by T. T. Jeans
*CHAPTER VII*
*Mr. Rashleigh takes Command*
Tired Out--Mr. Trevelyan Assists--A Trying Night--On Board the Ringdove--The Sally in Danger--The Sally Disabled--Dicky is Better--Open Fire!--A Surprise--The Sally is Done For
_Written by Midshipman Ford_
It must have been some time between seven bells and noon when we foundourselves clear of that hateful channel and the smoke that seemed almostto fill it, and the last of the pirates had given up the chase. Wehadn't even enough energy to cheer, but we all wanted to lie down. Nota single one of us had escaped bruises or cuts from bits of splinters,and I know that I felt almost dead, as if I'd been bruised allover--being thrown against the mast, when poor old Scroggs was killed,did that.
I would have let the men sleep, but Sharpe shook his head and said thatthere was too much work to be done, and of course he was right. All thewounded had to be looked after, and the rigging and sails to repairtemporarily. When we'd got well away from the island, we found that thewind had begun to go round to the west, and what bothered us most was aplank, under the starboard side of the poop, which had been smashed inwhen the third junk collided with us. The breeze going round to thewest was good, because it brought all the strain on our port rigging,and the fore and main rigging on that side hadn't been injured; but itwas bad for us, because it made us heel over to starboard, and thissmashed plank kept on going under water and letting a lot in.
We had to turn the Sally round into the wind and lower her sails, andstayed like that for nearly an hour, all the time looking to see whetherany junks were coming after us, and standing by to scoot off again ifthey did. But none tried to follow us, and when Sharpe had nailed somecanvas and some of the dinghy's broken planks over the hole, we hoistedour sails again and sailed away for the island where we had to meet the_Ringdove_.
Ah Chee was plucky enough now, and began to cook something hot for usall over the big brazier. It had been knocked over and emptied, butthere were so many bits of wood lying about, that he made a fire out ofthem. He kept pointing to himself and jabbering, "Ah Chee belong plentyblave fightee man," and then to the island, shaking his fist, "Pilonsall same pig."
I had crawled under the poop to look at Dicky. I was almost afraid togo there, because I thought I should find that he had stopped breathing;but I watched him very carefully, and could just see his chest moving,and his lips too sometimes, when he breathed in and out. I crept backagain, feeling very funny and glad. Adams and Cooke were moaning andgroaning, and it was awful not to know the proper thing to do for them.Sharpe had wrapped the two dead men in their blankets and put them downbelow out of sight, and we had put Adams and Cooke and Dicky in themen's part of the poop, because all the upper part, where Dicky and Iand Scroggs and Sharpe had lived, was simply a wreck. My hammock andbedding had been carried halfway through the bulkhead by a shot, whichwas still fixed in it, and my uniform tin case was almost doubled inhalf, and I couldn't open it. I know that you will think me an ass, butwhen I found Ah Man's cake, with only a gash across the icing, I couldhave whooped with joy, and divided it among the men, leaving a bit forDicky, if he ever got well--I knew he wouldn't mind. That was the firstthing we had to eat after the pirates left off chasing us. You shouldhave seen us drink. I had never been so thirsty in my life, nor the menin theirs either, I should fancy.
Our compass had been smashed, but we could guess our course roughly, andAh Chee knew his way pretty well among the islands, so we didn't worrymuch about that.
We were really too "played out" to worry about anything. By the middleof the afternoon it was blowing very hard, and we were plunging, andshaking, and heeling over so much, that we had to lower the mainsailaltogether, and could only carry the foresail hoisted halfway up, andthe little mizzen sail. That eased her, and made her much morecomfortable, and I should have let the men go to sleep, but Sharpewouldn't hear of it. "No, sir. It's going to be a dirty night, andwe'd best set up that damaged rigging tempor--arily." So he and thefour hands--all that were left, if you don't count the two men at thetiller--worked wearily away till it was nearly dark.
But long before that I'd gone to sleep myself. I was very ashamed then,and am still ashamed of myself; but I had got into a corner, more orless out of the wind and the spray, propped up between the poop and theside of the junk, close to the men at the helm, and must have simplygone to sleep standing up, and slipped down without knowing it.
"The _Ferret_ is in sight, sir!" I suddenly heard, and there was Sharpestanding over me, and trying to shake some life into me. "She's askingfor news."
I hardly dared look at him, because I felt such a "worm", and got on myfeet again. At first I thought he meant the _Vigilant_, but it was onlyMr. Trevelyan and Jim in their junk. Oh! I felt so stiff and sore, andhad to rub my eyes to get properly awake; but then I was frightfullyglad, for I thought that Mr. Trevelyan might know something aboutdoctoring. She was slanting down towards us, with only a bit of hermainsail hoisted, and flying some signal.
"We've given her our name, sir," the signalman said, "and now Mr.Trevelyan wants to know what news you have, sir."
I told the signalman what to say, and he semaphored, "Captain toCaptain" (that didn't even make me smile, or feel proud, so proves howtired I must have been). "We have sunk one pirate junk, and escapedfrom four more in the channel between East and West Nam Chau Islands"(we had found the name on the chart, after all). "Petty officer Scroggskilled, two able seamen, Midshipman Morton and able seaman Cooke badlywounded, and able seaman Adams has leg broken."
We saw them take it in, and I knew how unhappy Jim would be about Dicky.Then they hoisted a signal which meant "heave to", and we lowered thebit of foresail and swung round, with our mizzen to keep us in the wind,whilst Mr. Trevelyan came lurching down, swung up into the wind justahead of us, lowered his mainsail, and hoisted a tiny bit of mizzen. Icould see them all looking at us, and Jim was standing on the poopwaving to me, and I waved back to him. They got out their dinghy andtwo men, and Mr. Trevelyan began dropping down towards us. We threwthem a rope and they caught it, swung in under our stern, and Mr.Trevelyan clambered up over our poor old wrecked poop. It was a jollytricky thing to do, because a big sea was running. I was so awfully"done up", that I could almost have burst into tears when I saw him. Iwas never so thankful to see anyone in my life before.
"Holy Moses! Ford, you've been and smashed up the Skipper's junk, andno mistake! My jumping Jupiter! you must have had a warm time, and youlook like a blooming butcher yourself."
"It's not mine, sir," I told him; "it's Scroggs's." I had been tootired to wash my face and hands and my clothes, and the spray hadn'tdone it either; it was all caked and brown by now. I implored him tocome and see Dicky and Adams. "I don't know a blooming thing aboutdoctoring," he said, scratching his head, and looking awfully serious;but he picked his way across the smashed-up poop, and where the Maximgun had been, and we crawled in to see Dicky. He was still unconscious;he wouldn't even look at me, though his eyes were open, and we shoutedhis name, and every time the junk flopped about, both Adams and Cookemoaned terribly. Mr. Trevelyan did make it more comfortable for themall, because he made us roll Cooke in blankets, so that his legs did notstick together, and he made us tie Adams's legs together to keep thebroken one steady; and then we put them in their hammocks and slungthem, somehow or other, and after that it didn't hurt them so much whenthe junk rolled and pitched.
All this time I had told Mr. Trevelyan everything, just as I have toldyou, and he was fearfully excited, and made us show him on the chartexactly where we had been, as far as I could make out. "You have hadluck," he kept on saying; "and I'm going to have a go at them." Yousee, I hadn't really got any information--none worth having--and noprisoners. I had been much too excited to notice anything on theislands themselves, and, as Mr. Trevelyan said, "They might have theirwhole bally 'fit out' there."
"Don't
bother about that, you lucky little beggar" (I suppose I lookedmiserable); "you can't do every blessed thing! Now you shove along tothe _Ringdove_, and I'll beat up to your pirates, if my crazy old'ditcher will face it--she won't sail for nuts, Ford--and just 'makeelook see' first thing in the morning. Give old Rashleigh my love, andif I'm not back again by to-morrow night, or the morning after, get himto come along and pick up the scraps."
He was just as excited as you can imagine. I wanted him to take backall the Maxim ammunition I had left--of course it was no use to menow--and he jumped at the idea, and we hauled the dinghy under the sternand passed the boxes, with the unused cartridge belts, into her.
The _Ferret_ had dropped down to leeward of us, so that he would nothave to pull back to wind'ard; I don't think he could have done so evenif he had tried. "Goodbye, my sucking Nelson; keep your pecker up, andI'll give 'em 'beans' in the morning," he said as he slid down into thedinghy. He was always so awfully cheerful and "buckish". "What d'youthink of Dicky?" I asked him before he let go. "I'm jiggered if Iknow!" he shouted. "Get him to the _Ringdove_ and Hibbert as quickly asyou can."
He was just casting off, when he happened to look up, and sang out tothe bow man to hold on. He had seen our white ensign, and shouted outto me: "I say, Ford, let me have that, there's a good chap; you'll haveno more fighting, and I'd like it so much." I had it hauled down andpassed it into the dinghy, though the signalman wasn't half pleased.
Back he went, alongside the _Ferret_. I saw the flag and ammunitionboxes and then the dinghy hoisted on board, a man hauled himself up themizzen and made the flag fast there, and then she hoisted part of themainsail again and began to pound away back to our islands. We cheeredher and she cheered us, and the last shout I heard was a "tiger" fromJim.
Then I hoisted the foresail halfway up, and off we went again; and bythis time it was nearly dark, and we soon could only make out where the_Ferret_ was by the white splash when she flopped down on top of a sea,and in a very few minutes we couldn't even see that, and felt awfullylonely.
I should never have found the way back, and I don't think that Sharpewould have done so either, but for Ah Chee. He was a grand chap, whenthere wasn't any fighting to be done, and seemed to know every island wepassed that night, and just where we could trust ourselves.
Sharpe and I had to be on deck nearly all night, it was blowing so hard,and of course there were those islands to avoid. Sharpe wouldn't leaveoff talking about Scroggs and the family he had left behind him, andthat made it more miserable still, that and hearing Adams and Cookegroaning, and knowing that Barton and Hicks, the two men who werekilled, were lying down in the hold. We got a little lee from one ofthe islands some time during the middle watch, so then we made betterweather of it. It must have been soon after that when Sharpe woke me--Ihad fallen asleep again.
"Who's that?" he cried, his voice all of a shake, and I listened, andall of a sudden could hear someone singing out "Dick" from under thedark poop. All the blood rushed to my head, and I could have blubbedwith delight, for it was Dicky's poor little bleating voice; and I creptin with a lantern, picked my way over the men asleep, held up thelantern, and there he was looking at me and asking for a drink. Well, Idid blub then--just for a second--and don't mind saying so, I was sohappy, and went and found a little water and gave it to him; and Sharpestirred up the hot bits of wood in Ah Chee's brazier, which the wind hadkept glowing, and we warmed some tinned milk and gave that to him. Whenhe'd drunk it he turned over and went to sleep, without asking anything,only just saying, "Thank you".
Still, that was enough, and I do believe that Sharpe was a little bithusky too; and I wanted him to let me shove on a little more sail, sothat we could get back to the _Ringdove_ all the more quickly, but hewouldn't let me do it. "She's carrying all she can do with, sir, andthe men are asleep." He was right, too, because we should have had toturn them out to hoist more sail.
Ah Chee knew all right where he was going, and at daybreak we sightedthe island at which we had to meet the _Ringdove_, and two hours latersaw her three masts and her funny little funnel sticking up.
I had signalled across all my news, and you can imagine how thankful Iwas to run the Sally alongside her, and to see Dr. Hibbert clambering onboard us over her "nettings", smoking his pipe and looking jolly.
"Find my medicine stuff any use?" he asked me.
"Both bottles were broken, sir," I told him, "so I hadn't the chance,"and took him under the poop, and a lot of men came and hoisted all threeof the wounded on board the _Ringdove_.
Dicky woke up and managed a bit of a smile as they took him away, but hewas still dazed and half silly. They took Hicks's and Barton's bodies onboard too, and before we went off again buried them overboard.
Then Mr. Rashleigh sent for me. He was angry that I hadn't reported tohim directly I had come alongside. I told him all that had happened, andhow Scroggs had done nearly everything, and when he'd been killed, howSharpe had practically done everything, and how Mr. Trevelyan had takenall my Maxim ammunition and gone back to have a look at the pirate placehimself. The last bit seemed to make him jolly angry, and he mutteredsomething about "confounded disobedience".
The wind, too, had gone round to almost due north, so that Mr. Trevelyancouldn't possibly get back for at least three days.
"That ass Trevelyan would put his head into a lion's mouth, if hethought he could get any news there," he said, and swore angrily. "I'llhave to go and haul him out by the feet, and hope the pirates won't havesnapped his head off. If they haven't, I will."
We had to go back with him, he couldn't leave us there, and as soon ashis people had set up some more rigging, and done a bit more to make ourpoop water-tight, and the stern as well, we had to follow the _Ringdove_back again. It was a fair wind for us, and we didn't delay her verymuch. Mr. Rashleigh had offered to let me sleep aboard his gunboat, inorder that I could get a good rest; but I had had a jolly good feed inthe ward room, and had had a bath, so this made me rather angry. "Justas you like; I don't care a tuppenny biscuit," he said, and gave meanother petty officer to take Scroggs's place, so at last Sharpe wasable to get a little sleep.
I must say that I felt frightened about Jim and Mr. Trevelyan, becauseneither of them would have thought twice of taking on all the pirates inthe world; and they had already had nearly thirty hours to themselves,and I wondered what had been happening. By noon next day we were twomiles off the islands, and the channel from which we had escaped; but wehad heard or seen nothing of the _Ferret_, and thought that we mightpossibly have passed her beating back to the rendezvous during thenight.
Presently someone shouted that they thought they had heard the noise ofa gun. Everyone listened, and in a few minutes we could hear threesharp bangs. "That's the _Ferret's_ six-pounder," someone said, and wewere all frightfully excited.
The _Ringdove_ signalled us to follow as fast as possible--she had heardthem also--and shoved on for all she was worth.
She had all her little sails set, and smoke was pouring out of herfunnel.
We saw her enter the channel, half a mile ahead of us, and just as shegot into the mouth of it, two clouds of white smoke jumped out from theleft-hand side, down by the water's edge, we saw two great splashes ofwater leap up behind her stern, and then came the roar. If you've neverheard the roar of a gun, it's awfully difficult to describe it; but withcliffs all round, you can hear the noise smashing up against them with acrash, and rolling about and crashing again.
"They've got some guns there, sir! Now we've got some information aswill please the Captin, sir, when he hears of it, sir, eh?" and Sharpewinked at me.
We kept our eyes glued on the _Ringdove_, and saw that she was clearingfor action. I have always thought that Mr. Rashleigh might have donethat before; and the two guns had reloaded before he could commencefiring, and they plugged in two more shots. "One's hit her," thesignalman sang out, "close to the foremast, sir." But she didn't seemto be badly damaged, and started off with he
r four-inch guns (three shehad on each side, one on the poop, one in the waist, and one on thefo'c'stle). They made an awful noise in the narrow channel; and we couldalso hear the rattle and see the spurts of smoke from under her bow andstern, and knew that she was working her Nordenfelt machine guns."They're digging up the ground all round them pirates' guns," one of mymen sang out, though, as far as I could see, most of the _Ringdove's_shells were falling in the water--at first, at any rate.
I couldn't find the guns, but soon the "Ringdoves" made better shooting,and I could then spot them. Just as I had spotted them they firedagain. "Short," yelled a man. "Two hundred over," another shouted.
"They're too much bothered by those 'Ringdoves' to do much aiming, sir,"Sharpe said very coolly. Then I began to wonder what would happenwhilst we were passing them, and whether the _Ringdove_ would wait forus. She didn't, however, and you can imagine how frightened I was tosee her steaming away out of range, and cease firing, after the shoreguns had fired another round at her, which fell a long way astern. Shewas almost hidden in powder smoke too. "They'll just have time toreload before we get abreast of them," I said to Sharpe; and I don'tmind telling you that I felt in a horrid funk, and, if there had been noone to know anything about it, should have turned the _Sally_ round andrun away.
"All right, sir!" Sharpe said; he didn't look frightened. "Keep heracross as far as you can, and send all of 'em who aren't wanted downbelow. Mr. Rashleigh will be back in a minute." He took charge of thesix-pounder, with one man to help him load, and, "my eye!" he did letoff quickly. I sent everyone else down below into the hold exceptFergusson and another man, who looked after the tiller tackles, and wentamidships myself and stared at those two guns reloading--I couldn't takemy eyes off them--and--and--then they began slowly to train round, tillI could only see the black muzzles pointing straight at us, withSharpe's little shells bursting on the ground in front of them. I'vetold you how frightened I was, so I must tell you that I did not getbehind the mainmast. I would have done anything to get there, butsomething inside me prevented me, and I have been awfully proud that Ididn't, ever since.
It's bad enough standing behind a big gun and waiting for it to go off,but it was awful standing in front of two; and I felt that they couldn'tpossibly help hitting me--to say nothing of the junk--because, althoughwe had crept over to the far side of the channel, we were only aboutfour hundred yards away. Then off they went, the smoke and the flashesand the roar, Sharpe's yell, "Look out, sir!" a crash somewhere in ourpoop, and another crash up above; all seemed to come together.
"The tiller's smashed, sir! We can't steer," Fergusson shouted, and Isaw that one side of the poop had been blown clean out, and the whole ofthe upper part of the mainsail had fallen down, and the top of the mastwith it.
Sharpe rushed aft and cut the mizzen halyards, and down that sail came.You must understand that we were sailing very fast before the wind, and,of course, if we had only the foresail set, we should have blown alongin more or less of a straight line, but the mizzen made us yaw from sideto side.
This steadied the _Sally_ a little, and we were going to lower the restof the mainsail too, when there was a tremendous roar, and the_Ringdove_ came splashing back, in between us and the guns, with all hersails flat "aback", and she didn't give those guns a chance to fireagain. She ran in quite close, and we could see men running away fromthem; and then round she turned, still firing, and followed us as westaggered this way and that way up the channel.
"Lower that cursed fores'l or you'll be ashore," Mr. Rashleigh shouted,"and we'll take you in tow." Jolly coolly he did it, too, and everyonehauled in the grass hawser and made it fast.
In five minutes we were out of range.
"What the furies is the matter?" he shouted from the poop.
"First shot carried away our tiller," Sharpe shouted.
"Anybody hurt?"
"No, sir," he answered. I was too excited to shout.
Still there wasn't a sound or sight of Mr. Trevelyan's junk, and we wentvery slowly up the channel, almost as far as where we had sunk thatfirst pirate junk.
Then all of a sudden we could hear the six-pounder banging awaysomewhere on our left, and the tut--tut, tut--tut of the Maxim, and in alittle opening in the rocks I caught sight of the white ensign I hadgiven Mr. Trevelyan, against the dark shore, and could make out the_Ferret_ herself, jammed at the foot of some rocks, and people on boardwaving their arms.
The _Ringdove_ had spotted her as well, and we all cheered and steeredstraight across towards her--at any rate, the _Ringdove_ steered and wewere towed round--and the gunboat dropped her anchor about a hundredyards off.
The poor little _Ferret_ was all over to port. She had only her mizzenmast standing, and was evidently hard and fast on the rocks, right inthe middle of a small creek.
Mr. Rashleigh went across in the whaler at once, and as he got close toher we could see his boat's crew pulling very fast, and noticed somebullet splashes round the boat, and the _Ferret's_ Maxim spluttered out.We couldn't see what they were firing at, and it was most exciting.
"Mr. Trevelyan, he's bottled 'em, sir; that's what he's done, sir,"Sharpe said. He was busy repairing the tiller, and going about the jobas if he was on board the _Vigilant_ at Hong-Kong, or Portsmouth, oranywhere else where there was no chance of a scrap.
Well, that was just what it turned out to be. Mr. Trevelyan had fetchedthe mouth of the channel the morning after he had left me, hadn't beenfired at by the battery, but had coolly crawled through and examined theshore on each side. He had found this creek, sailed up it right past abend, and found himself in sight of a dozen or more junks all anchoredtogether. He had carried on and opened fire on them, but found thatthey were too much for him. He had lost his mainmast, had two menkilled when it fell, had to haul out again, and, not being able to avoidthe rocks in the middle of the creek, had run hard and fast on them.
Jim told me the story, and how they daren't try and get her off againbecause she had such a big hole in her bottom, and how the junks hadtried to come and capture her, but had to come singly, and couldn't facethe six-pounder shells and the Maxim, and had drawn back. Last nightthey had tried to rush them in boats, but Mr. Trevelyan had rigged netsall round, and it blew very hard, and many boats were stove in on therocks, and the nets and the Maxim gun drove off those that did not getalongside.
"It was a most awful night, Dick," he said, "but I wouldn't have missedit for the world, now it's all over. And what we should have donewithout that ammunition you gave us, I don't know."
All that day the pirates had been firing rifles at them from both sidesof the creek, and only one man at each gun was allowed on deck, and theyhad had to be changed, because three of them had been wounded. Everyoneelse had kept down below in the hold, with the dirty water up to theirknees.
"We couldn't have stuck it for another day," Jim told me, "and Mr.Trevelyan was going to attempt to land the guns on one of the biggerrocks, which had some trees on it, that very night, and try and cut themdown and make a breastwork of them, and hold out till you came."
Mr. Trevelyan had sent him across to that rock during the night to seeif it was all right, and he had waded and swam across, and then in thedark slipped down on his way back, and cut himself against the rocks.His hands, and face, and chest, and all over, in fact, were allscratched--great long scratches--and he was so stiff, he could hardlymove. He had to be bandaged pretty well all over, but was as happy asanything. "Mr. Trevelyan is a fine chap," he kept on saying. "He'salways thinking of some new dodge. It was grand."
"What are you firing at?" I asked him. "Can you see the junks from the_Ferret_?"
"No, they're round the corner, but the cliffs are full of the bruteswith rifles."
Dr. Hibbert wouldn't let us see Dicky. "He's asleep again," he calledout from the _Ringdove's_ poop. "Don't you come aboard, botheringround. He'll do all right." He had a lot of work to do, because one ofthe "Ringdoves" had been very badly smashed "up" by tha
t shot which hadhit her, and four or five of Mr. Trevelyan's men had been more or lessbadly wounded, and had come across with Jim in the whaler. Dr. Hibbert,and the Paymaster, and the sick-berth attendant were busy in the wardroom patching them up.
They had got up steam in the _Ringdove's_ little steam cutter, and Mr.Rashleigh and Mr. Trevelyan steamed up past the rock and out of sightround the corner.
The _Ferret_ fired her Maxim and the _Ringdove_ her Nordenfelts to keepdown the rifle fire, and they got past the entrance safely and out ofsight, but came back very soon.
I could see that Mr. Rashleigh was puffing out his cheeks withimportance, and that Mr. Trevelyan was looking very vexed aboutsomething, as they went aboard the _Ringdove_, and I heard afterwardsthat Mr. Rashleigh had wanted to steam back to Tinghai at once to reportthat he had found the headquarters of the pirates. Mr. Trevelyan,however, wanted to burn the pirate junks first, and, if the _Ringdove_wouldn't go in and try, had offered to do the job with her boats.
Eventually Mr. Rashleigh gave way, but he wouldn't take the _Ringdove_in till his Sub-lieutenant had surveyed the creek, and he sent him awayin the whaler to take soundings, although Mr. Trevelyan swore that therewas enough water.
The whaler was all right whilst she was in sight, but directly she gotround the corner she lost a man wounded, and came hurrying back again.There was another row then; but Mr. Trevelyan had his own way, and aNordenfelt machine gun was put in the bows of the _Ringdove's_ cutterand another in the steamboat, and we saw that they were going to followthe whaler and protect her.
Jim and I were supposed to be getting some sleep all this time, but wecouldn't--of course we couldn't; and just then Mr. Trevelyan shouted tous that I had to go away in charge of the cutter, and Jim in charge ofthe steamboat, if we'd had enough sleep. The boats dropped downalongside the _Sally_, and we were aboard in a jiffy, Jim grinning withdelight. We shouted that we'd had all the sleep we wanted and werequite wide awake, and shoved off after the whaler, Jim taking me in towand I taking the whaler astern of me.
The steamboat towed us past the _Ferret_, quite close to her. She wasan absolute wreck, and all one side looked as though it was smashed inby a big rock. She fired a shell or two to prevent the brutes firingrifles at us from the shore, and the five men left aboard her cheeredus. We got past without being fired at, and then we were out of sight ofthe _Ringdove_, and the steamboat cast us off, and we had to pull intowards the starboard side of the creek and search that with ourNordenfelt, if anyone fired. The steamboat did the same on the otherside, and the Sub in the whaler went on taking soundings between us.
"Cutter!" the Sub had shouted, and I held up my hand (he didn't know myname), "open fire directly you hear rifle shots;" and I sang out, "Ay,ay, sir!" and you may bet we were keen as mustard, and "stood by" withthe Nordenfelt's hopper full of one-inch cartridges, and the lever allready to jerk backwards and forwards.
You should have seen us watching the banks. I had borrowed thesignalman's field glasses, because my telescope had disappeared in thewreckage of the _Sally's_ poop, and watched every bit of rock or bush,and saw several Chinamen creeping about. They had rifles, but didn'tfire them.
"There's a shot, sir!" cried the coxswain, and I saw a splash near thesteamboat, and Jim began banging away with his Nordenfelt, but stoppedafter he'd fired three times, and we had never another shot fired at us.I was rather pleased. To make up for it, we suddenly came in sight ofthe whole fleet of pirate junks, and a whole crowd of ordinary junkslying behind them. They weren't more than five hundred yards away, and,when they saw us, began beating drums, and clashing brass things, andyelling, and letting off crackers to frighten us. One of the nearesthad her side turned towards us, and began letting off her guns as well,and the din was simply hideous.
It was just like going up to a peaceful wasp's nest and stirring it upwith a stick.
We were both close to the whaler, and the little round shot began tocome rather too near. I heard Jim shout, "Couldn't we go for them,sir?" and my boat's crew bent forward to be ready for a spurt; but theSub, who was standing up in the whaler, shook his head, and ordered Jimto take us in tow again. He looked as if he'd jolly well like to havetried, but he had to obey orders.
"There's enough bally water for an ironclad," he shouted, "all the wayup, but we must go back, or it'll be too late for the _Ringdove_ to doanything."
So back we went again, the men pulling their oars to make it easier forthe steamboat, and the round shot bobbing about in the water astern ofus, till we'd got out of sight.
But Mr. Rashleigh wouldn't move for anything the Sub or Mr. Trevelyansaid to him. It would be dark in half an hour, and he wasn't going torisk anything in the dark, and would wait for daylight. I was orderedto take my cutter alongside the _Ferret_, and transfer her guns andstores to the _Ringdove_. This took nearly two hours in the dark, andMr. Trevelyan came in charge. He was simply bubbling over with anger."She's got a searchlight, and the old _Vigilant_ could go up therewithout winking. I bet 'Old Lest' would have cleared out the wholeblooming crowd by now. My aunt! fancy wasting the whole jumping day!Call himself Rashleigh! My blessed grandmother!" and he spat in thewater to show his contempt.
The last thing I took away was my white ensign, and although it wasnighttime, I hoisted it on board the Sally again. It had several bulletholes through it, and was torn and looked jolly warworn. I thought eventhen that I'd keep it--if the signalman didn't collar it himself--for mymother, or perhaps give it to Nan when I got home.
We had cast off from the _Ringdove_, and had anchored close to her. Myorders were to make the cutter "fast" along-side, man it in the morningwith all the _Sally's_ crew who were left, and follow the _Ringdove_ upthe creek directly it was light.
I was very excited, but managed to find some place to lie down, andslept jolly well, which only shows how very tired I must have been.
Sharpe woke me at six, half an hour before sunrise. We all had some hotcocoa and some biscuit, and then we got as many rifles and revolvers andcutlasses as we could find, and filled the Gardner's hopper withcartridges. We crept about in the dark without making any noise, couldpresently hear the hands "turning out" aboard the _Ringdove_, and tookour places in the cutter and waited to shove her off. When it was lightenough to just see the rocks, Mr. Rashleigh called out that he was notgoing to weigh for another half-hour, and there we had to sit, and thelonger we waited the less brave we felt--at any rate, I felt. I don'tbelieve that anyone can feel brave on a dark cold morning.
It seemed like hours before we heard her cable "clanking in", and thatwoke us up again with a funny, cold feeling, and in a few minutes thewater under her stern began to swirl, and she started very slowly forthe entrance, and we pulled away from the _Sally_ after her.
Then there came a surprise, if you like. My aunt! it did startle us.
Right on top of the cliffs, over our heads, a terrific roar broke out,and splash went a shot right under the _Ringdove's_ stern, and the waterfell right aboard her.
"They've hauled a gun up there--on the right, sir," Sharpe said veryquietly, and somehow or other I felt certain that this would decide Mr.Rashleigh not to go up that creek. I am certain that he never reallywanted to go there.
He yelled to me to come alongside, and then he yelled for me to go backto the _Sally_, cut her cable, and clear out of it.
I was very frightened, and hurried back to the _Sally_--Ah Chee was theonly one aboard her--when another roar came from above, the shot fellbetween the _Ringdove_ and ourselves, and wetted us all. I saw the_Ringdove_ hurrying towards the foot of the cliffs, where the guncouldn't touch her.
"We must be nippy, sir," Sharpe said, very excitedly for him.
Just as we were going to run alongside, someone sang out, "What onearth's that, sir?" pointing to a small rock on the other side of thecreek. We all looked, and could see someone standing there and wavinghis arms. "He's trying to semaphore," several men cried, and a momentafter, "It's Lootenant Travers, sir."<
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None of us thought of that gun then, and we shoved off towards him ashard as we could--there were only six of us in a ten-oared cutter--andgave a shout.
"Swim towards us, sir," I yelled, as we got closer and bullets cameround, though I didn't really notice them much. There was a Chinamanwith him, and they both waded out as far as they could, and we grabbedthem and hauled them in, and pulled back again with another shout, Mr.Travers taking one of the spare oars, and the Chinaman, who was almostdead of fright, hiding under the gunwale.
As we hauled Travers on board he asked, "Have you found Sally Hobbs?"but I shook my head, and hadn't time to think what that all meant, andshouted to Sharpe, "Cut the anchor rope directly we get aboard and hoistthe fores'l." I needn't have troubled, because that gun above us firedagain, and we saw the stump of poor little _Sally's_ mainmast cometoppling down, big pieces of her deck went flying about, and she beganto heel over as we ran alongside. Mr. Travers and I jumped aboard, butI saw that she was done for. Her deck was absolutely smashed upamidships, the six-pounder had fallen on top of the cartridge boxes inthe hold, and water was bubbling up through two great holes in herbottom.
"We shall have to leave her, sha'n't we, sir?" I asked.
But there was no doubt of it, and I only just had time to haul down thewhite ensign and get back into the boat and shove off, before shesettled right down, and with a bubbling noise slid under.
"'Twill drown all them cursed bugs and cockroaches what's been biting atus, curse 'em!" Sharpe said coolly, and we shoved off for the gunboatunder the cliff. You bet that Ah Chee had jumped into the cutterdirectly we'd got alongside!
The _Ringdove_ was waiting for us, and we were all aboard in fiveminutes. She sneaked out round the foot of the cliffs--Mr. Rashleighdidn't wait to take soundings now--ran out of the channel past where thetwo guns had been, without being fired at, and started off for Tinghai.
I saw Mr. Rashleigh rubbing his hands, and heard him chuckling, "I'verescued Travers, and the 'Old Man' will be jolly pleased." He seemed tobe awfully proud of himself, but Mr. Trevelyan told Jim angrily: "Ofcourse the Skipper will be pleased; everyone knows that; but he mighthave burnt the whole nest of them as well, wiped out the whole boilingcrowd, if he'd only had the pluck to go in yesterday. Instead of whichhe gives those chaps time to haul their guns up over his head, where hecan't touch it. Confound him!"
Mr. Travers came up on deck soon afterwards, shaved and clean, with someof the Sub's plain clothes on. He shook my hand. "Long time since youshoved me in the back in that crowd outside the Mission House, Ford.Thought they would have plugged some of you in that boat. They werefiring pretty fast." That was tremendously demonstrative for him.
It was jolly good to have got him back safely, but we were all awfullydisappointed that we hadn't found where Sally and her father were. Wehad thought we had done so, but he told us they weren't there, and hehadn't the faintest idea where they were. The Chinaman who'd helped himto escape, and had come along for his reward, didn't know anything aboutthem either. Ah Chee found this out.
Dicky was a jolly lot better, and could talk, but hadn't the faintestremembrance of anything after we'd sighted those four junks beating upto wind'ard after us. He remembered the junk running away from us andthe masts coming down, but nothing after that.
Dr. Hibbert wouldn't let him talk to us much. Poor Cooke died before wehad got out of sight of land, and we stopped our engines and buried himat sea.
That brought the killed ones in the two junks up to six--two of Jim'sand four of mine--and there were six wounded besides Dicky.
I managed to hide away the ensign before the signalman could claim it,and felt rather a beast; but I meant to keep it and get it home--someday. Jim lent me another monkey jacket. It was quite "sopping" wet,but it was clean, and we soon dried it, so that I looked morerespectable, and didn't feel so horrid as I had felt in my bloodstainedone.
