Traffics and Discoveries Part 7

"Ho! Was that the way Antonio looked at it? That shows he 'ad feelin's. To resoom. Without anyone givin' us orders to that effect, we began to creep about an' whisper. Things got stiller and stiller, till they was as still as--mushrooms! Then the bugler let off the 'Dead March' from the upper bridge. He done it to cover the remarks of a c.o.c.k-bird bein' killed forrard, but it came out paralysin' in its _tout ensemble_. You never heard the 'Dead March' on a bugle? Then the pipes went twitterin' for both watches to attend public execution, an' we came up like so many ghosts, the 'ole ship's company. Why, Mucky 'Arcourt, one o' our boys, was that took in he give tongue like a beagle-pup, an' was properly kicked down the ladder for so doin'. Well, there we lay--engines stopped, rollin' to the swell, all dark, yards c.o.c.k-billed, an' that merry tune yowlin' from the upper bridge. We fell in on the foc'sle, leavin' a large open s.p.a.ce by the capstan, where our sail-maker was sittin' sewin' broken firebars into the foot of an old 'ammick. 'E looked like a corpse, an' Mucky had another fit o' hysterics, an' you could 'ear us breathin' 'ard. It beat anythin' in the theatrical line that even us _Archimandrites_ had done--an' we was the ship you could trust. Then come the doctor an' lit a red lamp which he used for his photographic muckin's, an' chocked it on the capstan. That was finally gashly!

"Then come twelve Marines guardin' Gla.s.s 'ere. You wouldn't think to see 'im what a gratooitous an' aboundin' terror he was that evenin'. 'E was in a white shirt 'e'd stole from c.o.c.kburn, an' his regulation trousers, barefooted. 'E'd pipe-clayed 'is 'ands an' face an' feet an' as much of his chest as the openin' of his shirt showed. 'E marched under escort with a firm an' undeviatin' step to the capstan, an' came to attention. The old man reinforced by an extra strong split--his seventeenth, an' 'e didn't throw _that_ down the ventilator--come up on the bridge an' stood like a image. 'Op, 'oo was with 'im, says that 'e heard Antonio's teeth singin', not chatterin'--singin' like funnel-stays in a typhoon. Yes, a moanin'

aeolian harp, 'Op said.

"'When you are ready, Sir, drop your 'andkerchief,' Number One whispers.

"'Good Lord!' says the old man, with a jump. 'Eh! What? What a sight! What a sight!' an' he stood drinkin' it in, I suppose, for quite two minutes.

"Gla.s.s never says a word. 'E shoved aside an 'andkerchief which the sub-lootenant proffered 'im to bind 'is eyes with--quiet an' collected; an' if we 'adn't been feelin' so very much as we did feel, his gestures would 'ave brought down the 'ouse." "I can't open my eyes, or I'll be sick," said the Marine with appalling clearness. "I'm pretty far gone--I know it--but there wasn't anyone could 'ave beaten Edwardo Gla.s.s, R.M.L.I., that time. Why, I scared myself nearly into the 'orrors. Go on, Pye. Gla.s.s is in support--as ever."

"Then the old man drops 'is 'andkerchief, an' the firin'-party fires like one man. Gla.s.s drops forward, twitchin' an' 'eavin' horrid natural, into the shotted 'ammick all spread out before him, and the firin' party closes in to guard the remains of the deceased while Sails is st.i.tchin' it up.

An' when they lifted that 'ammick it was one wringin' mess of blood! They on'y expended one wardroom c.o.c.k-bird, too. Did you know poultry bled that extravagant? _I_ never did.

"The old man--so 'Op told me--stayed on the bridge, brought up on a dead centre. Number One was similarly, though lesser, impressed, but o' course 'is duty was to think of 'is fine white decks an' the blood. 'Arf a mo', Sir,' he says, when the old man was for leavin'. 'We have to wait for the burial, which I am informed takes place immejit.'

"'It's beyond me,' says the owner. 'There was general instructions for an execution, but I never knew I had such a dependable push of mountebanks aboard,' he says. 'I'm all cold up my back, still.'

"The Marines carried the corpse below. Then the bugle give us some more 'Dead March,' Then we 'eard a splash from a bow six-pounder port, an' the bugle struck up a cheerful tune. The whole lower deck was complimentin'

Gla.s.s, 'oo took it very meek. 'E _is_ a good actor, for all 'e's a leatherneck.

"'Now,' said the old man, 'we must turn over Antonio. He's in what I have 'eard called one perspirin' funk.'

"Of course, I'm tellin' it slow, but it all 'appened much quicker. We run down our trampo--without o' course informin' Antonio of 'is 'appy destiny --an' inquired of 'er if she had any use for a free and gratis stowaway.

Oh, yes? she said she'd be highly grateful, but she seemed a shade puzzled at our generosity, as you might put it, an' we lay by till she lowered a boat. Then Antonio--who was un'appy, distinctly un'appy--was politely requested to navigate elsewhere, which I don't think he looked for. 'Op was deputed to convey the information, an' 'Op got in one sixteen-inch kick which 'oisted 'im all up the ladder. 'Op ain't really vindictive, an'

'e's fond of the French, especially the women, but his chances o' kicking lootenants was like the cartridge--reduced to a minimum.

"The boat 'adn't more than shoved off before a change, as you might say, came o'er the spirit of our dream. The old man says, like Elphinstone an'

Bruce in the Portsmouth election when I was a boy: 'Gentlemen,' he says, 'for gentlemen you have shown yourselves to be--from the bottom of my heart I thank you. The status an' position of our late lamented shipmate made it obligate,' 'e says, 'to take certain steps not strictly included in the regulations. An' n.o.bly,' says 'e, 'have you a.s.sisted me. Now,' 'e says, 'you hold the false and felonious reputation of bein' the smartest ship in the Service. Pigsties,' 'e says,' is plane trigonometry alongside our present disgustin' state. Efface the effects of this indecent orgy,'

he says. 'Jump, you lop-eared, flat-footed, b.u.t.ter-backed Amalekites! Dig out, you briny-eyed beggars!'"

"Do captains talk like that in the Navy, Mr. Pyecroft?" I asked.

"I've told you once I only give the grist of his arguments. The Bosun's mate translates it to the lower deck, as you may put it, and the lower deck springs smartly to attention. It took us half the night 'fore we got 'er anyway ship-shape; but by sunrise she was beautiful as ever, and we resoomed. I've thought it over a lot since; yes, an' I've thought a lot of Antonio trimmin' coal in that tramp's bunkers. 'E must 'ave been highly surprised. Wasn't he?"

"He was, Mr. Pyecroft," I responded. "But now we're talking of it, weren't you all a little surprised?"

"It come as a pleasant relief to the regular routine," said Mr. Pyecroft.

"We appreciated it as an easy way o' workin' for your country. But--the old man was right--a week o' similar manoeuvres would 'ave knocked our moral double-bottoms bung out. Now, couldn't you oblige with Antonio's account of Gla.s.s's execution?"

I obliged for nearly ten minutes. It was at best but a feeble rendering of M. de C.'s magnificent prose, through which the soul of the poet, the eye of the mariner, and the heart of the patriot bore magnificent accord. His account of his descent from the side of the "_infamous vessel consecrated to blood_" in the "_vast and gathering dusk of the trembling ocean_" could only be matched by his description of the dishonoured hammock sinking unnoticed through the depths, while, above, the bugler played music "_of an indefinable brutality_"

"By the way, what did the bugler play after Gla.s.s's funeral?" I asked.

"Him? Oh! 'e played 'The Strict Q.T.' It's a very old song. We 'ad it in Fratton nearly fifteen years back," said Mr. Pyecroft sleepily.

I stirred the sugar dregs in my gla.s.s. Suddenly entered armed men, wet and discourteous, Tom Wessels smiling nervously in the background.

"Where is that--minutely particularised person--Gla.s.s?" said the sergeant of the picket.

"'Ere!" The marine rose to the strictest of attentions. "An' it's no good smelling of my breath, because I'm strictly an' ruinously sober."

"Oh! An' what may you have been doin' with yourself?"

"Listenin' to tracts. You can look! I've had the evenin' of my little life. Lead on to the _Cornucopia's_ midmost dunjing cell. There's a crowd of bra.s.s-'atted blighters there which will say I've been absent without leaf. Never mind. I forgive them before'and. _The_ evenin' of my life, an'

please don't forget it." Then in a tone of most ingratiating apology to me: "I soaked it all in be'ind my shut eyes. 'I'm"--he jerked a contemptuous thumb towards Mr. Pyecroft--"'e's a flatfoot, a indigo-blue matlow. 'E never saw the fun from first to last. A mournful beggar--most depressin'." Private Gla.s.s departed, leaning heavily on the escort's arm.

Mr. Pyecroft wrinkled his brows in thought--the profound and far-reaching meditation that follows five gla.s.ses of hot whisky-and-water.

"Well, I don't see anything comical--greatly--except here an' there.

Specially about those redooced charges in the guns. Do _you_ see anything funny in it?"

There was that in his eye which warned me the night was too wet for argument.

"No, Mr. Pyecroft, I don't," I replied. "It was a beautiful tale, and I thank you very much."

A SAHIBS' WAR

THE RUNNERS

_News!_ What is the word that they tell now--now--now!

The little drums beating in the bazaars?

_They_ beat (among the buyers and sellers) _"Nimrud--ah Nimrud!

G.o.d sends a gnat against Nimrud_!"

Watchers, O Watchers a thousand!

_News!_ At the edge of the crops--now--now--where the well-wheels are halted, One prepares to loose the bullocks and one sc.r.a.pes his hoe, _They_ beat (among the sowers and the reapers) _"Nimrud--ah Nimrud!

G.o.d prepares an ill day for Nimrud_!"

Watchers, O Watchers ten thousand.

_News!_ By the fires of the camps--now--now--where the travellers meet Where the camels come in and the horses: their men conferring, _They_ beat (among the packmen and the drivers) _"Nimrud--ah Nimrud!

Thus it befell last noon to Nimrud_!"

Watchers, O Watchers an hundred thousand!

_News!_ Under the shadow of the border-peels--now--now--now!

In the rocks of the pa.s.ses where the expectant shoe their horses, _They_ beat (among the rifles and the riders) _"Nimrud--ah Nimrud!

Shall we go up against Nimrud_?"

Watchers, O Watchers a thousand thousand?

_News!_ Bring out the heaps of grain--open the account-books again!

Drive forward the well-bullocks against the taxable harvest!

Eat and lie under the trees--pitch the police-guarded fair-grounds, O dancers!

Hide away the rifles and let down the ladders from the watch-towers!

_They_ beat (among all the peoples) _"Now--now--now!

G.o.d has reserved the Sword for Nimrud!

G.o.d has given Victory to Nimrud!"

Let us abide under Nimrud_!"