The Three Lieutenants Part 61

So much taken up had Stella been in attending her friend, that she had had no time to thank her preserver, or to speak a word on any other subject. Jack had also been too fully occupied to ask questions. Mr Bradshaw now told him that the _Carib_ had been struck suddenly by the gale, and her masts carried away. At the same time the captain and his mates, with several of the crew, had either been washed or struck overboard, or killed by the falling masts; and that the rest of the crew, left without officers, had, when they believed the ship to be sinking, taken the only boat which remained. As they had previously broken open the spirit-room, they were probably, before long, overwhelmed by the heavy sea. "We would not have gone with them, had they invited us to do so, for we did not then believe that the ship was about to founder," continued Mr Bradshaw. "When we discovered the awful truth, having no means of escaping, we gave ourselves up as lost, and when you appeared we were awaiting the event which we knew must soon occur."

Jack, of course, said how thankful he was that he had been providentially directed to the spot in time to save their lives; he then mentioned Alick Murray, and asked Stella when she had last heard from him, telling her of the letter he himself had received.

Hers was of about the same date.

"Poor fellow," added Jack, "he seems dreadfully out of spirits; and I trust, Miss O'Regan, that you will do your best to restore them."

Stella said nothing, but f.a.n.n.y Bradshaw told Jack that she did not think her friend would longer be obdurate.

"I hope not," he answered, "I have promised to be his best man, and I wish to fulfil that engagement before I pay a visit to my old friend, Adair, at Ballymacree. You, of course, will be one of the bridesmaids?"

f.a.n.n.y said that she had little doubt about that, and changed the subject by making inquiries respecting Ballymacree. Jack, of course, gave the description he had received from Terence.

"And your friend has a number of pretty Irish sisters?" asked f.a.n.n.y.

"Irish of course they are, and as to their beauty Terence has not said much about that, except that his sister Kathleen is an attractive girl, and observed that I should be able to form an opinion myself on the matter."

f.a.n.n.y did not ask many more questions about Ballymacree.

Jack at first feared that it might be necessary to put into Funchal, but the weather becoming fine, the leaks were kept under by dint of constant pumping, and at last the _Supplejack_ reached soundings in the chops of the Channel. The wind held fair, and she was not long in running up it.

Her leaky condition was a sufficient excuse for going at once into Portsmouth harbour, without waiting for orders.

Jack immediately went on sh.o.r.e to report his arrival to the admiral. He was again hurrying on board to escort the ladies and Mr Bradshaw to an hotel, when who should he meet but Admiral Triton, looking scarcely a day older than when he last saw him.

"Jack, my boy, I am rejoiced to see you," exclaimed the old man, "and the more so, as I want your a.s.sistance in consoling a heartbroken friend of yours, Alick Murray. He has just received intelligence that the ship in which the young lady he expected to marry was coming home was seen by a vessel just arrived, dismasted in mid-Atlantic, and as the gale continued for several days afterwards, great fears are entertained for her safety."

"My task will be an easy one, then, admiral," cried Jack, "for I have all her pa.s.sengers safe on board my brig; and if you can tell me where he is to be found, the sooner I relieve his mind the better."

"Let us jump into a hackney coach, and we shall soon be there,"

exclaimed the admiral.

Jack brought the joyful intelligence to Murray, whom he found almost prostrated. It quickly had the effect of reviving him, and accompanied by the admiral they were soon on board the _Supplejack_.

Whether or not Murray asked Stella the question on that occasion does not matter, but very shortly afterwards, f.a.n.n.y told Jack that all was settled, and that she had promised to become his, soon after their arrival in London, where her father intended to remain for some weeks.

Alick escorted the ladies and Mr Bradshaw to town the next day, after they had somewhat recovered their fatigue by a night's rest.

Jack had to remain at Portsmouth to pay off the brig, though he would rather have accompanied his friends. Admiral Triton stopped also, as he said, to look after Tom and Desmond, but in reality to hear the yarns which he made the youngsters spin about their adventures.

It did not take long to pay off the poor little _Supplejack_, which was then towed up the harbour and placed on the mud, never again to float on blue water.

Needham heaved a deep sigh as he heard the report of her destined fate.

It was too true, he found. She was to become a target for the guns of the _Excellent_.

"Well, well," he said, "she has done good service in her day. It is better to be of use to the last than to be broken up, as is the lot of many a once stout ship, for firewood."

Through the interest of Admiral Triton, Needham got charge of a ship in ordinary, where he hoped to remain till he should get appointed to one on active service.

Jack immediately on his arrival wrote to Terence, who had gone to Ballymacree; he had invited Desmond to accompany Tom to Halliburton. In reply, Terence begged him to come over to Ireland as soon as he could tear himself away from home. "Nora is of course anxious to see her boy," he added, "so I beg you will bring him over, and Tom also, if his mother and sisters can spare him." Jack, however, was very doubtful about going to Ballymacree at all; he had been greatly attracted by the person and manners of f.a.n.n.y Bradshaw, though, to be sure, she had not said anything to make him suppose that she regarded him in any other light than that of a friend, who had rendered her and her father an essential service.

"Well, I will try it, however," thought Jack. "Perhaps at Murray's wedding, I shall be able to judge better how she feels towards me."

Admiral Triton accompanied his young friends up to London, where they remained a couple of days, he taking them to see every sight that could by any possibility be inspected during the time, while Jack spent most of his time with Murray at the Bradshaws'. When he bade farewell, after having promised Alick to return in a couple of weeks, he felt quite as uncertain as at first as to f.a.n.n.y's feelings towards him.

Of course every one was delighted to see him at Halliburton. Tom and Desmond were as happy as the day was long, they only wished that Archy Gordon, who had gone back to his friends in Scotland, could have been with them. Gerald Desmond behaved with wonderful discretion and propriety.

"Really, Jack, if Lieutenant Adair is as quiet and steady as his nephew appears to be, we need no longer fear, should he come here, that he will play the tricks we once supposed he would," observed Lucy.

"I always told you that Terence is as well conducted a young Irishman as one can wish to meet with," answered Jack. "I will ask him to come over and pay us his long-promised visit before I go to Ballymacree, and he then can attend Murray's wedding with me."

Jack wrote, and Terence accepted the invitation and came. Lucy confessed that she thought Lieutenant Adair was the most pleasing, right-minded gentleman she had ever met.

"Of course he is," said Jack. "But then, remember that he is a half-pay navy lieutenant, and that his paternal estate is in the Enc.u.mbered Estate Court."

The day before Murray's wedding, Jack and Terence went up to London, and at once called at his lodgings. They found a gentlemanly-looking man, with the cut of a lawyer, seated with him. He significantly introduced his friend as Mr Stapleton, "who is to undergo the same fate for which I am destined tomorrow."

After some lively conversation, Mr Stapleton took his departure.

"Who is he?" asked Jack. "He seems a very happy fellow."

"He is the destined husband of f.a.n.n.y Bradshaw," answered Alick.

"Matters, for certain reasons, were not settled till after you left town, and therefore Mr Bradshaw did not inform you of the cause of his coming to England. It has been a long engagement; and as Stapleton could not go out to the West Indies, f.a.n.n.y wisely consented to come to England, and she and Stella arranged, if possible, to marry the same day."

Jack said nothing, he was suddenly awakened from his dream, and he very soon began to doubt whether he had been as desperately in love with f.a.n.n.y as he had supposed after all. At all events he could earnestly wish her and her husband every happiness.

The wedding took place, and he appeared with as serene a countenance as Terence, who, at the breakfast made a capital speech, and was the life of the party.

The same evening Jack, with Terence and the two midshipmen, set off by the Holyhead mail bound for Ballymacree. Jack did not lose his heart at first sight, but he, at all events, thought Kathleen Adair more charming than her West Indian cousins, or any of the young ladies he had met in the neighbourhood of Halliburton, or, indeed than f.a.n.n.y Bradshaw herself. He could not help it, whether wisely or not, telling her so one day, and as she forthwith accepted him, he had to write home and inform his father of the fact.

Sir John, in reply, promised his sanction and blessing, provided the young lady would wait till he was a commander. Kathleen said that she would wait till he was an admiral, if he wished, but observed that, for her part, she could not see why a lieutenant should not make as good a husband as a captain. It was a wonder that the two midshipmen did not break their necks out hunting, or finish themselves off in some other way, but happily, while still sound in limb, both they, Jack, and Terence received orders to join a ship fitting out for the East Indies, the arrangement having been made, at Sir John's instigation, by their old friend Admiral Triton.