Under the Meteor Flag Part 27

Then be so kind as to find Mr Malcolm," (the surgeon), "and ask him to step into my cabin for a moment, if he is disengaged."

Certain now that there was something in the wind, I lost no time in hunting up the worthy medico and delivering the skipper's message, which I supplemented by a request upon my own account, that if any proposal were made to send me away upon another expedition, the doctor would kindly throw no difficulties in the way.

To which the canny Scotchman replied,--

"Before makin' any sic a promise, I'll just bide a wee and speir a few particulars anent the nature o' the said expedition, laddie. If it's o'

a nature to prove benefecial to your health--why then I'm no saying but what I may be induced to do what I can to forward your views; but no'

itherwise."

I watched him into the cabin, and then "stood off and on" outside upon the quarter-deck, awaiting his reappearance.

I had not long to wait. In less than five minutes he came out upon the quarter-deck, and seeing me, beckoned me to approach.

"It's a' right, laddie," said he, "just gang ben til him,"--pointing to the cabin--"and tak' your instructions. It's just the vera thing I wad hae prescribed for you had it been possible to hae had the prescription mad' up. But ye'll no gang oot o' the ship until ye hae been to me for a wee drappie pheesic ye maun tak' along wi' ye, d'ye mind?"

I promised the kind-hearted old fellow I would be sure to do his bidding and then joyously entered the cabin.

"Sit down, Mr Chester," said the skipper, when I made my appearance. I took the chair which he had indicated, and he then proceeded,--

"The admiral has some important despatches to send away, which he is anxious should reach England as speedily as possible. The 'Vigilant'

will take them hence to Gibraltar, and the admiral there will be requested to despatch a frigate with them for the rest of the journey, as Lord Hood thinks the 'Vigilant' scarcely fit to cross the Bay of Biscay. The only question has been who to send with them, as there is still a great deal to be done before the fleet can leave the island, and there are no officers to spare. Lord Hood mentioned the matter to me, and I immediately thought of you. You will have nothing to do but simply navigate the craft to Gibraltar, which, I learn, you are quite able to do; and it will be a pleasant change for you--beneficial, too, Malcolm says. There is only one thing I feel called upon to suggest to you, and that is--_caution_. Recollect that you are a despatch-boat, not a cruiser; and let _nothing_ which you can possibly avoid tempt you to delay the delivery of the despatches or endanger their safety. You are very young for such a trust, I know; but you seem to have as much tact and discretion as a good many of your seniors, and I see no reason why you should not execute the service satisfactorily. At all events I have answered for you, and I trust you will do all you can to justify my good opinion of you. You had better shift your traps over to the 'Vigilant' at once, and then proceed on board the admiral's ship for the despatches and your instructions, as he is anxious for you to sail at once."

I thanked the skipper heartily both for the thoughtfulness and consideration which had procured for me the change of air which seemed needed for my complete recovery, and also for the confidence in me which such a commission argued; and I promised him most earnestly that the safe delivery of the despatches should be my paramount care.

"That's right, Mr Chester," said he, as I rose to leave the cabin.

"Before I say good-bye, I may as well mention that I have been greatly pleased with your conduct ever since you first joined the ship. I consider you a most promising young officer; you have conducted yourself extremely well on more than one trying occasion, and I have procured this little commission for you in the hope that it will afford you still another opportunity of acquiring credit and advancing your interests. I wish you a quick and prosperous pa.s.sage, and shall be glad to see your safe return. And as long as you continue to conduct yourself well, you may count upon me as a friend, willing to do all that is possible to aid you. Now--good-bye! and take care of yourself."

So saying, he shook hands heartily with me, and then, flinging himself back once more in his chair, he turned to a number of papers which littered his table; while I made my way out upon deck, scarcely knowing whether I stood upon my head or my heels, so overjoyed was I at the prospect of the trip.

In less than an hour afterwards I was on board the "Vigilant," with the despatch-box safely stowed away in the most secret hiding-place I could find, and my instructions in my breast-pocket.

The night was lovely, not the faintest breath of air ruffled the surface of the gla.s.sy waters, in whose dark mysterious depths glittered a perfect reflection of every star which beamed in the blue-black vault overhead. So perfect was the stillness of nature that we could hear, with the utmost distinctness, the songs of the men on board the different ships, and even the talking and laughing on board those in our more immediate vicinity; and when we rigged out our sweeps to sweep the craft into the offing, where I hoped we might the sooner catch a breeze, their roll and rattle seemed almost unbearably loud in contrast with the quiet which prevailed around us.

Having a good strong crew on board, I kept them at the sweeps for a couple of hours, by which time we had gained an offing of about eight miles, when I ordered the sweeps to be laid in and the canvas to be set.

Shortly afterwards the moon rose, and, bringing up a nice little southerly breeze with her, we were soon slipping through the water, close-hauled on the port tack, and laying well up on our course for old Gib.

The skipper had been considerate enough to send with me another midshipman, a quiet, steady, and gentlemanly lad named Harold Smellie, a year younger than myself, and a boatswain's mate named Tom Hardy, a very superior and well-educated man for his position, a prime seaman, and thoroughly reliable in every way. These two I put in charge of the watches, and then, having seen that everything was satisfactory on deck and in the look of the weather, I went below and tumbled into my hammock, leaving of course the stereotyped charge to be called in the event of anything "turning up" out of the usual way.

On awaking next morning, I found that the breeze had freshened very considerably during the night, so much so indeed that when I went on deck the "Vigilant" was tearing through it with her lee-rail under, although the lateens were reefed to their utmost capacity. There was a very awkward jump of a sea on already, and it was fast increasing; but the light beamy little craft, although she tossed the spray in blinding showers from her weather-bow right aft and out over her lee quarter, never shipped a drop of green water, and I was highly delighted at her excellent sea-going qualities. I thought, however, that she would take the seas much more easily if she were relieved of the strain and leverage aloft of her long heavy swaying yards; I therefore had the lateens taken in and the lugs subst.i.tuted for them, and was rewarded for my trouble by finding my antic.i.p.ations amply realised.

The wind continued to increase all through the morning, and by noon it was blowing quite a fresh gale, with a correspondingly heavy sea.

At five p.m. the lookout reported a sail about two points on our weather-bow.

"What do you make her out to be?" demanded I.

"She looks large enough for a frigate," replied the man; "but I shall have a better sight of her in a few minutes, sir; she is steering this way."

"I say, Chester, suppose it's a frigate from Gibraltar with despatches for the admiral; what will you do?" exclaimed young Smellie, as we stood together by the weather-bulwarks, hanging on to the main-rigging.

"There is only one thing that we _can_ do, and that is, exchange despatches, and each return as quickly as possible to our respective starting-points. It will be a great bore if we are obliged to cut short our cruise; but our despatches are urgent, and our duty plainly is to forward them with all possible speed; and as this vessel, if she prove to be a frigate, will almost certainly be a much faster craft than ourselves, we shall be in duty bound to put our despatch-box on board of her."

"How will you get them on board?" inquired my companion. "It would be a very ticklish business to launch a boat in this sea."

"We must get near enough, if possible, to effect the exchange without the aid of a boat," returned I. "With care on both sides I think it might be safely managed. What does the stranger look like by this time?" I continued to the lookout.

"Seems to me that he has a very Frenchified look about him, sir,"

replied he.

"Phew! I hope not," said I to Smellie. "Lend me your gla.s.s a moment, will you? Mine is down below. I think I'll take a trip aloft and see what I can make out about him."

I accordingly went aloft to the fore-yard, and sitting astride it, close to the parrals, took as good a look at the fast-approaching craft as the swaying of the yard and the lively motion of the little "Vigilant" would permit.

I remained there for quite ten minutes, and by the end of that time felt perfectly satisfied as to her nationality. She was French, from her truck downwards, without a doubt.

This was an extremely awkward _rencontre_, and one which I scarcely expected. Indeed, our own frigates were at that time so thoroughly scouring the Mediterranean, particularly that portion of it lying between Gibraltar and Malta, that an enemy's ship was almost the last object we might expect to see.

"I'm afraid we're in a mess here," said I to Smellie, as I joined him aft, by the companion. "That fellow is a Frenchman, and he has the weather-gage, to say nothing of his ability to sail round and round us in this weather, if we took to our heels. Now, the question is, how can we hoodwink him and slip through his fingers?"

"Perhaps we could personate some other craft of about our size and rig,"

suggested little Smellie doubtfully.

"Um! possibly. Let's get the French navy list, and just run through it.

If there's anything at all like ourselves we shall soon find it."

My companion dived down below, and in less than a minute afterwards returned with the list and the French signal-book.

We turned it over together, and presently came upon a craft named the "Vidette," which seemed, from her description, to be almost a sister- ship to the "Vigilant." We accordingly determined to a.s.sume her name during the communications which would soon pa.s.s between us and the frigate. The French ensign was bent on, and we then turned up the "Vidette's" number, and bent these flags also on the halliards, after which we could do nothing but wait.

Suddenly a thought struck me. There were several old red nightcaps still on board, which had been found when the vessel fell into our hands. These I at once routed out, and made each man on deck don one instead of his sou'-wester; we were then effectually disguised, as the rest of our clothing was concealed by the oilskins which we were wearing to protect ourselves from the drenching spray.

We had scarcely finished our preparations when Smellie, who was watching the frigate through his telescope, reported that our unwelcome neighbour had hoisted the tricolour, which was of course a polite request that we would show the colour of _our_ bunting.

"Run up the ensign and number," said I to the men who were stationed at the signal-halliards; and away went the bunting fluttering aloft, the flags all abroad, in the lubberly fashion which prevailed at that time in the French navy.

In a few seconds our signal was read; and, in response, up went the frigate's number, which little Smellie read out as it was going aloft.

"Private signal pennant. Eight, two, seven, four."

"Run up the answering pennant," said I to the signal-man, as I turned up the number in the signal-book.

"Le Narcisse" was the name corresponding to this number; and I was about to turn up the navy list, to learn what particulars I could respecting the craft, when my companion exclaimed, "More bunting. White flag with blue cross, diagonal. Three, nine, nought, one."

We acknowledged the signal, and, on turning it up, found that it was a request to "Round-to under my lee: wish to communicate with you."

This brought the signalling to a close; and in about a quarter of an hour afterwards, we rounded-to on the frigate's lee beam, while that craft laid her main-topsail to the mast.

As soon as the two craft were within hailing distance a dapper little figure, dressed in the full uniform of a French naval captain, leaped into the mizzen-rigging with all the activity of a monkey, and, raising his hat slightly in salute (which I of course scrupulously returned), gave a preliminary flourish or two with a speaking-trumpet almost as big as himself, and then, applying it to his lips squeaked out, in French of course, in a shrill falsetto which set all our people on the broad grin,--

"'Vidette ahoy!' Are you the guarda-costa of that name?"