Young Tom Bowling Part 31

"Come on, my lads!" he cried, in the middle of his jump; "follow me!"

This was enough for us.

Without an instant's reflection I imitated Dabby, using Jones's back as a scaling-ladder, as did half a dozen other fellows; until the poor beggar was pretty nearly trodden flat into the bottom of the boat.

'Whiz!' went the matchlock b.a.l.l.s of the Arabs past our ears; 'whir-r-ir'

sliced away their scimitars right and left in the air, with the regularity of so many flails at work on a barn-floor; but we did not mind them a bit, for the 'phit--phit--phit!' of the bullets from our Martini rifles pattered amongst the bronze-coloured rascals like hail, deadening the whiz of their longer-barrelled weapons, while ever and anon the Maxim of the second cutter grunted out a fusillade of grape, making a noise like that of an old man with a bad cough on a winter's night going up to bed in the cold.

"Ship my rowlocks!" as father would have said had he been there, but the Maxim made some of those blessed Arabs cough, I can tell you; ay, and put a goodish few to bed too!

"Lor'," cried Larrikins, who was fighting like a bulldog by my side, "I never did see, blame me Tom, sich a bloomin' scrimmage in me life as this yere!"

It was all that, it being a case of give and take all round, for the Somalis made a rare stand.

They went their best for Dabby, seeing that he was our leader; but the plucky little chap, with his sword in one hand and a revolver in the other, stood amongst them as brave as you please, cutting at this one, peppering at that, and guarding in some miraculous way a hundred blows aimed at him from every side.

Don't think, though, that we left our officer to battle against the Arabs single-handed.

Not we.

I do not say it in any boasting sense, will you please recollect, for I am sure that no one who knows me would accuse me of being a braggart; but, as I am telling of events that really happened, I must speak the truth, and so to do this I am obliged to say that I was one of the first to spring to Mr Dabchick's side after he boarded the dhow, Larrikins coming next with a mad leap that nearly scrunched my toes off, and then the c.o.xswain of the cutter and the rest of the chaps.

Striking out with our cutla.s.ses, we soon cleared a circle round the lieutenant; and then, forming up like a breastwork in front of him, we rushed at the remaining Somalis in the bows, hurling over into the sea, with the impetus of our charge, those whom we did not cut down outright, or settle with a thrust from our straight-edged blades.

The crew of our other boat had meanwhile climbed aboard amidships, where they soon despatched the rest of the Arabs holding out there, a well- aimed shot from the rifle of Larrikins potting the green-turbaned chief of the gang.

With his fall, all opposition now ceased, and we took possession of our prize; some twenty odd Somalis only remaining in our hands as prisoners, the others having been all slain in open combat, or drowned when they tumbled over the side.

We had not escaped scatheless either, for we lost three men in our boat, besides Bartlett the bowman, and had five wounded, the c.o.xswain seriously; while Larrikins had a bullet through the fleshy part of his forearm, and I received a knock on the knee from a friendly Arab which made me limp for more than a month afterwards.

The second cutter, however, came off the worst, Mr Doyle, our junior lieutenant, having been shot through the lungs with a jagged matchlock ball in the desperate hand-to-hand fighting that ensued on her first attack, which the Somalis repulsed, twelve more men of her complement, besides, being either killed or wounded.

Poor Mr Doyle died shortly after we effected the capture of the batilla; but, being a quiet, inoffensive sort of man, I don't think his loss affected any one very much, while Mr Chisholm the middy, who was made an acting sub-lieutenant in his place--such is the fortune of war-- was the reverse of sad when he came up to us presently in the whaler, towing the smaller dhow, which he had very pluckily captured to his own cheek.

The rest of the Somali craft had been run ash.o.r.e on the rocks to escape our clutches, reminding me of my old chum Mick one day, when we were walking along the Gosport ramparts and it was raining, proceeding carefully to take off his clothes and go into the water, to 'kape himself dhry,' as he explained to me in his Irish way.

So now the Arabs had knocked their dhows to pieces to save them; but the men who manned them, as well as the poor slaves with which the majority of them had been crammed, we found, on pulling insh.o.r.e to examine them later on, had all got safely beyond our reach, far away amid the khors of the desert coast of the barren and inhospitable Nogal country.

To make matters certain that they should not be able to get the dhows afloat again in the event of their returning, as well as to revenge ourselves at being prevented from towing these off ourselves, so that we might obtain the usual bounty given by the Zanzibar prize court for their capture, we set fire to every single one of them, burning the lot to the water's edge.

The whaler a.s.sisted us at this job, the second cutter being sent back to the ship by Mr Dabchick to convey all our wounded comrades thither for medical treatment, as well as the body of Mr Doyle, and that of another poor fellow who had not gone overboard; we ourselves not yet returning to the _Mermaid_, not rejoining her until our task was done, late in the afternoon.

We buried the lieutenant and bluejacket who had fallen, at sunset; after which, hoisting in all our boats, the cruiser put on steam and made for Ras Hafim, picking up, when nearly abreast of the headland, just before dark, the steam pinnace--all the chaps aboard of which, from Mr Gresham downwards, getting quite angry when we told them of the little piece of business we had been engaged on up the coast, our shipmates being riled at having been left out in the cold and not sharing in our fun.

Fun they thought it; but, if they had gone through the job of scrubbing down the thwarts and bottom boards of the cutter after the fray, as Larrikins and I had to do, mopping up the blood and gore, which was more than an inch deep, the fighting would not have seemed so jolly as their imaginations pictured it.

Seeing nothing of our senior officer after picking up the pinnace, we proceeded down the coast in the direction of Zanzibar, running across him at last when near Momba.s.sa.

This was lucky for us; for, as soon as Captain Hankey had communicated with the flagship, he received fresh instructions that he was to keep guard on the district lying between Pemba on the south and Witu on the north; and, as Momba.s.sa was about midway between the two points, we were, so to speak, in the very centre of our cruising ground.

For the next few months, though, our work was not very lively, all of us belonging to the boats being now engaged on patrol duty and separated for weeks sometimes from our comrades on board the ship.

The first and second cutters, the launch, and the steam pinnace were each provisioned and sent away to scout along the coast independently of each other, watching for dhows and any suspicious craft we might see making from the mainland for the islands, having orders to capture or destroy such as we found carrying slaves; the _Mermaid_, our foster- mother, giving us a look-up in turn at our respective stations, to see how we were getting on, and supply us with any stores we might need in the grub and water line.

It was a dreary task.

Sometimes for days we would not sight a sail; and, keeping out to sea, so as to avoid observation from the sh.o.r.e, there was nothing to be seen that could distract one's attention but the wide-stretching steel-blue surface of the limitless Indian Ocean, and the eternal coppery sky overhead, with never a cloud to shade us from the ever-blazing sun.

The south-west monsoon was in full swing, and the weather, consequently, was cooler than usual--that was one comfort; but, the irksomeness of our life was almost unbearable, and we all longed for something to happen, no matter what, to break the monotony of our perpetual patrol.

Of course, we did come across some dhows, one in particular, a large 'bagala,' a craft with a high square stern, and a prow like a goose- neck; while her p.o.o.p resembled that of a Chinese junk, being only a trifle clumsier--if possible.

We overhauled this hooker between Zanzibar and Pemba; and, as she was making for the latter island, where cloves are grown and a large number of slaves employed in their cultivation, the trade being the most important on the coast, we naturally thought we were going to make a big haul and get no end of bounty for the capture of the dhow.

But, as luck would have it, when we boarded her, not a single n.i.g.g.e.r was aboard, nor was there any sign about her to show that she was fitted out for the contraband business, there being no second bamboo deck betwixt her hold and the upper one, which the slavers always have; and, though we rummaged her fore and aft, we could not tumble upon the special stock of rice and barricoes of water, which are always carried for the accommodation of the ebony pa.s.sengers, if they have any.

No, all was in order; her 'reis,' or skipper, a swarthy Arab, with the most diabolical expression I ever saw on human face, showing us his clearance paper, which had the stamp of the British Consulate, and described that he was bound on a trading voyage to Muscat.

So we had to let him pa.s.s, the old rascal of a 'reis' grinning over her stern at us as the bagala made off, running before the wind; the hook- nosed Arab looking as pleased as Punch, and yet having a sort of sly, malicious twinkle in his eye, like that 'Old Nick' probably puts on 'when he catches a churchwarden robbing a till,' as Larrikins said.

No wonder the old slave-dealer sn.i.g.g.e.red to himself; for we heard afterwards that he put in at Pangani the same night, after we were out of sight, beating down to the southward, and succeeded in running a cargo of the usual sort, the proceeds of the trip enabling him to retire from business and set up as a holy man for the rest of his life.

Beyond boarding this dhow, though we saw some others at a distance which we were unable to forereach on, the beggars being too handy on a wind, we did not have a single exciting incident for the three months or more that we were detached from our ship; and all of us, as I have said, were longing for something to wake us up.

This 'something' came at last.

Ay; and in a most unexpected fashion, too!

It was getting near the time for the _Mermaid_ to come and relieve us, and we were making for our rendezvous at Bagamoyo, to the south of Zanzibar, for her to pick us up.

The south-west monsoon having slackened down a good deal within the last few days, though the month of August, when it usually blows with its greatest force, we were able to work well to windward; and we were rapidly closing on Bagamoyo, when the sea began to get up in a very strange manner, and the sky, which had been cloudless, as customary, since the morning, became clouded with ma.s.ses of fleeting vapour that presently banked themselves on the horizon to the north.

"I say, Draper," said Mr Chisholm, who, since his promotion, had been appointed to the cutter, turning round to our c.o.xswain, "what do you think of the weather?"

"Think, sir?" rejoined Draper, who had served on the East African station before joining the _Mermaid_, and 'knew the ropes,' as the saying goes. "I don't think about it at all, sir."

"Well, well," said Mr Chisholm, who was a jocular sort of young fellow and never hard on a man, besides which he knew Draper's crusty way, "tell us what you know, then."

"Very good, sir," replied our old sh.e.l.lback of a c.o.xswain. "Then, I knows, sir, the monsoon's on the shift, and we're agoin' to have a blow from the nor'ard afore dark."

"What do you advise our doing, c.o.xen?"

"Adwise, sir?" repeated Draper, as usual, after Mr Chisholm, his habit always when asked a question. "If I was you, sir, I'd up stick and run for it, sir, to the nearest port."

"The nearest port on our lee is Zanzibar," said Mr Chisholm. "I suppose you mean to loo'ard, Draper?"

"Aye, aye, sir, I means to loo'ard."