.ky Sharpe drew a deep breath, as if some dire forebodings were removed. I don't know what he thought was going to happen to us.

"I must now introduce you to Signor Bianconi, and I am sure he will have great pleasure if you can remain and spend the evening with us,"

continued the lady. "I shall hope also to see you shortly at my house in the country."

We thanked Signora Faranelli very much for her kindness, but explained that we had a friend waiting outside for us, who had, however, nothing to do with the carriage affair. Of course Adam Stallman was requested to come in, and, to my surprise, he consented.

"I like what you tell me of the people, D'Arcy, and their acquaintance must be worth making," he observed.

We spent a very pleasant evening, got on board in good time, and the next day, meeting some of our companions in the carriage adventure, were able to relieve their minds from certain apprehensions of the consequences, and to tell them of the satisfactory results; nor did we fail to give Stallman credit, which was his due. They, the rogues, were now in a great hurry to go and apologise also; but their impudence, for a wonder, would not carry them up to the point for action.

Whenever we put into Malta, d.i.c.ky and I did not fail to call on Signora Faranelli and Signor Bianconi: and many a happy day we spent at their houses. Often and often I have since seen that, by acting with truthfulness and candour, very much inconvenience, and even misery and suffering, might have been saved, and much good obtained. There is a golden rule I must urge on my young friends ever to follow: _Do right, and leave the result to G.o.d_.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

SAILING OF THE ARIADNE--CHISSEL'S CRUELTY--LOSS OF BOBBY SMUDGE--A HEAVY SQUALL--BOBBY SMUDGE'S GHOST--REFLECTIONS THEREON.

Shortly after this we were ordered to get ready for sea, though our destination was not known. Before we sailed, Major and Miss Norman again came on board, and we heard that, his health being re-established, they had taken their pa.s.sage in a brig bound for England. We were very sorry for this, as we feared that Mr Vernon would be wishing to go home to marry, and that we should thus lose him. The next morning the _Ariadne_, the brig in question, a remarkably fine vessel for an English merchantman of those days (for a more detestable fleet of tubs were never sent afloat), was seen to be getting up her anchor and loosing topsails. Mr Vernon had gone away in the second gig at an early hour; and she was now alongside, while he, with his boat's crew, were on board. We could see him standing with Miss Blanche Norman on deck.

"More gallant knight or fairer lady never trod this mortal world," quoth our poetical Third, as he took a sight at his brother officer through his spy-gla.s.s.

I heard a deep sigh, and looking round, I saw Adam Stallman standing near me; but his countenance was unmoved, and turning on his heel, he continued pacing the deck as if he had been an unconcerned spectator of what was going on. The anchor of the brig was run up to the bows and catted; sail after sail was dropped from its brails and quickly sheeted home; and under a wide spread of canvas the gallant craft came standing out of the harbour.

"A prosperous voyage to you," shouted Mr Du Pre through his speaking-trumpet, as she pa.s.sed us.

He and all the officers took off their caps. Major Norman and the master of the _Ariadne_ did the same, and Miss Norman bowed. It was a trying moment for her, poor girl; for in a few minutes he whom she had so lately learned to love must quit her for an indefinite period, to buffet the rude winds and waves of the ocean, or, perchance, to endure the dangers of the fight,--so said our third lieutenant, or something to that effect. We watched the _Ariadne_, as long as her topsails appeared above the horizon, with no little interest, for Mr Vernon's sake. He at length came back, after a long pull, and was for several days somewhat grave and abstracted at times; but that mood wore off by degrees, and there was a buoyancy in his step, and a light in his eye, which showed that he loved, and was conscious of being beloved in return.

It would be impossible to give an account of all the minor adventures I met with in the Mediterranean; but such as I can I will narrate.

Captain Poynder was very anxious to make his midshipmen gentlemen, and to give us a knowledge of polite literature, as well as to instruct us in navigation and seamanship. Accordingly he got a Maltese on board to teach us Italian. Poor Signor Mezzi had never, I believe, been at sea before; and though we tried to make him comfortable, and d.i.c.ky Sharpe generally resisted the temptation to play him tricks--for he was certain to be cobbed by the oldsters if he did,--I fear that his life was far from a pleasant one. When we had completed our refit, and had stowed away a supply of provisions, despatches were sent on board, and we were ordered to proceed to Tripoli and Tunis. We made a very quick pa.s.sage to Tripoli, which is the capital of the most easterly of the Barbary States. It boasts of a castle and port, and has a large harbour, defended by a moat and batteries, capable of containing a considerable fleet of merchantmen. We remained there a very short time, so I do not remember much about the place, nor exactly for what purpose we went there. There is another town of the same name in Syria, and they are often confounded. Leaving Tripoli, we made sail for Tunis. It was on this trip, if I remember rightly, that a circ.u.mstance occurred, which for some time appeared wrapped in mystery. The adventure of the rib-bone, in which d.i.c.ky Sharpe played so prominent a part, will be remembered. Since that time, Ichabod Chissel, the carpenter, had led his unfortunate boy, Bobby Smudge, a very dog's life. I fully believe, however, that Master Smudge richly deserved every rope's-ending he got.

He was always dirty: he loved dirt, and nothing could keep him clean.

His honesty also was doubtful. While in Malta harbour, some of our plate had disappeared. Our boy accused Bobby of taking it, though he denied this, and, to our surprise, confessed that he knew where it was.

"Why, do you see, sir," he said to Stallman, who sat as judge on his trial, "it somehow or other got into my tub of hot water, and I never knowed it; and when I went to heave the water overboard, I then see'd the glitter of it in the sea, as it sunk to the bottom."

The defence was ingenious, and as there was no witness to prove to the contrary, Bobby escaped punishment on that occasion; though, as he had been seen in deep confabulation with an ill-looking Jew a short time afterwards, suspicion went much against him. From bad, things grew to worse with Bobby Smudge. Not a day pa.s.sed, scarcely an hour, that he did not taste the flavour of a rope's-end--most frequently bestowed by his master, the carpenter.

"You will be the death of me, I know you will, Master Chissel," he groaned out one day, when his castigator was even severer than usual.

"I'll go and drown myself, that I will, if this goes on much longer-- you'll see if I don't. I won't stand it, that I won't;" and he blubbered as few have blubbered before.

"You will, will you, you young scamp?" exclaimed the carpenter, seizing a rope's-end. "Take that, then, and remember, when you come back from the drowning of yourself, I'll give you six times as much." And poor Bobby got it worse than ever.

I think Chissel was very wrong in the way he treated the poor wretch.

Had he been tolerably kind and considerate, he might, I am certain, have worked on his good feelings, and certainly have improved him; but the unhappy lad had from his earliest days been so constantly knocked about, and so accustomed to receive more kicks than halfpence, that all his better feelings had been pretty well beaten out of him.

It so happened that one evening, as the ship was running pretty fast through the water, and as darkness was coming rapidly on, a loud splash was heard alongside, and that cry, so startling to a seaman's heart, was raised--"A man overboard!"

"Silence, fore and aft," sang out Captain Poynder, who at the same moment appeared on deck. "Does anybody see him?"

There was no answer.