Ford of H.M.S. Vigilant: A Tale of the Chusan Archipelago

by T. T. Jeans

  *CHAPTER XVIII*

  *A Midnight Adventure*

  Sent to Hospital--The Subscription--The Sub's Plan--An Exciting Moment--Mr. Rashleigh Rages--Jim is Safe

  _Written by Midshipman Ford_

  I was very sorry indeed to say goodbye to Mr. Ching--we all were--and,of course, I had had such a lot to do with him in that walled house,that I ought to have been more sorry than anyone else.

  The day before we separated from the _Huan Min_, Mr. Lawrence and I wentaboard her and had lunch with him. It was a funny kind of meal, andwith only one hand I couldn't help myself very well, so Mr. Ching cut myfood up into little pieces, and sent for a pair of chopsticks. If youhave ever tried chopsticks, you will know that the first time you trythem you cannot do much, and I could hardly pick up anything at all, anddidn't do more than taste anything before the others had finishedtheirs, and my plate was taken away.

  They thought it was jolly amusing to watch me, and though I was ashungry as a hunter, I had to pretend that I wasn't, and that I didn'tmind. There were all sorts of curious things there, and I had so wantedto eat them all.

  Afterwards, Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Ching began yarning about old timeswhen they were midshipmen together in the _Inflexible_ years and yearsago, so they didn't want me, and I slipped away and went round the ship,and when I saw any man who had been in the walled house that awfulnight, I shook him by the hand, because I was so glad to see him again.

  I think they liked me doing it, and they all grinned and saluted verysmartly.

  Mr. Ching gave me one of the gold-lace dragons from the sleeve of one ofhis uniform coats. I wanted that more than anything, and still have it,and I gave him my stamp album. It only had a few stamps stuck in hereand there, but there was a dark-red English penny stamp which, Ibelieve, was rather valuable, and I had nothing else worth giving away.He seemed very pleased with it, and made me stick my name in it, so thathe could remember me. I did hope that he would.

  Mr. Hobbs and Sally had not given him anything at all. Wasn't that nastyof them, after all he had done? But he still kept that tam-o'-shantershe had worn; I saw it in his cabin.

  Then the _Huan Min_ went off, to carry on hunting for pirates byherself, and we went up to Yokohama, and when we arrived, the Commander,Mr. Whitmore, myself, and seven of our men were sent to hospital.

  I rather liked going, because it was so uncomfortable on board, withonly one useful arm; but then we heard that there might be a war, and itwas perfectly horrid to see the _Vigilant_ steaming away without us.

  Still, I Was jolly happy, because, after she had gone, the Commandertold me all that the Captain had said about Mr. Rashleigh and his Reportof Proceedings. That didn't square up everything, not by a long chalk.We wanted that gun, and we were going to have it, too, and before I'dbeen sent to hospital, Mr. Langham and everyone else in the gunroom hadsworn to get it back, and had begun inventing plans for doing so.

  Then three weeks went by, my arm had been put in plaster again, and backthe _Vigilant_ came. There wasn't to be any war, and she took us alldown to Hong-Kong, and we found the old _Tyne_ there, which made methink of the first time I had seen her, and of how miserable and happy,in turns, I had been on board her.

  But just ahead of the _Tamar_ was the _Ringdove_, quite close to wherewe made fast to one of the outer buoys, and when she was swung by thetide in one position, we could see that Chinese gun just at the foot ofher main mast.

  That made us all "bristle" up again and get most frightfully angry. Wehad almost forgotten all about it in the excitement of knowing that wewere going south to Singapore, to wait for our relief ship to come outfrom England, and then go home to pay off.

  At dinner that night we were as hot about it as ever, and we made up ourminds again to get it, somehow or other. It was jolly difficult to knowhow we could manage it, and nobody seemed to have any good schemes tosuggest. Webster's idea was to run alongside during the dinner hour,when probably only the quartermaster would be awake, but that was silly.We couldn't possibly do it in the daytime, and we couldn't even think ofa plan for doing it at night without being discovered. We knew jollywell that if we were found out, there would be a most awful fuss, and weshould get into hot water with the Captain.

  We made such a jolly row, all shouting and suggesting things, andcalling each other silly idiots, that Mr. Langham stuck his fork into abeam overhead.

  That is a signal for all the midshipmen and cadets to clear out of thegunroom, and as the last "out" always had his "extra" bill stopped forthree days, so could not get any sardines or pickles from Ah Man, wewere all out in a jiffy, and left Mr. Langham, Mr. Hamilton the bigEngineer Sub, and the "A.P." to work out a scheme between them.

  They wouldn't let us come back again, and I know that they didn't decideupon anything; but during the middle watch that night something happenedwhich showed us the way.

  It was Mr. Langham's "watch", and at about five bells there suddenly hadbeen a lot of shouting under the bows, and he, the quartermaster, andthe signalman had all run for'ard to see what was the matter, and foundthat a junk had fouled the buoy, drifted down against our bows, andcarried away a mast.

  They got her clear, but it took a quarter of an hour to do it, and, ofcourse, during that time there had been no one aft at all, and anythingmight have happened there without anyone knowing of it.

  Now, don't you see what the idea was?

  Mr. Langham didn't tell us what he was going to do exactly, for fearthat we should be asses enough to talk about it to everyone, and thatthe "Ringdoves" would hear about it as well; but he went aboard the_Ringdove_ in the morning to see the navigator, who was a pal of his(except for the "gun question"), and came back again very excitedly.

  "I had a good look at that gun, you chaps, without pretending to do so.The wheels are simply lashed down to some ring bolts, lashed down withrope, and we could cut them adrift as easy as winking."

  He and Mr. Hamilton went ashore together and came off late at night, andwe all waited for them, and knew that something was in the "wind", butthey wouldn't say what, and only told us that they wanted twenty pounds.Mr. Langham said that he would give ten (he was very well off) if wewould subscribe the rest, and you may bet your best waistcoat we gotthat other ten pounds pretty quickly.

  We hadn't the faintest notion why he wanted it till two nights after,and then, just before "lights out" in the gunroom, he sent for us alland told us.

  My aunt! it was jolly exciting.

  He had bought a sampan--one of the Chinese sailing boats which used tobring us off from the shore if we missed the ordinary ship's boat--andhad had two large holes made in the bottom, with plugs fitted in themand ropes made fast to each, so that a jolly good strong jerk would pullthem out. He had had her loaded with stones, so that she would sinkquickly after they'd been pulled out.

  "I'm going to sail her across the _Ringdove's_ bowsprit," he said, "andshall get my rigging foul of her, if possible. If I can't, I have agrapnel, and shall catch hold of her cable, and when the sampan can'tdrift away, I shall pull out those plugs and begin "hullabalooing" likea Chinaman. When she sinks I shall hold on to the buoy and go onsquealing till the quartermaster comes along, and when he hears where Iam he'll probably get into the dinghy to pick me up.

  "I sha'n't be there when he comes," he added, grinning. Of course, in asmall gunboat the only man on watch at night is the quartermaster, andif there wasn't much of a row, he probably would not call anyone else.

  "Now, what you have to do is this"--we all got fearfully excited--"I'veasked the Commander for his gig to-night, told him I wanted it for aspecial purpose, and he played the game and didn't ask for what, andsaid she needn't be hoisted out of the water. She's quite big enough totake the gun and carriage, and Hamilton and the 'A.P.' and six of thestrongest of you mids have to go away in her at about half-past two inthe middle watch. You must be down astern of her, not close enough tolet her spot
you, by a quarter to three, and then wait till you hear mestart squealing.

  "The _Ringdove_ has her dinghy made fast to the starboard boom to-night,so you'll have to pull alongside her port gangway as 'gingerly' as everyou can, get aboard and bring back the gun, and the carriage too, ifyou've got time. The trunnions of the gun are only secured in thecarriage by bands, and there are pins in them which can be pulledout--well, a good many of you have seen them already. Don't worry aboutme; I'll swim back."

  That was the scheme which he and Mr. Hamilton had worked out betweenthem, and it was jolly exciting. Mr. Hamilton was to go in charge of thegig, and as he was very strong--nearly as strong as the Sub himself--hehad to do the lifting with Mr. Moore (the A.P.). Webster, Jones, and JimRawlings and three of the others were told off to pull the oars, becausethey were the strongest of the mids.

  "Dicky", who was quite all right now, wasn't to go, because he was tooexcitable, and "Pongo" was too fat and useless. I wasn't going eitherat first, but I implored them to let me steer. I could manage with onehand, if they fixed up the wooden tiller the Commander used when he tookthe gig away sailing, and I said that I had some right to go, becausethe gun had fired at me so often. Jim backed me up, and Mr. Langhamagreed that I had some right, but told me that I should have to sit onthe gunwale, behind the stern sheets, so as not to crowd the boat toomuch.

  You may jolly well imagine that I didn't care where I sat or what I did,so long as I could take my share in the job.

  Presently Mr. Langham compared his watch with Mr. Hamilton's, and wentashore in a very old flannel suit; and we had to turn in and pretend tosleep, though that was impossible, and we kept on running up on deck tosee what kind of a night it was.

  It turned out to be jolly dark, which was splendid; but there was only avery little breeze, and that was blowing from Kowloon, on the mainland,straight towards Hong-Kong. This was a nuisance, because it meant thatMr. Langham would have to beat off shore in the sampan, and as therewould be a jolly strong tide running, it would be very difficult to justhit off the buoy and the _Ringdove's_ bows, especially as he was goingto do it single-handed.

  Mr. Hamilton was rather worried about this, and just after midnight hecame along to Jim and told him he had better go ashore, find Mr.Langham, and help him sail her. Jim was about the strongest swimmer ofall us mids; that was why he chose him. And Jim was jolly keen to go,and Mr. Hamilton pulled him ashore in the skiff, told him where he wouldfind the sampan, and pulled back again.

  Well, I never thought the time for starting would ever come; but at last"four bells" struck, and we all dressed, Dicky helping me because of myarm, and we sneaked on deck like mice, and there was the gig waiting forus alongside.

  Mr. Trevelyan was the officer of the watch, and I heard Mr. Hamilton sayto him, "Going for a little exercise, Trevelyan;" and heard him reply,"Well, good luck! I've got everything ready to hoist it in." So ofcourse he must have known all about it.

  We crept down into the boat; I squatted in the stern, jammed my feetagainst the ribs there to prevent myself falling overboard, and weshoved off without making a sound, and pulled away till we were some wayastern of the _Ringdove_, catching hold of the next buoy to hers andhanging on to it.

  Then we waited in the dark.

  We couldn't see a single light in her except her "riding" light for'ard,and a very faint glimmer amidships, where the quartermaster ought to be.Presently five bells were struck aboard the _Vigilant_ and aboard theold _Tamar_ astern of us, and a few moments afterwards we saw a lightmoving for'ard aboard the _Ringdove_, her funny, "tin-kettly" bell wasstruck, the light came aft again, and we knew that the quartermaster, atany rate, was awake.

  "Old Langham ought to be shoving off now," Mr. Hamilton whispered. Itwas so dark round us that we couldn't see twenty yards; but the shorelights lighted the water close in under Murray Pier, and we all kept oureyes turned that way, and presently saw a sail show out for a moment,and whispered, "There they come," and got terribly excited.

  One always forgets how excited one has been before, when other thingshappened, but really I do think that I was fearfully excited now--asmuch as I have ever been.

  We waited and waited, and got the oars ready, and then, all of a sudden,we heard a sound from the dark, as if something was knocking up againsta buoy. I almost fell backwards overboard, but saved myself byclutching the tiller, and then there were most piteous yells, twodifferent kinds, so that I knew Jim was there, and we shoved off andpulled very quickly.

  "Port gangway!" Mr. Hamilton whispered to me, and I steered for it; andas we gradually crept under the stern, we saw the quartermaster'slantern moving for'ard and then saw it on the fo'c'stle.

  Mr. Hamilton had to help me steer her, there was such a strong tiderunning; but we were fearfully careful, and got the gig alongside, andJones held on in the bows, and Mr. Hamilton and the "A.P." and Websterdisappeared up the gangway in their bare feet, with a tackle the Bo's'nhad given us. We could hear them very softly getting the gun out of thecarriage, and the Chinese kind of yells were still going on, only moregently, and we heard the quartermaster sing out, "Who's there?" andpresently he sung out, "Hold on, and I'll fetch the dinghy!"--though howhe thought Chinamen could understand him I don't know.

  The lantern was thumped down on the fo'c'stle, and he climbed along thestarboard boom, and in a very little while there was a splash of oars,and we knew that he was pulling to the buoy.

  I knew that we were all grinning, although we couldn't see each other,and imagined Mr. Langham and Jim swimming away out of sight; and I wasrather nervous about Jim, because the tide was so strong, and it wasquite five hundred yards back to the _Vigilant_.

  However, there wasn't time to worry, as Mr. Hamilton and the "A.P." werecoming down the ladder with the gun in their arms, and the gangwaycreaked at every step, and we were very frightened because the noiseseemed so loud. They slid it down into the stern sheets on to agymnasium mat we had put there to deaden the sound, and back they went.We heard something drop on the deck, and it seemed to make an awful row,and presently they came to the gangway again, and all of them werelifting the gun carriage, and they began lowering it into the boat withthe tackle. You see, it was such an awfully awkward thing to handle,though it wasn't really very heavy.

  Then we were absolutely petrified with fear, for suddenly we heard Mr.Rashleigh's voice bawling for the quartermaster, and could hear himcoming along from under the poop, cursing, and wanting to know where hewas, and what all the noise was about.

  The gun carriage was only lowered halfway down, but Mr. Hamilton sangout very softly, "Stand clear!" and dropped the whole thing into theboat on top of the gun (I don't know how it was that it didn't breakanybody), and they all jumped down in a heap, making a most fearful row.Jones slipped the boat rope for'ard, and we slid astern just as Mr.Rashleigh ran up to the gangway and began singing out and cursing,asking who it was, and what it was, and "Where's that quartermaster?"

  He was in a towering passion, and we could imagine what a jolly funnysight he must be in his bulgy pyjamas, with his round red face and hisbald head, but were jolly glad that there wasn't any light for us to seehim or he us. We hadn't moved a muscle--not even those who had fallen ina jumble on top of each other--and simply let the tide take us downright under the stern, where it was tremendously dark, and he couldn'tpossibly see anything.

  I don't think that he had discovered at first what had really happened,and kept cursing into the dark, but then must have found our tackle, forhe was absolutely silent, and we guessed that he must have found thatthe gun wasn't there.

  By that time the quartermaster had come back, and the last we heard wasa glorious row going on. My aunt! you should have heard him storming.

  We were well astern now, and Mr. Hamilton and the "A.P." and Websterdisentangled themselves, and we got out the oars and pulled a roundaboutway back to the _Vigilant_. She was pitch dark, even the quarterdeckgangway lamps were turned off, and we had to feel our way very gingerlyto t
he side. This was so that we shouldn't be seen getting the gun onboard. The rest of the gunroom and most of the ward-room officers wereup there, and had a tackle rigged, all ready, and got the gun and thecarriage on deck in no time.

  They carried them for'ard to hide, and put the gun in the sand tank,covering it up with sand, and the carriage was taken to pieces andstowed away in one of the gunner's storerooms.

  We were all so excited, that I forgot all about Mr. Langham and Jim tillMr. Langham came dripping up the gangway, asking if everything was allright, and if Jim had turned up, as he had lost sight of him afterleaving the buoy.

  "A jolly strong tide's running, and it was about as much as I could doto get here," he said, rather out of breath, and rather anxiously.

  We all peered over the side, and tried to see his head coming along; butit was too dark to see anything at all, although Dicky and I went downto the foot of the accommodation ladder and looked along the surface ofthe water. Poor Dicky was almost off his head with fright. He kept onsqueaking out: "Jim! Jim!" but daren't do it too loudly. And welistened, but there was no answer, and I, too, was quite frightened, andwished that we could do something, only it was so jolly difficult toknow what to do, and no one dare make a great noise, or run asearchlight, or anything like that, for fear of having to wake theCaptain or the Commander, and giving the whole show away.

  But Mr. Langham--just as he was, wringing wet--the "A.P." and Mr.Hamilton and four mids went away in the gig.

  "He'll probably have drifted down with the tide, and will try and gethold of a buoy," Mr. Hamilton told me, and they disappeared in thedarkness.

  I could not go down below, because I was so worried, and had the mosthorrid feelings inside me, which Dicky made worse by asking such sillyquestions. Everything was so horribly dark, and the tide was running sostrongly, and I knew that Jim must be in fearful danger, although Mr.Trevelyan kept saying that he would turn up all right.

  I had forgotten all about the wretched gun, till someone--"Pongo", Ithink it was--said to Mr. Trevelyan, "Jolly to have the gun all right,sir, and the carriage. Isn't it, sir?" And Mr. Trevelyan answered, "Whatgun? I don't know anything about a gun. I've been forward with thequartermaster for the last quarter of an hour, and haven't seenanything."

  I believe that the silly ass would have begun telling him, if Mr.Trevelyan hadn't said, "What the dickens are you doing up here at thistime? Go and turn in at once!"

  I really wasn't quite sure, then, whether he was "pretending" or not.

  We waited for nearly half an hour, we all were fearfully nervous, andMr. Trevelyan kept on saying, "I shall have to wake the Commander if hedoesn't come back in another three minutes," and would wait, and say itagain. And at last he actually started to go down to the Commander'scabin, but before he had got halfway down, the _Tyne's_ masthead signallamp began winking and blinking.

  "She's calling us up, sir!" the signalman sang out; and oh! it was sucha relief, for she signalled, "Mr. Rawlings is aboard", and I was awfullythankful. She was right astern of us, quite half a mile, and he musthave been drowned if he had missed her, as there was nothing astern ofher, no buoys, or ships, or anything to hold on to.

  Dicky ran down below. He is such a soft-hearted chap.

  We signalled across that we would send for him, and three of the wardroom officers, in their pyjamas, fetched him in the skiff, and I almostblubbed with delight when he came alongside, looking like a drowned rat,and pulling at an oar to warm himself.

  We got him down below and out of his wet things, and presently Mr.Langham and the others came back in the gig.

  They had pulled round all the buoys astern of the _Ringdove_ and triedto find him, and alongside the _Tamar_, hoping to find him there, andthen, as a last chance, in a terrible state of fright, to the _Tyne_,and had got the good news that he had just gone back in our skiff.

  "I thought it was all U P," Mr. Langham said, and changed into drythings; and then we all had a sardine supper in the gunroom, and most ofthe ward-room officers came down too, and we were awfully happy andcontented, and Jim and Dicky and I "whoofed" two whole tins of sardinesbetween us. Jim told me that he was pretty nearly "done" when hemanaged to grab hold of the _Tyne's_ gangway, and couldn't drag himselfout of the water till he had sung out, and someone had come down andgiven him a hand.

  We had to be awfully quiet, for fear of disturbing the Commander, whosecabin was just overhead, and that was the only drawback to the supper.

  Then we all turned into our hammocks; but Jim and I were much tooexcited to sleep, and besides, we had eaten too much.

  Wasn't that a glorious night, and hadn't we jolly well got level withMr. Rashleigh?

  "Worth the risk, every time," Jim whispered.

  "But won't there be a glorious row to-morrow?" Dicky squeaked. He wasfrightened about it already.