The Three Lieutenants Part 1

The Three Lieutenants.

by W.H.G. Kingston.

CHAPTER ONE.

LIEUTENANT JACK ROGERS AT HOME--HIS BROTHER TOM RESOLVES TO FOLLOW IN HIS WAKE--HIS OLD SHIPMATES DISCUSSED--LETTER FROM TERENCE ADAIR DESCRIPTIVE OF HIS FAMILY--ADMIRAL TRITON PLEADS TOM'S CAUSE--THE ADMIRAL'S ADVICE TO TOM--LEAVING HOME.

"Really, Jack, that uniform is excessively becoming. Do oblige us by standing up as if you were on the quarter-deck of your ship and hailing the main-top. I do not remember ever having seen a naval officer above the rank of a midshipman in uniform before. Do you, Lucy?"

"Only once, at a Twelfth-night party at Foxica, to which you did not go, when Lady Darlington persuaded Admiral Triton to rig himself out, as he called it, for our amus.e.m.e.nt, in a naval suit of the time of Benbow, belonging to her great-grandfather. I prefer Jack in his uniform, I own, and he looks infinitely better in it than he does in top-boots and a hunting-coat, when he is eclipsed by many of the young farmers who have not two ideas to string together."

These remarks were made in the presence of Jack Rogers by his young and pretty sisters, Mary and Lucy, soon after his return home from China, on his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, when one morning he entered the breakfast-room, dressed in a bran-new uniform, which, with inward satisfaction, he had put on at their request, that he might exhibit it to them. It set off to advantage his manly, well-knit figure, at which no one could look without seeing that he must possess ample strength of limb and muscle. An honest, kind heart beamed through a somewhat broad, very sun-burnt countenance. His features were good, though, and his head was well set on a wide pair of shoulders, which made him look shorter than he really was, not that he could boast of being a man of inches. Take him for all in all, Jack Rogers was a thoroughly good specimen of the British naval officer. Of course his sisters admired him--what sisters would not?--but their admiration was surpa.s.sed by that of his youngest brother, Tom, who was firmly of opinion that there never had been and never could be anybody like him; yet Tom was Jack in miniature, and the portrait of Jack, taken just before he went to sea, was frequently supposed to be that of Tom. At school (Tom went to Eagle House, which, though old Rowley had retired to enjoy a well-earned "otium c.u.m dignitate" in his native c.u.mberland, still kept up its ancient character under an able master) his great delight was to talk of the sayings and doings of "my brother Jack," and to read extracts from the accounts of the latter, which from time to time came home. Tom's schoolfellows knew almost as much about Jack's adventures as those who, in subsequent years, read them in print, and they all agreed that he must be a first-rate chap.

"I should think so, indeed," said Tom, in a tone of confidence. "If you were just to see him once you'd say I am right, and my great wonder is, that the Lords of the Admiralty don't make him a post-captain right off at once. They couldn't help themselves if they knew him as well as I do."

Thus admiring Jack, it was natural that Tom should have resolved to follow in his footsteps. His whole heart was set upon being a sailor, and going some day to sea with Jack. He did not talk much about his intentions; that was not his way, except, perhaps, to one or two very intimate friends; but he had confided his hopes and wishes to Admiral Triton, who had promised to forward them.

"You can't choose a better profession, and I'll see about it when the time comes," answered the Admiral. "Not that the service is what it was, but I never hold with those who swear that it's going to ruin, and I shall have no fear on that score as long as there are plenty of fine young fellows in it, like your brother Jack and his friends Murray and Adair and scores of others, and such as you'll turn out, Tom, I'm sure.

No, no. I've a notion, however, that we should have been much the better if those abominable, smoky tea-kettles of affairs introduced of late years had never been thought of, but one comfort is, that they never can be of the slightest possible use as men-of-war, though they may serve to tow ships into action when forts are to be attacked and such-like work. Never do you get appointed to one if you can help it, Tom. They'll spoil our sailors as sailors if they do nothing else."

This was said before the _Nemesis_ in China, and other steamers had done good service, which even seamen of the old school could not disparage.

Of course Tom regarded steamers with the utmost contempt, and never spoke of them without quoting the remarks of Admiral Triton, who, however, in the course of time, learnt to modify his opinions.

Tom, who had come home for the holidays with secret hopes of not having to return to Eagle House, sat proudly smiling his a.s.sent to their sisters' remarks on Jack, stopping for awhile from the vigorous attack on a plate of ham and eggs, which he had before been making. Jack, who had taken a chair at the table, asked quietly,--"do you really wish to hear me hail the main-top?" Mary nodded.

Tom's eyes twinkled, his countenance beamed all over with delight.

Jack got up, planted his feet firmly on the floor, and put his hand to his mouth as if about to hail.

"I had better not," he said, laughing, "lest I frighten the household out of their propriety. They will think that some wild bull has got into the breakfast-room."

"Oh, never mind that; we want to hear how you do speak on board ship,"

said Lucy; "just a few words, you know."

"As you like it," said Jack, and then, putting his hand to his mouth, he shouted simply, "Maintop there!"

The sound made his sisters jump from their chairs. Tom clapped his hands with delight, and laughed till the tears rolled down his cheeks.

In rushed the butler and footman and two housemaids, with dusters in their hands, to ascertain what was the matter. Sir John came hurrying in from the garden with a look of astonishment on his countenance, and her ladyship's own maid was sent down to know if anything had happened.

"I told you so," said Jack to his sisters. "I was only speaking as we do sometimes at sea," he added, turning to the servants, the female portion of whom lingered to take an admiring look at their young master.

Sir John gazed with a father's pride at his manly son, and then looked at Tom, about whom he had the evening before received a letter from Admiral Triton, saying that if the boy still wished to go into the Navy, he should have great pleasure in getting him forthwith appointed to a ship.

"If the service turns him out as fine a fellow as his brother, I shall not regret should he choose it," thought the baronet. "I'll talk to him and Jack about the matter by-and-by, and ascertain the real bent of the boy's inclinations." Had Tom known what was pa.s.sing in his father's mind he would speedily have decided the question.

The whole party were soon a.s.sembled at breakfast--that pleasantest and most sociable of meals in an English country-house. Besides the members of the family already introduced, there was Lady Rogers--fair, comely, gentle-mannered--and kind-hearted--Paul the eldest son, studying the law that he might take the better care of his paternal estates; and, lastly, Sidney, a captain in the Guards, at home on leave. Then there were several guests, county neighbours, who had come for a couple of nights, a brother officer of Sidney's and a school-fellow of Lucy's. Jack cast an appreciating glance over the breakfast-table, with its plates of attractive little rolls, its racks of thin, crisp toast, its small pats of b.u.t.ter, swimming amid ice in elegantly-designed bowls of crystal, its eggs under snow-white napkins, its covered dishes containing m.u.f.fins or sausages or other minute delicacies, its hissing urn and cream and milk jugs, and tea set at one end, and its coffee set at the other, presided over by two sweet-looking girls; and then he smilingly looked over his shoulder at the side-board, on which, among various comestibles, appeared a round of beef, another of brawn, a huge ham, and a venison-pasty.

Who that has been long a wanderer from home has not gone back in memory to such a scene as now greeted Jack's eyes, especially when hunger has been gnawing or provender coa.r.s.e? Jack often had, and though he had never grumbled at privations or hardships, he was, notwithstanding, all the more ready to do ample justice to the viands spread out before him.

He showed this when, after having helped several of the party from the side-board, he returned with his own well-loaded plate to the table.

The guardsman watched him with astonishment, and even his brother, the barrister, thought that Jack had got an enormous appet.i.te. Jack, who was hungry, saw no reason why he should not eat till he was satisfied, and had laid in a store of food to last him till the seven o'clock dinner, for luncheon he eschewed as effeminate and an unnecessary interruption to the business of the day.

Before breakfast was concluded the post-bag was brought in, opened by Sir John, and its contents distributed. An official-looking letter, addressed to Jack, attracted universal attention.

"Who is it from?" asked Mary anxiously.

"About your prize-money, Jack?" inquired his mother. "You are not yet again appointed to a ship, I hope, my dear boy?"

"I am, though!" exclaimed Jack exultingly, for the moment not thinking of his mother's feeling, "and second of a fine new thirty-six gun frigate the _Plantagenet_, commanded by my old friend Hemming. Couldn't wish for anything better. Where there's work to be done he is sure to be sent."

"But you will not have to go away at once, dear Jack, I trust," cried Lucy, who loved her sailor brother dearly.

Tom said nothing, and it might have been difficult to decide whether he was about to cry or laugh. He evidently felt as much interested in the announcement as Jack himself.

"Faith, they do work you hard," observed his guardsman brother. "If the purchase-system was allowed in your service I suspect that buyers would be rare."

"I am very glad it doesn't; for now, if a hardworking fellow gets his foot on the ratlines he has a chance of climbing upwards," answered Jack. "However, as the _Plantagenet_ has only just been commissioned, I shall be able to enjoy the civilising influences of home for a short time longer. In truth, I am almost ashamed at being pleased with the thoughts of going off again to sea; but after having knocked about all one's life as a midshipman it is satisfactory to feel that one is an officer in reality, with a cabin of one's own."

"Of course, my boy; much more natural than to wish to be dangling after your sisters, or any other of the petticoat tribe who might take it into their heads to patronise you," said Sir John, glancing with all a father's pride at his gallant son. "To what station are you to be sent?"

"As far as I can discover, that remains as yet in the mysterious depths of my Lords Commissioners' minds," answered Jack, glancing over some other letters. "Hemming has an idea that it may be to the West Indies; at least such is the opinion of the Portsmouth tailors, who have generally more correct information on these matters than any one else.

Just now, when the world is so peaceably disposed, it is not of much consequence where we go; and as I have never been in those seas I would rather be sent there than anywhere else."

"I trust that it will not be to the West Indies, my dear boy," said Lady Rogers. "I have read such sad accounts of the dreadful yellow fever which kills so many people, and of those terrible hurricanes which send so many ships to the bottom, and devastate whole islands whenever they appear, that I tremble at the thoughts of your going there."

"Pray don't let such an idea trouble you, mother," answered Jack; "the yellow fever only comes once in a way, and hurricanes appear even less frequently; so that we may hope to escape both one and the other, even if we do go there. I have no wish, however, to leave home in a hurry, and should be glad to remain long enough to receive Murray and Adair, whom I invited to come here, but I am afraid when they hear of my appointment that they will write to put off their visit till another time, which may never arrive. It is not likely that we shall be at home together again. They are capital fellows. You remember them, Lucy, when we were all on sh.o.r.e after our first trip to sea, and they came to call on us in London, and afterwards Adair went down with us for a few days into the country."

"Yes, indeed. Mr Adair, I suppose I must now call him, was, I remember, a terrible pickle; while Mr Murray appeared to be a wonderfully sedate, taciturn young Scotchman, a pattern of correctness and propriety," said Lucy.

"Maybe, but as n.o.ble and brave a fellow as ever breathed!" exclaimed Jack warmly. "I should like to know what opinion you would form of him now. I must write by to-day's post, and beg him to put off other engagements if he can, and come to us at once."

"And that terrible pickle, as Lucy calls him, your Irish friend, Mr Adair, are we to have the honour of renewing our acquaintance with him before you go away?" asked Mary. "I must protest against having him here unless you are present to restrain his exuberant spirits, and the various eccentricities in which he may take it into his head to indulge."

"Oh, Paddy Adair is as gentle as a pet lamb if you only manage him properly," answered Jack, laughing. "Those various eccentricities are merely his little frolicsome ways, which can be restrained by silken cords. There isn't a quieter fellow breathing in the society of grown-up young ladies, such as you now are. Remember, you were school girls when you saw him last, and he possibly did not think it necessary to treat you with the respect he now would."

"He must indeed be much altered then," observed Lucy. "He had then a curious fancy for standing on his head, jumping out of windows, and climbing in at them too, dressing up the dogs and cats in costume, letting off squibs under horses' noses, putting gunpowder into candles, etcetera, while his tongue kept up a continued rattle from morning till night."

"Avast there, sister," cried Jack, interrupting her; "I beg your pardon; you have made me speak like a sailor on the stage. I a.s.sure you that Paddy would not dream of committing any of the atrocities you enumerate; on the contrary, if you ask him what is the chief drawback to his pleasure in society he will tell you that it is an overpowering bashfulness, which prevents him from expressing himself with the fluency he desires, and that his great wish when mixing in society is to receive sympathy and gentle encouragement to enable him to feel at his ease."

"From what I recollect of your friend, Mr Adair, I should have thought it difficult to find a young man more at his ease in any society into which he may be thrown," observed Lady Rogers, who was somewhat matter of fact; "I beg therefore, my dear Jack, that you will not persuade your sisters to give him any of that sympathy and gentle encouragement he wishes for, or I do not know where he will stop short."

"Depend on me, mother, I will be as discreet as a judge," said Jack, who had thus succeeded as he desired in turning the thoughts of Lady Rogers and his sisters from the yellow fever and hurricanes of the West Indies, and the conversation for the remainder of breakfast-time became general.

He wrote immediately to his two old messmates, begging them to come at once, and telling them of his appointment to the _Plantagenet_. Much to his regret, and possibly to that of his sisters, who were curious to see into what sort of persons the young midshipmen had grown, they could neither of them immediately avail themselves of his invitation. They congratulated him on his good luck, and said that as their friends were exerting their interest to get them afloat it was possible that they might ere long meet again, though as they were of the same standing in the service they could not hope all to be appointed to one ship. Alick Murray wrote from Scotland. He had taken under his wing a young orphan cousin, Archy Gordon, who longed to go to sea. Alick said that his great wish was to have the lad with him, should he get a ship, "if not,"

he added, "I shall be thoroughly satisfied to have him with either you or Adair, as I am sure that you will both stand his friend in case of need, and keep an eye on him at all times."

"Of course I will," said Jack to himself. "Murray's friends must always be my friends, and those he cares for I must care for; however, I hope that he will not be allowed to rust long on sh.o.r.e; little chance of it when once he has made himself known."