The Adventures of a Three-Guinea Watch Part 44

"Down where?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed he, in well-feigned alarm.

"Wretch!" gasped I, "somebody ought to wind me up."

"Up where?" again asked my unsympathetic tormentor.

"Brute!" was all I could say.

"That's just the way with you clever people," began the ribbon; "as long as you are all right no name's bad enough for poor people like us; but as soon as ever you get into trouble--"

Here with a groan I ran down, and was spared the end of his speech.

I only had a vague, dim idea of what took place for the next few months.

I was conscious of long railway journeys, and arriving at a big, dreary-looking sort of prison where there was nothing but soldiers.

All day long the place rang with bugle notes and words of command; and all night my master slept in a great room with a lot of noisy men, of whom I have an impression he was not the most silent. In due time he put a coat over the waistcoat in which I lived, and was mightily proud the first time he walked abroad in his new dress. And so things went on for nearly a year.

But one day it was evident some great excitement had come to vary the monotony of our barrack life. Officers talked in cl.u.s.ters instead of drilling their men, and the men instead of doing their ordinary work crowded into the long shed to talk over the news.

And it soon came out what the news was. The regiment had been ordered to hold itself in readiness for immediate service at the seat of war in India! What excitement there was! What cheers and exultation! What spirits the men were in, and what friends every one became all of a sudden with everybody else! Among the rest my young master's blood rose within him at the thought of fighting. He had grown sick of the dull routine of barrack life, and more than once half repented his easy acceptance of the Queen's shilling, but now he thought of nothing but the wars, and his spirits rose so high that the sergeant on duty had to promise him an arrest before he could be reduced to order.

At night the room where we slept was a perfect Babel. Men talked of nothing but the voyage and the campaign that was to follow, and wished the marching orders had been for to-morrow instead of next week.

Suddenly (and I don't exactly know why) my master remembered my existence, and I heard him call out,--

"Does any of you boys know anything about a watch, at all?"

"Duck Downie does," replied one or two voices.

"Duck Downie, me jewil, will ye step this way just?" called out my master, "and cast your eye on my watch?"

The gentleman rejoicing in the name of Duck Downie was a ferocious- looking little fellow who had, before he decided to devote his energies to the extermination of her Majesty's foes, been a watchmaker's apprentice. He came, forward at the invitation, and cast his eye in the direction indicated. It was evidently the first time he had known that Paddy so much as owned a watch; for he stared hard at me, and then said with a knowing wink,--

"Did he struggle much?"

"Faith and he did a wee bit, Duck, but so did I too, ye see," said Paddy, entering into the joke.

"Let's have a look at him," said Duck, taking me and stripping the coat off my back. "Give us the key."

"The kay!" said Paddy, whose notions of a watch's interior were delightfully vague; "sure there's no kay. Here, Edward I will ye lend Mister Downie a kay!"

The youth addressed as Edward fumbled in his pocket and pulled out the key of his locker, which he handed to my master.

"That's the boy! Here's a kay, Duck darlint, since ye want one."

Duck was rude enough to laugh immoderately at this--so much so, that my master, who was unconscious of a joke, grew quite angry.

"Ef that's all ye can do--gape like an ould money-box--I can do that as well myself; so hand up the watch!"

Duck Downie laughed again at this, and then said,--

"I want the key of the watch, puddin'-head, not this thing!"

"Arrah, it's got no kay, I tell ye. What ud _it_ want a kay for?"

Duck laughed again at this.

"Paddy," said he, "next time you borrow a gentleman's watch be sure you ask 'im for the key, do you hear? You want the key to wind the thing up--that's why he don't go."

Paddy, who had sense enough to see that Mr Downie knew more about a watch than he did, held his peace, and took no trouble to refute the imputation on the way in which he had come by me.

Duck Downie having, with some difficulty, borrowed a watch-key, wound me up, greatly to my delight and that of my master. It was delicious to feel the blood tingling through my veins once more, and to have my heart beat again with renewed animation. My master's glee was only equalled by his astonishment. He looked at first as if he suspected Duck Downie of being in league with supernatural powers; but when that eminent mechanic took the trouble to explain to him the value of the operation he had just performed on me, Paddy without a word rushed out, at the risk of all sorts of penalties, into the town, and knew no peace till he had possessed himself of a "kay," which henceforth became the inseparable companion of me and the watered ribbon.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

HOW I MADE A LONG JOURNEY, AND REACHED THE HAPPIEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE.

One morning, in the autumn of the same year, a small cl.u.s.ter of men standing on the deck of the troopship "Lizard," as she tumbled lazily forward over the waves, descried in the far horizon before them a dim low line of blue. My master was one of this cl.u.s.ter, and having recovered from the depression which had afflicted both his spirits and his stomach during the early part of the voyage, now celebrated the "discovery of India" with a cry so outlandish, and other manifestations of joy so extravagant (one of which was pitching one of the sergeants'

caps overboard) that he was instantly summoned before the officer in command, and ordered to remain below for the next twelve hours. This was, I need hardly say, a disappointment to both of us.

All day long we heard overhead the crowding of footsteps, the clanking of chains, and the banging about of baggage. The men were paraded on deck and one or two servants down where we were were very busy polishing the officers' swords. Altogether it looked as if we were not intended to remain an hour longer in Bombay than was necessary before marching to the front. Indeed, the arrival of a newspaper on board, along with the pilot, created such a ferment among the officers and men that it was evident something unusual had happened since we last heard the news.

When, towards evening, my master was allowed once more to come on deck, we were not long in discovering the cause of all this.

The Indian Mutiny, which had just broken out when we left England, had suddenly a.s.sumed enormous and hideous dimensions. The rebels, taking advantage of their first success, seemed to have gone mad with a most cruel madness. Helpless Englishwomen and children had been ma.s.sacred and outraged; gallant Englishmen, overpowered by numbers, had been put to shameful deaths. One by one our strongholds had been surprised and captured; and, carrying all before them, the traitors bade fair to leave England not so much as a foothold in India.

This was enough to make the blood of the tamest among us boil with indignation, and, as the dreadful truth, bit by bit, dawned on our gallant fellows, their impatience became almost beyond control. My master was in sad peril of another arrest by reason of his excitement.

"Show me the spalpeens! Show me 'em!" roared he, almost beside himself.

"Let me at 'em, Duck, ye blackguard; let me at 'em!"

And so saying he seized Mr Downie, who happened to be standing near him, and nearly shook the bones out of that unoffending hero's body.

"Do ye hear?" roared Paddy, quite out of his senses.

"I hear," said Downie, coolly, proceeding to take off his coat and tuck up his shirt-sleeves as if he were going to wash his hands.

"What's the gossoon about at all?" cried my master, taken aback by this unexpected reply to his question.

"On'y going to smash you!" calmly replied the imperturbable Duck, beginning to spar--"so come on, my lad!"

That Patrick would have joyfully accepted the invitation I have no doubt, had not an accident at that moment befallen him.

A trolly coming up behind, took him off his feet. To recover himself, he took a spring forward, and landed full on the top of the junior ensign of the regiment, a mild youth with a very little voice, and for the next minute the two were rolling, one on the top of the other, over and over, along the wet deck, amid the laughter of everybody.

By the time Paddy had picked himself up, and helped the poor young ensign to his feet, his ardour was sufficiently damped. He apologised with as good grace as he could to his late victim, and made very humble excuses to the sergeant in charge, who, fortunately for him, had witnessed that the affair was an accident.

Duck Downie, however, with his coat off and his sleeves tucked up, still awaited his man as if nothing had happened, and seemed surprised that Paddy was not as eager as before for the fray. The latter, however, quite sobered by this time, merely cried out in the hearing of everybody,--