The First Mate Part 12

"Oh, Momma," cut in Anthea, "for goodness gracious sake don't talk such foolishness. It was a stupid, a wrong thing to do, after Mr Leigh had given explicit orders that--"

"It was, was it? Then you take that, and just mind your own business!"

exclaimed a well-known quarrelsome voice behind us, and the next instant Master Julius, who had crept up noiselessly behind us in his rubber-soled deck shoes, smote his sister a resounding box on the ear.

As a rule I am a most placid-tempered person, but somehow that blow instantly aroused in me a fury that made me "see red" for a moment.

Wheeling sharply, I seized the boy by the scruff of the neck and shook him until his teeth fairly rattled in his head.

"You young ruffian!" I exclaimed, "how dare you strike your sister?

You deserve a downright good thrashing for such a deed, and--mark you this, boy!--if ever you so much as attempt to do such a thing again and I get to hear of it, I will rope's-end you until you can neither stand, sit, nor lie down. You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" And I flung him from me with such violence that he went staggering along the deck for three or four yards before he recovered himself.

Of course there was at once a pretty to-do. Anthea was crying--more, I think, at the mortification of being struck than for any other reason; while Mrs Vansittart instantly went into violent hysterics, shrieking that her darling boy was being murdered. The young gentleman himself meanwhile slunk away down the companion stairs, eyeing me as he went, as though by no means certain that I would not yet fall upon him and inflict the punishment that he must have known he richly deserved. Then up rushed the two stewardesses, in response to Mrs Vansittart's shrieks, and between them and Anthea she was piloted below, and, it is to be presumed, ministered to and restored, for the shrieks and outcries presently died away.

About half an hour afterward Lizette, the head stewardess, summoned me to breakfast, at the same time explaining that Mrs Vansittart was taking the meal in her own room, with Julius.

"She is dr-r-readfully angree with you, Monsieur Leigh," the girl informed me; "but do not you care. It is time that somebody should take that boy in hand. He is everey day growing more execr-r-rable!"

CHAPTER TWELVE.

THE CONVERSION OF JULIUS.

When I went down to breakfast, Anthea and Lizette were already in the dining-room. The former had quite recovered her composure, although her eyelids were still a trifle red and swollen, while her small, beautifully-shaped ear was crimson from the force of the blow which it had received. I have already mentioned that this young lady's att.i.tude toward me had completely changed from the moment when I saved her brother's life; her frosty and almost insolent aloofness had entirely disappeared, giving place to a frank and cordial friendliness of disposition rivalling that of her mother, which I admit was mightily agreeable to me. In short, I believed her to be intensely grateful for what I had done on that occasion, and perfectly willing that I should know it. So now I was not at all surprised when, upon my entrance, she came forward and, laying her hand upon my arm, said:

"Oh! Mr Leigh, I cannot tell you how dreadfully sorry I am for what has happened. Momma is frightfully angry with you for what she is pleased to term your violent and cowardly behaviour to Julius--they are her words, please remember, not mine: but I think, indeed I am almost certain, that upon reflection she will recognise that no man could stand by and permit to pa.s.s, unreproved, such an outrage as that wretched boy inflicted upon me. The fact is--I can see it for myself now--we have all combined together to spoil Julius, with the result that he has become a thoroughly selfish, conceited, unfeeling, unmanageable boy; and it is high time that somebody should intervene. But that somebody must not be you, Mr Leigh; you have no right to interfere, you know, and I am sure that Momma would never tolerate anything of the kind from you.

"At the same time I feel impelled to say,"--and here her eyes sparkled and an amused smile lighted up her face--"that I believe your interference has done Julius good. You frightened him, and I think he will feel that henceforth he will have to behave a little more circ.u.mspectly while you are around. But I want you, please, to promise me that you will not interfere with him again. I will take up the matter. I will talk very seriously to Momma and see if I cannot open her eyes to the very serious wrong and injury that we are all doing to the boy by petting and pampering him, and humouring his every whim, however outrageous it may be. So you will give me your promise to be very patient with him, won't you? I know that he has been atrociously rude and provocative to you, but--"

"Please say no more," I interrupted. "I think I may safely promise you that no rudeness or provocation on his part, levelled at me personally, shall be allowed to move me in the slightest degree. But if ever the young monkey again dares to lift his hand against you in my presence, I'll--I'll--"

"Yes, yes, I know; you needn't say it," she interrupted in turn, and once more her eyes sparkled with merriment; "it will be something too awful for words. Well, I'll tell Julius what you say, and perhaps the information may have a good effect upon him. And now let us to breakfast, for I see Lizette is in a perfect terror lest the coffee should be allowed to go cold."

We sat down to breakfast opposite each other and chatted more merrily and intimately together than we had ever done before. But when the meal was over we put merriment aside, for there was the approaching junk to be thought of and provided for. When we rose from the table I requested Anthea to procure from her mother the keys of the magazine and bring them to me, as I proposed to make every possible provision for the defence of the wreck, should such unhappily prove to be necessary. And while she went to her mother for the required keys, I made my way up on to the p.o.o.p and took another look at the junk.

There she was, close-hauled on the port tack, and evidently working up for the reef. But she was a slow tub, and the breeze was still so light that her sails barely remained "asleep" as she heaved and rolled ponderously upon the long, low, Pacific swell. I plainly saw that I should have ample time for such preparations as it would be possible to make for her reception.

I flung a look round the horizon and searched the sky for weather signs.

The sky was clear as a bell, of a deep, rich, ultramarine tint in the zenith; shading off by imperceptible gradations to a soft, warm colourlessness at the horizon. There was not the slightest hint of haze or cloud in the whole of the visible vault, and the breeze was a mere warm breathing, with nothing to indicate that it might possibly freshen.

Would that it would fall calm before the junk could enter the lagoon!

In that case we should be able to judge of her friendliness or otherwise by the number of boats which she would dispatch to us. I went to the flag locker, drew forth our Club ensign, and ran it up, reversed, to the head of the ensign staff--which, for a wonder, had escaped the general destruction--in the hope that this would evoke some sort of response from the crew of the junk, to serve in some measure as a guide to me. I had just belayed the halyards when Anthea came to me with the keys.

She glanced from me to the flag and back again, questioningly, and I explained.

"I see," she said. "Very well; here are the keys, but I do hope it will not be necessary to fight. I remember the Malacca Straits affair, when we had the entire crew to help us in defending the ship. Do you think that, situated as we now are, we should have any chance?"

"I don't see why not," I replied. "Although we are a wreck we can still show a rather formidable set of teeth,"--waving my hand toward the main-deck guns--"to say nothing of the two Maxims, upon which I shall princ.i.p.ally pin my faith. The only thing that we must guard against is letting the rascals get too close before plainly declaring their intentions. But that should not be difficult."

"Supposing they are enemies, and should beat us, what do you think our fate would be?" demanded the girl, coming close to me and laying her hand upon my arm in the earnestness of her questioning.

I drew in my breath sharply at the mere suggestion. "They must not be allowed to beat us," I exclaimed harshly. "Such a possibility will not bear thinking of."

"Ah! I understand. So you think it might be as bad as that," returned my companion; and I saw the colour ebb from her cheeks and lips, leaving them white as marble, while her fingers closed like a vice upon my arm.

"But if you should be hurt," she continued, "what would happen then?"

"It _mustn't_ happen," I exclaimed; "it mustn't! I must take precautions of some sort to provide against such a possibility."

"Of course," she eagerly agreed. "But, supposing that in spite of your precautions you should be hurt--or killed,"--she shivered violently--"what then?"

"I will tell you," I said, seizing both her hands in mine and crushing them, I fear, in the pa.s.sion of horror which her persistence conjured up. "I will give you, your mother, and the stewardesses a revolver each, and if by evil chance that junk should prove to be an enemy, and should get the upper hand of us, you must shoot yourselves, rather than fall alive into the hands of the Chinamen! Of course you need not take such a desperate step until the very last moment, when it has become evident that escape is impossible; but when that moment arrives--do you think you will have the courage to do as I say?"

"Yes," she whispered hoa.r.s.ely. "I shall--and I will. But--oh! Walter, I hope, I pray, that we may none of us be driven to that frightful alternative. Now I must leave you, for I want to have a good heart-to-heart talk with Momma. But I shall see you again before-- before--"

"Yes, yes," I said hurriedly, for I saw that the poor girl was becoming a trifle overwrought, and I had an uncomfortable feeling that her emotion carried something of a contagious character with it. It was necessary to get away from emotionalism and down to the commonplaces of life once more, so I nodded smilingly at Anthea and ran briskly below, jingling the keys in my hand as I went.

I had said that I should pin my faith princ.i.p.ally to the Maxims, if it came to a fight, and so I fully meant to do; at the same time, I by no means overlooked the fact that a four-inch sh.e.l.l or two might prove very convincing arguments, under certain conditions. I therefore began my preparations by conveying eight sh.e.l.ls and a corresponding number of cartridges up on deck and loading them into the eight main-deck guns that still remained to us, after carefully sponging out the latter.

Next, I gave my attention to the Maxims, preparing them for action with meticulous care, overhauling, cleaning, and oiling the mechanism of them, satisfying myself that they were in perfect working order, placing a belt of cartridges in position in each, and taking care to have an abundant supply of relays in hand. While doing all these things I kept one eye pretty constantly upon the junk, in the hope that she would respond to the display of our ensign by hoisting some sort of signal which I might interpret as that of a friend coming to our rescue in answer to our appeals for help. But she showed no bunting beyond a small whiff at her mainmast head, which meant nothing.

Having prepared our artillery, I next turned my attention to the subject of magazine rifles, a dozen of which I brought up on deck. These I loaded and laid handy on the p.o.o.p, near the Maxims, with a box of cartridges, although I doubted whether, after all our other weapons had played their part, there would be much opportunity to use them. Finally I produced and loaded six revolvers, two of which I thrust into the belt of a cutla.s.s girded round my waist, while the other four I designed for the use of the women in the last dreadful resort. The boy I did not greatly trouble about, feeling pretty certain that he would look after himself.

I had finished all my preparations, and was sitting on the p.o.o.p rail, intently scanning the slowly approaching junk through the ship's telescope, and taking due note of such details and particulars as were thus brought within my ken, when the slight rustle of feminine garments at my side caused me to lower the gla.s.s. Mrs Vansittart was standing at my elbow. She was still very pale, and her eyelids were swollen and red with recent weeping, but she smiled wanly as she offered me her hand.

"Walter," she said, and there was a tremor in her voice as she spoke, while the blood surged up into her cheeks for a moment--"I want to apologise. I am afraid--"

"No, certainly not, dear lady!" I cried, seizing her hand; "you must not dream of such a thing. On the contrary, it is for me to apologise to you for my sudden and violent ebullition of temper; and I do, most heartily. I cannot imagine what it was that possessed me just then, but--"

Her smile broadened and brightened a little as she raised her left hand to silence me.

"You must let me speak, Walter--let me say what I want to say," she resumed. "Anthea has been talking to me, and she said things that have opened my eyes to what I fear I must call my own folly. She has made me see that I have been altogether wrong in my att.i.tude toward Julius. She has shown me that in the blindness and intensity of my affection for him--he is my only son, you know, Walter--I have indulged him and allowed him to have his own way in everything to such an extent that, unless we are all very careful, he will be utterly spoiled, ruined, and rendered totally unfit to go out into the world and take a worthy place there when the time comes for him to do so. There have been occasions before to-day when I have been troubled by suspicions that something was going wrong with the dear boy, that I was not doing my duty toward him as a wise mother should, but it was not until within the last half-hour that my eyes have been completely opened; and now I intend to adopt an entirely different att.i.tude toward him. But the trouble is that I don't know how to set about it. How were you brought up, Walter?"

I could not avoid smiling at the naivete of this question, yet I could also sympathise with the questioner.

"Well," said I, "naturally I loved my parents, and they as naturally loved me, but they never allowed their affection to blind them to the little childish faults and failings which, like all other children, I suppose, I soon developed; and they diligently devoted themselves to the task of checking these, so that in addition to loving my parents I was soon taught to honour and obey them. Then, when I was five years old, I was sent to school, where, mixing with other boys, any especial conceit of myself that I might have had was quickly nipped in the bud. At school, in addition to a fair, useful education, I was taught to reverence and respect my seniors and superiors, to be obedient, to submit to discipline, to be honest and truthful, to despise selfishness and viciousness, to fear G.o.d and honour the king. That, in brief, was the way of my bringing up, Mrs Vansittart. And although many of the things that I learned had to be hammered into me with a cane wielded by a willing and vigorous arm, I can truthfully a.s.sert that I am not a whit the worse, but rather the better for it to-day."

My companion regarded me smilingly for some moments. Then she said:

"So that is the story of how you came to be what you are! Well, Walter, I am compelled to admit that your parents were wiser than Mr Vansittart and I have been. But I am going to alter my methods now, and I can only pray that it may not be too late. You and I must talk further upon this matter later on. I think that perhaps you may be able to help me. Now, what about that junk? You were looking at her through the gla.s.s when I came up: have you been able to discover anything that would afford us a clue to her character?"

"Not very much," I replied; "but I am bound to confess that what I have seen is not altogether rea.s.suring. For instance, she has not responded to the display of our ensign; and I believe that she would have done so in one form or another if she were coming to our rescue, in answer to our appeals for a.s.sistance. Then, although I cannot see her decks very well because of her high bulwarks, she appears to be carrying a good many men--too many, I think, for an honest craft of her size. I notice also that she has a gun--an eighteen-pound smooth-bore, I judge, from its appearance--mounted on her forecastle, while if you will look at her through the gla.s.s, you will see three ports in her port bulwarks through which protrude the muzzles of other cannon. These look like twelve-pounders; and I have not the slightest doubt that there are three more of the same kind grinning through her starboard bulwark."

"Yes," replied Mrs Vansittart, peering through the telescope which I had handed to her. "I see the guns you mention, and I can catch through the portholes glimpses of a number of men moving about the deck. As you say, there appears to be a good many of them; but do you really regard that as a sinister sign? Would not any vessel trading in these waters carry a good strong crew, and guns for self-defence?"

"No doubt she would," I agreed; "and we can only hope that yonder junk is such a craft. We shall know for certain in about two hours from now; in any case I am quite ready for her."

Mrs Vansittart looked round at my preparations and smiled.

"Yes," she a.s.sented, "your preparations certainly appear to be reasonably complete. You have done what you could, Walter, haven't you?

Well, I am going below, for the sun is terribly hot, and I must not get a headache just now, if I can possibly avoid it. Of course we shall all come and help you, if there is any fighting to be done."

"Indeed," I exclaimed, "I beg that none of you will dream of doing anything of the kind! You would only be a source of anxiety and embarra.s.sment to me. I would rather not have even Julius; for I could not trust him. He is not amenable to discipline, and it is quite on the cards that at a critical moment he might take it into his head to do the wrong thing, with disastrous consequences to us all."