Under the Meteor Flag Part 31

During dinner he addressed himself to me several times, putting questions to me with reference to our recent operations in Corsica--that happening to be one of the topics of conversation; and after the meal was over he invited me to haul alongside, and chatted with me quite half an hour upon the same subject. Later on in the evening I happened to overhear him remark to my uncle,--

"Like your nephew, Portfire--am much pleased with him--promising young officer--very--smart and intelligent--seems steady too--shall keep my eye on him."

Which, of course, was very gratifying.

I drove to the office next day at noon, Sir Peregrine accompanying me, but this time he remained in his carriage while I went inside. My despatch-box was handed back to me, together with written orders--which were read over to me--to proceed without delay to Malta, there to hand over the contents of the said box to Lord Hood. In the event of his lordship not being there, I was to search for and find him.

"Well, Ralph, what news?" asked my uncle, as I rejoined him.

"I must leave you at once, dear sir," I replied. "I have orders to sail forthwith for Malta, with these despatches. I had hoped they would have given me time to run down home, if only for a few hours; but all that is quite knocked on the head. As it is, I shall not be able to enjoy above another hour of your society, uncle, for I must start for Portsmouth without a moment's delay."

"Ah!" remarked Sir Peregrine, "I antic.i.p.ated this, from a remark which Sir James let fall last night, and I have so far provided for it that we can start in an hour's time. I feel so much better that I shall run down with you. We will post down in my own carriage, and after I have seen you fairly off, I will look in upon your father and spend a day or two with them on my way back to town. I shall then be able to tell them all about you."

I tried to dissuade the old gentleman from undertaking so fatiguing a journey, but, having once made up his mind, there was no moving him from his purpose; and accordingly, having partaken of a good substantial luncheon, we started away about two p.m., and, after a pleasant, uneventful journey, reached Portsmouth a few minutes before eight o'clock in the evening.

We put up at the "George;" and, after ordering dinner, walked down to the harbour, and soon made out the "Vigilant," anch.o.r.ed about a quarter of a mile away. The tide was still flowing a little; so, jumping into a wherry, we were soon alongside.

I found Smellie on board, and all hands, including a strong gang of dockyard workmen, still busy, late as it was, putting the finishing touches to the repairs. The provisions, water, and other stores had been shipped during the day; but the boat, to replace the one destroyed, would not be ready until the next morning.

My uncle had been trotting round, giving the little craft a thorough inspection, during the time I had been engaged with my junior, and expressed himself as being much pleased with her handsome model. When we were ready to return to the sh.o.r.e he proposed that we should take little Smellie with us; and we accordingly all three trundled over the side into the sh.o.r.e-boat, which we had detained--leaving Hardy to superintend the finishing touches--and rowed down the harbour again in the light of a beautiful, clear full moon.

Sir Peregrine was in high spirits that evening at dinner; he said it reminded him of his young days to be down there once more, and he completely unbent from his usual stateliness, so that we spent a most delightful evening, turning in about midnight.

I awoke early next morning, and, having roused out my second in command, we walked down to the dockyard to hurry the people up with the new boat, which they were just finishing off.

We returned to the hotel to breakfast at eight o'clock; and by ten a.m., having completed all my business on sh.o.r.e, we once more chartered a wherry, and went on board, my uncle accompanying us. On reaching the "Vigilant" I found that the new boat had been delivered and was hoisted in, the dockyard gang was clear of the ship, and everything was ready for an immediate start. I accordingly gave the word to unmoor, and in another quarter of an hour we pa.s.sed out of the harbour with a nice little breeze from about N.N.E.

My uncle remained on board until we were abreast of Cowes, when he ordered the wherry--which had been towing astern--to be hauled alongside. The "Vigilant" was hove-to; my uncle shook hands with little Smellie, slipped a five-pound note into the hand of Chips, the carpenter's mate, for the crew to drink my health, and then, taking a hasty but most affectionate leave of me, hurried over the side into the wherry, seized the yoke-lines, and bade the boatman make sail for Portsmouth Harbour. We at once filled away again; and two hours afterwards pa.s.sed through the Needles.

Nothing worthy of note occurred until we were half-way across the Bay of Biscay, when, about four bells in the forenoon watch of a most delightful day, with a moderate breeze from the westward, and a very long swell, but no sea, the lookout man aloft reported a sail broad on our lee bow.

I was in the cabin at the time, reading.

"What does she look like?" inquired Smellie, who had the watch.

"I can only see the heads of her fore and main-topgallantsails," replied the man, "but I believe she is a frigate, sir."

Smellie came to the open skylight and spoke down through it:--

"I say, Chester, if it's not troubling you too much, will you hand me up my gla.s.s, please? It is in the beckets, just inside the door of my berth. Here's a strange sail to leeward, and I want to take a squint at her."

I found the telescope, and carried it on deck myself. Master Harold slung it over his shoulder, and in another minute was perched on the long tapering yard of the lateen mainsail.

"What do _you_ make her out to be?" I hailed him, after he had given her a careful overhauling for some three or four minutes.

"A frigate, without doubt," he replied, his gla.s.s still levelled at her.

"I can see her mizzen-royal-mast, with the yard across. Her sails are not large enough for a line-of-battle ship. Ha! she has hove in stays.

Round she comes, smartly too. Why, she is setting her royals! Surely she can't be coming after us?"

"As like as not," returned I. "If we can see her, she can see us; and as a craft of our rig is a rather unusual sight just about here, it is not improbable that her skipper may wish to learn a little more about us. What is she--English or French, think you?"

"I believe she is French," was the reply. "I had a good look at her canvas as she hove about, and it appeared to me to be decidedly Frenchified in shape."

We were already hugging the wind as closely as was possible, and had every possible inch of canvas spread; so we could do nothing but stand on as we were going, and await the course of events.

Her sails rose rapidly above the horizon for the first hour or so, but after that, as we brought her more _on_ our quarter, they began to sink again. When about abeam of us, the stranger hoisted the tricolour at her gaff-end, fired a gun, and showed a signal from her main-royal mast- head, of which we could make nothing. We, however, hoisted the French flag also, and left them to make the best they could of it. After the first signal had been flying some time, it was hauled down, and another subst.i.tuted, but with no better luck than before, and it was soon hauled down.

"She is after us, for a guinea," said I.

"Ay, ay, nae doot o' that," quoth the old quarter-master; "but she'll no catch us the gait she's ganging the noo. This is oor ain weather, and I wad like brawly to see the _freegate_ that can beat us wi' nae mair wind than this. Yon Frenchman wad gie a hantle o' siller to see the breeze freshen, but it'll no do that yet awhile."

The frigate stood on until she was well upon our weather quarter, by which time the heads of her topgallantsails were just visible from the deck, when, to remove any doubt that might have remained as to her intentions, she once more hove in stays and stood after us.

I went below and looked anxiously at the barometer; it was perfectly steady. I then returned to the deck and keenly scrutinised the sky; it was covered with patches of thin fleecy cloud which allowed the sun to show through, with broad patches of clear blue sky between; and the breeze was just fresh enough to curl the tops of the wavelets over in tiny flecks of foam, and to heel the "Vigilant" until our lee covering- board was just awash, with the clear, sparkling water occasionally welling up through the lee scuppers. It was, indeed, as old Sandy had remarked, the weather in which the little "Vigilant" stepped out to the greatest advantage, and I had very little fear of any square-rigged vessel being able to overhaul us so long as matters remained _in statu quo_. I knew that we were sailing a good couple of points nearer the wind than was the Frenchman astern, and I believed we were going through the water nearly if not quite as fast as he was. By two bells in the afternoon watch the craft had dropped to leeward until she was a couple of points on our lee quarter, but she had certainly risen us a little, for by standing on the weather-rail I could see the heads of her topsails.

Matters remained in pretty much the same state for the rest of the day, excepting that our pursuer gradually tagged away farther and farther to leeward, until he was broad upon our lee quarter. Toward sun-down, however, the breeze began to freshen, and our pertinacious companion soon showed us how great an advantage this was to him, by the way in which he drew up on our lee beam.

When I went below to tea, I found that the barometer had fallen a little, and by the time that I had finished the meal and regained the deck, we were jerking through a short, choppy head-sea, with our lee bulwarks half-buried in the foam which hissed past our sides, the fore- deck drenched with the continuous heavy shower of spray which flew in over our weather bow, and our long yards swaying and bending as though each had been a fishing-rod with a lively salmon at the end of the line.

I began to feel rather anxious, for the sea which the freshening breeze had knocked up was very detrimental to _our_ speed, while upon the frigate, owing to her vastly superior power, it had little or no effect.

Night at length fell. There was no moon, and the stars were partially obscured by the patches of cloud which covered the sky. I began to hope we were going to have a dark night, under cover of which we might give our pursuer the slip. As the darkness closed down upon us, and just before she vanished in the gloom, I took her bearings with the greatest accuracy. She had by this time crept up to within a couple of points abaft our lee beam, and from our deck the upper halves of her topsails were visible. I allowed half an hour to elapse, and then tried to find her with my night-gla.s.s. To my great disappointment, I did so without much difficulty; and, what was worse, she was fast drawing up abreast of us.

It was by this time as dark as it was likely to be, so I resolved to heave about at once, in hope that we might execute the manoeuvre undetected, and so give the Frenchman the slip. We accordingly tacked; and as soon as we were fairly round, and the sheets, etcetera, coiled down, I had another look for her. Presently the small dark patch swam into view, as I carefully swept the horizon at the point where I knew her to be, and, to my disappointment, it showed much shorter than before. She also had tacked.

"Umph!" I muttered, "their night-gla.s.ses are as good as my own, apparently."

I began to see a French prison looming in the distance; for, from the rapidity with which she had tacked, and the manner in which, notwithstanding our superior weatherliness, she was overhauling us, I knew that our pursuer must be an exceedingly smart ship, and her skipper was acting like a man who had all his wits about him.

All our lights were of course most carefully masked--a tarpaulin being thrown over the cabin skylight, and a seaman's jacket over the binnacle, the helmsman steering by a star.

We stood on thus for about a couple of hours after tacking, and I was seriously debating in my mind the possibility of giving the Frenchman the slip by lowering away all our canvas and then running to leeward under bare poles, my eyes resting abstractedly upon a brilliant planet broad upon our weather bow, which was just on the point of dipping below the horizon, when suddenly the said planet vanished. I took no notice of this until it as suddenly reappeared in the s.p.a.ce of a few seconds.

"Another sail, by all that's complicating!" I e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed.

"Another sail! Where away, sir?" exclaimed Hardy, who was standing between me and the helmsman.

"Just to the southward of that bright planet on the horizon, broad on our larboard bow," said I, as I levelled my gla.s.s. "Ah! there she is.

Another frigate, by the look of her--hull up, too."

"Phew!" whistled Hardy; "that's rather awk'ard; she may pick us out any minute. But perhaps she's English, sir. You don't often see two French ships so close together as this here. Can you see her pretty plain, sir?"

"Not very," I replied. "But I fancy there's an English look about her."

"Let _me_ take a squint at her, sir."

I handed him over the gla.s.s, and he took a good long look at her.

Suddenly he handed the gla.s.s back to me.

"She's English, sir! I'll take my oath of it!" he exclaimed. "She's the 'Amethyst,' that's what she is. I knows her by the way her fore- topmast and topgallant-mast is looking over her bows. There ain't another ship afloat as has got such a kink in her foremast as the 'Amethyst,' and that's her, sir, as sure as I'm Tom Hardy."