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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ocean Cat's Paw, by George Manville Fenn
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Ocean Cat's Paw
+       The Story of a Strange Cruise
+
+Author: George Manville Fenn
+
+Illustrator: W.S. Stacey
+
+Release Date: May 8, 2007 [EBook #21358]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OCEAN CAT'S PAW ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+The Ocean Cat's Paw, the Story of a Strange Cruise, By George Manville
+Fenn.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+Here we have a full-length book by an excellent author at the very top
+of his powers.  The time is set at the end of the Napoleonic War, and
+continues into the ensuing peace.
+
+The young hero is first found fishing in a Dartmoor stream, when he is
+interrupted by the arrival of a young Frenchman, who, it turns out, has
+just escaped from Dartmoor, where the prisoners-of-war were being kept.
+Rodd helps him to hide from pursuit.
+
+Rodd is living with his uncle, who is a doctor, but who also is a
+researcher in Natural History.  He receives a Government grant to buy a
+ship and travel about in it collecting specimens.  On the first trip the
+weather turns nasty and they have to take shelter in a French port.
+
+Later in the voyage they meet up with a strange brig, which they realise
+they had seen while in France.  But she is in difficulty, having been
+holed below the waterline in an engagement.  At this point they discover
+that her officers include the boy we met in Chapter One, and his father,
+the Count.  The hole is repaired by the skill of the British seamen.
+
+There's lots more to the story, and we won't spoil it for you, but we do
+full-heartedly recommend it to you.  The problem in transcribing the
+book was tearing oneself away from it, for meals, rest, and other
+duties.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+THE OCEAN CAT'S PAW, THE STORY OF A STRANGE CRUISE, BY GEORGE MANVILLE
+FENN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+RODD THE PICKLE.
+
+"Here's another, uncle."
+
+This was shouted cheerily, and the reply thereto was a low muttering,
+ending with a grunt.
+
+It was a glorious day on Dartmoor, high up in the wildest part amongst
+the rugged tors, where a bright little river came flashing and sparkling
+along, and sending the bright beams of the sun in every direction from
+the disturbed water, as an eager-looking boy busily played the trout he
+had hooked, one which darted here and there in its wild rush for
+freedom, but all in vain, for after its little mad career it was safely
+brought to bank, and landed.  There was no need to use the light net
+which hung diagonally and unnecessarily across its owner's back, for the
+glittering little speckled trout was only about the size of a small
+dace, though it fought and kicked as hardily as if it had weighed a
+pound, and indulged in a series of active leaps as it was slipped
+through the hole in the lid of a creel, to drop into companionship with
+half-a-score of its fellows, which welcomed the new prisoner with a
+number of leaps almost as wild as its own.
+
+The utterer of the grunt, a stoutly-built man who might have been of any
+age, though he could not have been very young, judging from his bristly
+greyish whiskers, was also busily occupied, but in a calmer, more
+deliberate way.
+
+He had no creel slung from his shoulder, but a coarse clean wallet that
+was rather bulgy, its appearance suggesting that it was carried because
+it contained something to eat, while its owner held in one hand, slung
+by a stoutish lanyard, a big, wide-mouthed glass bottle half full of
+water, and in the other hand a little yellow canvas net attached to a
+brass ring at the end of a stick, the sort of implement that little boys
+use when bound upon the chase and capture of the mighty "tittlebat."
+And as his younger companion shouted and landed his little mountain
+trout, the net was being carefully passed under water, drawn out and
+emptied upon the fine lawn-like grass, and what looked like a little
+scrap of opalescent jelly was popped into the wide-mouthed bottle.
+
+"You got one too, uncle?" shouted the boy, who was higher up the stream.
+
+"Yes; some very nice specimens down here.  Are you getting plenty of
+sport, Rodd?"
+
+"Yes, uncle," replied the boy, who was carefully examining his tiny
+artificial gnat before beginning to whip the stream again.  "They are
+rising famously; but they are awfully small.  I shall get a dish,
+though, for supper."
+
+"Uncle," as he was called, grunted again, and went on searching amongst
+the water-weeds with his net, his tendency being with the stream, while
+the boy, who did not scruple about stepping into the shallows from time
+to time, went on whipping away upward towards where one of the tors rose
+in a chaotic mass of broken, lichen-covered, fragmentary granite,
+apparently hiding in the distance the source of the little bubbling and
+sparkling stream.
+
+Sometimes, as the boy struck in unison with the rise, he missed his
+fish, at others he hooked and held it till it broke away, and then again
+he transferred another to his creel, as intent upon his sport as his
+uncle was upon his pursuit, but still adding and adding to the contents
+of the creel for quite an hour.  Then, in an interval when the fish had
+ceased to rise, the boy began to look downward, finding to his surprise
+that he was quite alone and close up to the towering mass of time-worn
+granite, many of whose blocks sparkled in the summer sun with crystals
+of quartz, and specks of hornblende, and were rendered creamy by the
+abundant felspar which held the grains together in a mass.
+
+"I wonder what's become of Uncle Paul," muttered the boy.  "Have I lost
+him, or has he lost me?  What stuff!  One's only got to go down the
+stream, and he's sure to be there somewhere, dipping for his
+what-do-you-call-'ems--hydras and germs and buds, and the rest of them.
+But oh, what a jolly morning it is, and what a jolly place Dartmoor is
+now the sun shines!  Not very jolly yesterday, though, when the wind was
+sweeping the rain across in clouds and you couldn't see the tops of the
+tors for the mist.  Oh, but it is beautiful to-day.  I do feel jolly!"
+
+The boy let his light tapering rod fall into the hollow of his arm,
+swung round his creel to the front, and, raising the lid, peered down at
+his speckled prizes lying upon a bed of newly-picked bracken fronds.
+
+"Why, there must be fifty," he cried.  "There, I won't stop to count.
+I'll catch a few more, and guess at fifty.  That'll be enough for a nice
+lot for tea and some more for to-morrow morning's breakfast.  Uncle Paul
+does enjoy a dish of trout.  Humph!  So do I.  I suppose it's this
+beautiful fresh air up among the tors, and the tramping.  It was a good
+long way up here from the cottage.  I suppose it's that makes me feel so
+jolly hungry.  Oh, look at that now!  Uncle would carry the wallet, and
+he's got all the sandwiches.  Never mind; I'll catch a few more of the
+little beauties, and then toddle back to meet him."
+
+But the boy did not begin to fish directly, but stood gazing round at
+the glorious prospect of hill and dale and miniature mountain, here grey
+and sparkling, there flushed as if with the golden sheen of blossoming
+furze, while the lower slopes were of the magnificent purple of the
+abundant heath.
+
+"Beautiful!" cried the boy ecstatically.  "I am glad that we came up
+here to stay.  So is dear old uncle.  He's revelling in the specimens he
+gets, and we shall have another jolly night with the microscope.  He'll
+give me a lecture upon all the little Latin beggars he pops into his
+bottle, and another for being so stupid in not recollecting all their
+cranky names.  Never mind; it is jolly.  Pity it isn't later, for then
+there'd be plenty of blackberries and whorts.  I dare say there'd be
+lots of the little tiny button mushrooms, too, in the lower parts among
+the soft grass.  But what's the use of grumbling?  Uncle says that I am
+never satisfied, and that I am always restless, and I suppose it's
+because I am a boy.  Well, I can't help being a boy," he mused
+thoughtfully.  "I might have been a girl.  Well, girls are restless too.
+I say, what's that?"
+
+He shaded his eyes again and gazed at a speck of something that looked
+bright scarlet in the distance, and then not very far away he made out
+another, and again another speck or blotch of bright red.  "Now, I
+wonder what's growing there," muttered the boy.  "I don't remember
+anything scarlet growing and blowing.  Poppies?  No, I don't think they
+are poppies.  They are at the edges of the cornfields, and there are no
+cornfields up here."
+
+He fixed his eyes more intently upon the scarlet specks, and then burst
+out laughing.
+
+"Well, they are not poppies," he said aloud.  "Poppies don't move, and
+those are moving, sure enough.  There, one of them has gone behind that
+block of stone.  Pooh, how stupid!  Why, of course!"
+
+He jerked himself round to look in another direction, so sharply that
+his creel swung out for a moment from the strap, and came back against
+his hip with a bang, as he stood with his back to the sun, gazing at a
+distant grey, gloomy-looking pile of stone building, and then nodded his
+head with satisfaction.
+
+"Poppies, indeed!  My grandmother!  That's what they are.  Soldiers from
+over yonder.  Part of the guard from the great prison, I suppose.  Oh,
+poor beggars!  How miserable, when you come to think of it--shut up
+yonder in that great gloomy place, for I don't suppose they let them
+come out much without soldiers to watch them--and all for doing nothing.
+Doing nothing!  Mustn't say that, though, before Uncle Paul, or he'll
+go into a rage and begin preaching about Bony and the war, and going on
+about the French.  Hullo!"
+
+The boy started, for there was a dull thud, apparently from the prison,
+miles away, followed by a loud echo which seemed to come from close at
+hand, making him turn again as if to look for the spot from which it
+came, and seeing it too, for the report of the gun had as it were struck
+against the face of the tor above him, and then glanced off to strike
+elsewhere.
+
+"How queer echoes are!" he muttered.  "Yes, and how queer I feel--all
+hollow.  That's made me think about it.  I suppose that means twelve or
+one o'clock dinner-time.  Oh, how stupid to go right away from uncle
+like this!  I wish he'd come.  But I won't go till I have made my fifty
+trout."
+
+Turning his attention now to the stream, he began whipping away again,
+and finding that the little trout were rising as well as ever, with the
+result that Rodney Harding once more forgot everything else in his
+pursuit and went on up-stream nearer and nearer to the great tor, till
+at last he found himself in a little hollow amongst the rocks where the
+river had widened into a pool, hollowed out as it were at the base of a
+great cliff.
+
+"Why, this is the end of it," he said, pausing to look round and upward
+at the towering pile of rocks.  "No, it isn't.  It must be the
+beginning--the source, I suppose they call it.  Yes, the stream begins
+here, comes right from under that cliff.  Why, it's like a little cave
+out of which the water streams."
+
+He stopped short and threw his fly once or twice without effect, and
+then, moved by curiosity, waded into the shallow rippling water, which
+rose a little way above his boots, but as it began to invade his
+trousers he rolled them up to his knees, before wading onward till he
+was stopped by the piled-up cliff face where the water came gliding out
+and rippled about his legs.
+
+"Why, it ought to be quite cold," he muttered, "instead of which it is
+warm."
+
+Then, standing up his rod so that the top rested among the stones, he
+stooped down, bending nearly double before he could pass in beneath a
+rough stony natural arch and slowly force his way along a narrow passage
+for a few feet, before stopping short where the water nearly reached his
+knees.
+
+"Oh, I say!  I am not going to break my back short off at the hips by
+squeezing in here," he grumbled.  "Besides, it's all dark; and what's
+the good?  Here, I know!  This isn't the source.  This tor is only a
+piled-up heap of stones, and I dare say if I go round I shall find the
+little river coming in on the other side, and this is where it comes
+out.  Well, let it.  Here, I want my lunch."
+
+He made his way back into the sunshine where all was bright and clear
+again, and, taking his rod, stepped out to the edge of the pool, where
+the dry sand felt pleasant and comfortable to his feet, and there he
+went on fishing again with more or less success, till he passed out of
+the little amphitheatre to where the rocks fell away on either side,
+half hidden by the heath and furze.
+
+"Must have got fifty by this time," muttered the boy.  "Now just one
+more to make sure, and then I'll be off, and--Ugh!  Who are you?  How
+you made me jump!"
+
+The Ocean Cat's Paw--by George Manville Fenn
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+AFTER FRENCH PRISONERS.
+
+There was some reason in Rodney Harding's words, for as he turned from
+the little river he had come suddenly face to face with a thin
+gaunt-looking lad of about his own age, very shabbily dressed and almost
+ragged, who was gazing at him fiercely, and stood with one hand as if
+about to strike.  Recovering himself on the instant, Rodney, obeying his
+first impulse, began to loosen the bottom joint of his rod ready to use
+it as a weapon--a defence against the expected attack--but in an instant
+the strange new-comer dropped his hand to his side, turned quickly away
+to look outward across the moor, and then cried wildly, his voice
+sounding strange of accent, and husky as if from exhaustion--
+
+"No, no, don't hit!  I am so weak and so helpless.  Help me.  Tell me,
+which way can I go?  They are close after me, and I can run no farther.
+Help!"
+
+The poor wild-looking creature ended by sinking upon his knees amongst
+the heath, and raising his hands with a piteous gesture, while his
+imploring looks were quite sufficient to move the young fisherman's
+heart.
+
+"Why, who are you?" he cried.  "You are not a beggar."
+
+"No, no!  I confess.  Oh, _mon ami_--I beg your pardon--sir!  I forgot.
+I confess everything.  It was for liberty; we were escaping, but the
+guard--the soldiers!  They have been hunting us down like dogs."
+
+"A French prisoner?" cried the boy.
+
+"Ah, _oui_--yes, monsieur.  It is my misfortune.  But the soldiers.  We
+have been separated."
+
+"Who's `we'?" said Rodney sharply.
+
+"My father and I.  I don't know which way he has gone.  They have taken
+him perhaps, and now it is no use; I may as well give up, for I can go
+no farther."
+
+He sank sideways amongst the heath and fern.
+
+Rodd looked at him in horror, for the poor fellow seemed as if he was
+about to faint with weakness and misery, while he kept giving utterance
+to hysterical gasps as he was plainly enough struggling hard to avoid
+bursting into a passion of weak girlish tears.
+
+"Here, I say, don't do that!" cried Rodd, stooping and catching him by
+the arm to shake him violently.  "You don't know that the soldiers have
+caught your father."
+
+"No, but I feel sure that they must have done so," cried the poor
+fellow, rising a little and gazing wildly in the speaker's eyes, while
+Rodd's energy seemed to galvanise him into action.
+
+"Well, suppose they have?  They'd only take him back into the prison
+again, would they?"
+
+"I--I don't know," faltered the lad.  "I heard firing, and they may have
+shot him down and taken him."
+
+"Yes--may, may, may!" cried Rodd angrily.  "But I don't believe our
+soldiers would be such brutes.  It's only Frenchmen that do such things
+as that."
+
+"What!" cried the lad, struggling to his feet.  "How dare you speak so
+of our brave fellows!  I appealed to you for help, and you insult me.
+Do you think if you were in France and flying for your life with your
+father--"
+
+"Haven't got one," said Rodd shortly.  "Died before I was born."
+
+"Do you think then that if you alone had appealed to me for help I would
+have treated a poor escaping prisoner like this?"
+
+"Oh, come, I say, don't go on like that.  Any one would think you were a
+great girl.  How can I help you?  I daren't.  What would my uncle say if
+he knew I'd helped a French prisoner to escape from his guards?  You
+shouldn't, you know.  It isn't right nor fair.  Just because you have
+got into trouble, that's no reason why you should drag another fellow
+down too.  Look here, what are you running away for?"
+
+"Why?" cried the lad bitterly.  "Because I am a prisoner, and I wanted
+to see my poor father free."
+
+"Well, look here," said Rodd huskily; "I am very sorry, you know, and
+I'd help you if I could, but it's against the law, and--I say!  Quick!
+Don't speak aloud.  I can hear some one coming.  Yes, it's the soldiers,
+I think."
+
+"Oh!" cried the French lad wildly, and he gazed about him with every
+nerve quivering, his whole aspect being that of some hunted beast with
+the dogs close upon his track.
+
+"Don't get up," cried Rodd.  "I tell you, I mustn't help you; it's
+against the law; but if I were in your fix I know what I should do.  Not
+afraid of the water, are you?"
+
+"What, swim for my life?  Nonsense!  In a stream like this!"
+
+"No, no.  Wade into that hole opposite yonder, and hide there till the
+soldiers are gone."
+
+"But they'd be sure to look there."
+
+"Not they!  They'd be afraid of spoiling their breeches and gaiters and
+washing out the pipe-clay."
+
+"Ready for you to betray me to them," whispered the lad bitterly.  "No;
+I'll surrender like a man."
+
+"Oh!" growled Rodd, between his teeth.  "If you weren't such a poor,
+weak, helpless-looking chap I'd hit you on the nose.  How dare you speak
+to me like that?"
+
+He raised his hand as if to strike, but there was a ring in his words
+which had thrilled the fugitive, who to Rodd's astonishment caught the
+hand in his, and quick as thought pressed it to his lips, and then
+dashed into the water and splashed his way to the mouth of the hole.
+The next moment the disturbed stream was the only trace left, for the
+fugitive had disappeared.
+
+The young fisher stood gazing blankly at the low dark mouth of the hole,
+listening with every nerve on the strain for some sound from the
+hiding-place to strike his ear; but there was none.  From behind,
+though, there came a loud voice, shouting--
+
+"Here, this way; up by the stream!"
+
+In an instant Rodd was full of action.  Turning his back to the hole
+across the pool, he began to whip the surface with such effect that at
+the third cast there was a quick rise and he was fast in by far the
+biggest trout he had caught that day, though small enough all the same;
+and with knit brows he was playing it carefully just as a redcoat,
+followed by three or four more, came up at the double to the exit end of
+the pool and halted to stare at him wonderingly.
+
+"Hi, young fellow!" shouted the leader, whose stripes betokened the
+sergeant.  "What are you doing here?"
+
+Rodd, whose heart was thumping against his ribs from excitement, did not
+so much as raise his eyes from the surface of the pool, but with teeth
+set, lips pursed up, and brows heavily knit, kept on playing his fish,
+paying not the slightest heed to the speaker and his companions.
+
+"Fishing, eh?" said the sergeant, who, in spite of his important errand,
+could not take his eyes from the darting trout.  "I say, we are after an
+escaped prisoner, and he came somewhere up here.  Which way has he
+gone?"
+
+Rodd did not take his eyes from the frantic darting of the fish, but
+gave line in silence as it flashed through the water to the far side of
+the pool, while the soldiers grounded arms and looked on with the
+deepest interest.
+
+"Prisoners escaped," said the sergeant loudly, as he, too, still gazed
+at the rushings of the trout--"Frenchman--came up this way--Yes, a big
+'un, youngster--Mind!  You'll lose him!--One was quite a lad, and--Well
+done!  You have got him yet!--We saw him run up this way, and--Well
+done!--You have handled a fly-rod before--Did you see anything of him?"
+
+"Eh?  What?" said another voice sharply, and a fresh comer suddenly
+appeared upon the scene in the shape of Uncle Paul, who stared in
+astonishment at the group as he stepped into the little amphitheatre
+from behind the rocks.
+
+His appearance acted like magic upon the soldiers, who brought their
+muskets to the carry, while the sergeant sprang to attention and
+saluted.
+
+"After escaped prisoners, sir.  Asking the young gentleman if he had got
+one of them up here."
+
+"Pooh!  Nonsense!  Absurd!" cried the gentleman addressed, just as Rodd
+brought his fish to land and went down on one knee to grip it in his
+left hand.  "Prisoners, no!" literally barked the fresh comer, setting
+down his bottle and net, and taking off his straw hat to wipe his
+streaming face with a big yellow and red bandanna handkerchief.  "Here,
+Rodd, boy," he cried, with a chuckle, "empty your pockets and then open
+your creel and show the sergeant how many prisoners you have caught.
+Hot up here, my lad!" he continued, and the sergeant and men grinned.
+"Thirsty?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said the sergeant, grinning; "pretty tidy.  We have had a
+precious good run."
+
+"Well, there's plenty of beautiful water.  Shall I lend you my
+drinking-cup?"
+
+"Thankye, sir," said the sergeant.
+
+"Thankye, indeed!" said the bluff speaker, with a chuckle, and he thrust
+his hand into his pocket.  "There you are; there's a shilling for you to
+get some cider.  I dare say you know where better than I can tell you.
+No, we have seen no prisoners."
+
+"Thank you, sir!  You are a gentleman," said the sergeant.  "Didn't want
+to interfere with the young gent's sport, but we had got our duty to do.
+Left face, my lads!  Forward!"  And the next minute the military party
+were on the tramp, to pass through the entrance to the little
+amphitheatre and disappear, just as Uncle Paul was lowering himself
+gently down upon a huge boulder stone and dragging round the wallet
+which hung from his right shoulder.
+
+"Phew!" he gasped.  "Pretty job I have had to find you, Pickle!  I took
+a short cut, as I thought, and it proved a long one.  I have had a
+round.  Aren't you hungry, boy?"
+
+"Starving, uncle," replied the lad, as he dropped the fish into the
+creel, hooked his fly on to one of the rings, and tightened the line.
+"But let's come out here on to the heath.  It will be more soft and
+comfortable to sit down."
+
+"Bah!" barked Uncle Paul.  "I am not going to stir again till I have had
+something to eat and a rest.  There, lay your rod down.  Bother the
+soldiers!  There was another party of them out yonder, shouted at me to
+stop, and because I didn't, made as if they were going to fire.  Yes,
+they had better!  But I had to stop; and then they began questioning me
+about their escaped French prisoners, and wanted to know who I was and
+where I was going, and I thought that they were going to make me a
+prisoner and march me off yonder, only I showed them my card and asked
+them if I sounded like a French prisoner.  They were civil then, and I
+gave them a shilling.  That's two shillings I have fooled away out here
+on this moor, where I should have said it wasn't possible for a man to
+spend a farthing.  Come on; help yourself," and he held out the wallet
+for his companion to take one of the big sandwiches it contained.
+
+"I think we had better go on outside, uncle," said the boy.  "There's
+more breeze out there, and the rocks don't reflect the heat."
+
+"Do you?" said Uncle Paul, with his mouth full.  "There's quite wind
+enough in here to keep me alive, and I am so hot I don't want to go out
+to be blown on and catch cold.--My word, the old lady didn't forget the
+mustard!  Come, eat away, Pickle.  Let's start fair, or you will soon be
+a sandwich behind.  My word, what an appetite this air does give one!"
+
+"Yes, uncle," said the boy, who, in spite of an effort to control
+himself, could not help darting an anxious glance from time to time at
+the opening between the rocks.
+
+"Capital sandwiches, Pickle," continued the uncle, eating away with the
+most intense enjoyment.  "One doesn't want any other pickle with these.
+What does the old proverb say--Hunger's sweet sauce.  Hullo! what are
+you getting up for?"
+
+"Oh, I am going on eating, uncle," replied the boy.  "I was only going
+to walk to the end and see how far the soldiers had gone."
+
+"Hang the soldiers, sir!" cried the elder irascibly.  "I wish they'd
+keep in their barracks instead of coming hunting their prisoners all
+over this beautiful countryside.  Sit down and go on eating."
+
+The boy resumed his place, and began making half-moons in the edge of
+his sandwich and trying to munch hard; but somehow his appetite was
+gone, and before he was half through the second sandwich he watched his
+opportunity, slipped it into his pocket, and as his uncle turned round
+to look at him he leaned forward and helped himself to a third from the
+wallet.
+
+"Ah, that's better!  Eat away, boy.  We have got a long walk back, and
+you will have plenty of appetite for a good high tea.  Hang the
+prisoners as well as the soldiers.  If I had known that this great cage
+full of Bony's French frogs was up here I don't believe I should have
+come--that is, unless I thought that Nap himself was a prisoner here
+too, when I might have been tempted to come and have a grin at the wild
+beast in his cage.  Eh, what?  What did you do that for?"
+
+He looked curiously at his nephew, who, after a glance across the pool,
+had involuntarily stretched out one hand to grip his elder's arm.
+
+"Do you hear me, sir?" he cried sharply.  "Why did you pinch my arm like
+that?"
+
+The boy, whose face had looked rather white the moment before, flushed
+scarlet, and stammered out something confused and strange.
+
+"Why, hullo, boy!" cried his uncle sharply, and he leaned forward in
+turn and caught the lad by the wrist.  "Why, what's the matter with you?
+Haven't been overdoing it in the sun, have you?  Here, take my cup and
+have a glass of water."
+
+"No, no, uncle; I am quite right.  There's nothing the matter with me.
+It's--it's--it's--"
+
+"It's what?" said Uncle Paul sharply, as he gazed full in the boy's eyes
+and held tightly by his wrist.  "Well, it's what?"
+
+"Perhaps I am a bit tired, uncle.  I have been working very hard, and I
+turned faint and hungry a little while ago."
+
+"Humph!" grunted Uncle Paul.  "Then do as I tell you.  Drink a cup of
+that clear cold water."
+
+"That's better," he continued, a few minutes later.  "Now eat another
+sandwich.  No nonsense, sir!  Do as I tell you!"
+
+The boy sighed and helped himself to another of the double slices and
+their contents, and for the next few minutes no word was spoken, the
+pair sitting opposite to one another and munching or ruminating steadily
+away, the younger feeling as if every mouthful of which he partook would
+choke him.
+
+"Hah!" said Uncle Paul, at last; "it is a drawback to this beautiful
+place.  The colours of the heath are glorious, and the views from up
+here are grand.  I got some good specimens too, ready for our
+microscopic work to-night; and that was a nice trout you caught.  How
+many did you get, boy?"
+
+"Only one, uncle," said the boy vacantly.
+
+"What!"
+
+"I didn't see the other, uncle."
+
+Uncle Paul drew a deep breath and fixed the boy with his eyes, as he
+said quietly--
+
+"I asked you how many trout you got, Pickle."
+
+"Oh, about fifty, uncle.  Creel's half full."
+
+"Ah!  Then we will have some for high tea to-night, and some for
+breakfast in the morning, and give our landlady the rest.  Nice woman
+that; full of stories about the prisoners, and Bony and his wretched
+scum.  Ugh!  The very name of the rascal raises my bile, and--There, I
+think I had better take you home and give you a dose."
+
+"Yes, let's go on back now, uncle," said the boy eagerly, "but indeed,
+indeed I don't want a dose."
+
+"Humph!  Then pray why did you grip hold of my arm again like that, and
+stare across yonder over my shoulder as if you could see a raven hiding
+in one of the holes?"
+
+"Oh no, uncle," cried the boy, with a forced laugh.  "I couldn't see
+anything."
+
+"Ha, ha!" ejaculated Uncle Paul.  "Now, look here, Pickle; you and I
+have always had a sort of tacit agreement that we'd play fair together,
+and that there should be a mutual confidence."
+
+"Yes, uncle, of course," cried the boy, whose face was burning.
+
+"Very well, then, you are breaking truce.  You are not playing the game,
+sir."
+
+"Uncle!"
+
+"Pickle!  Now then, sir, out with it.  You have seen those French
+prisoners."
+
+"Uncle!"
+
+"Yes, sir.  Why did you pinch my arm--twice?  Now then, honour!"
+
+"I--I--You were talking about Bonaparte."
+
+"Well, what of that?"
+
+"I was afraid he'd hear you, uncle."
+
+"What!" cried the other, and his mouth opened wide.  "Bony!  Here?"
+
+"No, uncle, of course not, but one of the young prisoners.  He was
+escaping."
+
+"And you--you have turned traitor to your King, and been hiding a
+prisoner of war from his guard!  Why, you young scoundrel!  You lied to
+that sergeant, and said you hadn't seen them."
+
+"I didn't, uncle!" cried the boy hotly.  "It was you."
+
+"Eh?  What?" roared the elder.  "You dare to!  Eh?--Ah--so I did!  But
+then I didn't know."
+
+"No, uncle, and if you had seen and heard the poor lad as I did, I am
+sure you wouldn't have betrayed him."
+
+"Betray!  It isn't betraying, sir, to give up a prisoner of war."
+
+"I felt as if it would be, uncle, under such circumstances," said Rodd,
+who began noting that his uncle had lowered his voice, and that his
+angriest words had been uttered in a whisper.
+
+"Look here, my boy," he said now quite softly, "I knew that there was
+something up, or you would have been wolfing more than your share of
+those sandwiches.  I saw you keep squinting at that hole over yonder.
+So you have hid him away there?"
+
+"No, uncle," said Rodd; "I did nothing, but just as the soldiers were
+coming up, and he'd been begging and praying me to save him, I just said
+that that would be a good place to hide."
+
+"Humph!" grunted Uncle Paul.  "It was very wrong, my boy--very wrong;
+but look here, Pickle, is the poor fellow badly wounded?"
+
+"No, uncle; only exhausted.  He looked just like that hunted deer we saw
+the other day."
+
+"Hah!" said Uncle Paul, nodding his head.  "Humph!  Well, you know, my
+boy, it isn't the thing, and we should be getting into no end of trouble
+if it were known.  It's against the law, you know, and if you had caught
+him and held him you would have got a big reward."
+
+Rodd got up and laid his hands upon his elder's shoulders as he looked
+him fixedly in the eyes.
+
+"I say, uncle," he said, "you have been questioning me.  It's my turn
+now."
+
+"Yes, Pickle; I'll play fair.  It's your turn," said Uncle Paul.  "What
+is it you want to say?"
+
+"Only this, uncle.  Would you have liked me to earn that reward?"
+
+"Hah!  I say, Pickle, my lad, would you like any more sandwiches?"
+
+"No, uncle."
+
+"Then isn't it about time we began to make for home?"
+
+Uncle Paul rose and led the way down-stream, gazing straight before him,
+and though he must have seen, he took no notice of the fact that Rodd
+did not throw the strap of his creel of fish over his shoulder, but left
+it by the side of the stone, along with the wallet, through whose gaping
+mouth a second packet of big sandwiches could still be seen.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+MRS. CHAMPERNOWNE'S PAN.
+
+Mr Robson, when he came up from Plymouth for a natural history
+expedition into Dartmoor, did not select a hotel for his quarters, for
+the simple reason that such a house of accommodation did not exist, but
+took what he could get--a couple of tiny bedrooms in the cottage of a
+widow whose husband had been a mining captain on the moor; and there
+after a long tramp they returned on the evening after the adventure, to
+find their landlady awaiting them at the pretty rose-covered porch,
+eager and expectant and ready to throw up her hands in dismay.
+
+"Why, where are the fish?" she cried--"the trout?"
+
+"Eh?" said Uncle Paul.
+
+"The fish, sir--the fish.  I've got a beautiful fire, and the lard ready
+in the pan.  I want to go on cooking while you both have a good wash.
+You told me that you would be sure to bring home a lot of trout for your
+supper, and I haven't prepared anything else."
+
+"Bless my heart!  So I did," said Uncle Paul.  "Here, Pickle, where are
+those trout?"
+
+Rodd gave his uncle a comical look, and stood rubbing one ear.
+
+"Ah, uncle," he cried, "where are those trout?"
+
+Uncle Paul screwed up one eye, and he too in unconscious imitation began
+to rub one ear.
+
+"Ah, well; ah, well," said the landlady, "I suppose you couldn't help
+it.  I have had gentlemen staying here to fish before now, and it's been
+a basketful one day and a basket empty the next.  Fish are what the
+Scotch call very kittle cattle.  Never mind, my dear," she continued to
+Rodd.  "Better luck next time.  Fortunately I have got plenty of eggs,
+and there's the ham waiting for me to cut off some more rashers."
+
+As she spoke the woman hurried into her kitchen, from which sharp
+crackling sounds announced that he was thrusting pieces of wood under
+the kettle, and as she busied herself she went on talking aloud so that
+they could hear--
+
+"Did you hear the gun fire, sir, somewhere about one o'clock?"
+
+"Yes," grunted Uncle Paul.  "Dinner-time, and we ate your sandwiches,
+Mrs Champernowne.  They were delicious."
+
+"I am very glad, sir.  But, oh dear no, that wasn't the dinner-bell.
+That meant that some of the prisoners had escaped.  Poor fellows!  I
+always feel sorry for them."
+
+"Mrs Champernowne!" cried Uncle Paul, and Rodd, who was in his room
+with his face under water, raised it up, grinning, for he knew his
+uncle's peculiar ways by heart, and he went on listening to what was
+said.
+
+"Oh, yes, sir," cried the landlady, with her voice half-drowned by a
+sudden flap and a sizzling noise which indicated, without the appetising
+odour which soon began to rise to Rodd's nostrils, that their landlady
+had vigorously slapped a thick rasher of pink-and-white ham into the hot
+frying-pan; "I know what you think, sir, and what you told me only last
+night about being a loyal subject of King George, and these being our
+natural enemies, whom we ought to hate."
+
+_Ciss_! went the ham, and Rodd felt as if he should like to shout "Hear,
+hear!"
+
+"But I can't help remembering what I hear at church about forgiving our
+enemies; and I am sure you would, sir, if you knew what I do about those
+poor fellows, torn away from their own people and shut up behind prison
+bars, and all for doing nothing."
+
+Just then there was a little spluttering noise as if the pan were
+chuckling.
+
+"For doing nothing!" shouted Uncle Paul, and a sound from his room
+suggested that he had set down the washhand jug with a bang.  "The
+scoundrels who invaded our shores?"
+
+_Ciss_! said the pan.
+
+"That they didn't, sir!" cried the landlady.  "They didn't even try; and
+even if they had there were all our brave fellows round the coasts who
+would soon have stopped them."
+
+"Hear, hear!" cried Rodd, very softly, for he was speaking into his
+sweet-scented towel, whose scent was that of fresh air and wild thyme.
+
+"Well, well, that's right," shouted Uncle Paul; "but they wanted to."
+
+_Whish-ish_, went the pan, and there was a good deal more spluttering,
+and in his mind's eye Rodd saw the great rasher turned right over, to
+begin sizzling again.
+
+"And I don't believe that, Dr Robson," cried the landlady sturdily.
+"Don't you know that the poor fellows over yonder never get good honest
+shillings given to them and are enlisted of their own free will like our
+lads at home, but they are dragged away and are obliged to fight; and it
+was all owing to the angry jealousy and covetousness of that dreadful
+man, Bony, who has been the cause of all the trouble."
+
+"Hah!" roared Uncle Paul, in a voice that almost shook the diamond-paned
+casement.  "Say no more, Mrs Champernowne.  You are quite right, and I
+admire your sympathies.  Madam, you are a lady!"
+
+"Oh, really, Dr Robson--"
+
+"I repeat it, madam, you are a lady, and I applaud everything you have
+said.  But what about that gun?"
+
+"Oh, dear me, yes, sir; I was just going to tell you, but you put it all
+out of my head.  It was the alarm gun to tell everybody that prisoners
+had escaped, so that all the people on the moor could join the soldiers
+in scouring the place as they called it, and hunting the poor Frenchmen
+down for the sake of the reward.  Yes, I'd reward them if I had my way!
+Hunting their poor fellow-creatures, who are only trying for their
+liberty!"
+
+"H'm!  Ha!" grunted Uncle Paul, and there was a huckabacky sound about
+his words.
+
+There was another furious hissing from the pan, followed by a fresh
+slap, for a second great rasher had been thrust in _vice_ number one
+nicely cooked and just placed in the hot dish that had been intended for
+trout.
+
+"Did they catch them, Mrs Champernowne?" shouted Uncle Paul.
+
+"I haven't heard, sir," was the reply; "but dear, dear, they are pretty
+well sure to, for there's not much chance for the poor fellows.  Oh, it
+makes my heart bleed when I hear sometimes that one of them has been
+shot down by the soldiers."
+
+Rodd went on tip-toe across the creaking floor to open his door a little
+farther, listening with strained ear, for his bright young imagination
+pictured the thin pale youth, wild-eyed and breathless, out of his
+hiding-place and running for liberty across the open moor, and hearing
+again the distant reports of the muskets.
+
+"But that doesn't often happen, sir, for between you and me and the
+post, seeing that the prisoners are only soldiers, after all, I don't
+believe that though they have their orders, our men ever try to hit
+them; and very glad I am."
+
+"Ah, ah, ah, Mrs Champernowne, that isn't loyal, you know, that isn't
+loyal to his Majesty the King and your country."
+
+"I can't help that, Dr Robson, and I am not speaking, sir, as a
+subject, but as a woman and a mother who has a brave stout boy in our
+good King's Guards.  Now suppose, sir, that you were a mother."  Uncle
+Paul grunted audibly.
+
+"And had a boy the same as I have, and Bony Napolyparty had taken him
+prisoner.  How would you like him to be shot down?"
+
+Rodd literally jumped in his alarm, for there was a tremendously wild
+cissing from the pan and a horrible suggestion therewith that Mrs
+Champernowne had been turning the rasher with so much energy that she
+had thrown the cooking slice on to the fire itself instead of into its
+native pan, while a sudden gush as of hot burning fat came up the little
+stairs.
+
+But the pleasant sizzling sounds began again directly, and Rodd, who was
+ravenously hungry, consequent upon the bad part he had played over the
+sandwiches beneath the tor, sighed in relief as he realised that the
+widow's energetic treatment had only splashed a little of the fat over
+the side of the pan.
+
+As Rodd listened for a continuation of the political discussion, in
+which it seemed to him that Uncle Paul had got the worst of it, for
+neither the widow nor he spoke for the next three or four minutes, and
+the pan had it all its own way, there was some creaking of the boards as
+the naturalist stumped about, and when he did speak it was evident that
+he thought it wise to change the subject.  And it was the inner man who
+now spoke--
+
+"Our tea-supper nearly ready, Mrs Champernowne?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir.  The second rasher's about done.  How many eggs shall I
+cook?"
+
+"Oh, one, or perhaps two, for me," shouted Uncle Paul.
+
+"Oh, I say!" muttered Rodd.
+
+"Better cook eight or ten for my nephew," cried the doctor dryly.
+"He'll eat like a young wolf."
+
+"What a shame!" muttered Rodd.  "I'll serve him out for this."
+
+"Fried, of course, sir?" came from the kitchen.
+
+"Murder, woman, no!" roared Uncle Paul.  "Fry!  That is wild
+west-country ignorance, madam!  Are you not aware, madam, that the
+action of boiling fat upon albumen is to produce a coagulate leathery
+mass of tough indigestible matter inimical to the tender sensitive
+lining of the most important organ of the human frame, lying as it does
+without assimilation or absorption upon the epigastric region, and
+producing an irritation that may require medical treatment to allay?"
+
+"Dear, dear, dear, dear me, no, sir!  Really, you quite fluster me with
+all those long words.  Who ever heard that fried ham and eggs were bad
+for anybody?"
+
+"Then I tell you now, madam," shouted the doctor, "that--"
+
+"Don't you take any notice, Mrs Champernowne," shouted Rodd.  "It's
+only uncle's fun."
+
+"Wuff!" went Uncle Paul, with a snap like that of an angry dog.  "Wuff!"
+
+"Fried, please, Mrs Champernowne; four for uncle and three for me."
+
+"Umph!" grunted the doctor, and a few minutes later he and his nephew,
+hunger-sharpened and weary-legged, were seated facing one another in the
+widow's pleasant little parlour, hard at work, and risking all the
+direful symptoms upon which the elder had discoursed, and thoroughly
+enjoying hearty draughts of Mrs Champernowne's fragrant tea.
+
+There was silence in the kitchen, following the final hissings and
+odours emitted by the hard-worked pan, but a great deal of business went
+on in the little parlour, the first words that were spoken being by
+Uncle Paul, who growled out--
+
+"Here, I suppose you had better tell the old lady to put on another
+rasher of ham to fry."
+
+"For you, uncle?" said Rodd archly.
+
+"No, sir, for you.  You traitorous young dog, leaving all those
+beautiful trout up on the moor to be devoured by the enemies of your
+country!"
+
+"Well, they can't eat them raw, uncle."
+
+"Why not, sir?  They are only so many ravening savages, ready to breathe
+out battle and slaughter if they got free."
+
+"That poor boy didn't seem much of a savage, uncle," said Rodd quietly;
+and after a sidelong glance to see whether he dared say it, the boy
+continued tentatively, "I wish the poor fellow had been here to have
+this ham."
+
+"What!" roared his uncle fiercely.  "Bah!  You wouldn't have left him a
+mouthful.  Wolf--raven!"
+
+"Yes, I would, uncle.  I'd have left him all."
+
+"Umph!" grunted Uncle Paul, taking up a very thin, old, much-worn silver
+table-spoon and looking at it with the eye of a connoisseur.  "H'm!  Ha!
+Queen Anne."
+
+"She's dead, uncle," said the boy.
+
+"Well, I know that, don't I?" growled Uncle Paul, as he tilted the empty
+dish, and carefully scraped all the golden brown fat and gravy to one
+side, getting together sufficient to nearly fill the spoon, and then
+making as if to put it upon his own plate, but with a quick gesture
+dabbing it down upon Rodd's.
+
+"Fair play, uncle!" shouted the boy.
+
+"Bah!" grunted the doctor.  "Cut me a thin slice of bread, all crumb,
+Pickle.  Thunder and lightning!  I have got the best share, after all;"
+and then, with his face puckered up into a pleasant smile, he inserted a
+fork into the newly-cut slice of home-made bread, and began passing it
+round and round the dish until it had imbibed the remains of the liquid
+ham and the golden new-laid eggs, when he deposited it upon his own
+plate with a triumphant smile which seemed to Rodd to make him look
+five-and-twenty years younger.
+
+"Shall I fill another cup of tea for you, uncle?" cried Rodd; and by the
+way, they were breakfast cups.
+
+"No, no, Pickle; I--I--er--well, say half."
+
+At that moment the door was opened, and, looking hot and out of breath,
+their landlady entered.
+
+"I hope you haven't been waiting for anything, gentlemen," she cried,
+giving the table a comprehensive glance.  "I am so sorry.  I will cook
+another rasher or two directly."
+
+"Madam, no," said Uncle Paul didactically.  "What does the great classic
+author say?"
+
+"Really I don't know, sir," cried Mrs Champernowne, with a perplexed
+look wrinkling up her pleasant face.  "But it won't take many minutes."
+
+"Enough, madam, is as good as a feast.  This has been a banquet, eh,
+Pickle?  I never enjoyed anything half so much before in my life.  The
+ham was tenderness itself, the eggs new-laid--the bread--the butter--the
+tea--eh, Pickle?"
+
+"Delicious, uncle."
+
+"The fat of the land, Mrs Champernowne," continued the doctor; "the
+riches of these smiling pastures.  Now if your friend Napoleon Bonaparte
+had come with his locusts to devastate the land, his hordes such as we
+have seen safely imprisoned yonder--"
+
+"Yes, sir," interrupted Mrs Champernowne eagerly; "that's what I came
+to tell you.  I thought I might just run over to my neighbour's, whose
+master has come back from the hunt, and I thought that you would like to
+hear.  Those two French prisoners have got right away."
+
+"Hooray!" shouted Rodd, springing from the chair, and to Mrs
+Champernowne's astonishment catching her round the waist and waltzing
+her about the room.  "Three cheers for the poor prisoners!  Hurrah!
+Hurrah!  Hurrah!"
+
+And Uncle Paul pushed back his chair, puckered up his forehead, stared
+hard at his nephew, and grunted out--
+
+"Humph!"
+
+"Oh, my dear, don't!  Pray don't!" panted Mrs Champernowne, whom Nature
+had made middle-aged, round and plump.  "You are taking away all my
+breath.  But my neighbour's master says that he thinks they have made
+for Salcombe, where they will perhaps get aboard one of the orange boats
+and be put back in their own country."
+
+"Hah!" said Uncle Paul, leaning back in his chair to take hold of his
+bunch of seals and haul up by the broad watered silk ribbon the big
+double-cased gold watch that ticked away from where it reclined warm and
+comfortable at the bottom of his fob.
+
+  "Confound their politics,
+  Frustrate their knavish tricks!"
+
+"That was a very fine tea, Mrs Champernowne.  Now, Pickle, my boy, I
+think it would be very nice to go and sit for half-an-hour in the arbour
+under the roses, while I kill the green fly--the aphides, Mrs
+Champernowne--which increase and multiply at a rate which is absolutely
+marvellous.  Pickle, my boy, I hope you will never grow up as weak and
+self-indulgent as your uncle.  Fill me my long clay pipe."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+OH, SUMMER NIGHT!
+
+Mrs Champernowne's arbour was a very homely affair, consisting of four
+fir poles to form as many corners, and a few more nailed and pegged
+together to form gables.  Nature built all the rest with roses and
+honeysuckle and some vigorous ivy at the back, the roses spiring up, the
+honeysuckle creeping in and out among the long strands and holding them
+together, while the ivy ran rapidly up the back till it could grow no
+higher, and then began to droop down till it had formed itself into a
+thick curtain which kept out the wind.
+
+There was a very rustic table in the middle, formed by nailing two
+pieces of plank on to a tree stump, and a couple of seats, one on each
+side, pierced with holes that had once upon a time been made by ship
+carpenters' augers, when the wood was built up over the ribs of some
+stout ship which long years after was bumped to pieces by the waves upon
+the rocks and then cast up upon the southern shore, to be bought up and
+carted all through the county.
+
+Yes, it was a very rustic place, but it suited its surroundings, and
+Uncle Paul looked supremely happy as he sat there slowly smoking his
+pipe and gazing dreamily before him at the beautiful landscape
+stretching far, and the garden of the one cottage within reach only a
+short distance away from the plot of ground where by the help of the
+neighbour sufficient potatoes were grown for the widow's use.  "What a
+silent, peaceful evening, Pickle," said Uncle Paul.  "Look yonder in the
+east; the moon will be up soon, and then it will be night, and we have
+done no work.  How do you feel, my boy?"
+
+"Tired and stupid, uncle.  My legs ache right down to the ankles."
+
+"No wonder, hopping about amongst those granite boulders.  My back's a
+bit stiff too.  There, let's go into the parlour, light up, and then you
+shall fetch down the microscope."
+
+"Oh, not yet, uncle!--I say, have another pipe."
+
+"A vaunt, you young tempter!  Trying to lead me astray into idleness!
+No, let's get in.  We have been playing all day; now let's go and get a
+bit of work done before we lie down to sleep."
+
+"But I say, uncle, do you think that Napoleon will ever start another
+war in France?"
+
+"Who knows, boy?  His goings-on have brought nearly everything to a
+standstill, and there has been war enough to last for a hundred years."
+
+"Yes, uncle; but do you think that Napoleon and the war put a stop to
+your expedition that you were to make in a vessel of your own?"
+
+"Of course I do, Pickle," said Uncle Paul, smoking very slowly now, with
+his eyes shut, so as to make the little incandescent mass at the bottom
+of his bowl last for a few minutes longer.  "Government promised me and
+my friends to make a grant for the fitting out of a small vessel, and
+for the payment of a captain and crew, and it was voted that we should
+have it; but do what we might, my friends and I could never get the
+cash, and it has always been put off, put off, on account of the
+expenses of the war."
+
+"But, uncle--" began Rodd.
+
+"No, you don't, sir," said Uncle Paul, with a soft chuckle.  "None of
+your artfulness!  You are trying to lead me on to prattle about Bony, so
+as to avoid my lecture upon the fresh-water polypes I have taken to-day.
+Get out, you transparent young scrub!  In with you, and fetch down the
+case, and light the two candles on the parlour table.  Nice innocent way
+of doing it.  Think I couldn't see through you, sir?  Be off!"
+
+A few minutes later Uncle Paul's pipe was cooling on the parlour
+chimney-piece, kept almost upright by the waxy end leaning against a
+glass tube which had been formed into a sort of ornamental rolling-pin
+to be suspended over the fire, and to be much treasured by its owner.
+
+It was not a very aesthetic piece of art or ornamentation, being only
+composed of coloured flowers carefully cut out of a piece of chintz,
+before being gummed upon the inside of the glass tube.  This was then
+filled up with salt, and the ornament was complete.
+
+The candles were burning brightly after each application of the
+snuffers; the polished mahogany microscope case stood on a side-table,
+and the brass tube that had been taken out was ready to receive one of
+the many slips of glass, some of which had little cup-like hollows
+ground out of one side ready for receiving a tiny drop of water and one
+or other of the specimens, the result of the past day's search.
+
+Uncle Paul was on one side of the table with his big glass bottle; Rodd
+sat on the other, with his chin resting in his hands, trying to listen
+to his uncle's discourse, and with his eyelids drooping down now and
+again.
+
+"Bother the flies and moths!" said Uncle Paul testily.  "Who's to work
+with them circling round and round the candles, trying to singe
+themselves to death?  What's that white one, boy?"
+
+"Ghost moth, uncle," replied Rodd sharply, his uncle's question seeming
+to rouse him up to attention.
+
+"Good boy!  Well named.  Trying hard to make a ghost of itself too.
+Why, there's a great Daddy Longlegs now!  Here, you'll have to shut the
+window."
+
+"Oh, don't, uncle!  It will make the room so hot."
+
+"Umph!  So it will.  Very tiresome, though, when one's trying to work.
+Now then, let me see; let me see.  I want to examine this hydra, but I
+must put on a lower power, and--Oh, dear, dear, dear!  Gnats!  Moths!
+Tipulae and--Really, really, Pickle, that lamp gives no light at all;"
+and Uncle Paul leaned forward, took a pin out of the edge of his
+waistcoat, and began to prick at and try to raise the wick of the
+reflecting microscope lamp.
+
+Then there was a little catastrophe, for after a most vigorous
+application of the pin the wick seemed to resent it as if it were some
+kind of sea worm, and drew back out of reach into its little brass cell.
+
+"There, now I've done it!" said Uncle Paul.  "Did you ever see anything
+so tiresome in your life, Pickle?"
+
+"Yahah!" sighed the boy slowly.
+
+"Why, what are you doing?  Yawning!" cried Uncle Paul.  "You are about
+the sleepiest chap I ever knew.  There, I am afraid I shall have to wait
+for to-morrow morning's sunshine.  Clear away, or help me.  Let's put
+everything on a side-table, and I'll tell Mrs Champernowne that she
+isn't to touch what she sees there."
+
+"Yes, uncle," said the boy, with something like alacrity, as the table
+was cleared and the candles re-snuffed, the effect of opening and
+shutting the snuffers seeming to act upon Rodd and making him yawn
+widely, while quite involuntarily Uncle Paul did the same.  "Now then,"
+said Uncle Paul.
+
+"Aren't we going to bed, uncle?" said Rodd eagerly.  "Bed?  Nonsense!
+Because we are in a country place where people like going to bed almost
+in the middle of the day and getting up in the middle of the night, do
+you think we need follow their example?  Absurd!  I want to talk to you
+about some of the wonderful things I captured to-day.  The waters on the
+moor swarm with the most beautiful limpid specimens."
+
+Rodd sighed softly, and put his hand before his mouth to stop a yawn.
+
+"Oh, by the way," said Uncle Paul, "did you change your trousers when
+you went up to wash?"
+
+"No, uncle; they didn't want it."
+
+"Weren't they damp?"
+
+"No, uncle; I only got my shoes wet, and they were pretty well dry when
+I got home.  Besides, you had got my other trousers in the big
+portmanteau in your room."
+
+"Well, you could have come and fetched them.  Always be careful to
+change damp things.--Come in!"
+
+There had been a soft tap at the door, and Mrs Champernowne appeared.
+
+"I beg pardon, sir, but what would you like for breakfast in the
+morning?"
+
+"Breakfast, Mrs Champernowne?  Nothing."
+
+"Oh, I say, uncle!" said Rodd sharply.  "We seem to have eaten enough
+this evening to last us for twenty-four hours."
+
+"Oh no, sir," said the landlady.  "Excuse me, but our moorland air will
+make you think very differently to-morrow morning."
+
+"Humph!" grunted Uncle Paul.
+
+"You see, sir, I did think that you'd bring home enough trout this
+evening to do for your breakfast too, and I am afraid there's nothing
+but ham and eggs.  Would you mind them?"
+
+"I'll tell you to-morrow morning, madam," said Uncle Paul.
+
+"Then if you wouldn't mind, sir--I don't want to hurry you and the young
+gentleman--but it's my time, and if you will excuse me I'll say
+good-night."
+
+"Good-night, Mrs Champernowne; good-night, and pleasant rest to you,"
+said Uncle Paul heartily, "and--Yes?  You were going to say something?"
+
+"If you wouldn't mind, sir, being sure that the candles are well out."
+
+"Oh, of course; of course."
+
+"And it's a very hot night, sir."
+
+"Yes, madam; we have found that out."
+
+"So if you'll be kind enough to shut and slip the bolt of the front door
+I'll leave it for you to do so when you go up to bed."
+
+"Certainly, Mrs Champernowne, certainly.  Once more, good-night."
+
+Their landlady smiled benevolently on both, and the next minute they
+heard the little old staircase creaking beneath her tread, this being
+followed by the cracking of the boards in the little room over the
+kitchen, the visitors both listening till all was silent again.
+
+Somehow as Rodd sat opposite to his uncle, his head seemed to be
+unusually heavy, and he rested more and more upon his two thumbs, which
+he had placed for support beneath his chin.
+
+There was a faint pinging sound, the trumpeting of a gnat flitting about
+the room, and then the deep boom of a beetle somewhere outside the open
+window.  There was a hot delicious odour, too, floating in over the
+flowers in the garden, a portion of whose scent the warm air seemed to
+be taking up to mingle with that which it had swept off the moor.
+
+And then as Rodd listened and gazed across the table between the two
+candles, whose tops were growing tiny brown mushrooms as they silently
+asked to be snuffed, it seemed to the boy that his uncle's face looked
+dim and misty, and then that it swelled and swelled and began to float
+up like a faintly seen balloon, till it died right away.  And all was
+still but the _um-um-um_ of the great beetle or chafer which had passed
+in through the window, and began circling round just below the
+whitewashed ceiling, against which its wings brushed from time to time
+with a faint fizz, till all at once Rodd started up, for his uncle
+exclaimed--
+
+"Why, Pickle, what are you about?"
+
+"I--I--nothing, uncle," said the boy hastily.  "Why, I believe, sir, you
+were going to sleep!"
+
+"Oh, I am quite wide awake, uncle," cried the boy.
+
+"Humph, yes--now.  You see, my boy, these hydras are most extraordinary
+things, and to-morrow morning in the bright sunshine we will get the
+microscope to work, and I'll show you how they--"
+
+_Burr_--_burr_--_burr_--_hum_--_hum_--_hum_--_um_--_um_.
+
+Was that Uncle Paul talking in a low tone with his voice getting farther
+and farther away, or was it that big chafer spinning round and round the
+room?  Now it nearly died out, and then it grew louder again and seemed
+to double into a duet, just as if the great stag beetle had whisked in
+at the casement and had joined in the nocturnal valse, the duet seeming
+to be intended to lull the naturalist and his nephew to sleep in the
+soft musky sweetness of that delightful summer's night.
+
+How long it lasted, who could say, but all at once there was a sudden
+start, and Uncle Paul's hand came down with a thump upon the tablecloth
+after he had knocked over one of the candlesticks, making so much noise
+that, wide awake now, Rodd made a dash and stood the candlestick up
+again, before snatching the candle from where it lay singeing the
+lavender and red-check cotton table-cover and beginning to deposit a big
+spot of grease.
+
+"Bless my heart, Pickle!" cried Uncle Paul.  "I believe I was going to
+drop asleep."
+
+"I am afraid I was asleep, uncle," replied the boy.  "You were saying
+that hydras--that hydras--er--er--er--something about hydras."
+
+"Yes, yes, yes, but never mind.  Perhaps we had better go to bed, and
+I'll finish what I was saying in the morning.  There, light the two flat
+candlesticks, and we will have a good long snooze.  That's right; put
+out the others.  No, no; use the extinguisher!  Don't blow them out, or
+there will be such a smell."
+
+Then--
+
+"Shall I shut the window, uncle?"
+
+"Oh, no, I don't think you need.  The place is like an oven.  Heigho--
+ha--hum!  Yes, I am sleepy.  Come along.  Good-night, my boy.  I am
+going to sleep with my chamber window wide open, and you'd better do the
+same."
+
+"But I say, uncle, we shall hardly want our candles.  Look at the moon.
+It is almost as light as day."
+
+All the same they took the candles up with them, the stairs creaking
+again beneath their tread as if uttering a protest against them for
+their forgetfulness in not attending to their hostess's request to close
+and bolt the door; but they were too sleepy to do anything more than
+slip off their things on reaching their rooms, while almost directly
+after, the moon was shining in right across Rodd's snowy white bed, the
+pillow being in the darkness, which also formed a black bar across the
+foot, so that only the boy's hands and breast lay in the light.
+
+One moment after laying his head down in that black velvety darkness
+Rodd Harding was wide awake and thinking that all outside the window was
+silver, a broad streak of which came straight over him to die away in
+the wall on his left; the next, he was far away in the land of dreams,
+wandering over the moor, his confused visions taking the form of
+escaping prisoners flying before soldiers in scarlet coats.
+
+And then after a blank pause which seemed to have lasted only a few
+minutes, Rodd opened his eyes upon the bright silvery light once more,
+to find that it struck across from the window in the opposite direction,
+for he was wide awake, listening to a soft tap, tap, tap, evidently
+administered by a knuckle upon his door.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+THE MILK IN THE COCOA-NUT.
+
+"Yes, all right, Mrs Champernowne; get up directly.  I say, what's
+o'clock?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know, my dear," came in agitated tones, "but would you come
+to the door and speak to me a minute?"
+
+There was a bump on the floor as Rodd sprang out of bed, and then--
+
+"What is it?" whispered the boy, who was moved by his caller's evident
+distress.  "Don't say uncle's ill!"
+
+"No, no, my dear, but I am in great trouble.  You--you didn't shut the
+front door."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Rodd.
+
+"And--and, my dear, there have been thieves and robbers in the night.
+They have stripped my little larder, and I don't know what they haven't
+taken besides.  Do, pray, make haste and dress, and come down and help
+me!  I am in such trouble, I don't know what I shall do."
+
+"All right; I'll make haste and come down," cried Rodd, feeling guilty
+all over, and then trying to excuse himself by shuffling the blame on to
+the right shoulders.  "It was uncle she asked," he muttered, as he ran
+round to the other side of the bed for the chair upon which he had hang
+his clothes when he undressed.  "Why, hallo!"
+
+He stood staring at the chair for a moment or two, and then ran round
+the foot of the bed, opened the door two or three inches, and called in
+a subdued tone so as not to awaken his uncle, though if he had been
+asked why, he could not have told, beyond saying that he felt then that
+it was the right thing to do--
+
+"Mrs Champernowne!  Mrs Champernowne!"
+
+"Yes, my dear," came from the foot of the stairs.  "Oh, you have been
+quick!"
+
+"No, no, I haven't," cried Rodd pettishly.  "Here, I say, have you taken
+away my trousers?"
+
+"Gracious me, no, my dear!  What should I want with your trousers?"
+
+"Take them down to brush perhaps," muttered the boy to himself, as he
+ran back to the other side of the bed and raised the counterpane.
+"Haven't slipped off and gone under," he muttered, and then as a fresh
+thought struck him he clapped his hands to his forehead and stood
+staring before him.  "The thieves!" he exclaimed.  "They haven't been in
+here and taken all my clothes?"
+
+He was silent for a few minutes, as he stared vacantly about the room.
+
+"They have, though!" he cried.  "Here, Mrs Champernowne!--Boots and
+all.  Oh, I can't tell her.  Here, I must get my other suit out of the
+portmanteau.  I won't wake uncle, because it's so early.  Why, it can be
+only just sunrise; and he'd sit up and laugh at me.  Oh, bother!"
+
+Rodd ran round to the door again, opened it about an inch, and listened.
+
+"She's in the kitchen," he muttered to himself, and slipping out on to
+the little landing he raised the latch of his uncle's door, glided in,
+and made for the big portmanteau that lay unstrapped beneath the window.
+
+Raising the one half quickly, he twisted the whole round so that the two
+halves might lie open upon the whitely-scrubbed boards as silently as he
+could; but one corner caught against the leg of the dressing-table,
+jarring it so violently that a hair-brush fell on to the floor with a
+bang, and Uncle Paul sprang up in bed.
+
+"Hullo, you sir!  What are you doing there?" he cried.
+
+"Getting out my other suit, uncle," said the boy quickly.
+
+"What for?  Don't do that!  We are going over the moor again to-day."
+
+"But I must, uncle," cried Rodd.
+
+"Mush!"
+
+"Yes.  Oh, I shall be obliged to tell you.  It was all your fault,
+uncle; you didn't fasten the door as Mrs Champernowne told you, and
+there have been thieves in the night."
+
+"Been grandmothers in the night!" cried Uncle Paul contemptuously.
+
+"It's true, uncle, and they came up into my room while I was asleep and
+took away all my clothes--boots and all."
+
+"You don't mean that, Pickle!  Here, I say, where are mine?"
+
+Rodd sprang to his feet from where he was kneeling by the portmanteau,
+and ran round to the side of the bed, just as his uncle turned and faced
+him.
+
+"Every blessed thing gone, boy.  Why, Rodney, my lad, we have fallen
+into a den of thieves--robbed, and we may thank our stars we haven't
+been murdered!"
+
+"Why, it's horrid, uncle!  Didn't you hear them, then?"
+
+"Hear them, no!  I heard nothing till you knocked something off on to
+the floor.  Here, stop a moment, boy!  My purse!  It was in my trousers
+pocket."
+
+"Then it's gone, uncle," cried Rodd.
+
+"Ah!  Horror!  My gold watch and seals!"
+
+"Well, they weren't in your trousers, uncle."
+
+"No, boy; I remember winding it up and laying it on the chimney-piece."
+
+"It isn't there, uncle."
+
+"My gold presentation watch, that I wouldn't have lost for five hundred
+pounds!  Call up that wretched woman."
+
+"Uncle, I can't!"
+
+"Do as I tell you, sir!  She's in league with the thieves."
+
+"But, uncle!"
+
+"Oh yes, I forgot.  There, don't stand staring there like a bull calf
+that has lost its mother.  Turn that portmanteau upside down.  Put on
+some things yourself, and throw me some more.  You can dress quicker
+than I can, for you haven't got to shave.  Look sharp, and then run for
+the village constable."
+
+"Why, there isn't one, uncle," grumbled Rodd, as he began to scramble
+into his other clothes.
+
+"No, of course there isn't, sir.  A miserable one-eyed place with only
+two cottages in it, and I dare say that old woman's in the other,
+sharing the plunder?  What a fool I was to come!"
+
+"No, you weren't, uncle, and Mrs Champernowne isn't sharing the
+plunder, for she came and woke me up to say that the thieves had been
+and carried off everything there was down-stairs.  I say, uncle, it was
+all your fault."
+
+"Don't you dare to say that to me again, sir!" roared Uncle Paul.  "It
+is insolent and disrespectful.  Oh, hang the woman's door!  Why didn't
+she bolt it herself?  Why, I'd got twenty guineas in that purse, besides
+a lot of silver.  There, there's somebody knocking at the door!  Who's
+there?"
+
+"Please, sir, it's me.  They've taken the bread and the butter, and a
+piece of freshly-boiled ham that I meant for you to have cold."
+
+"And pray who's _they_, madam?" shouted Uncle Paul, who was in
+difficulties with buttons.
+
+"Well, sir, I was thinking it must be the smugglers.  They've been here
+several times before, when they have been crossing the moor with cargo;
+but it couldn't be them, for they always leave a little box of tea or a
+bit of silk, to pay for what they take.  It must have been thieves,
+sir--thieves."
+
+"Yes, madam; and they have taken my purse and gold watch too, besides
+two suits of clothes.  There, go on down.  We'll join you soon.  I want
+to think what's to be done."
+
+The stairs creaked as Mrs Champernowne descended, and just then
+something caught Rodd's eye--something bright and shiny, against the
+leaves of a big old gazetteer lying upon the side-table.
+
+Rodd uttered an ejaculation.
+
+"Oh!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Something more gone?" cried the Doctor.
+
+"No, uncle; there's your watch.  And here's your gold pencil-case too,"
+continued the boy, as he raised the corner of the book.  "Why, they have
+been turning the watch-ribbon into a marker, and somebody has been
+writing here on the fly-leaf."
+
+"Thank goodness!" grunted Uncle Paul.  "That's something saved out of
+the fire.  Never mind the writing.  But they have taken our clothes."
+
+"It's in French, I think, uncle, but I can't quite make it out."
+
+"French!" cried Uncle Paul fiercely.  "Why, of course!  How stupid!  I
+might have known.  We have been attacked in the night by a gang of old
+Napoleon's scum.  That man's bound to be the curse of my life.  Don't
+stand staring there, boy.  Can't you see?"
+
+"No, uncle," said the boy sturdily.  "What nonsense!  Napoleon couldn't
+have invaded England in the night to come and steal our clothes."
+
+"Bah!  Idiot!  Can't you see it's some of those scoundrelly French
+prisoners who escaped yesterday?  That vagabond of a boy perhaps that
+you pampered off and were feeding with our good English provisions.  Now
+you see the consequences.  The ungrateful rapparee--Oh no, but that's
+Irish, and he'd be French."
+
+"Yes, uncle," said the boy thoughtfully, for his uncle's fulminations
+fell blankly upon his ears as he stood trying to puzzle out some of the
+pencilled words upon the fly-leaf of the book.
+
+"Here's _pardon_, uncle, and something else I can't make out, and
+_changer_.  Why, that means exchange!  Yes, and lower down here's _sous_
+something, only it's written over `John Champernowne' and `his book';
+but that's in ink.  What does _oreiller_ mean, uncle?"
+
+"Bolster," said Uncle Paul.  "No: pillow," and he turned involuntarily
+towards the bed, where, unperceived before, a scrap of something red
+peered from beneath the clean white pillow-case.  "Under the pillow,"
+said Uncle Paul, and stepping to the side of the bed he snatched up the
+soft down cushion deeply marked by the pressure of his head.
+
+Catching up what lay beneath, he uttered a loud ejaculation and tapped
+it sharply against the bed-post.
+
+"What have you got there, uncle?"
+
+"Pickle, my boy, it's my twenty guineas that we thought they'd stolen.
+What in the name of forceps and lancets did they tie them up in this old
+silk rag for?  It's a bit of a pocket-handkerchief."
+
+"Why, uncle," cried Rodd, laughing, "it isn't going to be so bad, after
+all.  Somebody's been having a game with us."
+
+"Game, eh?  Queer sort of a game, Pickle," cried Uncle Paul; and with
+very little effort he tore open the silk envelope and poured out a
+little heap of bright gold coins upon the bed.  "Napoleons, by all
+that's wonderful!" he cried.  "Exchange!  I begin to see now, boy.  He's
+taken my good gold money, whoever he is, and left this French trash.
+Here, give me that book.  Mind--don't drop my watch."
+
+"I have got it safe, uncle," replied the boy, handing the big book to
+his uncle.
+
+"Humph!" grunted Uncle Paul.  "Not quite such a scoundrel as he might
+have been, whoever it is that wrote it.  Exchange, eh?  But there's been
+no exchange about our clothes.  Humph!  All in French, of course.  If he
+had been a gentleman, and he couldn't understand plain English, he would
+have written it in Latin.  Bah!  How I do hate that pernicketty French!
+Let's see--let's see.  Oh yes, here it all is.  Ask pardon for two poor
+prisoners trying to escape--um, um, um--years of misery.  Generous
+Englishman--some day--_remerciments_.  Ah, it's all scribbled horribly--
+in the dark, I suppose.  Oh, he's signed it, though, Pickle.  `Des Saix,
+Comte.'  Oh, there are two of them, then.  The other's signed his name
+too--quite a different hand.  `Morny des Saix, Vicomte.'  H'm!  Well, I
+suppose they are gentlemen."
+
+"Noblemen, uncle."
+
+"Bah!  Noblemen wouldn't do a thing like that!"
+
+"What are those other words, uncle, under the last name?"
+
+"Um--um--um!  `May God bless you for what you did to-day.  Your friend
+till death.'  Why, Pickle, you ought to have been able to read that
+yourself."
+
+"I did, uncle, but I wanted to be sure that I was right.  Why, that must
+have been the boy I helped to escape."
+
+"Yes, and he dodged us home, and as good as robbed us."
+
+"Oh, uncle!  Shame!"
+
+"How dare you, sir!  What do you mean by it, Rodney?  Do you forget who
+I am, sir?"
+
+"No."
+
+"And pray who am I then, sir?"
+
+"Dear old Uncle Paul, who has got out of bed the wrong way this
+morning!"
+
+"H'm--ha!  Well, I suppose you are right, Pickle.  I did feel in an
+awful temper; but I don't feel quite so bad now that I have found my
+watch."
+
+"And pencil-case, uncle."
+
+"Ah, yes, my boy.  That was the gift of a very grateful old patient."
+
+"And then there are all those gold napoleons, uncle."
+
+"Bah!  Trash!  Base counters, good for nothing, like the ugly head
+that's upon them," cried Uncle Paul irascibly.
+
+"But I say, uncle; it might have been worse."
+
+"But the clothes, my boy!  The scoundrels!  They'll go masquerading
+about in our things, and escaping, I'll be bound.  But stop a minute.
+What did he say about exchange?"
+
+"Oh, that meant about the money."
+
+"Hullo!  There's that wicked old woman again!--Well, Mrs Champernowne,
+what is it now?"
+
+"The wood-shed, sir."
+
+"Well, I don't want the wood-shed.  Light the fire yourself."
+
+"You don't understand me, sir.  I went round there to get some kindling,
+and there's quite a heap of old clothes there that these wicked people
+have left behind."
+
+Uncle Paul chuckled, for he was beginning to beam again.
+
+"I say, Pickle, that accounts for the milk in the cocoa-nut.  They must
+have taken our things down into the old lady's wood-shed, and turned it
+into a dressing-room."
+
+"Yes," cried Rodd; "and that young Viscount is quite welcome to mine."
+
+"Most generous, I am sure, sir," cried Uncle Paul sarcastically, "but
+would you be kind enough to tell me who pays the bills for your
+clothes?"
+
+"Why, you do, uncle, of course.  But I say, uncle, I do hope they'll
+escape; don't you?"
+
+"Wha-a-at!"
+
+"You do, uncle, only you pretend that you don't."
+
+"Pretend!"
+
+"Yes.  Poor fellows!  How horrible!  To have to stoop to such a scheme
+as that to get away!  But after all, uncle, it's glorious and brave.
+What an escape!  Oh, how I should like to meet that poor fellow again!"
+
+"What, to give him up to the soldiers?" said Uncle Paul sarcastically.
+
+"Give him up to the soldiers!" cried the boy indignantly.  "Why, I'd
+sooner put on his old clothes, and tell them a lie!"
+
+"What!" cried Uncle Paul.
+
+"Well, I'd pretend to be him so as to cheat them, and make them take me
+instead."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+WHAT DOES THAT SERGEANT WANT?
+
+"Humph!" grunted Uncle Paul, as they descended at last, to hear the fire
+crackling in the kitchen, and the bright old copper kettle singing its
+morning song.
+
+It was a lovely morning, with the sweet scents of the garden and moor
+floating in at the little parlour window, and as Uncle Paul took what
+his irreverent nephew called a good long sniff, he slowly and
+ostentatiously, moved thereto by the sight of the clean white cloth and
+the breakfast things, hauled up his great gold watch and examined its
+face.
+
+"Twenty-five minutes, thirty-seven seconds, past six, Pickle.  Rather
+early for breakfast.  Well, I suppose we must take things as they are;
+but I am very, very sorry that they took away my old coat; it was a
+great favourite.  And those things of yours, sir, are much too good to
+go climbing about tors and wading in streams.  I wish that Count had
+knocked at my door like a gentleman and asked me, as he should.  He
+should have had this suit instead.  I'd a deal rather he had it than my
+old shooting jacket."
+
+"Ha, ha!"
+
+"What are you laughing at, sir?"
+
+"Uncle Paul eating his words."
+
+"What, sir?"
+
+"You mean, uncle, that if Count de Saix had come and knocked at the door
+and asked you to help him, you'd have called me up and sent me to the
+prison for the soldiers."
+
+"Now look here, Rodney, that's impudence, sir, and--Ah!  There's the
+microscope, and the slides and the glasses.  Have they been disturbed?"
+
+"No, uncle.  Just as we left them.  I almost wonder they didn't carry
+off all those hydras."
+
+"_Hydrae_.  Be careful about your Latin plurals.  But look here, do you
+want me to box your ears?"
+
+"No, uncle."
+
+"Then don't give me any more of your impertinent allusions.  Hum--hum--
+hum!  Half-past six.  Very early for breakfast.  But I begin to feel a
+little _appetitlich_, as the Germans call it; don't you?"
+
+"Oh no, uncle," said Rodd, very mildly.  "You said last night that we
+had eaten enough to last twenty-four hours."
+
+"Now, look here, Rodney, you had the impudence to tell me a short time
+ago that I'd got out of bed the wrong way.  I am afraid it's you, sir,
+that have done that, and if you don't take care we shall be having a
+very serious quarrel.--There!  Run, quick!  That kettle's boiling over."
+
+But Rodd was half-way to the kitchen, and had snatched the kettle off
+before his uncle had finished speaking, warned of what was happening as
+he had been by the first angry hiss.
+
+"It's all right, uncle," he cried.  "No harm done!"
+
+"But what's become of that old woman?  She ought to be here now, seeing
+about our breakfast."
+
+"Here she comes, uncle," and through the window they could see their
+hostess hurrying back with a big basket from the direction of the
+neighbour's cottage, and the next minute they heard her setting her load
+upon her white kitchen-table.
+
+"Oh, I didn't know you were down, gentlemen," she cried, as she hurried
+into the parlour.  "I have been over to my neighbour's to see if she
+could help me now that I am in such a fix."
+
+"Well, could she?" said Uncle Paul.
+
+"Oh yes, sir.  As luck had it, she was baking yesterday, and she had
+plenty of butter and eggs, besides a small ham which had just been
+smoked."
+
+"Oh, come," said Uncle Paul, "we shall be able to keep you alive for a
+few days longer, Pickle; and I suppose you will soon be able to let us
+have breakfast, Mrs Champernowne?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir, very quickly.  I shall only want time to fry the ham."
+
+Uncle Paul gave an involuntary sniff, as if the aroma of the fragrant
+brown had floated to his nostrils.
+
+"But you can't tell, sir, how sorry I am that such a thing should have
+happened to gentlemen staying in my house;" and the poor woman looked
+appealingly to uncle and nephew, and back.
+
+"Don't you say another word about it, madam," replied Uncle Paul.  "You
+make us a nice clear cup of coffee to take away the taste of the night's
+adventures."
+
+"I will indeed, sir, and I won't say another word, only thank you for
+taking it so patiently and, if I might make the observation, in such a
+lamb-like way."
+
+Rodd turned round very quickly, walked to the window, and began to
+whistle softly.
+
+"I went over this morning to my neighbour's, sir, as you may see by the
+basket."
+
+"Yes, madam," said Uncle Paul, who was staring hard at his nephew's back
+and scratching one ear vigorously.
+
+"I told her all about it, of course, sir, and her master was there
+having his breakfast before he went out peat-cutting, and if you'll
+believe me, sir, he did nothing but laugh, and said he knew it was the
+prisoners, sure enough, and he had the impudence to say that it was a
+great blessing that they came to my cottage instead of to his, and lucky
+for the prisoners too, for they'd got a better fit."
+
+"Ah, yes, Mrs Champernowne," said Uncle Paul, pulling out his watch and
+frowning very hard in its face; "but do you think your neighbour's ham
+will be as good as yours?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir--better, I expect, for it was a lovely little pig when it
+was fatted up and killed last Christmas; one of those little fat,
+short-legged, dunkey ones with turn-up snouts.  My husband used to say
+they were the Chinese breed, and that was why the ham and bacon always
+went so well with China tea.  You may depend upon that ham, sir, being
+beautiful."
+
+"Very singular fact, Mrs Champernowne," said Uncle Paul blandly.  "Then
+perhaps you wouldn't mind cutting the rashers a little thicker.  I am
+rather ashamed of my nephew's appetite; but then you see he's only a
+hungry, growing boy."
+
+Uncle Paul took out his watch again, and this time their landlady took
+the hint, and hurried into the kitchen, from which delicious odours soon
+began to escape, and in the midst of the examination upon the
+window-sill, where the bright sun lit up the lenses of the microscope,
+the magnified hydrae, with their buds and wondrous developments, were
+set aside, to be superseded by the morning meal.
+
+"Ah, yes," said Uncle Paul, thoroughly mollified now by Mrs
+Champernowne's preparations, "there are worse disasters at sea, Pickle,
+and I'd worn that old coat off and on for a good many years."
+
+"You couldn't have worn it off and on, uncle," said Rodd dryly.
+
+"Look here, sir; if your mother, my dear sister, had had the slightest
+idea that you would have grown up into such an impertinent,
+two-edged-tongued young scrub, I don't believe she'd have died and left
+you in my charge.  I suppose you meant that to be very witty, sir.
+Please understand that I was only speaking figuratively.  Now we will
+just spend about an hour over those specimens, and then, as it is so
+beautiful and fine, we will be off on to the moor again.  You will take
+your fishing-rod, of course?"
+
+"Oh yes, uncle."
+
+"Then turn up the bottoms of those trousers before we start."
+
+"No, uncle; I shall put my leggings on over these," said Rodd coolly,
+"and I should advise you to do the same."  Both Uncle Paul's ears seemed
+to twitch, and he scratched one as if it itched; but he said nothing,
+for just then Mrs Champernowne tapped at the door, to enter smiling,
+with a packet of letters.
+
+"Postman, sir," she said, placing the letters upon the table.  "You
+won't mind me speaking another word, sir?" she said.
+
+"Oh no, Mrs Champernowne," said her visitor, rather gruffly.  "What is
+it?"
+
+"I think you told me, sir, that the prisoners did not take any of your
+valuables, your money, or anything of that sort?"
+
+"No, Mrs Champernowne," cried Rodd eagerly.  "They took uncle's money,
+but they left a lot of French napoleons instead."
+
+Uncle Paul made a snatch at a very big blue letter, and darted a furious
+look at his nephew.
+
+"I am very, _very, very_ glad, sir," cried Mrs Champernowne, "and, poor
+things, they are to be pitied, after all."
+
+She backed smilingly out of the room, and Uncle Paul held the big blue
+letter, which was doubly sealed with red wax, edgewise at his nephew, as
+if he were going to make a sword-cut at him.
+
+"Now, look here, Rodney," he said; "it has been dawning upon me for a
+long time past that I have indulged and spoiled you, with the result
+that you are growing into a most impertinent young rascal.  Have the
+goodness for the future, sir, to allow me to speak for myself.  When I
+require your conversational assistance, I will ask you for it."
+
+"Yes, uncle, and--"
+
+"Well, sir, what?"
+
+"Aren't you going to open that big letter, uncle?  I want to know what's
+the news."
+
+"What is it to you, sir?" cried Uncle Paul, who had been opening a very
+keen-looking, peculiarly-shaped, ivory-handled knife.  "Have the
+goodness to let my business be my business.  I have a very great mind to
+put this letter,"--and as he spoke he carefully cut round the
+seals--"and the other missives away in my writing-case until I am
+alone--" Here Uncle Paul unfolded a letter upon the top of which was
+stamped the Royal Arms, and smoothed it out upon the tablecloth--"and
+read it in peace, without being pestered by an impertinent boy.  Bless
+my heart!  Why, Pickle, my boy!  Hark here!  It's a letter from the
+Government.  Jump up and shout, you young dog!  Hang Bony and all his
+works!  It's all right at last."
+
+"Why, what is it?" cried the boy excitedly, as his uncle went on eagerly
+reading the bold round hand that formed the formal contents.
+
+"Hark here!  `His Majesty's advisers see their way to recommend that the
+long-deferred grant for the sea-going natural history expedition to the
+West Coast of Africa to be carried out by Dr Robson at his earliest
+convenience be made, and that the grant to the full amount will be paid
+in to Dr Robson's bank as soon as formal application has been
+received.'  There, sir, what do you think of that?  At last!  At last!
+Pickle, my boy, they say that everything comes at last to the man who
+waits, and here it is."
+
+"Oh, Uncle Paul!" cried the boy, with sparkling eyes.  "I am so glad--so
+glad!"  And as he spoke he dashed at the reader, to catch him tightly by
+the two sides of the collar of his coat.
+
+"Mind my clean cravat, Pickle."
+
+"Bother your clean cravat, uncle!" shouted the boy.  "Look here, sir;
+you always promised me that if ever that money came and you went on that
+expedition, you'd play fair."
+
+"What do you mean, sir, by your playing fair?"
+
+"You said, uncle," cried the boy, sawing the collar he held to and fro,
+"that I should be very useful to you, and could help you no end over the
+netting and dredging and bottling specimens, and that you'd take me with
+you."
+
+"Ah," cried Uncle Paul, "that was when you were a nice, good, obedient
+boy, and hadn't learnt to say sharp impertinent things, and didn't go
+about setting free escaped prisoners and getting your uncle robbed."
+
+"Gammon, uncle!  I see through you, and--I say, what does that sergeant
+want?"  For there was the tramp of heavy feet, and the non-commissioned
+officer who had been at the head of the squad of men they had met,
+marched past the cottage window.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+HE SAYS.
+
+"Eh?  What?" exclaimed Uncle Paul excitedly.
+
+"You don't mean that he is coming here?"
+
+"He is, uncle," replied the boy nervously, and his colour began to go
+and come.
+
+"Tut, tut, tut, tut!" ejaculated Uncle Paul.  "This looks serious, my
+boy.  Well, I don't know.  Perhaps he's only heard of the visit that has
+been paid here."
+
+"I beg pardon, sir; here is Mr Windell, one of the sergeants of the
+prison guard.  Could he see you for a few minutes?"
+
+"Well, I'm rather--Yes, yes, show him in, Mrs Champernowne.  Rodney, my
+boy, you sit still and hold your tongue.  I don't know what this man
+wants; but you leave it to me."
+
+Rodd nodded his head, and fancied that he felt relieved, but he did not,
+for his heart was beating faster than usual, and he was suffering from a
+strange kind of emotion.
+
+"Good-morning, gentlemen," said the sergeant, saluting stiffly as he was
+shown in.
+
+"Good-morning," said Uncle Paul stiffly.  "Do you wish to see me?"
+
+"Yes, sir; only about a little matter upon the moor yesterday.  After we
+left you I did not feel satisfied about those prisoners."
+
+"Indeed?" said Uncle Paul coldly.
+
+"No, sir.  The governor yonder likes to have things thoroughly done, so
+about three hours afterwards I went over the ground again."
+
+"Yes," said Uncle Paul, without taking his eyes from the sergeant's
+face.
+
+"And there I found out something else."
+
+Uncle Paul was silent, and Rodd's heart went on now in a steady
+_thump_--_thump_--_thump_--_thump_.
+
+"Thought I'd come on, sir," said the sergeant, turning back to the door,
+going outside, and returning with Rodd's creel, which he slowly opened
+and took from within, neatly folded up, the canvas wallet.  "Belong to
+you gentlemen, don't they?"
+
+"Yes," said Uncle Paul slowly; "those are ours.  Well?"
+
+Rodd's heart now seemed to stand quite still till the sergeant replied
+to his uncle's query.
+
+"That's all, sir; that's all," said the sergeant, and Rodd's heart went
+on again.  "You had left them behind, and I thought I'd bring them on."
+
+"Thank you," said Uncle Paul quietly.  "Very good of you, and I am much
+obliged."
+
+"Don't name it, sir.  Going to have another fine day, and hope the young
+gentleman here will have plenty more sport.  There's a lot of trout up
+there, only they are terrible small.  Good-morning, gentlemen."
+
+"Good-morning, sergeant," said Uncle Paul quietly, and Rodd's mouth
+opened a little and then shut, but no sound came.  "Wait a moment,
+sergeant," continued Uncle Paul, thrusting his hand into his pocket and
+feeling about amongst some five-and-twenty or thirty coins, all of which
+felt too small, for he wanted a larger one; but feeling that, he took
+hold of three together, when something made him stop short with his hand
+half out of his pocket, and he thrust it back again.  "Dear me," he
+said, quickly now, "I really have no change."
+
+"Oh, there's no need for that, sir," said the sergeant.
+
+"Yes, yes," said Uncle Paul.  "Rodd, my boy, have you half-a-crown in
+your pocket?"
+
+"I think so, uncle," said the boy quickly; and then his face looked
+blank.  "No, uncle; I haven't anything at all," he cried in dismay.
+
+"Oh, pray don't mind, sir," said the sergeant, moving to the door.
+"Good-morning, sir; good-morning.  I don't want paying for a little
+thing like that."
+
+"Stop, please," said Uncle Paul hurriedly.  "Rodd, my boy, go and ask
+Mrs Champernowne if she'll be kind enough to lend me half-a-crown."
+
+Rodd hurried out, feeling exceedingly hot, and with a peculiar moisture
+in the palms of his hands, returning directly afterwards with the
+required coin, though the unexpected demand had made their landlady open
+her eyes rather widely.
+
+"There, that's right, sergeant," said Uncle Paul, "and I am sure my
+nephew is much obliged.  He wouldn't have liked to lose that creel."
+
+"Thank you, sir.  Very glad I found it.  Good-morning once more."
+
+The man saluted both, giving Rodd a very peculiar look which seemed to
+go through him, and then turning upon his heels, he marched out of the
+room and shut the door, while Uncle Paul sank back in his chair, took
+out a clean red and yellow silk handkerchief, and wiped his forehead.
+
+"Rodney, my boy," he said, "I felt as if we had been doing something
+underhanded, and nearly brought out three of those napoleons to pay that
+man."
+
+"Oh, uncle," said the boy huskily; "it would have been like telling him
+that the poor fellows had been here."
+
+"Yes, my boy, and that you had been helping them to escape."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Rodd, and he darted to the window.  "No," he gasped,
+with a sigh of relief.  "He's gone."
+
+"Well, we knew he'd gone, boy."
+
+"Yes, uncle, but I was afraid that he'd stop talking to Mrs
+Champernowne, and she would tell him about their coming here.  But he
+didn't stop, and he has gone right away."
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated Uncle Paul.  "Well, you see how near we have been to
+getting into trouble with the authorities; for of course they are very
+strict over such things as these.  There, now I must write an important
+letter to send off in acknowledgment of that despatch; so you be off now
+for about half-an-hour, and go and play like a good boy."
+
+"Yes, uncle," said Rodd, rather grumpily; and he went slowly out, with
+the intention of getting somewhere on to the high ground where he could
+watch the sergeant's red coat till he was out of sight.  "I wish Uncle
+Paul wouldn't talk to me like that," he muttered, as he went out of the
+garden gate.  "Go out and play like a good boy!  It does make me feel so
+wild!  He'll be saying good little boy next, and I am past sixteen; and
+he wasn't doing it to tease me either, for he was quite serious, what
+with the prisoners, and the sergeant coming like that.  Bother him!  He
+looked at me as he went away just as if he suspected that I'd left the
+sandwiches and the fish where that poor fellow could get them.  Here, I
+mustn't let him see that I am following him.  I'll go round by that
+other track and get up behind those stones.  Then I can see the whole
+way to the prison.  Oh, he didn't know anything, or else he'd have
+spoken out.  But that's the worst of doing what you oughtn't to.  You
+always feel as if everybody suspects you.  Well, I didn't want to do any
+harm, and Uncle Paul didn't think it was very wrong, in spite of his
+grumbling about the French.  If he had he wouldn't have called me
+Pickle.  It would have been Rodney, and his voice would have sounded
+very severe, for he can be when he likes.  Spoiled and indulged me!
+That he hasn't!"
+
+The ascent was so steep by the track he had chosen that the boy was soon
+high above the cottages, hurrying along by a ridge of stones which led
+up to what looked like a young tor, so situated that it sheltered the
+two cottage gardens, and the enclosed field or two where the neighbour's
+cow was pastured, from the north and east wind, and also acted as a lew
+for Mrs Champernowne's bees, which could reach their straw hive homes
+comfortably without being blown out by the wanton breezes which
+travelled across the moors.
+
+Rodd was pretty well out of breath when he reached the little tor, and
+so he drew in a fresh supply as he dropped upon his knees and crawled
+round the last stone to his proposed look-out, feeling certain he would
+be able to see the sergeant's bright scarlet coat with its white belts,
+as he marched straight away for the prison.
+
+He did see him, but not so far off as he had anticipated, and the sight
+took his breath completely away again, for as he crept round he became
+conscious of a peculiar scent that was not wild thyme but tobacco, and
+before he realised what it was, he came plump face to face with their
+late visitor, who was seated upon the soft close turf with his back
+against a stone, basking in the sunshine, and evidently enjoying a rest.
+
+"Here we are again, then, sir!" he cried, in his sharp military way.  "I
+thought I'd just sit down here for a bit on the chance that you might
+come up and like to have a word or two to say to me."
+
+He looked very hard at Rodd as he spoke, and the boy felt his face burn,
+while the next moment there was a sensation as if the cool wind were
+fanning his hot cheeks.
+
+"Come out to speak to me, didn't you, sir?" said the sergeant.
+
+Rodd was silent for a few moments, for his throat felt dry, while he
+passed his tongue over his lips to moisten them.
+
+"No," he said, at last, with an effort.  "I came up here to see if you
+had gone, and watch you back to the prison."
+
+The sergeant laughed softly, and thrust one finger into the bowl of his
+pipe, before sending out a fresh cloud of smoke.
+
+"Ah," he said, "I am not surprised.  Well, here we are.  Do you want to
+say anything to me?"
+
+Rodd opened and shut his lips again, but no words came till he made an
+effort, and then said, with his utterance sounding very dry--
+
+"You want to speak to me?"
+
+"Right, sir.  Yes, I do.  You remember when I came upon you up yonder by
+that pool?"
+
+Rodd nodded and frowned.
+
+"Well, I suppose you noticed that there was a hole at the bottom of
+those rocks across there, where the little stream came out?"
+
+"Yes," said Rodd, with his brow puckering up.
+
+"Well, yesterday evening, as I said to your uncle, I went over the
+ground again to see if I could find any track of those escaped
+prisoners."
+
+Rodd nodded shortly.
+
+"Well, I took off my gaiters and shoes and stockings and waded across
+the pool, and nearly doubled myself up to get into that hole; and after
+I had gone a little way I found that there was quite a dry cave there
+with streaks of light coming down from above between the piled-up
+stones."
+
+Rodd nodded again.
+
+"Just in the highest part where the water did not reach, some one had
+lit a fire with bits of ling and dry peat.  It was still warm--at least,
+the ashes were, and somebody had been busy cooking trout there, grilling
+them, thriddled on a stick of hazel; and very curious it was too, for
+somehow or other, the water, instead of running down, had been running
+up backwards like, and carried with it that there fishing-basket of
+yours, and the wallet, and laid them upon that nice dry sandy place
+close up to the fire along by which there were ever so many heads of
+those little fish, and their backbones.  Rum, wasn't it?  Do you think
+an otter could have done that?"
+
+"No," said Rodd, after a few moments' pause; and he spoke sharply and
+angrily.  "No, I don't think that."
+
+"More don't I," said the sergeant dryly, and he half closed his eyes and
+sent a faint little curl of smoke into the air.  "Now, young gentleman,
+what do you think would happen if I was to go yonder to the governor at
+the prison, and say that I believed you had helped the King's enemies to
+escape?  You didn't, of course, eh?"
+
+Rodd moistened his lips again, and his frank young face looked very much
+puckered and wrinkled as he pulled himself together and looked almost
+defiantly at his questioner, who exclaimed--
+
+"Well, you heard what I said."
+
+The boy nodded.
+
+"Well, speak out.  You didn't, of course?"
+
+Rodd drew a deep breath, moistened his lips again, and then out the
+words came.  "Yes," he said, "I did!"
+
+"Hah!" said the sergeant, as he fixed the boy with his keen grey eyes
+and spoke to him as if he were one of his recruits.  "Well, I like that.
+Spoken like a man.  My old mother used to say, `Speak the truth, Tom,
+and then you needn't be afraid of any man.'  Look here, youngster, I am
+only a soldier, and you are a young gentleman, or else you wouldn't be
+visiting and making holiday here; but do you mind shaking hands?"
+
+"Yes," said Rodd hotly, "I know: I suppose I have done wrong, and you
+have got your duty to do; so go and do it."
+
+"Here," cried the sergeant, "grip, boy, grip!  I like you for all this
+more and more.  I had my duty to do, and I did it as far as I could; but
+I was too late.  The prisoners had escaped, and we have heard this
+morning, the news being brought by a miserable-looking sneak of a fellow
+who had come to the governor to ask for the reward for not taking them,
+that they got down to Salcombe very late last night and boarded one of
+the orange boats in the little harbour, where I expect they had friends
+waiting for them, for the schooner sailed at once, and I dare say they
+are within sight of a French port before now.  Yes, I had my duty to do,
+me and my lads, but the prisoners escaped, same as I would if I had been
+in a French prison, shut up for doing nothing, and because our two
+countries were at war.  There, I am not going to blame you now it's all
+over, as you own to it like a man.  They both came to you, I suppose,
+for a bit of help, and you gave it to them.  But when I was on duty I
+should have nailed you if I had caught you in the act.  There, that'll
+do.  Thought I should like to tell you about it, and hold you like at
+the point of the bayonet, and see what you'd say.  I know it's precious
+hard to tell the truth sometimes, and it must have been very hard here.
+But you did it like a man.  But I say: you never thought that basket and
+wallet would tell tales when you left those poor beggars a mouthful to
+eat; and I hope if there's any more war to come and I'm took, and make a
+good try to slip away--I hope, I say, that I shall come upon some brave
+young French lad who will do as good a turn to me as you did to those
+poor fellows, who were making a run for freedom, and to get out of the
+reach of our bayonets and guns."
+
+Rodd thrust his hand into his pocket, and flushed up now more than ever,
+for the sergeant caught him by the wrist.
+
+"No, no, my lad," he cried; "none of that!  I didn't come here to get
+money out of you.  I was a boy once myself.  Only a common one, but
+pretty straightforward and honest, or else I don't suppose I should have
+won these three gold chevrons which I have got here upon my arm.  Well,
+I wouldn't have taken pay then for doing a dirty action, fond as I was
+of coppers with the King's head on; and I wouldn't do it now.  So don't
+you make me set up my hackles by trying to offer me anything for this.
+Besides, I've got a whole half-crown your uncle gave me, and I am not
+even going to ask you whether he had a finger in this pie."
+
+"No, he hadn't--he hadn't indeed," cried Rodd warmly.  "On my honour,
+sergeant, I did it all."
+
+"All right, my lad, I'll take your word; but just you take my advice.
+The law's law, and they're pretty sharp about here, so if you hear the
+gun fire and the soldiers are out after any poor fellows who have
+escaped, don't you get meddling with 'em again.  Time I was off back."
+And without another word the sergeant sprang up and strode away, leaving
+Rodd watching him for a time and admiring the man's upright carriage and
+bold elastic step, till happening to cast his eyes in another direction,
+he found himself looking down upon Mrs Champernowne's cottage, and,
+with letter in hand and straw hat on head, Uncle Paul, looking in all
+directions as if in search of his missing boy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+THE SALCOMBE BOATS.
+
+"I am very, very sorry, sir," said Mrs Champernowne.  "Of course I am
+only a poor widow, and I let my apartments to gentlemen who come down
+fishing or to take walks for their health over the moor.  But your stay
+down here has been something more than that.  It has been a real
+pleasure to me ever since you and the young gentleman have been here.
+And not only am I very sorry that you are going away, but it has quite
+upset me to hear that you are going sailing away over the stormy seas,
+searching for all kinds of strange things in foreign abroad."
+
+"Oh, come, come, Mrs Champernowne," cried Uncle Paul, as he saw the
+poor woman lift up her apron and put one corner to her eye.  "There
+oughtn't to be anything in a naturalist's expedition to upset you."
+
+"Ah, you don't know, sir," said Mrs Champernowne, speaking to Uncle
+Paul, but shaking her head sadly at Rodd all the while.  "I have had
+those who were near and dear to me go sailing away quite happy and
+joyful like, just the same as you and Mr Rodney might, and never come
+back again, for the sea is a very dangerous place."
+
+"Oh, perhaps so, and of course there are exceptions," said Uncle Paul;
+"but as a rule people do come back safe."
+
+"I don't know, sir," said the old lady, shaking her head sadly.  "The
+sea is very unruly sometimes.  Hadn't you better take my advice, sir,
+and stop here?  The moor's very big, and surely if you and the young
+gentleman look well you'll be able to find plenty of things to fill your
+bottles, without going abroad."
+
+"Can't be done, Mrs Champernowne," said Uncle Paul smiling.  "Dartmoor
+isn't the West Coast of Africa, nor yet the Cape of Good Hope, so, much
+as we have enjoyed being here, we shall have to say good-bye, and live
+in hopes of coming to see you again some day, for I haven't half worked
+out the moor, nor yet a hundredth part."
+
+"I am very, very, very sorry," said the old lady again, "but no doubt,
+sir, you know best.  When do you think of going, sir?"
+
+"To-morrow morning, Mrs Champernowne.  We can't let the grass grow
+under our feet, can we, Rodd?"
+
+"No, uncle," was the reply; and the next morning the portmanteau was
+packed, the fishing-rod and naturalist's nets tied up in a neat bundle,
+a light spring cart was drawn up at the door, and uncle and nephew were
+soon on their way to the cross roads to take their chance of finding
+room upon the Plymouth coach, which came within a few miles of the
+widow's cottage.
+
+They were fortunate, as it happened, and that evening they were safely
+back at Uncle Paul's home, a pleasant little country house on the high
+grounds overlooking the glorious harbour dotted with vessels, which
+included several of the King's men-of-war, and within easy reach of the
+docks.
+
+"Ah," cried Uncle Paul that evening, as he strolled out into his garden,
+in company with Rodd, who was carrying a telescope that looked like a
+small cannon; "that was a fine air up on the moor, my boy, but nothing
+like this.  Take a good long deep breath.  Can't you smell the salt and
+the seaweed?  Doesn't it set you longing to be off?"
+
+"Well--yes, uncle," replied the boy, smiling and screwing up his face
+till it was all wrinkled about the eyes; "but I begin to be a bit
+afraid."
+
+"Afraid, sir?  What of?"
+
+"That I shan't turn out such a good sailor as I should like to be."
+
+"Why, what do you mean?  Now, look here, Rodd; don't you tell me that
+you want to back out of going upon this trip."
+
+"Oh no, uncle," cried the boy eagerly.  "I want to go, of course!"
+
+"But what are you afraid of?"
+
+"Well, you see, uncle, coasting about with you in a fisherman's lugger
+for a few days, and always keeping within sight of land, is one thing;
+going right away across the ocean is quite another."
+
+"Well, sir, who said it wasn't?" cried Uncle Paul.  "What then?"
+
+"Suppose I turn ill, uncle?"
+
+"Well, sir, suppose you do.  Am I not doctor enough to put you right
+again?"
+
+"Oh, I don't mean really ill, uncle.  I mean sea-sick; and it would seem
+so stupid."
+
+"Horribly; yes.  You'd better be!  Pooh!  Rubbish!  Nonsense!  You talk
+like a great Molly.  Now, no nonsense, Rodney.  Speak out frankly and
+candidly.  You mean that now it has come to the point you think it too
+serious, and you want to shirk?"
+
+"I don't, uncle; I don't, indeed, and I do wish you wouldn't call me
+Rodney!" cried the boy earnestly.
+
+"I shall, sir, _as long as I live, if you play me false now_."
+
+"Oh, uncle, what a shame!" cried the boy passionately.  "Play you false!
+Who wants to play you false?  I only wanted to tell you frankly that I
+felt a bit afraid of not being quite equal to the sea.  I want to go,
+and I mean to go, and you oughtn't to jump upon me like this, and call
+me Rodney."
+
+The boy stood before the doctor, flushed and excited, as he continued--
+
+"You talk to me, uncle, as if you thought that I was a regular coward
+and afraid of the sea."
+
+"Then you shouldn't make me, sir.  Who was it said afraid?  Why, you
+have been out with me for days together, knocking about, in pretty good
+rough weather too."
+
+"Yes, uncle, but that was all within sight of land."
+
+"What's that got to do with it?  It's often much rougher close in shore,
+especially on a rocky coast, than it is out on the main."
+
+"I wish I hadn't spoken," cried Rodd passionately.
+
+"So do I, sir."
+
+"I couldn't help thinking I might turn very sick for days, and get
+laughed at by the crew and called a swab."
+
+"Oh," said Uncle Paul, laughing, "you talked as if you were afraid of
+the sea, and all the time, you conceited young puppy, you mean that you
+are afraid of the men."
+
+"Well, yes, uncle, I suppose that that really is it."
+
+"Humph!  Then why didn't you say so, and not talk as if you, the first
+of my crew that I reckoned upon, were going to mutiny and give it all
+up?"
+
+"Give it up, uncle?" cried the boy.  "Why, you know that I am longing to
+go."
+
+"Ah, well, that sounds more like it, Pickle," said Uncle Paul, looking
+sideways at the boy through his half-closed eyes.  "Then I suppose it is
+all a false alarm."
+
+"Of course it is, uncle," cried Rodd.
+
+"Well, we may as well make sure, you know, because once we are started
+it won't be long before we are out of sight of land, and there'll be no
+turning back."
+
+"Well, I don't want to turn back, uncle."
+
+"Then you shouldn't have talked as if you thought you might.  Are you
+afraid now?"
+
+"Not a bit, uncle.  I am ready to start to-morrow morning."
+
+"Ah, well, you won't, my boy, for there's everything to do first."
+
+"Everything to do?"
+
+"Of course.  It's not like taking a few bottles and pill-boxes and a net
+or two to go up on the moor.  Why, there's our ship to find first, and
+then to get her fitted with our nets and sounding-lines and dredges and
+all sorts of odds and ends, with reserves and provisions for all that we
+lose.  Then there's to collect a crew."
+
+"Oh, there'll be plenty of fellows down by the Barbican or hanging about
+down there who will jump at going."
+
+"Don't you be so precious sanguine, my fine fellow.  This will be all so
+fresh that the men won't be so ready as you expect.  The first thing a
+seaman will ask will be, `Where are we bound?  What port?'"
+
+"Well, uncle; tell them."
+
+"Tell them what I don't know myself unless I say Port Nowhere on the
+High Seas!  It will be all a matter of chance, Pickle, where we go and
+what we do, and I may as well say it now, if any one gets asking you
+what we are going to do, your answer is included in just these few
+words--We are going to explore."
+
+Rodd nodded in a short business-like way.
+
+"All right, uncle; I'll remember," he cried promptly.  "Then you are
+going to hire a ship and engage a crew?"
+
+"Well," said Uncle Paul thoughtfully, "we are landsmen--I mean landsman
+and a boy--but we may as well begin to be nautical at once and call
+things by the sea-going terms.  No, my boy, I am not going to engage a
+ship--too big."
+
+"Why, you won't go all that way in a lugger, uncle?"
+
+"Bah!  Rubbish!" cried Uncle Paul shortly.  "Here, give me hold of that
+glass."
+
+He took the telescope, drew out the slide to a mark upon the tube which
+indicated the focus which suited his eye, and then as he began slowly
+sweeping the portions of the harbour which were within reach he went on
+talking.
+
+"Isn't there anything between a lugger and a ship, sir?  You know well
+enough if you talk to a sailor about a ship he'd suppose you meant a
+full-rigged three-masted vessel."
+
+"Yes, of course, uncle.  And a barque is a three-master with a mizzen
+fore-and-aft rigged."
+
+"That's better, my lad.  But what do you mean by fore-and-aft rigged?"
+
+"Well, like a schooner, uncle."
+
+"Good boy!  Go up one, as you used to say at school.  Well, what do you
+think of a large schooner for a good handy vessel that can be well
+managed by a moderate crew?"
+
+"Oh, I should think it would be splendid, uncle; and she'd sail very
+fast."
+
+"That depends on her build and the way she is sailed, my boy.  But
+that's what I am thinking of having, Pickle."
+
+"But with a good crew, uncle."
+
+"Yes; I want the best schooner and the best crew that are to be had, my
+boy."
+
+"But it will cost a lot of money, uncle."
+
+"Yes, Pickle; but I am proud to say that the Government has not been
+mean in that respect, and if what they have granted me is not enough, I
+shall put as many hundreds as are required out of my own pocket to make
+up the deficiency, so that in all probability I shan't have a penny to
+leave you, Pickle, when I die."
+
+"When you die!" cried the boy scornfully.  "Who wants you to die?  And
+who wants you to leave me any money?  I say, Uncle Paul, who's talking
+nonsense now?"
+
+"How dare you, sir!"
+
+"Then you shouldn't say such things, uncle.  Talking about dying!  There
+will be plenty of time to talk about that in a hundred years."
+
+"Well, that's a very generous allowance, Pickle, and if we get such a
+schooner as I want, with a clever crew, and you work hard with me, why,
+we ought to make a good many discoveries by that time.  A hundred years
+hence," continued Uncle Paul thoughtfully, as he apparently brought his
+telescope to bear upon a sloop of war whose white sails began to be
+tinged with orange as the sun sank low; but all the time he was peering
+out through the corners of his eyes to note the effect of his words upon
+his nephew.  "But let me see--a hundred years' time.  Why, how much
+older will you be then, Pickle?"
+
+"Why, just the same as you would, uncle; a hundred years older than I am
+now.  Pooh!  You are making fun of me.  But I say, uncle, be serious.
+How are you going to manage to get your schooner?"
+
+"Set to work, and lose no time, my boy.  But I am rather puzzled at the
+present moment, and I am afraid--"
+
+Uncle Paul lowered the glass as he spoke, and turned his eyes
+thoughtfully upon his nephew, who had uttered a low peculiar sound.
+
+"Of being sea-sick, uncle?"  Uncle Paul smiled.
+
+"I suppose that's what you call retaliation, young gentleman.  Well, no,
+sir, I'm not afraid of that--at least, not much.  I remember the first
+time I crossed the Channel that I was very ill, and every time I have
+been at sea since I have always felt that it would be unwise to boast;
+but I think both you and I can make our voyage without being troubled in
+that way.  But we won't boast, Pickle, for, as they say, we will not
+holloa till we are out of the wood.  Let me see; isn't there an old
+proverb something about a man not boasting till he taketh off his
+armour?"
+
+"I think so, uncle, but I cannot recollect the words."
+
+"Well, I don't want any armour, my boy, but I do want a well-found
+schooner--a new one if I can get it; if not, one that will stand a
+thorough examination; and I don't know that such a boat's to be got just
+now it's wanted.  There are plenty of ramshackle old things lying about
+here, but I want everything spick-and-span ready for the extra fitting
+out I shall give her.  Copper-fastened, quick-sailing, roomy, and with
+good cabin accommodation so that we can have a big workshop for the men
+who help us, and a sort of study and museum for ourselves.  Now, Pickle,
+where shall we have to go to find such a craft?  Portsmouth--London?
+What about Southampton?"
+
+"Southampton.  Yes.  Some fine yacht, uncle."
+
+"No, boy.  She'd be all mast and sails.  Do well for a coaster, but I
+want an ocean-going craft, one that will bear some knocking about.  A
+cargo boat whose hold one could partition off for stores.  Now then?"
+
+There was silence for about a minute, and then Uncle Paul spoke again.
+
+"There, out with it, boy, at once.  Don't waste time.  Say you don't
+know."
+
+"But I think I do know, uncle," cried the boy.
+
+"Eh?  What?  Where?  Tchah!  Not you!"
+
+"But what about one of those boats the French prisoners escaped in?"
+cried Rodd eagerly.
+
+"Eh?  What?  One of those trim orange boats that go on the Mediterranean
+Trade, that they build at Salcombe?"
+
+"Yes, uncle.  Don't you remember that one we were looking at a few
+months ago, that came in here after the storm, to get a new jibboom?"
+
+"Why, of course I do, Pickle!" cried Uncle Paul eagerly.  "Think of
+that, now!  Why, I might have been fumbling about with a hammer for
+months and not found what I wanted, and here are you, you impudent young
+rascal, proving that you are not quite so stupid as I thought, for you
+hit the right nail on the head at once."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+CAPTAIN CHUBB.
+
+The next day was spent in Plymouth, and letting the idea of a visit to
+Salcombe rest in abeyance for a time, Uncle Paul called on different
+shipping agents, made inquiries in the docks, looked over two or three
+small vessels that he was assured would be exactly the thing he wanted,
+and which could be handed over to him at once if decided on; and at
+last, utterly wearied out, he returned home with Rodd very much
+impressed by the feeling that it was much easier to say what he
+required, than to get his wants supplied.
+
+He was a little better after they had had a good hearty tea meal, but
+there was a great deal of truth in Rodd's mental remark that Uncle Paul
+was as cross as two sticks.  Rodd quite started, feeling as he did that
+he must have spoken aloud, and Uncle Paul have heard his words, for the
+doctor turned upon him sharply, stared him full in the face, and
+exclaimed--
+
+"Now, look here, sir; didn't I explain to each of those agents exactly
+the sort of vessel I wanted before they gave me their orders to go and
+view the craft where they lay in dock or on the mud?"
+
+"Yes, uncle, you told them exactly," replied Rodd.
+
+"Do I look like an idiot, Rodd?"
+
+"No, uncle.  What a question!"
+
+"Then how dare the scoundrels deal with me as if I didn't know what I
+was about!  I said a schooner as plain as I could speak."
+
+"You did, uncle."
+
+"And one sent me to see that ramshackle old brig that looked as if it
+might have been a tender out of the Armada, and the two others sent me
+to see a barque that would want twice as big a crew as I should take,
+and the other to look over that abominable old billy-boy that you
+couldn't tell bow from stern, which so sure as she bumps upon a sandbank
+would melt away like butter.  Thinking of nothing else but making a bit
+of commission, ready to sell one anything; but I am not going to be
+tricked like that.--Yes, what do you want?  What is it?"
+
+For the neat handmaid who attended on the doctor's wants had tapped at
+the door, and receiving no answer from her master, whose voice she could
+hear declaiming loudly, opened the door and walked in, with--
+
+"Somebody wants to see you, sir, if you please."
+
+"Then tell somebody I don't please," said the doctor shortly.
+
+"Yes, sir," said the maid, going.
+
+"No, stop!  I don't want to be rude, even if people have put me out.
+What does Mrs Somebody want?"
+
+"Please, sir, it isn't a Mrs, it's a Mister," said the girl.
+
+"Go and see him, Rodd," said the doctor shortly.  "I expect it's
+somebody wants subscriptions, and I haven't got any."
+
+"Please, sir," interposed the maid, "the--er--gent--person--said he'd
+heard say that you wanted a captain."
+
+Uncle Paul grunted, frowned, and then in a surly tone exclaimed--
+
+"Well, there, show him in."
+
+The next minute the maid re-opened the door, showing in a heavy,
+sun-tanned, middle-aged man, who thrust the cap he carried into the
+yawning pocket of a dark blue pea-jacket, stared hard at the doctor,
+glanced at Rodd, and then turning sharply on his heels he stood with his
+back to the latter, stiff, squared, and sturdy, looking as the boy
+thought like a hop-sack set on end, and stared at the maid where she
+stopped, literally fixing her with his eyes for a few moments, before,
+quite startled at the fierceness of his gaze, she darted out, closing
+the door loudly.
+
+"Business.  Private!" literally growled the visitor.
+
+"Well, what is it?" said the doctor shortly.
+
+"'Eard you wanted a skipper, and come up."
+
+"Well," said Uncle Paul, looking very hard at his unprepossessing
+visitor, while Rodd felt as if he wanted to laugh, but held the desire
+in check, "I may want one by and by, and a crew too; but I must have a
+ship first."
+
+"What sort?"
+
+"Well, you are pretty blunt," said the doctor.
+
+"Yes," said the visitor, with a nod; and he waited, but turned his eyes
+from the doctor and looked very hard at the nearest chair.
+
+"Ah, yes," said the doctor.  "Sit down, Captain--Captain--"
+
+The doctor waited for an answer, but the only answer made was by a
+movement, his visitor taking two steps towards the chair, and plumping
+down so heavily that the brass casters creaked.
+
+The doctor glanced at his nephew, and then at the stranger, who seemed
+to be frowning at him with all his might.
+
+"Er--what did you say your name was, captain?"
+
+"Didn't say," said the visitor huskily.  "Wanter know?"
+
+"Well--yes," said the doctor.  "I don't see how we are to transact
+business without."
+
+"Chubb, Jonathan."
+
+"Well, Captain Chubb?"
+
+"Plymouth."
+
+"Oh, I see; Captain Chubb, of Plymouth," continued the doctor.
+
+"Right.  Go on."
+
+"Well, I gave you to understand that I wanted a ship before I engaged a
+captain."
+
+"Skipper; not R.N."
+
+"I see; but I wished to be polite," said the doctor.
+
+"Skipper," grunted the man.
+
+"Where have you sailed?" asked the doctor.
+
+"Everywhere."
+
+"Ah!  Then you have had plenty of experience."
+
+The visitor nodded, and the doctor was going to speak again, but the
+visitor interposed with a sidewise nod in the direction of Rodd, and
+said--
+
+"Your boy?"
+
+"Well, yes, in a way," replied the doctor.
+
+The captain grunted.
+
+"Boys always are," he said, and Rodd turned upon him angrily.
+
+"I said in _a_ way, not in _the_ way," muttered the doctor.
+
+"'Most the same," growled the captain.  "A boy, the boy, means boy.
+What sort of a ship?  First, where do you want to go?"
+
+"I don't quite know myself," replied the doctor, "so we will say as you
+did, everywhere."
+
+"Right," said the captain.  "What for?"
+
+"Why do you ask?" replied the doctor, rather tartly.
+
+"Had four offers.  Wouldn't take them."
+
+"Why?" asked the doctor.
+
+"Smuggling contraband."
+
+"Oh, I see," said the doctor quickly.  "Well, it's nothing of that
+sort."
+
+"When do you sail?"
+
+"As soon as I can get a ship."
+
+"Plenty lying about waiting for cargo.  Take your choice."
+
+"That seems to be easier said than done, captain, for I am hard to
+please."
+
+"So'm I," said the visitor, staring hard at Rodd, beginning with the
+crown of his head and then looking him slowly down where he sat till he
+reached the carpet by Rodd's right foot, and then making his eyes cross
+over, he began at the toe of the boy's left foot and slowly looked him
+up to where he had started at the top of the boy's forehead, where a
+tickling sensation had commenced, consequent upon the starting out of a
+faint dew of perspiration.
+
+"I'm glad to hear it," said the doctor, "for I want a well-found craft,
+new or nearly so, built of the best materials."
+
+"Good; ought to be.  What sort?"
+
+"Well, I should like a large schooner, fast and with plenty of room
+below."
+
+"Cargo?" grunted the captain.
+
+"No.  Provisions, etcetera," said the doctor, who was beginning to feel
+annoyed.
+
+"Ho!" came in a grunt, and then after a keen look at Rodd's uncle, he
+uttered the one word, "Weepens?"
+
+"Weepens?" said the doctor.
+
+"Yes.  Long Tom and small-arms."
+
+"Oh, arms.  Yes, I should certainly have one of those big swivel guns
+amidships, and a couple of smaller ones, as well as muskets, cutlasses
+and boarding pikes."
+
+So far the captain's features seemed as if they had been carved out of
+solid mahogany, but now they began to relax; his lips parted, and he
+showed a small even set of beautifully white teeth, while his eyes
+looked brighter to Rodd and seemed to twinkle; but he remained silent.
+
+"Well," said the doctor, "what are you laughing at?"
+
+He checked the word which had nearly escaped his lips, because he
+thought it would be rude, and he did not say grinning.
+
+"Cat," said the man solemnly, and to Rodd's great discomposure he turned
+to him and winked.
+
+"Cat?" said the doctor sharply.
+
+"Ay, ay!  Out of the bag."
+
+"I don't understand you," said the doctor warmly.
+
+"Won't do for me, master.  Not in my way."
+
+"Well," said the doctor, "I am afraid I must say you are not in my way."
+
+"Poor beggars!"
+
+"Well, really, my good man," began the doctor, "I am a bit of a student,
+and take a good deal of interest in natural history.  Cats may be poor
+beggars, but that is no business of mine."
+
+"Yes, if you are going to sail.  Think of your crew."
+
+"I am thinking of my crew, and I want to engage one," said the doctor.
+
+"Men hate black cats.  Unlucky."
+
+"I have heard of that superstition before, Captain Chubb," said the
+doctor, "but that seems to be quite outside our business now.  As a
+captain--or skipper--I should have thought you would have been above
+such childish notions."
+
+"Am," said the man.  "T'other won't do for me.  I've seen it all.  Won't
+get a skipper from this port."
+
+"Why?" said the doctor indignantly.  "I am ready to give an experienced
+captain good payment."
+
+"Want commission."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!  I couldn't pay on commission."
+
+"Nowt to me.  That's what a skipper would want.  Ought to be ashamed of
+yourself."
+
+"Well, of all--" began the doctor; but the skipper did not let him
+finish.
+
+"Too bad," he said, growling; "and to take a boy like that!"
+
+"My good fellow," said the doctor, "if I choose to take my nephew with
+me upon a natural history expedition--"
+
+"Natural history expedition!  Catching blackbirds!  Oh, I say!"
+
+He shook his head slowly at the doctor, whose face grew so red with
+wrath as he turned towards Rodd, and looked so comical, that the boy
+could not contain himself, but bent his face down into his hands and
+burst into a roar of laughter.
+
+"You are a nice 'un," grunted the captain, shaking his head now at Rodd.
+"You'll grow into a beauty!"
+
+It was the boy's turn to look angry now, and he glanced from the captain
+to his uncle and back.
+
+"Look here, youngster," cried the captain; "Guinea Coast, eh?"
+
+"Possibly," said the doctor.
+
+"Bight of Benin?"
+
+"Maybe," said the doctor, the short speech seeming contagious.
+
+"Ketch the fever?"
+
+"Probably," said the doctor.
+
+"Both on yer."
+
+"Well, sir, I shall risk that," continued the doctor.
+
+"Both on yer off your heads, seeing niggers.  Rattling their chains."
+
+"Are you mad, man?" cried the doctor.  "Yes."
+
+"I thought so."
+
+"Makes me.  Call yourself a Christian!  Give it up, and do something
+honest."
+
+"Well, of all--" cried the doctor again.
+
+"Good five guineas better than five hundred got by buying and selling
+your fellow-creatures," continued the captain, who was growing quite
+fluent.  "Go to Bristol with you!  Won't do for me."
+
+"Mr--I mean, Captain Chubb," began the doctor, "allow me to tell you
+that you have done nothing but insult me ever since you have been here."
+
+"Honesty," grunted the captain.
+
+"Honesty is no excuse for rudeness, sir.  Now have the goodness to go."
+
+"Going," said the captain, rising.  "But you are a bad man.  To take
+that boy with you too!  Shame!"
+
+"Will you have the goodness to tell me what you mean, sir?"
+
+"No good to bully, sir.  I know.  Off on the slave trade."
+
+"What!" cried the doctor.
+
+"But look out.  King's cruiser will nab you.  Sarve you right."
+
+He moved stiffly, and took two steps towards the door, but stopped and
+turned sharply upon Rodd, clapped his big hairy hand on the boy's
+shoulder, and gripped it fast.  "He's a bad 'un, boy.  Don't go."  Rodd
+glanced at his uncle, who was staring with bewilderment, while he, who
+during the last few minutes had seen clearly what their visitor meant,
+burst into another roar of laughter and gripped the skipper by the
+jacket, as he turned to the doctor.
+
+"No, no," he stuttered.  "No, no; don't go, captain!  Uncle Paul, can't
+you see?  He thinks you are going to the West Coast to buy slaves!"
+
+"Well!" cried Uncle Paul, his voice sounding like ten ejaculations
+squeezed into one--"Well!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+AT CROSS PURPOSES.
+
+Captain Chubb stood looking back at Uncle Paul, then at Rodd, then back
+at Uncle Paul.
+
+After that he gave a slow, puzzled scratch at his shaggy head as if hard
+at work trying to make out a mystery, before turning once more to Rodd.
+
+"I say, youngster," he cried, "you don't mean that, do you?--Warn't I
+right?"
+
+"Right?  No!" cried Rodd, laughing more heartily than ever.  "The idea
+of Uncle Paul going out with a slaver!"
+
+"Did you mean that, Captain Chubb?" said Uncle Paul, beginning
+indignantly, and then softening down as he caught sight of his nephew's
+mirthful face.
+
+"Allus says what I mean," grunted the captain.  "Then I was all wrong?"
+
+"Wrong, yes," said Uncle Paul.  "We were all at cross purposes."
+
+"Ho!" ejaculated the captain, and he took off his cap that he had put on
+with a fierce cock, turned it over two or three times in his hands, and
+then looking into it read over the maker's name to himself, as if fully
+expecting that that would help him out of his difficulty.
+
+"Say, squire," he said; "I didn't mean to be so rude."
+
+"No, no, of course not," cried Uncle Paul.  "There, there; sit down
+again.  It was all a mistake.  Perhaps we shall understand one another
+better now."
+
+"Well, I don't know," grunted the skipper.  "Better go perhaps."
+
+"No, no, man; I'm not offended.  You thought I was a blackguardly
+ruffian who wanted to trap you into commanding a slaving craft for me,
+so that I could engage in that horrible trade of baying and selling my
+fellow-creatures; and you spoke out like a man.  Here, shake hands,
+Captain Chubb.  I honour you for your outspoken manly honesty."
+
+"Mean it?" grunted the skipper, hesitating.
+
+"Mean it, yes," said Uncle Paul, "and I hope this will be the beginning
+of our becoming great friends."
+
+"Humph!" grunted the captain, and extending his heavy hand he gave Uncle
+Paul a shake with no nonsense about it, for though Rodd's uncle did not
+wince, he told the boy afterwards that it was the most solid shake he
+had ever had in his life.
+
+Rodd fully endorsed it, as he knew directly after exactly what the
+skipper's salute meant, for Captain Chubb, after releasing the uncle's
+hand, extended what Rodd afterwards said was a paw, to the lad himself.
+
+"Well, now then, Captain Chubb."
+
+"Very sorry, sir, I'm sure.  Thought I saw broken water and a shoal.
+Hadn't I better go?"
+
+"No, no, captain," cried Uncle Paul.  "I am beginning to think you are
+just the man I want."
+
+"Ho!" said the skipper.  "Mebbe.  Let's see."
+
+"Well," continued Uncle Paul, "I want a vessel, a schooner.  Do you know
+of a likely one that could be purchased and made ready at once for a
+trip down the West Coast?"
+
+Captain Chubb looked hard at the speaker, then at Rodd, with the effect
+of making the boy feel as if he must laugh, for there was something so
+thoroughly comical in the stolid face, that nothing but the dread of
+hurting the visitor's feelings kept him from bursting into a roar,
+especially as, after fixing him with his eyes, the skipper seemed to be
+taking careful observations, looking up at the ceiling as if in search
+of clouds, at the carpet for sunken rocks, and then, so to speak,
+sweeping the offing by slowly gazing at the four walls in turn.
+
+"Schooner," he said at last gruffly.
+
+"Yes," said Uncle Paul; "a smart, fast-sailing schooner."
+
+"Well-found," grunted the skipper.
+
+"Of course, and with a good crew."
+
+"_And_ a good crew," growled the skipper.
+
+"Yes.  Can you show me where I can get such an one?"
+
+"No.  Look-out."
+
+He picked up and put on his cap again, took it off, and looked in the
+lining, and then gave his right leg a smart slap.
+
+"Dunno as I don't," he roared.  "What do you say to a horange boat?"
+
+"Orange boat?" cried Rodd.  "Why, uncle's been thinking of one of
+those!"
+
+"Well, why not?" said the captain; "a Saltcomber?"
+
+"Yes," cried Rodd.
+
+"Well-built, fast, plenty of room below for cargo or what not, plenty of
+provisions and water, but no guns."
+
+"That's just the sort of vessel I want," cried Uncle Paul.  "Do you
+think one's to be had over there?"
+
+"Sure on it.  See one last week as they was just getting up her standing
+rigging."
+
+"What, a new one?" cried Rodd.
+
+"Ay.  Fresh launched, and being made ready for sea."
+
+"Capital!" cried Uncle Pad.  "Who does she belong to?"
+
+"Ship-builder as yet."
+
+"And what would be her price?"
+
+"Dunno.  All depends," grunted the captain.  "Most likely as much as the
+builder could get; but if a man went with the money in his pocket, or
+say in the bank, ready to pay down on the nail, he could get a smart
+craft that would do him justice at a fair working price.  What do you
+say to coming over and having a look at her?"
+
+"Yes.  How are we to get there?  By coach?"
+
+"Tchah!" ejaculated the skipper.  "Who's going in a coach when he can be
+run over in one of our luggers?  You say the word, and I have got a
+friend with a little fore-and-after as only wants him and a hand and
+mebbe me to give a pull at a sheet.  He'd run you over in no time."
+
+"By all means, then, let's go," said Uncle Paul, to Rodd's great
+satisfaction.
+
+"Well, yes," growled the skipper.  "But who's a-going with you?"
+
+"My nephew," said Uncle Paul.
+
+"Ah, yes; and I suppose he's a good judge of such a craft, and could
+vally her from keel to truck.  Don't seem a bad sort of boy, but he
+won't do.  Nay, squire, you want somebody as you can trust.  A'n't you
+got an old friend, ship-owner or ship's husband--man who's got his head
+screwed on the right way, one you knows as honest and won't take a
+hundred pounds from t'other side to sell the ship for them?"
+
+"Well, no; I'm afraid I don't know such a man," said Uncle Paul.
+
+"Have to find one," grunted the skipper.  "Won't do to buy a ship with
+your eyes shut.  Got yourself to think of as well as your money.  You
+don't want to engage a skipper and a crew of good men and true, and
+drownd them all at sea."
+
+"Well, no," said Uncle Paul dryly; "our ambitions don't lie in that
+direction, do they, Rodd?"
+
+"No, uncle, but no man would be such a wretch as to sell you a ship that
+wasn't safe."
+
+"Not unless he got the chanst," said the skipper, frowning.  "I know
+some on them, and what they have done, and I don't want to command a
+craft like that.  Been at sea too long."
+
+"Well, then," said Uncle Paul, "you must have had great experience, and
+could judge whether a schooner's good or not."
+
+"Dessay I could," said the skipper, "but I aren't perfect."
+
+"But you ought to be a good judge," said Uncle Paul.
+
+"Mebbe, but I wouldn't go by my own opinion if it was my trade instead
+of yourn."
+
+"But look here," cried Uncle Paul, "I should like you to see the vessel
+and act for me."
+
+"Tchah!  Not likely, squire.  What do you know about me?"
+
+"Well, not much, certainly," said Uncle Paul, "and I should want a
+character with you as to your being a good seaman."
+
+"Of course; and if you didn't like me, and I warn't up to my work, why,
+you could get rid of me.  But that's a very different thing to buying a
+ship."
+
+"Yes," said Uncle Paul, "but what about the ship-builder?  Is he an
+honest man?"
+
+"Oh yes, I think so."
+
+"Couldn't he give good references?"
+
+"Well, yes.  Old established; built a lot of craft.  Dessay he'd find a
+few to say a word for him."
+
+"And I suppose I could have the opinion of some well-known ship valuer?"
+
+"Yes," grunted the skipper, "but he's only in trade.  You want to know
+what some old sailor says."
+
+"Such as you," cried Rodd.
+
+The skipper looked at the boy and smiled.
+
+"Well, mebbe," he said, "but I don't want the job."
+
+"Well, we'll talk about that another time," said Uncle Paul.  "What I
+want is for you to help me by going over with us to have a look at the
+schooner."
+
+"Ah!" said the skipper.
+
+"And you may as well give me a reference or two to somebody who knows
+your abilities--somebody well-known in Plymouth, a ship-owner, somebody
+for whom you have sailed.  Will you do this?"
+
+"Ay," said the skipper.
+
+"Well, whose name will you give me?  To whom shall I apply?"
+
+"Anybody.  Everybody in Plymouth."
+
+"That's rather wide," said Uncle Paul.
+
+"Wider the better," said the skipper.  "You ask the lot what they thinks
+of Captain Chubb."
+
+As he spoke the skipper rose and put on his cap, but took it off again
+quickly.
+
+"Time to-morrow will you be ready to start?" he said.
+
+"At your time," said Uncle Paul promptly.
+
+"Say nine?" asked the captain.
+
+"Certainly; nine o'clock to-morrow morning," replied Uncle Paul.
+
+"Good.  I will be off the landing-place at the Barbican with a boat.
+Night, sir.  Night, youngster.  Natural history expedition, eh?  And I
+thought you was going blackbirding!  Haw, haw, haw!"
+
+This last was intended for a derisive laugh at himself, but it sounded
+like three grunts, each louder than the last.
+
+The next minute the skipper was outside, and his steps were heard
+growing distant upon the gravel path.
+
+"Well, what do you think of our captain, eh, Rodd?"
+
+"I think he's a rum 'un, uncle; but he isn't our captain yet."
+
+"No, my boy, but if I have my way he will be, and if I hear that he's a
+skilful navigator, for I want no further recommendation.  The way in
+which he, an old experienced hand, one who would be able to see at a
+glance how thoroughly I should be at his mercy if he were a trickster
+whose aim was to make as much money out of the transaction as he could,
+proved that he was as honest as the day and ready to lay himself open to
+every examination, that alone without his display of honest indignation
+when he suspected me of being about to engage in that abominable
+traffic--there, I want no more.  As these sea-going people say, Pickle,
+Captain Chubb is going to hoist his flag on board my schooner, for as
+far as I can judge at present he seems to be the man in whom we shall be
+able to trust."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+THROUGH THE STORM.
+
+"It's enough to make a man say he'll throw up the whole affair," cried
+Uncle Paul, running his fingers in amongst his grizzly hair and giving
+it a savage tug.
+
+"Uncle!  Why, what's the matter now?"
+
+"Yes, you may well say what's the matter now!  Everything's the matter.
+The worry's almost maddening."
+
+"What, is there anything fresh, uncle?"
+
+"There, don't you take any notice, boy.  I get regularly out of heart.
+There's always something wrong.  It's as if we were never to be off.
+All these weary, weary months gone slowly dragging on."
+
+"Why, uncle, they seem to me to go like lightning," cried Rodd.
+
+"Oh, yes, of course.  You are a boy, with plenty of time before you.  I
+am getting an old man, and with little time to spare to do all the work
+I want to.  I seem to get not a bit farther."
+
+"Why, you do, uncle.  It's astonishing what a lot we have done.  Let's
+see; it's just fifteen months since you bought the schooner."
+
+"Fifteen, boy?  You mean fifty."
+
+"Fifteen, uncle; and she was nothing like finished then."
+
+"No, and as soon as the men knew that she was sold, I believe they made
+up their minds to spin the job out as long as they could."
+
+"Oh, but, uncle, they did it all very beautifully; and see what a lot of
+alterations you had made."
+
+"Had made, indeed!  Wasn't I led on into having them done by that old
+scoundrel Chubb?"
+
+"No, uncle.  He always consulted with you first, and advised this and
+that so as to make the vessel better."
+
+"Humph!" grunted Uncle Paul.
+
+"Then see what a lot you had done, fitting up the work-room, and the
+bottles and tanks, and getting in the dredging apparatus.  It does seem
+a long time to you, but see what a lot there was to do.  You know you
+were never satisfied."
+
+"I was, sir!  Don't you get accusing me of such things, Rodney.  You
+grow more impertinent every day.  Now put a regular check upon yourself,
+sir.  If you are like this as a boy I don't know what you are going to
+be when you grow to be a man."
+
+"Well, uncle, I won't say another word about it."
+
+"Ah!  No sulking, sir!  I command you to go on speaking at once."
+
+"Very well, uncle; but you did say that you would have everything of the
+best, and that nothing should be left undone, to hinder the expedition
+from being successful."
+
+"Did I say so, Rodd?"
+
+"Why, yes, uncle, over and over again."
+
+"Well, well, I did mean it.  But I am getting quite out of heart.  Every
+day it seems as if there is something fresh to throw us back.  Now it's
+stores; now it's something else wants painting; now one of the crew
+wants a holiday, just at a time too when things are so nearly ready that
+I might want to start at any moment."
+
+"Well, I shall be glad when we do get off now, uncle," said the boy
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Then you had better give up thinking about it, boy.  It looks to me
+like another six months before we can be ready."
+
+"Oh no, uncle!  Captain Chubb said to me yesterday that if I wanted to
+get anything else to take with me I must get it at once."
+
+"Then don't you believe him, Rodd.  He's a dilatory old impostor.  I
+don't believe he means for me to go at all.  By the way, did you have
+the men up and give them that big medicine chest?"
+
+"Yes, uncle; the day before yesterday."
+
+"Oh, and were those little casks of spirits got into the store-room?"
+
+"Yes, uncle.  I saw the men get them on board myself."
+
+"That's right.  But look here, Pickle; were you with them all the time?"
+
+"Yes, uncle.  You told me to be, before you went up to London."
+
+"That's right, Rodd.  But--er--did you--did you hear the men make any
+remark about them?"
+
+"No, uncle; but I saw them smell the bung-holes and look at one another
+and laugh."
+
+"Humph!" said the doctor, smiling.  "By the way, I think I'll go on
+board now and have a look round.  There are several things I want to see
+to, those casks and kegs among the rest."
+
+"They were all put just as you gave orders, uncle."
+
+"Yes; but I want to test the spirits all the same.  Here, we may as well
+go on board at once."
+
+"Very well," cried the boy eagerly.  "Is there any little thing we can
+take with us?"
+
+"No, my boy.  As far as I am concerned, I think I can say everything is
+ready."
+
+It was not long before the doctor and his nephew were down at the
+landing-place and being rowed across the harbour to where a beautifully
+trim full-sized schooner lay moored to one of the great buoys; and on
+coming alongside they were hailed by Captain Chubb, whose face seemed to
+shine with animation as he helped his chief on board.
+
+"Morning, sir!" he cried.  "I was just wishing that you would come on
+board."
+
+"Bah!" exclaimed Uncle Paul.  "What wants doing now?"
+
+"Nothing.  Not as I know of."
+
+"Oh, are you sure?" said Uncle Paul sarcastically, "Sartin, unless you
+have got some more bottles or cranky tackle to be stowed away, sir."
+
+"Oh, indeed," said Uncle Paul shortly.  "You don't mean to say you have
+done at last?"
+
+"Me, sir?  Why, I was ready six months ago, only you had always got some
+new scheme you wanted fitted in."
+
+"Ah, well, never mind about that now," cried Uncle Paul.  "Then we may
+set sail any day?"
+
+"'Cept Friday, sir.  The men wouldn't like that.  To-night if you like."
+
+"Ah, well, we won't go to-night," said the doctor.
+
+"Only give your orders, sir," said the captain shortly.  "Like to take a
+look round now?  Fresh provisions are all on board."
+
+"Oh no," said Uncle Paul, "I know it all by heart."
+
+"Looks a beauty now, don't she, sir?"
+
+"Oh yes, she looks very well.  Here, Rodd, come down with me into the
+work-room."
+
+The doctor strode off aft at once, the captain following slowly with the
+boy; and as their chief descended the cabin stairs Captain Chubb cocked
+his eye at his young companion.
+
+"Bit rusty this morning," he whispered.
+
+"Yes; uncle's getting out of patience," whispered back Rodd.
+
+"No wonder," said the captain.  "Well, 'tarn't my fault.  I never see
+such a doctor's shop and museum as he's made of the craft."
+
+"Now, Rodney!" came from below sharply.
+
+"Coming, uncle!" cried the boy, snatching at the brass rail, which, like
+every bit of metal about the beautiful vessel, shone as brightly as if
+it were part of a yacht.
+
+The doctor was standing at the foot of the stairs with his hand upon a
+door, which he had just unlocked, and he led the way into a well-lit
+portion of the vessel which had originally been intended for the stowage
+of cargo, but which was now fitted up with an endless number of
+arrangements such as had been deemed necessary for the carrying out of
+the expedition.
+
+One portion was like a chemical laboratory.  Upon dresser-like tables
+fitted against the bulkhead were rows of railed-in bottles and jars, and
+beneath them new bright microscopes and other apparatus such as would
+gladden the heart of a naturalist.  But the doctor gave merely a cursory
+glance at these various objects, with whose arrangement he had long been
+familiar, and made his way to where, set up on end upon a stout bench,
+were about a dozen specially made spirit casks, each fitted with its tap
+and a little receptacle hung beneath to catch any drops that might leak
+away.
+
+"Here, I want to test these," said the doctor; "and, by the way, ask
+Captain Chubb to step down."
+
+There was no need, for almost at the same moment the captain's heavy
+step was heard upon the metal-covered cabin stairs.
+
+"Anything I can do, sir?" he asked, in his gruff way.
+
+"Yes, look here, captain," said the doctor, and he took a bright glass
+measure from where it hung by its foot in a little rack, safe from
+falling by the rolling of the vessel; "I was just going to test these
+spirits, and I thought I should like you to be here."
+
+"Hah!" said the captain.  "I've thought a deal about all them little
+barrels put so handy there, ready on tap, and it's the only thing I
+don't like, Dr Robson."
+
+"Why?" said Uncle Paul shortly.
+
+"Why, it's just like this, sir.  I have picked you out as sober a crew
+as ever went on a voyage, but sailors are sailors, sir, and I don't
+think it's right to be throwing temptation in their way."
+
+"But this, my workshop, where I bottle my specimens, will always be kept
+under lock and key."
+
+"Nay!" snorted the captain.
+
+"But I tell you it will," cried Uncle Paul.  "Nobody will have any
+business here but my nephew and me."
+
+"That's what you mean," said the captain, "but how about times when you
+are busy, or forget and leave it open?  Can't warrant always to keep it
+shut."
+
+"Well," said Uncle Paul, with a curious smile, "I have thought of that,"
+and going to one of the little casks he turned the tap and let about a
+couple of tablespoonfuls of liquid that looked like filtered water flow
+into the little glass measure, covering the bottom to about an inch in
+depth.  "There," said the doctor, holding up the glass to the light;
+"just taste that, captain."
+
+"Nay.  I don't mind a drop of good rum at the proper season, but I don't
+care about spirits like that."
+
+"I only want you to taste it," said the doctor.  "It's too strong to
+drink."
+
+"I know," said the captain.  "Burns like fire."
+
+"Just taste, but don't swallow it."
+
+"Nay--Well, I'll do that.  But it looks like physic."
+
+The speaker just dipped his fore-finger into the liquid, and touched his
+lips, to cry angrily--
+
+"Why, it's pison!"
+
+"No," said the doctor; "proof alcohol for preserving my specimens.  If
+by accident any of the men taste that they won't want any more, will
+they?"
+
+"Don't know," said the captain.  "Maybe they'd water it down."
+
+"Fill that measure with water, Rodd," said the doctor.
+
+The boy took the glass to a big stone filter covered with basketwork,
+and filled the measure to the brim.
+
+"Now try it, captain," said the doctor.
+
+This time with a scowl of dislike, the captain raised the glass to his
+lips, but set it down again quickly and hurried to a little leaden sink
+in one corner of the laboratory.
+
+"Worse than ever, doctor."
+
+"Well, do you think the men will water that down?"
+
+"Not they!  One taste will be quite enough."
+
+"You don't think I need label those casks `Temptation,' do you?"
+
+"Nay, sir.  If you want to be honest to the lads, I should put `Pison'
+upon them in big letters."
+
+"I would," said the doctor dryly, "but, as you say, sailors are sailors,
+and I don't think they'd believe it if I did."
+
+"What have you put in it, sir?"
+
+"Ah! that's my secret, Captain Chubb."
+
+"Well, I hope none of the lads will touch it; but it's sperrits, you
+know.  Won't answer for it that if one of them was helping you to bottle
+up some of them things as we shall fish up when we gets into the
+Tropics, he wouldn't be trying a sip."
+
+"I shouldn't be surprised either," said the doctor, "but if he did he
+wouldn't do it again."
+
+The skipper looked at him sharply.
+
+"Don't mean that, do you, sir?" he cried.
+
+"Indeed, but I do," replied the doctor.
+
+"Going too far," growled the skipper.  "Look here, doctor; I've fell
+into all your ways like a man, and have helped to drill the chaps into
+handling your tackle, which is outside an able seaman's dooties; but I
+don't like this 'ere a bit."
+
+"I can't help that," said the doctor, bristling up.  "I shall of course
+tell them that they must not touch this stuff, of which no doubt I shall
+use a great deal, and it will be in direct opposition to my orders if
+they give way to the temptation."
+
+"Right enough," said the skipper, "but seamen's weak--like babies in
+some things--and a good skipper has to be like a father to them, to keep
+them out of mischief.  Don't know no better, doctor.  You do, and it's
+too strong, sir; it's too strong."
+
+"Then let them leave it alone," said the doctor hotly.
+
+"That's right, sir, but maybe they won't.  Don't mean to say that I am
+stupid over them, but when I get a good crew I like to take care of
+them.  Here, I'm getting out of breath.  Can't make long speeches.  Cut
+it short."
+
+"Then say no more about it," said the doctor.
+
+"Nay, it won't do.  Taking out a good crew of smart lads.  Want to bring
+them all back, not leave none of them sewed up in their hammocks and
+sunk in the sea with a shot at their heels.  Look here, sir; how many of
+them there kegs have you doctored?"
+
+"All of them.  Why, my good fellow, you don't think I have put poison
+in, do you?"
+
+"Said you had."
+
+"Pooh!  Nonsense!  My boy Rodd and I tried experiments to see how nasty
+we could make the spirits without being dangerous.  There's nothing
+there that would hurt a man; only you mustn't tell them so."
+
+"Oh-h-h!  That's another pair of shoes, as the Frenchies say;" and the
+skipper went up on deck.
+
+"Thick-head!" growled the doctor.  "Did he fancy I was going to kill a
+man for meddling?  Bah!"
+
+"He did, uncle.  He doesn't know you yet."
+
+"Well, I suppose not, my boy, but I am beginning to think that we are
+getting to know the crew pretty well by heart.  Well, all we want now is
+a favourable wind, then we will hoist our sailing flag; and then--off."
+
+"For how long, uncle?"
+
+"Ah, that's more than I can say, Rodd, my boy.  We'll see what luck we
+have, and how the stores last out.  We'll get started, and leave the
+rest."
+
+Two days later the start had been made, with everything as ready as the
+combined efforts of the doctor's and Captain Chubb's experience could
+contrive, and with his face all smiles Dr Robson stood beside Rodd,
+watching the receding shore as they, to use the skipper's words, bowled
+down Channel.
+
+"Good luck to us, Pickle, my boy!" cried the doctor.  "It's been a long
+weary time of preparation, but it has been worth it.  We have got a
+splendid captain--a man in whom I can thoroughly trust, and a crew of as
+smart, handy, useful fellows as I could have wished for."
+
+"Yes, uncle; and haven't they taken to all the arrangements about the
+tackle!"
+
+"Yes, Pickle.  They have all proved themselves not only eager and
+active, but as much interested as so many boys.  Splendid fellows; and
+old Chubb knows how to handle them too.  Fetch my glass up, Pickle.
+Let's have a look at the old country as long as we can."
+
+Rodd darted off to the cabin hatch, but he staggered once or twice, for
+the schooner as she rose and fell kept on careening a little over to
+leeward, and in passing one of the sailors--a fine bluff-looking young
+fellow--the man smiled.
+
+"Here, what are you grinning at, Joe Cross?" cried Rodd, who, after many
+months of intercourse with the crew, was fully acquainted with all, and
+knew a good many of their peculiarities.
+
+"Oh, not at you, Mr Harding, sir.  It was a little bit of a snigger at
+your boots."
+
+"What!" cried Rodd.
+
+"Just a little guffaw, sir.  You see, the deck's as white as a holystone
+will make it, and your boots is black, and black and white never did
+agree.  It's beginning to get a bit fresh, sir, and if I was you I'd
+striddle a bit, so as to take a bit better hold of the deck with your
+footsies.  I shouldn't like to see you come down hard."
+
+"Oh, I shan't come down," said Rodd confidently; but as he was speaking
+the schooner gave a sudden pitch which sent the boy into the sailor's
+arms.
+
+"Avast there!" cried the man.  "Steady, sir!--Steady it is!  There, let
+me stand you up again on your pins.  You mustn't do that, or you'll have
+the lads thinking you're a himmidge, or a statty, a-tumbling off your
+shelf."
+
+"Thank you.  I am all right now," said Rodd.  "My boots are quite new,
+and the soles are slippery."
+
+"I see, sir, but it wasn't all that.  You see, our Sally's been tied up
+by the nose for so many months in harbour yonder, that now she's running
+free she can't hold herself in.  Ketch hold of the rail, sir.  That's
+your sort!  There she goes again, larking like a young kitten."
+
+"I didn't know she'd dance about like this on a fine day," said Rodd
+rather breathlessly.
+
+"Bless your heart, sir, this arn't nothing to what she can do.  See how
+she's skipping along now.  Aren't it lovely?"
+
+"Well, yes, I suppose so," said Rodd; "but if it's like this in fine
+weather, what's it going to be in a storm?"
+
+"Why, ever so much livelier, sir.  She'll dance over the waves like a
+cork.  She's a beauty, that's what she is.  Mustn't mind her being a bit
+saucy.  There's nothing that floats like a Salcombe schooner, and I
+never heard of one as sank yet."
+
+"Yes, uncle; back directly!" cried the boy; and he made his way onward
+to the cabin stairs without mishap, and re-appeared directly afterwards
+with the doctor's big telescope under his arm, to make his way as well
+as he could to where Uncle Paul was standing forward at the side with
+his left arm round one of the stays.
+
+"Walk straight, boy--walk straight!" cried the doctor, laughing.  "What
+made you zigzag about like that?"
+
+"Didn't want to come down on the deck and break the glass, uncle," said
+Rodd rather sulkily.  "The schooner oughtn't to dance about like this,
+ought she?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  It's no more than the lugger used to do when we have been out
+fishing."
+
+"Oh, yes, uncle; and she's so much bigger too.  Besides, we were sitting
+down then, and here one has to stand."
+
+"You can sit down if you like," said Uncle Paul.
+
+"What, and have the sailors laugh at me?  That I won't!  I want to get
+used to it as soon as I can."
+
+"Then go and get used to it," said Uncle Paul.  "You can't do better.  I
+should like to do the same, but a man can't hop about at fifty, or more,
+like a boy at fifteen."
+
+"Why, uncle, I am nearly eighteen."
+
+"Then go and behave like it, boy.  Look at the sailors.  They keep their
+feet well enough, without seeming as if they are going to rush
+overboard."
+
+"Oh, I shall soon get used to it, uncle," cried Rodd.
+
+But instead of improving that day his progress about the deck was
+decidedly retrograde, for as the time went on and the Channel opened
+out, the wind from the north-west grew fresher and fresher, and the
+captain from time to time kept the men busy taking in a reef here and a
+reef there.
+
+Topgallant sails came down; flying jib was hauled in; and towards
+evening, as she span along as fast or faster than ever, not above half
+the amount of canvas was spread that she had skimmed under earlier in
+the day.
+
+Every now and then too there was a loud smack against the bows, and a
+shower of spray made the deck glisten for a few minutes; but it rapidly
+dried up again, and as the schooner careened over and dashed along, Rodd
+stood aft, looking back through the foam to see how the waves came
+curling along after them, as if in full chase of the beautiful little
+vessel and seeking to leap aboard.
+
+The sun had gone down in a bronzy red bank of clouds, and after being
+below to the cabin tea Rodd had eagerly hurried on deck again, to find
+that the sea around was beginning to look wild and strange.
+
+Whether he made for Josiah Cross, or Joe, as he was generally called,
+came up to him, Rodd did not know, but as he stood with one arm over the
+rail he soon found himself in conversation.
+
+"Are we going to have a storm?" he said.
+
+"Well, I dunno, sir, about storm.  More wind coming."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"How do I know, sir?" cried the man.  "Why, if you come to that, I don't
+know.  Seem to feel it like.  I don't say as it will.  Wind's nor'-west
+now, and has been all day, but I shouldn't wonder if it chopped right
+round, and then--"
+
+"There'll be a storm," said Rodd eagerly.
+
+"Well, I don't say that, sir; but like enough there will be more wind
+than we want to use, and we might have to put back."
+
+"What, now that we have started at last?" cried Rodd.
+
+The man nodded.
+
+"Oh, that would be vexatious," cried Rodd, "to find ourselves back in
+Plymouth again!"
+
+"There, you wouldn't do that, my lad," said the man.  "If we did have to
+put back, I should say the skipper would run for Penzance.  But there,
+the wind hasn't chopped round yet, and it's just as likely to fall as it
+gets dark and we will get our orders to hoist more sail."
+
+But the sailor's first ideas proved to be right, and not only did the
+wind veer round, but it increased in force and became so contrary and
+shifty that during the night it began to blow a perfect hurricane, and
+gave Captain Chubb a good opportunity of proving that he was no
+fine-weather sailor.
+
+It proved to be a bright night, being nearly full moon, with great
+flocculent silvery and black clouds scudding at a tremendous rate across
+the planet, while one minute the schooner's rigging was shadowed in
+black upon the white, wet deck, at another all was gloom, with the wind
+shrieking through the rigging, and the _Maid of Salcombe_ proving the
+truth of the sailor's words, as she was literally dancing about; like a
+cork.
+
+"Hadn't you better come below, Rodd?" said the doctor.
+
+"No, uncle; don't ask me.  I couldn't sleep, and I want to look at the
+storm.  It's so grand."
+
+"Grand?  Well, yes," said the doctor; "but we could have dispensed with
+its grandeur, and it seems very unlucky that after all these weeks of
+glorious weather it should have turned like this.  Ah, here's Captain
+Chubb.  Well, captain," he continued, "where are we making for?  Mount's
+Bay?"
+
+"No.  Give it up.  Nasty rocky bit about there, so I laid her head for
+Plymouth; but we shan't get in there to-night."
+
+"Where then?" asked the doctor.  "Wouldn't it be better to run for the
+open sea?"
+
+"No," said the skipper shortly.  "This wind's come to stay, and we must
+get into port for a bit.  We don't want to get into the Bay of Biscay O
+with weather like this.  It's going to be a regular sou'-wester."
+
+"What port shall we make for, then?" asked the doctor, while Rodd caught
+all he could of the conversation, as the wind kept coming in gusts and
+seemed to snatch the words and carry them overboard in an instant.
+"Havre," grunted the captain laconically.  There was silence for some
+time, for it became too hard work to talk, but in one of the intervals
+between two gusts, a few words were spoken, the doctor asking the
+skipper if he was satisfied with the behaviour of the schooner.
+
+"Oh yes," He grunted; "she's right enough."
+
+"You are not disappointed, then?"
+
+"No.  Bit too lively.  Wants some more cargo or ballast to give her
+steadiness; but she'll be all right."  All the same this was an
+experience very different from anything that Rodd had had before, and it
+was not without a severe buffeting that in the early dawn of the morning
+Captain Chubb had succeeded in laying the little vessel's head off
+Havre, so that, taking advantage of a temporary sinking of the wind, he
+was able to run her safely into the French port, and this at a time when
+it was a friendly harbour, the British arms having triumphed everywhere,
+the French king being once more upon the throne, and he who had been
+spoken of for so long as the Ogre of Elba now lying duly watched and
+guarded far away to the south, within the rockbound coast of Saint
+Helena.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+PRIVATE EARS.
+
+The schooner was run safely into port, but just before she cleared the
+harbour mouth, down came a tremendous squall of wind as if from round
+the corner of some impossible solid cloud behind which an ambush of the
+storm had been lying in wait for the brave little vessel.
+
+Down it came all at once, just when least expected, and in a few seconds
+as it struck the little vessel, rushing, in spite of the small amount of
+canvas spread, rapidly for the shelter, every one on deck snatched at
+the nearest object to which he could cling.  The schooner bravely
+resisted for a while, careening over and then rising again, and then
+down she went with her masts almost flat upon the foam, and then lying
+over more and more as Rodd clung hard with one hand and involuntarily
+stretched out the other to his uncle as if to say good-bye.  For he felt
+certain as the water came surging over the leeward rail that the next
+minute their voyage would be ended, and the _Maid of Salcombe_ be going
+down.
+
+It was one horror of breathlessness in the shrieking wind, while the
+storm-driven spray cut and lashed and flogged at the crew.
+
+"It's all over," gasped the boy, in his excitement, though somehow even
+then there was no feeling of fear.
+
+Another minute as she still dashed on, plunging through the waves, the
+vessel began to right again, the masts rising more and more towards the
+perpendicular, and the water that seemed to have been scooped up in the
+hollows of the well-reefed sails came streaming back in showers upon the
+deck.
+
+Another minute and Rodd began to get his breath again, panting hard and
+feeling as if some great hand had been grasping him by the throat and
+had at last released its hold, while as the schooner now skimmed on,
+every furlong taking her more into shelter, the squall had passed over
+them and went sweeping along far away over the town ahead, and the boy
+felt a strong grip upon his arm.
+
+Rodd turned sharply, to face Cross the sailor, who held on to him with
+his left while he used his right hand to clear his eyes from the spray.
+
+"All right," he said, with his lips close to the boy's ear, so as to
+make himself heard, while Rodd winced, for as the man leaned towards him
+he poured something less than a pint of salt water from off his
+tightly-tied-on oilskin sou'-wester right into his eyes.
+
+Rodd nodded without attempting to speak, and the sailor laughed.
+
+There was something so genial and content in the man's looks, that it
+sent a thrill of satisfaction through the boy's breast, telling as it
+did that they were out of danger, while, as they rapidly glided on, the
+shrieking of the wind through the rigging grew less and less and the
+motion of the schooner more and more steady as the harbour was gained.
+
+"Say, my lad," said Cross, "I thought we was going to make our first
+dive after specimens, and the _Saucy Sally_ seemed to be holding her
+breath as she stuck her nose down into it and then jibbed and threw
+herself over sideways as if she knowed there wasn't depth enough of
+water for the job."
+
+"Hah!" gasped Rodd hoarsely, for he had been taking in spray as well as
+wind, and he had now nearly recovered the power of breathing easily and
+well.  "Why, Joe, I thought we were sinking."
+
+"Nay, my lad; not us!  The _Sally_ was too well battened down, and
+couldn't have sunk; but I was getting a bit anxious when it looked as if
+we was going to miss the harbour mouth and go floating in ashore lying
+down as if we had all gone to sleep."
+
+"Yes, it was horrible," said Rodd, with a sigh of relief.  "But what
+would have happened if we had missed the mouth and gone ashore?"
+
+"Why, what does happen, my lad, when a ship does that?  Bumps, and a
+sale arterwards of new-wrecked timber on the beach.  But here we are all
+right, and instead of being ashamed of ourselves we can look the
+mounseers full in the face and tell 'em that if they can manage a better
+bit of seamanship than the skipper, they had better go and show us how."
+
+Joe Cross said no more, for Captain Chubb was roaring orders through a
+speaking trumpet, the last bit of canvas was lowered down, and before
+long the schooner was safely moored in the outer harbour as far away as
+she could safely get from the vessels that had taken refuge before them,
+some of them grinding together and damaging their paint and wood, in
+spite of their busy crews hard at work with fenders and striving to get
+into safer quarters, notwithstanding the efforts of the heavy gusts
+which came bearing down from time to time.
+
+The nearest vessel was a handsome-looking brig which they had passed as
+they glided in, noting that she was moored head to wind to a heavy buoy.
+As they passed her to run nearer into shelter Rodd had noticed the name
+upon her stern, the _Jeanne d'Arc_, which suggested immediately the
+patriotic Maid of Orleans.
+
+He had forgotten it the next moment, the name being merged with the
+thought that while the schooner had had so narrow an escape of ending
+her voyage, the brig had been lying snugly moored to the buoy.  But now
+as they glided on it became evident that the brig had broken adrift, for
+all at once, as she lay rolling and jerking at her mooring cable, the
+distance between her bows and the huge ringed cask seemed to have grown
+greater, and from where Rodd stood he could see the glistening
+tarpaulins of her crew as they hurried forward in a cluster, and Captain
+Chubb bellowed an order from where he stood astern, to his men.
+
+"Aren't coming aboard of us, are they?" thought Rodd, as, heard above
+the wind during a comparative lull, Captain Chubb was roaring out fresh
+orders to his crew; for he had fully grasped the danger, and the men
+were ready to slip their cable moorings and glide farther in under bare
+poles.
+
+But fortunately this fresh disaster did not come to pass, for as the
+brig bore down upon them there was a rush and splash from her bows, an
+anchor went down, checking her progress a little, then a little more, as
+she still came on nearer as if to come crash into the schooner's bows,
+and Captain Chubb raised his speaking trumpet to his lips to bid his men
+let go, prior to ordering them to stand by ready to lower their own
+anchor in turn when at a safe distance, when the brig's progress
+received a sudden check, her anchor held, and she was brought up short
+not many yards away.
+
+"Smart," said Captain Chubb, "for a mounseer;" and he looked at Rodd as
+he spoke, before tucking his speaking trumpet under his arm and then
+giving himself a shake like a huge yellow Newfoundland dog to get rid of
+the superabundant moisture.  "Well, squire," he continued, as he came
+close up, "what should you do next?"
+
+Rodd looked at him as if puzzled by the question.  Then putting his
+hands to his mouth he shouted back--
+
+"I should get farther into the harbour, in case that brig broke away
+again."
+
+"Of course you would," said the captain, with a grim smile.  "Now, don't
+you pretend again that you aren't a sailor, because that was spoken like
+a good first mate.  But we will wait for a lull before we let go, for I
+don't want to lose no tackle.  But the gale aren't over yet."
+
+"But we are safe, captain?" said the boy.
+
+"Yes," grunted the captain.  "Better off than them yonder," and he
+pointed to a good-sized vessel which had been running for the harbour,
+but in vain, for she had been carried on too far and was swept away, to
+take the shore a mile distant.
+
+The lull foretold by Captain Chubb enabled him to slip from his moorings
+and get the schooner into a sheltered position which he deemed
+sufficiently snug and far enough away from the brig, whose captain did
+not manifest any intention of coming farther in.
+
+As they were parting company Rodd was standing right forward close to
+Cross, who stood spelling out the name of the brig they were leaving
+behind.
+
+"_Jenny de Arc_" he grunted to Rodd.  "That's a rum name for a smart
+brig like that.  Wonder what she is.  I never see'd Jenny spelt like
+that afore.  That's the French way of doing it, I suppose."
+
+Rodd took upon himself to explain whose name the brig bore, and the
+sailor gave vent to a musical growl.
+
+"Shouldn't have knowed it," he said; "but as I was a-saying, I wonder
+what she is.  Looks to me like what they calls a private ear."
+
+"Why, that's a man-of-war, isn't it, Joe?"
+
+"Well, a kind of a sort of one, you know, sir.  One of them as goes off
+in war times to hark in private for any bit of news about well-laden
+merchantmen, and then goes off to capture them."
+
+"But what makes you think that, Joe?" asked Rodd.  "Why, look at her
+rig, sir.  See what a heap of sail she could carry.  I don't hold with a
+brig for fast-sailing, but look at the length of them two masts, and see
+how she's pierced for guns.  She has shut up shop snug enough on account
+of the storm, but I'll wager she could run out some bulldogs--I mean,
+French poodles--as could bark if she liked.  Then there's a big long gun
+amidships."
+
+"I didn't see it," said Rodd.  "Maybe not, my lad, but I did."
+
+"Well, but a merchantman might carry guns to defend herself, Joe."
+
+"Ay, she might, sir; but she wouldn't, unless she was going on a job
+like ours and wanted to scare off savages; and that aren't likely, for I
+should say we are the only vessel afloat as is going on such a fishing
+expedition as ours.  And then look at her crew."
+
+"What about her crew?" said Rodd.  "It seemed to be a very good one so
+far as I could see."
+
+"A deal too good, sir.  Who ever saw a merchantman with such a crew as
+that?  Didn't you see how smart they were in obeying orders and getting
+down that anchor?"
+
+"Why, no smarter than our crew," said Rodd rather indignantly.
+
+"Smarter than our crew, Mr Rodd, sir!  I should think not!" cried the
+sailor.  "Why, they are French!  Still it was very tidy for them.  I
+should like to know, though, what they are.  I do believe I'm right, and
+that she is a private ear.  Not been watching us, has she?  Seems rather
+queer."
+
+"Why should she be watching us?"
+
+"Why should a private ear be watching any smart schooner, except to make
+a prize of her?"
+
+"Oh, but that's in time of war," cried Rodd.  "Ay, sir, but your private
+ears aren't very particular about that.  This is near enough to war time
+still, and if I was our skipper I should keep a good sharp eye on that
+craft.  But he knows pretty well what he's about.  His head is screwed
+on the right way.  But I say, Mr Rodd, how should you like a bit of the
+real thing, same as we used to have when I was in a King's ship?"
+
+"What, a naval action?"
+
+"Oh, you may call it that, sir, if you like.  I mean a bit of real
+French and English, and see which is best man."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!  That's all over now, Joe."
+
+"I don't know so much about that, sir."
+
+"But we are in a friendly port, Joe, and no French ship would dare
+attack one of ours."
+
+"No, sir, I know they daren't do it," said the man stubbornly; "but if
+they could catch us asleep they might have a try.  But there, don't you
+be uncomfortable.  There's too much of the weasel about our skipper, and
+he'll be too wide awake to let any Frenchman catch him asleep."
+
+"Ah, you are thinking a lot of nonsense, Joe," said Rodd.  "The war is
+all at an end, and Napoleon Bonaparte shut up in prison at Saint Helena.
+There'll be no more fighting now."
+
+"Well, sir, I suppose you are right," said the man, with something like
+a sigh; "but you see, like some of my mates, I have seen a bit of
+sarvice in a King's ship, and we have got our guns on board, and we have
+just now been lying alongside--I should say bow and stern--of a
+Frenchman so as we could slew round and rake her; and it sets a man
+thinking.  But there, I suppose you are right, and there will be no
+fighting for us this voyage."
+
+"Of course there won't be.  We are friends now with France."
+
+"Yes, sir, and the French pretends to be friends with us; but all the
+same if I was the skipper I should double my night watch and be well on
+the look-out for squalls.--Ay, ay, sir!"
+
+Joe Cross answered a hail from the skipper, and was directly after busy
+at work helping his mates to make all snug aloft, for the wind had sunk
+now into a pleasant soft gale which seemed to suggest fine weather; but
+Captain Chubb shook his head and frowned very severely as he looked out
+to windward.
+
+"Nay, my lad," he said, "we have made our start and got as far as here,
+but it don't seem to me like getting away just yet, for there's a lot of
+weather hanging about somewhere, and as we are in no hurry and are snug
+in port, I am not going to run the risk of losing any of my tackle while
+the wind is shifting about like this.  If I was you I should go in for a
+general dry up, and maybe you and your uncle, if the rain holds off,
+would like to go and have a look round the town."
+
+The skipper moved away, and Rodd went to the side to have another look
+at the French brig, and then, not satisfied, he went below to fetch the
+small spy-glass, finding his uncle busy re-arranging some of his
+apparatus in the laboratory, and as he did not seem to be required, the
+boy took the small telescope from where it hung and made his way back
+again on deck, where he focussed the glass and began to scan the brig,
+scrutinising her rig and everything that he could command, from trucks
+to deck, making out the long gun covered by a great tarpaulin, and then
+bringing the glass to bear upon such of the crew as came within his
+scope.
+
+And as he watched the well-built, smartly-rigged vessel with such
+knowledge as he had acquired during his life at the great English port,
+he made out, though fairly distant now, that there seemed to be
+something in Joe Cross's remarks, so that when he closed his glass to go
+down below, he began to dwell on the possibility of the smart brig being
+indeed a privateer, and this set him thinking of how horrible it would
+be if she did turn inimical and make an attempt at what would have been
+quite an act of piracy if she had followed the _Maid of Salcombe_ out to
+sea and seized her as a prize.
+
+"Why, it would break uncle's heart, after all his preparations for the
+expedition," mused the boy; "and besides it would be so treacherous.
+But Captain Chubb would not give up, I am sure.  I never thought of it
+before, but he must have thought a good deal more about an accident such
+as this happening when he was taking such pains to drill and train the
+men.  What did he say--that as we were going along a coast where the
+people were very savage and spent most of their time in war and
+fighting, we ought to be prepared for danger, in case we were attacked.
+Was he thinking of the French as well as the savages when he said this?
+Perhaps so.  If one of his men thought so, why shouldn't he?  Well, I
+will ask him first time I get him alone.  Hullo!  What are they doing
+there?  Somebody going ashore from the brig."
+
+Rodd could see with the naked eye the lowering down of a ship's boat
+over the brig's side, and that made him quickly focus his glass again,
+and while he was busy scanning the boat as it kissed the water and the
+oars fell over the side, Joe Cross came up behind him and made him
+start.
+
+"Well, sir," he said, "what do you make of her now?"
+
+"Nothing, Joe," said the boy, "only that it seems a very nice brig."
+
+"Very, sir, and well-manned.  Look at that."
+
+"What?" asked the boy.
+
+"That there boat they've lowered down, and how she's manned.  She's no
+merchantman.  Look at the way they are rowing.  Why, they're like
+men-of-war's men, every one.  I don't like the looks of she, and if the
+old skipper don't get overhauling her with them there eyes of his I'm a
+Dutchman; and that's what I ain't."
+
+"Ah, you make mountains of molehills, Joe," said Rodd.
+
+"Maybe, sir; maybe.  But I suppose it's all a matter of eddication and
+training to keep watch.  There, you see, it's always have your eyes
+open, night or day.  For a man as goes to sea on board a man-of-war,
+meaning a King's ship, has to see enemies wherever they are and wherever
+they aren't, for even if there bean't none, a chap has to feel that
+there might be, and if he's let anything slip without seeing on it, why,
+woe betide him!  There y'are, sir!  Look at that there boat.  You have
+hung about Plymouth town and seen things enough there to know as that
+there aren't a merchant brig."
+
+"Well, she doesn't look like a merchant's shore boat, certainly," said
+Rodd, with his eyes still glued to the end of the telescope.
+
+"Right, sir," cried Joe Cross.  "Well, then, sir, as she aren't a
+merchant brig's boat, and the brig herself aren't a man-of-war, perhaps
+you will tell me what she is?  You can't, sir?"
+
+"No, Joe."
+
+"No more can I, sir; but if we keeps our eyes open I dare say we shall
+see."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+IN THE FRENCH PORT.
+
+In spite of the knocking about by the storm, the schooner was none the
+worse, and in the course of the day as the weather rapidly settled down
+and the western gale seemed to have blown itself out, while the sailors
+had been busy swabbing the rapidly drying planks, and, the wind having
+fallen, shaking out the saturated sails to dry, Uncle Paul strolled with
+his nephew up and down the deck, waiting till the skipper seemed to be
+less busy before going up to him.
+
+"Well," said Uncle Paul; "are we damaged at all?"
+
+"Not a bit," was the gruff reply.  "It's done her good--stretched her
+ropes and got the canvas well in shape."
+
+"But how do you feel about the schooner?"
+
+"As if she was just what we wanted, sir.  Given me a lot of confidence
+in her."
+
+"Then as the weather is settling down you will sail again to-night?"
+
+"No; I want to get a little more ballast aboard, and this is all a
+little bit of show.  We shall have more weather before long.  I shan't
+sail yet."
+
+The work being pretty well done--that is, as far as work ever is done in
+a small vessel--Rodd noticed that some of the men had been smartening
+themselves up, and after hanging about a bit watching the captain till
+he went below, Rodd saw them gather in a knot together by the forecastle
+hatch, talking among themselves, till one of the party, a heavy,
+dull-looking fellow, very round and smooth-faced and plump, with quite a
+colour in his cheeks, came aft to where Rodd and his uncle were standing
+watching the busy scene about the wharves of the inner harbour, and
+discussing as to whether they should go ashore for a few hours to look
+round the town.
+
+"I am thinking, Pickle, that after such a bad night as we had, we might
+just as well stay aboard and rest, and besides, as far as I can see
+everything's muddy and wretched, and I fancy we should be better
+aboard."
+
+"Oh, I don't know, uncle.  We needn't be long, and it will be a change.
+But here's the Bun coming up to speak to you."
+
+"The what!" cried Uncle Paul.
+
+"That man--Rumsey."
+
+"But why do you call him the Bun?"
+
+"Oh, it's the men's name for him," said Rodd, laughing.  "They nicknamed
+him because he was such a round-faced fellow."
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," said the man, making a tug at his forelock.
+
+"Yes, my man; you want to speak to me?"
+
+"Yes, sir; the lads asked me to say, sir, that as it's been a very rough
+night--"
+
+"Very, my man--very," said Uncle Paul, staring.
+
+"They'd take it kindly, sir, if you'd give about half of us leave to go
+ashore for a few hours."
+
+"Oh, well, my man, I have no objection whatever," said Uncle Paul.  "As
+far as I am concerned, by all means yes."
+
+"Thankye, sir; much obliged, sir," said the man eagerly, and pulling his
+forelock again he hurried forward to join the group which had sent him
+as their spokesman to ask for leave.
+
+Rodd turned to speak to his uncle, and caught Joe Cross's eye instead,
+wondering at the man's comical look at him as he closed an eye and
+jerked one thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the group forward
+as they began whispering together, and then, thrust forward towards the
+side by his companions, the Bun began to signal towards the Frenchmen
+hanging about the nearest landing-place, where several boats were made
+fast to the side of the dock.
+
+Just at that moment the skipper came up from below, saw what was going
+on at a glance, strode towards the group, which began to dissolve at
+once, the Bun being the only man whose attention was taken up by a
+boatman who was answering his signal.  Just while the signaller was
+making his most energetic gestures he leaped round in the most startled
+way, for the skipper had closed up and given him a very smart slap on
+the shoulder.
+
+"Now, Rumsey, what's this?" he cried.
+
+"Boat, sir.  Going ashore, sir."
+
+"Who is?" said the skipper, frowning.
+
+"Us six, sir."
+
+"Us six!  Why, you're only one."
+
+"Yes, sir.  These 'ere others too, sir."
+
+"What others?" cried the captain, and Rumsey, looking anxiously around,
+found for the first time that he was alone.
+
+"The lads as was here just now, sir--six on us."
+
+"Oh, indeed!" said the skipper sarcastically, and raising his cap he
+gave his rough hair a rub.  "Let me see; when did I give you leave to go
+ashore?"
+
+"No, sir; not you, sir.  Dr Robson, sir."
+
+"Oh, I see," said the skipper.
+
+This was all said loud enough for Rodd and Uncle Paul to hear, and Rodd
+began to grin as he looked at his uncle, whose face assumed a perplexed
+aspect, one which increased to uneasiness as the captain came up to them
+at once.
+
+"Just a word, sir," he said.  "Did you order these men to go ashore?"
+
+"Oh no," cried Uncle Paul.  "One of them came up to me, asking if I had
+any objections to their going ashore, and I said, not the least.  I
+supposed, of course, that they had got leave from you."
+
+"Of course, sir.  Bless 'em for a set of artful babies!  They aren't
+learned discipline yet.  You, Rumsey, go and tell your messmates that if
+they try that game again with me they'll stand a fine chance of not
+going ashore for the rest of the voyage."
+
+"Yes, sir, I'll tell them, sir," cried the man hurriedly; and he
+shuffled off as hard as he could to find those who had left him in the
+lurch.
+
+"Here, you, Joe Cross," continued the captain, "you signal to that
+Frenchy boatman that he is not wanted."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" cried Cross, hurrying to the side, where he began
+gesticulating angrily, in spite of which the boatman persisted in coming
+alongside and in voluble French declaring that he was ordered to come
+and would not go back until he was paid.
+
+Meanwhile a little explanation was going on between the skipper and
+Uncle Paul.
+
+"Don't want to be bumptious, sir," said the former, "but there's only
+room on board a craft for one captain.  Those fellows jump at any chance
+to get ashore, and when they are there, there's no knowing when you'll
+get them on board again, besides which, they wouldn't be careful, and
+French and English don't get on very well together after all that's gone
+by.  Here, Cross, tell that jabbering Frenchman if he isn't off, he'll
+have to go back with a hole through the bottom of his boat.  No, stop.
+Go and find Mr Craig.  Tell him to set those six men something to do."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" cried the sailor, hurrying off.
+
+"There, it was all my fault, captain," said Uncle Paul, smiling.  "I
+won't offend again.  Here, Rodd, my boy, give that poor fellow a
+shilling for his trouble."
+
+Rodd hurried to the side, hailed the man, and held out the coin, telling
+him in very bad French what it was for; but the fellow shook his head,
+held up four fingers, and began shouting "_Quatre_!" so loudly that the
+skipper heard.
+
+"Cat, indeed!" he shouted.  "Just what I should like to give him.  Here,
+come away, Mr Rodd; he shan't have anything now."
+
+But Rodd did not obey at once.
+
+"One or nothing," he cried to the man, in French.
+
+"_Quatre!  Quatre_!" shouted the man.
+
+Rodd shook his head and was turning away, but the boatman swarmed up the
+side, and reaching over the rail, shouted "_Quatre_!" again, till the
+skipper made so fierce a rush at him that he lowered his feet quickly
+down into his boat, catching the shilling that Rodd pitched to him, and
+then hurriedly pushing off for the landing-place.
+
+"Oh, it's all right, Dr Robson," said the skipper, "only you must leave
+all this shore-going to me.  I know my lads; you don't."
+
+Just then Craig, the mate, came up on deck, looking very sour at having
+been awakened from a comfortable sleep, and did not scruple about
+setting the delinquents to work upon some very unnecessary task, to the
+great delight of their messmates, who, headed by Joe Cross, gave them
+pretty freely to understand what their opinion was of the scheme to get
+a run ashore.
+
+It was towards evening that, after a hasty meal, partaken of in peace in
+the still waters of the harbour, tempted by a few gleams of sunshine,
+and for Rodd's gratification, Uncle Paul and Rodd were rowed ashore in
+the same boat as the skipper, who had business with the English Consul
+about his papers, the understanding being that the boat was to go back
+and meet them at nine o'clock.
+
+"That's as long as we shall want to stay, Rodd," said Uncle Paul.
+
+"Yes, sir," said the skipper; "and if I were you I'd turn in early for a
+good night's rest, for I'm thinking we shall have dirty weather again
+to-morrow, and there's no knowing how long it will last."
+
+"But it looks so bright to-night," cried Rodd.
+
+"Just here, sir," cried the skipper, "and it may be fine enough to tempt
+me off in the morning; but I don't feel at all sartain, and to-morrow
+night we may be having another knocking about."
+
+They separated at the landing-place, and for the next two hours Rodd was
+making himself acquainted with the principal streets of the old seaport,
+time going very rapidly and the night coming on.
+
+It was growing pretty dark, and after making two mistakes as to their
+direction, Rodd declared that he knew the way, and his uncle yielding to
+his opinion, the boy led on, till, turning a corner sharply, they almost
+came in contact with a couple of French officers walking in the opposite
+direction, the one a tall, stern, elderly-looking man, talking in a low
+excited tone to his young companion, whose attention was so much taken
+up as he deferentially listened to his elder, that he started back to
+avoid striking against Rodd, who also gave way.
+
+It was now almost dark, and the next moment the French officers had
+passed on, as Uncle Paul exclaimed--
+
+"Yes, I believe you are right, Pickle.  You are.  Those are ships'
+lights hoisted up to the stays.  Well, don't you see?"
+
+"Yes, uncle, but--"
+
+The boy said no more, and Uncle Paul laid his hand upon his shoulder.
+
+"What's the matter?" he cried.  "Why don't you speak?  Those are the
+lights in the harbour."
+
+"Yes--yes.  Yes, uncle, I see," said the boy hastily; "but--er--but--
+er--"
+
+"Why, what's the matter with you?  Don't feel done up?"
+
+"No, uncle," replied Rodd hurriedly.  "I was only puzzled; it seemed so
+strange."
+
+"You mean you seem so strange," said the doctor, laughing.
+
+"Yes, uncle, I feel so."
+
+"Well, come along, and let's make haste aboard.  I don't want to keep
+the captain waiting.  We have lost so much time by missing our way.
+It's past nine, I'm sure."
+
+"Yes, uncle," said the boy, speaking more like himself; "it must be.
+But I felt so startled in coming suddenly upon those two officers."
+
+"Why, there was nothing to startle you, my boy."
+
+"No, uncle, I suppose not; but somehow I felt that I had been close to
+that one who nearly ran up against me before, and when he said
+`_Pardon_'--"
+
+"I didn't hear him say `_Pardon_,'" said Uncle Paul.
+
+"But he did, uncle, just in a low tone so that I could hardly hear him,
+and then I felt sure we had met before."
+
+"Nonsense!" cried Uncle Paul.  "Look here, my boy, how much sleep did
+you have last night?"
+
+"Sleep, uncle!" cried the boy, in a voice full of surprise.
+
+"Why, none at all.  Who could sleep through that storm?"
+
+"I'll answer for myself," said the doctor; "I could not.  Well, you were
+completely tired out, and are half dreaming now.  Come along; let's find
+the boat and get on board for a light supper and a good night's rest."
+
+"Yes, uncle," said Rodd quietly; "but take care; we are on the wharf.  I
+can make out the shipping plainly now;" and as he spoke a familiar hail
+came out of the darkness, while as they answered the captain strode
+towards them.
+
+"Thought you were lost, gentlemen.  Been waiting half-an-hour.  Take
+care; the boat's down here;" and striding along the top of the harbour
+wall the skipper led the way to the descending steps, where the boat was
+waiting, and they were rowed aboard.
+
+An hour later Rodd was plunged in the deepest of deep sleeps, but
+dreaming all the same of the storm and of getting into difficulties with
+some one who was constantly running against him and whispering softly,
+"Pardon!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+THE SUSPICIOUS CRAFT.
+
+"Oh, I say, Uncle Paul, isn't it horrible?" cried Rodd the next morning.
+
+Breakfast was just over, and Captain Chubb had gone on deck, while the
+wind was howling furiously as if in a rage to find its playthings, some
+two or three hundred vessels of different tonnage, safely moored in the
+shelter of the harbour, and out of its power to toss here and there and
+pitch so many helpless ruins to be beaten to pieces upon the shore.
+
+Down it kept coming right in amongst them, making them check at their
+mooring cables and chains, but in vain, for their crews had been too
+busy, and the only satisfaction that the tempest could obtain, was to
+hearken to the miserable dreary groans that were here and there emitted
+as some of the least fortunate and worst secured ground against each
+other.
+
+"Isn't it horrible, uncle?" shouted Rodd, for the rain just then was
+mingled with good-sized hailstones, and was rattling down upon the deck
+and skylight in a way that half-drowned the lad's voice.
+
+"Miserable weather, Pickle; but never mind.  We must settle down to a
+good morning's work in the laboratory."
+
+"Oh no, not yet, uncle; we don't seem to have started.  It will only be
+a makeshift."
+
+"But we might put things a little more straight, boy."
+
+"Oh no, uncle; they are too straight now, and I want to go on deck."
+
+"Bah!  It isn't fit.  Wait till the weather holds up."
+
+"Oh, I shall dress up accordingly, uncle.  But I say, where does all the
+rain come from?  It must be falling in millions of tons everywhere."
+
+"Ah, you might as well ask me where the wind comes from.  Study up some
+book on meteorology."
+
+"Oh yes, I will, uncle; but not yet."
+
+"Very well; be off."
+
+Rodd hurried out of the cabin, and five minutes later came back rattling
+and crackling, to present himself before his uncle, who thrust up his
+spectacles upon his forehead and stared.
+
+"There," cried Rodd; "don't think I shall get wet.  I wish I'd had it
+the other night.  It's splendid, uncle, and so stiff that if I like to
+stoop down a little and spread my arms, I can almost rest in it.  I say,
+don't I look like a dried haddock?"
+
+"Humph!  Well, yes, you do look about the same colour," grumbled the
+doctor, for the boy was buttoned up in a glistening oilskin coat of a
+buff yellow tint; the turned-up collar just revealed the tips of his
+ears, and he was crowned by a sou'-wester securely tied beneath his
+chin.
+
+"I say, this will do, won't it?"
+
+"Yes, you look a beauty!" grunted the doctor; "but there, be off; I want
+to write a letter or two."
+
+Rodd went crackling up the cabin stairs, clump, clump, clump, for he was
+wearing a heavy pair of fisherman's boots that had been made waterproof
+by many applications of oil--a pair specially prepared for fishing
+purposes and future wading amongst the wonders of coral reef and strand.
+
+The deck was almost deserted, the only two personages of the schooner's
+crew being the captain and Joe Cross, both costumed so as to match
+exactly with the boy, who now joined them, to begin streaming with water
+to the same extent as they.
+
+They both looked at him in turn, Cross grinning and just showing a glint
+of his white teeth where the collar of his oilskin joined, while his
+companion scowled, or seemed to, and emitted a low grumbling sound that
+might have meant welcome or the finding of fault, which of the two Rodd
+did not grasp, for the skipper turned his back and rolled slowly away as
+if he were bobbing like a vessel through the flood which covered the
+deck and was streaming away from the scuppers.
+
+As the skipper went right forward and stood by the bowsprit, looking
+straight ahead through the haze formed by the streaming rain, Rodd was
+thrown back upon Joe Cross, with whom, almost from the day when the man
+had joined, he had begun to grow intimate; and as he went close up to
+him, the sailor gave his head a toss to distribute some of the rain that
+was splashing down upon his sou'-wester, and grinning visibly now, he
+cried--
+
+"Why, Mr Rodd, sir, you've forgot your umbrella."
+
+"Get out!" cried Rodd good-humouredly.  "But I say, Joe, how long is
+this rain going to last?"
+
+"Looks as if it means to go on for months, sir, but may leave off
+to-night.  I say, though, that's a splendid fit, sir.  You do look fine!
+Are you comfortable in there?"
+
+Rodd did not answer, for he was trying to pierce the streaming haze and
+make out whether the brig was visible.
+
+For a few moments he could not make it out, but there it was, looking
+faint and strange, about a hundred yards away.
+
+"That's the brig, isn't it, yonder?" he said at last.
+
+"Yes, sir, that's she, and they seem to have got her fast now; but she
+wouldn't hurt us if she broke from her moorings, for the wind's veered a
+point or two, and it would take her clear away."
+
+Rodd remained silent as he stood thinking, he did not know why, unless
+it was that the vessel with the tall, dimly-seen tapering spars bore a
+French name, and somehow--again he could not tell why, only that it
+seemed to him very ridiculous--the shadowy vessel associated itself with
+the two French officers he had encountered in the darkness of the
+previous night, when he heard one of them after brushing against him
+murmur the word "Pardon!"  And he found himself thinking that if the
+vessel had been swept up against the schooner when her anchor was
+dragging, it would have been no use for her crew to cry "Pardon!" as
+that would not have cured the damage.
+
+"Well, sir, what do you make of her?" cried the sailor, putting an end
+to the lad's musings.
+
+"Can't see much," said Rodd, "for the rain, but she seems beautifully
+rigged."
+
+"Yes, sir, and she can sail well too--for a brig--but I should set her
+down as being too heavily sparred, and likely to be top-heavy.  If she
+was going along full sail, and was caught in such a squall as we had
+yesterday, and laid flat like the schooner, I don't believe she'd lift
+again.  Anyhow, I shouldn't like to be aboard."
+
+"No, it wouldn't be pleasant," said Rodd; "but I say, I can't see
+anything of that long gun you talked about."
+
+"No wonder, sir.  You want that there long water-glass, as you called
+it--that there one you showed me as you was unpacking it.  Don't you
+remember?  Like a big pipe with panes of glass in it as you said you
+could stick down into the sea and make out what was on the bottom.  You
+want that now."
+
+The man passed his hand along the brow edge of his sou'-wester to sweep
+away the drops, and then took a long look at the deck of the brig.
+
+"No, sir; can't make it out now; but I see it plainly enough this
+morning, covered with a lashed down tarpaulin as if to hide it, and I
+knew at once.  I can almost tell a big gun by the smell--I mean feel it
+like, if it's there."
+
+"But do you still think she's a privateer?"
+
+"Well, I don't say she is, sir, for that's a thing you can't tell for
+sartain unless you see a ship's papers; but she is something of that
+kind, I should say, and--Ay, ay, sir!--There's the skipper hailed me,
+sir.  I say, Mr Rodd, sir, do mind you don't get wet!"
+
+This was as the man rolled away sailor fashion, and emitting a crackling
+whishing sound as he made for the vessel's bows, where he received some
+order from his captain which sent him to the covered-in hatchway of the
+forecastle, where he slowly disappeared into a kind of haze, half water,
+half smoke, for several of the water-bound crew had given up the chewing
+of their tobacco to indulge in pipes.
+
+But Rodd was in a talkative humour, and made his way to the skipper,
+saluting him with--
+
+"I say, Captain Chubb, how do you manage to do it?"
+
+"Do what, my lad?"
+
+"Why, say for certain what the weather's going to be."
+
+There was a low chuckling sound such as might have been emitted by a
+good-humoured porpoise which had just ended one of its underwater
+curves, and thrust its head above the surface to take a good deep breath
+before it turned itself over and dived down again.
+
+"Second natur', youngster, and that's use.  Takes a long time to learn,
+and when you have larnt your lesson perfect as you think, you find that
+you don't know it a bit."
+
+"But you did know it," said Rodd.  "You said that the storm would come
+on again, when it was beautiful and fine yesterday evening; and here it
+is."
+
+"Well, yes, my lad, if you goes on for years trying to hit something you
+must get a lucky shot sometimes."
+
+"Oh yes, but there's something more than that," said Rodd.  "When I have
+been amongst the fishermen in Plymouth, and over in Saltash, I have
+wondered to find how exact they were about the weather, and how whenever
+they wouldn't take us out fishing they were always right.  They seemed
+to know that bad weather was coming on."
+
+"Oh, of course," said the skipper.  "Why, my lad, if you got your living
+by going out in your boat, don't you think the first thing you would try
+to learn would be to make it your living?"
+
+"Why, of course," cried Rodd.
+
+"Ah, you don't mean the same as I do.  I mean, make it your living and
+not your dying."
+
+"Oh, I see."
+
+"You wouldn't want," continued the skipper, "to go out at times that
+might mean having them as you left at home standing on the shore looking
+out to sea for a boat as would never come back."
+
+"No," said the boy, with something like a sigh.  "I know what you mean.
+Ah, it has been very horrible sometimes, and all those little
+churchyards at the different villages about the coast with that regular
+`Drowned at sea' over and over and over again."
+
+"Right, my lad.  Things go wrong sometimes; but that's what makes
+sailors and fishermen get to learn what the moon says and the sun and
+the clouds, and the bit of haze that gathers sometimes off the coast
+means.  Why, if you'd looked out yesterday afternoon when the wind went
+down and the glint of sunshine come out, there was a nasty dirty look in
+the sky.  You wait a bit and keep your eyes open, and put that and that
+together, and as you grow up you'll find that it isn't so hard as you'd
+think to say what the weather is going to be to-morrow.  You'll often be
+wrong, same as I am."
+
+"Ah! then I shall begin at once," cried Rodd eagerly, as he looked
+sharply round.  "Well, it can't go on pelting down like this with hail
+coming now and then in showers.  Showers come and go."
+
+"Right!" said the skipper, clapping him on the shoulder.
+
+"Oh!" cried Rodd sharply.
+
+"Hullo!  Why, you don't mean to say that hurt?"
+
+"Hurt!  No," cried Rodd, shaking his head violently.  "You shot a lot of
+cold water right up into my ear."
+
+"Oh, that will soon dry up.  Well, what do you say the weather's going
+to be?"
+
+"The storm soon over, and a fine day to-morrow."
+
+"Done?" asked the skipper.
+
+"Oh yes; but mind, that's only a try."
+
+"Then it's my turn now, youngster, so here goes.  I say we shall have
+worse weather to-morrow than we have got to-day."
+
+"Oh, it can't be!" cried Rodd.
+
+"Well," cried the skipper, chuckling, "we shall see who's right."
+
+"Oh, but I don't want for us to have to stop here in this French port."
+
+"More don't I, my lad, so we think the same there.  You going to stop on
+deck?"
+
+"Yes, till dinner-time," cried Rodd, and just then the haze of rain out
+seaward opened a little, revealing the brig with its tall spars and web
+of rigging.
+
+This somehow set the boy thinking about the escape from accident when
+they came into port, and then of the encounter ashore, and he began
+talking.
+
+"It's no use to go down below.  It's so stuffy, and I want to chat.  I
+say, captain, what do you think of that brig?"
+
+"Very smartly built craft indeed, my lad--one as I should like to sail
+if I could do as I liked."
+
+"Do as you liked?" asked Rodd.
+
+"Yes; alter her rig--make a schooner of her.  But as she is she's as
+pretty a vessel as I ever see--for a brig.  Frenchmen don't often turn
+out a boat like that."
+
+"What should you think she is?" asked Rodd.  "A merchantman?"
+
+"No, my lad; I should say she was something of a dispatch boat, though
+she aren't a man-of-war.  I don't quite make her out.  She's got a very
+smart crew, and I saw two of her officers go aboard in some sort of
+uniform, though it was too dark to quite make it out."
+
+"But if she's a man-of-war she would carry guns, wouldn't she?" asked
+Rodd.
+
+"Well, I don't think she's a man-of-war, my lad," replied the skipper;
+"but she do carry guns, and one of them's a big swivel I just saw
+amidships.  But men-of-war, merchantmen, and coasters, we're all alike
+in a storm, and glad to get into shelter."
+
+"Yes, it is a fine-looking brig.  Is she likely to be a privateer?"
+
+"Eh?  What do you know about privateers?"
+
+"Oh, not much," said Rodd.  "But going about at Plymouth and talking to
+the sailors, of course I used to hear something about them."
+
+"Well, yes, of course," said the skipper thoughtfully, as he too swept
+the drops from the front of his sou'-wester, and tried to pierce the
+falling rain.  "She might be a French privateer out of work, as you may
+say, for their game's at an end now that the war's over.  Yes, a very
+smart craft."
+
+"But do you think she's here for any particular purpose?"
+
+"Yes, my lad; a very particular purpose."
+
+"Ah!" cried the boy rather excitedly.  "What?"
+
+"To take care of herself and keep in harbour till the weather turns
+right.  Why?  What were you thinking?"
+
+"I was wondering why she came in so close after us, and then anchored
+where she is."
+
+"Oh, I can tell you that," said the skipper, chuckling.  "It was because
+she couldn't help herself."
+
+"Then you don't think she was watching us?"
+
+"No-o!  What should she want to watch us for?"
+
+"Why, to take us as a prize, seeing what a beautiful little schooner it
+is."
+
+"Bah!  She'd better not try," said the skipper grimly.  "Why, what stuff
+have you got in your head, boy?  We are not at war with France."
+
+"No-o," said Rodd thoughtfully; "but her captain might have taken a
+fancy to the _Maid of Salcombe_, and I've read that privateers are not
+very particular when they get a chance.  And the war's only just over."
+
+"No.  But then, you see, my lad, even if you were right, that brig
+wouldn't have a chance."
+
+"Why, suppose she waited till we had sailed, and followed till she
+thought it was a good opportunity, and then her captain led his men
+aboard and took her?"
+
+"Oh, I see," said the skipper dryly.  "Well, my lad, as I say, she
+wouldn't have a chance.  First, because she couldn't catch us, for give
+me sea room I could sail right round her."
+
+"Ah, but suppose it was a calm, and she sent her boats full of men on
+board to take us?"
+
+"Well, what then?"
+
+"What then?  Why, wouldn't that be very awkward?" asked Rodd.
+
+"Very, for them," said the skipper grimly.  "What would my boys be
+about?"
+
+"Why, they'd be taken prisoners."
+
+"I should just like to see her try," said the skipper.  "If the boats'
+crews of that brig were to get a lodgment aboard my craft, how long do
+you think it would take our lads to clear them off?"
+
+"Oh, I am sure our crew would be very brave, but I should say that
+brig's got twice as many men as we have."
+
+"What of that?" said the skipper contemptuously.
+
+"Well, then," said Rodd argumentatively, "she's got her guns, and might
+sink us."
+
+"And we've got our guns, and might sink her," growled the skipper.
+"Look here, my lad; why did I give my lads gun drill and cutlass and
+pike drill, while you and the doctor were taking in your tackle and bags
+of tricks?"
+
+"Why, to defend the schooner against any savages who might attack us
+when we are off the West Coast or among the islands."
+
+"Right, my lad.  Well, as Pat would say, by the same token couldn't they
+just as well fight a pack of Frenchies as a tribe of niggers?  Bah!
+You're all wrong.  It's quite like enough that yon brig may have been
+fitted out for a privateer, though I rather think she wouldn't be fast
+enough.  But that game's all over, and we are all going to be at peace
+now we have put Bony away like a wild beast in a cage and he can't do
+anybody any hurt.  There, you needn't fidget yourself about that.  All
+the same, I don't quite understand why a craft that isn't a man-of-war,
+but carries a long gun amidships and has officers in uniform aboard,
+should be taking refuge in this port.  I dunno.  She looks too smart and
+clean, but it might mean that she's going to the West Coast,
+blackbirding."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Rodd.  "Why, that's what you thought about us,
+Captain Chubb."
+
+"So I did; so I did, my lad," said the skipper good-humouredly.  "You
+see, I am like other men--think I am very wise, but I do stupid things
+sometimes.  Well, I'll be safe this time, and say I don't know what she
+is, and I don't much care.  But I am pretty sure that she aren't after
+us, and I dare say, if the truth's known, she don't think we are after
+her.  There, squint out yonder to windward.  That don't look like fine
+weather, does it?"
+
+"No; worse than ever!" cried Rodd.
+
+"That's so, my lad, and you may take this for certain; we shan't sail
+to-day, and you won't see another vessel put out to sea.  Take my word
+for it."
+
+"That I will, Captain Chubb!" cried the boy earnestly, and the skipper
+nodded his head so quickly that the water flew off in a shower.
+
+But, as some wag once said, the wisest way is to wait till after
+something has happened before you begin to prophesy about it.
+
+Captain Chubb had probably never heard about the wisdom of this
+proceeding in foretelling events, for it so happened that in spite of
+the storm increasing in violence for many hours, his words proved to be
+entirely wrong.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+AN EXCITING TIME.
+
+About mid-day there was a sudden lull.  The wind blew nearly as hard as
+ever, but the clouds were broken up, allowing a few gleams of sunshine
+to pass through, and soon after the sky seemed to be completely swept;
+the streaming wharves and streets began to show patches of dry paving,
+and nearly every vessel near was hung with the men's oilskins, Rodd
+being one of the first to shed his awkward garments and come out looking
+more like himself.
+
+There was such a transformation scene, and all looked so bright in the
+sunshine, that the boy took the first opportunity to ask the skipper
+what he thought of it now.
+
+"Just the same as I did before, my lad," he replied bluntly.  "Here,
+it's only mid-day, and mid-day aren't to-night, and to-night aren't
+to-morrow morning.  Just you wait."
+
+"Oh, I'll wait," said Rodd, "but I think we ought to start off as soon
+as we can, and get right away to sea."
+
+"Do you?" said the captain gruffly.  "Well, I don't."
+
+After dinner Uncle Paul had a few words with the skipper, and then shook
+his head at his nephew, who was watching them inquiringly.
+
+"No, my lad," he said, "it won't do; the captain says there's more bad
+weather coming; but we'll go and have a look round the town if you
+like."
+
+Rodd did like as a matter of course, and with the sun now shining
+brightly as if there were no prospect of more rain for a month, they
+were rowed ashore, Rodd noticing as they went that the crew of the brig
+seemed to be very busy, a couple of boats going to and fro fetching
+stores of some kind from the nearest wharf, but what he could not make
+out.
+
+Then came a good ramble through the busy place, where everybody seemed
+to be taking advantage of the cessation of the storm, and Rodd noted
+everything to as great an extent as a hurried visit would allow.
+
+There was plenty to see, the forts, one each side of the harbour, and a
+couple more on the higher ground, displaying their grinning embrasures
+and guns commanding the harbour and the town, while soldiery in their
+rather shabby-looking uniforms could be seen here and there, and
+sentries turned the visitors back upon each occasion when they went
+near.
+
+"Rather an ugly place to tackle, Rodd, from the sea, but I suppose our
+fellows wouldn't scruple about making an attack if there were any need.
+But here, I think we had better get back on board."
+
+"Oh, not yet, uncle.  I haven't half seen enough."
+
+"But I am getting sick of this tiresome wind," said Uncle Paul.  "One
+can't keep on one's hat, and it is just as if these gusts were genuine
+French, and kept on making a rush at us from round the corners of the
+streets as if they wanted to blow us into the harbour."
+
+"Yes, it is rather tiresome," replied Rodd.  "But I should have liked to
+have had a look inside one of those batteries."
+
+"Pooh!  What do you want to see them for?"
+
+"Why, just because they are French, uncle."
+
+"Nonsense!  You have seen all ours on the heights of Plymouth, and they
+are a deal better-looking than these.  We have a good way to walk, so
+let's go down at once.  There, look yonder."
+
+"What at, uncle?"
+
+"What at?  Why, at the clouds gathering there in the wind's eye.  You
+see Captain Chubb's right, and we shall have the rain pouring down again
+before long."
+
+Rodd laughed as if he did not believe it, but making no farther
+opposition, they began to descend towards the harbour; but before they
+were half-way there the wind had increased to a furious pitch, the sea
+became a sheet of foam, and with wonderful rapidity the clouds had
+gathered overhead, till a black curtain was sweeping right over, and a
+few heavy drops of rain began to fall.  Then down came a drenching
+shower, and they were glad to run for refuge to the nearest shelter,
+which presented itself in the shape of a great barrack-like building
+that seemed to be built about a square, and at whose arched entrance a
+couple of sentries with shouldered muskets were pacing up and down.
+
+As Uncle Paul and Rodd approached at a trot, with the intention of
+getting under the archway, both sentries stopped short, and one of them
+held his weapon across breast high, scowling fiercely, and barred their
+way.
+
+"Here, it's all right," cried Rodd.  "We only want to shelter out of the
+rain for a few minutes;" and he pressed forward.  "Come on, uncle.
+Never mind him!"
+
+"_Halte la_!" cried the sentry.
+
+But Uncle Paul's hand went to his pocket, and drawing out half-a-crown
+he pointed quickly at the falling rain and the archway under which they
+now stood, taking out his handkerchief the while, and beginning to brush
+off the drops which bedewed his coat.
+
+The man glanced at the coin, then at his brother sentry, and both looked
+inward at the square behind them.  The exchange of glances was very
+quick, and then the first sentry opened one hand, but kept it very close
+to his side, again looking inward to see that he was not observed,
+before grumbling out--
+
+"_Eh bien!  Restez_!"  And then as if perfectly unconscious of the bribe
+he had received, he resumed his slow pace up and down under the shelter
+of the great archway.
+
+It was all a matter of minutes, but long enough for the wind and rain to
+have gathered force, and while the former raved and shrieked, down came
+the latter in a sheet, or rather in a succession of sheets which made
+the roadways seem as if full of dancing chess pawns, and the gullies
+turn at once into so many furious little torrents tearing down the
+slopes towards the harbour.
+
+"Nice, isn't it, uncle?" said Rodd merrily.
+
+"Nice!" grumbled Uncle Paul.  "I don't know what I was thinking about to
+give way to you in such treacherous weather.  Why, it's worse than ever.
+How are we going to get back to the schooner?"
+
+"Oh, it will soon be over, uncle, and if it isn't we must get to know
+where the nearest place is from that sentry, and make a rush for it to
+get some tea, and wait there till the shower is over."
+
+"Shower!" said Uncle Paul.  "It looks to me like a night of storm coming
+on, and as if we shan't get back to the schooner to-night."
+
+"Well, it doesn't matter, uncle," cried the boy coolly.  "There's sure
+to be a good hotel, and Captain Chubb will know why we haven't come
+back.  As soon as there's a bit of a lull we will make a run for it, and
+we shall be able to get a lesson in French."
+
+"Bah!" said Uncle Paul impatiently.  "How the wind comes whistling
+through this archway!  We shall be getting wet even here."
+
+The two men on guard were evidently of the same opinion, for they turned
+to their sentry boxes and began to put on their overcoats, after
+standing their muskets inside.
+
+But before this was half done, each snatched up his piece again and
+faced the entrance, for all at once there was the clattering of hoofs in
+the cobbled paved street, and a cavalry officer, followed at a short
+distance by a couple of men, dashed up to the front and turned in under
+the archway, drenched with rain, the officer saying something sharply to
+one of the sentries.
+
+The man replied by pointing to a doorway at the back of the great
+entrance, while the officer swung himself from his horse, threw the rein
+to one of his men, and then lifting his sabre-tache by the strap he gave
+it a swing or two to throw off the water from its dripping sides, and
+then opened the great pocket to peer inside as if to see that its
+contents were safe.
+
+The next moment, as if satisfied, he let it fall to the full length of
+its slings, gave a stamp or two to shake off the water that dripped from
+him, and then raised his hands to give a twist to the points of his wet
+moustache.  He scowled fiercely at Rodd the while, and then marched
+towards the doorway with the steel scabbard of his sabre clinking and
+clanking over the stones.
+
+"Pretty good opinion of himself, Pickle," said Uncle Paul quietly.
+
+"Yes, uncle; but what a pair of trousers--no, I mean long boots--no, I
+don't; I mean trousers.--Which are they, uncle?" added the boy, who was
+rather tickled by the size and the way in which they were finished off
+at the bottoms with leather as if they were jack-boots.
+
+"Wait till he comes out, Pickle, and ask him," said the doctor dryly.
+
+"No, thank you, uncle; my French is so bad," said the boy, with his eyes
+sparkling.  "But, my word, they must have been galloping hard to escape
+the rain!  Look at those poor horses.  They are breathed."
+
+Rodd had hardly spoken when they became fully aware that they had taken
+refuge in the entrance to the town barracks, for the notes of a bugle
+rang out, echoing round the inner square of the building, and seeming to
+be thrown back in a half-smothered way from wall to wall, while the wind
+and rain raged down more fiercely than ever.
+
+"Something must be the matter," said Rodd, with his lips close to his
+uncle's ear.
+
+"Seems like it, boy.  That officer must have brought a dispatch."
+
+The object of the bugle was shown directly, for in spite of the rain the
+interior of the barracks began to assume the aspect of some huge wasps'
+nest that had suddenly been disturbed.
+
+Soldiers came hurrying out into the rain, hurriedly putting on their
+overcoats; the great arched gateway filled up at once with men seeking
+its shelter, and the sentry who had received his half-crown came to
+roughly order the English intruders to go elsewhere; but it was only
+outside militarism, for he said in a low hurried tone in French--
+
+"Run outside to the end of the barracks.  Grand cafe."
+
+"Come along, uncle.  Never mind the rain," cried Rodd, catching at his
+uncle's wrist, as he fully grasped the sentry's meaning; and stepping
+outside the archway they ran together, or rather, were half carried by
+the shrieking wind, for some thirty or forty yards, almost into the
+doorway of a large lit-up building, for already it seemed to be almost
+night.
+
+"Never mind the rain, indeed!" grumbled Uncle Paul.  "Why, I'm nearly
+soaked.  Oh, come, we have got into civilised regions, at all events;"
+for a couple of waiters, seeing their plight, literally pounced upon
+them and hurried them through the building into a great kitchen where a
+huge fire was burning and the smell of cookery saluted their nostrils.
+
+The attentions of the waiters of what was evidently one of the principal
+hotels of the town were very welcome, and a glance teaching them that
+their visitors were people of some standing, they made use of their
+napkins to remove as much of the superabundant moisture as was possible,
+and then furnished themselves with a fresh relay to operate upon their
+backs.
+
+"Queer, isn't it, uncle?  I am quite dry in front.  My word, how the
+rain did come down!"
+
+"Messieurs will dine here?" said one of the waiters smilingly.
+
+"_Oh, oui, pour certain_" replied Uncle Paul.  "If you don't mind,
+Pickle."
+
+"Mind, uncle?  Oh, yes, of course.  I am horribly hungry."
+
+"You always are, my boy.  Well, we must make the best of a bad
+business," continued the doctor, as, nodding to the waiter, he moved a
+little closer to the fire and turned his back, an example followed by
+Rodd.
+
+"It makes a dreadful time, monsieur," said the smiling waiter.  "Will he
+choose, or trust his servant to prepare a dinner upon the field of which
+the English milor' will be proud?"
+
+"You speak capital English," said the doctor, rather sarcastically.
+
+"I have been many times in public in London."
+
+"Ah, that's right.  Then give us a snug little dinner while we dry
+ourselves.  But what's the meaning of all that upset at the barracks
+next door?"
+
+"It is not quite that I know, sir," said the man eagerly; "but two
+officers came in upon the instant to put their cloaks where they should
+not water themselves so much, and I hear them say, a dispatch come
+quickly for monsieur the Governor to seize upon a ship.  Oh, faith of a
+man!  Hark at that!"
+
+For there was a sudden crash and an echoing roar, while some of the
+utensils in the great kitchen clattered together, and a piece of
+earthenware fell from a shelf upon the stone floor, to be shivered to
+atoms.
+
+"_Tonnerre, eh_?" said the doctor.
+
+"_Non, non, monsieur_" cried the man, relapsing into his native tongue
+for a moment.  "It is what you English gentlemen call a great gun from
+the fort; and look, look!  The poor _cuisiniere_ much alarm, as you call
+it."
+
+For just then, as if catching the contagion from the shrieking of the
+storm, one of the cook-maids threw herself back into a chair and began
+to scream.
+
+It was a busy scene for a few minutes while the frightened hysterical
+woman was hurried out, while with the storm seeming to increase in
+violence, and amid the trampling of armed men outside, who were hurrying
+from the barracks, the two English visitors gradually picked up scraps
+of information which explained the excitement that in spite of the storm
+was going on outside.
+
+"Messieurs would like to see," said the friendly waiter.  "They will
+come up-stairs to the long _salle_ whose windows give upon the harbour."
+
+"But what's the matter?" cried Rodd.  "Is there a wreck?"
+
+"A wreck, sare?" said the waiter, shaking his head.  "No, I know not
+wreck."
+
+"Has a ship come ashore and is breaking up?"
+
+"Ha, ha!  No, no, no, no, no, no, no!  You would say _naufrage.  Non,
+non, non_!  It is a sheep in the harbour; a foreign spy.  They say it
+has come to set fire to the town."
+
+"Then they have chosen a very bad night for it," said Uncle Paul,
+laughing.
+
+"Monsieur is right.  Nosing would burn.  But the enemies of la France,
+my great country, not stop to think of zat."
+
+"Oh, but that must be a rumour, Rodd," said Uncle Paul uneasily.  "Why,
+surely they are not going to fancy that our English schooner is a spy
+and an enemy!"
+
+The waiter's ears were sharp, and he cried at once--
+
+"English!  Oh non, monsieur.  You are from the little two-mast.  It is
+not you.  It is some enemy of the King whose sheep is in the harbour,
+and great dispatches have come to the Governor that she is to be seized.
+Ah, there again, monsieur!  Anozzer gun from the fort."
+
+It was plain enough to hear, for the windows of the big badly-lit room
+into which the man had conducted them clattered in their frames, while
+the dull, heavy report was preceded by a vivid flash as of lightning.
+
+"Ha, ha!  You see.  The sheep will not get away, for at the forts they
+are alert and will sink her if she try."
+
+"Oh, but no vessel could try to put out in a storm like this, Rodd,"
+said Uncle Paul.
+
+"No, sare," continued the waiter excitedly; "the boats will go out with
+the soldiers and take the sheep."
+
+"She is a man-of-war, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, sare.  Not very big, but an enemy; but if she fight they will
+shoot from all the forts and sink her."
+
+"But how do you know all this?" said Rodd.
+
+"Many soldiers, horsemen, came galloping up to bring dispatches to the
+Governor.  There, sare; you will look from the window," continued the
+man, using a clean serviette that he took from under his arm to rub the
+steamy window-panes, for the cold blast of the storm had caused the warm
+air inside to blur the glass with a thick deposit of vapour.  "There,
+sare," continued the man; "zat is ze sheep."
+
+"Oh, it's too thick to see for the rain."
+
+"Yes, sare; but you see out zare in ze arbour ze two lights."
+
+"Nonsense man!" cried Uncle Paul, half angrily.  "That is the English
+schooner--ours."
+
+"Oh, non, non, non, monsieur!  Away to ze _gauche_--ze left hand.  Ze
+sheep with two high, tall mast, that we all see here when she come in ze
+storm yesterday.  We all here with ze officer of ze regiment see you
+come in through ze storm, and ze enemy sheep, a stranger, come after,
+and ze officer say she will run you down and sink you in ze harbour!"
+
+"Oh, that one!" cried Rodd excitedly.
+
+"Ah, I see, monsieur knows.  You see her lights swing in the wind--two;"
+and the man held up a couple of fingers.
+
+"Yes, I see where you mean," cried Rodd; "but she has only one light."
+
+"Ah, ha!  Monsieur is right.  Zare is only one.  Ze vind storm has blow
+out ze uzzer.  Look, now zare is no light at all.  Ze sheep put im out."
+
+The violence of the rain was now abating, but the wind beat against and
+shook the window-panes and shrieked as it rushed by.  It was evening,
+and a few minutes before it had been dark as night, but with the
+cessation of the rain the heavy forms and light rigging of the many
+vessels gradually became more and more visible, while fresh lights began
+to come into view, but in every case not moving and swinging about like
+those in the rigging of the safely moored ships, but gliding about from
+various directions as if they were in the sterns of boats that had put
+off from the harbour side.
+
+"Messieurs see?" said the waiter excitedly.  "Two boats come now from
+the fort on ze uzzer side.  Look, look!  Ze lights shine on ze soldiers'
+bayonet.  They go to take ze sheep."
+
+As the man was speaking the brig that had previously taken up so much of
+Rodd's attention stood out more clearly.  Her riding lights were indeed
+gone, but there was a peculiar misty look forward, and it was now Rodd's
+turn to speak excitedly about what he saw.
+
+"Why, uncle," he cried, "she's moving!  They've slipped their cable and
+hoisted the jib!"
+
+"Nonsense, boy!  Not in a storm like this."
+
+"I don't care, uncle; she has.  Look; you can see her gliding along."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"It isn't, uncle.  Look, you can see them plainly now; two boats full of
+men, and they are rowing hard, but getting no nearer to the brig.  Here,
+I want to see; let's get right down to the harbour."
+
+"What, to get wet again?" cried Uncle Paul.
+
+"It doesn't rain now a drop.  There's nothing but wind; and look, look;
+the people are running down now in crowds, and there goes a company of
+soldiers at the double.  Oh, there's going to be something very
+exciting, uncle, and we must see."
+
+"But the dinner, boy, the dinner!  What is this to us?"
+
+"Dinner, uncle!" cried the lad indignantly.  "Who's going to stop for
+dinner when there are boats out yonder full of men going to board and
+take a ship?"
+
+"Humph!  Well," grunted Uncle Paul, "I suppose it would be rather
+exciting, and we shall be able to see; but I don't know, though.
+There'll be firing, and who knows which way the bullets will fly?"
+
+"Oh, they; won't hit us, uncle.  Come on."
+
+Uncle Paul was rapidly growing as excited as his nephew, while the
+waiter, if it were possible, was as full of eagerness as both together,
+and forgetting all his duties and the dinner that he had ordered to be
+prepared, he cried--
+
+"Ze rain is ovare; you come vith me.  I take you out ze back way and
+down ze little rue which take us to the quay."
+
+That was enough for Rodd, and the next minute they were following the
+waiter down the big staircase through the great kitchen once more, which
+was now quite deserted, and out into a walled yard to a back gateway,
+beyond which, mingling with the roaring of the wind, they could hear the
+trampling of many feet.
+
+"Zis way; zis way!" the bare-headed waiter kept crying, as he put his
+serviette to quite a new use, battling with the wind as he folded it
+diagonally and then turned it into a cover for his head by tying the
+corners under his chin.
+
+"Here, I say," cried Rodd, as the man kept on at a trot; "I want to get
+to the harbour."
+
+"_Oui_, _oui_; zis way!" panted their guide, who nearly put the visitors
+out of patience by turning off two or three times at right angles and
+apparently taking them quite away from where they wished to go.  "Zis
+way!  Zis way!" he kept on crying, till at last the trio were alone,
+others who had been hurrying onward having taken different directions.
+
+Bang went another gun from the fort, a report which seemed to be sent
+back instantly from the harbour walls, apparently close at hand.
+
+"Yes, zis way; zis way!" shouted the man.  "I show you before zey sink
+ze sheep."
+
+And now he suddenly turned into a narrow alley formed by two towering
+warehouses so close together that there was not room for two people to
+walk comfortably abreast; but "Zis way, zis way," shouted the guide,
+"and you shall be zere upon ze field--_sur le champ, sur le champ_.  Ah
+ha!" he cried directly after, as he suddenly issued from out of the
+darkness of the alley into the comparative light of a narrow wharf
+encumbered with casks, just beyond which was the dripping stone edge of
+the great harbour, and below them boats, barges, and lighters swinging
+from the great rusty iron rings and mooring posts of the quay.
+
+"Vat you say to dat?" cried the waiter, turning round to face his
+companions, beginning loudly and ending in a choking whisper, for he had
+met a gust of wind face to face which stopped him for the moment from
+taking his breath and forced him to turn his back and make a snatch at
+the corner of one of the warehouses.  "Faith of a good man!" he panted.
+"The vind blow me inside out!  Aha!  What did I say?"
+
+"Capital!" panted Rodd, almost as breathlessly as the waiter, at whom
+upon any other occasion he would have burst out into a roar of laughter,
+so grotesque was his appearance with the white napkin tied under his
+chin.  "Oh, this is a splendid place!"
+
+"Here, you look out, Pickle," cried Uncle Paul.  "Lay hold of something,
+or we shall be blown right off."
+
+"All right, uncle.  Why, if one of those gusts sent us into the harbour
+we should be drowned."
+
+"Come a little farther this way, then, and if the wind is too much for
+us, why we shall only go down into this barge."
+
+At that moment, as they looked across and downward towards the mouth of
+the harbour, there were the flashes of bright light to illumine the
+gloom of the evening, and the reports of a ragged volley of musketry
+coming from one of the two boats which they could now make out being
+rowed hard after the brig, as it glided rapidly along in the direction
+where the watchers now stood.
+
+Then for a short space it passed out of sight behind a group of four
+vessels which were safely moored.  Then it was out again, and as the
+lookers-on excitedly watched, they made out dimly that the vessel
+answered her helm readily and was gliding round in a tack for the other
+side of the harbour, while the two boats in pursuit altered their
+direction, the men rowing with all their might, as if to cut the brig
+off during her next tack.
+
+There was another ragged volley, this time from the second boat; but if
+they were firing to bring down the steersman, it was in vain, for the
+brig sailed swiftly on, gaining a little way, as she made for the mouth
+of the harbour.
+
+This was far distant yet, and her chances of reaching it even in the
+shelter of the harbour, with such a gale blowing, were almost nil.
+
+"She'll do it, though, uncle," shouted Rodd, with his lips close to
+Uncle Paul's ear.
+
+"Yes, my boy, I expect she will," was the reply; "but they've got some
+daring people on board, and I shouldn't like to be the man at the
+wheel."
+
+"Ah, why don't they shoot?  Why don't they shoot?" cried the waiter.
+"She is an enemy, and--"
+
+The rest of his speech was unheard, for another flash cut the darkness,
+followed by the thud of a big gun, the shot coming as it were instantly
+upon the waiter's question; but it had no effect upon the brig, which
+came nearer and nearer to the pier-like wharves of the harbour, glided
+round again with the two stay-sails rilling upon the other tack, and
+then went off once more.
+
+"She'll get away, uncle," cried Rodd excitedly, "and I don't know what
+they are, but one can't help admiring such a brave deed."
+
+There was another report, this time from quite another direction.
+
+"That must be from the fort up behind the town, Rodd," cried Uncle Paul.
+"It's too thick to see any splash, but they must be in earnest now, and
+will not be firing blank charges.  It looks as if they mean to sink her
+if she doesn't stop."
+
+"They've got to hit her first, uncle," cried Rodd excitedly.  "Oh, I
+can't help it, uncle," he continued, with his lips close to his uncle's
+ear so that the waiter should not catch his words, "but I do hope they
+won't."
+
+"Well, my boy, I can't help feeling the same, though she's neither enemy
+nor friend of ours, and we don't know what it all means; for I don't
+suppose," he said, with a half-laugh, "that she has got Napoleon
+Bonaparte on board."
+
+Uncle Paul had not taken his nephew's precaution, and as a heavy gust
+was just dying out, the excited waiter caught a part of his speech.
+
+"Ha, ha!" he cried.  "You sink so?  You say le Petit Caporal is on
+board?"
+
+"No, no," cried Uncle Paul; "I didn't say so."
+
+"No, sare; you think so, and zat is it.  He has escape himself from ze
+place where you English shot him up safe, and he come in zat sheep to
+burn down ze town.  But ah-h-h, again they will sink him.  Faith of a
+man, no!" he cried angrily, for there was a shot from another battery,
+this time nearer the harbour mouth.  "They cannot shoot straight."
+
+For onward glided the brig, making tack after tack, and zigzagging her
+way through the narrow entrance of the harbour, at times partly
+sheltered by the great pier to windward, then as she glided farther out
+careening over in spite of the small amount of reefed sail she carried,
+but all the while so well under control that she kept on gaining and
+leaving the two boats farther and farther behind.
+
+"Oh, if it were only lighter!" cried Rodd, stamping his foot with
+vexation.  "Why, she'll soon be out of sight."
+
+"Before she gets much farther," said Uncle Paul gravely, "she'll be
+getting within the light cast by one or other of the harbour lights, and
+that will be one of her critical times."
+
+"Why critical, uncle?" cried the boy earnestly.  "Because the men in the
+fort will have a better chance of hitting her, I should say."
+
+"Oh, I hope they won't," said Rodd beneath his breath.  "Why, it would
+be horrible, uncle," he half whispered, with his lips close to his
+uncle's face.  "She must have a brave captain to dare all this."
+
+"A very brave captain," said Uncle Paul earnestly.  "But you think
+she'll get away, uncle?"
+
+"No, Rodney," said the doctor, laying his hand with a firm grip upon his
+nephew's shoulder.  "She may pass through the harbour mouth without
+being hit by the gunners, for it would require a clever marksman to hit
+so swiftly moving an object, rising and falling as the brig does now
+that she is getting into the disturbed water near the mouth."
+
+"But suppose she passes through untouched, uncle?  What then?"
+
+"What then, boy?  She will be out of the shelter given by the end of the
+jetty.  It's too dim now to see, but once or twice I had just a glimpse
+of the waves washing over the harbour light, and there must be a
+terrific sea out there.  Why, you can hear it plainly even here."
+
+"No, uncle; that's the wind."
+
+"And waves, my boy.  Why, trying to sail out there in the teeth of such
+a gale as this, it will be almost impossible for her to escape.  It
+seems to me to be an act of madness to attempt such an escapade, and
+cleverly as the brig is handled I think it is doubtful whether she will
+ever clear the mouth.  But if she does she will catch the full force of
+the storm and--"
+
+"And what, uncle?"
+
+"Be carried away yonder to the east somewhere and cast ashore."
+
+"Oh-h!" sighed Rodd; and it was almost a groan.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+ESCAPE.
+
+Three more shots were fired at intervals, as the brig kept making short
+tack after tack, and with each report the flash appeared to be brighter,
+indicative of the increasing darkness, while now a pale lambent light
+seemed to be dawning at times and making the shape of the brig stand out
+more clearly at intervals, but only to fade away again quickly, while
+there were moments when the vessel quite disappeared.
+
+"Why is that, uncle?" asked Rodd quickly, as he looked vainly now in
+search of the flying craft.  "Ah, there she is again!  I began to think
+she had gone down.  Why is she seen so dimly sometimes?"
+
+"Hidden by the flying spray, I think," said Uncle Paul.
+
+"Oh yes, of course," cried the boy.  "Ah, there she is, quite clear now,
+and still going on nearer and nearer to the harbour mouth.  No--now it's
+getting darker than ever.--There, now she's coming into sight again
+quite clearly."
+
+"Yes, she's getting out where the harbour lights are full upon her,"
+said Uncle Paul.
+
+As he spoke there were two more reports, almost simultaneous, and Rodd
+felt a peculiar sense of pain attacking him, for at one moment when the
+two guns flashed, the brig could be plainly seen; the next, as the boy
+strained his eyes, all was black darkness, and he caught at his uncle's
+arm with his hands trembling and an intense longing upon him to speak;
+but no words would come.
+
+It seemed like some minutes before a word was uttered, and then it was
+the doctor who spoke.
+
+"I haven't caught sight of the boats lately," he said.  "It is evident
+that they have given up the chase."
+
+"Oh, uncle, uncle," cried Rodd, "I was not thinking about them, but of
+those poor fellows in the brig.  One of those last shots must have hit,
+and they have gone down."
+
+"Oh no," cried Uncle Paul; "I saw her once again.  Just now.--Yes, there
+she is, tossing wildly in the waves.  She must be beyond the mouth of
+the harbour, and--"
+
+"Yes, I see her!  I see her!" cried Rodd wildly.  "No, she's gone again;
+but she was pitching and tossing horribly."
+
+"Yes," said Uncle Paul.  "It's going to be hard work for them now, for
+the waves out there must be tremendous.  Well, my boy, it was a daring
+attempt, and whoever they are let's hope they may escape, but--"
+
+Uncle Paul was silent, and once more the boy uttered a low groan.
+
+Then no one spoke, but all stood straining their eyes to try and catch
+sight again of the vessel, which had seemed to be pitching wildly in the
+darkness; but they looked in vain, for all now seemed to be rapidly
+growing black.
+
+The boy tried to speak, but no words would come, and even the waiter was
+silent, as he stood trying to catch sight of the vessel once more; but
+the darkness now was rapidly increasing, and though from time to time
+they could make out the faint outline of the lights, all seemed to
+become more dense and obscure, and the boy started violently as their
+guide suddenly exclaimed--
+
+"It is no use now, sare.  I sink she must have gone down."
+
+Silence; but as Uncle Paul pressed his nephew's arm Rodd followed him
+slowly without a word, while the waiter shook his head and suggested
+that they should return to the _cafe_.
+
+The boy gave one glance before stirring, and then uttered a sigh.
+
+"Come, my boy," said his uncle; "perhaps there is no occasion to
+despair.  It is quite evident that the captain of the brig knows what he
+is about, and may escape."
+
+Rodd followed his uncle without a word, the waiter going on before them
+to show the devious ways along by the harbour and the old town.
+
+As they drew near the yard Rodd felt a sense of hesitation.  "I think I
+would rather get back on board the schooner, uncle," he said.
+
+"Oh, but we couldn't do that, my boy," cried Uncle Paul.  "I gave an
+order for dinner to be prepared."
+
+"Yes, uncle, but I don't feel as if I could eat anything now."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"It seemed so horrible watching that vessel trying to escape under
+fire."
+
+"It was evidently not hit, my boy."
+
+"But it was going right out into the face of this storm, and even you
+thought she'd be driven ashore."
+
+"Yes; perhaps I have been thinking the worst; but the brig's captain is
+evidently a clever sailor and knows what he's about.  It is rather
+jumping at conclusions to consider that he will let his vessel be
+wrecked.  Yes, it was nervous work watching a vessel like that; but
+there, we must hope for the best, and possibly there is no reason to
+despond.  Whoever the brig belonged to had good reason for getting away,
+and they have succeeded in that.  There, come along; let's have our
+dinner, and think no more about it.  But hallo!  What's the matter
+here?"
+
+Uncle Paul's remark was caused by a loud angry voice scolding in French
+at the waiter who had just led them to the yard door, and it was evident
+that the man was in difficulties for absenting himself from his duties
+after giving the order that the visitors' dinner should be prepared.
+
+"But I have been in attendance upon the gentlemen," he protested, with
+not much truth in his utterance.  "I had to take them down to the side
+of the harbour to see the firing at the spy.  Is everything ready?
+Because the gentlemen are anxious for their dinner."
+
+Uncle Paul nudged his nephew, glad of the opportunity to change the
+bearing of the boy's thoughts, and shortly after the good meal prepared
+in the snug, warm room diverted Rodd's mind from the roaring of the
+storm, which was still beating round the great hotel; and they had just
+finished and were talking about going outside to see what the weather
+was like, when a very familiar gruff voice saluted their ears, as the
+waiter showed Captain Chubb into the room.
+
+"Oh, here you are," he grunted.  "Come ashore to look after you.  'Fraid
+you were lost."
+
+"We are very glad to see you," said Uncle Paul.  "Sit down.  We thought
+it was not safe to try and get aboard."
+
+"Well, it aren't very," said the skipper; "but we come in the boat to
+make sure you weren't both drowned, and if you'll risk it I think I can
+get you round by keeping under the lee of two or three vessels."
+
+"What do you say, Rodd?" asked Uncle Paul.  "Shall we risk it?"
+
+"Oh, I don't think that there'll be much risk, uncle, if Captain Chubb
+considers it safe.  I don't mind going with him."
+
+The skipper gave the boy a nod and looked pleased; then nodding at Uncle
+Paul he said quietly--
+
+"As we were ashore I told the men to get a few stores down to the boat,
+and that I'd meet them here.  I dare say Joe Cross will be an hour, and
+by that time it will have lulled a bit, or else be a deal worse, and
+we'll see."
+
+It took very little persuasion to make the skipper partake of some of
+the hotel fare, and naturally enough the conversation turned upon the
+incident that had lately taken place.
+
+"Yes," said Captain Chubb, "the skipper of that craft has got some stuff
+in him, and he knew how to navigate his boat.  I could have done it if
+I'd been obliged, but I should have wanted a deal of shoving before I
+hoisted sail.  Storm was bad enough, and no room to tack; but what I
+shouldn't have liked was being fired at by two boats' crews and three or
+four forts.  I know what being fired at is, young squire," continued the
+captain, giving Rodd a very peculiar look out of one eye, after closing
+the other, "and you may take my word for it it aren't nice."
+
+"What, have you been out in a man-of-war?" asked Rodd eagerly.
+
+"Nay, my lad, but several of our fellows have, and if you ask them, they
+can tell you what it's like too."
+
+"Then you never were fired at?" said Rodd questioningly.
+
+"Who says I warn't?  I tell you I was, though it wasn't by forts.  It
+was a Revenue cutter got trying to hit me."
+
+"What, smuggling?" cried Rodd.
+
+"Nay!  Smuggling, indeed!  It was her skipper--Lieutenant somebody or
+another--I forget his name--say Smith.  He made a blunder, same as I did
+in taking you and the doctor here for slavers."
+
+"Oh!" cried Rodd, laughing.
+
+"Ah, it warn't anything to laugh at, my lad, with round shot coming
+a-splashing right across your bows.  Certainly it was in a fog, and my
+craft didn't get hit, but more than once the balls came pretty near, and
+I remember thinking whether if the cutter did sink us we should all be
+able to swim ashore, and I come to the conclusion that we couldn't in
+our boots, for it was about nine miles."
+
+"I should think not," replied Rodd dryly.  "But, Captain Chubb--about
+that brig; do you think they'd get right away to sea?"
+
+"I shouldn't think they'd try to, my lad."
+
+"They seemed to be trying to."
+
+"Not they.  Her skipper, as soon as he got outside the harbour, would
+try to creep under the lee of the high ground somewhere out west.
+Whether he'd do it or not is quite another thing.  Let's hope he did,
+for I don't care about hearing that good men and true have been drowned
+in a storm, even if they are French.  I am not like your uncle here."
+
+"Come, I say, Captain Chubb," cried the doctor indignantly, "how dare
+you say that!  Surely a thinking man can have a feeling of antipathy
+against Napoleon Bonaparte and all his works without being accused of
+liking to see brave Frenchmen drowned."
+
+"Beg pardon, sir.  I suppose you are right," granted the skipper; "but I
+should like to hear that that there smart brig got safe away."
+
+"Well, I hope so too," said Uncle Paul shortly, and with a look in his
+countenance that made Rodd think about some words a friend had once said
+about a red rag to a bull.  "But I suppose you don't believe that vessel
+had some emissaries of Napoleon on board, come to set fire to the port
+of Havre?"
+
+"Nay," said the skipper, drawing out the negative very deliberately.
+"Don't see any likelihood of their doing such a thing.  What for?
+Suppose they did get it alight, that wouldn't bring Bony back.  Nay, his
+game's about up now, and there will be quiet again over here for a bit,
+though I wouldn't venture to say for how long.  Keeping quiet isn't in a
+Frenchman's nature."
+
+"But there was evidently something very special about the vessel, or
+else the French Government wouldn't have sent orders for her to be
+seized."
+
+"French Government did?"
+
+"Yes, I believe so," replied Uncle Paul.  "We saw the officer and his
+men come riding in with the dispatch."
+
+"Nay.  Order for the Revenue to put men on board."
+
+"Oh no," replied Uncle Paul.  "From what we saw and what we heard, it
+was something much more important than that.  Why, hang it, captain,
+they wouldn't have turned out the garrison and manned all the forts to
+stop the progress of a smuggler, would they?"
+
+"We wouldn't at Plymouth, sir; but there's no knowing what Frenchmen
+will do.  But there, I give in.  It must have been something stronger
+than that, and I am beginning to think that squire here's right, and
+that yon vessel, the--the--the--"
+
+"_Jeanne d'Arc_" cried Rodd.
+
+"Right," snorted the skipper.  "She was something of a privateer, on
+mischief bent, and I shouldn't be a bit surprised if we was to hear
+something more about her.  I don't know, though; if the storm blows
+itself out before morning we shan't lie long here in harbour, but make
+away south as fast as I can make the schooner bowl along."
+
+"Then you think the weather will hold up soon?" said Rodd.
+
+"Nay, I am not going to think, squire; I'll wait until I can be sure.
+Anyhow, I won't fill my pipe till we get aboard."
+
+"Then you mean to try soon?" cried Rodd eagerly.
+
+"Why not?" replied the skipper gruffly.  "Look yonder; what do you say
+to that?"
+
+"That" was the presence of Joe Cross, who was being ushered into the
+dining-saloon by the waiter, to announce that the wind had sunk a bit
+and only came in squalls, between two of which he thought he could
+easily run the boat alongside of the schooner.
+
+And he did--while the next morning broke almost absolutely calm.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+A QUESTION OF FEAR.
+
+It was as if all the bad weather had been left behind, for after a
+little snatch or two, as Joe Cross called them, the cruise down south
+had been glorious.
+
+The bluff, good-humoured sailor explained to Rodd what he meant by a
+snatch, something after this fashion.
+
+"You see, sir, after we started from Havre the weather seemed to be a
+bit sorry for itself for being so dirty, and you know how we bowled
+along down south till the wind got into a tantrum again--got out of bed
+the wrong way, as you may say, and then everything was wrong.  We were
+getting into the Bay, you see, where it comes quite natural to lay all
+that day.  In the Bay of Biscay O!  Then Nature got all out of sorts
+again.  It seemed as if she was waxy to let us have it so comfortable,
+and made a snatch to drag us back again.  But the old man was one too
+many for her, and kept on for them two bad days, when we sailed out of
+her reach and everything was fine."
+
+"Yes, Joe, it was fine.  All that coast of Spain and Portugal was
+lovely."
+
+"Yes, sir, and you got grumbling 'cause your uncle wouldn't give orders
+for us to let go the anchor for you to go fishing."
+
+"Well, see how grand it was, and how calm the sea used to get of an
+evening before we put in to Gibraltar."
+
+"And then you weren't half satisfied, sir.  You'll excuse me, Mr Rodd,
+sir, but you do make me laugh;" and to the boy's great annoyance the man
+half turned from him, leaned over the taffrail, laughed till his sides
+shook, and then pulling himself up suddenly wiped his eyes.  "I am very
+sorry, sir," he said.
+
+"Doesn't seem like it," cried Rodd warmly, as he made as if to go away.
+
+It was one evening when the calm sea as it heaved seemed in places to
+glint forth all the glorious colours of a beautiful pearl shell, and the
+east wind was of a different complexion to that familiar to an English
+lad, for it was soft, balmy and sweet, suggestive of its having been
+blowing gently for miles and miles over beds of flowers.
+
+"Oh, don't go away in a tiff, Mr Rodd, sir.  It was only me, and you
+know what I am.  I didn't mean no offence."
+
+"Well, it was offensive," said Rodd.  "How would you like to be laughed
+at?"
+
+"Me, sir?" cried the man merrily.  "Me who has been knocking about the
+sea nearly all my life, first in a west-country fishing-boat, and then
+in a King's ship, and been in action!  Like being laughed at!  Why,
+bless your heart, sir, it suits me down to the deck.  I like it.  Deal
+better than having the old man dropping on to me about something being
+wrong aloft."
+
+"Well, I don't see that there was anything to laugh at," cried Rodd,
+softening down a little, for somehow the liking he had felt for the
+sturdy-looking sailor ever since he had come on board had gone on
+increasing, and Rodd affected Joe's society more than that of any one in
+the ship.  At least he said so to Uncle Paul, who shook his head and
+with a grim smile joined issue.
+
+"No, Pickle," he cried, "I won't have that.  You seem to make better
+friends with the cook than with anybody."
+
+"Oh, uncle," replied the boy, "you always do tease me about my
+appetite."
+
+"Never mind, Pickle," said Uncle Paul good-humouredly.  "Go on eating,
+and grow."
+
+But to return to the conversation by the taffrail.
+
+"No, sir," said Joe Cross, "of course you don't, sir.  It'd be contrairy
+to nature if you did.  We chaps can't see ourselves.  There's the old
+Bun.  He's been offended over and over again because people told him he
+was so fat.  He can't see it, sir."
+
+"Oh, he must," cried Rodd, laughing.
+
+"There aren't no must in it, sir.  He can't.  He might find it out
+perhaps if he tried to get into a pair of boy's trousers--yours, for
+instance; but then that aren't likely, because you won't give him the
+chance, and what's more, he wouldn't want to.  You try him some day
+about being too fat, and you see if he don't stare at you."
+
+"He will, Joe, when I'm so rude to him.  But come now, you are
+shuffling.  Why is it that you laugh at me?"
+
+"Well, sir, because I like you, for one thing, and another is because
+you are such an unreasonable chap."
+
+"I?  Unreasonable?" cried Rodd hotly.  "That I'm sure I'm not!"
+
+"Why, sir, wasn't you put out because your uncle and the old man
+wouldn't sail right into the Mediterranean Sea?"
+
+"Well, there was nothing unreasonable in that.  I am sure it would have
+been very interesting."
+
+"Not it, sir.  I've been there over and over again, and it always seemed
+to me just like any other sea, only a bit rougher sometimes, and it
+aren't got hardly any tide.  You wait till we get a little further on,
+and you'll find plenty to make you open you eyes wider than ever you
+opened them before.  I don't know a finer place for seeing wonders of
+the deep than along where we are going, as you say we are to, right
+along the West Coast of Afriky.  Why, you might begin fishing and
+dredging directly after we had put in at Mogador, where the fish are
+wonderful, and you can't drop in a line without hauling something out."
+
+"That's good," cried Rodd eagerly; "but I am afraid uncle won't let us
+have much time for ordinary fishing.  He will be more on the look-out
+for curiosities."
+
+"Ah, well, there's plenty of them too, sir--all sorts, and the farther
+you gets into warmer water the more there are."
+
+"What sort?" asked Rodd.
+
+"All sorts, and the nearer you are to land the more you get.  Then I
+suppose some time we shall come upon that there Sargassey Sea."
+
+"Where's that?" asked Rodd.
+
+"Right away down south, sir.  Let's see, if I remember right we falls in
+with that soon after you pass the islands."
+
+"What islands?"
+
+"Let's see; I ought to know, sir.  The fust that comes near Europe is
+the Azores; then farther south there's that there island where all the
+sick people goes, Madeiry; then there's the Canaries, where the birds
+come from; only they aren't all yaller like people keeps in their cages.
+Most I seed there was green, and put me in mind of them little chaps as
+we have at home with the yaller heads--you know, sir; them as cries, `A
+little bit of bread and no cheese.'  And you see them up country,
+a-twittering among the hedges."
+
+"Yes, I know," said Rodd sharply; "but what about the Sargassey Sea?"
+
+"Ah!  I'm thinking it was after that we come to that sea, only I aren't
+quite sure, sir.  But if I recollect right, they say it shifts about
+according to what sort of weather we have."
+
+"Well, so does every sea," cried Rodd, "when the waves are running
+high."
+
+"Ah, but they don't run high here, sir.  You see, the Sargassey Sea
+aren't like other seas, and I suppose it's only part of the Atlantic
+after all.  It's all smooth like because as far as you can see it's all
+like one great bed of floating seaweed, so thick that you can hardly
+sail through it at times, and if you go out into it in a boat it's as
+much as you can do to dip your oars."
+
+"Have you been out amongst it then?" asked Rodd.
+
+"Yes, sir, more'n once.  It was when I was in the _Prince George_ off
+the West Coast of Africa, and we had got a surgeon on board there, and
+him and our second lieutenant had both got it badly."
+
+"What, West African fever?" cried Rodd.
+
+"No, no, sir; same as your uncle's got--looking after strange things as
+lives in the sea.  I was one of the crew of the second cutter then, and
+in the beautiful calm weather we used to take the doctor and the second
+luff out in this Sargassey Sea, which used to look sometimes as if we
+were floating about in green fields."
+
+"Oh, you mean the Sargasso Sea!" cried Rodd.  "Nay, I don't, sir; I
+means the Sargassey Sea."
+
+"Well, that's the same thing, only you spell it differently," cried
+Rodd.
+
+"Oh no, sir; that I don't.  That's a thing as I never pretended to do.
+I can take my spell at the pump or at any other job; but what you call
+spelling was never in my way."
+
+"But you mean the same thing," cried Rodd.  "It isn't Sar-gass-ey; it's
+Sar-gass-o."
+
+"Ho!  Sar-gass-ho, is it, sir?"
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+"All right, sir; I'm willing.  But my one was all alive with little
+things, little fish and slugs and snails of all kinds of rum sorts; and
+our second luff used to make us haul in great lengths of the seaweed as
+was floating about, and then help him to pick 'em out into bottles till
+they were quite full, and looking just as if they was pickles same as
+you see in the grocers' shops in Plymouth town."
+
+"Well, the same as you saw uncle and me do that day during the calm?"
+
+"Yes, sir, just like that, only yours as you did were small shop and
+ours was like big warehouse, though I don't think our doctor did much
+good with them, because so many of them used to go bad, and our cook and
+his mate used to have to throw no end away and wash the bottles."
+
+"Ah, ours won't go bad," said Rodd confidently.  "My uncle will preserve
+them differently to that."
+
+"Oh, yes, I suppose so, sir.  You see, we've all come out this time
+ready for the job; our officers on the _Prince George_ only did their
+bit just for a day or two's holiday like, and our job was to look after
+the mounseers' cruisers, not to catch tittlebats and winkles, and it
+wasn't so very long after that we was at it hammer and tongs with a big
+French frigate, making work for the doctor of a precious different kind,
+and for our ship's carpenters too.  Different sort of nat'ral history
+that was, sir, I can tell you, for we lost nineteen of our men and had a
+lot wounded; but we took the frigate, and carried her safe into
+Portsmouth Harbour."
+
+"Ah!" cried Rodd softly, as his eyes flashed at the thoughts of the
+deeds of naval daring carried out by our men-of-war.  "I wish I'd been
+there!"
+
+"You do, sir?" said Joe.  "Mean it?"
+
+"Mean it?  Of course!  There, don't look at me like that.  I wasn't
+thinking of being a man, but a reefer--one of those middies that we used
+to see at Plymouth."
+
+"Ah, it's all very fine, sir," said Joe, shaking his head, "and it
+sounds very nice about firing broadsides and then getting orders to
+board when the two big men-of-war get the grappling-irons on board and
+you have to follow your officers, scrambling with your cutlass in your
+hand out of the chains from your ship into the enemy's; and all the time
+there's the roaring of the guns and the popping away of the marines up
+in the tops, and the men cheering as your officers lead them on.  It's a
+very different thing, sir, to what you think, and so I can tell you."
+
+"Why, Joe," cried Rodd, almost maliciously, "you talk as if you felt
+afraid!"
+
+"Afraid, sir?" said the man, quietly and thoughtfully.  "No, sir.  No,
+sir; I never felt afraid, and I never knowed one of my messmates as said
+he was."
+
+"Oh no, of course they wouldn't say so," cried Rodd, laughing.
+
+"No, sir, that's right.  But I aren't bragging, sir.  I've been in
+several engagements like that, and my messmates always seemed to feel
+just as I did.  You see, they'd got it to do, sir, and we always felt
+that it was only mounseers that we'd got to beat and captur' their ship;
+and then as soon as we had begun, whether we was crews of guns, stripped
+and firing away, or answering the orders to board, why, then we never
+had time to feel afraid."
+
+"What, not when you saw your messmates shot down beside you?" cried
+Rodd.
+
+"My word, no, sir!" cried Joe, laughing.  "We none of us felt afraid
+then; it only made us feel wild and want to sarve the other side out.
+No, sir," continued the bluff fallow, in a quiet matter-of-fact way, and
+his voice utterly free of vaunt, "whether it's a sea-fight or things are
+going wrong in a storm, we sailor fellows are always too busy to feel
+afraid.  You see, I think, sir, it has something to do with the drill
+and discipline, as they calls it, training the lads all to work
+together.  You see, it makes them feel so strong."
+
+"I can't say I do see," said Rodd.
+
+"No, sir, because you haven't been drilled; but it's like this 'ere.
+One man's one man, and a hundred men's a hundred men--no, stop; that
+aren't quite what I mean.  It aren't in my way, Mr Rodd, sir; I never
+was a beggar to argue.  The fat Bun can easily beat me at that.  This
+'ere's what I mean.  One man's one man, and a hundred men's a hundred
+one men.  That's if they aren't drilled and trained like sailors or
+soldiers; but if they are trained, you see each one man feels as if he
+has got a hundred men with him all working together, and con-se-quently,
+sir, every chap aboard feels as if he's as strong as a hundred men.  Now
+don't you see, sir?"
+
+"Well, yes," said Rodd quietly; "I think I begin to see what you mean."
+
+"Why, of course you do, sir.  Say it's heaving a boat aboard, and it
+takes twenty men to do it.  Why, if they go and try one at a time, where
+are you?  But if you all go and take hold together, and your officer
+says to you, `Now, my lads, with a will, all together!  Heave ho!' why
+then, up she comes.  Well now, I do call that rum!  Look at that, sir.
+If here aren't the old man, just as if he had heard what we was talking
+about, passing the word for gun drill, or else a bit of knicketty knock
+with the cutlasses and pikes!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+A STRANGE VISITOR.
+
+Upon hearing Joe Cross's announcement Rodd eagerly turned, to find his
+uncle just coming on deck to take his evening walk after a busy day with
+his specimens that he had dragged and trawled from the calm sea.
+
+The captain had just given orders to the mate to summon all hands on
+deck, and one of the first proceedings was to call the men to attention,
+the next to send them to the small-arms chest, from which each returned
+with cutlass buckled on and carrying a boarding pike, which were placed
+in a rack round the mainmast.
+
+Rodd took his position just opposite as the men fell into line; Uncle
+Paul seated himself as far off as he could get, in a deck-chair, where
+he sat and frowned; and then Captain Chubb diligently put his men
+through all the evolutions of cutlass drill over and over again, till he
+was satisfied, when he bade them fall out for a few minutes to rid
+themselves of their cutlasses.
+
+In the interval Rodd went up to where his uncle was seated.
+
+"I say, uncle," he said, "how the men have improved!"  Uncle Paul
+grunted, and just then Captain Chubb strolled up.
+
+"Well, sir," he said, "we shall soon have a crew now as smart as a
+man-of-war's."
+
+"So I see," grumbled Uncle Paul; "and when you have got them perfect
+what are you going to do with them?"
+
+"Ah, that remains to be seen, sir.  There's nothing like being
+prepared."
+
+"Better let the men rest after all they have done to-day.  What with
+their deck cleaning and the work they have done for me, they don't want
+setting to play at soldiers."
+
+"Playing at soldiers, eh, sir?  I call it playing at sailors.  No use to
+lock the stable-door after the steed's stolen.  My lads may never be
+called upon to fight, but if by bad luck we are, I should like them to
+be able to use their fighting tools like men."
+
+"Oh, it isn't likely," said Uncle Paul, "in a peaceful voyage like
+ours."
+
+"Most unlikely things are those that happen first," growled the captain.
+
+"But you worry the men with too much work, and I want them to be fresh
+and ready for me to-morrow morning.  I don't want the poor fellows to be
+discontented."
+
+"Discontented, sir!" cried the skipper hotly.  "I should like to see
+them look discontented!  But not they!  They like it.  Puts them in mind
+of their old fighting days.  Now you shall see them go through their
+drill with the boarding pikes, and see how smart I have made them.  I
+say they like it, sir; and I know."
+
+"Then I suppose," said Uncle Paul, "you will set them to work lumbering
+about that great gun, pretending to load and fire it.  Why, who in the
+world do you expect we are going to encounter out here on the high seas?
+We are not at war with the French."
+
+"Captain Chubb thinks we may meet with the privateer," said Rodd
+merrily.
+
+"Don't you make rude remarks, Rodney!" cried Uncle Paul angrily.  "Well,
+there, captain, I suppose you will have your own way, but it seems to me
+great waste of time."
+
+"Oh no, sir," said the skipper good-humouredly.  "I suppose you mean to
+run in and up some of those rivers we shall pass by and by?"
+
+"Most certainly," cried the doctor.
+
+"Well, and what then, sir?  You are going right out of civilisation
+there, and among black tribes and warlike people who are ready for
+anything, from attacking another tribe and bringing the prisoners down
+the river to sell for slaves, up to taking a fancy to any smart craft
+they can master, and then stripping her and burning her to the water's
+edge."
+
+"And what becomes of the crews?" cried Rodd sharply.
+
+"Well, Mr Rodd, that's rather a hard question to answer.  If ever you
+go to Liverpool or Bristol and you get asking questions amongst the
+merchants there, you will find they have got some queer tales to tell.
+Sorry you don't like my plans, Dr Robson, but even if we never get into
+trouble we shall be none the worse for being prepared."
+
+"Oh, I am not going to complain, Captain Chubb.  Drill away as much as
+you like.  You say the men like it, and it satisfies you.  Then my boy
+Rodd, here, nothing will please him better than letting him have a
+canister of gunpowder to play with and pop off that gun.  So I am in a
+minority, and I will give in.  There, you'd better take Rodd and drill
+him too."
+
+"I'll take you at your word, sir," said Captain Chubb, laughing, and
+making Rodd start with eagerness.  "Fall in, my lads.  Pikes."
+
+The drilling went on till it was beginning to grow dusk, and then pikes
+were laid aside and orders given for the gun crew to take their places,
+Rodd closing up quickly in anticipation of something coming off.
+
+"Rather warm weather, Mr Rodd, sir," whispered Joe Cross, as, aided by
+another of the crew, he proceeded to cast loose the lashings and strip
+the tarpaulin off the long gun.  "If it warn't for the showers this 'ere
+pocket pistol might very well do without her greatcoat.  I say, sir,
+didn't I hear your uncle tell the old man that you were to have a
+canister of powder just to fire her off once or twice?"
+
+"Yes, Joe, but I think it was only to tease me."
+
+"You ask the skipper to let you have one.  It's all very well to go on
+ramming and sponging and making believe to load, but it is like having
+your grog served out in an empty glass.  And if the old man grunts and
+shakes his head and grumbles about waste of ammunition, you just ask him
+if he'd mind you bringing one of your canisters of powder as you and
+your uncle's got for your double guns.  He might let you then, if your
+old man don't mind.  We could divide it into about four goes as wouldn't
+make much noise, and there'd be some sense in it.  There would be
+something to ram down; and the lads would like it."
+
+"But the captain wouldn't let you fire away any cannon balls, Joe."
+
+"Well, no, sir, I suppose not, unless we got the cook up with a
+pudding-bag to hold it over the muzzle and catch them again."
+
+"Wouldn't a straw hat be better, Joe?" said Rodd dryly.
+
+"Well, now you talk of it, sir," replied the man, grinning, "I never
+thought of that.  Perhaps it would if one of us held it lightly in his
+hand and eased off a good deal when we fired.  If you didn't do that of
+course the ball might go right through."
+
+"Well, I'll ask the captain, Joe."
+
+"Yes, sir; do, sir.  As I said afore, it would please the lads, and do
+good too, for it would clean the gun's teeth, sweep away all the scales
+and rust."
+
+"Scales and rust!" cried Rodd.  "Why, it isn't an iron gun; it's brass."
+
+"Why, so it is, Master Rodd, sir.  Why, only fancy me not thinking of
+that!  But here he comes.  Try it on, sir."
+
+"Shall I, Joe?"
+
+"Yes, do, sir; as I said, it would please the lads.  They're just like a
+lot of school-boys when they gets a chance of a change."
+
+"And Joe Cross doesn't care a bit," said Rodd.
+
+The man gave the speaker a comical look as he replied--
+
+"Well, sir, you see, I was a boy once, and I was born with a lot of
+human natur' in me, and I never got rid of it, and I am afraid I never
+shall.  There, go on, sir," whispered Joe.  "Pitch it into him at once."
+
+Rodd moved towards the skipper as he came up, and as the latter looked
+at him inquiringly he began--
+
+"You heard what my uncle said, captain?"
+
+"What about, my lad?"
+
+"Letting me have some powder to play with."
+
+"Ay, ay!  But you don't want that?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know.  I wish you would have a canister and let the men
+load the gun properly."
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"It would be like practice."
+
+"Well, that's true.  But it would be only waste of powder; and I'm not
+going to waste any of the cannon balls."
+
+"No, I don't want you to do that."
+
+"Besides, I don't want to use either of the powder-bags, and they're
+made for a regular charge."
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," cried Cross.  "Might make small charges up with a
+snuff of powder wrapped up in paper; and then I could prick and prime."
+
+"Um-m-m!" the captain growled, and frowned, while the gun crew stood
+with parted lips, looking as eager as so many boys on the Fifth of
+November.  Then the captain grunted.
+
+"There, Mr Rodd," he said, "it will be a bit of practice for the lads,
+and it won't please you, of course.  You don't want to see the gun
+really fired?"
+
+"Oh, I have seen salutes fired, at Plymouth."
+
+"Ah, so you have, of course, my lad.  But those are bangs, and this
+would be a bit of a whiff."
+
+"That doesn't matter," said Rodd.  "It will be real, and not pretending
+to fire."
+
+"Very well," said the captain, smiling grimly.  "Maybe you'd like to
+fire?"
+
+"Yes, I should," cried Rodd.  "No; let Joe Cross and the other men do
+that.  I'll stand aside."
+
+There was a little more discussion, quite in opposition to ordinary
+drill, while the skipper went below and then returned with a pound
+gunpowder canister painted red.
+
+"I say, look here, Chubb," cried the doctor.  "Shall I have to move?"
+
+"Oh no, sir; we shan't shoot you," replied the skipper grimly.  "You'll
+be safe enough, unless the long gun bursts.  But she's too new and
+strong for that.  Here you are, Cross.  Make that into four charges."
+
+The speaker was in the act of passing the canister to the man, when the
+look-out man from forward suddenly shouted--
+
+"Sail ho!"
+
+"Where away?" cried the captain.  "About five points off the starboard
+bow, sir.  Leastwise, sir, it aren't a sail.  It's a big boat, bottom
+upwards and just awash."
+
+"Stop a minute," cried Rodd.  "I'll fetch our glass."
+
+"Bring mine too, my lad," cried the captain, and Rodd raised his hand in
+token of his having heard the order, as he dashed to the cabin hatch, to
+return directly after and find that his uncle was forward along with the
+skipper scanning the object about a quarter of a mile away.
+
+"Catch hold, uncle," cried Rodd, and he held out the telescope with one
+hand, and the captain's big mahogany tubed spy-glass, decorated with
+coloured flags, with the other.
+
+"No, focus it and use it yourself, boy.  I'll have a look afterwards."
+
+Rodd raised the glass at once to his eye, but by this time the skipper
+had caught the object, and began to growl remarks.
+
+"Capsized long-boat," he muttered.  "No, it's a fish--sick whale, I
+think.  But I don't know.  It's moving pretty well through the water.
+What do you make of it, my lad?"
+
+"It's very big and long," cried Rodd excitedly, "and it may be part of a
+whale's back just showing above the water.  I don't know, though.  I
+never saw a whale swimming before.  Here, I know!  I think it's five or
+six porpoises swimming one after the other and close together."
+
+"Nay!" growled the captain.  "It's something--"
+
+"It's gone!" shouted Rodd.  "Oh, uncle, I wish you'd seen it.  It seemed
+to sink down out of sight all at once."
+
+"'Cause it didn't like to be looked at, sir," whispered Joe Cross.  "But
+look out, sir," he cried eagerly.  "There it is again, a little farther
+off."
+
+"Have a look, doctor," said the skipper, passing the glass to Uncle
+Paul.
+
+"Is it a whale?" asked the doctor.
+
+"Nay, that's no whale, sir," replied the captain.  "A whale don't go
+under water like that when she sounds.  Down goes her head, and she
+throws her flukes up in the air."
+
+"Then what is it?" cried Uncle Paul, with the glass now glued to his
+eye.  "It's something very big.  Yes, I can see plainly now--
+blackish-grey, and shiny as if slimy.  It seems to undulate, for one
+minute the back seems to be only a few feet long, then three or four
+parts are above the surface at once, as if the creature were twenty or
+thirty feet long."
+
+"Yes, sir; I can see that with the naked eye.--Nay, nay, sir; you keep
+the glass.  It's more in your way than mine.  Seems to me as if we have
+hit a curiosity for you, only it's rather too big to tackle."
+
+"I think it's a great snake," cried Rodd excitedly.  "I mean, a very
+large eel, swimming on the top, and he keeps throwing his head about as
+if he were feeding in the middle of a shoal of fish."
+
+"Yes, it is something like that, Rodd," said the doctor; "but no conger
+eel could be as large as that, and really I don't know."
+
+"Sea-sarpint, sir," whispered Joe Cross to Rodd, and looking longingly
+at the glass the while.
+
+"Nonsense!" cried Rodd.  "Here, you have a look, Joe," and he passed the
+glass to the sailor.  "Now then," he said, "what do you make of it?"
+
+"I say sea-sarpint, sir."  The captain growled more deeply than ever.
+
+"Sea-sarpint!" he said, in a tone of disgust.  "There, hold your tongue,
+my lad.  You're a naturalist, doctor; you haven't got no sea-sarpints in
+your books, have you?"
+
+"No," replied the doctor, handing the glass to one of the men, as he
+caught his longing eye.  "But this must be a very curious fish, and it
+is evidently feeding.  I wish it were coming this way, so that we could
+have a better view."
+
+Joe Cross lowered the boy's glass and looked questioningly at Rodd,
+giving at the same time a wag of his head in the direction of the
+nearest man.
+
+"Yes, let him have a look," said Rodd hoarsely, and as the glass was
+passed the boy caught the sailor by the sleeve, and whispered, making
+Joe start and gaze at him inquiringly, before stooping down and giving
+his thigh a slap with his right hand.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" he whispered.  "Ask the skipper."
+
+"Ask the _captain_ what?" said the skipper sharply.
+
+"I have been thinking, Captain Chubb," panted Rodd.  "Have the long gun
+loaded with a ball, and let the men try and hit that thing.  'Tisn't
+above a quarter of a mile away."
+
+"Eh?  Have a shot at it, my lad?" said the captain, staring, and then
+shading his eyes to watch the object that was gliding along, making the
+water ripple strangely, while all around it was in violent ebullition,
+betokening that a large shoal of fish was feeding there.  "Well, I don't
+know.  What do you say, doctor?" continued the speaker.  "I don't say
+that the lads could hit it, but they might."
+
+"Certainly," said the doctor eagerly.  "Try."
+
+There was no occasion to give orders for a ball to be fetched up.  Joe
+Cross and Rodd had darted off together, plunged down the hatchway, and
+were back again in an incredibly short space of time, the sailor
+carrying the ball, while Rodd had snatched up three or four big sheets
+of paper from off one of the laboratory lockers, and then as rapidly as
+possible a good charge of powder was emptied into one of the sheets, the
+gun's crew fell into place and rammed the charge home in the most
+business-like manner, the ball followed, Joe Cross thrust the pricker
+down into the touch-hole and primed, while another of the men ran with a
+piece of slow match to the cook's galley, where the water was being
+boiled for tea.
+
+Everything was done skilfully and with speed, while all on deck were in
+a state of profound excitement and dread lest the great creature should
+disappear from sight and rob the spectators of their looked-for sport.
+
+"Oh, do be quick!" cried Rodd.
+
+"Yah-h-h!" came in a groan, for as the words left the boy's lips there
+was a violent ebullition where the great serpent or whatever it was had
+been playing, the beautiful ripple of the shoal of fish died out, and in
+the fast-fading light of the evening the sea all around lay gleaming and
+grey, as it gently heaved, with no other movement now.
+
+"Oh, what a pity we were so long," said Rodd dismally.  "I believe we
+should have hit it.  I am disappointed!"
+
+"Well, so am I, if you come to that, Rodd, my boy," said the doctor,
+"though I don't think the men could have made a successful shot.  You
+see, it requires a great deal of practice to hit an object like that
+with a big gun."
+
+"Whatever it was," growled the captain, "it was feeding on that shoal of
+fish, and when it made that dash it scared the lot away.  There it is
+again!  You, Joe Cross, take a good long careful sight.  Don't hurry.
+Slow and sure.  My word, you ought to hit that, my lad!  It's a big 'un
+and no mistake.  Silence there!  Every man in his place.  Slew the
+muzzle round a little more.  Ready, Cross?"
+
+"No, sir; want to lower a little;" and as he spoke the sailor thrust in
+one of the wedges a trifle.  "That's about got it, sir."
+
+"Looks as if he'd come to stay, doctor," said the captain excitedly, as
+he bent down to glance along over the gun's two sights, for the shoal of
+fish had risen once more, turning the beautiful smooth sea into a
+diaper-like pattern, while the strange object seemed as far as they
+could make out to be making a snatching dart here and another there,
+seeming to be like some whale-like creature with a long neck.
+
+"Now she's steady, sir," whispered Joe Cross huskily, after taking the
+captain's place for another sight.  "It's as near as I can get, sir.  If
+you'll give me the word."
+
+As he spoke the sailor drew back slightly, the captain cried "Fire!" and
+with a heavy, sharp crack a puff of white smoke darted from the muzzle
+and began to expand forward like a grey balloon, obscuring everything
+from the sight of the lookers-on for about a minute, before it rose
+clear, and then the darkening sea was all grey once more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+CHUBB RE SEA-SERPENTS.
+
+"Hah!  Very disappointing--very," said the doctor.
+
+"Yes, it's gone, I suppose, sir.  One couldn't see where the shot hit
+for smoke, but I expect it turned up the water and scared the thing
+away.  Well, it's best as it is.  A great thing like that might have
+grown very dangerous if it had been hit."
+
+"Oh, we don't know that," cried the doctor.  "Well, I suppose we can do
+nothing more," he continued, as, following his nephew's example, he
+strained his eyes over the darkening plain.
+
+"No," said the captain.  "Cover up that gun, my lads, and break off.
+You, Cross, take charge of the gun, and well sponge her out.  You
+others, pikes; fall in.  Now then, right face.  March!"
+
+"I'm disappointed," said the doctor, as the men were marched off.  "I
+should have liked to have had a closer examination of that creature.
+Well, captain, what next?"
+
+"Tea," said the skipper bluntly.
+
+The tropics were very near, and the night began to come on rapidly, so
+that the tea meal was partaken of by the light of the swinging lamp.
+But before it was over the moon rose above the sea very bright and
+silvery, and getting rapidly near the full, while later on as it rose
+higher it was nearly as light as day.
+
+Rodd was anxious to get on deck again, to see if by any possibility the
+weird-looking object that they had seen that evening might rise to the
+surface; but anxious as he was to join the sailors and question them as
+to whether they had seen anything more, the conversation between his
+uncle and the skipper kept him below, where he listened to their
+different expressed opinions.
+
+At last, though, he went on deck, and found all the men grouped together
+forward, and whispering to themselves about the visitor they had seen.
+
+One man said it was a sign, and another grunted, while a third turned to
+Joe Cross to ask his opinion.
+
+It was the stout heavy member of the crew who went by the name of the
+Bun, and seeming the most impressed of the whole crew he asked Joe Cross
+as above.
+
+"Yes," said Cross slowly, "you are quite right, Ikey Gregg.  It's a
+sign."
+
+"What's a sign?" asked Rodd, coming up.
+
+"The--the--Bun--Ikey Gregg says it is a sign, sir, that we see that big
+squirming wormy thing, and I says he's quite right, sir.  It is a sign."
+
+"Why, what can it be a sign of, Joe?"
+
+"Sea's calm, sir, and that brings all the shoals of young fish up to the
+top to feed, and that there thing that feeds on them come up to the top
+to get a regular tuck out."
+
+"Oh, that won't do," said Gregg the fat.  "Things like that only come up
+to the top at particular times, and you mark my words, it means a
+storm."
+
+As the man finished, he turned his eyes to right and left, scanning the
+beautiful silvery water before him, and then uttering a loud yell, he
+dashed by his companions, made for the forecastle hatch, and without
+troubling himself about the steps, leaped right down.
+
+"What's the matter with Ikey?" said one of the men.  "Showing us how he
+can jump?"
+
+"Nonsense!" said Rodd.  "It was as if he had been scared by something.
+He looked quite wild."
+
+The boy walked close up to the rail and looked over, to see that the
+whole of the water right away from the bows was apparently ablaze with
+fire; but for a time he could make out nothing else, in spite of its
+crystal clearness and the way in which in addition it was laced and
+latticed as it were by the rays of the moon.
+
+Seeing nothing for the moment likely to have alarmed the sailor, he was
+about to turn off, but only to start the next minute, and stand clinging
+with both hands to the rail, for some fifteen or twenty yards away the
+erst calm, heaving sea began to be violently agitated, running as it
+were with the swiftness of a mill-stream; and then something dull and
+glistening and shining like a halo appeared just beneath the surface,
+rising till it was quite clear of the water, and passing the schooner in
+one broad pale streak.
+
+He was too much astonished to be startled, and for a few moments the
+only idea that he could form was that a good-sized vessel had careened
+over on to its side and was swiftly gliding along almost level with the
+water.
+
+Then all at once something of the same moonlit glistening tint, but long
+and sinuous, slowly rose up eight or ten feet above the sea; then higher
+and higher till it was double that altitude, and in his excitement and
+agitation he realised that it was ended or begun by a snake-like head
+something after the fashion of that of a huge conger, the eyes being
+many inches across and dull and heavy after the fashion seen in a
+deep-sea fish.
+
+One moment he thought it eel-like, the next that it was some serpent,
+while to his utter astonishment what he took to be its neck rose higher
+in a graceful swan-like shape, beautiful in curve as it was horrible in
+its gleaming, pallid, slimy aspect.  One of the great eyes seemed turned
+to him with a peculiar glare, while as he fixed his own upon it as if
+unable to resist the attraction, he made out that from behind the curve
+the elongated body of the creature rose just above the surface, carrying
+out the semblance on a great scale to some swan-like half-fishy
+creature, and then with a quick rush as if the water were being hurled
+from it by enormously powerful fin-like paddles, the strange fish,
+reptile, or whatever it was, had passed on into the hazy moonlit night
+and was gone.
+
+"Hullo here!  Anything the matter, Rodd?" cried the familiar voice of
+Dr Robson, as he came quickly forward, followed by the skipper.  "Where
+is it?"
+
+"Where is it, uncle?" faltered the boy.
+
+"Yes; that man Cross came running down to us in the cabin to say that
+they had seen the sea-serpent again."
+
+Rodd slowly raised one hand from the rail to which he had been holding,
+and pointed outward over the sea.
+
+"Well," said Uncle Paul, "what are you pointing out?  Plenty of
+moonlight, and glorious phosphorescence, but where's the sea-serpent?
+Where did it show again?  Why, what's the matter, boy?" he continued,
+catching his nephew by the arm and taking his hand.  "Don't stand
+staring like that.  Your hand's all wet, and like ice!  Have you been
+frightened?"
+
+"I--don't know, uncle, I suppose so," said the boy slowly and dreamily.
+"I never saw anything like it before, and--and--it came so close to the
+schooner.  I think I thought it was going to make a snatch at me and
+take me under water.  But don't ask me now, please.  I don't feel quite
+right.  I suppose I am cowardly; but it made Gregg run away."
+
+"Then why didn't you," said the doctor jocularly, "if it was so horrible
+as that?"
+
+"I couldn't, uncle," cried the boy passionately.  "I turned cold all
+over and couldn't stir."
+
+"Well, come down below for a bit," continued the doctor.  "Why, Chubb,
+the boy's had a regular scare."
+
+"Ah! and no wonder," said the skipper gruffly.  "It scared the men too.
+They saw it."
+
+"What, the same thing that you fired at?"
+
+"Ah, that I don't know.  That was a great long eely thing; but Joe Cross
+here says this was more like a great turtle, with flippers and a long
+neck, and a head like a snake."
+
+No more was said till they were in the cabin, where soon after he had
+found himself in safety, shut in and with the swinging lamp burning
+above his head, Rodd heaved a deep sigh and then uttered a forced laugh.
+
+"I couldn't help it, uncle," he said, "and I didn't think I could have
+been such a coward; but I am all right now.  The other men did see it
+too, didn't they?"
+
+"Yes, my lad; they saw it too," replied the skipper; "and next time we
+goes ashore, if we are stupid enough to talk about it every one will
+laugh and say we are making up tales for the marines.  I've known
+skipper after skipper who has seen something of the kind in the warm
+seas and has told yarns about them.  But men don't often do so now, no
+matter what they see, for one don't like to be laughed at.  Well, sir, I
+suppose you believe there's more queer things in the sea than most
+people know of?"
+
+"Well, yes," said Uncle Paul, "I am beginning to believe more and more
+that we who follow out natural history have a great deal to learn."
+
+"Take my word for it, sir, you have.  But I dare say you will be
+disposed to laugh at me and think that I am making up a bit of gammon,
+when I ask you if you remember what a frigate looks like when she has
+got all her ports open and her lanterns lit."
+
+"I don't see why I should," said Uncle Paul quietly.  "But of course I
+have seen a man-of-war like that by night; and a very beautiful object
+she is."
+
+"Very, sir.  But what should you say if I was to ask you if you had seen
+a fish looking like a little frigate with her ports all open and her
+lights shining in a couple of rows along her sides--lights that don't
+burn, sir, but shine brightly as if they did?"
+
+"Well, I am not a man to laugh at anything new in science, Chubb," said
+the doctor quietly, "but between ourselves, your description is a bit
+too flowery."
+
+"Not a bit, sir."
+
+"I have seen," continued the doctor, "phosphorescent fish and insects,
+and even now, swimming round us, the sea is full of light-giving
+creatures, but nothing approaching your frigates with the ports open, or
+anything near them."
+
+"Well, sir, I could take you right away to the eastward into the Indian
+seas--and I am not romancing, mind, but talking honest truth--I could
+take you and squire here, where you could drag up fishermen sort of
+fish, big-mouthed fellows ready to swallow what they catches, fish that
+guide themselves down in the dark deeps of the sea amongst the seaweed
+at the bottom, and there they hang out from the tops of their heads long
+barbels that look like worms, and fish with them for other fishes, to
+catch them to eat."
+
+"Oh yes, that's right enough, captain," replied the doctor.  "You know,
+Rodd, that great frog fish, the Father Lasher, as the fishermen call
+him.  Why, captain, we have got them at home off the Devon coast."
+
+"I know," said the skipper.  "I have seen them; but those are not what I
+mean.  He didn't give me time to finish, squire," continued the skipper,
+facing round to Rodd.  "My ones out yonder in the Eastern seas always
+live down below where it's deep and dark, and where the fishes couldn't
+see their baits.  So what do you think they do?"
+
+"Swim up to where it's lighter," said Rodd.  "Not they, sir.  They grows
+a little bait as might be a little bit of meat at the end of their
+barbel-like fishing-lines, and wave it about in the water for the fish
+they want to catch to see."
+
+"You said it was all black darkness deep down there," cried Rodd.
+
+"So it is, my lad, and so that the fish may see it those little baits of
+theirs all glow with light, and shine out in the dark black water.  Now,
+doctor, what do you think of that for a bit of nature?"
+
+"Extraordinary!" cried the doctor.  "But who told you that?"
+
+"Nobody, sir.  I have seen them with my own eyes."
+
+"Yes, but what about the men-of-war with their ports lit up?"
+
+"Of course I didn't mean men-of-war, sir.  I thought I made you
+understand I meant fish.  Fish about two foot long, with a row of lights
+down each side like lamps to see their way in the darkness.  There,
+gentlemen, that's no story to tell to the marines, but a fact that I
+have seen with my own eyes; and if there's things like that deep down in
+the seas, I don't see anything wonderful in there being what some people
+calls sea-sarpints that might be as big as a great sparmacetti whale;
+and if you put some of them beside a cable a hundred foot long there
+isn't much rope to spare.  I knew of a ninety-footer once, though they
+don't often get so long as that."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+A WARM BLUSH.
+
+Uncle Paul sat very quietly thinking for some time, while the other
+occupants of the cabin were waiting for him to deliver himself of what
+seemed to be gathering in his brain.  "You see, Captain Chubb," he said
+at last, "human nature has always been prone to exaggerate.  If a boy
+like my nephew here hooks a fish and loses it, he goes home and tells
+everybody that it was about five times as big as it really was."
+
+"Oh, uncle!" cried Rodd indignantly.  "I am sure I never did!"
+
+"Well, well, perhaps not," said Uncle Paul shortly.  "Don't say `perhaps
+not,' uncle.  That isn't fair.  You know I always try to tell the
+truth."
+
+"Well, well; yes, yes, yes, yes," said Uncle Paul testily.  "I am not
+accusing you, Rodney.  I am only alluding to what people who tell
+stories do."
+
+"Why, of course, uncle, they say what isn't true if they tell stories."
+
+"Will you oblige me, Rodney, by letting me continue what I was about to
+say?"
+
+"I beg pardon, uncle."
+
+"Yes, Captain Chubb," continued Uncle Paul, "there is that natural
+disposition born with us, one which requires a great deal of education
+to eliminate; that disposition to exaggerate in talking about things we
+have seen and others have not."
+
+"Yes, sir, I know," grunted the skipper.  "People will stretch."
+
+"Exactly," said Uncle Paul--"magnify wonders that they have seen."
+
+"Quite right, sir.  I did just now about that sparm whale.  I don't
+believe after all that they get to a hundred foot."
+
+"Still," said the doctor, "we know what a spermaceti whale is; but this
+supposed creature which has been reported of over and over again under
+the name of the sea-serpent still lives only in the land of doubt--"
+
+"Oh, uncle!" cried Rodd.
+
+"Well, sir, I didn't see much doubt about that thing."
+
+"H'm! no," replied the doctor thoughtfully; "but still you must grant
+that we did not have a fair examination, and that neither of us, even if
+we were clever with our pencils, could sketch an exact representation of
+the natural phenomenon."
+
+"Nat'ral, sir?" said the skipper gruffly.  "Well, to my mind it is a
+very unnatural sort of thing."
+
+"I think I could sketch it, uncle, if I were clever with my pencil,
+which I am not, for I can seem to see it quite plainly now, as it raised
+its neck out of the water when it swam by."
+
+"You think you could, my boy; but a great deal of it must have been
+under water, and your representation would be open to doubt."
+
+"Humph!  What was it like, youngster?" said the skipper gruffly.
+
+"Just the same shape as a swan," said Rodd, with something like a
+shudder, "only enormously, big; but instead of having wings and feet it
+was just as if it had four great paddles."
+
+"That's right," grunted the skipper; "just like what I see about ten
+years ago in the Indian seas.  I didn't see enough of this one to be
+able to tell."
+
+"Well," said the doctor gravely, "I for a long time have been of opinion
+that the reports that reach us from time to time about the sea-serpent
+must have some truth in them, though they have doubtless been greatly
+exaggerated."
+
+"Don't hear of many reports now, sir," said Captain Chubb.  "We
+sea-going people have been laughed at too much."
+
+"Yes, I know," said the doctor, "and I have thought over these matters a
+great deal, and fully believe that we have a great many things to
+discover, both at sea and on land, quite as wonderful as the so-called
+sea-serpent.  There's plenty of room, and I see no reason to doubt that
+there are great fish--"
+
+"This warn't a fish," growled the skipper.
+
+"Reptiles, then," grunted Uncle Paul, "which as a rule dwell far down in
+the depths of ocean, and which only occasionally seek, or are forced up
+to, the surface."
+
+"Forced up, uncle?  What could force up a great thing like that?"
+
+"You ask that, Rodd?  Why, what forces a fish up sometimes, to float
+upside down on the surface?"
+
+"Oh yes, I know," replied Rodd; "something wrong with its swimming
+bladder."
+
+"Exactly; and I should say such a creature as you saw would in its
+natural state be always living deep down in the ocean."
+
+"'Cept when he comes up to feed," growled Captain Chubb.  "This 'ere one
+was hard at work in that shoal of fish."
+
+"I don't see that that interferes with my argument, Captain Chubb," said
+the doctor; "but what I was going on to say was this.  There was a time
+in the history of this earth, when just such creatures as my nephew here
+described used to be plentiful."
+
+"How long ago?" asked the skipper.
+
+"Ah, that's more than any one of us can say; but I have seen their
+remains turned to stone, laid bare in a stone quarry--that is to say,
+their skeletons, which show pretty well what must have been their shape;
+and if they existed once there is no reason why some of their
+descendants, though very rarely seen, may not still survive, though I am
+half afraid that my nephew here must have some half-forgotten lingering
+memories of one of these creatures that he has seen in some geological
+work, and upon seeing that fish or reptile let his imagination run riot
+and finished it off by memory."
+
+Rodd shook his head.
+
+"I saw it plainly enough, uncle."
+
+And the skipper gave his head a sapient nod, while the doctor shook his.
+
+"What were you going to say, Captain Chubb?"
+
+"Only this 'ere, sir.  I have 'eard more argufying and quarrelling about
+sea-sarpints than about almost anything else.  I say sarpints, but I
+mean these things, and I say this.  It will never be settled properly
+till one of 'em is caught--which aren't likely--or one of them is cast
+ashore so as everybody can see fair and square.  I believe in 'em, and
+I've good reason to."
+
+"So do I, uncle," cried Rodd.
+
+"Well," said Uncle Paul, "I have for a long time had my doubts, and now
+I am no longer a sceptic."
+
+He looked very hard at the skipper as he spoke, and feeling that he was
+called upon to answer, the sturdy captain shook his head and brought his
+big hand down heavily upon the cabin table.
+
+"That you are not, sir," he said; "your head's too full of science and
+knowledge and larning to be what you say.  I don't quite exactly know
+what it means, but I'll answer for it you are not that; and now if you
+don't mind I should like for us to go up on deck again and have a good
+look round.  It's 'most as light as day, and if a thing like that is
+playing around we are just as likely as not to sight it again.  What do
+you say, sir, to taking your glass and being on the look-out?"
+
+"By all means," said the doctor.  "Get the glass, Rodd.  Hullo!  What's
+the matter with you?"
+
+"Oh, nothing, uncle," said the boy, hastily rising.
+
+"Why, you took hold of the table as if you felt dizzy."
+
+"No, no, uncle.  I am all right."
+
+"Not afraid, are you?"
+
+"I--I was for a moment, uncle."
+
+"Good lad and true!  Naught to be ashamed on, and spoke out like a man,"
+grunted the skipper.
+
+"But I tell you I am all right now," cried Rodd angrily, and he darted a
+fierce look at the speaker.
+
+"Of course you are, youngster; but you felt a bit skeart again, and
+'nough to make you."
+
+"Yes," said Rodd sharply, "I did feel startled for a moment, but it's
+all gone now.  Come on, uncle; I have got the glass;" and the boy made a
+dash for the cabin stairs.
+
+"I say," whispered the skipper, "that's better than brag, doctor."
+
+"Yes," said Uncle Paul, drawing a deep breath; "a great deal."
+
+They both then hastened up the stairs, to find Rodd half-way along the
+deck, hurrying with the glass under his arm to join the men, who were
+all gathered together at the bows, save their solitary messmate at the
+wheel.
+
+"Well, my lads, did you make it out again?" shouted the skipper.
+
+"No, sir," replied Joe Cross, who took upon himself the part of
+spokesman.  "Aren't seen a sign of it.  We have been casting it up among
+us that it got more than it liked in the shape of that bullet, and after
+going down, it turned waxy-like and come up again to have something to
+say to us, but turned worse and went down."
+
+"Humph!" grunted the skipper.  "Then you think we hit it?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and some of the lads have been saying that if they was you
+they'd load the big gun well with a lot of grape-shot, and if the beggar
+come up again be on the look-out and let him have it."
+
+"Some on us, Joe Cross; not all."
+
+"Nay, but you meant it, Ikey Gregg," said Joe.
+
+"Not me, messmate.  I says it's dangerous to be safe to get meddling
+with things like that."
+
+"Ay, ay!" came from two or three of the other men, but only in a
+half-hearted way.
+
+But it was encouragement enough for slow, quiet, fat Isaac Gregg to
+continue--
+
+"You see, gentlemen, it's like this.  That there long-necked sarpint
+thing has only got to make a rush and chuck itself out of the water
+aboard us here, and break the schooner's back, and where should us be
+then?"
+
+"I don't know," said the skipper shortly.  "But what do you say,
+doctor?"
+
+"Well, for my part, speaking for the advancement of natural history,
+Captain Chubb, I should like to see that creature lying dead upon the
+surface, and left floating long enough for you and your men to take
+measurements, while my nephew and I did the best we could with pen and
+pencil to describe what might very well be called one of the wonders of
+the world."
+
+"And what do you say, squire?" asked the skipper, speaking eagerly.
+
+"I say you'd better load the gun again, Captain Chubb," replied Rodd,
+speaking very hurriedly.  "We might hit it if it came up, and then we
+could try and do what my uncle says."
+
+"Right," growled the skipper.  "Man the gun again, and you, Cross, come
+below with me and fetch a canister of grape-shot and a full business
+charge to load the piece.  You lads who are not wanted for the gun, each
+of you take a musket and an axe.  It aren't likely that we shall come to
+close quarters, but if we do--well, you know what."
+
+Every man on board joined in a hearty cheer, and in a very short time
+the preparations were made, even the cook playing his part of keeping
+the galley fire ready, while directly afterwards he edged up to where
+Joe Cross was in conversation with Rodd.
+
+"Thought I would come the old-fashioned dodge as well, sir," he said.
+
+"Old-fashioned?  What do you mean?"
+
+"For firing the gun, sir.  I've left the poker in between the bars to
+get red-hot.  Put that to your touch-hole.  Beats slow match hollow;
+don't it, Joe?"
+
+"Ay, that it do, mate, if you have got the fire, and the poker's hot;
+but you have to come back to the slow match if neither one nor t'other's
+ready.  Well, Mr Rodd, sir, it don't look as if any of us is going to
+have the watch below to-night."
+
+"No, Joe, it doesn't.  Do you think the monster will come up again?"
+
+"Can't say, sir, I'm sure, and to speak honest, there are times when I
+hope it will and there are times when I hope it won't.  Sea-sarpints
+aren't much in my line.  I have had a turn in a whaler, and though a
+right whale is a nasty kind of a bird to tackle when she is in her
+flurry, you know what you are about.  There's the harpoon in her, and
+you have got her at the end of your line, and you're waiting for her
+with your lances ready to put her out of her misery.  But even if you
+have got a few shot in her, a sea-sarpint's different sort of cattle
+altogether, and I didn't like the looks of this 'ere one at all.  She
+came up quite vicious-like to look after us.  You see her eye, Mr Rodd,
+sir?  I did, sir, for a moment.  There was a sort of leery look about
+it, and it seemed to me as if she had just picked you out and meant to
+have you.  All the lads here know I'm one as never brags, but if there's
+a bit of fighting on I am always ready to stick to my mates, just as I
+would now."
+
+"Ay, ay, Joe!  That's a true word," came in chorus.
+
+"Thank you, messmates," said Joe modestly.  "Well, then, I'll speak out.
+Between you and me and the post, my lads, I hope this 'ere annymile
+won't come up to give us a shot."
+
+There was a low murmur at this which sounded very much like assent.
+
+"It's narvous sort of work, you see.  If the schooner had been fitted
+out as a sea-sarpinter with the right and proper sort of tackle, why,
+that's another thing.  But then you see, she aren't been.  We haven't
+got the proper sort of tools, and we aren't been drilled to use them
+even if we had."
+
+"That's a true word, messmate," came in chorus.
+
+"And that's why I says I hope she won't look us up to-night; but if she
+is following us up and keeping one of them great sarcer eyes upon our
+keel somewheres far away down below, I hope she'll leave it till
+morning.  After sunrise we shall be able to see better, and have had
+time to get rid of a nasty unked sort of feeling which rather bothers me
+just now, though I don't know how it is with you.  There, Mr Rodd, sir,
+you faced the thing splendid.  I see you, sir.  You didn't turn round
+and run away like Ikey Gregg.  You stood fast there with your hands
+resting on the rail, staring the thing straight in the face.  How you
+managed to do it I don't know.  But do it you did, and I admired you,
+sir."
+
+It was moonlight, and the change in Rodd's face passed unobserved, but
+it was scarlet, and felt so hot that the boy involuntarily raised his
+hand to his cheek, while a feeling of annoyance pervaded him as he
+looked at Joe Cross suspiciously, in the belief that the man must be
+bantering him; but as far as the boy could make out, Joe Cross's frank
+countenance was quite innocent of guile and he was speaking exactly as
+he felt.
+
+But Rodd was not at rest, and in the calm still watch that followed,
+with every one on the look-out and ready to imagine that each
+phosphorescent flash in the sea meant the moving upwards of the uncanny
+enemy, Rodd waited till all was still and restful and they seemed likely
+to be undisturbed, to make his way to Joe Cross's side and get him
+alone.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+QUERY--A COWARD?
+
+Joe had stationed himself on the larboard bow with his elbows resting
+upon the bulwark and his chin in his hands, gazing straight away to sea,
+his eyes fixed a little to the left of the dazzling path of light that
+extended from the moon to the schooner.
+
+So intent was he upon something he fancied he saw, that he did not hear
+Rodd's approach, and started violently upon being touched.
+
+"All right, sir; not asleep," he cried.  "Oh, it's you, Mr Rodd!  I
+fancied that it was the skipper, who thought he had caught me napping.
+Just you look yonder, sir.  You are coming fresh to it.  I have been
+staring till the little flashes of light make my eyes swim.  Now then,
+just you look about half a cable's length left of that line of light,
+and see if you can't see something breaking water there."
+
+Rodd gazed intently in the direction indicated for some little time
+without speaking.
+
+"See anything, sir?" said Joe at last.  "No."
+
+"That'll do then, sir.  It was my fancy.  Well, we are having a quiet
+night of it, sir.  No more signs of that old sea bogy, and like enough
+we shan't get a squint at it again."
+
+"I don't suppose we shall now, Joe."
+
+"Sleepy, sir?"
+
+"Not a bit, Joe.  Here, I want to speak to you about that thing."
+
+"I am listening, sir.  Talk away.  Rather queer, warn't it, to come upon
+a thing like that just when you didn't expect it?"
+
+"Yes, Joe; and you said something about my not being frightened."
+
+"Yes, sir.  You quite capped me."
+
+"Stop a minute, Joe.  I want to say something to you."
+
+"All right, sir," cried the sailor, looking wonderingly at the lad, who
+was speaking to him in a husky impressive tone.
+
+But Rodd remained speechless, and it was the sailor who broke the
+silence.
+
+"I'm a-listening, sir.  Heave ahead."
+
+"Yes," cried Rodd desperately.  "Look here, Joe; were you making fun of
+me?"
+
+"Fun of you?  No, sir.  It was only my way, just to make things a bit
+more cheery, for every one on deck seems to be in the doldrums, all on
+account of that great squirmy thing."
+
+"No, no, I don't mean that," cried Rodd.  "I mean, making fun of me when
+you told the men I wasn't frightened."
+
+"Fun on you?  No, sir.  Why, it was as I said.  You quite capped me, to
+see you standing facing that thing without shrinking a bit.  I should
+have expected to see you frightened to death."
+
+"Then it was because you didn't look well, Joe," said Rodd, in a low
+hoarse voice, as he made a brave effort to set himself right with the
+man.  "I was frightened--so horribly frightened that I couldn't stir."
+
+"Well, and no wonder, sir.  Enough to make you.  Why, it would have
+frightened a brass monkey, let alone a man.  Look at Ikey Gregg.  I
+believe if you'd ha' 'eard him you would have found he was calling
+`Mother!'  Poor old chap.  There aren't no way of proving it, as one
+don't know how heavy he was afore, but I believe he melted away a bit.
+Why, we was all like it, sir.  It was a regular startler and no
+mistake."
+
+"Do you mean honestly that all the men were very much frightened?"
+
+"Why, of course, sir.  I telled you I was as bad as bad could be, and my
+hair stood right up on end--leastwise, it felt as if it did; and I can
+tell you this: I didn't feel like that when we were going into action,
+and that's saying a good deal, when a fellow didn't know whether the
+first sixty-four pounder that was fired wouldn't send its shot right
+into his chest.  And so you felt regular skeart, did you, sir?"
+
+"Yes, Joe; and it made me ashamed to hear you talking about me to the
+men as you did."
+
+"Oh, well, I don't know as it matters, sir.  I said just what I thought,
+and I rather like to hear what you say, because it seems to brighten me
+up a bit."
+
+"Why?  How?"
+
+"Oh, because it makes me feel that I wasn't quite such a cur as I
+thought I was.  There, it's all right, sir, and I suppose it's quite
+nat'ral for any one to feel afraid when there's something really worth
+feeling afraid on.  I dare say we should both be just as bad again if
+that thing was to shove its head out of the water again close by here."
+
+"Then you don't think I was such a coward, Joe?"
+
+"You!  You a coward!  Tchah!  Let me hear any fellow say you are, and
+I'll hit him in the eye.  But there, it's just as if that thing knowed
+we were all ready and waiting for it, and so it won't show.  I'm
+beginning to wish that the skipper would send everybody but the watch
+for their spell below; but I don't suppose he will, and so we must make
+the best of it.  But if I was you, sir, and didn't belong to the crew, I
+should just slip off below and turn into my bunk till breakfast-time in
+the morning.  What do you say?"
+
+"No," said Rodd shortly; and he stopped on deck and watched with the men
+till the sun was well on high.
+
+Then the suggestion of breakfast seemed so full of promise that after
+partaking thereof he went back on deck, to stand scanning the beautiful
+sunlit plain with the glass; but no further glimpse was seen of the
+strange monster that day, nor yet during the next six weeks, during
+which time they glided into port for fresh provisions twice, the second
+time in that of the sunny Canary Islands.  There a week was spent in
+inspecting the beauties and the wonders of the old volcanic caverns,
+before they were well at sea again with the sun daily growing hotter and
+sea and sky more beautiful.
+
+Days upon days were spent in exploring the attractions of the Sargasso
+Sea, till the doctor cried "Hold!  Enough!"  For the bottles in the
+laboratory were being filled up too fast, and there was too much to do
+yet in the farther south, towards which they sailed slowly and steadily
+on, till one day a holiday was announced, for the men had been hard at
+work rowing here and rowing there, hauling in drag and dredge, sounding
+and hoisting, harpooning fish, and busying themselves with the spoil
+they dragged on board, while Captain Chubb stumped up and down with his
+hands very deep in his pockets, scowling at his sullied deck, and
+wearing clouds upon his sun-tanned brow, till Dr Robson bade the men
+throw all the rest overboard, this order, for which the skipper had been
+impatiently waiting, being immediately supplemented by another, brief
+and prompt.
+
+"Buckets!  Swabs!"
+
+And then as the slime of mollusc, fish and seaweed was washed away, and
+the deck of the schooner rapidly grew white again, the skipper smiled
+and entered into a pleasant chat with the tired naturalist and his
+nephew.
+
+The men's holiday was spent after the fashion of such holidays, over the
+buffoonery enjoyed by the crew, especially in olden days, in crossing
+the line; and then it was onward again amidst glorious sunrises and
+sunsets, amidst calms and fervent seas that seemed to blaze back the
+heat of the sun.
+
+It was all new to Rodd, and all glorious.  He was never tired of seeing
+the flying-fish skim out of the water to seek safety, scattered by the
+pursuit of some bonito or dolphin, watching them till they dipped down
+into the smooth surface, as if to gather new strength, and then skim out
+again.
+
+The dolphins and bonito were caught, the boy growing skilful in darting
+down the harpoon-like "grains," the modern form of Neptune fish-spear.
+
+There were times too when the boy expressed his wonder that in spite of
+all the time they had been sailing south, it had been such a rare thing
+to meet or overtake another vessel.
+
+"A pretty good proof," the doctor would say, "of the vastness of the
+ocean."
+
+"And of how there is plenty of room, uncle, for any number of wonderful
+creatures such as we have never seen yet.  But are you always going
+sailing on like this?"
+
+"Why, aren't you satisfied?" said Uncle Paul.
+
+"Satisfied, uncle?  Oh yes, with what we are doing.  But I haven't had
+nearly enough.  I should like to go oil sailing like this for--"
+
+"Ever?" said the doctor dryly.
+
+"Oh no, uncle; I mean for long enough yet.  But I say, isn't the world
+beautiful?"
+
+"More beautiful, boy, than words can express," replied the doctor
+gravely.  "But no.  Now we are getting into the Southern Tropics I am
+thinking of going more to the east and into the great bay, so as to get
+within range of the African shores.  Perhaps we shall make for the
+mouths of one or two of the rivers, and get within soundings where we
+can do more dredging.  I anticipate some strange discoveries in those
+portions of the ocean; but at present we will keep on skimming the
+surface and finding what we can."
+
+And so during the next two or three days they went sailing on, and found
+something that they had least expected, to Rodd Harding's great wonder
+and delight.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+THE KING'S SHIP.
+
+It was the afternoon of a blazing hot day, when the pitch was oozing out
+in drops in every exposed place, and Rodd had found it exceedingly
+unpleasant to touch any piece of the brass rail, bolt, the bell, or
+either of the guns, for the schooner was gliding on southward with every
+scrap of her white sails spread, and the wind that wafted her onward
+sent a feeling of lassitude through all on board.
+
+Some days before, Captain Chubb had set his men to work to rig up a
+small awning aft, and the doctor having declared that it was too hot for
+work, he and Rodd had spent most of their time beneath this shelter,
+till the latter had struck against it, declaring it was all nonsense,
+for the sun came hotter through the canvas than it did where there was
+no shade at all, or else it seemed to, for there was no breeze in the
+shelter, and though what wind there was seemed as if it had come past
+the mouth of a furnace, still it was wind, and the lad declared that it
+was far preferable to stewing under the awning.
+
+It was a lazy time, and the men, who had dressed as lightly as they
+could contrive, went very slowly about their several tasks, and at last
+when Rodd strolled towards the man at the wheel, he had to listen to a
+petition.
+
+It was fat Isaac Gregg who was taking his trick, as he called it, and he
+began at Rodd at once.
+
+"I've got something to ask you, sir," he said.
+
+"Oh, bother!" cried Rodd, taking off his straw hat to turn it into a
+fan.  "It's too hot to listen.  Don't ask me anything, because if you
+do, I shall be too stupid to tell you."
+
+"Oh, it aren't hard, sir," said the man innocently, as he let a couple
+of spokes pass through his hands and then ran them back again.  "It's
+only as the lads asked me--"
+
+"Well, well, go on," said Rodd, for the man stopped.  "Phew!  It's just
+as if the tops of the waves where they curl over were white hot."
+
+"Yes, sir, it is a bit warm," said the man; "but I've felt it warmer."
+
+"Couldn't," said Rodd abruptly.
+
+"Oh yes, sir; much hotter than this."
+
+"What!  You've felt it hotter than this?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir."
+
+"Then why didn't you melt away?  I should have thought you would run
+like a candle all into a lump."
+
+"Ah, that's your fun, sir.  Some of the lads has been telling you that I
+am fat.  That's a joke they have got up among them, just because I'm a
+little thicker than some of the others.  But as I was a-saying, sir,
+they ast me to ast you--"
+
+"Now it's coming then," sighed Rodd.  "Phew!  Wish all my hair had been
+cut off.  It gets so wet, and sticks to my forehead."
+
+"Yes, sir, it's best short," said the man.  "Just you look at mine.  You
+should have it done like this."
+
+As he spoke the sailor took off his hat and exhibited a head which had
+been trimmed down till all the scalp resembled a dingy brush, for it was
+cut with the most perfect regularity, for the hair to stand up in
+bristly fashion for about a quarter of an inch from the skin.
+
+"Why, who cut that?" cried Rodd, with something approaching to energy,
+this being the first thing that had taken his attention that day.
+
+"Joe Cross, sir.  He's a first-rate hand with a comb and a pair of
+scissors.  You let him do your head, sir and you won't know yourself
+afterwards."
+
+"Oh yes, I should," said the boy sleepily, gazing down at the quivering
+compass and its many points.
+
+"I mean you would feel so comfortable, sir."
+
+"Oh, well, then, I will.  Anything," cried Rodd--"anything not to be so
+hot!"
+
+"That's right, sir.  Ast me to ast you, sir."
+
+"Well, you've been asking for the last half-hour.  What is it?" cried
+Rodd peevishly.
+
+"To ast the doctor, sir--"
+
+"For some physic to make them cool?" snapped out Rodd.  "Tell them to go
+and ask him themselves, and he'll say what I do--that they are not to
+eat so much nor drink so much, and not to work in the sun.  There,
+that's all uncle would say."
+
+"Yes, sir, but that aren't it," cried Gregg, making one of the spokes of
+the wheel swing from hand to hand.
+
+"Then what do they want?"
+
+"Why, sir, it seems rum, but Joe Cross and the other lads know better
+what's good for them than I do.  You see, sir, they want to get to work
+again at your fishing and hauling, or rowing about, for they says they
+can keep much cooler when they are moving about and got to think what
+they are doing than when there's no work on hand and nothing to think
+about at all."
+
+"Oh, very well," said Rodd grumpily, "I'll go and ask him, for I am
+about sick of this.  I think there must be some volcanoes here, or
+something of that kind, for I never felt it so hot before."
+
+"You aren't used to it, sir; but I thought you would, sir, and the lads
+said they thought you would too.  Thank you, sir."
+
+Rodd yawned, turned slowly on his heels, and strolled away to where
+Uncle Paul was sitting back in an Indian cane chair, resting the
+carefully-focussed spy-glass upon a half-opened book standing upon its
+front edges propped upon four more in the middle of a little table.
+
+"Ah, Pickle, my lad!  You had better stop in the shade.  I don't want
+you to be getting any head trouble in this torrid sun."
+
+"Oh, I am all right, uncle; but the men want to begin fishing or doing
+something again, keeping cool."
+
+"Too hot till towards evening, my boy," replied the doctor.  "But look
+here; you were saying only the other day how strange it was that we saw
+so few vessels.  Well, here's one at all events--a three-master."
+
+"Oh, whereabouts, uncle?" cried the boy eagerly.
+
+"Away to the west yonder, hull down.  There, take the glass."
+
+As Rodd was arranging it to his own satisfaction the doctor went on
+quietly--
+
+"Out here I am not going to give an opinion, but if we were in the
+garden at home in the look-out I should say that was a man-of-war coming
+into Plymouth port."
+
+"Yes, that she is, uncle," cried Rodd, who had forgotten the heat in
+this new excitement.
+
+"A man-of-war--that she is!" said Uncle Paul quietly.  "That sounds
+ridiculous, Pickle.  But one has to give way to custom."
+
+"Yes," said Rodd--"a frigate.  I can tell by her white sails."
+
+"Not big enough for a frigate, my boy.  A sloop of war, I should think.
+Now, what can she be doing down here?"
+
+"I know, uncle," cried the boy excitedly--"looking after the slave
+ships."
+
+"Ah, very likely," cried Uncle Paul.  "I shouldn't be surprised.  We are
+pretty near to that neighbourhood; and if she is it's quite likely that
+she'll overhaul us.  Ah, here's Captain Chubb coming up.  Look here,
+skipper!"
+
+The captain, who looked very hot, and whose face proclaimed very plainly
+that he had been having an after-dinner nap, came slowly up, stooped
+within the awning, and in silence took hold of the spy-glass, whose
+glistening black sides were quite hot, and which Rodd thrust into his
+hands.
+
+He wanted no telling what for, but raised and adjusted the glass to his
+own sight, took a quick shot at the distant object upon the horizon, and
+then lowered it directly.  "British man-of-war," he grunted.  "That's
+bad."
+
+"Why?" cried Rodd sharply.
+
+The skipper turned upon him, looked at him fiercely, and then almost
+barked out--
+
+"You don't know, youngster?"
+
+"No.  What do you mean?"
+
+"Means that I've got as smart a picked crew as a man need wish to have."
+
+"To be sure," said Rodd; "of course you have.  I do know that."
+
+"Well," said the skipper gruffly, "I don't want to lose them; that's
+all."
+
+Rodd and his uncle exchanged glances, while the skipper went and stood
+at the side and began scanning the sky, to come back shaking his head.
+
+"No more wind, and not likely to be."
+
+"Well, we don't want any more, do we?" said Uncle Pad.
+
+"Ay; if a good breeze would spring up I'd show them a clean pair of
+heels."
+
+"Oh, I see," cried Rodd excitedly.  "You think that they would press
+some of our men and take them aboard.  Oh, Captain Chubb, you mustn't
+let them do that!"
+
+"I don't mean to, my lad, if I can help it.  I hadn't reckoned on seeing
+one of them down here."
+
+"Uncle thinks they're after the slavers."
+
+"Nay, my lad, I don't think that.  More likely after one of the palm-oil
+craft to see if they can pick up a few men out of them."
+
+"Oh, that's a false alarm, captain," said Uncle Paul.  "My papers and
+the work we're upon with a grant from Government would clear us."
+
+"Ought to, sir," said the skipper gruffly, "but I wouldn't trust them.
+If a King's ship wants men, good smart sailors such as ours, men who
+have served, her captain wouldn't be above shutting his eyes and making
+a mistake.  Anyhow I'm going to crack on as hard as I can till she
+brings us up with a gun, and then I suppose I shall have to heave to or
+risk the consequences."
+
+"Hadn't you better risk the consequences, Captain Chubb?" said Rodd, in
+a half-whisper.
+
+"Here you, Rodney, mind what you are saying, sir!  It's the duty of
+every Englishman to respect the law, and I feel perfectly certain,
+Captain Chubb, that there is nothing to fear in that direction, so go
+quietly on as you are, unless you are obliged to heave to.  Seeing how
+little wind there is, and how distant that sloop, I think it's very
+probable that she'll not overhaul us before it grows dark."
+
+"Oh, uncle," cried Rodd, "she'll have plenty of time.  The sun won't go
+down for an hour or so."
+
+"Well, how long will it be before it's dark afterwards?" cried Uncle
+Paul.  "You forget that we are in the tropics, and how short a time it
+is between sunset and darkness."
+
+"Yes, sir; you are quite right there," said the skipper, "and that's
+what I'm hoping for.  If we can only get the bit of time over 'twixt
+this and the dark, I shan't care, for she won't see us in the morning."
+
+By this time one of the sailors forward had noticed the skipper using
+the glass, seen what took his attention, and communicated it to his
+messmates, with the result that all who had been below gathered forward
+and stood anxiously watching the beautiful vessel, whose sails glistened
+in the sunshine as if their warp was of silver and their woof of gold.
+
+Rodd noticed at once what a change had taken place amongst the men.  All
+listlessness had gone, and they were watching the King's ship, for such
+Captain Chubb had declared her to be at once, and were talking in
+excited whispers together, their manner showing that whatever the
+captain's opinion might be, theirs was, as sailors, that they would not
+trust a King's ship that was in want of men.
+
+After a time Rodd was attracted towards them, and he strolled up, Joe
+Cross turning to him at once, to begin questioning him in a low tone.
+
+"What does the skipper say, sir?"
+
+"He said it was a sloop of war, Joe."
+
+"Oh yes, sir, we know that," said the man irritably; "but we've been
+'specting him here ever so long.  So's our bo'sun.  There, look; he's
+got his pipe in his hand.  Didn't he say nothing about no orders?"
+
+"No, Joe."
+
+"Didn't he say nothing about hysting another stunsail or two?"
+
+"No, Joe."
+
+"Oh-h-h!" came in a groan from the men; and Rodd felt for them, for of
+late they had become more and more attached to their position, and
+seemed as happy as a pack of school-boys on board the beautiful little
+schooner.
+
+"But he has been saying something, lads," continued Rodd, in a low tone.
+
+"Ay, ay, of course," cried Joe.  "Our old man don't want to lose us, and
+he knows best what he ought to do.  Go on, Mr Rodd, sir; tell us what
+he means."
+
+"I think he means to keep on quietly, in the hope of the schooner not
+being signalled to heave to."
+
+"Go on, sir, please, quick!" panted one of the men.  "You don't know
+what it means to us."
+
+"Before it becomes dark," continued Rodd.
+
+"Ay, ay, my lad!  That's right, sir.  Why, of course," cried Joe
+exultingly.  "Trust our old man, boys;" and whistling loudly a few bars
+of the Sailor's Hornpipe, he snatched off his straw hat, dashed it down
+upon the deck, and began to cut and shuffle and heave and turn, going
+through all the steps as if it were cool as an early spring, while his
+messmates formed in a ring about him, half stooped with bended knees,
+joined in the whistle, and beat time upon their knees and clapped hands,
+till the figure was gone through, and Joe Cross brought his
+terpsichorean bit of frantic mania to an end, by bringing his right foot
+down upon the deck with a tremendous stamp which was followed by a
+hearty cheer.
+
+"That's your sort, Mr Rodd, sir!  It's all right," cried Joe, panting,
+and wiping his streaming face.  "If anybody had told me that I could do
+that ten minutes ago, when I felt as if I had hardly stuff enough in me
+to lift a leg, I should have told him he was going off his head.  Didn't
+think you could put sperrits into us like that, sir, with just a word,
+now did you?"
+
+"I am very glad, Joe," said Rodd.
+
+"Glad, sir?  So's we--every man Jack on us.  You see, it means a lot.
+When you have got a comfortable mess, and a skipper as makes you haul
+together in a brotherly sort of fashion, it aren't nice for a King's
+ship to come down and take its pick of the men.  We as is able seamen
+don't want to shirk, and if we are obliged to go in time of war, why, we
+are ready to go and do our duty like men; but it do nip a bit at first,
+sir, 'specially at a time like this."
+
+"Ay, ay, Joe!" came in chorus.
+
+"You see, sir, mostlings life on board a ship is so much hard work, and
+you has a lot of weather of some sort or another to fight agen; but with
+the 'ception of that bit of rough time getting into the French port,
+this 'ere's been a regular holiday, and--Oh my!  There she goes, lads!"
+groaned the poor fellow, for the hull of the sloop had been gradually
+rising more and more into sight, rapidly at last from the refraction as
+she had glided into a hotter stratum of air while nearing the schooner,
+and all at once a white puff of smoke had darted out of her bows, to be
+followed by a dull heavy thud, when the men turned as with one accord to
+gaze at their captain, as if hoping against hope that he would still
+hold on instead of giving an order to fat Gregg, the steersman, to throw
+the schooner up in the wind.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+SUSPICIOUS VISITORS.
+
+There was a dead silence among the men as the soft white ball of smoke
+rose slowly and steadily, expanding the while and changing its shape
+till it became utterly diffused.  The occupants of the schooner's deck
+were statuesque in their rigidity, the crew to a man gazing hard at the
+captain as they strained their hearing to catch his next command; the
+captain fixed his eyes from one side upon Uncle Paul, while Rodd stood
+upon the other with his lips apart, gazing questioningly in his uncle's
+half-closed lids, as the doctor leaned back in his deck-chair with a
+thoughtful frown upon his brow.
+
+Then he started slightly, for the captain spoke.
+
+"Well, sir," he said, "what's it to be?"
+
+"What's it to be, Captain Chubb?  I do not quite understand you."
+
+"It's plain enough, sir.  If I throw the schooner up in the wind we
+shall have a man-of-war's boat aboard us and some young officer in
+command in less than half-an-hour.  First thing will be he'll ask for
+our papers, and then fall in the lads, run his eye along them, take his
+pick, and order the poor fellows down into the boat; and that means
+sending us back to port to fill up the best way we can, and perhaps not
+do it.  On the other hand, I can make believe a bit and still keep
+forging on a little till the darkness comes, and then--"
+
+The captain stopped.
+
+"Yes," said the doctor; "and then--"
+
+"Well, sir, it would go very hard if that sloop of war wasn't out of
+sight at daybreak to-morrow morning, and even if she wasn't I don't
+think she'd overtake us again."
+
+"I feel sure you are wrong, Captain Chubb," said the doctor.  "I repeat;
+my papers and the grant I have had from his Majesty's Government will, I
+feel sure, be sufficient to protect my schooner and crew from any action
+in the way of pressing from one of his Majesty's ships.  You will have
+the goodness to obey the signal, and wait and see what follows."
+
+"You mean to risk it, then, sir?"
+
+"I mean to do my duty as a subject of his Majesty the King," said Uncle
+Paul gravely.
+
+"Very well, sir.  I am captain of this schooner, but I am your servant,
+and it is my duty to obey your orders," said the captain, in his
+gruffest tones; and he walked heavily to the man at the wheel.
+
+The time had been short, but too long for the patience of the
+man-of-war, for before the skipper had opened his mouth to give his
+order to the steersman, another puff of white smoke darted from the
+sloop's bows, there was a heavy thud, and a cannon ball came skipping
+over the heaving sea like a flat stone thrown by a clever boy across the
+waters of a pond--dick, duck and drake fashion--while a thrill ran
+through all on board as they watched the shot pass right in front of the
+schooner's bows and give its final splash as it disappeared far away.
+
+Then the captain spoke, the stem of the schooner gradually bore round,
+with the sails beginning to shiver as she faced more and more to the
+wind, and finally flapping to and fro; but almost at once as the spokes
+turned rapidly through Isaac Gregg's hands, a deep low murmur ran
+through the crew, while a pang-like spasm seemed to shoot upward to
+cause a choky sensation in Rodd Harding's throat.
+
+"Silence there, my lads," said the skipper sternly, and Rodd noticed the
+gloomy look upon his countenance as he turned his back to the doctor and
+walked to the side to stand gazing at the distant ship.
+
+Many minutes had not elapsed before Rodd, who had turned his back to the
+men so as not to see their faces, and to hide his own, saw through the
+telescope he was busily using, something moving at the side of the
+sloop--a something which glided down her side and which was soon
+afterwards succeeded by a faint glitter as of the movement of rays.
+
+Then there was a splash, followed by the regular dipping of oars which
+seemed to throw up so much golden spray on either side, and the boy
+could plainly make out the sloop's boat being rowed out clear of the
+man-of-war, and gradually increasing its distance.
+
+Rodd watched them for some time, and what was but a speck to his naked
+eye plainly showed in the field of the glass the regular movements of
+the men, and now and then a flash suggestive of the rowers wearing
+something brightly polished.
+
+There were more flashes too caused by the sun's nearly horizontal rays,
+and these came from right astern, where the golden orange sunshine
+seemed to be intensified, looking wonderfully red; but ere long the
+watcher had grasped the fact that he was looking at the bright scarlet
+coats of so many marines, and then he was able to note the figures of
+two of the boat's occupants seated together.
+
+"The officers in command," he said to himself.
+
+It was a long row from vessel to vessel, and the sun had begun to dip,
+and sank quite out of sight as the sloop's cutter came alongside, the
+men tossed up their oars, and a smart-looking officer of about thirty
+sprang up the side, followed by a lad of Rodd's own age, who took his
+attention from the first.
+
+The officer was received at the side by the doctor and captain, Rodd
+standing slightly behind looking hard at the midshipman, who stared
+harder, frowning and putting on an air of the most consequential kind,
+while, presumably involuntarily, his left hand played with the ivory and
+gilt hilt of a curved dirk, suggestive of a strong desire to draw it out
+of its sheath and flourish it before the schooner's crew.
+
+The officer nodded importantly at the doctor, and then turned frowningly
+upon the skipper with the angry question--
+
+"What's the reason you didn't heave to?"
+
+"Didn't give me time," growled the captain surlily.
+
+"No insolence, sir!  You ought to have obeyed the first gun.  You are an
+Englishman, and by the look of you have been long enough at sea to know
+the rules when you encounter a man-of-war.  Now then, what ship's this?"
+
+"_Maid of Salcombe_, Plymouth."
+
+"Owner?"
+
+"I am," said the doctor quietly.
+
+"Oh!  What are you trading in?"
+
+"I am not trading," said the doctor quietly.  "This schooner is upon a
+scientific expedition, under the auspices of the English Government."
+
+"Oh," said the officer suspiciously; and he looked from the doctor to
+the skipper, and from thence ran his eye over the crew gathered forward,
+while the midshipman altered the pitch of his hat, turned towards Rodd,
+whom for the last few moments he had been ignoring, and looked him up
+and down in a supercilious manner which made the blood mount to the
+boy's forehead, and set him staring down at the middy's bright shoes,
+from whence he slowly raised his eyes as far as the belt which supported
+the dirk, and from there higher up to his hat, where he fixed his eyes
+upon the officer's cockade and kept them obstinately there, till the
+lad's nostrils began to expand, he grew as red in the face as Rodd, and
+his menacing eyes seemed to say, You insolent young civilian, how dare
+you!
+
+"Rather a strong crew, skipper," said the lieutenant sharply.
+
+"Yes, sir; picked men," replied Captain Chubb.
+
+"And there's a look about them of the able seaman, R.N."
+
+"Perhaps so, sir," replied the skipper, who gazed bluntly back at the
+intruder.
+
+"Well-found schooner, skipper, and carries a press of sail."
+
+"Yes, sir.  Very smart craft," replied the skipper.
+
+"Long gun amidships and a couple of small brass guns forward," continued
+the lieutenant, who seemed to miss nothing.  "Very roomy hold below, I
+should say."
+
+"Yes, sir.  Built for a Mediterranean orange boat."
+
+"And no cargo, I think you said."
+
+"No, sir; only scientific traps, as Dr Robson here calls them."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, interposing.
+
+"I am not talking to you, sir," said the lieutenant haughtily.  "Your
+turn will come."
+
+Rodd's uncle bowed, and turned away, frowning.
+
+"Stop, sir!" cried the officer sharply.
+
+"What insolence, uncle!" said Rodd aloud; and he turned away from the
+midshipman, to cross to his uncle's side.
+
+"What's that?" shouted the lieutenant, and the middy clapped his hand to
+the hilt of his dirk.
+
+"I said what insolence, sir.  My uncle is a gentleman."
+
+"And it seems that his nephew is not.  Be silent, boy, and recollect in
+whose presence you stand.  I am a King's officer.--Now, Mr--what is
+your name?  Robson?  Have the goodness to tell me how it is that, with a
+light, fast-sailing schooner, well-armed, and with a crew evidently
+fighting men, you are found here in the neighbourhood of one of the
+notorious slave-supplying rivers?  You may just as well speak the truth,
+for in all probability your schooner will be a prize to his Majesty's
+sloop of war _Diadem_."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the doctor quietly.  "Suspicious appearances
+can always be found by those who seek for them.  If you will have the
+goodness to step below with the captain you can examine the papers and
+the scientific fittings of portions of the hold which were prepared
+under my instructions when I started upon the voyage.  I don't think,
+sir, you will find any accommodation has been made for the reception of
+a black living cargo of those poor unfortunate objects of humanity in
+whom a certain vile nefarious traffic is carried on.  Captain Chubb,
+pray take this gentleman below and show him everything he desires."
+
+"Oh," said the lieutenant sharply, "if this is so, Mr Rodson--"
+
+"Dr Robson, at your service," said the owner of the name, glancing
+sharply at his nephew, with a faint smile upon his lips, for at the
+utterance by the lieutenant of the syllable _Rod_ the boy had started
+violently.
+
+As the doctor spoke he took out his pocket-book, drew forth a card, and
+held it between two fingers in doctor's fashion towards the officer.
+
+"Humph!  MD, Plymouth.  Oh, well, Dr Robson, I hope to find that I have
+been labouring under a mistake;" and he raised his hand to his cocked
+hat.  "But I have my duty to do."
+
+"Don't apologise, sir," said the doctor, who had changed as in a moment
+from the sturdy naturalist into the urbane medical man.  "I quite see
+your necessity for guarding against imposture.  Pray proceed."
+
+The lieutenant nodded sharply, and leaving his guard of a couple of
+marines at the gangway, and the boat's crew ready to spring up the side
+at the slightest alarm, he followed the skipper to the cabin hatch, the
+doctor hesitating as if in doubt for a moment or two, and then following
+deliberately down the cabin stairs.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+THE KING'S MIDDY.
+
+Rodd, full of excitement, was burning to follow too and see what he
+looked upon as the officer's discomfiture; but there was that middy, who
+seemed to be left in command of the marines, and he felt a peculiar
+sensation which completely mastered him, filling him as it did with a
+desire to have what he afterwards called a good fall out with that
+fellow, who seemed to make him metaphorically set up his feathers all
+round his neck and go at him as a strange young cockerel of a different
+breed who had suddenly appeared in the poultry-yard where he dwelt.
+
+So Rodd stayed on deck, thrust his hands into his pockets, ignored the
+presence of the middy, and with something of a strut marched up to the
+two marines in the gangway, whistling softly the while, gave each a
+friendly nod, examined their grounded arms and their stiff uniform with
+its abundant pipe-clay, and ended by spreading his legs a little,
+swinging himself slowly toe and heel, and saying patronisingly--
+
+"Rather hot toggery that, my lads, for weather like this."
+
+"Well, of all the impudence!" cried the young officer hotly; and he took
+a step towards where Rodd was standing.
+
+Rodd faced slowly round, looked at the boy superciliously, then said as
+coolly as could be--
+
+"Hullo, midshipmite!  Not gone below?"
+
+"No, puppy, I have not gone below," and as he spoke the lad pressed the
+hilt of his dirk involuntarily and sharply downward.
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed Rodd.  "Why, that looks like wagging your tail like a
+moorhen.  I say, why didn't you draw that skewer just now?  My word, you
+did look fierce!"
+
+One of the marines tittered, and the other spread his mouth into a broad
+grin, while, convulsed with rage, the young officer turned upon both
+furiously, making them draw themselves up as stiff as their muskets.
+
+"How dare you!" cried the middy, turning back to Rodd, and now becoming
+fully conscious of the fact that the schooner's crew gathered forward
+were gazing at the scene with intense enjoyment.
+
+"What's the matter, reefer?" said Rodd, whose face was scarlet, but
+whose words sounded as cool and indifferent as if he were calm in the
+extreme.
+
+"Matter, you insolent blackguard!" cried the midshipman.  "If I were not
+on duty, and too much of a gentleman to soil my hands with a schooner's
+loblolly boy, I would give you a sound thrashing with my belt."
+
+"Would you?" said Rodd coolly.  "That's the worst of you reefers.  You
+are nearly all of you like that when you come ashore at Plymouth.  It's
+your uniform and the wearing of a skewer that makes you all so cocky.
+Now, do you know you have said what a fellow just your age once said to
+me at Saltash--but he didn't.  He had an accident, and then we shook
+hands, and I took him home to my uncle's and helped him to bathe his
+face.  It was such a hot day that his nose bled a good deal.  But we
+stopped it.  Nice fellow he was too, afterwards.  So I dare say you'd be
+if I had taken you in tow a bit."
+
+"I understand you, sir," panted the middy; "and look here, I shall not
+forget this."
+
+"Pooh!  Yes you will," said Rodd, with a mocking laugh.  "I wish you
+were going to stop on board.  We have got a spare cot here.  Get your
+old man to give you leave when your lieutenant has done smelling in all
+the lockers below.  You come while the two vessels are in company, and
+I'll teach you how to use the gloves."
+
+"Oh, if I wasn't on duty!" panted the middy furiously.  "I haven't got a
+card with me, but give me yours.  We may meet again."
+
+"Hope we shall, I'm sure," said Rodd.  "I say, reefer, don't be so jolly
+disappointed because you won't have the price of half a nigger for
+prize-money."
+
+"Pah!" ejaculated the middy furiously; and turning his back upon Rodd he
+stepped to the side and looked over into the boat, to run his eye
+furiously over her crew, who were all sitting upon the alert, ready for
+any order that might be given.
+
+But as he turned away and faced inboard, to his annoyance he found Rodd
+close up, smiling carelessly in his face.
+
+"I say, reefer," he said, "you do look hot."
+
+"Sir!" snapped out the middy, trying to look the boy down.
+
+"I say, don't be so waxy because you are disappointed."
+
+"I beg, sir, that you will not address your remarks to me; and please
+recollect that you and yours are not out of the wood yet."
+
+"All right; only look here; your lads have had a long row, and you have
+got another one back.  Let's give the poor fellows a bucket of water,
+and I'll pour a bottle of our lime-juice in and some syrup.  It makes a
+splendid drink.  Look there; those two red herrings of yours have begun
+licking their dry lips at the very thought of it."
+
+The midshipman seemed to give himself a snatch, but he glanced at the
+two marines, and then turned and looked over into the boat, for he was
+horribly thirsty himself.
+
+"Dry, my lads?" he said.  "Like some water?"
+
+"Thankye, sir!" came in chorus, and Rodd called out at once--
+
+"Joe Cross!  Bucket of fresh water--two pannikins!  And is the steward
+there?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!"
+
+"Two bottles of lime-juice and some syrup for the boat's crew and
+marines."
+
+Just then Uncle Paul's head appeared above the cabin hatch, and he
+stepped on deck, coming forward to where the two lads were, Rodd smiling
+and good-humoured, the middy wearing the aspect of the celebrated dog
+which had been pelted with big marrow-bones, upon each of which reposed
+a thick juicy bit of beef.
+
+"Lieutenant Branscombe says will you step down and join us for a few
+minutes, Mr Lindon."
+
+"Does he want me, sir?"
+
+"Only to partake of a little refreshment this thirsty night."
+
+"That's right," cried.  Rodd.  "You go on down with uncle.  I'll see
+that your lads have plenty."
+
+"Er--er--no grog, please," said the middy hastily.
+
+"Not a drop, honour bright," said Rodd, laughing.  "You shan't be
+mastheaded for that;" and he clapped the young officer merrily on the
+back.
+
+The stay would have been longer, but the darkness was coming on fast;
+still it had been long enough for all to become the best of friends, and
+when the two officers came on deck it was to find the two crews engaged
+in a hearty game of repartee, the schooner's men casting jokes down into
+the boat, and the man-of-war's men hurling them back.
+
+"Yes, a very smart crew, Captain Chubb," said the lieutenant, "but if it
+hadn't been for the doctor's papers here, we should have been obliged to
+lighten you of about half-a-dozen, for you know you have no business to
+have such men as this whilst his Majesty runs short."
+
+Just then the two lads were talking together hard.
+
+"Oh, don't you take any notice of that, Harding.  Cocky, you called it.
+You should drop that; it's too schoolboy-like.  You know a fellow may be
+only a midshipman, still the ship's roll does call him a man, and when a
+fellow's an officer in command of a lot of sailors, he's obliged to put
+it on a bit, else he'd never be able to keep them in their places."
+
+"Yes, I see," said Rodd.
+
+"That's right; and before I go I just want to say it was very thoughtful
+of you to promise that the lads shouldn't have any drink.  I got into
+several rows when I was young and green, and went ashore with boats'
+crews.  They used to try on all sorts of dodges to get away to the
+public-house.  I say, get that uncle of yours to stop about here fishing
+for a bit.  I want to get you aboard the _Di_ and spend an evening with
+us at the mess.  Do.  I shall get to like you."
+
+"All right; I will try," said Rodd.  "It wouldn't be the first time I've
+been aboard a man-of-war."
+
+"Eh?  Where?"
+
+"Plymouth harbour."
+
+"Oh yes, I forgot.  That's where you live when you are at home.  Why
+don't you join altogether?  You are just cut out for a middy."
+
+"Couldn't leave uncle.  Going to be a naturalist."
+
+"A what?"
+
+"Scientific gentleman."
+
+"But serve the King!"
+
+"What, and be sent down here hunting after the blackbirding
+blackguards?"
+
+"Pshaw!  That's not really what we are here for; only if we see a
+suspicious-looking craft we board her."
+
+"Then what are you here for?"
+
+"King's business.  Mum.  Mustn't say."
+
+"Now, Mr Lindon!  Good-evening, Captain Chubb; and good-evening,
+doctor.  Glad to have met you, sir, and I hope you won't put me down in
+your black books as _homo durissimus_, or some other scientific name.
+Give way, my lads.  Mr Lindon!  Do you want to be left behind?"
+
+"All right, sir," cried the middy, springing into the boat and coming
+down into the arms of a couple of the men.  "Good-night, Harding!  We
+shall expect you on board the _Di_."
+
+Down dropped the oars on either side, and then splash, splash, in
+regular movement the blades tossed up the beautiful pale lambent water,
+while here and there they broke up the reflection of the stars that were
+gradually appearing in the soft violet sky, while the boat glided on
+farther and farther from the schooner, making its way towards the lights
+of the sloop, from which all of a sudden there was a sharp flash,
+followed at a perceptible interval by the report of a musket.
+
+This was answered a few seconds later by a flash and smart crack from
+the sloop's cutter, whose course Rodd leaned over the side to watch till
+it was invisible, when he turned from the side, to find Joe Cross
+waiting and evidently watching him.
+
+"Rather close shave, sir," he said.  "I began to feel as if some of us
+was going to have our 'oliday come to an end.  Wouldn't have been so
+bad, though, for there are some very jolly fellows there, and it aren't
+half a dusty life aboard a man-of-war when you have got over the first
+few days, and being what they calls homesick.  Aren't no fear of their
+coming back for us, is there?"
+
+"Not the least, Joe.  You are all safe enough."
+
+"We are a-going to give the doctor, sir, such a cheer when he comes on
+deck again--three times three, and one in for you.  My word, sir, the
+lads did laugh to see you take the starch out of that there young
+reefer!  It was fine!"
+
+"Oh, never mind about that, Joe.  But I say, you have been aboard a
+man-of-war.  What would a sloop like that be doing down here?"
+
+"Why, you know, sir; looking after the blackbird catchers--the slavers."
+
+"Oh no; they are not on this station for that."
+
+"Must be, sir."
+
+"No, Joe."
+
+"Well, but, sir, you heard what the lufftenant said to our old man.
+That's what they were after, sir, and a bit disappointed too, until you
+and the doctor made them so friendly.  They thought they'd got hold of
+this fine craft, nice little prize, for she'd sell well just as she
+stands after being condemned.  Handy little bit of pocket-money for them
+in these days when the war is over.  Rather a puzzler to them at first.
+The second luff--that's what he was--had never tackled a natural history
+craft before, and he wouldn't believe it.  That's what they are here
+for, sir, trying to put a stop to the slave trade.  We come upon one in
+the _Naaera_ once--the nearer and dearer we used to call her, sir.  Just
+about such a sloop as that is.  It wasn't our business, but we boarded
+her, the slave ship, I mean, in a calm, and the blackguards aboard of
+her showed fight and beat our boat off in trying to get away with their
+sweeps.  They were making for one of these swampy rivers out eastward,
+rowing as hard as they could, and bringing up a lot of the poor niggers
+from below to help pull at the sweeps.  Sweeps, indeed!  Nice sweeps
+they were!  And if they once got into the river we should have lost
+them."
+
+"Well?" said Rodd.  "And they beat you back?"
+
+"That they did, sir.  Took us quite by surprise.  We never thought they
+would have the cheek to resist; and we lay off, rubbing our sore ears
+and growling and spitting like angry cats, not knowing what to do,
+feeling that we should get worse off if we pursued, and ashamed to go
+back to face our old man; and just as we were feeling at our worst we
+knew that our skipper had been watching us all the time with his glass,
+and there was our launch coming full swing, chock-full of men showing
+their teeth.  That set us all up again, and we were like new men.  Round
+went our boat's head, and we were off in full pursuit of the slaver, the
+lads pulling so hard that we got alongside before the launch could
+overtake us, swarmed over her low gunwale, and went at the slaver's crew
+tooth and nail, so savage that every man of us showed them the cutlass
+practice in fine style, driving them back step by step till if we had
+had strength enough we should have driven them overboard or down below;
+but they were too strong for us.  Put half-a-pound weight in a scale,
+sir, if there's a pound in t'other it is too much for it, and so it was
+here, sir.  We boarded her from the starn, and had driven them right up
+into the bows, but being a bit india-rubbery, when they could get no
+farther they bounced back on us and we were being driven step by step
+along the deck, farther and farther aft, till they gathered theirselves
+together with a rush, yelling like demons, and the next thing would have
+been that such of us as could stand would have been driven over into our
+boat again.  But there was a regular hearty British cheer when we least
+expected it, for we had forgotten all about our other boat, and there
+were the launchers swarming over her bows and taking them in the rear.
+That made our lads take heart again.  We cheered back, and charged, and
+there were the slavers, blacks, half-breeds and Portuguese, took, as you
+might say, between the jaws of a big rat-trap, every one of whose teeth
+was a British sailor; and to save being chopped in two, down they all
+tumbled into the slaver's hold, trapped themselves like the poor
+wretches the hold was packed with.  My word, Mr Rodd, sir, there are
+some things as a fellow never can forget, and that was one of them.  It
+was just awful, sir!"
+
+"What, did you kill them all?" cried Rodd, horror-stricken.
+
+"Nay, sir, not one.  We might have killed some of them if they had kept
+on showing fight; and I don't say, mind you, as some of them hadn't got
+some very awkward cuts, for when a British tar's fighting in a good
+cause, and been knocked about till his monkey's well up, his habit is to
+hit hard; but there, as soon as we had driven that lot below they
+chucked their knives and axes and pikes away and began to howl for
+mercy.  What I meant was so awful was that place down below--that there
+hold with the slaver's crew trampling about and trying to hide
+themselves amongst the chained-up cargo.  Awful aren't the word for it,
+sir!  The lads couldn't stand it: let alone the sick and dying, there
+were some there that must have been dead for days, and that in a close
+hold in a sea like this!  But I believe it was much hotter.  Even the
+slaver's crew themselves begged to be let out--and there, I won't say
+any more about it.  It was quite time even then that our old country
+began to put a stop to the slave trade, and I am sorry to say they
+aren't done it yet.  That's what made us chaps to-night so free-and-easy
+with that there boat's crew.  You see, you can't help liking fellows who
+are trying to put a stop to things like that."
+
+"No, Joe, of course not.  But that's not what they are down here for."
+
+"Who says so, sir?"
+
+"Why, that midshipman, Mr Lindon, told me so."
+
+"Well, he ought to know, sir.  What did he say they were here for,
+then?"
+
+"He didn't say, only that it was private and he couldn't speak."
+
+"Well, I don't know, then, only a man-of-war wouldn't be down here for
+nothing; that's pretty sure.  Maybe we shall run into company with them
+again some day, and then I dare say we shall know.  They gave us lads a
+fright, but I aren't sorry we met them, sir, for it was a bit of a
+change.  Yes, Mr Rodd, sir, they are down here on some business
+pertickler secret and sealed orders; but you wait a bit, sir, and I dare
+say one of these days you'll find out."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+OH, MURTHER!
+
+Rodd was early on deck next morning for his bath, which consisted of so
+many buckets of water fresh fished up and dashed upon him by the men as
+a makeshift, consequent upon Captain Chubb telling him that he could not
+have any swims on account of the sharks.  "Can't spare you, my lad," he
+had said.  "But I haven't seen a shark," grumbled Rodd.  "No, my lad,
+but they would very soon see you.  You never know where those gentlemen
+are."
+
+So Rodd went on deck when sea and sky looked dim and a faint mist lay
+low upon the surface of the ocean, making everything indistinct.  "She's
+gone, sir; she's gone!"
+
+"Who's she, and where has she gone?" said Rodd, rather sleepily.
+
+"The _Diadem_, sir."
+
+"What, the sloop of war?  Not she!  You will see her come peeping out of
+the fog yonder before long."
+
+"Nay, sir; she's gone right off, and it's all right.  My word, I wish we
+had got a fiddle here!"
+
+"A fiddle!  What for?"
+
+"Hornpipe, sir.  The boys are all bubbling over and don't know how to
+bear themselves.  Nothing like a few kicks up and down the deck to a
+well-played old tune, to get rid of it all."
+
+"Why, what are you talking about?" cried Rodd.
+
+"Talking about, sir?  Ah, you never knowed what it was to be a sailor,
+and when you are free never knowing for a moment how soon you may be
+pressed.  Why, I don't believe there was a man Jack on us as slept a
+wink last night with thinking about this morning."
+
+"What, for fear you would be pressed, after what uncle said?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir.  Your uncle meant right enough, and he believed what he
+said, and that there lieutenant was civil enough; but a second
+lieutenant aren't a first lieutenant, sir, and a first lieutenant aren't
+a post-captain.  We all talked a bit last night, and put that and that
+together, and Isaac Gregg, who aren't a very wise chap--you see, sir,
+he's got too much fat about him to leave room for anything else--but he
+said something smart last night.  `Yes,' he says, `my lads, that all
+sounds right enough, but suppose when that boat got back the captain
+says, Yes, he says, it's all very well, and I dare say that there gent
+got leave from Government to man his schooner and come down here
+bottling sea-leeches and other insects of that kind; but I am short of
+men for the King's ship, and that's more consequence than what he's
+doing of.  So you just start back at daybreak in the boat with my
+compliments to Dr Robson, saying I'm very sorry, but he must please
+hand over six of the best lads he's got.'"
+
+"Oh, nonsense, Joe!  The captain would be too much of a gentleman."
+
+"Being a gentleman, sir, is being a gentleman, but duty's duty, and
+officers and sailors have to give up everything to that.  Last night,
+whether we was on the watch, or turned in to our hot bunks, every man
+Jack of us felt that the Bun was right, and a bit envious of him,
+because, poor chap, he would have been safe.  They wouldn't have took
+him; but we all of us fully expected to see that boat coming back for us
+this morning.  But not only aren't there no boat, but the sloop's
+slipped away in the night and gone."
+
+"Where's she gone, then?"
+
+"Well, that's what we don't know, sir, and we don't care."
+
+"But are you sure, Joe?  She may be lying off yonder in the mist."
+
+"Oh no, she aren't, sir.  Two on us have been up right aloft till we
+could lay our hands on the main truck; and when you are up there you are
+looking right over the fog.  It's wonderful how close it lies to the
+water.  It's all right, sir, and I believe we are safe.  Aren't you
+glad?"
+
+"Of course I am, Joe."
+
+"I know you are, sir.  But just you think what we must be, just about
+five hundred times as glad as you are, and we are all ready for anything
+you like.  What's it to be to-day?"
+
+"Well, I don't think we shall do much.  Uncle will consider it too hot."
+
+"Hot, sir?  Not it!  Just right.  We shan't mind.  Fishing, netting,
+rowing.  You tell him not to think about us.  It will just warm us up,
+for most on us had the shivers all night."
+
+The low mist began to lift soon after Rodd had had his bath, for the
+level rays of the sun began to pierce the grey haze as the great orange
+orb slowly rolled up from the depths of ocean, investing it with the
+loveliest of pearly tints and iridescent hues, while not a speck of sail
+or the clearly marked lines of topmasts could be seen upon the horizon
+line.
+
+"Well," said the doctor, at breakfast, as Rodd told him what the men had
+said, "the heat will be very great, but I shouldn't spare myself.  If I
+gave up my researches to-day it would be for the sake of the men."
+
+"You needn't consider them that way, sir," said Captain Chubb.  "They
+would rather you didn't.  But couldn't you do something that would spare
+my deck a little?"
+
+"Well, I am afraid that's impossible, Captain Chubb," said the doctor.
+
+"Ah, well, sir," said the captain, with a sigh, "I suppose you must go
+on; but it seems a pity when everything's so white and clean."
+
+So the captain's decks suffered all day, and were swabbed clean again,
+while that evening before the mists began to gather there was a fresh
+surprise.
+
+Rodd took it into his head to go up to the main cross-trees with the
+glass.  He had said nothing, but he had some idea as to the possibility
+of the sloop coming into sight again, and he had made up his mind if he
+could see her in the distance to give Captain Chubb a broad hint, and
+urge him to press on full sail right through the night.
+
+It was very glorious, Rodd thought, as he perched himself up aloft on
+the cross-trees, after finding the heavy glass very much in his way as
+he climbed.
+
+"It's beautiful up here; but--"
+
+He did not finish his remark to himself, but got his left arm well round
+the mast, adjusted the glass, and began slowly to sweep the horizon.
+
+He felt in a state of doubt and suspicion, fully expecting that at any
+moment the tapering masts of the sloop might slowly creep into the field
+ready to damp his hopes, for his feelings were completely on the side of
+the men.  But as slowly and carefully he ran the glass along what seemed
+to be the very edge of the world, his spirits rose.
+
+"Nothing--nothing," he kept on muttering to himself.  "Oh, how big the
+world is, after all!  Here we are, just like a speck on the ocean, quite
+alone, and though there must be thousands of ships and boats sailing
+about, not one in sight, and in about another ten minutes all will be
+bright starlight again--and let's see, I began here, and I've swept the
+sea right round, and just in time, for before I could go round again or
+half-way it will be quite dark--and--What's that?" he cried excitedly.
+
+He started violently, and his hands trembled so that he had great
+difficulty in steadying the glass to fix it upon that which had suddenly
+caught his eye.
+
+"Nothing!" he muttered impatiently.  "It was my fancy.  I made as sure
+as possible, just as I was going to lower the glass, that I could see
+the three masts of the sloop standing right out yonder towards the west.
+All rubbish and imagination," he muttered.  "I pictured that because it
+was what I was afraid of seeing when--Oh-h-h!  It wasn't fancy!  There
+she is!  Oh, there she is, after all!"
+
+He looked sharply down at the deck, which was occupied only by four of
+the men, the skipper and Uncle Paul being in the cabin.  But one of
+these men was Joe Cross, and Rodd chirruped faintly to attract's the
+sailor's attention.
+
+"Make out anything, sir?"
+
+"Come up here, Joe," replied Rodd, in a low tone, and the man sprang to
+the ratlines and began rapidly to ascend till he was nearly on a level
+with the occupant of the cross-trees.
+
+"See a whale spouting, sir?  I should have thought it was getting too
+dark."
+
+"No, Joe; but I have just made out the sloop with the glass."
+
+"Nay, sir!  Don't say that!" cried the man, in a startled tone.
+
+"Take the glass, Joe.  I am afraid it's true."
+
+"Oh, murther! as Pat says," groaned the sailor, as he hurriedly adjusted
+the glass and began to sweep the horizon in the direction Rodd pointed
+out, a few points on the starboard bow.  "Can't see nothing, sir.  Were
+you sure?"
+
+"Yes, Joe; quite."
+
+"But it's getting dark too fast, sir.  I can make nothing out.  If you
+are right, though, she mayn't have seen us and may be out of sight again
+by morning.--Ah, I've got her!"
+
+"There, I knew I was right, Joe."
+
+"Not quite, sir.  Yes, I've got her quite plain now, but she's dying out
+fast.  It aren't a man-of-war.  It's a two-master of some kind.  A big
+schooner or a brig.  It's all right, sir.  There's life in a mussel,
+after all.  My word, though, didn't it bring my heart up into my mouth!"
+
+"Are you sure it's not a three-master, Joe?" cried Rodd joyously.
+
+"Sartin sure, sir.  Why, you talk as frightened like as we poor lads
+were."
+
+"What vessel was it, then?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know what she was, sir.  I only know what she warn't.
+That's enough for us, eh, sir?  I say, sir; what weather!  Rather
+different to what we had in the French port.  Looks settled too.  Nice
+and cool the air feels.  There, it's only fancy, but it's just as if I
+could sniff the land."
+
+"How far are we away, Joe?" asked Rodd.
+
+"Long way, sir.  But I say, Mr Rodd, sir, I wouldn't say anything down
+below.  It'd only skeer the lads and set them thinking all night."
+
+"But wouldn't you say anything about having seen that ship?"
+
+"Oh, if you like, sir.  The skipper ought to know.  But I can swear she
+warn't a man-of-war, and that's enough for us.  Oh, there is the
+skipper.  My word, though, you can hardly see him!  Curus, isn't it, how
+the mist begins to gather?  Pretty good sign we are not so very far off
+the shore.  Will you hail him, sir, or shall I?"
+
+"You, Joe."
+
+A brief conversation ensued, question and answer ending by Joe's
+declaration that he believed it was a brig; and then they descended to
+the deck.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+DREAMY.
+
+Very curious incidents are sometimes invented, but the most extravagant
+can be matched by others that have really occurred.
+
+One of the last things that had been talked about that evening had been
+the vessel of which Rodd had caught a glimpse in the short tropic
+twilight just as it was being swallowed up by the darkness and mist of
+night.  Joe Cross had incidentally said that he believed it was a brig,
+and that night as Rodd lay half asleep, half wakeful, in his cot, kept
+from finding the customary repose of a tired lad by the heat of the
+narrow cabin below, the word brig brought to mind the vessel that had so
+nearly run upon them in Havre-de-Grace, and in a drowsy stupid way he
+had pictured her tall tapering spars, the flapping of her stay-sail, and
+the rush of the storm.
+
+Then all was blank, till all at once it seemed as if time had elapsed
+and he was picturing the French brig once more, knowing that it was the
+_Jeanne d'Arc_, though all was darkness and he only caught sight of the
+vessel now and then, by the flashing of the fort guns, while the roar of
+their reports echoed loudly above the rush of the wind as the brave
+vessel tacked from side to side of the harbour, striving to reach the
+mouth and escape out to sea.
+
+It was all very vivid as in a dream.
+
+Flash went the fort gun, there was the roar of the report, and all was
+darkness, again and again, while somehow--he could not tell how it was--
+the heat was intense, and Rodd threw up one hand, which came in contact
+with the top of his cot with a sharp rap.
+
+"Bah!  It hurts," muttered the boy; and then dream and reality merged in
+one, for there was another flash and the roar as if of half-a-dozen
+guns.
+
+But the boy was awake now to the fact that he was not dreaming of the
+escape of the French brig, but far south of the Equator, lying half
+stifled in his cot, listening to the roar of a tropic storm, while every
+now and then the cabin which he shared with his uncle was lit up by the
+vivid flashes, which were succeeded by fresh roars.
+
+"What a storm," thought Rodd, "and how hot!"
+
+He slipped out of his cot to go and thrust open the cabin window.
+
+"Hear the thunder, uncle?" he said.
+
+But it had ceased for the moment, the last peal dying softly away, and
+for answer to his question he had only the deep regular breathing of a
+sound sleeper.
+
+"He must have been tired," thought the boy, and creeping closer to the
+cabin window he thrust out his hand to let in more air, but found the
+window wide open as it could be.
+
+"He must have found out how hot it was and done that himself," thought
+Rodd, as he knelt softly upon the bulkhead to try and breathe the fresh
+air; but it was hot and half suffocating, while the blackness was
+intense.  One moment there was a faint quivering somewhere above, and
+just enough to show him the murkiness of the sea which spread out from
+beneath him far away like so much blackened oil touched for a few brief
+instants with streaks of gold.
+
+"Why, there isn't a breath of air," thought Rodd, and then he started
+back, dazzled by the brilliant glare of the lightning, which made him
+involuntarily close his eyes and keep them shut till the terrific crash
+of thunder, which seemed to burst exactly over his head, had gone
+rolling away as if its echoes were composed of gigantic cannon balls
+passing slowly down metallic tunnels right away into space.
+
+"That was a startler," said the boy to himself.  "How awful, but how
+grand!  It's rather hard to think that the danger's in the lightning,
+and that there is nothing in the thunder to hurt."
+
+Then once more all was black silence above and below, and all beyond the
+cabin window seemed to be solid.
+
+"I never saw a storm like this at home," thought the boy.  "Uncle can
+sleep!"
+
+There was another brilliant flash, but this time Rodd felt prepared and
+did not shrink.  He only knelt, gazing out of the stern window,
+impressed by the grandeur of that which he had seen.
+
+Behind him he felt that everything in the cabin had been as light as
+day, but away from him all around he had looked upon a vivid picture, a
+gloriously wondrous cloudscape stretching far above and reflected far
+beneath in the smooth, oily, gently heaving sea--a grand vision of
+mountains of blue and gold and purple, which quivered before his eyes
+for a few moments in such vivid intensity that his eyeballs ached; then
+all was black again for a few moments, and then came the deep-toned roar
+as of hundreds of distant mighty cannons; not a sudden, sharp, metallic
+crash as in the last instance, but a deep murmurous intonation which
+made the woodwork of the schooner tremble.
+
+Rodd felt no fear--nothing but a sense of awe at the grandeur of the
+storm, and it was with a feeling of eagerness that he waited for the
+next flash.  But a minute passed before there was a faint quivering
+which slightly lit up the sea, to give place to blackness, silence and
+darkness.  Then there was another faint quivering light that seemed to
+come from somewhere behind where he stood, and again he waited for one
+of those vivid flashes that should show up the configuration of the
+clouds shaped in mountain and valley and distant cave.
+
+And many minutes must have passed, during which time Rodd listened in
+the appalling silence for the distant soft and increasing rushing sound
+of the coming rain, even as he had listened before in far-off Devon to
+the coming of some summer storm.
+
+"There will be wind too," he thought.  "I wonder whether all is made
+fast aloft; for a storm like this," he continued, in his ignorance,
+"can't come without a tremendous wind and a rush of rain."
+
+His next thought was that he would go on deck and see what the watch
+were about; but he hesitated to stir, for the thought of the gorgeous
+cloudscape he had seen fascinated him and held him to his place.
+
+"I needn't worry about that," he thought.  "Captain Chubb's sure to be
+on deck.  He wouldn't sleep like we do.  If I go and open the cabin door
+it will wake uncle up.  Hah!  It's quivering again.  The storm can't be
+over like this.  Now there's another big flash coming."
+
+He had hardly formed the thought when from quite up in the zenith down
+into the depths of the sea the arch of heaven seemed to open out in a
+sharp jagged line of vivid blue light, shutting again instantaneously,
+and the boy knelt gazing before him in wonder, for there, about a mile
+away, with every spar and yard and rope standing out black against the
+blue light, was the picture--the model, it seemed to him to be--of a
+tall-masted brig sitting motionless upon the water; and then it was
+gone.
+
+"Why, that must have been the one we saw," thought Rodd, and he strained
+his eyes again as he listened for the roar of the thunder that should
+have succeeded the vivid zigzag flash of electricity; but it did not
+come, and he waited and waited in the darkness in vain, trying to grasp
+how it could be that a storm should come to an end in so strange and
+unsatisfactory a way according to his lights, and why there should be
+neither rain nor wind.
+
+He waited, trying hard now to pierce the black darkness, but trying in
+vain.
+
+There was nothing to see, nothing to hear, and in spite of the wonder
+and awe that had pervaded him, Rodd Harding now behaved like a very
+ordinary human being, for he yawned, felt sleepy and that he was not so
+hot as he was before, and thinking that it was no use to stop there any
+longer, and that he might as well dress, he crept softly back to his cot
+and stood thinking again.
+
+"Can't be anything like morning," he said to himself, "and I shall be
+able to see that brig then.  Why, I remember now; I was dreaming about
+the storm at Havre, and that vessel--what was it?  The _Jeanne d'Arc_--
+escaping, and the forts firing at her; and I saw the flashes from the
+guns.  Of course; how absurd!  That was the thunder and lightning,
+and--"
+
+Rodd slipped slowly on to his pillow, yawned again, muttered something
+about how sleepy he felt, and the next moment he was off as soundly as
+his uncle; but only, it seemed to him, to begin dreaming directly after
+about the escaping of the brig, and the storm, mingled with the noise
+and the shouting of people ashore, and a heavy bump from somewhere close
+at hand; and then the boy was wide awake again, springing up so suddenly
+in his cot that it was not his hand but his head that struck with a rap
+against the woodwork, as a voice that he hardly recognised in the
+confusion shouted--
+
+"Rodd, boy!  Quick--on deck!  The schooner's going down!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+STRANGE PROCEEDINGS.
+
+"Is it a wreck, uncle?" panted Rodd.
+
+"I thought so, boy," cried Uncle Paul; "but don't talk.  Slip on two or
+three things."
+
+He was still speaking, when there was a rush down the cabin stairs, and
+the captain shouted--
+
+"Quick, doctor!  Your pistols and a gun!  We are attacked!"
+
+The words thrilled through Rodd, and the next minute he had seized a
+double gun and was ready to follow his uncle and the skipper on deck,
+where in the faint light of morning he found nearly the whole of the
+crew gathered across the after part of the deck, armed with capstan bars
+for the moment, while the mate and Joe Cross were rapidly handing round
+cutlasses and pikes.  The forward part of the schooner was in the hands
+of strangers, all well-armed; others were climbing over the bows from a
+boat which was made fast alongside, while hurried orders were being
+given to them in French by a tall, dark, grey-haired man, sword in one
+hand, pistol in the other.
+
+"What's the meaning of this?" panted Uncle Paul to the skipper, while
+Rodd felt as if he were not yet awake, and suddenly recalled the fact
+that he had armed himself with a perfectly useless weapon, for in his
+excitement he had forgotten powder flask and bullets, having instead of
+the latter brought a belt containing small shot.
+
+"Pirates or privateers, sir," replied the skipper hotly, "but just give
+us time.  Be smart, my lads.  Pikes and cutlasses, and then all together
+with a will!"
+
+"For heaven's sake let's have no bloodshed, Captain Chubb!" cried Uncle
+Paul, catching the skipper by the arm.
+
+"Not my wish, sir," said the captain shortly; "but this is my schooner
+while I command her, and I'm going to clear this deck."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" came in a low, eager murmur from the men.
+
+"There, sir," said the skipper; "you and the lad stand back.  Ready, my
+lads?"
+
+"No, no!" cried Uncle Paul, who saw that the strangers forward, all as
+well-armed as the schooner's crew, were eagerly waiting for the order to
+advance from their leader, each party being ready to be let slip for
+what might prove to be a desperate encounter.
+
+Rodd grasped this, and then felt puzzled as he saw a youth of about his
+own age suddenly elbow his way to the front to stand beside the leader.
+
+Suddenly awakened as he had been from sleep, Rodd felt more confused
+than ever, for the sight of the youth, who from his dress seemed to be
+the second officer, added to his confusion, though for the moment he
+could hardly tell why.
+
+And this just as Uncle Paul was grasping the skipper's arm and saying--
+
+"Don't be hasty.  These cannot be pirates.  There must be some mistake."
+
+"Maybe, sir, but these fellows who have boarded us have made it.  Now,
+sir, once more, stand back and let us clear the deck.  They can talk
+when they are back in their boats."
+
+There was a few moments' silence, each side seeming unwilling to begin,
+and taking advantage of an apparent hesitancy on the part of the strange
+leader, Uncle Paul instead of stepping back raised his hand and
+advanced, Rodd springing to his side, while their movement was exactly
+followed by the chief intruder and the youth who stepped to his side.
+
+"Now, sir," cried Uncle Paul firmly, in French.
+
+"I understand English," was the reply.
+
+"I am very glad," said Uncle Paul.  "Now, sir, you see that we are
+well-armed and prepared.  What is the meaning of this attack?"
+
+"Ah, I am glad, sir," said the stranger courteously.  "Pray keep your
+men back, and I will mine."
+
+"Tell them to clear off the deck, then, doctor.  There must be no talk
+here."
+
+"Be silent, Captain Chubb!" cried Uncle Paul sternly.  "We must have no
+bloodshed."
+
+"No, sir," cried his opponent quickly, and in very excellent English.
+"We are no pirates.  I am the captain of that brig, and in urgent need
+of help."
+
+"And this is a very strange way of asking for it, sir."
+
+"Yes, yes, I know, my friend," cried the other hotly, "but it was forced
+upon me by circumstances.  I have need of your vessel, and I must have
+it at all costs--peacefully if you will, and I am ready to recompense
+you, the owner, for any loss of cargo at your destination which you may
+incur; but I must have the use of this little ship."
+
+"Indeed, sir!" said Uncle Paul, with a peculiar smile.  "And if I say
+you cannot have it; what then?"
+
+"Then, sir," said the stranger haughtily, "you see we are prepared.  I
+shall be compelled to take it from you by force."
+
+"Ah-h-h!" came like a low growl of satisfaction from the schooner's
+crew, and Rodd was conscious of a rather ominous movement on the part of
+the men, who began moistening their hands and taking a firmer grip of
+their weapons.
+
+Rodd was drinking in this colloquy, which filled him with wild
+excitement; but all the time he kept glancing from the young officer who
+stood sword in hand to the brig he had seen over-night and again thrown
+up by the storm, still lying about the same distance away from the
+schooner, and then with his head suddenly seeming to become clearer he
+cried out aloud--
+
+"Uncle, those are the officers we saw at Havre, and that's the brig that
+escaped."
+
+"You--you were at Havre!" cried the elder officer excitedly; and he
+stepped closer to Rodd, his young companion, watchful and on the alert,
+following his example and keeping close as if to defend him from any
+attempted seizure.
+
+"Yes, yes, of course," cried Rodd, without looking at the speaker, his
+eyes being fixed upon the young man.
+
+"Then this is a French vessel?" cried the officer.
+
+"No, sir," replied Uncle Paul.  "It is my schooner, and I am not in
+pursuit of your brig."
+
+"Why, it is!" cried Rodd suddenly, as he dropped the butt of his
+unloaded gun with a thud upon the deck.  "I thought I knew you again!--
+Uncle, this is the young French prisoner I helped to escape from
+Dartmoor."
+
+Before he could say another word the sword the young Frenchman held
+dropped from his hand to the extent of its gold-laced knot, and to
+Rodd's confusion a pair of thin arms were flung about his neck and he
+was held tightly to the young stranger's breast.
+
+"Oh, _mon ami_! _mon ami_!  My dear friend!" he cried.  "Do we meet once
+more like this?  _Mon pere, c'est le jeune Anglais qui nous a sauves
+dans cet affreux temps_."
+
+"Moray!" cried the officer, looking stunned.  "Is this true?"
+
+"True?  Oh yes!  Oh yes!" cried the lad, speaking now in English.  "You,
+young angler, fisherman, this is my dear father."
+
+To Rodd's false shame and confusion, he had to submit to another
+embrace, for before he could realise what was about to happen the
+officer had followed his son's example and not only embraced him, but
+kissed him on both cheeks.
+
+"Well, this is a queer set out," said Uncle Paul.  "Then you are the two
+fellows who broke into my bedroom and helped yourselves to my purse?"
+
+"Ha, ha!  Yes, my friend," cried the officer, laughing; "but you and
+your brave son will forgive.  We were poor exiles and prisoners fighting
+for our liberty, and you will let us make amends."
+
+"Oh, well, you did," said Uncle Paul bluffly; "but that is no excuse for
+turning pirates and trying to rob me of my ship at the point of the
+sword."
+
+"No, no," cried the officer hastily, "but you are a brave Englishman,
+and you and your son--"
+
+"No, sir, my nephew."
+
+"--will forgive.  One moment; let me think!" cried the officer, as he
+dragged his hand from out of his sword-knot and thrust the blade into
+its sheath.  "Yes, yes, let me think.  I have it, Morny," and turning to
+his followers he uttered a short sharp command which resulted in his men
+swinging themselves over the side and entering the two boats in which
+they had effected the surprise of the schooner.
+
+At their first movement in retreat the skipper's crew burst into a loud
+jeering laugh, and made as if to rush forward; but at a word from
+Captain Chubb they were silenced and held back.
+
+"I thank you, sir," said the French officer, raising his hat to the
+skipper.  "It was well done.  Now let me speak; let me explain," and he
+looked from Rodd to his uncle and back, and then gave a glance at the
+skipper, while the two lads stood hand in hand.
+
+"It was like this," he said; "you saw us at Havre that stormy day, and
+of course my brig nearly crushed into your vessel.  Then we lay at
+anchor close together till that order came down from a vile insensate
+Government to seize upon my vessel and my crew.  It was the work of
+enemies, and I had to set sail at once, or once more my son and I would
+have had to pass years in the inside of a prison, not as culprits,
+monsieur, but as honourable gentlemen, French nobles, whose only crime
+was fidelity to one,"--and as he spoke he stopped short, uttering the
+word _one_ with grave reverence, as he took off his hat--an example
+followed by his son.  "Well, gentlemen, I cannot explain to you.  There
+is not time.  Only this--you saw that I made what you English call a
+dash for it--for freedom.  It was like madness, but we said we would
+rather trust the storm than the French Government.  They sent boats full
+of soldiers to seize us, but we kept on.  They opened fire upon us from
+the forts, but we did not shrink."
+
+"Yes, yes, we saw all," cried Uncle Paul, "and a very brave dash you
+made."
+
+Captain Chubb, who had listened, frowning heavily the while, uttered a
+low grunt.
+
+"And a very fine bit of seamanship, sir," he said, and the officer
+turned to him and raised his hat.
+
+"It was desperate, sir," he said gravely, "and I knew that I was risking
+the lives of my dear son and all on board; but no man there shrank.
+Well, sir, my story is long, but I must excuse myself for my conduct
+here.  It is enough.  We battled with the storm, as you saw, and
+escaped."
+
+"I always said you had gone down," grunted Captain Chubb.
+
+"No, sir.  We escaped with but one wound, and that was to my poor
+vessel; and since the night when we left Havre-de-Grace upon my mission
+it has been one long struggle, as you would say, for life."
+
+"Indeed, sir?"
+
+"Yes," said the officer sadly, and he pointed over the side towards
+where the beautiful duck-like brig with its taper spars sat the smooth
+sea, but with a steady stream of water trickling down her side.  "My
+chief officer and my men have worked in every way they knew long days
+and weeks; but it is of no use.  I would not give up the great object
+upon which I have come, but it is forced upon us at last that before
+many days have gone over our heads that vessel will lie far down in the
+depths of the ocean.  Do you not see how low she is in the water?"
+
+"Eh?" cried the skipper eagerly.  "Eh?  I thought she was low down with
+cargo.  You've sprung a leak?"
+
+"A cannon ball crashed through her, sir, and we have never been able to
+master that leak."
+
+"Then why in the name of thunder didn't you put into port?" cried the
+skipper contemptuously.
+
+The officer smiled.
+
+"I cannot explain," he said.  "There was not time.  I had work to do--a
+task that I had promised to fulfil, and we held on till it was forced
+upon me that I must get another vessel or stand with my men upon the
+deck and let our brave _Roi Dagobert_ sink beneath our feet."
+
+"That wasn't her name at Havre," said the downright skipper.
+
+"No, sir," said the officer, smiling; "but were we not pursued?  Would
+not news of our escape be sent far and wide?  We were obliged to assume
+another disguise.  The _Jeanne d'Arc_, we said, sank at Havre.  That is
+the _Roi Dagobert_ floating still; but for how long?"
+
+"I don't quite see that," said the skipper bluntly.
+
+"No?" said the officer.  "Monsieur has never passed long years as a
+prisoner of war."
+
+"Well, no," grunted the skipper.  "Maybe that might have made me a bit
+shifty."
+
+"There, sir," said the officer, turning now to Uncle Paul; "that is my
+excuse for this desperate venture--this attempt to seize your vessel.
+My business is urgent.  I am a nobleman, a count of the French Empire,
+and I offer you any recompense you like to name if you will give up to
+me your vessel, leaving me full command for a week--a month--such time
+as I may need."
+
+"And if I say, sir, that I cannot accede to what you must own are wild
+demands," said Uncle Paul, "what then?"
+
+"What then?" said the officer slowly.
+
+"You mean that you will attack us, and the strongest wins?"
+
+The officer was silent, and he turned his eyes upon his son, who left
+Rodd and took his extended hands, both standing silent for a few
+moments.
+
+"No, sir," he said at last, slowly and gravely.  "Neither my son nor I
+can raise our hands against those who gave us liberty, almost life.
+Morny, my boy, we will do our duty to the last, and try to keep the poor
+_Roi Dagobert_ afloat.  She may live long enough, even as she has kept
+afloat so long.  If she sinks with us--well, my boy, we shall have done
+our duty to him we serve, and our names may not be forgotten in our
+country's rolls."
+
+There was silence for a few moments, which was broken at last by Rodd.
+
+"But I say, uncle," he cried eagerly, "you always said you had plenty of
+time, and--"
+
+The young officer turned quickly upon the speaker with an eager
+questioning look, but before Uncle Paul could speak, Captain Chubb took
+off his cap and stood scratching his head in the now bright morning
+sunshine.
+
+"Look here, Mr Count," he said; "I am only a rough Englishman, and a
+lot of what you have been saying about mission and that sort of thing is
+just so much Greek to me.  But do you mean to tell me that you got a
+ball through the bottom of your smart brig that night in Havre, and have
+never been able to stop the leak?"
+
+"Yes, yes; that is so, my friend.  My chief officer has tried everything
+that he could do, but we could not get at the place.  And look yonder!
+The pump has been kept going ever since."
+
+"Well, sir," continued Captain Chubb, "I don't know your first mate, and
+I don't want to say hard things of a man who could take that there smart
+craft out of the French harbour as he did that night.  He is a very fine
+sailor, sir.  But if I aren't got a carpenter on board this schooner as
+would give him ninety out of a hundred and then beat him, without
+bringing to work the little bit I knows myself, why, I'm a Dutchman, and
+that I aren't."
+
+"Ah!" cried the Count excitedly.  "You think--"
+
+"No, sir; I don't say I think anything without having a look.  But as
+there don't seem to be any fighting going on, and you and the doctor
+here turns out to be old friends, why, before you talk of throwing up
+your job and taking to your boats--which would be a much more sensible
+thing to do than going down with colours flying when there warn't no
+need, and setting aside getting some fresh water and provisions into
+your boats and making for a place on the West Afric coast--I should just
+like to come on board your craft with my man and see what mightn't be
+done by stopping that there leak."
+
+"My friend!" cried the Count excitedly, and he caught the skipper by the
+hands.
+
+"Well, sir," said the skipper, with a grim smile, "if you are Mr Rodd's
+and the doctor's friend and wants to be friends with me, why, Tom Chubb
+aren't the man to say no and want to keep enemies.  So there's my fin.
+But look 'ere, you know," he continued, as he gave the Count's thin
+white hand a tremendous grip, "yours was a very queer way of coming upon
+us, and might have meant some nasty marks on my white decks.  You can't
+help being a Frenchman, but do you know what an Englishman would have
+done?  He'd have just come here civil like and said, `Look here,
+strangers, we have sprung a leak, and we are going down.  Come and lend
+us a hand at the pumps.'"
+
+"Ah, yes, of course," said the Count warmly.  "It is what I should have
+done."
+
+"And you would like me to come aboard and see if there's anything we can
+do?"
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried the Count eagerly.
+
+"All right, then, sir," said the skipper coolly; "I am sailing under the
+doctor's orders, and if he's willing, I'm your man."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+A SHIP SURGEON.
+
+"Well, Mr Rodd, sir," said Captain Chubb, as he and the lad stood
+watching the regular dip of oars in the brig's two boats as they glided
+back over the tranquil sea to where their vessel lay motionless in the
+calm.  "Well, Mr Rodd, sir, don't you wish you'd been born a
+Frenchman?"
+
+"No," cried the boy sharply.  "I am thankful I was born English."
+
+"And so you ought to be, my lad.  Of all the crackbrained, sentimental,
+outrageous chaps I ever met there's none of them comes up to a
+Frenchman."
+
+"Oh, you are too bad, Captain Chubb."
+
+"Too bad, eh?  Why, aren't they always kicking up a dust and making
+revolutions, cutting off their kings' and queens' heads, and then going
+to war with all the world, with their Napoleons and Bonapartes and all
+the rest of them?  Call themselves men!"
+
+"Why, you are as bad as uncle," cried Rodd merrily.  "You and he ought
+to be always the best of friends.  But, if you speak fairly you must own
+that they are very gallant men."
+
+"Gallant men!" cried the skipper scornfully.  "I don't call them men.  I
+call them monkeys!  Men!  Butchers, as cut off the head of their
+beautiful Queen Mary What-you-may-call-it, and then after shedding blood
+like that, sending no end of poor women who never did them a bit of harm
+to that guillotine.  I'd be ashamed of myself, Mr Rodd, to take their
+part."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" cried Rodd warmly.  "I say that the Count and his son
+have proved themselves to be very brave fellows.  Why, you owned as much
+yourself about the way in which they escaped with the brig."
+
+"Oh, that was right enough," grumbled the skipper.
+
+"I am not going to deny," continued Rodd, "that there are plenty of
+horrible wretches amongst the French.  And that Revolution was awful;
+but haven't we plenty of bad men amongst the English?"
+
+The skipper chuckled.
+
+"Well, yes, we have had some pretty tidy ones, if you come to read your
+histories.  But I don't know so much about those chaps being brave.  It
+was a very clever bit of seamanship, mind you, that taking the brig out
+in the teeth of the storm with hardly room to tack.  I am not a bad
+pilot in my way when I like to try, but I will be honest over it; I
+daren't have tried that job.  It was a very clean thing.  But look here,
+my lad.  It's no use for you to try and crack that up, because him who
+did it must have been as mad as a hatter, and between ourselves, that's
+what I think that Count is."
+
+"Oh, fudge, captain!" cried Rodd.  "No more mad than you or I."
+
+"Well, I can answer for myself, my lad," said the skipper, with a
+chuckle, "but that's more than I'd do for you, for you do some precious
+outrageous things sometimes."
+
+"I?" cried Rodd.
+
+"Yes, you, my lad."
+
+"What a shame!" cried Rodd indignantly.  "I defy you to prove that I
+have done anything that you could call mad.  Now tell me something.
+What have you ever known me do that wasn't sensible?"
+
+"Oh, that's soon done," cried the skipper.  "Didn't you go and gammon
+the soldiers when they were after the escaped French prisoners?  Don't
+you call that a mad act?  Fighting against the laws of your country like
+that!"
+
+"Ah, well, I suppose I oughtn't to have helped them, captain; but I
+couldn't help it."
+
+"No, sir, and that's what the Frenchmen would say.  Now, what in the
+world is that chap after, with his mission, as he calls it?  What does
+he mean by coming rampaging out south with a hole in the bottom of his
+brig and the pumps going straight on to keep the water down?  Would any
+one but a lunatic go risking his crew and his vessel like that?"
+
+"Well, it does seem rather wild," replied Rodd thoughtfully.
+
+"Wild?  Well, that's only your way of saying he's stick, stark, staring
+mad.  And here he's been out weeks and weeks, knowing as he says that
+his brig was sinking, when he could have put in at Gib, or the Azores,
+or Las Palmas, or brought up in one of the West Coast rivers, where he
+could run up on the tidal mud, careened his vessel, and set his ship's
+carpenter to work to clap patches upon her bottom outside and in.  Don't
+you call that mad?"
+
+"No.  He might have had reasons for not doing so."
+
+"Ah, that's right, sir; argufy.  You young scholarly chaps who have been
+to big schools and got your heads chock-full of Latin and Greek, you are
+beggars to argufy--chopping logic, I suppose you calls it--and I give
+in.  You could easily beat me at that; just as easily as I could turn
+you round my little finger at navigation.  But I'll have one more go at
+you; I says that there French Count is mad."
+
+"And I say he is not," said Rodd, "only a brave, eccentric nobleman who
+may have a good many more reasons for what he does than we know."
+
+"All right, youngster.  I give you my side.  Now that's yours.  Now,
+just answer me this.  Warn't it the crack-brainedest bit of
+ask-you-to-go-and-borrow-a-new-strait-waistcoat-to-put-me-in sort of
+a job for him to bring his two boat-loads of men, like a
+black-flag-and-cross-boned Paul Jones sort of a pirate, aboard our
+schooner in the dark, thinking he's going to take possession of it to
+use instead of his own brig, when if he'd had any gumption he might have
+managed to patch her up, and--Here, I say, I can't go on talking like
+this before breakfast, my lad.  I must have my bowl of coffee and a bit
+of salt pork and biscuit before I say another word."
+
+"Oh, very well," cried Rodd merrily.  "I see we shan't agree; and we
+don't want to quarrel, do we, captain?"
+
+"Quarrel?  Not us, my lad!  It takes two to do that, and we knows one
+another too well."
+
+"Then look here," cried Rodd, "you are taking it very coolly and talking
+about breakfast; aren't you going to order the boat out and go aboard
+the brig at once?"
+
+"I aren't a-going to do anything till I have had my breakfast," said the
+captain.  "They've spoilt my morning snooze, but I aren't going to let
+them spoil my morning meal, nor my lads' neither."
+
+"But it's urgent," cried Rodd.  "Suppose while you are thinking of
+eating and drinking the brig goes down?"
+
+"Yah!  She won't go down.  If she's floated for weeks like that she'll
+keep her nose above water while I swallow two bowls of coffee.  I can't
+work without something to keep me going.  Let them pump for another
+half-hour, and then we'll go."
+
+"We!" said Rodd sharply.  "That means me too?"
+
+"Oh, ah, if you like to come; only we shall have to keep a sharp
+look-out."
+
+"What, for fear it should sink under us?"
+
+"Nay, I didn't mean that, my lad.  I mean, you see, we are dealing with
+a lunatic."
+
+"Captain!" cried Rodd indignantly.
+
+"Ay, but we are, and there's no knowing what sort of games fellows like
+that will be up to.  I mean to give the mate strict orders to load all
+three guns, and if he sees the Count coming off again with his two boats
+full of men to take possession while he's got us tight, to sink them
+without mercy.  Ah, here's the stooard, welcome, as you might say, as
+the flowers in spring.  Come along, my lad, and let's lay in stores."
+
+In spite of his words and deliberate way of proceeding, Captain Chubb
+had made his arrangements so that within half-an-hour of going down to
+breakfast he had the schooner's boat lowered down with Joe Cross, five
+men, and the carpenter, who had already handed into the boat what he
+called his bag of tricks, the said tricks being composed of an adze,
+saws, chisels, augers, and nails, and very shortly afterwards the oars
+were dipping, and with Uncle Paul and Rodd in the stern-sheets they were
+gliding over the glittering sea and rapidly shortening the distance
+between them and the beautiful brig, which won a string of encomiums
+from the skipper as they drew near.
+
+"Yes, she is a beauty," he said.  "It would be a pity to let her go
+down.  Look at her lines, and the way she's rigged.  If I wanted to sail
+a brig I wouldn't wish for a better; but then, you see, I don't.  She's
+a bit low in the water, though, and no mistake.  Well, we shall see; we
+shall see."
+
+The Count and his son were eagerly awaiting their coming, and welcomed
+them warmly as they mounted the side, while, casting off his show of
+indifference, the skipper cast an admiring glance round the deck of the
+brig, and then gruffly exclaimed--
+
+"Now then, sir, I want your bo'sun.  But look here, can he parley
+English?"
+
+"No," said the Count, "but my son and I will interpret everything you
+wish to hear."
+
+"I don't know as I want to hear anything, sir," growled the skipper.  "I
+want to see for myself, and after that mebbe I shall want to give a few
+orders, which I will ask you to have carried out."
+
+"Yes; everything you wish shall be done directly."
+
+"Umph!" grunted the skipper, looking round.  "Pump rigged, and two men
+trying to keep the water under.  Ought to be four."
+
+"Yes, of course," cried the Count, and he turned to give an order; but
+Captain Chubb clapped his hand upon his arm.
+
+"Hold hard," he said.  "They'll do for a bit.  Now then, I want to go
+below and sound the well."
+
+The Count and his son led the way below, the French crew standing aloof
+and displaying the discipline of a man-of-war, no man leaving his place
+while the skipper made all the investigations he required, and then came
+up on deck with his mahogany face more deeply lined with wrinkles than
+before.
+
+"Well, captain," said Uncle Paul, while Rodd, who had kept close to his
+young friend of the Dartmoor stream, eagerly listened for what their
+expert had to say.
+
+"Well, sir," he said, at last, as he took out a little seal-skin bag and
+deliberately helped himself to a little ready-cut scrap of pigtail
+tobacco, "your craft's in a bad way, and if something isn't done pretty
+smart she'll be down at the bottom before long."
+
+"Yes, yes," cried the Count impatiently, "but we have tried everything,
+and it is impossible to get at the leak."
+
+"Hah!  Tried everything, have you, sir?"
+
+"Yes, yes," cried the Count.  "Some of my brave fellows have been
+half-drowned in diving, trying to plug from inside, using yards to force
+bags of oakum into the holes."
+
+"Yes," said the skipper.  "The ball went right through, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, yes," cried the Count, and Rodd noted that he was having hard work
+to master his impatience and annoyance at the skipper's annoyingly
+deliberate treatment of their urgent needs.
+
+"So I suppose," said the skipper coolly, "but mebbe you haven't done
+quite all; leastwise I should like to try my little plan, and if it
+don't answer, why, you won't be any worse off than you are now; and when
+I give it up as a bad job, why, you will have to take to your boats and
+we shall have to find room for you aboard the schooner.  Now then,
+please, you will just order two more men at that pump, and four more
+ready to take their places so as to keep on pumping hard."
+
+"Yes, yes," cried the Count eagerly.  "What next?"
+
+"Order up what spare sails you've got from the store-room, and a few
+coils of new line."
+
+The Count gave his orders quickly, and his men went off to carry them
+out.
+
+"Good," said the skipper coolly.  "That's smart."
+
+"What next?" cried the Count.
+
+"Well, sir, as quickly as I can, I want to do something to lighten the
+ship."
+
+"No; I must protest!" cried the Count excitedly.  "You are going to
+throw the guns overboard?"
+
+"Humph!" grunted the captain.  "Who said so?  I didn't.  Nay, that'd be
+a pity.  I wouldn't do that till the very last."
+
+"Ah!" sighed the Count, as if deeply relieved.
+
+"Well, the next thing is, sir, just you leave me and my men alone and
+let yours look on till I want their help."
+
+The Count was silent, and all looked on whilst in obedience to the
+skipper's orders the English sailors, led by the carpenter, set busily
+to work, seized upon the new spare sails that were brought up on deck,
+and cast loose the coils of fresh hemp line that were placed ready.
+Then with the skipper putting in a word here and there, resulting in the
+lines being attached to the corners of the largest square-sail, these
+latter were seized by a couple of the men, who dragged the sail forward
+as the brig glided very gently along, for it was nearly calm, and then
+passing the new sail deftly beneath the bowsprit, two of the men
+climbing out and seeming to cling with their feet to the bobstay until
+little by little they had got the edge right beneath the stay.  Then
+while their mates at the corners helped at the lines, they passed down
+the sail right into the sea till they had lowered it to its full extent
+and they could do no more, save once or twice when they hung down from
+the stay and gave the canvas, which was slowly growing saturated, a
+thrust or two with the foot where it seemed disposed to hitch against
+the brig's keel.
+
+And now the skipper took his post upon the bowsprit and gave his orders
+by word or sign to the men who governed the movement of the great square
+of canvas by means of the lines attached to the corners, the two at the
+fore corners of the sail getting outside the bulwarks, barefooted, to
+walk along the streak, and hauling just as much as was necessary to drag
+the sail right beneath the keel, their two messmates preparing to
+follow, and under the captain's guidance keeping all square and exact in
+the effort to get the keel to act as the dividing line to mark the
+oblong into two exact portions.
+
+It was very slow work, for the canvas was stiff and moved unwillingly
+downward beneath the keel; but after a time it began to yield to the
+steady drag of the ropes upon the two fore corners, and, once started,
+progress began to be faster.  For, so to speak, the brig began to help,
+sailing as it were gently more and more over the canvas, till at the end
+of about half-an-hour it was in the position at which the skipper had
+aimed, having while below in the hold pretty well marked down the
+position of the two holes made by the shot from the fort.  These were
+about amidships, some few feet, as far as he could make out, on either
+side of the keel, one naturally being much higher than the other in the
+diagonal course taken by the heavy ball.
+
+At last he called to his men to halt, and took off his cap, to stand
+thinking, the position now being that the sail was drawn right under the
+brig, and the sailors at the four corners were holding on tight to
+prevent the vessel from sailing clear.
+
+So far not a word had been uttered by the Frenchmen, all of whom had
+stood clear or mounted the rigging or deck-house, so as to give the
+Englishmen ample room; but now in the silence Rodd advanced to the
+skipper eagerly, to say--
+
+"Are you sure you have got the canvas well over the holes?"
+
+Captain Chubb made no reply, but stood with his cap in his left hand
+gazing aft, and then he moved his right arm two or three times, as if
+forming an imaginary line through the brig's hull.
+
+"Did you hear me, captain?" said Rodd eagerly.  "Are you sure you have
+got the sail over the holes?"
+
+"No," granted the skipper.  "Are you?"
+
+"No; but I thought--"
+
+"Yes, my lad; so did I.  You thought we ought to get the sail in the
+right place."
+
+"Yes," said Rodd.
+
+"Well, then, now, my lad, I should be much obliged to you if you'd tell
+me which is exactly the right place."
+
+Rodd looked at him in despair.
+
+"Thank you, my lad," said the skipper dryly.  "I am much obliged.  But
+all right, Mr Rodd; you can't tell, and I can't tell.  We know that the
+ball that came from the fort must have gone downwards a bit, so that it
+went out from lower than where it went in; but there's no knowing
+whether she was hit from starboard or from larboard, and that's where
+I'm bothered.  But never say die.  I think we will make this bit of
+canvas fast now, for I'm pretty sure of one thing; it will be a plaister
+for one hole if it isn't for the other."
+
+"But look here, captain," cried Rodd.
+
+"What now?"
+
+"Won't the water run under the canvas just the same as it did before?"
+
+"No, my lad, it won't; and I'll tell you the reason why when we have
+done.  Of course you know I am not going to stop all the water from
+coming in below, but if I can get it checked a bit so that they can keep
+it down easy with one man at the pump instead of two, she won't go to
+the bottom just yet, and they will have time enough to get into port to
+set the carpenter at work."
+
+"Then you won't let our carpenter try to stop the holes?"
+
+"No, my lad.  You see, he never learned to be a fish, so that he could
+work under water; and though he's a bit of a crab in his way, I don't
+think he could manage it for all that.  Now I'm ready to go on.  Come,
+my lads, put your backs into it and haul them sheets tight.  Here,
+master, let two of your men go to each corner and help my lads.  All
+together as hard as they can!" shouted the skipper, and the Count
+quickly translated his order.
+
+"That's right!  Haul away, my lads!" shouted the skipper.  "That new
+canvas won't give.  Harder!  Harder!  Now then, one more--all you
+know!--Make fast!"
+
+"Excellent!  Superb!" cried the Count, as the men ceased from making
+fast the ropes, which were brought over the bulwarks and passed round
+the belaying pins.  "Do you think that will stop the leak?"
+
+"Maybe yes, sir; maybe no.  If it don't do it we will put another
+plaister on, and another, and another.  You have got plenty of spare
+sails and rope, and when we have used all yours I dare say we can find
+some more in the schooner.  Now then, set your men going at that pump,
+and rig up another as quick as you can."
+
+One pump began to clank heavily at once, and a short time after another
+was at work, and the clear bright water began to sparkle out of the
+scuppers, while, moved as it were by the same spirit, the French crew
+burst into a shrill involuntary cheer.
+
+"How can I ever thank you, captain?" cried the Count, while his son
+snatched at Rodd's hand.
+
+"Ah, I haven't done yet, sir," said the skipper coolly.  "This is only a
+try."
+
+"Oh, it's grand," cried the French lad, clinging to Rodd's arm.  "You
+have saved our ship."
+
+"Don't you holloa till you are out of the wood, young fellow," said the
+skipper, as he heard the words.  "Now, Mr Rodd, sir, what was it you
+wanted to know?"
+
+"Why the water will not still rim in underneath the canvas."
+
+"Only because of this, my lad.  Aren't they pumping the water out now as
+fast as ever they can?"
+
+"Yes," cried Rodd; "but more will run in."
+
+"Yes, my lad, and as it runs in won't the weight of the water outside
+push the canvas closer and closer in round the leak?"
+
+"Yes, of course," cried Rodd.  "I didn't think of that.  And as there
+gets less inside it will seem to suck the canvas closer to."
+
+"Quite right, my lad.  That's about the way it works; and now we have
+got to wait for about an hour before we can know whether we have got
+both holes covered, or only one."
+
+"Wait for an hour?" cried Rodd.
+
+"Well, perhaps, before we are sure; but I dare say I shall be going down
+and sounding the well a time or two before that."
+
+But long before the hour had elapsed the skipper found that though the
+water in the brig had subsided to a certain extent, one of the holes
+must be still uncovered, and he began at once to repeat his proceedings,
+coming to the conclusion that one of the bullet-holes was beyond the
+reach of the canvas.  This time, after all was drawn tight,
+half-an-hour's pumping proved that his surmises were correct, and the
+skipper smiled with satisfaction as the Count and his men cheered them
+in delight on finding after a good deal of pumping that there was a very
+perceptible diminution of the water in the hold.
+
+"It is superb, and so simple," cried the Count to Uncle Paul; "but I
+feel humbled, sir.  Why could not our French sailors have been able to
+do this?"
+
+"Well," said Uncle Paul good-humouredly, "the only reason I can give is
+that they were not English."
+
+"That's it, sir," said the skipper.  "You have hit the right nail on the
+head.  But look here, Mr Count--I don't know your name."
+
+"Des Saix," said the Count, smiling.
+
+"Look here, sir; this is nothing to make a fuss about.  It will keep you
+afloat while the weather's fine, but just come a rough time, those sails
+will be ripped off as easily as pocket-handkerchiefs.  Besides, they
+will hinder your sailing no end."
+
+"Ah, that is bad," said the Count, changing countenance.
+
+"Oh no, not it.  There's worse disasters than that at sea."
+
+"But will it not be possible for the carpenters to stop the leaks?"
+
+"No, sir; not unless you do what I say."
+
+"Ah!  What is that?"
+
+"Run your craft up one of the rivers to where you can careen on the mad,
+and then a few hours between tides will be enough to put everything
+straight."
+
+"Is there no other way?" asked the Count.
+
+"Only downwards, sir," cried the skipper; and the French lad glanced
+questioningly at Rodd, who shook his head.
+
+"No," said the boy, almost in a whisper.  "I don't think there is any
+other way.  He is quite right."
+
+After another hour's pumping, the skipper gave out his intention of
+going back to the schooner; but the Count would not hear of it.  He
+begged and implored Uncle Paul to give him their company at the
+breakfast he was having prepared, and after a little hesitation the
+doctor gave way, and suggested to the skipper that they should leave
+their departure till late in the afternoon, when a far better opinion
+could be given of the state of the brig.
+
+"What do you say, squire?" said the skipper, looking at Rodd.
+
+"Oh yes, let's stay!"  And his impulsive young French friend grasped him
+by the wrist.
+
+"Very well, gentlemen, I have only one thing to say, for I don't suppose
+the schooner will sail away and leave us behind.  Let them call it
+dinner, and I'll stop.  I aren't been in the habit of eating my
+breakfast at two o'clock in the day."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+THE COUNT CAN'T FIND WORDS.
+
+That afternoon, after what had proved to be a very friendly, pleasant
+breakfast, through which nothing could have been more courteous and
+hospitable than the conduct of the Count and his son towards those with
+whom they had become so strangely intimate, the skipper hurried the end
+of the meal by suggesting that he should once more sound the well.
+
+They went on deck at once, to find both pumps were being kept
+energetically going, the half-dozen men from the schooner taking their
+turns in the heartiest way, a general fraternisation having taken place,
+while on seeing the result of the skipper's examination, the delight of
+the Count and his son seemed unbounded.
+
+"There you are, then, sir," said the skipper, in answer to a look from
+the doctor, "and now we will leave you to it."
+
+"And I suppose," said Uncle Paul, "that you will have no hesitation,
+sir, in following Captain Chubb's advice?"
+
+"And making for the mouth of some river," said the Count, glancing at
+his son, "to get the brig ashore, so as to repair her?"
+
+"Exactly," said Uncle Paul.  "You must see that there is nothing else
+that you can do."
+
+"Nothing else that I can do," said the Count slowly, and Rodd gave him a
+wondering glance, for the skipper's remarks about the brig's owner being
+out of his mind came to his memory.  "You intend to cruise about here,
+then, Dr Robson?"
+
+"Here or anywhere," was the reply.  "Probably here until I seem to have
+exhausted the natural history specimens that I can collect."
+
+"Yes," said the Count, gazing fixedly at his son, "until you have
+exhausted the natural history specimens that you can collect."
+
+He spoke in a curious dreamy way as if he were thinking hard, while Rodd
+coloured a little as he saw that the young Frenchman was gazing at him
+fixedly, for once more he could not help thinking of the skipper's
+words.
+
+"Do you know of a place that would be likely, doctor?" said the Count.
+"I mean a river that we could sail up into shallow water, if we were so
+fortunate as to reach one without sinking first."
+
+"Not I," said the doctor, "but my captain here has cruised along this
+coast in by-gone days, and he tells me that it would be easy enough to
+find inlet after inlet, and deltas with streams, running up through the
+muddy mangrove swamps."
+
+"But then we might never reach the shore," said the Count slowly--"not
+with the brig--in spite of your kindly, I may say brotherly aid."
+
+Rodd felt that the Count's son was still gazing at him searchingly, but
+he did not turn his head, for the doctor began speaking at once.
+
+"Really, my dear sir," he said almost curtly, "national dislike seems to
+exist to a great extent amongst your countrymen.  Do you really think we
+English should be such barbarians as to sail away and leave a crippled
+ship to its fate?"
+
+"No, no, no, doctor!" cried the Count warmly.  "But how could I be so
+grasping as to ask you, full of your scientific pursuits as you are, to
+stand by us till we can reach the shore in safety?"
+
+"You would not ask it, sir," said the doctor warmly.  "There would be no
+need.  Of course my schooner will stand by you, ready to give you help
+until your brig is once more fit for sea."
+
+"Forgive me, doctor!" cried the Count eagerly.
+
+"There is nothing to forgive, sir," replied the doctor, "only I think I
+may say that saving in times of war there is no such thing as
+nationality amongst those who go to sea.  My experience is that they are
+always brethren in times of distress."
+
+The Count held out his hand, which was warmly grasped, while the young
+French ex-prisoner looked at Rodd with eyes that seemed to speak
+volumes.
+
+At this moment the skipper gave a grunt of satisfaction and broke in.
+
+"There's plenty of choice, gentlemen," he said.  "I'd venture to say I
+could find you the mouths of a dozen sluggish rivers up which you could
+go with the tide as far as you liked, and then moor our vessels to the
+forest trees, easily finding places close in shore where the tide as it
+went out would leave the brig here softly in the mud ready for careening
+over in a cradle where she wouldn't strain or open a single seam; and
+the doctor here being willing, I'll promise to take the job in hand and
+make the brig's bottom as sound as ever it was, even if we have to strip
+off a little copper from along the top streak, where it isn't so much
+wanted, so as to put new plates where the damaged ones have been."
+
+"I shall be only too glad, Count," said the doctor; "and now I think we
+will get back to the schooner, and Captain Chubb here will shape his
+course somewhere to the south-east, till within the next few days we
+near the coast, when he will select a suitable place for his purpose."
+
+"I cannot find words," said the Count, in a husky voice.
+
+"Don't try," said the doctor.
+
+"No, but--er,"--continued the Count, in rather a hesitating tone, "you
+do mean to keep cruising about here--and farther south or west?"
+
+"Don't you give that another thought," said the doctor frankly.  "The
+schooner is my own, and almost any portion of the ocean or the shore
+offers attractions to me and my nephew.  We can find interest anywhere.
+I only hope that you will not find our society dull."
+
+The Count made a gesture, and then, after a word or two to the skipper,
+the latter gave his men orders, and they took their places in the boat.
+
+It was then that the Count's son, who had been very silent for some
+time, looking at Rodd as if longing to speak, suddenly turned and
+whispered something to his father, who replied with a comprehensive
+gesture, and the lad immediately approached the doctor.
+
+"It will be hours yet, sir, before it is dark, and I have so much I
+should like to say to your nephew.  Can he not stay till evening, and
+then our boat shall bring him to your vessel?  You will not," he
+continued playfully, turning to Rodd, "be afraid of going down?"
+
+"My nephew is at liberty to do as he pleases," replied the doctor
+frankly.  "What do you say, Rodd?"
+
+"Oh, I want to stay, uncle.  I should like to hear all about the
+escape."
+
+A few minutes later the two lads were leaning together over the rail
+watching the departing boat, and chatting together as if they were old
+schoolfellows who had met again after a long separation, Rodd delighted
+with his companion, and disposed to feel disappointed in himself lest
+the refined, polished young officer--one, evidently, of the _haute
+noblesse_--should look down upon him as a rough, rather boorish young
+Englishman.
+
+Somehow that evening, with its rapid change from glowing sunset light to
+purple violet darkness, seemed wonderfully quick in coming, and as the
+brig's well-manned boat grazed against the schooner's stern and Rodd
+turned in climbing up the side to hang by his left hand and extend his
+right, the feeling of inferiority melted away in the young Frenchman's
+warm grasp, as the latter said--
+
+"I suppose we shall be sailing very slowly till we reach the shore, and
+I want to see more of you.  I shall come and fetch you first thing in
+the morning.  Don't say anything; you must come.  _Au revoir_!"
+
+The brig's boat pushed off as soon as Rodd had swung himself on deck,
+and as it glided away into the soft darkness with the regularly handled
+oars dipping up from the surface of the sea what seemed to be like so
+much lambent liquid gold, suggesting to Rodd as he gazed after his new
+friend that the stars might have been melting all day in the torrid sun,
+and that this was their pale golden light floating upon the sea, a hand
+was laid upon his shoulder.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+THE DOCTOR PAINTS PICTURES.
+
+"Back again, then, Rodd!"
+
+"Oh yes, uncle.  Did you think me long?"
+
+"So long, my boy, that I was thinking of sending the boat to fetch you,
+for fear you should be converted into a Frenchman.  Hang them all!  How
+I do hate them and their nasty, smooth, polished ways!"
+
+"Oh, uncle, you don't!" cried the boy indignantly.  "I do, sir.  How
+dare you contradict me!  And I won't have you getting too fond of that
+French boy.  He and his father set me thinking about old Bony, and as
+soon as I begin thinking about Bony I have a nasty taste in my mouth.--
+Well, how did you get on?"
+
+"I had a most delightful afternoon, uncle.  Young Morny--let's see, he's
+Viscount Morny--"
+
+"Viscount grandmother!" snapped out the doctor.  "Anybody can be a
+viscount in France if he's got an income of a few hundred francs--francs
+in France of common silver.  They rank with golden guineas in your grand
+old home."
+
+"Oh, well, I don't know, uncle I only know that he's the nicest fellow I
+ever met."
+
+"Gush!" cried the doctor.  "I won't have it, Rodd.  I won't have you
+making too much of these French people.  I don't like them."
+
+"But you don't know them, uncle.  Both the Count and his son are the
+most gentlemanly men I ever met."
+
+"The most gentlemanly men you ever met!" cried Uncle Paul mockingly.
+"Nice puppy you are to set yourself up for a judge!  Very gentlemanly,
+to come in the dark with two boat-loads of savage-looking buccaneers to
+seize our schooner!  And they would, too, if it hadn't been for Captain
+Chubb's courage."
+
+"Oh, uncle, don't be unreasonable.  The poor fellows were desperate.
+Suppose you had been in such a position as they were."
+
+"I am not going to suppose anything of the sort, sir," cried the doctor
+indignantly; "and look here, Rodney, I will not have you setting up your
+feathers like the miserable young cockerel you are, and beginning to
+crow at me, just as if you were full grown.  It's growing unbearable,
+Rodney, and I won't have it, sir.  I am very much displeased with you,
+and you had better be off to your bunk at once before we come to an open
+quarrel.  It is too much, sir, and if your poor mother were alive and
+could hear you talking like this she'd--she'd--she'd--there, I don't
+know what she wouldn't say."
+
+"I do," said the boy.
+
+"What would she say, sir?" snapped out the doctor.
+
+Rodd stood silent in the darkness for a few moments as he stole his hand
+under the irate doctor's arm.
+
+"She'd say that dear Uncle Paul had been thinking about old Bony, and
+that it had made him very cross with me about nothing at all."
+
+Uncle Paul made a sound like the beginning of a speech that would not
+come, and the silence seemed deeper than ever, nothing being heard but
+the soft lapping of the water under the vessel's counter, as she glided
+slowly through the sea.
+
+But Rodd felt the warm arm under which his hand nestled press it closer
+and closer to the old man's side, and that he was urged along the deck
+to keep pace with his elder slowly up and down, up and down, from stem
+to stern, for some minutes before that speech came--one which was quite
+different from that which Rodd fully expected to hear, for it was in
+Uncle Paul's natural tones once more, as he said very thoughtfully and
+in quite a confidential manner--
+
+"Yes, very gentlemanly, Pickle, my boy; quite the nobleman, I might say,
+and I am not at all surprised that you helped that poor lad to escape.
+A little effeminate, but certainly a very nice lad.  But I have been
+thinking about them ever since I came on board this afternoon, and I
+can't quite make out that Count.  What's he doing here, my boy?  On some
+mission, and connected with some jealousy and a stop being put to his
+cruise.  I am not quite sure, Pickle."
+
+"Rodney, uncle," said the boy mischievously.
+
+"Pickle, you dog!  Be quiet.  I am talking sense.  But I think I have
+worked it out.  He betrayed himself.  He's a naturalist, boy.  He
+betrayed it in his looks and words as soon as he learned what I was
+about.  Didn't you notice how eager he was to know about our pursuits?"
+
+"Yes, uncle; I noticed that directly."
+
+"Ah, I thought so.  A naturalist--a born naturalist, Pickle, and in
+spite of his being a Frenchman I shall begin to feel a brotherly respect
+for a follower of the only pursuit worthy of a gentleman.  Well, we had
+a very short sleep last night, so we have got a long one due to our
+credit to-night, and on the strength of that Captain Chubb has arranged
+to have supper quite early.  This has been a queer day, Pickle, a very
+queer day, and I am not at all displeased, for I am beginning to think
+that we have got a very good time before us."
+
+"What time, uncle?"
+
+"Ashore, my boy.  What do you say to having a couple of the sailors with
+guns to keep us company while the rest are new-bottoming that brig?
+Walks in the primeval forest, Rodd, wonderful botanical rambles,
+shooting birds of glorious plumage, most likely coming across the great
+man-ape, the chimpanzee.  What do you say to that, my boy?  Won't that
+be a grand change from fishing and dredging and bottling specimens?"
+
+"Uncle Paul, don't!" cried the boy.
+
+"Don't?  What do you mean, sir?"
+
+"You were talking just now of our having a good long sleep to-night to
+make up for all we lost since we went to bed last."
+
+"Well, sir, what of that?"
+
+"How's a fellow to sleep, uncle, with such things as that to think of?
+Why, I shan't get a wink for thinking of the big chimpanzees; and as for
+eating any supper now, why, my appetite has completely gone."
+
+"Stuff!" cried Uncle Paul, pressing the lad's arm to his side.  "Rodd,
+my boy, we must cork a bottle or two and throw them overboard to-morrow,
+and then have a little practice with bullets in our guns.  We may come
+across dangerous beasts there, leopards and the like, while that there
+are great man-apes in those forests of the West Coast there is not a
+doubt."
+
+"Well, I think I could shoot at one of those great spotted cats, uncle,
+all tooth and claw; but wouldn't it be rather queer to shoot one of
+those big monkeys which look so much like human beings?  I mean those
+big ones with ears like ours, and no tails."
+
+"Humph!  Ha!  Well, I--Yes, all right, captain!  We are coming down."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
+
+GREAT FRIENDS.
+
+The days that followed the attempt to salve the brig after so strange an
+introduction to her commander and his son, fell calm all through the hot
+sunny time, and only that a pleasant cool breeze ushered in the evening
+and continued till the sun rose again, very little progress would have
+been made by the schooner and its consort, sailing east and south.
+
+But nobody seemed troubled.  When the French and English sailors were
+together they were the best of friends; while long conversations and
+arguments often took place between the doctor and his new friend, the
+skipper generally letting them have the cabin to themselves.
+
+Sometimes they drifted into political questions and came very near to
+losing their tempers; but each mastered and kept down his opinions, for
+a genuine feeling of liking had arisen between them, and the Count
+seemed never weary of listening to Uncle Paul's disquisitions upon the
+marvels of natural history, nor of studying with him the wonders of
+creation which he had collected and had to show.  Then day by day the
+brig, which was freed every day from as much water as she had gained
+during the night, sailed steadily on in the schooner's wake in full
+charge of her stern fierce-looking French mate--one of the most silent
+of men.
+
+And while the Count was mostly with the doctor, literally taking lessons
+in pelagic lore, the two lads had become inseparable.
+
+"Look here," said Rodd, almost hotly, one day, "if ever you say a word
+again about my helping you to escape at Dartmoor, you and I are going to
+leave off being friends."
+
+Morny laughed, a pleasant, almost girlish smile lighting up his well-cut
+Gallic features.
+
+"Why, Rodd," he cried, "isn't that rather hard?  I used to think that
+was the most horrible time in my life, but I feel now that one part of
+it was the most delightful."
+
+"There you go again," cried Rodd.  "You are beginning."
+
+"No, no, I wasn't.  But I can't forget being a prisoner in England, and
+about all that I went through there with my father when he was bad so
+long with his wound."
+
+"Bad so long with his wound?" said Rodd eagerly.  "Ah!  You may talk
+about that.  Yes, I should like to hear.  Tell me all about your being
+taken prisoners, and how it happened."
+
+"For you never to be friends with me any more?" said the French lad
+maliciously.
+
+"No, no, no.  But I hate for you to be what you call grateful.  You are
+quite a good sort of chap, and you speak our language so well that I
+forget you are not English sometimes, till you begin to be grateful to
+me for saving you, and then I feel that you are French.  There, now you
+may tell me all about it--I mean about before you met me fishing."
+
+The two lads were under the awning upon this particular day just
+amidships.  It was a hot and breathless time, but both were pretty well
+inured to the weather, and were so interested in the subjects supplied
+to them by Nature in the way of floating wonders that they never
+troubled themselves about the heat.
+
+Upon this occasion they were lying together upon the deck, suffering to
+a certain extent from lassitude consequent upon the heat.  There was a
+man at the wheel, and Joe Cross was seated upon the main cross-trees
+with a spy-glass across his legs, ready to raise it from time to time
+and direct it eastward to try and pierce the faint silvery haze that lay
+low upon the horizon.  The boys had grown very silent and thoughtful,
+Moray trying to recall memories of the past so that he might respond to
+his English friend's demand upon him that he should relate something of
+his old experiences in connection with the war and his being brought
+over to England, and so deep in thought that he paid no heed to his
+companion.  Meantime, Rodd, without any desire to play the eavesdropper,
+lay listening to the scraps of conversation which came up through the
+cabin skylight, growing a little louder than usual, for, as was
+occasionally the case, an argument was afloat respecting the late war,
+the doctor according to his wont growing wroth upon an allusion being
+made by his guest to the ex-Emperor Napoleon; and there were evidently
+threatenings of a storm, which was, however, suppressed by the grave
+dignity of the Count and a feeling of annoyance which attacked Uncle
+Paul upon realising that he had ventured upon dangerous ground.
+
+"Oh, Uncle Paul," said Rodd to himself, and he lay and laughed softly,
+making Morny start.
+
+"Was I talking aloud?" said the French lad, flushing.
+
+"You?  No!  Didn't you hear?  It was Uncle Paul.  Your father was
+talking about Napoleon, and directly his name is mentioned uncle begins
+to boil over."
+
+"Ah, yes, so you have told me, and I gathered something of the kind.  My
+father should not have spoken about the Emperor, though he venerates his
+name."
+
+"Do you?" said Rodd.
+
+"I?" replied Morny proudly.  "Of course.  He is the greatest man who
+ever lived."
+
+"I say; I'm not Uncle Paul."
+
+"Of course not.  But why do you say that?"
+
+"Because it seems as if you were trying to lead me on, like your father
+did with uncle."
+
+"Ah, no, no, don't think that.  Better to let such things rest."
+
+"Yes," said Rodd.  "I didn't hear much of what they were saying, only
+they talked loudly sometimes about the way the French and English hate
+one another.  It seems so stupid.  Why should they?  I don't hate you;
+and I suppose you don't hate me."
+
+"Of course not!  You have given me plenty of cause."
+
+"Whoa!" shouted Rodd.  "You are getting on dangerous ground again.  Now,
+look here; why should the French hate the English?"
+
+"Because the English never did us anything but harm."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Rodd coolly.  "Now, look here, suppose you and I had a
+good fight, and I got the best of it--gave you an unlucky crack on the
+bridge of your nose, and made both your eyes swell up so that you
+couldn't see."
+
+"Well, it would be very brutal," said Morny.  "Gentlemen should fight
+with the small sword."
+
+"Oh, I like that!" said Rodd merrily.  "And then one of them sticks it
+in the other's corpus and makes him bleed, if he does nothing worse.
+Why, people have been killed."
+
+"Yes, in the cause of honour," said Morny, slowly and thoughtfully.
+
+"But that wouldn't have happened if they had been fighting with their
+fists."
+
+"It's of no use to argue a matter like this with an Englishman," said
+Morny.  "He cannot see such things with the eyes of a Frenchman."
+
+"And a jolly good job too," said Rodd.  "But we are running away from
+what we have been talking about.  I was saying, suppose you and I were
+fighting and I hit you on the bridge of the nose and made your eyes
+swell up so that you couldn't see; that would be no reason why you
+should always hate me afterwards.  Wouldn't it be much better if the one
+who was beaten owned it and shook hands so as to be good friends again?"
+
+"Hah!" said Morny, giving vent to a long deep sigh.
+
+"Uncle Paul always says that there is so much good to do in the world
+that there is no room for animosity or hatred, especially as life is so
+very short.  Here, I don't see that we English have done anything worse
+to you French than conquering you now and then."
+
+"What!" cried Morny.  "What have you to say to the way in which you
+treated your prisoners?  You were never taken captive with your father--
+I mean your uncle, and shut up in a great cheerless building right out
+upon a cold, bleak, dreary moor."
+
+"No," said Rodd gravely.
+
+"My father and I were, after a sea-fight in which one of your great
+bullying ships battered our little sloop of war almost to pieces and
+took us into Plymouth, not conquered, for our brave fellows fought till
+nearly all were killed or wounded."
+
+"I say," cried Rodd earnestly, "I didn't know about this!  Were you
+wounded?"
+
+For answer Morny with flashing eyes literally snatched up his
+shirt-sleeve, baring his thin white left arm and displaying in the
+fleshy part a curious puckering and discoloration, evidently the scar of
+a bad wound.
+
+"Poor old chap!" said Rodd softly.  "I say, how was that done?"
+
+"Grape-shot," replied Morny, drawing himself up proudly and deliberately
+beginning to draw down and button his sleeve.
+
+"Did it hurt much?"
+
+"Yes," said Morny rather contemptuously.  "My father was wounded too, so
+that he had to be carried below, or else we should never have struck,
+but he would have gone down as a brave captain should with colours
+flying, fighting for the Emperor to the very last."
+
+"Then I am precious glad that the Count was taken below," said Rodd.
+
+"Why?" snapped out the French lad fiercely.
+
+"Because of course you would have sunk with him, for you couldn't have
+swum for your life with a wounded arm."
+
+"No; but shouldn't I have had my name written in history?"
+
+"Perhaps.  But you and I would never have met and become such good
+friends; for you know we are precious good friends when we can agree."
+
+Morny laughed.
+
+"Yes," he said pleasantly, "when we can agree.  But do you think it was
+good treatment to keep us shut up there as prisoners on that dreary
+moor?"
+
+"Let's see," said Rodd; "Dartmoor--all amongst the streams and tors, as
+they call them?"
+
+"Yes; a great granite desert."
+
+"Oh, but it was very jolly there," said Rodd.
+
+"I don't know what you mean by jolly," said Morny contemptuously.
+
+"Why, they didn't keep you shut up.  They let you roam about as you
+liked, didn't they, as long as you didn't try to escape?"
+
+"Well--yes; but it was a long time before I went out at all," replied
+Morny sadly.  "For months I never left my father's side, and for a long
+time I never expected that he'd recover; and as I used to sit there by
+his bedside, watching, I began to get to hate the English more and more,
+and long to get away so as to begin righting for my country again.  But
+of course I couldn't leave my wounded father's side."
+
+"No," said Rodd slowly and in a low voice, as if repeating the words to
+himself.  "Of course you couldn't leave your father's side."
+
+"No," repeated Morny softly, "I couldn't leave my father's side.  But
+after a time he made me go.  He said my wound would never heal--for the
+surgeon had told him so--if he kept me shut up day after day, and that I
+must go out with the other prisoners and roam about on the moor; but I
+said I wouldn't leave him, and I didn't till he told me one day that I
+was growing white and thin and weak, and that he could see how I was
+suffering from the pain in my wound."
+
+"Ah, yes," said Rodd, in a low tone full of earnestness.  "It must have
+given you terrible pain."
+
+"And at last he said," continued Morny, "that if he saw me getting well
+it would be the best cure for his injuries, but that if I were obstinate
+and refused to obey him now that he was lying there weak and helpless,
+it would surely send him to his grave."
+
+"And then of course you went?" replied Rodd excitedly.
+
+"Yes, I went then," replied Morny, "for at last I had begun to see that
+he was right.  And then every morning after we had been all mustered, as
+you call it, and were free to go outside the gates, I went out with a
+lot more right on to the wild desert.  But I wanted to be alone, and as
+soon as I could I wandered away up amongst the great stones, and sat
+down to think and rage against myself for feeling so happy when I wanted
+to be miserable and in despair about our fate.  For it was as if
+something within me was mocking at my sufferings and trying to make me
+laugh and feel bright and joyous, for--Oh, how well I can remember it
+all up there!  The sun was shining brightly, and the great block of
+stone upon which I sat down felt hot and so different to the cold
+cheerless prison inside.  Every here and there amongst the stones there
+was the beautiful soft green grass, and little low shrubs were in full
+blossom, some a of rich purple, and some of the brightest gold, while in
+two or three places far up in the blue sky the _alouettes_ were singing
+like they do in France; and every puff of soft warm wind that floated by
+was scented with the sweet fragrance of that little herb--I forget its
+name--that which the bees buzz about."
+
+"Wild thyme?" said Rodd quickly.
+
+"Ah, yes; wild thyme.  And there for a long time I sat nursing my left
+arm, fighting against what seemed to be a feeling of happiness, and
+trying to think of all the evil that the English had done us, and what I
+would do as soon as I got free.  But it was too much for me.  I couldn't
+do it, and what I had looked upon from the prison windows from between
+the bars would not seem to be the same wild stony desert, but beautiful
+and full of hope and joy."
+
+"Ah!" cried Rodd.  "That's because you were getting better.  I know what
+you felt.  I was like that once after a bad fever, and when I was taken
+out one fine morning for the first time, though I was weak as a rat I
+felt as if I must run and jump and shout all about nothing; but it was
+because everything looked so beautiful, and I knew that I must be
+getting well."
+
+The boys' eyes met for a few moments, and then Morny bowed his head
+slowly and went on.
+
+"Yes," he said quietly, "I suppose it was a beautiful healthy place, and
+it began to make me feel like that; and as I looked round--for I had
+climbed very high--I could see right down into parts of a valley that
+was all full of sunshine and flashing light, for there was a little
+dancing stream running swiftly along, and as I looked down into it and
+saw how it widened here and narrowed there as it flashed amongst the
+great rocks of granite, it set me thinking about home, and instead of
+going on planning how I would revenge myself upon the English, I began
+to wonder whether there would be trout there too, and soon afterwards I
+began to creep slowly down so as to see.  And then I remember that I
+burst out laughing at myself, for it seemed so droll.  My legs would
+keep on bending under me, and I had to sit down and rest every now and
+then."
+
+"You were so weak," said Rodd earnestly.
+
+"Yes, that was it," cried Morny; "but I didn't understand at first, and
+somehow I didn't seem to mind a bit, but sat down and rested time after
+time, till at last I got right down to the edge of the little river, all
+shallow and dotted with blocks of stone; and there at first were the
+little trout darting about to hide themselves, scared away by my shadow
+upon the water.  But as I sat down to watch they soon came out again,
+and began leaping at the little gnats that were flitting about the
+surface.  Then do you know how that made me feel?"
+
+"Well," said Rodd, "I know how it would make an English boy feel--
+myself, for instance."
+
+"How?"
+
+"As if he'd like to have my namesake with only one _d_ in his hand, and
+begin whipping the stream."
+
+"Yes, that's how I felt," said Morny softly.
+
+"I know about those trout on Dartmoor," cried Rodd, "right up on the
+moor.  I know somebody who used to go and fish there, and he told me
+that he could go and catch dozens and dozens and dozens of them whenever
+he liked.  But they were so very small."
+
+"Yes," said Morny, speaking dreamily now, with his eyes so lit up, that
+as Rodd watched his thin delicate face, he thought how handsome and
+well-bred he looked.
+
+"Too good-looking for a boy, but more fitted for a girl," he mused.
+
+"And did you go and fish?" he cried, as he suddenly caught Morny's eyes
+gazing at him questioningly.
+
+"Oh yes.  I went back to the prison and spoke to one of our guards--a
+frowning, fierce-looking fellow--and I told him how ill my father was,
+and that he never seemed as if he could eat the prison rations, as they
+called them, and that I wanted to try and catch some of the little fish
+on the moor and cook them, and try if I could tempt him with them."
+
+"And what did he say?" cried Rodd, for Morny had stopped.
+
+"He made my heart feel on fire at first, for he growled out `Bah!
+Rubbish!  There, go on in.'  `Savage!'  I said to myself.  `Just like an
+Englishman!'"
+
+"What a brute!" cried Rodd.  "But I say, old chap, our fellows are not
+all like that."
+
+"No," said Morny.  "But I hadn't done.  Next minute he shouted after me,
+`Halt!' and when I stopped and looked round he called out, `Ahoy!  Jim!'
+and another of the guards with his piece over his shoulder marched up to
+where we stood, and the man I had first spoken to turned to me and said,
+`Here, you tell him what you said to me.'"
+
+"And did you?" cried Rodd.
+
+"I felt as if the words would choke me at first, but just then I seemed
+to see the trout hot and brown upon a dish and my father, sick and pale,
+looking at them longingly, and that made me speak to the other guard,
+who was scowling at me.  And as I spoke a grim smile came over his face,
+and his eyes twinkled, and he showed his teeth.  `All right, youngster,'
+he said.  `Got a rod?'  I shook my head.  `No line?  No flies?'  I shook
+my head again and again.  `All right, young 'un,' he said.  `You come to
+me two hours before sundown; I shall be on duty then.  I'll set you up
+with a bit of tackle.  But I say, you Frenchies don't know how to throw
+a fly!'  `I used to,' I replied, `at home, in France.'  `Lor', did you?'
+he said.  `Hear that, Billy?  I never knew as a Frenchman knew how to
+fish.  But that's all right, youngster--only my ignorance.  A
+fisherman's a fisherman the wide world round.'"
+
+"Well?" said Rodd, for his companion had stopped.
+
+"Well?" said Morny.
+
+"Go on."
+
+"What about?"
+
+"Well, you are a chap!  Don't you know I was always very fond of
+fishing?"
+
+"I know you like fishing, for I saw you enjoying it that day when--"
+
+"Steady!" cried Rodd.
+
+"I've done," said Morny.
+
+"But I don't want you to have done."
+
+"Why, you forbade me to touch upon what you call dangerous ground."
+
+"Bah!  That's another thing.  I don't want you to be grateful.  But of
+course I like to hear about you going fishing.  I could almost wish that
+you and I could go and have a few hours together on Dartmoor now."
+
+"And we cannot," said Morny quietly.
+
+"No; but we might try for bonito or dolphins.  But go on.  I want you to
+tell me about how you got on.  Did you go to that prison guard two hours
+before sundown?"
+
+"Oh yes.  He was as friendly as ever he could be, just because he found
+that I was fond of fishing, and lent me his rod and line and flies that
+he made himself, and told me the best places to go to, and he was as
+pleased as I was when I came back to the prison with a dozen and a half
+of little trout.  Oh, I remember so well almost every word he said."
+
+"Well, what did he say?" cried Rodd eagerly.
+
+"Oh, he was a good-humoured droll fellow, though he looked so gruff, for
+when I showed him my fish he slapped me on the shoulder and said, `Well
+done, young 'un!  You are one of the right sort after all.'  And then he
+told me to take the fish into his quarters, and his missus, as he called
+her, would cook them for me so that I could take them to my sick father;
+and when I thanked him he said it was all right, and that he and his
+`missus' had been talking together about how bad the French captain
+looked, and that I had better get him a nice little dish like that as
+often as I could."
+
+Morny stopped again, and Rodd gazed at him impatiently.
+
+"Here, I say," he cried, "what a tantalising sort of chap you are!  Why,
+I could tell a story better than you."
+
+"Why, I have told you the story," said Morny.
+
+"No, you haven't.  You keep stopping short when you come to what
+interests me most."
+
+"Nonsense!  You don't want me to go on telling you about catching more
+fish and getting them fried day after day, and about taking them up to
+my father."
+
+"What do you know about it?" cried Rodd.  "It's just what I do want you
+to tell me.  Did he like them and eat them, and did they do him good?
+Those are the best bits."
+
+"You are a droll of boy," said Morny, laughing.
+
+"I'm a what?" cried Rodd.
+
+"Droll of boy--_drole de garcon.  C'est juste, n'est-ce pas_?"
+
+"Oh, if you like," cried Rodd merrily; "but if you don't think those are
+the best parts of the story, which are?"
+
+"Ah!" said Morny thoughtfully.  "The part that I remember most is
+feeling that somehow things are not always so black as they look, that
+Dartmoor was not such a dreary desert, and that the fierce frowning
+guards were not so hard and unpleasant as they seemed.  There were times
+after that when I was very happy there, for my father's wound began to
+get better, and I found myself strong and well again.  But after a time
+there was a new governor there, who behaved very harshly to the
+prisoners, and as we got well the great longing for freedom used to grow
+within us, and some of the men tried to escape.  This made the governor
+more harsh and stern.  We were kept more shut up--"
+
+"And I suppose that made you long all the more to get free?"
+
+"Of course," replied Morny; "and at last there came a time when we heard
+a little news from across the sea--news which seemed to make my father
+the Count half wild with longing, and one day he told me that he had had
+a lot of napoleons sent to him to help him to escape, and that the first
+fine day we were allowed out for exercise upon the moor we would make a
+dash for liberty."
+
+"You should have done it when you were out fishing," said Rodd.
+
+"Oh no.  The fishing had been stopped for a long time--ever since the
+first attempts had been made to escape."
+
+"Oh, I see," said Rodd.
+
+"And at last the day came," continued Morny, "and we made our attempt,
+but only to find that we were very closely guarded, and that soldiers
+were on the look-out in all directions; and in the attempt my father and
+I became separated, and I should have been taken if it had not been
+that--"
+
+"Look here," cried Rodd, springing up, "there's Joe Cross signalling to
+me from the maintop.  He can see something.  I say, that happened
+luckily for you, young fellow, for you were just getting on to dangerous
+ground."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
+
+LAND HO!
+
+"What is it, Joe?" cried Rodd.
+
+"Easy, sir!" said the man softly.  "Not too loud," he continued, from
+where he was seated upon the cross-trees.  "I don't want to give the
+skipper a false alarm, else he won't believe me next time."
+
+"What about?"
+
+"Easy, my lad!  Just in a whisper like.  I aren't sure, but to you I
+says, Land ho!"
+
+"Whereabouts, Joe?" cried Rodd excitedly.
+
+"Ah!" cried Morny, springing up.  "Land!"  And he faced round to gaze
+towards the brig that was sailing very slowly after them some three
+hundred yards away--sailing, but doing little more than forge her way
+through the water.
+
+"Nay, not that way, sir," said Joe softly, "but doo east.  You can't see
+anything from down there, Mr Rodd, sir.  I can't even make certain with
+the glass."
+
+"Hold hard, Joe!  I am coming up," cried Rodd.  "All right, sir; but you
+will be disappointed when you do."
+
+"I won't be long, Morny," said Rodd eagerly.
+
+"No; be quick," whispered Morny excitedly.  "I want for my father to
+know.  He is so anxious about the brig."
+
+Rodd gave him a quick jerk of the head as he went on climbing the
+ratlines as quickly as he could, forgetting all about the heat and the
+silvery glare of the piercing sunshine.
+
+He was not long mounting to the sailor's side, seating himself on the
+opposite side of the mast.
+
+"Now then," he cried, as he shuffled into his place; "let me look."
+
+"All right, sir.  Ketch hold," replied the sailor stolidly.  "You'll do
+it; your eyes are so much younger and sharper than mine."
+
+"None of your gammon, Joe!" cried the boy sharply, as he focussed the
+glass to suit his eyes, while with one arm embracing the butt of the
+main-topgallant-mast he held the tube steadily to his eye, asking for
+guidance the while.
+
+"Now then," he said; "whereabouts?"
+
+"Right straight ahead, sir.  You can't miss it if it's there, for it
+stretches away as far as you like to left and right!"
+
+"Why, there's no land, Joe."
+
+"Not looking down low enough, sir, perhaps.  It aren't right up in the
+sky."
+
+"Well, who's looking up in the sky?" cried Rodd irritably.--"I am
+looking right down to the horizon line."
+
+"Well, that's right, sir.  Take a good long look.  Now then, can't you
+see it?"
+
+There was silence for a few moments, and Morny, who was gazing upwards,
+seemed to be all eyes and ears.
+
+"Can't you see it, Master Rodd?" repeated Joe.
+
+"No."
+
+"Perhaps 'tarn't land, then, sir."
+
+"No.  It was all your fancy.  There's nothing to be seen."
+
+"Where are you looking, sir?"
+
+"At a little low bank of pale misty cloud.  That's all, Joe.  Your eyes
+want a good rub."
+
+"Dessay they do, sir.  They aren't much account," said the man; "but
+that caps what I saw," and putting his hands to the sides of his mouth
+he yelled out in stentorian tones, "Land ho!"--a signal that was
+followed by the hurried shuffling sound of feet ascending to the deck.
+
+"Here, what are you doing?" cried Rodd angrily.  "Spreading a false
+alarm like that!"
+
+"Oh, it's right enough, sir."
+
+"But there's nothing but a cloud there, Joe."
+
+"Looks like it, sir, but land it is all the same."
+
+"Where away?" came in the skipper's hoarse voice.
+
+"Dead ahead, sir," replied the sailor, and Rodd steadied the glass
+again, bringing it to bear upon what looked more than ever like the
+faintest of faint hazes upon the surface of the distant sea.
+
+"Can you make it out, Rodd?" cried Uncle Paul, who had hurried on deck
+with the Count.
+
+"Well, I can just see something, uncle, and I suppose it's land."
+
+"Oh, that's right enough, my lad," cried the captain.  "Can't be
+anything else."
+
+"Not clouds?"
+
+"Ah, I don't say that," cried the skipper.  "You may see a bit of haze
+too, but there's solid land beneath.  There, sir," continued the
+skipper, "that's what we are looking for.  Now the next thing we want to
+see is water."
+
+"Well, we can see that plainly enough, Joe," said Rodd, speaking with
+his eyes still to the glass.
+
+"Ay, but he means dirty water, sir."
+
+"What do you want to see dirty water for?"
+
+"Muddy, then, sir, showing as there's a river coming out there.  I say,
+sir, wouldn't t'other young gent like to come up and have a squint?"
+
+"Oh, of course.  I forgot.  Below there!  Morny!  Come on up and have a
+look."
+
+The lad sprang to the main shrouds and began to hurry up, while Joe
+Cross, who had finished the task to achieve which he had been sent,
+began to lower himself down, leaving space for the young Frenchman, to
+whom the glass was handed in turn, ready for him to declare that he
+could make out the distant land.
+
+"Ah," he panted, as he handed back the glass, "how I have longed to see
+that!  Now, Rodd, we shall soon get the brig careened over and the leaks
+repaired, and then--"
+
+"Well," said Rodd, "what then?"
+
+"Be off to sea again," cried Morny excitedly.
+
+"Well, you seem in a precious hurry," grumbled Rodd.
+
+"Wouldn't you be if your schooner was like our brig?"
+
+"No.  Uncle and I are reckoning upon making a lot of discoveries ashore.
+If you are on a scientific expedition, wouldn't that do as well for
+you?"
+
+"No," replied the French lad shortly.  "We must follow out our
+researches by sea."
+
+"Then what is it you are looking for?  I thought you were going to tell
+me the other day."
+
+"Yes, my father," cried Morny, answering a hail from below.  "I am
+coming down."
+
+When the two lads descended it was to find that the Count had been
+speaking to the skipper, who had given orders for the schooner's boat to
+be lowered so that the two visitors could return at once to the brig,
+with the understanding that both vessels were to send up studding sails
+and use every possible speed now to get within touch of the shore,
+before making south and keeping a bright look-out for some estuary or
+river mouth.
+
+"You will follow me, sir," said the skipper; "but do you know what this
+coast line will be like?"
+
+"I cannot say I do," replied the Count.  "Cliff and hill, with mountains
+farther in?"
+
+"Nay, sir; all muddy shore, covered with dark green mangrove forest.  I
+don't suppose we shall be long before I send you up a signal; and then
+we can sail right in.  There will be nothing to mind in the way of
+rocks, for where I lead it will be all mud."
+
+Very shortly afterwards the lads parted, and as Rodd stood looking after
+the boat that was bearing their two visitors to the brig, Uncle Paul
+came up close behind him.
+
+"Pity those two were born Frenchmen, Rodd, my boy," said the doctor,
+"for there is something very gentlemanly about the Count, and I like
+that lad Morny too.  There is something about him, Rodney, that you
+might very well copy."
+
+"Is there, uncle?"
+
+"Yes, sir, there is.  Certainly.  I am not your father, but I am your
+uncle, and it gratifies me very much to see the polished, almost
+reverent way in which that lad behaves towards the Count.  It's polite,
+and it's respectful, and it's--er--it's--er--"
+
+"Why, you wouldn't like it, uncle, if I were to behave to you just as he
+does to the Count."
+
+"Well, not exactly, Rodney, but there's something very nice about it.
+Great pity, though, that they are French, and so corroded, so crusted
+over, as I may call it, with a sort of hero-worship for that tyrannical
+usurper.  There, I won't mention his name."
+
+"That's right, uncle; don't, please."
+
+"Why, sir?"
+
+"Because it always makes you so cross, uncle."
+
+"Now, Rodney, that's what I don't like.  If I have an antipathy to a
+scoundrel, and speak out firmly as an Englishman should, it is not for a
+boy like you to say I am cross; and I am quite sure that young Morny
+would have had too much common-sense to speak out like that to his
+father.  It is a great pity, though, that they are both, as I say, so
+eaten up with that hero-worship, and I am very much afraid that I spoke
+a little too plainly to the Count to-day.  It was rather unfortunate
+too.  It was just when we had been having a very interesting
+conversation upon the medusae, especially those of a phosphorescent
+nature.  By the way, has Morny said much to you about the object of
+their research?"
+
+"No, uncle.  He always seems disinclined to speak."
+
+"Humph!  Yes, he does seem very reticent.  His father as good as said,
+as I think I told you, that this was a voyage of discovery, a search for
+something he wanted to take back, and which was to make his country very
+great.  But he has never said what, and it would be so very
+ungentlemanly to seem curious."
+
+"But you do feel curious to know, don't you, uncle?"
+
+"Well, I must confess, my boy, that I do--a little jealous, perhaps, of
+another man's success, for I did learn as much as this, that he felt
+pretty sure of being successful if he could get the brig sound again.
+Well, I suppose we shall know some day."
+
+"I don't like to say any more to Morny, uncle.  It would seem so small;
+and besides, he never questions me anything about what we are doing--
+only seems very much interested."
+
+"You are quite right, Rodd.  It would be mean and petty.  Leave it to
+them, and if they like to take us into their confidence, well and good.
+If they do not, well, it is no business of ours."
+
+"Why, uncle," cried Rodd suddenly, and then he stopped.  "It isn't
+because--"
+
+Rodd stopped short again, looking straight away over the sea, as if in
+deep thought.
+
+"Well, my boy?  It isn't because what?"
+
+"Oh, I don't like to say, uncle.  You would laugh at me."
+
+"How do you know that?  Wait and see," cried Uncle Paul.  "Now then,
+what were you thinking?"
+
+"I was wondering whether they could be trying to discover that which we
+found quite by accident."
+
+"That which we found quite by accident, Pickle?"
+
+"Yes, uncle, and that may be the reason why they don't like to talk
+about it.  You see, all ships' captains and people have been so laughed
+at, and told that they are inventing fables, that they are very quiet
+and like to keep things to themselves, just the same as Captain Chubb
+was when we saw that thing.  You see, uncle--"
+
+"Go on, Pickle!  Go on!" cried Uncle Paul.
+
+"Oh, I haven't much more to say, uncle, only this--if ordinary captains
+are so particular about speaking, and so afraid of ridicule, wouldn't a
+big scientific man like the Count, who has fitted out an expedition for
+the discovery, be very careful too, lest the object of his voyage should
+get about?  But oh, nonsense!  It's ridiculous.  It can't be that.
+Don't laugh at me, uncle.  It's only what I thought."
+
+"I was not going to laugh at you, Rodney, my boy," said the doctor
+quietly, "for the simple reason that I do not see anything to laugh at.
+It's a very clever, good idea, and quite possible.  Yes, my boy, it's
+more than possible.  I don't say that you are right, but very likely to
+be.  The Count and his son are French, and, like their countrymen, very
+touchy and sensitive and afraid of ridicule.  I shouldn't be at all
+surprised, my boy, if that really is the reason for their being so
+secretive in their ways."
+
+"I am glad you think so, uncle," cried the boy.
+
+"No, no, no; don't take it like that.  It may be after all only a fancy
+of yours."
+
+"Yes, uncle, but if that's what they are searching for, to prove that
+there are such--such--er--what-you-may-call-'ems in the sea--"
+
+"Phenomena, boy--phenomena," said the doctor shortly.
+
+"Yes, uncle; phenomena--wouldn't it be an act of kindness to tell them
+that we have already made the discovery, and try to show them the part
+of the ocean where such creatures are to be found?"
+
+"Hum!  No, my boy.  No.  We should be making matters worse.  Not only
+should we be showing the Count and his son that we have found out what
+they want to keep secret, but we should be robbing them of the honour of
+their discovery as well.  No; let them take us into their confidence if
+they like, and if they do, so much the better.  If they do not--well,
+the loss is theirs."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
+
+COAST LAND.
+
+"Our skipper's as right as can be, Morny," said Rodd the next evening,
+as the lad was once more on board the schooner, and they were sailing
+gently along about a mile from shore, the brig following pretty close
+behind with the water streaming down from her scuppers as the work at
+one of the pumps was still kept up.
+
+For there was the coast, much as he had described, an undulating line of
+the singular dark green mangrove forest that looked low and dwarfed,
+and, now that the tide was low, showed to full advantage, the singular
+ramification of its roots giving the bushy forest the appearance of
+standing up upon a wilderness of jagged and tangled scaffolding through
+which the sea washed over the muddy shore.
+
+"Not pleasant-looking, gentlemen," said the skipper, coming up to them.
+"Not the sort of place where you would like to settle down and build a
+country house."
+
+"Why, it's horrible," cried Rodd.  "But why should it be so muddy here,
+instead of being all nice clean sand?"
+
+"Because it's the edge of a low swampy country, my lad, where great
+rivers come from inland and bring down the soil of thousands of miles."
+
+"But I always thought Africa was a sandy desert place where lions were
+roving about, and where Mungo Park went travelling to Timbuctoo and
+places like that."
+
+"Yes, my lad," said the skipper; "but that's the Africa of the old
+books, and there's plenty of it like that on the east side and up in the
+north and where old Mungo Park went to, no doubt; but all along this
+coast it isn't a dry and thirsty land, but as soon as you get through
+the mangroves, full of great forests and big rivers.  Why, look at the
+sea here.  Right away out it was all as clear as crystal; now here
+there's mud enough for anything."
+
+"But we shan't want to stop long in a muddy river with banks like this,
+captain," said Morny.
+
+"Don't you be in too great a hurry to judge, sir," said the skipper.  "I
+have sailed up one or two of these rivers in my time, and when you get
+higher up you will find it very different: big forests with grand trees,
+rivers with fine water, and places beautiful enough for anything, such
+as will satisfy travellers who don't want ports and towns.  You and the
+doctor, Mr Rodd, will be able to get some fine shooting up there, if
+you like, and fine fishing too.  Do you want to get any birds of all the
+colours of the rainbow?"
+
+"Why, of course!" cried Rodd eagerly.
+
+"Well, there you'll find them, sir--singing birds too, green and gold
+and scarlet and grey, and some with long tails, and some with short.
+Only," continued the skipper dryly, and with a grim smile at the two
+lads, "they don't sing like our birds at home, but in a foreign lingo,
+all squeak and scream and squawk, through their having crooked hook
+beaks.  They are what people at home call parrots and parakeets."
+
+"Oh, that's what you mean!" cried Rodd, laughing.
+
+"Of course, sir--them as you teaches to talk.  Wicked 'uns, some of
+them, ready enough to learn anything the sailors teach them, but sulky
+as slugs when you want them to learn anything good."
+
+"But there are plenty of them, captain?" said Rodd.
+
+"Thicker than crows at home, sir.  Then what do you say to monkeys?"
+
+"That I should like to see them alive in the forest."
+
+"Well, there you have them, sir; and you could come across plenty, if
+you went far enough, big as boys."
+
+"Ah, now you are telling travellers' tales, captain," said Rodd.
+
+"Nay, my lad, not I.  I have seen them as big as boys, only not so tall,
+because their legs have all gone into arms.  Little, short, crooked
+legs, they have got, as makes them squatty.  But when they stand up
+their arms are so long that they nearly touch the ground.  Big as boys?
+Why, they are bigger!  I never saw boys with such big heads.  And they
+all look as if they had been born old; wrinkled faces and long shaggy
+black hair."
+
+"Now, look here, captain, I don't mind you joking me, but don't play
+tricks with the Viscount here."
+
+"Not I, my lad.  I am just telling you the honest truth, and you may
+believe me."
+
+"But where's the river where these things are?"
+
+"We shall come across one of them before long, sir," said the skipper.
+"I expected to have found one that suited my book hours ago.  I was very
+nearly going up that one just about dinner-time."
+
+"Oh, but that was only a little inlet," said Rodd.
+
+"Looked so to you, sir, but all along here the shore's full of inlets,
+as you call them; but they are deep water and go winding in and out, and
+perhaps open out into big sheets of water like lagoons, as they call
+them.  But I am of opinion that if we don't turn into one to-night we
+shall do so some time to-morrow, and perhaps find just the sort of spot
+we want.  It we don't we will go a bit farther south."
+
+"But take us up beyond all this horrible mangrove swamp," said Rodd.
+
+"You leave that to me, sir," said the skipper.  "We have got a good bit
+of work to do with that brig, and I want to bring my lads out again, and
+the Count's too, well and hearty, not half of them eaten up with fever
+and t'other half sucked into dry skins by the mosquitoes.  No, we shall
+have to sail right up to where it gets to be a forest and park-like
+country."
+
+"There'll be no towns?" said Rodd.
+
+"No, sir, but we might come across a blacks' village, and if we do we
+can anchor somewhere on the other shore."
+
+Another afternoon had come before the mangrove forest seemed to turn
+inland and run right up the country, just as if they had come to the end
+of that portion of the land; but miles away the skipper pointed out that
+the forest began again and also swept inland, while by using the glass
+the lads were able to trace the configuration of the coast, and saw that
+the two lines of coast north and south came together away east.
+
+"There," said the skipper, "what do you say to this for the mouth of a
+big river?"
+
+"River?" said the doctor, coming up.
+
+"Yes, sir--or estuary, which you like.  This is the sort of one that
+will suit us, though as far as I can make out it is not down in my
+chart.  So all the more likely to suit our book."
+
+"But do you think it's a river, and not a bend of the coast?" asked the
+doctor.
+
+"If it was a bend of the coast, sir, the tide wouldn't be flowing in
+like that.  It's a good-sized tidal river, sir, and we are going to sail
+in as far as we can get before dark, and if all turns out as I expect,
+we shall be carried in past the mangroves and be able to moor to-night
+perhaps to forest trees."
+
+"And if we don't?" said Rodd.
+
+"Why, then we shall anchor, and find plenty of good holding ground."
+
+The tide carried them in rapidly, and a nice soft breeze filled the
+sails, bearing them onward till the mangrove swamp on either hand began
+to close in rapidly, while towards evening they were gliding where the
+banks were about a mile apart, and just at sunset muddy patches began to
+make their appearance, upon which Rodd noticed three times over,
+portions of the rugged trunks of trees that had been denuded of every
+branch as they floated down with the stream.
+
+All at once, just where the mud glistened ruddily in the rays of the
+setting sun, Rodd started, for a thick stumpy tree trunk suddenly began
+to move gently, then glided a few feet over the mud, and finally went
+into the river with a tremendous splash.
+
+"Why, what's that?" cried Rodd excitedly.
+
+"Croc," grunted the skipper gruffly.  "Thousands of them along here."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
+
+HOW TO GET BACK?
+
+"Almost as bad as you tacking out of the harbour, Morny," said Rodd that
+evening, as the two vessels glided up the rapidly narrowing and greatly
+winding river.
+
+"Oh no," replied the French lad.  "There is no tremendous storm of wind
+blowing, threatening to tear the sails to ribbons, no soldiers in boats
+using their muskets, no big guns sending heavy balls from the forts."
+
+"No," said the skipper, who had overheard the remarks; "not a bit like
+it, Mr Rodd.  It is rather awkward work, though, and we have to be
+always on the dodge, else the next thing would be we should go ramming
+our noses right in the muddy banks and getting stuck fast; and that
+wouldn't do."
+
+"Oh, you would get off again next tide," said Rodd carelessly.
+
+"Mebbe," said the skipper.  "As the old country chaps at home say, we
+mought and we moughtn't."
+
+"Look, Morny," cried Rodd.  "There's another of those great crocs.  What
+a thick one!  Why, that one must be five-and-twenty feet long."
+
+"Fourteen," grunted the skipper.
+
+"No, no; it must have been twenty," cried Rodd.
+
+"Fourteen, outside," growled the skipper.  "How can you tell when you
+only catch sight of them on the move?"
+
+"Well, it was a tremendous thickness," said Rodd.
+
+"Ay, it was thick enough, and heavy enough; and they are stronger than
+horses.  And just you look here, youngster, while we are up this river,
+where I dare say they swarm, you had better keep your eyes open, for
+those chaps will pull a deer or a bullock into the water before the poor
+brute knows where it is, and as to human natur', they lie waiting close
+to the banks for the poor niggers, men, women or children, who come down
+to get water, and they nip them off in a moment."
+
+"Ugh!  Horrible!" cried Rodd.
+
+"Yes, and what made me speak to you was that we are going to settle down
+for a bit up here in the forest where the sun will be very hot, and
+where there'll be no end of great shady trees hanging over the river
+side and seeming to ask folks to jump in and have a nice cooling swim."
+
+"I say, captain!"
+
+"Oh, I'm not laughing at you, my lads," said the skipper sharply.  "When
+we are lying moored or at anchor up here it's just the sort of thing
+that you might make up your minds to do without saying a word to
+anybody.  I know I should have done so when I was your age.  But I just
+say to you now solemn like--don't you do it.  For if there's anything
+one of these great reptiles likes it's a nice clean French or English
+boy."
+
+"Oh, come now," cried Rodd merrily, "you don't call that talking solemn
+like, captain?"
+
+A grim smile dawned upon the old sailor's countenance.
+
+"Well, no," he said; "but I mean it solemn like.  I don't suppose one of
+they crocs would study about what colour it was, but they go for
+anything that's alive and moving, hold on with those great teeth of
+theirs, and whatever it is they catch, it's soon drowned when it's
+pulled below, and never heard of again.--Starboard, my lads!
+Starboard!" he shouted, with both hands to his mouth, and the schooner
+curved round and went off on another tack in obedience to the
+helm.--"It's rather an awkward job, my lads," continued the skipper.
+"You see, we have to sail to all points of the compass, and one minute
+you have got the wind blowing gently fair and free from right ahead or
+dead astarn, and the next you are going into shelter and got no wind at
+all."
+
+"But we keep on going steadily up the river, captain," said Rodd.
+
+"Yes, my lad; we have got this strong tide in our favour.  I am
+reckoning that if we drop anchor soon we shall be able to get as far as
+we want next tide."
+
+"But how far do you mean to go?" asked Morny anxiously.
+
+"Oh, a good way up yet," replied the skipper.
+
+"But why not keep on now?" asked Rodd.
+
+"Because I want to pick a good berth before the dark comes down and
+catches and leaves us nohow.  Got any more questions to ask?"
+
+"Hundreds," cried Rodd merrily.
+
+"Humph!  Then I think I ought to have my pay raised.  I joined the _Maid
+of Salcombe_ to sail her, not to give you lessons in jography,
+etymology, syntax, and prosody, as it used to say in my lesson book when
+I was a little 'un."
+
+"Ah, well, I won't bother you any more to-day, captain," said Rodd;
+"only one always wants to know what things are when they are quite
+fresh."
+
+Captain Chubb did not answer for the moment, for he had to shout another
+order to the steersman and make two or three signals with his hand to
+those on board the brig, which was following in the schooner's track,
+keeping as close as it could to be safe.
+
+At the end of five minutes, though, he had returned to his old position,
+and grunted out with a look as if he wanted to be questioned more--
+
+"Well, I suppose such youngsters as you like to know."
+
+Then all at once he shouted out a fresh order, which was followed by the
+rattling out of the cable through the hawse-hole as the anchor splashed
+and went down to a pretty good depth before the rope was stopped, one
+order having acted for both vessels, and just before dark they swung
+round head to stream, with the water lapping loudly against their bows.
+
+"That's enough for one day," grunted the captain.  "Safe and snug a
+harbour as any one could wish to be in, and there's the trees, you see,
+on both sides, good, sound, solid forest trees such as would cut up into
+fine timber, and all the mangroves left far enough behind."
+
+In a remarkably short time, as the two lads stood watching the shores,
+the forest on either side grew intensely black, and though the steward
+announced that the evening meal was ready, no one seemed disposed to go
+below, for, succeeding to the solemn evening silence, they seemed to be
+surrounded by strange sounds from the depths of the forest as well as
+from the river, whose current began to grow sluggish, suggesting that
+before long the tide would be at its height, and ready to turn with the
+rushing of the water outward to the sea.
+
+"Why, it's awful," said Morny, in a subdued tone, as he stood with Rodd
+gazing at the nearest shore.
+
+"Yes, not very nice," replied Rodd.  "You and your father had better
+stop on board here to-night."
+
+"Oh no.  Our boat is hanging astern.  We shall go back."
+
+Rodd thought that he should not like to attempt to row from vessel to
+vessel in the darkness of such a night, for something seemed to suggest
+to him the possibility of being swept out to sea; but he did not say so,
+for fear of making his companion nervous, and they stood listening and
+whispering together, trying to give names to some of the uncouth noises
+which floated to their ears.
+
+Many were sharp quick splashes as if some great fish had sprung out of
+the water in pursuit of prey, or in a desperate effort to escape a
+pursuer.  Then every now and then there would be a resounding slap, as
+if one of the great reptiles that haunted the river had struck the
+surface a tremendous blow with its tail.
+
+"What's that?" asked Rodd, directly after, as a low, deep, mournful
+sound came from amongst the trees upon the shore, sounding like a
+piteous cry for help from some woman in distress.
+
+This was succeeded by a painful silence, and then Rodd raised his
+voice--
+
+"Captain!  Captain Chubb!  Do you hear that?  Are you there?"
+
+"Oh yes, here I am, my lad," came from out of the darkness.  "And I
+should be precious deaf if I hadn't heard it."
+
+"Well, ought we to take the boat and try and save her?" cried the boy
+passionately.
+
+"How do you know it's a _her_, my lad?  I should say it was a _him_.
+It's the cock birds and not the hens that shout like that."
+
+"Bird!" cried Morny.  "It was a human being."
+
+"Ah, it do sound something like it, my lad, but that aren't a human.
+It's one of them great long-legged storky chaps with the big bills,
+calling to his wife to say he's found frogs, or something of that kind.
+You wait a minute, and if she don't come you will hear him call
+`Quanko!'--There, what did I say?" said the skipper, with a chuckle, as
+in trumpet tones came the cry of the great long-legged creature in a
+sonorous _Quang, quang, quang, quang_!
+
+"Why, the captain seems to know everything," said Morny admiringly.  "I
+say, how did you know that, sir?"
+
+"Oh," said the skipper modestly, "one just picks up these sort of things
+a little bit at a time.  Now then, do you hear that?"
+
+The two lads did hear it--a peculiar musical (?) wailing cry which was
+repeated again and again and then died out, half-smothered by a chorus
+of croaking from the swampy river banks.
+
+"Oh yes, we can hear," cried Rodd.  "We can do nothing else but listen.
+But what was it made that cry?"
+
+"Ah!  That's one of the things I don't know," said the skipper,
+chuckling.  "What should you think it was?"
+
+"Oh, I don't want to be laughed at again," cried Rodd, "for making
+another mistake.  Perhaps it's some other kind of stork."
+
+"Nay, you don't think it is," said the skipper.  "You think different to
+that.  Come, have a guess."
+
+"Well," said Rodd, "I should say it was some kind of great cat."
+
+"Right, my lad; not much doubt about that.  I don't know what sort it
+is, but it's one of them spotted gentlemen.  I should say there'd be
+plenty of them here.  Well, I have had about enough of it for to-day.  I
+am just going to see about the watch, and to say a few words below to
+your father about having a good look-out kept, and then it won't be very
+long before I turn in to my cot, for I am tired.  This has been a rather
+anxious day."
+
+"You are going to speak to my father about having a good look-out kept?"
+
+"Well, yes, my lad, and with our men well-armed.  I don't say as it's
+likely, and we are too near the sea for any villages of blacks; but it
+wouldn't be very nice to have two or three big canoes come and make fast
+to us in the night, and find the decks swarming with niggers who might
+think that we were made on purpose for them to kill."
+
+"Why, you don't think that's likely, do you?" cried Rodd.
+
+"Not at all, my lad.  But safe bind, safe find.  What I have always
+found is this--that when you keep a very strict look-out nothing
+happens, and when you don't something does.  Are you lads coming down?"
+
+"Not yet," said Rodd.
+
+"I suppose you will be going soon, won't you, Mr Morny?" said the
+skipper, who somehow always forgot their visitor's title.
+
+"I am expecting my father will be coming up soon to say it is time."
+
+"Yes; I shouldn't leave it much longer," said the skipper.  "I'll tell
+him.--Joe Cross, there!"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!"
+
+"You and four men stand by with the gig to take the Count aboard his
+vessel.  You will just drop down head to stream ready to pull hard if
+the tide seems a bit too heavy; and you, my lad, be ready forward with
+the end of the line made fast to the thwart and the grapnel clear, ready
+to drop overboard to get hold of the mud if you find the current too
+strong."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" cried the man; and the skipper went below.
+
+"I am glad of that, Joe," said Rodd eagerly.  "I was thinking whether
+there was any risk of the boat being swept away."
+
+"So was I, sir; but it's always the same.  Whenever I think of something
+that ought to be done I always find that our old man has thought of it
+before.  Did you see that we have swung round to our anchor?"
+
+"No," said Rodd.
+
+"We have, sir, and the tide's running out like five hundred million
+mill-streams.  You come for'ard here and feel how the cable's all of a
+jigger, just as if the river had made up its mind to pull it right out
+of the mud."
+
+The two lads followed, and it was exactly as the man had said, for the
+great Manilla rope literally thrilled as if with life, while the river
+glided by the schooner's cutwater with a loud hiss.
+
+"Why, Joe," cried Rodd, as he gazed in the sailor's dimly-seen face,
+"how are you going to manage to row back?"
+
+"Well, sir, that's one of the things I have been asking myself."
+
+"Well, you had better speak to the skipper."
+
+"Not me, sir.  I'm not going to try to teach him.  If I was to say a
+word he'd jump down my throat bang.  Oh, he knows what he's about, or he
+wouldn't have told me to stand by with that there grapnel."
+
+"Yes, of course he'd know," said Rodd quietly.  "I should like to know
+how you'd got on."
+
+The two lads stood listening to the weird sounds from the shore, every
+now and then being puzzled by something that was entirely fresh, while
+the swiftly running water gleamed dimly with the faintly seen reflection
+of the stars, showing that a mist was gathering overhead, while Joe
+Cross and the men lowered down the boat and hauled her up to the
+gangway, ready to convey the visitors to the brig.
+
+They had hardly finished preparations before the voices that had come
+before in murmurs from the cabin were heard ascending to the deck, and
+the Count cried out of the darkness--
+
+"Are you ready there, Morny, my son?"
+
+"Yes, my father," replied the lad, and Rodd walked with him to the side.
+
+The men were in their places, with their oars ready to hand to lower at
+once, Joe Cross holding on in front with his boat-hook through a
+ring-bolt.  A few more words passed between the Count and Uncle Paul,
+and then the former bade his son descend into his place, following
+slowly directly after.
+
+"Good-night," he said.
+
+"Good-night, Rodd!" cried Morny.  "We shan't be long getting to the
+brig."
+
+"No," cried Rodd.  "Good-night!  Here, one moment; I'll slip down and
+come back with the gig."
+
+Before any one else could speak he had dropped into the boat, his feet
+touching the nearest thwart as the skipper cried "Let go!" and almost
+the next moment the men were pulling hard, while Joe Cross dropped upon
+his knees to feel for the grapnel so as to make sure it was at hand,
+while to Rodd it seemed that the boat was motionless in the rapid river
+and that the schooner had been suddenly snatched away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.
+
+UP A TREE.
+
+"Put your backs into it, my lads," cried Joe Cross, almost fiercely.
+"Steady!  Steady all, and look out that you don't have a smash.  Pull!
+Hard!  Here, I shall be tugged out of the boat!"
+
+For it seemed almost directly after that the dimly-seen hull of the brig
+rose up out of the darkness close at hand, while from where he knelt--
+fortunately for himself--the coxswain felt his arms being jerked out of
+their sockets as he caught with the boat-hook at the brig's main chains.
+"Stand by there!" he roared, as he held on.  "Lend a hand here to help
+the gentlemen on board!  Somebody say it in French!  Up with you!"
+
+There was no need for the use of another tongue, for a lantern shed its
+light down upon them, willing hands were ready, and the Count and Morny
+scrambled aboard.
+
+The next moment the Count was giving orders for a rope to be passed down
+to the boat.
+
+"Make fast, and come on board!" he shouted.  "You'll never get back
+to-night."
+
+The order came too late, for as he spoke another order was given out by
+Joe Cross, who had loosed the precarious hold he had with the boat-hook,
+as he shouted while giving the boat a thrust away--
+
+"Now for it, my lads!  Pull for all you know!"
+
+Almost the next moment Rodd dimly saw that they were clear, and as the
+men tugged at their oars with all their might he dropped upon his knees
+in front of stroke, clapped his hands against the oar, and swinging with
+the man, thrust with all his force.
+
+Five minutes of desperate tugging at the oars in the midst of darkness
+which seemed to rapidly increase.  The men had rowed with all their
+force--not to get back to the schooner, but to reach the brig and one of
+her ropes that they knew would be thrown to their help; but to Rodd, as
+he strained his eyes from where he knelt striving to give force to the
+stroke oar, it was like catching so many glimpses, first of the brig's
+side, then of its stern, and then once more it was as if they were
+standing still in the water and the brig was rushing away.
+
+"Steady, my lads!  Don't break your hearts!" cried Joe Cross firmly, his
+voice ringing clearer out of the black silence.  "It aren't to be done.
+Mid-stream's our game.  If we try to get ashore we shall be among the
+branches, capsized in a moment, and--"
+
+The sailor did not finish his speech then, but Rodd did to himself, and
+hot though he was with his exertions, a cold shiver seemed to run
+through him, as he mentally said--
+
+"The crocodiles!"
+
+"That's better, my lads.  Just a steady pull, and I'll keep as I am with
+the boat-hook.  We mustn't have a capsize."
+
+"What are you going to do, Joe?" cried Rodd.
+
+"Don't know, sir," said the man gruffly.  "Perhaps you can tell me."
+
+"I?  No," cried Rodd.
+
+"Ah!  That's awkward," said the man.  "I don't know what the skipper was
+about to set us on this job.  That's the worst of being a sailor.  They
+trains us up to 'bey orders directly they're guv, and we does them, but
+one never knows how to be right.  I oughter ha' told the old man as this
+was more'n men could do; 'cause I half thought it were.  But then I says
+to myself, the skipper knows best; and here we are in a nice hole."
+
+"A nice hole!" cried Rodd angrily.  "Why, we shall be swept out to sea."
+
+"Looks like it, sir--I mean seems."
+
+"But why not make for the shore, where we could catch hold of some of
+the overhanging branches?"
+
+"I telled you, sir.  'Cause we should be capsized before we had time to
+wink.  Steady, my lads--steady!  It's no use to pull, Mr Rodd; four
+times as many of us couldn't stem a stream like this."
+
+"Will they come down after us?  Yes, my uncle is sure to."
+
+"Not he, sir.  It would be just about mad to try it, and our old man
+will be so wild at being caught like this that he won't let him stir.
+'Sides that, sir, what are you talking about?  How are they to know we
+have been swept away?"
+
+"Because we don't come back, of course," cried Rodd angrily.
+
+"That won't do, sir.  Skipper knows, of course, after the way we went
+off, that it's just impossible."
+
+"But the Count will tell him."
+
+"Too far off for shouting, sir.  You take my word for it that the
+skipper will make up his mind that we are stopping on board the brig
+till the tide runs slack again.  If anything's done it will be by the
+Frenchies, and I don't believe they'll try."
+
+"Oh, but the Count would.  His son would make him."
+
+"No, sir.  The Count's a fine naval officer who has seen service, and he
+knows too well what he's about to send a boat's crew swirling down this
+river to go nobody knows where.  The only folks as can help us is--"
+
+"Yes--who?" cried Rodd, for the man broke off in his speech.
+
+"Ourselves, sir; and we shall find it precious hard."
+
+"That's right, Joe," said one of the other sailors.  "Better speak out,
+mate, and say the worst on it."
+
+"Say it yourselves," cried Joe Cross roughly.
+
+"Yes, speak out," cried Rodd.  "What do you think?"
+
+"We can do nothing, sir, but keep her head straight and go down with the
+tide, doing all we can to keep from being sucked into the shore among
+the trees."
+
+"But look here, Joe, aren't we very close in now?" cried Rodd, who had
+just noticed in the darkness that the sailor he addressed was leaning
+over the bows and straining his eyes in one particular direction.
+
+For answer the man yelled to his messmates to pull with all their might.
+
+The oars dipped, but at the second stroke there was a crashing rustling
+sound of twigs, followed by a sharp crackling and snapping, as they were
+swept in amongst the pendant branches of some huge forest tree, one
+bough striking Rodd across the shoulders and holding him as it were
+fast, so that the boat was being dragged from beneath him.
+
+Then there was more grinding of the gunwale of the boat amongst the
+boughs, the water came swishing in over the side, and directly after the
+frail vessel partly turned over, with her keel lying sideways to the
+rushing tide.
+
+Then more crackling and rustling amongst the boughs, mingled with
+shouting from the boat's crew, and from out of the confusion, and
+somewhere above him in the pitchy darkness and low-lying night mist,
+came the voice of Joe Cross--
+
+"Now then, all of you!  Where away?"
+
+"Here!"
+
+"Here!"
+
+"All right, mate!"
+
+"Lend a hand, some one!"
+
+"Are you all here?" cried Joe Cross again.
+
+"Ay, ay, ay, ay!" came in chorus.
+
+"But I don't hear the young guvnor."
+
+There was silence.
+
+"Where's Mr Rodd?"
+
+A moment's pause, and then--
+
+"Mr Rodd!  Ahoy!"
+
+"Here, Joe, here!" came in half-suffocated tones.
+
+"Wheer, my lad?" cried the man excitedly.
+
+"Here!  Here!  Help!"
+
+"But where's yer _here_, lad?  I can't see you.--Can any of you?  Oh,
+look alive, some on you!  Get hold of the boy anywhere--arms or legs or
+anything--and hold on like grim death."
+
+There was a sharp rustling of leaves and twigs which pretty well drowned
+Rodd's answer--
+
+"I'm down here."
+
+"Where's _down here_, my lad?  Are you under the boat?"
+
+"No, no.  Hanging to a bough, with the water up to my chest, and
+something's tugging at me to drag me away."
+
+"Oh, a-mussy me!" groaned the sailor.  "Why aren't it to-morrow morning
+and sun up?  Can't any of you see him?"
+
+"No, no, no, no!" came back, almost as dismally as groans.
+
+"Well, can't you feel him, then?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I am here, Joe--here!" panted the lad.  "Higher up the river than you
+are.  A big branch swept me out of the boat."
+
+"Ah, yes, we went under it," groaned Joe.  "Well, lads, he must be the
+other side of the tree.  Here, where's that there boat?  Can any of you
+see it?"
+
+"No; we are all on us in the tree?"
+
+"Well, I don't suppose you are swimming," roared Cross savagely.  "Do
+something, some on you!  Thinking of nothing but saving your own blessed
+lives!  Are you going to let the poor lad drown?"
+
+"Here, coxswain, why don't you tell us what to do?" snarled one of the
+men.
+
+"How can I," yelled Joe, "when I don't know what to do mysen?  Oh, don't
+I wish that I had got the skipper here!  I'd let him have it warm!"
+
+"Joe!  Joe!" came out of the darkness.  "I can't hold on!  I can't hold
+on!"
+
+"Yah, you young idgit!" roared the sailor.  "You must!"
+
+"I can't, Joe--I can't!" cried Rodd faintly, and there was a gurgling
+sputtering sound as if the water had washed over him.
+
+"Oh-h!" groaned Joe.  "Don't I tell you you must!  Hold on by your arms
+and legs--your eyelids.  Stick your teeth into the branch.  We are
+a-coming, my lad.--Oh my! what a lie!" he muttered.  Then aloud, and in
+a despairing tone, "Can any one of you get up again' the stream to where
+he is?"
+
+"No!" came in a deep murmur.  "If we go down we shall be washed away."
+
+"Same here," groaned Joe.  "I'm a-holding on with the water right up to
+the middle, and just about ready to be washed off.  I can't stir.  Oh,
+do one of you try and save the poor dear lad!  I wish I was dead, I do!"
+
+"Joe!" came faintly.
+
+"Ay, ay, my lad!"
+
+"Tell Uncle Paul--"
+
+The words ended in a half-suffocated wailing cry, and almost the next
+moment there was a tremendous splashing of water, and the snapping of a
+good-sized branch, followed by sounds as of a struggle going on upon the
+surface of the rushing stream as it lapped and hissed amongst the
+tangled boughs and twigs.
+
+"Hold hard!" yelled Joe.  "Anywhere.--Got him, boys--_urrrrr_!--"
+
+It was as if some savage beast had suddenly seized its prey.  Then there
+was a loud panting and more crackling as of branches giving way, and
+directly after, in answer to a volley of inquiries, Joe Cross panted
+out--
+
+"Yes, I've got him, my lads, and he's got his teeth into me; but I don't
+know how long we can hold on."
+
+"You must hold on, Joe!" shouted a voice.
+
+"Stick to him, messmate!  I'm a-trying to get to you."
+
+There was more crackling in the darkness, and a peculiar subdued sound
+as of men panting after running hard; but it was only the hard breathing
+of excitement.
+
+"Have you got him still, Joe?" came in gasps.
+
+"Yes, my lad, but he's awful still and I don't know that he aren't
+drowned.--No, he aren't, for he's got his teeth into my shoulder, and
+he's gripping hard.  But the water keeps washing right up into my ear."
+
+"Hoist him up a little higher," panted the other speaker.
+
+"How can I?  I've got my arm round him, but if I stir it means let go.
+What are you doing, mate?"
+
+"Trying to get down to you, but as soon as I stir the bough begins to
+crack."
+
+"Steady, mate, steady!  I can't see you, but I can hear, and if you come
+down on us we are gone.  Here, I say, it will be hours before it's
+morning, won't it?"
+
+There was a groan in reply--a big groan formed by several voices in
+unison.
+
+"But how long will it be before, the tide goes down and leaves us?"
+
+There was no reply, and a dead silence fell upon the occupants clinging
+to different portions of the tree, all of whom had managed with the
+strength and activity of sailors to drag themselves up beyond the reach
+of the water and at varying distances from where Joe Cross clung with
+one messmate hanging just above his head.
+
+"Well, look here, messmates," said Joe at last, "it's no use to make the
+worst on it.  I've got the young skipper all right, and he's growing
+more lively, for he just give a kick.  Now who's this 'ere?  It's you,
+Harry Briggs, aren't it?"
+
+"Ay, ay, mate; me and water, for I swallowed a lot before I got out of
+it."
+
+"Now, look here; how are you holding on?"
+
+"Hanging down'ards, my lad, with my hind legs tied in a knot round a big
+bough; and I keep on trying to get hold of you by the scruff, but I
+can't quite reach."
+
+"Why, that's a-hinging like the bees used to do outside my old mother's
+skep.  Well, you mustn't let go, my lad, else down you come."
+
+"Well, I know that, mate," growled the man.  "But I say, can't you reach
+up to my hands?"
+
+"Yah!  No!" growled Joe.  "I've only got two.  Can't you reach down a
+little further and get hold of my ears, or something?"
+
+"My arms aren't spy-glasses, and they won't reach within a foot of you.
+Can any of you swarm out above us here?"
+
+"No--no--no!" came in voice after voice, from points that were evidently
+fairly distant.
+
+"Oh!" groaned the sailor addressed as Harry.  "Fust time in my blessed
+life I ever wished I was a 'Merican monkey."
+
+"What for, mate?" panted Joe.
+
+"So as to make fast round this 'ere branch with my tail."
+
+"Joe!  Joe!" came in a low hoarse tone.  "Where am I!"
+
+"Well, you are here, my lad; but don't let go with your teeth.  Take
+another good fast hold, but more outside like.  Keep to the wool of the
+jumper--if you can."
+
+"Hah!  I recollect now.  We are in the water, and I have got hold of
+you."
+
+"That's right, my lad, and I'd say take a good fast holt of my hair,
+only Ikey Gregg scissored it off so short when it turned so hot that
+there's nothing to hold.  But can you hyste yourself up a bit higher?"
+
+"I'll try, Joe; but the water drags at me so.  But, Joe, what are you
+holding on to?"
+
+"What they'd call a arm of the tree, sir."
+
+"But if I try to climb up you shan't I drag you loose?"
+
+"Oh, I'm no consequence, my lad.  If I'm washed off I shall get hold
+again somewheres.  Never you mind me.  There's Harry Briggs up aloft
+a-reaching down a couple of his hands.  If you feel you've got stuff
+enough in you.--Take your time over it, my lad--you see if you can't
+swarm a bit up me and then stretch up and think you are at home trying
+to pick apples, till Harry gets a big grip of your wristies; and then
+you ought to be able to swarm up him.  Now then, do you think you can
+try?"
+
+"Yes, Joe; I think so," panted the boy.  "That's right, my lad.  I'd
+give you a lift, only I can't, for I'm in rotten anchorage, and we
+mustn't get adrift."
+
+About a minute passed, in which little was heard but the whishing of the
+water through the leaves and twigs, and the sound of hard breathing.
+Then Joe spoke again--
+
+"I don't want to hurry you, my lad, but if you think you can manage it
+I'd say, begin."
+
+"I'm ready now, Joe," said the boy faintly.  "But do you think you can
+hold on?"
+
+"Aren't got time to think, my lad.  You go on and do it.  That's your
+job, and don't you think as it's a hard 'un.  Just you fancy the
+doctor's yonder getting anxious about you, and then--up you goes."
+
+"Yes, Joe," panted Rodd.
+
+"And once you get hold of Harry Briggs' hands he'll draw you up a bit.
+He's a-hinging down like one of them there baboons, tail up'ards.  Then,
+once he hystes you a bit, you get a good grip of him with your teeth
+anywhere that comes first.  He won't mind.  That'll set your hands free,
+and then up you goes bit by bit till you gets right into the tree."
+
+"Yes, Joe; and then?"
+
+"Well, my lad, then I'd set down striddling and have a rest."
+
+"Below there!  Ready!" cried Briggs.  "I can't reach no further,
+youngster, but I think if you can climb up and grip we might manage it."
+
+"Yes!  Coming!" cried Rodd.
+
+And then no one saw, and afterwards Rodd could hardly tell how he
+managed it, but with the water pressing him closer as he clung face to
+face with the partially submerged coxswain, he managed to scramble
+higher, clinging with arms and legs, till he occupied a hazardous
+position astride of the sailor's shoulder, holding on with his left hand
+and reaching up with his right, snatching for a few moments at nothing.
+
+"Where are you, my lad?" came from above.
+
+"Here!  Here!" panted Rodd, and then, "Ah, it's of no use!"
+
+As he spoke he felt himself going over, but at that moment his fingers
+touched the sleeve of a soft clinging jersey, a set of fingers gripped
+hard at his arm, and in a supreme effort he loosened his other hand,
+made a snatch, and then began swinging gently to and fro till another
+hand from above closed upon his jacket and lightened the strain.
+
+"Got you, my lad!" came from overhead.  "Now look here; I'm not going to
+hyste you up, 'cause I can't, but I am going to swing you back'ards and
+for'ards like a pendulo till you can touch this 'ere bough where I am
+hanging, and then go on till you can get your legs round it and hold
+fast.  Understand?"
+
+"Yes," panted Rodd.
+
+"Now then.  Belay, and when you get hold you shout."
+
+It was the work of an acrobat, such as he would have achieved in doubt
+and despair.
+
+The sailor began swinging the boy to and fro, to and fro, with more and
+more force, till Rodd felt his legs go crashing in amongst the thick
+twigs of the great bough that was drawn down by the weight of the two
+upon it a good deal below the horizontal.
+
+"Harder!" he cried, as he swung back, and then as his legs went well in
+again he felt that a thick portion was passing between his knees, and
+thrusting forward his feet with all his might he forced them upwards and
+directly afterwards passed them one across the other in a desperate grip
+which left him dragging on the sailor's hands.
+
+"Fast, my lad?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Can you hold on?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then good luck to you!" cried the sailor, as, relieved of the boy's
+weight, he too swung head downwards for a moment or two, then with a
+quick effort wrenched himself upwards, got hold of the branch with both
+hands, and after hanging like a sloth for a few moments, succeeded in
+dragging himself upon the bough, which all the while was swaying heavily
+up and down and threatening to shake Rodd from where he hung, but at the
+same time inciting him so to fresh desperate action, that with all a
+boy's activity he too had succeeded in perching himself astride of the
+branch.
+
+"All right, my lad?" cried Briggs.
+
+"Ye-es!" came gaspingly.
+
+"Then you wait a bit and get your wind, my lad.--Joe Cross!  Ahoy!" he
+yelled, as if his messmate were half-a-mile away.
+
+"Right ho!" came from below.  "Where's the boy?"
+
+"Here, Joe--here!" shouted Rodd, the sound of the man's voice seeming to
+send energy through him.
+
+"Hah-h-h!" came from the sailor, and directly after from different parts
+of the tree there was a cheer.
+
+"Now then, what about you, matey?" shouted Briggs.
+
+"Well, I dunno yet, my lad; I'm just going to try and shape it round.  I
+want to know where some of the others are, and whether if I let go I
+couldn't manage to make a scramble and swim so as to join a mate."
+
+"No, no, no!" came in chorus.  "Don't try it, lad.  Aren't you safe
+where you are?"
+
+"Well, I don't know about being safe," replied the sailor.  "Mebbe I
+could hold on, but here's the water up to my chesty; and don't make a
+row, or you'll be letting some of those crocs know where I am.  Look
+here, Mr Rodd, sir; are you all right?"
+
+"Yes, Joe; I can sit here as long as I like.--That is," he added to
+himself, "if the branch doesn't break."
+
+"Well, that's a comfort, sir.  And what about you, Harry Briggs?"
+
+"Well, I'm all right, mate; only a bit wet."
+
+"Wet!  You should feel me!" cried Cross, quite jocularly.  "How about
+the rest on you?"
+
+"Oh, we are up aloft here in the dark, mate," said one of the men.  "I
+dunno as we should hurt so long as we didn't fall asleep."
+
+"Oh, I wouldn't do that, mates," said Cross.  "You might catch cold.
+You hang yourselves out as wide as you can, so as to get dry."
+
+"But look here, Joe Cross," shouted Rodd, who was rapidly recovering his
+spirits, "you mustn't sit there in the water.  Can't you manage to climb
+up?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir, I can climb up easy enough, only it don't seem to me as
+there's anything to climb."
+
+"But doesn't the branch you are sitting on go right up to the tree?"
+
+"No, sir; it goes right down into it, and I'm sitting in a sort of fork,
+like a dicky bird as has been picking out a handy place for its nest."
+
+"Then what are you going to try to do?"
+
+"Nothing, sir, but think."
+
+"Think?"
+
+"Yes, sir--about what I'm going to say to the skipper if ever we gets
+back."
+
+"Why, what can you say?"
+
+"That's what I want to know, sir.  I know what he'll say to me.  He'll
+say, Look here, my lad, you were coxswain; I want to know what you have
+done with my gig."
+
+"Ah, the boat!" said Rodd.  "Do any of you know what's become of the
+boat?"
+
+"I don't," said Briggs.
+
+"Oh, she's half-way to South Ameriky by this time, sir," said Joe, "and
+I shall get all the credit of having lost her."
+
+"Never mind about the boat, Joe."
+
+"Well, sir, if you talk like that, I don't.  But it's the skipper who
+will mind."
+
+"It's nothing to do with him, Joe.  It's uncle's boat; and it wasn't
+your fault."
+
+"Thank you, sir.  That's a bit comforting like, and warms one up a bit;
+but if it's all the same to you I'd raither not talk quite so much, for
+I don't know as crocs can hear, but if they can it mightn't be pleasant.
+Well, my lads, just another word; we have got to make the best of it
+and wait for daylight, and I suppose by that time the tide will have
+gone right down, and some on you will be getting dry."
+
+There was silence then, and the men sat holding on to their precarious
+perches, listening to an occasional sound from the river or the shore,
+loud splashings right away out in the direction of what they supposed to
+be the main current, and an occasional trumpeting wail or shriek from
+the forest--sounds that chilled and produced blood-curdling sensations
+at the first, but to which the men became more and more accustomed as
+the hours slowly glided on.
+
+"Look here," said Joe Cross, at last, "because I said I didn't want to
+talk, that wasn't meant for you who are all right up above the water.
+It's bad enough to be keeping a watch like this on a dark night, but
+that is no reason why you chaps shouldn't tell stories and talk and say
+something to cheer Mr Rodd up a bit.  He had about the worst of it,
+swep' out of the boat as he was.  So let go, some on you.  You've got to
+do something, as you can't go to sleep.  But I tell you one thing; you
+chaps are all much better off than I am.  I shan't fall out of my bunk
+on the top of any of you.  But look here, Harry Briggs, you always want
+a lot of stirring up before one can get you to move.  Now then; you have
+got a bit of pipe of your own.  Sing us a song.  Good cheery one, with a
+chorus--one that Mr Rodd can pick up and chime in.  Now then, let go."
+
+"Who's a-going to sing with the water dripping down out of his toes?"
+
+"Why, you, mate," cried Joe.  "There, get on with you.  You chaps as
+knows the best songs always wants the most stirring up, pretending to be
+bashful, when you want to begin all the time!"
+
+"I tell you I don't, mate.  I'm too cold."
+
+"Then heave ahead, and that'll warm you up.  You tell him he is to sing,
+Mr Rodd, sir.  You're skipper now, and he must obey orders.  It'll do
+us all good."
+
+"Well," said Rodd, "it doesn't seem a very cheerful time to ask people
+to sing in the dark; but perhaps it will brighten us all up."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" came from the rest.
+
+"Am I to, Mr Rodd?" said the man appealingly; and after a little more
+pressing he struck up in a good musical tenor the old-fashioned sea song
+of "The Mermaid," with its refrain of--
+
+  "We jolly sailor boys were up, up aloft,
+  And the land lubbers lying down below, below, below,
+  And the land lubbers lying down below!"
+
+right on through the several verses, telling of the sailors'
+superstition regarding its being unlucky to see a mermaid with a comb
+and a glass in her hand, when starting upon a voyage, right on to the
+piteous cry of the sailor boy about his mother in Portsmouth town, and
+how that night she would weep for him, till the song ended with the
+account of how the ship went down and was sunk in the bottom of the sea.
+
+It was a wild sad air, sung there in the branches of that tree amidst
+the darkness and night mist, and in spite of a certain beauty in the
+melody the singer's voice assumed a more and more saddened tone, till he
+finished with the water seeming to hiss more loudly through the lower
+branches and the inundated trunks around, and then there was a sharp
+slapping noise on the surface of the stream that might very well have
+been taken for plaudits.
+
+Then there was a strange braying sound like a weirdly discordant fit of
+laughter; and then perfect silence, with the darkness more profound than
+ever.
+
+"I'm blessed!" came at last from Joe.  "Hark at him, Mr Rodd.  He calls
+hisself a messmate!  Ast him, I did, to sing us a song to cheer us up.
+Why, it was bad enough to play for a monkey's funeral march.  It's all
+very well for you others to join in your chorus about jolly sailor boys
+sitting up aloft, but what about poor me sitting all the time in a cold
+hipsy bath, as they calls it in hospitals, expecting every moment to
+feel the young crocs a-tackling my toes?  Why, it's enough to make a
+fellow call out for a clean pocket-handkerchy.  Here, some on you, set
+to and spin us a yarn to take the taste of that out of our mouths."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.
+
+THE DOCTOR PRESCRIBES.
+
+And so that awful night wore on, one story bringing forth another, and
+the spinning of one yarn being followed by the spinning of one perhaps
+longer.
+
+It was anything to relieve the terrible tedium and beguile their
+thoughts from the peril in which they were placed.  The lapse of time
+was discussed, and the possibility of the slackening of the furious flow
+of the falling river so that a boat might come down in search of the
+unfortunates, but to a man all came to the conclusion that nothing could
+be expected until daylight, and that they must bear their fate as best
+they might.
+
+The most cheerful thing that fell to their lot during the weary hours
+was the announcement made from time to time by Joe Cross, that the water
+was sinking a little lower and a little lower, so that he had room to
+hope that after a while he too would be able to, as he put it, drip
+himself dry.
+
+But the monotony was terrible, and the morning seemed as if it would
+never come.  For it was far different from being in the temperate region
+of the world, where in the summer months the darkness was slow to come
+and was succeeded by a very early dawn.  There in that tropical southern
+land they were where the twenty-four-hours day was pretty equally
+divided into light and darkness, with scarcely any twilight to soften
+down the division.
+
+But still as everything comes to those who wait, so it was there, and
+Joe Cross announced at last that he was sitting quite clear of the
+water, and therefore, as he judged it, they had not very much longer to
+wait before it would be day.
+
+But he was wrong.  What seemed to be an interminable time elapsed before
+the watchers could see for certain that a faint light seemed to be
+piercing the dense grey mist that covered the river.  But this did at
+last become a certainty.
+
+Before long, on one side, grey and grim-looking beneath a heavy mist,
+the great river could be seen gliding steadily along, while away to
+their right rose the primeval forest, rising as it were out of a sea of
+shadow.
+
+The change came quickly then through a rapid twilight to the bright rays
+of the sunshine, which seemed to attack the river mist, piercing it
+through and through, routing it, and sending it in clouds rolling along
+the stream, while, now glistening and muddy, the banks showed out beyond
+the trees amidst which the huge monarch in which they had taken refuge
+stood towering almost alone.
+
+"Why, we must have come inshore for some distance last night," cried
+Rodd, in wonder.
+
+"Ay, my lad.  Banks flooded.  High tide perhaps," said Joe bluffly.
+"Well, the sooner we gets down into this mud and stretches our legs the
+better; and if they don't come down in the boats, how we are going to
+get back is more than I know."
+
+"Look!  Look yonder!" cried Rodd, as, sweeping the park-like stretch
+around him, he suddenly caught sight of an object that filled his breast
+with joy.
+
+"Three cheers, my lads," shouted Joe, waving his hand, "and--Oh, hold
+hard!  Avast there!  Gig's safe to have a hole through her bottom."
+
+For there, about a hundred yards away, between the trees, lay something
+gleaming amongst the mud.
+
+He could only see a portion, but that was enough, and one by one, stiff
+and cold, the unfortunate party lowered themselves down from their
+perches to drop into a thin surface of soft mud, the swift rush of the
+tide preventing it from accumulating to any depth.
+
+Their fortune was better than they anticipated, for on reaching the
+boat's side it was to find that, though bottom upward, she had escaped
+any serious injury, the yielding boughs into which she had been swept
+having checked the force of the concussion and left her to glide from
+tangle of boughs to tangle, until she had been wedged into a huge fork
+and had from there slowly settled down.
+
+But there was neither oar nor boat-hook, and the line fastened to her
+foremost thwart had been snapped in two.
+
+"All her tackle gone," said Joe grimly.  "Well, we must try and find and
+hack off some big bamboo canes with our jack-knives, and then try if we
+can't punt her up against the tide, which ought to be pretty slack by
+now--that is, if they don't come to find us."
+
+"But look here, Joe," cried Rodd, as he stood shading his eyes from the
+horizontal sunbeams; "there's the river, and the mist's rolling along
+with the tide.  Here, I'm puzzled.  Which way did we come?"
+
+"Why, that's plain enough, Mr Rodd, sir.  Down with the stream yon
+way."
+
+"But that must be down-stream."
+
+"Nay, not it, my lad.  The river winds, and so did my head.  Here, I'm
+all of a maze still.  No, I aren't.  Here, I'm blest!  Why, you are
+right, sir.  That is up-stream, and--Hooray, my lads!  One pole will do,
+to steer.  We are going to be carried back again, for the tide's turned
+and running up steady."
+
+A very little search resulted in their coming upon a bed of canes, out
+of which four were cut and trimmed, supplying them with good stout poles
+twelve or fourteen feet long, and laying these along the thwarts the
+men, glad now of the exercise to drive out the chill, insisted upon Rodd
+getting into the boat while they waded through the mud by her side, half
+lifting, half thrusting, and succeeded at last in getting her to where a
+sloping portion of the bank ran down to the river.
+
+"Now all together, my lads," cried Joe.  "Keep step, and hold her well
+in hand, for she'll soon begin to slide; and as soon as she reaches the
+water, jump in.  Make ready.  I'll give the word."
+
+"Stop!" shouted Rodd.  "What about the crocodiles?"
+
+"Oh, murder!" cried Joe.  "I forgot all about them.  Well, never mind.
+This aren't no time to be nice.  It's got to be done, so here goes."
+
+Rodd seized one of the poles, and going right to the bows knelt down in
+the bottom, and holding the pole lance fashion, prepared to try and use
+it.
+
+"That won't be no good, my lad," cried Joe.  "Now, my lads--one, two,
+three!  Off she goes!"
+
+They ran the gig quickly down the muddy slope, and as they touched the
+water and the foremost part began to float they took another step or
+two, gave her a final thrust, and sprang in, just as Rodd realised the
+truth of the sailor's words, for as they glided out with tremendous
+force, before they were a dozen yards from the water's edge the gig's
+stem collided just behind two muddy-looking prominences that appeared
+above the surface of the water, and as the shock sent the boy backwards
+over the next thwart the boat, which was bounding up and down with the
+result of the men springing in, received another shock from something
+dark which rose out of the water, and then they glided on past a
+tremendous ebullition and were carried onward by the rising tide.
+
+"Here, let me come, Mr Rodd," cried Joe Cross, as he scrambled forward.
+"Here, catch hold, sir, and help me drag my jersey over my head.  The
+brute's stove us in, and if I don't look sharp--Pull, sir, pull--right
+over my head!  That's got it," he cried, and he set to work thrusting
+the woollen knitted shirt bit by bit along between the edges of two of
+the planks, through which the water was rapidly gurgling in.  "There,"
+he said; "that'll keep some on it out; but don't all on you stand
+looking at me as if I was playing a conjuring trick.  Get a couple of
+those poles over the sides.  Nay, nay, it's no use to try to punt.
+Dessay the water's fathoms deep.  Just keep her head straight, and let
+the tide carry us on.  Look out, my lads!  There's another of them up
+yonder.  See, Mr Rodd, sir--them two nubbles?  Them's his eyes.  He
+just keeps his beautiful muddy carcase all hid under water and squints
+along the top with them pretty peepers of hisn to look out for his
+breakfast.  Keep back, sir; I believe he's coming on at us, big as the
+boat is.  Oh, this is a pretty place, upon my word!  He means me,
+because he can see my white skin."
+
+Instead of answering, Rodd picked up the bamboo pole, which had been
+jerked from his hands when they encountered the other reptile.
+
+Three of the men followed his example of holding them ready to strike at
+what they could see of the crocodile, and as they were carried closer by
+the tide and Rodd could just make out below the muddy surface that the
+water was being stirred by the undulation of the tail of the monster,
+which was apparently fourteen or fifteen feet long, three poles were
+sharply thrust together, two of them coming in contact with the
+creature's head just behind its eyes.
+
+The blows were heavy, having behind them the weight and impetus of the
+loaded boat, and once more there was a tremendous swirl in the water, as
+the crocodile raised its head right out, turned completely over,
+displaying its pallid buff under portion, and then curved itself over,
+and in the act of diving down threw up its tail and struck the surface
+of the water with a blow that deluged the occupants of the cutter with
+spray.
+
+"Well," cried Joe, as the boat glided on, "I don't know what you chaps
+think of it, but I am getting warm again, and I call this 'ere sport.
+But I say, Mr Rodd, I am beginning to wish you was aboard the _Maid of
+Salcombe_, and you'd took me with you."
+
+"Same 'ere, sir," cried the men, in chorus.
+
+"See any more, Mr Rodd?"
+
+"No, not yet, Joe."
+
+"Well, there's no hurry, sir.  Let's get our breath.  But do you call
+this 'ere fishing or shooting?"
+
+"There's another," cried Rodd excitedly; "but it's going the other way."
+
+"Got to know perhaps, sir, how we upset t'other.  But we can spare him,
+for I'll be bound to say there's plenty more of them.  Now I wonder what
+they are all for--pretty creatures!"
+
+"What they are for, Joe?" cried Rodd, without taking his eyes from the
+surface of the muddy stream which was carrying them onward.
+
+"Yes, sir; I don't see as they are much good.  I say, there's another
+one!  No, he's ducked his head down.  Ah, he's coming up again.  Look
+out, my lads!" cried the man.  "I wish there was another pole.  There's
+nothing left for me but my knife, and they are as hard as shoehorns, I
+know.  I don't want to break my whittle against his skin.  No, he's
+going to let us go by.  Ah!  Look out!"
+
+For as they drew nearer the sun flashed off the reptile's muddy skin,
+and they could see it glide round rapidly and strike two tremendous
+blows on the surface with its serrated tail--blows that had been
+probably directed at the boat, but which fell short, while in its blind
+stupidity it kept on thrashing the water several times after the vessel
+had passed.
+
+"Ahoy!  Ahoy!" came from somewhere, seeming to echo from the trees that
+covered the bank.
+
+"Ahoy!  Ahoy!" shouted Joe Cross back.  "Why, that means help, sir.  The
+brig must be lying there, just round that bend beyond the trees."
+
+"Oh no," cried Rodd excitedly.  "We must have gone down miles with the
+tide."
+
+"Ahoy!  Ahoy!" came again.  "Boat ahoy!" from somewhere out of sight;
+and glancing back Rodd made out that they were passing along what seemed
+to be a rapid bend.
+
+"Ahoy!" was shouted back, and then all at once, to the astonishment of
+the sufferers, a couple of boats came into sight from right astern,
+their occupants sending the spray flying as they bent to their oars and
+seemed to be racing to overtake the gig.
+
+For the moment the boats, quite a quarter of a mile behind, took up all
+their attention, and Rodd stood up in the bows waving his hand wildly.
+
+"There's Uncle Paul, and the skipper, in one!" he cried.
+
+"Ay, ay, my lad; that's our old man," shouted Joe.
+
+"And there's the Count, and eight men rowing hard, in the other, but--
+but--oh, I say, Morny isn't there!"
+
+"Oh, he's being skipper and taking care of the brig, sir," cried Joe
+sharply, as he noted the boy's disappointed tone of voice.
+
+"No, he isn't," shouted Rodd, signalling with his pole, as he saw one of
+the rowers rise up in the brig's boat and begin waving an oar; "he's
+pulling with the men!"  And his voice sounded hoarse and choking, while,
+realising this fact, the boy coughed loudly and forcibly, as if to clear
+his throat.
+
+"Here, you've ketched a cold, Mr Rodd, sir," cried Joe.  "But never
+mind them behind in the boats.  They'll ketch us up soon.  There's
+another of them beauties coming at us.  The beggars do seem hungry this
+morning.  We hardly seed any of them when we were coming up yesterday.
+Why, of course, this is their breakfast-time, and the sight of us has
+made them peckish.  Now then, all together, lads!  Let him have it."
+
+Four poles were thrust together, with somewhat similar effects to those
+on the last occasion, for the onset of the great reptile was diverted,
+the boat's head turned aside, and the blows aimed at them by the
+creature's tail fell short, though to the men's dismay their efforts had
+driven them towards another of the monsters, which was gliding towards
+them from their left.
+
+But here again they successfully turned the creature aside, and Rodd
+exclaimed--
+
+"Suppose we missed!"
+
+"Oh, the beggars are too big to miss, sir," cried Briggs.  "But suppose
+we did; what then, sir?"
+
+"I don't know," cried Rodd excitedly.  "What do you say, Joe?"
+
+"I don't know, sir.  I never learned crocodile at school, though there
+was one in my spelling-book, and I 'member I couldn't understand why a
+four-legged chap like him, as lived in the water, should make a nest and
+lay eggs like a bird.  Here, Harry, let me handle that pole for a few
+minutes.  I should like to have a turn.  Thank you, lad," he continued.
+"Yes, they're rum beasts, Mr Rodd, sir, and I dare say they are very
+slippery; but I don't suppose I shall miss the next one--Ah!  Would
+yer!" he shouted as one of the reptiles rose suddenly, open-mouthed,
+close to the boat's head.
+
+As the man spoke he made a heavy thrust with his pole, his companions
+having no time to take aim, and the next moment the hideous jaws snapped
+to, there was a fresh swirl, the bamboo pole was jerked out of Joe's
+hand, and he would have overbalanced himself and gone overboard had not
+those nearest to him seized him and snatched him back.
+
+"Well, now," he cried, "just look at that!"  For about half of the
+bamboo remained visible and went sailing up the stream.
+
+Just then there was the sharp report of a gun from behind, followed by
+another, while before there was time for re-loading there was the loud
+_crack, crack_ of a double fowling-piece.
+
+"Hurrah!  That's uncle!" cried Rodd.  "They are firing at the
+crocodiles, and it will be with bullets."
+
+"And sarve them jolly well right, Mr Rodd, say I," cried Joe, "for I
+call it taking a mean advantage of a man to sneak off like that with his
+pole.  Why, look at him, sir.  He's having a regular lark with it--
+picking his teeth, or something.  Look how he's waggling the top of it
+about.  What do you say to try and steer after him and get it back?"
+
+"Ugh!  No!" cried Rodd.  "It would be madness."
+
+"Well, not quite so bad as that, sir.  Say about half-cracked; and
+that's about what I'm beginning to think.  I say, they are getting all
+the fun behind there."
+
+"Look out; here comes another!" cried Rodd, for there was a pair of eyes
+in front gliding rapidly towards them just above the water, but
+apparently not satisfied with the appearance of the boat, or perhaps
+less ravenous, the two prominences softly disappeared before they were
+close up, and Joe Cross, evidently divining what might happen, suddenly
+caught Rodd round the waist and forced him down into the bottom of the
+boat.
+
+"Look out, my lads!" he yelled.
+
+As he spoke the hinder part of the boat began slowly to rise, showing
+that they were gliding right over a reptile's back.  Then it was turned
+to starboard, the water coming almost to the edge; but as it glided on
+it began to sink to the level again, just as it received a heavy shock
+from below and was driven forward with a jerk just far enough to escape
+a blow from a serrated tail which rose astern and showered the water
+over them in so much blinding spray.
+
+"Here, ahoy there!" shouted Joe.  "Look alive, and bring up them guns!
+There's more sport up here than we want.  I wouldn't care, Mr Rodd, if
+we had got our oars and my boat-hook.  Nay, I don't know, though.  It's
+just as well I haven't, for I should be getting it stuck perhaps, and
+never see that no more."
+
+A few minutes after, while the firing was kept up from astern, the two
+boats came up on either side, and amidst the heartiest of
+congratulations Rodd cried--
+
+"Ah, uncle, you have overtaken us at last!  I am glad you have come!"
+
+"Overtaken you, my boy!  Why, we have been miles down the river towards
+the mouth.  We started as soon as the tide was slack enough for us to
+leave the vessels.  We must have passed you in the fog, and we were
+beginning to despair.  But we came upon one of the sailors' caps hanging
+in a bough, when, thinking that perhaps we had gone too far, and Captain
+Chubb feeling sure that you had run ashore somewhere in the darkness,
+perhaps been carried right into the flooded forest, we came back and--"
+
+He ceased speaking, took a quick aim over the side of the boat, and
+discharged the contents of his double gun into the head of a reptile
+which rose three or four yards away.
+
+"The brutes!" he went on.  "But there don't appear to be so many here.
+We seem to have been coming through quite a shoal."
+
+"There's plenty of them," growled the skipper, "but three boats together
+scares them a bit.  Here, my lads, lay hold of this line and make fast,
+and we will give you a tow back to the schooner.  We shan't be long
+getting up to it with this tide.  Why, hallo here!  Not content with
+losing the oars and boat-hook, you've been and got the gig stove in!
+And the grapnel gone too!  Here, you Joe Cross, what's the meaning of
+all this?"
+
+"I'll tell you about that, captain, by and by," said Rodd quickly.
+"What's that?  You want to come aboard, Morny?  No, you had better not.
+It's all muddy, and we shall have to begin baling.  Pitch us in a couple
+of tins."
+
+"I'll bring them," cried the young Frenchman, rising in the boat.--"Yes,
+my father, I wish to go.  Hook on, and let me get aboard," he continued
+to the French coxswain.
+
+Half-an-hour later, with the men taking it in turns to bale, and with
+the crocodiles seeming to have become more scarce, they ran up alongside
+of the two anchored vessels, cheering and being cheered from the moment
+they came into sight.
+
+"Now, my lads," cried the doctor, "every one of you take what I'll mix
+up for you directly, and have a good bathe and rub down.  I am not going
+to have you all down with fever if I can stave it off."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.
+
+TALKING LIKE A BOY.
+
+Perhaps it was nearly all weariness and the result of the excitement,
+but it may have been due to Uncle Paul's potion; at any rate Rodd went
+off fast asleep, and when he awoke it was to find Morny sitting by his
+cot.  "Hullo!" he cried.  "You here!"
+
+"Yes, I am here," was the reply.  "How are you?"
+
+"Oh, I am all right.  Have I been to sleep?"
+
+"Well, yes, you have been to sleep," said Morny, smiling at him in a
+rather peculiar way.
+
+"What are you laughing at?"
+
+"Oh, I was only smiling at you."
+
+"What, am I scratched and knocked about?"
+
+"Oh, very slightly."
+
+"But I say, I am so precious hungry.  What time is it?"
+
+"Just upon six.  Some bells or another, as you call it."
+
+"Get out!  Why, it was seven o'clock this morning when I lay down to
+sleep after my bath; so how can it be six o'clock?  You don't mean to
+say that it is six o'clock in the evening?"
+
+"Indeed, but I do.  You had better jump up, or it will soon be dark."
+
+"What a nuisance!  Why, I must have slept twelve hours."
+
+"Oh, you think so, do you?  Yes, a good deal more than that.  I was
+getting quite alarmed about you, only your uncle said you were quite
+right and you were to have your sleep out."
+
+"I say, look here," cried Rodd; "am I dreaming, or are you playing
+tricks?  I am getting muddled over this.  I lay down this morning, and
+as soon as my head was on the pillow I must have gone off fast asleep."
+
+"Yes, but it was yesterday morning."
+
+Rodd sat up quickly in his cot and screwed himself round to stare hard
+in his companion's face.
+
+"Look here," he cried, "you are playing tricks!"
+
+"Indeed I'm not!  You've been sleeping for about a day and a half."
+
+"Well!" cried Rodd, beginning to dress hurriedly.  "But never mind.  I
+will make up for it by not going to sleep for a whole day.  Look here,
+you know what's been going on.  Where are we?  Going up farther so as to
+get a mooring-place?"
+
+"We came up yesterday, miles higher up the river, and the brig's moored
+close by an open part of the shore.  There, make haste and finish
+dressing and come and look."
+
+The lad dressed himself probably more quickly than he had ever achieved
+the performance before in his life, and in the process he learned that
+his uncle and Captain Chubb were on board the brig with several of the
+men, the skipper superintending the moorings and the arranging of cables
+from the brig to a couple of great forest trees, with tackle so ordered
+that the vessel could be careened over to any extent desired, and that
+the next morning she was to be allowed to sink with the tide so as to be
+bedded in the mud and laid over until the bottom was so exposed that the
+carpenter and his mates could get to work.
+
+As soon as Rodd had hurried on deck he found all as his companion had
+described, while he had just mastered these facts when there was the
+sharp report of a gun.
+
+"What's that?" he cried.
+
+"Oh, only your uncle having a shot at a crocodile.  Both he and my
+father have been at it all day, sending bullets into them whenever a
+head appeared on the surface of the water."
+
+"But I say, look here, Morny; why didn't this wake me?"
+
+"Oh, you were shut up down here and too fast asleep."
+
+"Then that would be uncle's dose," cried Rodd.  "He must have given me
+too much.  Why, he might have killed me."
+
+"Oh no.  I expect he knew too well what he was about.  He seems to have
+kept off the fever."
+
+"Fever, yes!  Has anybody else got it?"
+
+"No.  Your men are quite well."
+
+"But they didn't sleep as long as I have?" cried Rodd anxiously.
+
+"Not quite; but they all had very long sleeps, and my father says that
+they would have been longer if their messmates had not disturbed them.
+Now then, you had better go back to your cabin again.  The steward told
+me that he was keeping some breakfast ready for you to have at any
+time."
+
+"Wait a bit," cried Rodd, and he hailed his uncle and Captain Chubb
+before having a good look round at their position, and finding that they
+were in a beautiful open reach of the river, with the forest overhanging
+the stream on one side, while on that where the brig was seated close in
+shore there were only a few scattered trees, and those of large size,
+for the main portion of the forest had retired back nearly a quarter of
+a mile.
+
+The next morning, as arrangements had been made to begin work at
+daylight, Captain Chubb and certain of the men, including Joe Cross, had
+their breakfasts by lamplight, and were on board the brig long before
+the sun rose.
+
+Then came a busy time, with everybody anxiously watching for the success
+of Captain Chubb's plans.
+
+He took his place upon the brig with the schooner's carpenter, the two
+lads bargaining that they might stay too, and as the tide sank the brig,
+which had been hauled in close to the bank at high water, soon touched
+bottom, her keel settling down steadily into the mud, and in due time
+began to careen over more and more, her progress being governed by a
+couple of capstans that had been arranged upon the shore.  This went on
+until long before low water she was lying so much over on her side away
+from the shore that the sail that had been used as a plaister, as Rodd
+called it, was slackened off, and one of the holes made by the cannon
+ball fully exposed to view.
+
+Then followed a busy time, the carpenter and his mates stripping off the
+copper and using their saws hour after hour as long as the tide left the
+leak bare, while after working as long as was possible, pieces of new
+thin plank were temporarily nailed on over the now much-enlarged
+opening, which was carefully caulked and all made as secure as possible.
+
+This done, the capstans were manned again, and with the rising tide the
+brig raised to her proper position, and secured for the night, but
+hauled in as close to the shore as was possible, with the consequence
+that though the water rose through the untouched leak considerably, it
+never reached so high within as the point it had occupied with the pumps
+hard at work.
+
+It proved to be a much longer job than had been anticipated, though the
+men worked as hard as was possible while the tide was low.
+
+But the time passed very pleasantly for Rodd and his uncle, for they
+took their stations on board the anchored schooner, firing at every
+crocodile that showed itself, the presence of the men at work upon the
+muddy exposed shore proving an irresistible attraction during the first
+part of the time.  But so many had been sent writhing and lashing the
+water, to float down-stream, that at last they began to grow shy, and
+the sportsmen were enabled to direct some of their charges of small shot
+at specimens of beautiful birds that came within range, as well as at
+the abundant waterfowl--ducks and geese--that gathered morning and
+evening to feed, but often to become food for the hideous reptiles that
+lurked beneath the trees close in shore.
+
+This latter sport proved highly welcome to the crews of both vessels,
+providing as it did a pleasant change of diet after so much salt
+provision, for very few fish were caught, consequent upon the way in
+which they were persecuted by the reptiles.
+
+"I wish you would join in.  I am sure you can shoot well," said Rodd;
+but Morny shook his head.
+
+"No," he said; "my father is so anxious to see the brig repaired."
+
+"Yes, I suppose so," said Rodd, "but that wouldn't make any difference.
+You can't help."
+
+"No, I cannot help," replied the lad, "and I should like to be with you
+all the time, but I can't leave his side.  It would seem so hard if I
+didn't stay with him to share his anxiety."
+
+"Well, but you might have a few shots at the crocodiles.  That's helping
+to protect the men who are at work."
+
+"True," replied Morny, smiling.  "But you two are such clever shots.
+You can do all that.  Don't ask me again, please."
+
+Rodd was silent.
+
+But during the long dark evenings in that grand and solitary reach of
+the river, which looked as if it had never been visited by human beings
+before, there would have been most enjoyable times had not the Count
+seemed so preoccupied and thoughtful.  Still it had become the custom
+that there should be a constant interchange of courtesies between the
+occupants of the two vessels, the sailors thoroughly fraternising, while
+their superiors alternately dined together upon schooner or brig, and a
+thorough rivalry sprang up between the English and French cooks as to
+who should provide the best meals for officers and men.
+
+"I should like for us to make an excursion right up the river as far as
+we could go in the boats," said Rodd one evening, to his French
+companion.  "Uncle wants to go."
+
+"Then why don't you?" said Morny.  "You have plenty of time," he added,
+with a sigh, "for the repairs go on very slowly.  One of the leaks is
+not stopped yet."
+
+"They are not going on slowly," retorted Rodd.  "I talked to Captain
+Chubb about it, and he said the work must be thoroughly done, so as to
+make the brig as good as ever she was."
+
+"Yes, they are doing it well," said Morny sadly.
+
+"He said--" continued Rodd, with a laugh; and then he stopped short.
+
+"Well, why don't you go on?"
+
+"Oh, never mind.  You wouldn't like it.  You are sensitive, and it might
+hurt your feelings."
+
+"I promise you it shall not.  Tell me what the captain said."
+
+"Well, he said he wasn't going to have any Frenchmen throw it in his
+teeth that he hadn't done his best because it was a French boat, and
+that he was taking more pains over it than he should have done if it had
+been ours."
+
+Morny laughed.
+
+"Oh yes," he said, "I know he is doing his best, and I wouldn't care,
+only my father is so anxious to get to sea again."
+
+"Well, all in good time," cried Rodd.  "They are fitting the copper
+sheathing on again, and to-morrow they will begin careening the brig
+over so as to get at the other side."
+
+"Ha!  Yes," said the French lad, with a sigh of satisfaction.  "Well,
+you take your boat to-morrow, and plenty of men and ammunition, and go
+on a good long excursion."
+
+"Shan't," said Rodd gruffly.
+
+"But why not?"
+
+"Aren't going without you."
+
+"What nonsense!  I'm busy.  You are free."
+
+"I am not.  If we went away leaving you alone with a brig that won't
+swim, who knows what would happen?  The crocs would send the news all up
+and down the river that we were gone away, and come on at you with a
+rush."
+
+"That's absurd!  You talk like a boy."
+
+"Well, I am one.  Yes, that is nonsense.  But suppose a whole tribe of
+niggers came down out of the forest to attack you."
+
+"They couldn't.  You know yourself that the forest is impassable except
+to wild beasts."
+
+"Well, then, perhaps they would come down, or up--yes, up; they wouldn't
+come down, and find you helpless, because we should meet them and come
+back to help you."
+
+"We could fight," said Morny coolly, "and sink their canoes with the big
+guns."
+
+"What, when they are fast lashed to one side, and your deck all of a
+slope?  No, we are not going, so don't bother about it any more.  Who
+knows but what there may be towns of savages right up inland, or up some
+other river farther along the coast?  I dare say it's a beautiful
+country--and there, I won't hear another word.  We are not going away to
+leave you in the lurch.  Uncle said as much.  He likes the Count too
+well."
+
+Morny laughed merrily.
+
+"Why," he said, "he's always quarrelling with my father and hurting his
+feelings by the way in which he speaks about our great Emperor."
+
+"Stuff!" cried Rodd indignantly.  "That's only Uncle Paul's way.  He
+always talks like that when he gets on to politics.  Why, I have a sham
+quarrel with him sometimes about Napoleon.  I pretend that I admire him
+very much."
+
+"Pretend!" cried Morny eagerly.
+
+"Well, I tell uncle that he was a very great general and soldier."
+
+"Yes, yes!  Grand!" said the French lad, flushing.
+
+"And that I shouldn't have wondered at all if he had conquered the whole
+world."
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried Morny excitedly.  "That was brave of you!  And what
+did your uncle say?"
+
+"Said I was a young scoundrel, and that if I wasn't so big, and that he
+disliked corporal punishment, he'd give me a good thrashing to bring me
+to my senses."
+
+"And you--you--" cried Morny, grasping him by the arm, "what did you say
+to that?"
+
+"Nothing at all.  Only burst out laughing."
+
+"Burst out laughing?"
+
+"Yes, and then Uncle Paul would grunt out `Humbug!' and we were good
+friends again."
+
+The young Frenchman shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
+
+"Ah, yes," he said.  "Even those who worshipped him mock at the Emperor
+now that he is in misfortune--even you, Rodd.  But I can forgive you,
+because you are English and the natural enemies of our great Emperor.
+But those of our countrymen--cowards and slaves--parasites of the new
+King.  _Laches_!  Cowards!  But let us talk of something else.  You make
+me like you, Rodd.  You always did, and--"
+
+"Ah-h-h!  Getting on dangerous ground.  Now look here; will you come
+with us shooting?"
+
+"No.  I have told you why."
+
+"Well, I am horribly disappointed.  But I like you for it all the more,
+Morny.  You are a regular trump to your father."
+
+"I!" cried the young man fiercely.  "I play the trumpet to my father!
+Never!  If I praise him it is all the truth, because he is so honest and
+brave and good."
+
+"Why, what's the matter now?" cried Rodd in astonishment.  "Oh, I see--
+trump!  You don't know all our English expressions yet.  Where's your
+dictionary?"
+
+"There was no such word in it that I do not understand," cried the lad.
+
+"Then it isn't a good one," said Rodd merrily.
+
+Explanations followed, and the two lads parted that evening, both eager
+for the coming of the following day and the attack that was to be made
+upon the second leak where the ball from the fort had made its exit on
+the other side nearer the keel.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.
+
+A PROPOSED ADVENTURE.
+
+It was a busy and an anxious day.  The brig's guns had been carefully
+ran to starboard and firmly lashed, and the yards lowered down, her
+topmasts struck, and all made ready for laying her right over in the mud
+at low water, so that her spars should be upon the shore.
+
+"It wouldn't do to lay her over like this," said the skipper gruffly,
+"if she were full of cargo.  It would mean a bad shifting.  But I think
+we can manage, and I'll risk it.  We can easily start her water casks."
+
+There was no question of shooting that day, Rodd preferring to stay with
+his French friend; and the doctor seemed to quite share the Count's
+anxiety as they watched the proceedings of the sailors while the tide
+went down.
+
+But everything went on admirably.  As the water sank a steady strain was
+kept upon the cables, and by slow degrees the brig careened over towards
+the land till the newly-repaired side sank lower and lower, and she lay
+more and more over, till at last the water that had flooded the hold
+began to flow out with the tide till the beautiful vessel lay perfectly
+helpless upon her side, with the whole of her keel visible upon the long
+stretch of mud.  Then Captain Chubb, taking hold of a rope which he had
+made fast to the larboard rail, climbed over on to the brig's side, and
+steadying himself by the cord, walked right down and stood shaking his
+head at the ghastly wound which the vessel had received.
+
+For after passing right through the hold, the cannon ball had struck
+upon and shattered one of what are technically called the ship's knees,
+ripping off a great patch of the planking and tearing through the copper
+sheathing, which was turned back upon the keel, making a ragged hole
+several times the size of the fairly clean-cut orifice by which the shot
+had entered.
+
+"You had better come and have a look here, Count," cried the captain--an
+invitation which was accepted by several of those interested, and in a
+very short time an anxious group was gathered round the vessel's injury.
+
+"Well, sir," said the skipper, in his rough, brusque way; "what do you
+say to that?"
+
+"Horrible!" groaned the Count.  "My poor vessel!"  And he looked at the
+captain in despair.
+
+"Well, sir," said the latter, "if anybody had told me that I could make
+a patch with sails over the bottom of your brig so as to keep her afloat
+as I have, I should have felt ready to call him a fool.  It's a wonder
+to me that you kept her afloat as you did, before you came to us for
+help."
+
+"But now, captain," cried the Count, as his son looked anxiously on, "is
+it possible, away from a shipyard, to mend this as well as you have done
+the other injury?"
+
+"Well, sir, if we were close to some port I should say, no, certainly
+not; but seeing where we are, there's only one thing to be done."
+
+"Yes?  And that--?" cried the Count.
+
+"Do it, sir.  But it will take some time."
+
+The Count made an impatient gesticulation, and then threw his hands
+apart in a deprecating way, as if he accepted the position in despair.
+
+"Yes," he said; "you brave Englishmen, you never give up.  You will do
+it, then?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir; we've got to do it; and what do they say?  Time and tide
+wait for no man; so I'll thank you all to clear off and let me and my
+lads get to work.  Only look here, sir; there's going to be no hoisting
+and lowering here.  We shall have to keep the brig lying on her side
+without any temporary patches, and the tide will have to flow in and
+out, even if it does some damage to your stores.  So while my lads are
+stripping off the copper, you will keep your men busy with your hatches
+open to make a pretty good clearance inside, so that we can work in
+there as well as out here."
+
+"Yes, yes," said the Count, who seemed to quite resign himself in full
+obedience to the skipper's wishes.  "But you will use all the speed you
+can?"
+
+"You may trust me for that, sir," said Captain Chubb; for after two or
+three attempts in the early parts of the proceedings connected with the
+repairs, and saying Monsieur le Count, the blunt Englishman gave it up
+in favour of plain straightforward "sir," and stuck to it; while the
+titled captain seemed to like the Englishman none the less.
+
+"Now," said the captain, as he climbed back on to the sloping deck,
+following the others, "I didn't know that your brig would be so bad as
+this, but I had my suspicions, and when I have not been busy here I have
+been casting my eye round for a good crooked bit of timber that would
+make a ship's knee if I wanted one."
+
+"And do you know where there is one?"
+
+"Yes," said the skipper; "and I think it will make a very good
+makeshift, for the wood's as hard as hard.  But what wouldn't I give for
+a good old crooked piece of Devon oak from out of Dartmoor Forest!"
+
+Shortly afterwards he had set the carpenter and his mates to strip off
+the copper sheathing, while he led off Joe Cross and another man about a
+quarter of a mile away from the river bank to where a huge pollard-like
+tree was growing at the edge of the forest, all gnarled and twisted in
+the most extraordinary way.
+
+The two lads had followed them, and Rodd looked at the selected tree
+aghast.
+
+"Why, you are never going to set the men to cut down that tree,
+captain?" he cried.
+
+"Why not, my lad?  Do you know a better bit?"
+
+"Better bit!" cried Rodd.  "Why, the men can hardly get through that
+with those axes.  Most likely take them a fortnight--I might say a
+month."
+
+"Ah, well, I don't want it all.  I am not going to load up the brig with
+a cargo of timber.  I only want that big dwarf branch from low down
+there where it starts from close to the root; and you will mind and get
+that big elbow-like piece as long as you can, Joe Cross."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!  Just you mark out what you want, and we'll cut accordin'.
+Better take all the top off first, hadn't us?"
+
+"Why, of course, my lad.  One of you use the saw while the other works
+away with an axe.  You quite understand?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir; me and my mate has seen a ship's knee afore now;" and
+rolling up their sleeves, they soon made the place echo with the blows
+of the axe, while the rasping harsh sound of the saw seemed to excite a
+flock of beautifully-plumaged parrots, which began to circle round the
+head of the tree, before finally settling amongst the branches uttering
+their sharp screeching cries, and giving vent to croaking barks, as if
+resenting this attack upon their domain.
+
+The carpenter and his men were meanwhile hard at work at the copper
+sheathing, making such progress that they were busy with their saws,
+dividing plank and trenail and working their way round the hole by the
+time the tide had risen sufficiently to drive them back, and then the
+Count and his party grouped themselves as best they could about their
+old quarters, looking despondently at what seemed like the beginning of
+a very hopeless wreck, a good deal of confidence being needed on their
+part to feel that all would come right in the end.
+
+Fortunately the tide during the next two or three days did not rise so
+high, and good progress was made, while, thanks to the way in which the
+French crew had worked, the damage done by the water as it flowed in
+through the gap that was made was principally confined to its leaving a
+thick deposit of mud.
+
+The doctor tried all he could to persuade the Count to take up his abode
+upon the schooner, and offered to accommodate as many men as he liked to
+bring with him, but he would not hear of it, and, as Rodd said
+laughingly to Morny, insisted upon living all upon one side and climbing
+instead of walking about the deck.
+
+Then all at once there was a surprise.  It was on the third day, when
+Joe Cross and his mate had called in the aid of a couple more to help
+drag the ponderous roughed-out piece of crooked timber to the waterside
+ready for the carpenter and his men to work into shape with their adzes,
+and while the latter were slaving away at high pressure to get all
+possible done before they were stopped by the tide, that, in obedience
+to a shout from Captain Chubb, all the men of the schooner's crew
+hurried to their boat to get on board, while those of the brig hurried
+to their arms ready for any emergency.  For coming up with the tide and
+round a bend of the river, a large three-masted schooner made its
+appearance with what seemed to be quite a large crew of well-armed men
+clustering forward, and apparently surprised at seeing that the river
+had its occupants already there.
+
+"What do you make of them, sir?" shouted the skipper through his
+speaking trumpet.
+
+"A foreigner--Spanish, I think," shouted back the Count, after lowering
+his spy-glass.  "Same here, sir.  Slaver, I think."  The fact of her
+proving to be a slaver did not mean that an attack was looming in the
+future, but slaving vessels upon the West Coast of Africa bore a very
+bad reputation, and the preparations that were rapidly made did not
+promise much of a welcome.
+
+As the stranger drew near it was evident that busy preparations were
+being made there too, but in his brief colloquy with Uncle Paul the
+skipper grunted out that he did not think the foreign vessel meant to
+attack, but to be ready to take care of herself in case the English
+schooner tried to surprise her and make her a prize.
+
+"We ought to have taken the boat," he said, "and gone up.  It seems to
+me that there must be a town up there somewhere--savage town, of course,
+belonging to some chief, for it aren't likely that there can be three of
+us all coming out here into this river on a scientific cruise.  Two's
+curious enough, English and French, but a Spaniel won't do at all.  For
+that's what she is, sir, plain enough.  Well, if she means fight, sir,
+you mean business, I suppose?"
+
+"Of course," said the doctor sternly; "and I am quite sure that we can
+depend upon the Count's help."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir; but it's a bad job the brig can't manoeuvre at all."
+
+"But I should say," said the doctor, "that when these men see how firm
+we are and well prepared, they will prove peaceable enough."
+
+As it proved in a short time after colours had been hoisted, those of
+the French brig being raised upon a spare spar, the stranger came
+steadily on in the most peaceable way till the tide had carried her
+within reasonable distance of the schooner's anchorage, when an order
+rang out, an anchor was lowered with a splash, and as she swung slowly
+round, a light boat was dropped from the davits, and a swarthy-looking
+Spaniard, who seemed to be an officer if not the skipper of the
+swift-looking raking craft, had himself rowed alongside the schooner.  A
+brief colloquy took place in which questions and answers freely passed,
+Captain Chubb speaking out frankly as to the object of their mission
+there, an avowal hardly necessary, for the appearance of the brig with
+the newly-cut hole, and her position, told its own story.
+
+The Spanish skipper, for so he proved to be, was just as free in his
+announcements as soon as he found that the brig and schooner were
+friendly vessels, and began to explain that he was on a trading
+expedition, that there was a king of the country up there, a great black
+chief, who had a large town, and that he came from time to time with
+stores to barter, which he always did with great advantage, going away
+afterwards pretty well laden with palm-oil and sundries, which the
+blacks always had waiting for his annual visit, these sundries
+including, he said, with a meaning laugh, ostrich feathers, choice dye
+woods, ivory, and a little gold.
+
+He spoke strongly accented but very fair English, and made no scruple
+about coming on board the schooner and examining her critically as he
+talked.
+
+"I thought at first, captain, that you had found out my private trading
+port and were going to be a rival;" whereupon the doctor began chatting
+freely with him and asking questions about the natural products of the
+place; and Rodd listened eagerly, drinking in the replies made by the
+Spanish captain as soon as he thoroughly realised the object of the
+schooner's visit and the bearing of the doctor's questions.
+
+He soon became eagerly communicative regarding the wild beasts that
+haunted the forests, the serpents that were found of great size, the
+leopards and other wild cats that might be shot for their skins, the
+beauty of the plumage of the birds, and above all the wondrous size of
+the apes that haunted the trees.
+
+"There's gold too to be washed out of the soil," he said, looking hard
+at Rodd; "but don't you touch it.  Leave that to the blacks."
+
+"Why?" said Rodd.
+
+"Because," said the man, shaking a fore-finger at him, upon which was a
+thick gold ring, "the white men who turn up the wet earth to wash it out
+get fever."
+
+"But," said the doctor, "we have not come gold-hunting.  And so there
+are great apes in these forests?  Have you seen them?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said the Spanish captain.  "I have been coming here for ten
+years, and never saw another vessel up here before--only the big canoes
+of the blacks.  Why, I could take you into the forest and show you
+plenty of beautiful birds and flowers, and all kinds of wonders."
+
+"But the forest seems to be impassable," put in Rodd.
+
+"Yes," said the Spaniard, with a laugh--"to those who don't know their
+way.  Higher up there are small rivers which run into this, where boats
+can go up and get to where the trees are not all crowded together, but
+more open like this patch here," he continued, waving his hand to where
+the forest retired back.  "There are sluggish streams where you can
+wander for days, and camp ashore, and shoot all kinds of things.  I used
+to at one time, when it was all new to me; and I collected skins and
+sent them to Cadiz and other European cities, where they sold well.  But
+I have given all that up long enough.  The black king--bah!--chief--he's
+only a savage.  He makes his people collect the palm-oil and other
+things for me, and I load up and take them back."
+
+"Then you would make a good guide," said the doctor.
+
+"I, captain?" said the man eagerly.  "Oh yes.  A man could not come here
+for ten years, and stay a month or two each time, without getting to
+know the country well."
+
+"I suppose not.  But this is the captain.  I am only a doctor,
+travelling to make discoveries."
+
+"Ah, a doctor!" cried the Spaniard eagerly.  "Then you will help me and
+one or two of my men!  Yes?  I will pay you well."
+
+"Oh," said the doctor quietly, "if I can help you, or any one with you
+who needs assistance, I will do so, of course.  I want no pay, but I
+might ask you to guide me and my nephew here in a little expedition or
+two into the forest."
+
+"Uncle," said Rodd quickly, "we mustn't leave the Count and Morny."
+
+"Well, well," said the doctor, "we'll see about that."
+
+"I am glad to know you, Senor Medico," said the Spaniard, patting on the
+stiffness of the formal Don and bowing profoundly, "and I will gladly
+help you in any way I can.  But I am only a poor trader, and glad to do
+any business I can when I meet a strange ship that has needs.  Do you
+want powder?  I see you have guns," he said sharply.
+
+"Oh yes," said the doctor.  "One never knows what enemies one may meet
+with among savage people; so we are well-armed, and as you see have a
+good crew."
+
+"Yes, yes," said the Spaniard, looking sharply round.
+
+"But I thank you.  We have plenty of powder."
+
+"So have I," said the Spaniard.  "The black chief is always glad to buy
+it, and guns too.  That is my money--that and rum.  Those will always
+buy palm-oil.  But I have plenty of ship stores; canvas, oakum, and
+pitch.  You are mending the other ship, I see.  Can I sell you some?"
+
+"I thank you, no," said the doctor.  "We are well supplied, I think,
+with everything; and in reply, if there is anything you want that we can
+supply to you I shall be pleased."
+
+"Then I should like a few canisters of your good English powder."
+
+"Thought you said you'd plenty," said Captain Chubb gruffly.
+
+The Spaniard closed his eyes slowly till they were like two narrow
+slits, and he gave the skipper a meaning nod.
+
+"Yes," he said significantly, "I have plenty.  It is good for the black
+man's guns.  But if you fired it from yours--pff!  It makes much smoke,
+and the barrel very wet, and the shot do not go too far.  But the black
+men know no better.  I do.  Ha, ha!  You will let me have a few pounds
+for my own pistols?"
+
+"And that long gun of yours too?" said the skipper.
+
+"Yes," said the Spaniard.  "As your medico says, one never knows what
+savage people one may meet.  It is good too behind a bullet for our
+friends here in the river.  You have seen them?"
+
+He put his wrists together with his palms closed, and then slowly opened
+them widely in imitation of a crocodile's jaws, and closed them with a
+snap.
+
+"Oh yes," said Rodd, "we have met them, and found out how horny their
+skins are."
+
+"Ugh!  Beasts!" said the Spaniard.  "Last time I was here they swept two
+of my men out of a boat, and I never saw them more.  We caught some fish
+as we came up the river, at the mouth.  _Adios, senores_; I will send
+you some.  We shall meet again.  I do not hurry for some days, for I am
+before my time."
+
+"How far is it up to the town?" asked Captain Chubb.
+
+"Three days' journey.  This is a great river, and the water is deep
+right up into the country till you reach the mountains, far beyond the
+town."
+
+"Well," said the doctor, "let's go ashore, Rodd, and tell the Count.  We
+didn't bargain for this, eh, captain?"
+
+"No," said the skipper gruffly, as he watched the departing boat, after
+ordering the crew back into their own so as to row the doctor and his
+nephew to the brig.
+
+"Well, Rodd," continued the doctor, "it would be a grand chance for us
+to have some expeditions with a good guide.  What do you think of the
+Spanish captain?"
+
+"Don't like him at all, uncle.  There's a nasty, catty, foxy look about
+him."
+
+"A mixture of the feline and the canine, eh, my boy?  Well, he must be a
+bad one!  Ah!  British prejudice is as strong in you as it is in me."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.
+
+SPANISH LIQUORICE.
+
+There was quite a discussion when the doctor joined those waiting by the
+brig, the Count being bitterly annoyed and displaying more excitement
+than the others had seen in him before, while Morny kept close to his
+side, and whispered to him from time to time, as if trying to calm him
+down.
+
+"Yes, yes, my son," he cried passionately, and speaking to him in
+French; "but you are a boy, and do not think.  Look here," and he
+pointed to the helpless brig, "how do we know but that he may be an
+enemy?  And we are in this helpless state, quite at his mercy."
+
+The doctor was listening attentively, and understood every word.
+
+"I know," he said soothingly, "this must be very painful for you; but
+Captain Chubb believes that before many days are over the brig will be
+as strong as ever.  I answer for him that he is making every effort to
+finish what he has undertaken."
+
+Uncle Paul directed a glance at the skipper, who stood scowling close
+by.
+
+"Thank you, doctor," he granted, as he gave a nod.  "And I feel sure
+that this Spanish captain, who is evidently an ordinary trader, will
+prove perfectly inoffensive; and besides, my dear sir, we are not at war
+now, and what enemies can you have to fear?"
+
+"Ah, yes," said the Count bitterly, as he made a deprecating gesture
+with his hands, turning and directing his words at his son; "what
+enemies can we have to fear?"
+
+"Well, I am glad you look upon it in that light," said the doctor.
+"Now, if it had been years ago, with your smart little craft, and you
+had been followed up here by a small sloop of war, or an English letter
+of marque, you might have expected to be made a prize.  But this is an
+ordinary Spanish schooner, and though I suspected it at first, I don't
+think she is tainted by the slave trade, but engaged in traffic with the
+natives for the sake of palm-oil."
+
+"Perhaps you are right, sir," said the Count.
+
+"I feel sure I am," said the doctor, "and I must confess to having
+hailed this man's coming, from the help he will be to me in a little
+expedition I propose to make when we have seen the brig restored and all
+set right."
+
+"I thank you," said the Count, "but I am so anxious for the success of
+my own scientific search that I have got into the habit of seeing
+enemies in every one, even as I did, doctor, in you and your men.  And
+you see this is an armed vessel with a very strong crew."
+
+"Well," said the doctor good-humouredly, "we have armed vessels with
+very strong crews.  Anxiety has made you nervous, Count.  Here's your
+doctor," he said, turning to Captain Chubb, "and before many days have
+passed he will have cured all your trouble, and we can get to sea
+again."
+
+"Ah, yes, that will be better," said the Count, wiping his moist brow.
+"You must forgive me, doctor--and you too, Captain Chubb.  I am
+impatient, I know.  But I see now all will be well.  One moment, though:
+you said we can get to sea again.  _We_?  You will sail with me?"
+
+"My dear sir," said the doctor, "you need have no fear.  Captain Chubb
+will make your brig as sound as ever.  You will need to look for no
+further assistance from me."
+
+"I did not mean that," said the Count hastily.  "I meant brotherly
+help--the help that one devoted to research could give to another."
+
+"But," said the doctor, laughing, "you have never confided to me what
+particular form of research yours is."
+
+"No, I have not," said the Count hurriedly, "and I ask you to spare me
+from explanation.  Be satisfied if I say that we are both bound upon
+great missions, and that you, a brother scientist, can give me enormous
+help by working in company with me for the next few weeks at most.  Is
+this too much to ask of a learned doctor like you?"
+
+"Oh no," said Uncle Paul good-humouredly; "I do not see that it is.  You
+are not going to ask me to help you to escape from an English prison."
+
+The Count gave an involuntary start.
+
+"Of course not," said the doctor, "for I am thankful that all that kind
+of trouble is at an end, and that France and England are at peace; and
+besides, you are free to come and go where you please.  Well, as your
+son and my nephew have become such inseparable friends, and my time is
+my own, I will ask no questions, but sail where you sail, and pick up
+what I can to complete my specimens while you continue your research;
+and believe me, I wish you every success."
+
+"Ah," said the Count, with a sigh of satisfaction; and with all a
+Frenchman's effusiveness he laid his hands on the doctor's shoulders and
+said, with some little show of emotion, "I thank you.  You are making me
+as great a friend as my son is to your nephew."
+
+Watch was mounted on both vessels at night as if they were in the
+presence of a dangerous enemy; but there in the great solitude of that
+forest through which the river ran, there was nothing human to disturb
+the night.
+
+Savage nature was as busy as ever during the dark hours through which
+the creatures of land and water fled for their lives or pursued their
+prey.  Otherwise everything was wondrously still, and those upon
+schooner or brig who might have felt doubtful about the Spanish craft
+saw or heard nothing save the low murmur of voices in conversation and
+the occasional opening or shutting of a dull lantern, whose use was
+explained by the sudden glow cast upon the face of some swarthy sailor
+as he lit a fresh cigarette, after which a couple of faint points of
+glowing light rising and falling might have been seen passing to and fro
+upon the Spaniard's deck.
+
+Then as daylight came again there was the busy sound of the saw,
+chipping of the adze, the creak of auger, and the loud echoing rap of
+the mallet, as some tree-nail was driven home.
+
+On the previous evening the conversation that had gone on between the
+doctor and the Count had hardly ended before the Spaniard's boat, rowed
+by a couple of men, came as near as they could get to the brig, and one
+of the bare-legged men, after giving a sharp look round into the shallow
+water, as if in search of danger from one of the hideous reptiles on the
+look-out for prey, stepped over into the mud, and came up, bearing a
+basket of large, freshly-caught fish, which he placed in the hands of a
+couple of the sailors, and then stood waiting.
+
+"Ah!" cried the doctor.  "The fish the Spanish captain promised me.  Our
+thanks to your master, and I will not forget what he wanted."
+
+The man answered him in Spanish.
+
+"Ah, now you are taking me out of my depth," said the doctor.  "Do you
+speak French?"
+
+The man shook his head.
+
+"English, then?"
+
+"_No comprende, senor_," replied the man hurriedly--or what sounded like
+it.
+
+"Never mind, then," said the doctor.  "I'll send your skipper some
+powder to-morrow."
+
+The man shook his head and made signs, repeating them persistently,
+frowning and shaking his head.
+
+"I think he means, uncle," cried Rodd, "that he won't go away until you
+have paid him in powder for the fish."
+
+"Hang the fellow!" cried the doctor petulantly.  "Why hasn't he been
+taught English?  I don't carry canisters of gunpowder about in my
+pockets.  Can any one make him understand that the powder is in the
+little magazine on the schooner?"
+
+"What does he want?  Some gunpowder?" said the Count.
+
+"Yes.  I promised him a present of a few pound canisters."
+
+"We can get at ours," said the Count quietly, and giving an order to the
+French sailor who acted as his mate, the latter mounted into the brig,
+disappeared down the cabin hatchway, and returned in a few minutes with
+half-a-dozen canisters, with which the man smilingly departed, after
+distributing a few elaborate Spanish bows.
+
+The weather was glorious, and all that next day good steady progress was
+made with the brig repairs, while Rodd and his uncle spent most of the
+time keeping guard over the workmen and sending crocodile after
+crocodile floating with the tide, to the great delight of the grinning
+crew of the Spaniard, who lined the new-comer's bulwarks as if they were
+spectators of some exhibition, and clapped their hands and shouted loud
+_vivas_ at every successful shot, while all the time tiny little curls
+of smoke rose at intervals into the sunny air as the men kept on making
+fresh cigarettes as each stump was thrown with a _ciss_ into the gliding
+stream.
+
+"Quiet and lazy enough set, Pickle," said the doctor.  "How they can
+bask and sleep in the sunshine!  It's an easy-going life, that of
+theirs.  Ah, there's the skipper!  Fierce-looking fellow.  He looks like
+a man who could use a knife.  But you don't half read your Shakespeare,
+my boy."
+
+"What's Shakespeare got to do with that fierce-looking Spaniard using
+his knife, uncle?"
+
+"Only this, my boy," said the doctor, drawing the ramrod out of his
+double gun and trying whether the wads were well down upon the bullets,
+for a couple of the ugly prominences that arched over a big crocodile's
+eyes came slowly gliding down the stream; "I mean that a
+Shakespeare-reading boy clever at giving nicknames--and that you can do
+when you like--would have called that fellow Bottom the Weaver."
+
+"I don't see why, uncle.  Bottom the Weaver?" said the boy musingly, as
+he slowly raised his gun.
+
+"No, no; stop there, Rodd!  That's my shot.  I saw the brute first."
+
+"All right, uncle; only don't miss;" and the boy lowered his gun.  "But
+who was Bottom the Weaver?"
+
+"Tut, tut, tut!" ejaculated the doctor.  "I say, this is a big one,
+Rodd--a monster."
+
+"Here, I recollect, uncle.  He was the man who was going to play lion."
+
+"Good boy, Pickle; not so ignorant as I thought you were.  Well, didn't
+he say he'd roar him as gently as any sucking dove, so as not to
+frighten the ladies?"
+
+"Yes, uncle."
+
+"Well, didn't our knife-armed Spaniard roar to us as gently as--"
+
+_Bang_.
+
+"Got him!" cried the doctor.
+
+"No, no; a miss," cried Rodd.
+
+_Bang_, again.
+
+"That wasn't," said the doctor, and as the smoke drifted away there was
+a burst of _vivas_ again from the Spaniards as they saw their dangerous
+enemy writhing upon the surface with the contortions of an eel, as it
+turned and twined, and then lashed the water up into foam, till in a
+spasmodic effort it dived out of sight and was seen no more.
+
+"Poor fellow!" said Joe Cross from the brig, in the most sympathetic of
+tones.  "Such a fine handsome one too, Mr Rodd, sir!  Talk about a
+smile, when he put his head out of the water, why, a tiger couldn't
+touch it!  It must have been three times as long."
+
+So the work went on, and the tyrants of the river perished slowly, but
+did not seem to shrink in numbers.  But the carpentering party were able
+to do their work in safety, and when, after the interval for dinner had
+ended, Uncle Paul and his nephew carried on what Rodd called a reptilian
+execution, the Spaniard's crew were lying about in the sunshine asleep
+upon their deck.  They were too idle to take any interest in the
+shooting, while their captain, a rather marked object in the sunshine
+from the bright scarlet scarf about his waist, worn to keep up his snowy
+white duck trousers, lay upon the top of the big three-masted schooner's
+deck-house with his face turned to the glowing sun, and with a cigarette
+always in his mouth.
+
+"I believe he goes on smoking when he's asleep, uncle," said Rodd.
+
+"Yes, Pickle, and if I were an artist and wanted to paint a
+representation of idleness, there's just the model I should select.
+They are a lazy lot."
+
+"Yes, uncle, and twice over to-day I saw them talking together, and I
+feel sure that they were laughing at our men because they worked."
+
+No communication whatever took place between the strangers and the first
+occupants of the anchorage till after dark, when, as Rodd was leaning
+over the taffrail talking to Joe Cross, who said he was cooling himself
+down after a hot day's work, the Spaniard's boat was dimly seen putting
+off from the big schooner, and was rowed across, to come close alongside
+as Joe hailed her.
+
+The Spanish skipper looked up, cigarette in mouth, and nodded to Rodd.
+
+"You tell your ship-master," he said, "that I have been thinking about
+the birds and the spotted leopards and the big monkeys.  I know a place
+where they swarm.  Good-night!"  And at a word his boat was thrust off
+again and rowed back towards the gangway from which they came.
+
+"Well, let 'em swarm," said Joe Cross, as if talking to himself.  "I
+don't mind.  This 'ere's a savage country, and 'tis their nature to.  He
+seems a rum sort of a buffer, Mr Rodd, sir.  What does he mean by that?
+Was it Spanish chaff?"
+
+"Oh no, Joe.  My uncle was asking him about what curiosities there are
+in the country.  That's why he said he had been thinking about them."
+
+"Oh, I see.  But how rum things is, and how easy a man can make
+mistakes!  Now, if I had been asked my opinion I should have said that
+that there was a chap as couldn't think even in Spanish; sort of a
+fellow as could eat, sleep and smoke, and then begin again, day after
+day and year after year.  This is a rum sort of a world, Mr Rodd, sir,
+and there's all sorts of people in it.  Now look at that there skipper.
+He fancies hisself, he does, pretty creature!  White trousers, clean
+shirt every morning, and a red scarf round his waist.  'Andsome he calls
+hisself, I suppose.  He don't know that even a respectable dog as went
+to drink in a river and saw hisself, like that there other dog in the
+fable, would go and drown hisself on the spot if he found he'd a great
+set of brown teeth like his!"
+
+"Ah, Joe, Spaniards are not like Englishmen."
+
+"Oh, but I don't call him a Spaniard, sir.  I've seen Spaniards--regular
+grand Dons, officers and gentlemen, with nothing the matter with them at
+all, only what they couldn't help, and that's being Spaniards instead of
+Englishmen.  These are sort of mongrels.  Some of this 'ere crew are
+what people call mollottoes.  They are supposed to be painted white men,
+but payed over with a dirty tar-brush.  Talk about a easy-going lot!
+Why, I aren't seen one of them do a stroke of work to-day.  They are in
+the ile trade, aren't they, sir?  Palm-oil."
+
+"Yes, Joe; I suppose so."
+
+"Ah, that accounts for it, sir.  Handling so much ile that it makes them
+go so easy."
+
+The sailor burst into a long soft laugh, "What are you laughing at,
+Joe?"
+
+"That warn't laughing, sir; that was smiling.  When I laugh hearty you
+can hear me a long way off."
+
+"Well, what were you smiling at?"
+
+"I was thinking, sir, about how it would be if our old man had that lot
+under him.  My word, how he'd wake them up!  Poor, simple, sleepy
+beggars!  It would set them thinking that they hadn't took a skipper
+aboard, but a human hurricane.  I wonder who owns that there craft, and
+whether he gets anything out of the oil trade.  _Viva_, indeed!  Yes,
+our old man would give them something to _viva_ about.  Their skipper
+too--nice way of coming up a river to get a cargo.  Well, I suppose they
+get their tobacco pretty cheap; and that's how the world turns round."
+
+Another day glided by, with steady visible progress in the brig's
+repairs; and the Count seemed in better spirits, and said a few
+complimentary words to the skipper.
+
+On board the schooner Captain Chubb appeared to be setting an example to
+the Spaniards, for those of his crew who were not helping the carpenters
+at the brig were kept busy holystoning, polishing, and coiling down
+ropes into accurate concentric rings, till the _Maid of Salcombe_ was as
+smart as any yacht.
+
+Meanwhile the Spaniards lined the bulwarks of their vessel, smoked and
+yawned, and watched the reptile shooting, and then stared in sleepy
+wonderment at the busy smartening up of the English schooner.
+
+The evening came, and this time the Spanish captain had himself rowed
+across again, to find that it was the doctor who was leaning over the
+side with his nephew, and, cigarette in mouth still, the man said
+slowly--
+
+"He tell you about the birds and the monkeys up the little river?"
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, "and I've been thinking about it."
+
+"Ah, yes," said the Spaniard.  "I am going to stop a fortnight yet
+before it's time to go up with my cargo.  I'll make my men row you up to
+the mouth of that little river; and I could show you something you'd
+like, but you would have to take your guns--you and him too.  But maybe
+the boy would be afraid."
+
+"That I shouldn't!" cried Rodd hotly.
+
+"Oh!  Then you could come," said the Spaniard.  "But you'd be in the way
+if you were afraid.  Think about it.  Good-night."
+
+The doctor was ready to enter into conversation, and question him; but
+the boat went off back at once, leaving Uncle Paul mentally troubled,
+for the idea of an excursion into the depths of the forest wilds was
+exciting in the extreme.
+
+"He needn't have been in such a hurry, Pickle," said the doctor.  "I
+should have liked to have questioned him a little."
+
+"Yes, uncle.  I should like to hear about such things; but it was like
+his impudence to say that I should be afraid!"
+
+"Yes, my boy; it was rude," replied the doctor thoughtfully, "Ah!  It's
+such a chance as might never occur again.  A guide like that isn't
+always to be picked up."
+
+"No, uncle," replied the boy; "and it must be very wonderful in the
+depths of the forest, where you can get through, because you would be
+able to row."
+
+"Yes, my boy; wonderfully interesting," said the doctor eagerly.
+
+"But we couldn't go, uncle."
+
+"Why, Pickle?  Why?"
+
+"Because we couldn't go away and leave the brig like that."
+
+"No; of course not, my boy.  It would be too bad, wouldn't it?  And of
+course we couldn't go and trust ourselves to a pack of strangers, eh?"
+
+"We shouldn't be afraid, should we, uncle?"
+
+"Well, no, my boy; no.  But I don't think it would be prudent.  But
+there, there, we mustn't think of it.  We can't do everything we like."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY.
+
+THE DOCTOR'S CHARGE.
+
+It was very tempting, and, like most lovers of natural history, the
+deeper he plunged into his pursuit, with its wonders upon wonders, the
+more infatuated Uncle Paul grew.  The nephew was quite as bad, though,
+boy-like, his was more the natural love of novelty than that of science.
+
+Who among you is there who has not revelled in the thought of something
+new, the eager desire to see something fresh?  The country boy to see
+vast London with all its greatness and littleness, its splendour and its
+squalor, its many cares and too often false joys--the town boy to plunge
+into that home of mystery and wonder, the country.  And though as a rule
+the country boy is disappointed, he of the town, when once he has tasted
+the true joys of the country and seen Nature at her best, is never
+satiated.  But that love of the novel and the fresh is in us all--the
+desire for that which in Saint Paul's days the men of Athens longed for:
+something new.
+
+Hence then it was no wonder that Rodd, as he paced the schooner's deck
+and looked across to either side of the river where the primeval forest
+commenced, felt the strange longing to go and see, to hunt and find the
+myriads of fresh things upon which he had never set eyes before--wonders
+that might be more than wonderful--dangers which would be exciting,
+possibly without danger; in short, all the boy's natural love of
+adventure was stirring within him--that intense longing to cast away
+culture in every shape and to become, if for ever so short a time,
+something of the natural savage once more; and he was ready to urge on
+his uncle to go for just one expedition, only there was a sense of duty
+to hold him back.
+
+And as the time went on, and the brig was rapidly approaching
+completion, Uncle Paul more than once angrily exclaimed to his nephew--
+
+"Pickle, I wish that abominable Spaniard was on the other side of the
+world!"
+
+"So do I, uncle," cried the boy.  "We were getting on as nicely as could
+be, with plenty to interest us, and fresh adventures, and then he comes
+here setting us longing to go off into the wilds."
+
+"Yes, my boy, and if it wasn't for the Count and the sense of duty we
+feel towards him? we would be off to-morrow morning."
+
+"Well, why not go?" said a voice just behind them.
+
+Rodd and his uncle started round in astonishment, for they were both so
+intent upon their conversation, as they leaned over the rail talking
+together, that they had not heard anybody approach, and for a moment
+they were utterly speechless as they stood staring at the Count, who had
+just come on board, while Morny was climbing up the side to join him.
+
+"I--I didn't know you were here," said the doctor confusedly.
+
+"Why, you asked me to come on board and dine and spend the evening with
+you," replied the Count good-humouredly.  "Had you forgotten?"
+
+"Well--well," said the doctor, "I--Really, I'm afraid I had.  What--what
+have you been about?" he continued, turning angrily upon Rodd.  "It's a
+strange thing, Rodney, that when you know of some engagement that I have
+made, and it slips my memory, you never remind me of it."
+
+"Well, uncle--I--"
+
+"Well, uncle--you!  I remember now well enough.  You were there this
+morning when I asked the Count and--Ah, Morny, my lad!  How are you?
+Glad you have come.--But, as I was saying, what were you thinking
+about?"
+
+"Expedition into the forest, uncle," said the boy frankly.
+
+"Expedition into the forest, sir!  Um--ah!  Well.--Yes, I'm afraid I was
+thinking about it too.  I am so sorry, Des Saix.  But welcome all the
+same, if you will forgive me."
+
+"Forgive you, yes!" said the Count warmly.  "That and a great deal more.
+But I am very glad that you have so strangely led up to the subject
+upon which I wish to talk to you."
+
+"What, my forgetfulness?"
+
+"No, no!  That expedition into the forest."
+
+"No, no; don't talk about it.  I have thought about it too much, and it
+worries me."
+
+"Well, I want to put a stop to its worrying you.  Morny here has been
+telling me how anxious you both are to go."
+
+"Morny!  Why, what did he know about it?  He couldn't tell.  Here, you,
+Rodney, have you been letting your tongue run, sir, exposing all my
+weaknesses?"
+
+"No, sir, that he has not," replied the French lad eagerly; "but I have
+gathered from your remarks, and words that Rodd has more than once let
+drop, how anxious you both are to have a run up country and see
+something of what the wilds are like."
+
+"Oh, fudge!  Stuff!  Nonsense!" cried the doctor petulantly.  "That's
+quite out of the question."
+
+"Why?" said the Count.
+
+"Why?" cried the doctor.  "Oh, because it's--that is--er--I feel--"
+
+"Bound by a sense of imaginary duty," said the Count, smiling.  "You
+think it would be unfriendly to me and my son here to leave us in what
+you English people call the lurch; and therefore you are depriving
+yourself of what would be a great pleasure as naturalists and hunters in
+which you would indulge if we were not here."
+
+"My dear Des Saix, I do wish you would not talk about it," cried the
+doctor.  "There, I confess that if we were alone I should probably take
+advantage of the Spanish captain's knowledge of the country, and go a
+little way up with him; but as matters are, with your brig still
+unfinished, and so much to do, I consider it would be an act of
+disgraceful selfishness to go away and leave you alone here."
+
+"Absurd!" said the Count.  "You would be going into wilder parts while
+we should be quite at home here, in the nearly finished brig, and have
+her in the best of trim by the time you came back."
+
+"Impossible!" snapped out the doctor.  "Nothing of the sort."
+
+"What do you say, Morny?" continued the Count.  "You feel that they are
+both eager to go?"
+
+"Yes, father; and I am sure that Rodd is burning with desire."
+
+"You don't know anything about it," cried Rodd.
+
+"Well," said the Count, "ever since we met I have given way, and taken
+your advice, doctor, in all things; but we have come to a time now when
+I think I have a right to assert myself.  Captain Chubb thinks that he
+will have finished in two days more.  He is certain that he will have
+all done, caulked, tarred, and the copper replaced, in three days; so I
+have come to the conclusion that you people, who have been quite slaves
+in the way of sharing my troubles, thoroughly deserve a holiday.  So I
+set you free--you too, Morny."
+
+"Me, father!" cried the lad in astonishment.
+
+"Yes; I am sure you would enjoy a trip with Rodd as much as he would
+like you to go with him."
+
+"Yes, that I should," cried Rodd; "but--"
+
+"Yes," said Morny gravely; "but--you would not wish me to leave my
+father like this.  Thank you, my father.  I could not go, and I will
+stay."
+
+"No, Morny; you will obey my wishes.  You have your young life saddened
+enough with disappointments, so that when there is an opportunity to
+keep one away I call upon you to accompany young Harding here as his
+companion, and I wish you both a very enjoyable trip."
+
+"That's very nice of you--very nice indeed," cried the doctor; "but I
+cannot sanction it.  I think we should be doing very wrong if we let
+those boys go alone."
+
+"But they would not go alone.  You would have full charge of your
+nephew."
+
+"Now, Des Saix!" snorted the doctor.
+
+"Let me finish," said the Count good-humouredly; "and as a man in whom I
+place full confidence I entrust you with the care of my son.  Now,
+doctor, please, no more excuses.  I will not deprive you of the
+pleasures a naturalist would enjoy in such an excursion.  Your
+preparations could be soon made; so send over for the Spaniard to-night
+and tell him you will be ready to start at the turn of the tide
+to-morrow, so that it may bear you up into these unknown regions--
+unknown to us--and a pleasant trip to you!"
+
+"No," said the doctor, "I shall certainly not think of trusting
+ourselves to that man and his crew."
+
+"There I agree with you," said the Count; "with a good crew of your own
+trusted men."
+
+"And if he could be spared," cried Rodd, "I should like for us to have
+Joe Cross."
+
+"Now, look here," cried Uncle Paul, "this is taking a weak man at his
+weakest time.  Really, Count, we ought not to go.  Look at what your
+position would be in case anything should happen."
+
+"Nothing is likely to happen," said the Count, "and if it did, though my
+brig is still helpless I should have your vessel, with about half your
+crew, and my own.  So now not another word."
+
+"There," said the doctor, "I am afraid I am beaten."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY ONE.
+
+REPTILIAN.
+
+It was just about the same time as the Spaniard had chosen for his other
+visits, after dark, that his boat was again rowed across to the
+schooner's anchorage, the man asking for the doctor.
+
+"I'm here," said Uncle Paul, going to the side, from where he had been
+talking to the Count.  "What's the matter?"
+
+"Matter?" said the Spaniard wonderingly.  "Oh, there's nothing the
+matter.  I thought I'd tell you that those two men of mine you gave the
+physic to are quite well again, and don't want any more.  That's all.
+Go on shooting the crocodiles.  Good-night!"
+
+He gave an order to his men, and the boat's head was turned, but as soon
+as they had proceeded a little way back the Spaniard gave another order,
+and his men checked the boat and kept on gently dipping their oars to
+keep her in the same place.  "Doctor there?" shouted the Spaniard.
+"Yes."
+
+"Haven't thought any more about going up the river, have you?"
+
+There was dead silence for a few moments, and then Uncle Paul said
+sharply, as if making an effort--
+
+"Yes; I shall start as soon as the tide turns to-morrow morning."
+
+"Very well," said the man carelessly.  "I will come across with my
+long-boat and eight of my men.  They want a job to keep them awake."
+
+Then he grumbled out some words in Spanish to those who were with him,
+while, as if annoyed at what he had heard, Captain Chubb uttered a low
+growl.
+
+"No, you needn't do that," cried Uncle Paul.  "Our men would like to go
+up the river.  If you will come across to act as guide I will use my own
+boat, and take all provisions that are necessary."
+
+"Very well," said the Spaniard.  "Perhaps that will be best.  Your
+boat's lighter than mine.  Take plenty of powder and shot.  Like some of
+my men to come and help?"
+
+"Oh no; it will not be necessary," replied the captain.
+
+"Bring blankets," shouted the Spaniard.  "Dew's heavy.  Good-night!"
+Then the boat was rowed away.
+
+"You mean to go?" grunted the skipper.
+
+"Yes; I don't like to lose this opportunity, and our friends here would
+like us to go."
+
+"Well," grunted the skipper, after a few moments' thought, "he's only
+one, and you'll be how many?"
+
+"I was taking eight of the men to row; that is to say, four rowers, and
+their relief; Cross for coxswain--nine; and our three selves."
+
+"Nay, I'm not going till that brig's finished," said the skipper
+angrily.
+
+"I felt assured of that," said the doctor.  "The young Count is going to
+join us."
+
+"Ah, that's better," said the skipper.  "But look here, gentlemen, I
+only look upon myself as a servant."
+
+"Not as mine," said the Count gravely.  "I shall always look upon you,
+Captain Chubb, as one of my most valued friends."
+
+"And I am sure Captain Chubb knows that I do," said the doctor, "and
+that I have ever since he set me down as a scoundrelly slaver."
+
+"Oh, don't bring that up again, sir," grunted the skipper.  "That was a
+blunder, and every man makes them.  Well, that's very nice of you,
+gentlemen--very nice indeed; and I was going to speak out a bit
+nervously,--as I consider it to be my duty to do as Dr Robson's
+servant; but as you both speak of me as you do, I hope you won't be
+offended when I say outright that I don't like that Spanish chap at
+all."
+
+"Well, I don't know that I particularly like him," said the doctor; "but
+he will be very useful to me, and show me what I want.  I shall pay him
+for his services, and there'll be an end of it."
+
+"Yes, gentlemen, that's right enough, but I wouldn't trust him a bit.
+The doctor will say that it is British prejudice.  Perhaps it is; but
+here's my crew; there isn't a man among them as I'd say was perfect, but
+same time I'd lie down and go to sleep quite comfortable and feeling
+safe, if I knew any one of them was on the watch; and it did me good
+when I heerd you say, sir, that you wouldn't have any of the mongrel
+crew.  If it had been the other way on, and you'd said you were going to
+take Mr Rodd and the young French gentleman and trust yourselves up the
+country in their boat, I'll tell you outright, sir, I should have struck
+against it, and if you'd held out and rode the high horse as master,
+why, there'd have been a mutiny.  The men would have took my side, and
+we wouldn't have let you go."
+
+"And quite right too, Chubb," said the doctor, clapping him on the
+shoulder.  "It would have been a good proof that I had done wisely in
+making you my friend.  What do you say, Count?"
+
+"Quite right," was the reply.  "Well, captain," continued the Count, "I
+don't see that the party can come to much harm with nine of your stout
+men to act as bodyguard, if this Spanish captain is used as a guide."
+
+"No, sir, I don't see as they can; and as the doctor's come out on
+purpose to collect all kinds of curious things and see some of the
+wonders of the world, I suppose it is right that he should make use of a
+chance like this.  But I wouldn't trust that man, gentlemen, farther
+than I could see him, and that's what, with your leave, I am going to
+say to my lads.  I am just going to tell 'em that they have got to bring
+the three gentlemen back safe and sound, even if it means that some of
+them is going to lose the number of their mess, and that means this too,
+that if Mr Spanish skipper don't play his game fair--well then--"
+
+The skipper ceased speaking, and screwed up his lips very tightly just
+in the light shed by the swinging lantern.
+
+"Well, captain," put in Rodd, who felt rather amused at what he called
+the fuss the skipper was making, "why don't you finish what you were
+going to say?"
+
+"Because I didn't think it was needed, my lad," was the reply.  "What I
+meant was, that if the doctor here didn't think it was his duty to give
+that yellow chap a very strong dose, one of my lads would."
+
+The doctor was in as high glee the next morning as the two lads, and, it
+might be added with justice, the nine sailors who were to form their
+crew, for to a man they were bubbling over with excitement and delight.
+
+The moment they had heard that they were to go they began making their
+preparations; all their weapons were already in a perfect state of
+cleanliness, and shone as much as hands could make them, but every
+pistol and gun-lock was carefully re-oiled, every flint taken out and
+tightly replaced, while the blades of their cutlasses, that literally
+glittered, had a final touch given to them and the edges passed along
+the grindstone, which was sent spinning round in the little armoury as
+hard as it could go.
+
+The skipper himself spent half the night with the steward, packing
+provisions, Joe Cross helping, for though he was to be coxswain of the
+boat, he said he came in there, for after the cook he held that he knew
+more about cooking "wittles" than any fellow in the ship, and this was
+acknowledged without dissent, though one of the men did say that Joe
+Cross took more than his share, since in addition to other duties he had
+the canisters of gunpowder in charge.
+
+The morning was glorious, the sun and the early breeze soon chasing away
+the river mist, and before the tide had turned, everything was ready,
+the well-stored boat alongside, and an awning rigged up over the
+after-part big enough not merely to act as a screen for the gentlemen,
+but to shade those who were not rowing, while they were having their
+rest, while by a little addition the boat's sail could be spread over
+the little unshipped mast and used as a covering from the night dews
+when the boat was moored somewhere to the bank after the day's work was
+done.
+
+"There, gentlemen," said the skipper, "I think that's about as near as
+we can get it; but I don't see no sign of your Spanish guide as yet.  It
+seems to me as if every one yonder is asleep.  Here, you, Joe Cross, I
+knowed there'd be something.  You've forgotten that screwdriver and the
+little bottle of oil."
+
+"That I aren't, sir!  They're in the fore-locker in the little bag of
+tools."
+
+"Good," grunted the skipper; "and I suppose you'll help the doctor and
+young Mr Rodd skin the birds they shoot?"
+
+"That's right, sir, and Mr Rodd's been laying down the law to me to
+take care and keep that there soapy stuff covered over as he dresses the
+inside of the skins with, 'cause he says it's pison."
+
+The skipper grunted again as he stood at the side and scowled down into
+the boat.
+
+"Spun yarn?" he said sharply.
+
+"Plenty, sir."
+
+"But you lads never thought to give your jack-knives a whet, I'll be
+bound."
+
+Joe Cross turned to the crew.
+
+"Show knives, lads!" he shouted.  "The skipper wants to try them all on
+his beard."
+
+"Steady!" growled the skipper.  "That's right, then.  Well, Mr Rodd,"
+he continued, "I suppose everything's all right.  No; where's that there
+extra coil of new signal line?"
+
+"Starn locker, sir," said Joe.
+
+"And an extra line with new grapnel?"
+
+"Fore-locker, sir," said Joe.
+
+The captain grunted.
+
+"Here, get the grapnel out of the jolly-boat and lash it under one of
+the thwarts.  You might lose one again."
+
+"There it is, sir," said Joe--"lashed just amidships out of the way."
+
+"Come, come, captain," said the doctor good-humouredly as he took off
+his straw hat and wiped his moist brow, for he too had been as busy as
+the rest, "you have had your innings; I want to have mine.  You, Rodney,
+you never thought to see that the quinine bottle in the little leather
+medicine chest was re-filled."
+
+"Rammed it in tight, uncle," said the boy triumphantly, "and saw to all
+the other bottles."
+
+"Then," said the doctor, "we'll say all is ready.  Only look here, my
+lads; I'll give you half-an-hour before we start, so you had better go
+down below and have some more breakfast, for it will be a good many
+hours before we have another meal."
+
+No one stirred.
+
+"Well," said the doctor impatiently, "did you hear what I said?"
+
+This time a low murmur ran through the crew, and Joe Cross took a step
+forward and touched his hat.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," he said; "the lads' respects, and they says they're
+all tight, cargo well stowed."
+
+"Then you don't want the extra half-hour?" said the doctor, looking at
+his watch.  "So there's nothing to do, then, my dear Count, and you,
+Captain Chubb, but for us to shake hands and say good-bye."
+
+"Where's your guide?" grunted the captain.
+
+"Ah, where's our guide?" said the doctor, looking in the direction of
+the Spanish three-master.  "He said at the turn of the tide.  I ought to
+have asked him to come here to breakfast."
+
+"Here he comes, uncle," cried Rodd, for at that moment the head of the
+Spaniard's boat was rowed out from the other side of the anchored
+vessel, which might have been quite deserted, for not a head was to be
+seen.
+
+"Hah!" cried the doctor.  "I like that.  It tells well for his being a
+trustworthy guide.  So now good-bye, Count.  Your son's mine till we
+come back."
+
+The Count mastered his desire to embrace the doctor, and grasped his
+hand in regular English fashion, and by the time the Spaniard's little
+gig, rowed by two men, had come alongside, the last farewell had taken
+place with the captain, who then looked over the rail and grunted out--
+
+"Coming aboard, senor?"
+
+"No, no; but just one word.  I have been talking to my crew, and told
+them they are to take their orders from you till I come back.  They
+won't give you any trouble.  Let them smoke and sleep as much as they
+like."
+
+"All right," growled the skipper.  "When shall we see you back?"
+
+"When your senor likes," said the Spaniard, lighting a fresh cigarette
+from the one which had threatened to burn his moustache.  "I take the
+boat as far up into the forest along the little rivers till he tells me
+to turn back, and then we will begin to row or sail the other way."
+
+A few minutes later the French crew of the brig, and the men of the
+schooner who were to stay and help the carpenter and his mate, stood
+ready to give a farewell cheer.  The travellers were on the boat, the
+rowers in their places, with their oars held upright ready to drop into
+the rowlocks, the little sail rolled round the mast was lying ready for
+use if a breeze sprang up, and Joe Cross stood right forward, boat-hook
+in hand, looking as smart as the rest of the crew, that is to say, just
+as if they had stepped off a man-of-war's deck, and then every one
+well-armed, ready for the attack upon any wild creatures they
+encountered, or for the defence of their lives against an enemy, waited
+for the skipper to give the signal to start, which he did at last by
+raising his hand.
+
+Then, as the boat was pushed off into the now rising tide, a mingled
+French and English cheer arose, full of good wishes, while of the
+Spaniard's crew not a man was visible save the two in the captain's
+boat, who had just reached the three-master's stern and had begun to
+make fast.
+
+The cheer was repeated as the Devon boat, in obedience to the dipping of
+the oars, glided farther out into mid-stream, while directly after there
+was a heavy swirl just beneath her bows, followed by the sudden
+protrusion of the huge grinning head of a fierce crocodile, the monster
+bent on mischief, and receiving a most unexpected salute, for Joe Cross
+was standing balancing his boat-hook in his hands, ready to lay it down
+along the thwart, but, quick almost as lightning, he gave it a twirl as
+he rested one foot upon the gunwale and drove it, harpoon fashion, crash
+into the reptile's head.
+
+"He's got it!" cried the man, as he started back; but he did not escape
+the shower of water that was sent flying over the boat, the crocodile
+vigorously lashing the surface with its serrated tail as it floated
+astern.
+
+"Yes," said the Spanish captain quietly, "but you had better shoot them,
+_senores_, and keep a little back from the side.  There's plenty of them
+up the river, and one of you might get swept out of the boat."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY TWO.
+
+NIGHT IN THE JUNGLE.
+
+In spite of the risks run from the ravenous reptiles, whose daring
+proved that they had a hard struggle for existence, familiarity soon
+bred contempt, and the sailors laughed, as they proceeded up the
+beautiful river, at perils which not many days before would have made
+them turn pale.
+
+For they were enjoying an excursion that seemed to present fresh
+beauties at every yard.  As a rule the forest came down to the flowing
+water on both sides in waves of verdure, with grand trees which every
+now and then presented the aspect of some gorgeous flower garden, here
+red, there blue, at other times in lovely wreaths of white, while it
+seemed, Joe Cross said to the lads, as if one of the blossoming trees
+took flight every now and then and came skimming over the boat, filling
+the sky with flowers, so beautiful were the flocks of parrots and other
+birds that, apparently attracted by the strangers, flew screaming and
+whistling overhead.
+
+There was no question about getting a shot at some beautiful green and
+orange long-tailed paroquet, or at one of the soft grey scarlet-tailed
+parrots which, as they flew across the river, shrieking at those who had
+interrupted their solitude, gave place to others of a delicate pink; but
+upon seeing Rodd raise his gun, the Spaniard laughed and said--
+
+"Never mind them.  I could fill my schooner with those things at any
+time.  You wait till we get up into the little side river.  There will
+be something better worth shooting then; or perhaps you would like to
+kill a few as you are coming back."
+
+"Yes, Rodd," said the doctor; "that would be wiser, my lad."
+
+"But suppose we don't see them as we come back," said the lad.
+
+"Not see them?" said the Spaniard, laughing.  "Why, the country's alive
+with them!"
+
+Then as the party sated their eyes upon the various objects they passed,
+a light soft breeze arose when they turned into a bend of the river, and
+the Spaniard expressed his satisfaction, and suggested that the sail
+should be hoisted.
+
+This was rapidly done, the oars were laid in, and Joe Cross came aft to
+preside at the newly-shipped rudder, while all through the rest of the
+day, and after the tide had run its course and become adverse, they
+tacked from side to side, or glided onward with the wind astern, the men
+only having at very rare intervals to take to their oars.
+
+It was soon after mid-day that the doctor proposed that the boat should
+be run ashore and that they should land to dine at a lovely park-like
+opening where the dense portion of the forest had receded farther from
+the bank; but the Spaniard shook his head.
+
+"No," he said, "don't do that.  It looks very nice, but it isn't safe.
+There are the crocodiles basking about the bank, snakes and serpents
+nearly everywhere, and the leopards and other great cats hanging about
+among the trees.  Keep aboard.  It's safer here."
+
+"He means to take care of us, Morny," said Rodd, in French, and directly
+after he gave his companion a meaning look, for the Spanish skipper
+turned to the doctor and said--
+
+"Tell your men to have their guns handy."
+
+"What for?" said the doctor.  "Do you scent danger?"
+
+"Nothing particular," replied the man, "but up here in these parts you
+never know what may happen next.  Something may come just when you think
+you are safe, and it's best to be always ready."
+
+So that and the following meal were eaten in the boat, which just before
+dark was at the Spaniard's suggestion run up into a calm reach where the
+forest had become very distant, while the river seemed to have widened
+out to double its former size.
+
+Here he proposed that they should anchor for the night and wait for the
+morning before continuing their journey.
+
+This was disappointing to the lads, who looked longingly at the shore,
+while Rodd suggested that there were several places that looked level,
+and where it would be easy to rig up a tent where they might sleep.
+
+The Spaniard laughed, and with a grim smile said--
+
+"You wanted a guide for coming up here, young man.  If we did what you
+say we shouldn't all be ready to go on again in the morning."
+
+"What, because of the wild beasts?" said Rodd eagerly.
+
+The Spaniard nodded.
+
+"He is quite right, Rodd," said the doctor.  "And I suppose we might
+catch fever here?" he continued.
+
+"Bad," said the Spaniard laconically.  "Keep to the boat."
+
+The night came down dark and beautiful; the great purple velvet arch
+that spread from side to side of the river was gloriously spangled with
+stars, for in the day's ascent the little party seemed to have left the
+river mists behind, and as they sat together the doctor and his young
+companions revelled in the loveliness of the scene, while they listened
+to the strange sounds from forest and river which constantly smote upon
+their ears and now seemed wondrously near.
+
+"It seems very different," whispered Rodd to Morny, for something preyed
+upon his spirits and stayed him from speaking aloud.
+
+"Yes," said Morny, in the same subdued tone; "it is very different from
+being aboard the vessels.  I shan't go to sleep to-night; shall you?"
+
+"No.  Who could go to sleep?  Why, as soon as one lay down I should
+expect to see the great slimy snout of a crocodile thrust over the
+boat's gunwale, and then--"
+
+"I say," said Morny, "don't!"
+
+But nothing worse than sounds troubled the party that night, as not long
+after this conversation the two lads obeyed the doctor's suggestion that
+they should creep under the awning, whose canvas sides were tightly
+belayed to the gunwale; and though both declared that they would never
+close their eyes, they and the watches into which the little crew was
+divided followed the Spanish skipper's example, and in turn slept
+heavily till sunrise, the great orange globe slowly rolling up over the
+edge of the forest and shining brilliantly down upon the glittering
+river, for as over-night there was not a sign of mist.
+
+About half the day passed with plenty of favouring gales to help the
+boat along, and spare the men's arms, and Rodd commented on this to
+their guide.
+
+"Wait a bit," he said.  "A little farther on, and we shall turn into one
+of the little rivers where the high trees are close together at the
+sides.  There won't be much wind there, and the men will have to row."
+
+Everything was as he said, for as they passed out of the main stream the
+banks were but a little way apart, and in place of the full flow of the
+great river the stream grew sluggish; but everything being so close at
+hand the beauties of the forest became far enhanced.
+
+"You said rivers," said the doctor suddenly.  "Are there more than this
+one?"
+
+"Plenty," replied the man, and he made himself a fresh cigarette as he
+sat back in the boat, to go on smoking.  "Not so many crocodiles here,"
+he said, "and they are smaller.  More birds too.  Look!"  And as the men
+dipped their oars to row slowly up the winding stream, which often
+seemed to turn back upon itself, the Spaniard pointed now to tiny
+bee-like sunbirds with their dazzling metallic casques and gorgets--the
+brilliant little creatures that take the place of the humming-birds of
+the New World.
+
+At another time, though the two lads, eagerly observant and with the
+doctor to back them, needed no showing, their guide pointed to the many
+brilliantly-tinted birds of the thrush family, at the barbets and
+trogons, not so brilliant as those of the Western world, but each lovely
+in itself, while as they went on and on along their meandering river
+path, the birds that struck them as being most novel and at the same
+time tame in the way in which they came down the overhanging branches of
+the great forest trees, as if their curiosity had been excited by the
+strangers, were the many-tinted plantain eaters, with their crested
+heads, and the lovely green and crimson touracoos, which, while their
+violet and crimson relatives wore, as it were, a feather casque,
+displayed on their part a vivid green ornamentation that passed from
+beak to nape, which when they were excited looked more like a plume.
+
+They had come thus far without firing a shot, for the doctor had said--
+
+"Let us leave the shooting till our return, and be contented with
+charging our memories and feasting our eyes, for no dried skins, however
+carefully they are preserved, will ever display the beauties of these
+birds' nature as we watch them here in life.  But we must have a skin or
+two of these touracoos, for I want to show you lads the wonders of that
+vivid crimson upon their underparts."
+
+"Oh, I can see it plainly enough, uncle," said Rodd.
+
+"Yes," said Uncle Paul, "but you don't notice what I mean.  Instead of
+that crimson being a beautiful dye fixed in the feathers, it is a soft
+red pigment which can be washed out into water and--I saw something
+moving up that creek," he added, in a low voice.
+
+"Niggers perhaps," said the Spaniard, without turning his head.
+
+"Likely to attack?" asked Rodd.
+
+"Pish!" said the Spaniard contemptuously.  "Harmless.  Fishing perhaps.
+We shall see more, I expect, farther on."
+
+He did not trouble himself to turn his head, though the rest in the boat
+kept a sharp look-out for what had attracted the doctor's attention up a
+narrow inlet arched over by the overhanging trees, but it was not until
+close upon evening that, as they pursued their winding way, this side
+stream opened out more into a reach, and then for the first time a
+movement some hundreds of yards behind brought forth a warning from Joe
+Cross, who was seated with the tiller in his hand.
+
+"Just cast your eye back, Mr Rodd, sir," he said; "yonder there where
+the stream opened out it seems to me there's a canoe with a couple of
+Indians in it.  Nay, I mean blacks."
+
+"Yes; look, captain," said Rodd eagerly; and the Spaniard slowly raised
+himself up from where he was leaning back, took his cigarette from his
+lips, shaded his eyes, and then after a cursory glance replaced the
+cigarette and sank back.
+
+"Niggers," he said.  "Fishing."
+
+Then they rowed on, leaving the two occupants of the canoe behind, till,
+coming to what he considered to be a suitable place, the Spaniard
+suggested that they should stay there for their meal upon an open sandy
+little beach some fifty yards across, beyond which the forest rose dark
+and thick again.
+
+"We can land and light a fire," he said, "and make coffee and stretch
+our legs."
+
+"It would not be safe," said the doctor, "to rig up a tent here, would
+it?"
+
+"Oh yes," said the captain.  "The only thing to trouble us here might be
+a leopard or two; but a shot would scare them away."
+
+This was good news, and heartily welcomed by the whole party, and in a
+short time cooking was going on in the glowing embers of a fire, for
+which there was abundant fuel close at hand, while a canvas tent,
+strengthened by branches thrust deep in the sand, was cleverly contrived
+by the sailors.
+
+"I say, Morny, this is something like!" cried Rodd, as they sat together
+watching the men finishing their meal, with their jovial contented faces
+lit up by the glowing fire which flashed and cast shadows and sent up
+golden clouds dotted with tiny spark-like embers, as it was made up from
+time to time, according to the Spanish captain's suggestion that it
+would keep away all wild beasts and clear off the snakes.
+
+"Yes; my legs were beginning to feel cramped.  I wonder how my father
+is."
+
+"Oh, he's happy enough," said Rodd, "and enjoying himself with the
+thought that Skipper Chubb has had a good day's work getting on a new
+outer skin over the hole."
+
+"Ah, yes, I hope so," cried Morny eagerly, his friend's suggestion
+seeming to brighten him up.
+
+"And I say," cried Rodd, "shan't we sleep to-night!  How I shall
+stretch!  I don't think I should much mind a great spotted cat coming
+and sniffing round the tent.  Of course it would be very horrid to be
+clawed or bitten, but there's something natural about that.  The idea of
+being grabbed by one of those great slimy reptiles and dragged under
+water, and before you have had time to squeak--"
+
+"Rodd, don't, please!" cried Morny, with a shudder.  "It makes my flesh
+creep."
+
+"Yes; I was going to say it's time you lads changed your conversation,"
+said the doctor quietly, "for none of the forest creatures are likely to
+disturb us to-night with a watch-fire kept up like this."
+
+"But I say, uncle," said Rodd mischievously, later on--when the watch
+had been set, with a big pile of dead firewood laid ready to replenish
+the fire, and Uncle Paul was about to follow the example of the Spanish
+captain and select his patch of dry sand covered with canvas, beneath
+the extemporised tent.
+
+"Well, what, my boy?" said the doctor drowsily.  "Don't talk now.  I am
+sure every one wants to go to sleep."
+
+"Yes, uncle; I am sure I do," said the boy, who was already fitting the
+projecting bones of his back into the yielding sand; "but do you think
+it's likely--"
+
+Rodd stopped to give Morny, who was beside him, a nudge with his elbow.
+
+"Do I think what's likely, Pickle?" replied the doctor.
+
+"That those two black fellows we saw in the canoe will sneak ashore to
+come and do anything to us with their spears?"
+
+"Rodney!" cried the doctor indignantly.
+
+"But they are sure to have spears, uncle, or else they couldn't be
+sticking the fish."
+
+"Go to sleep, sir!" said the doctor angrily.
+
+Rodd went at once, and did not stir again, till an extra loud crackling
+of burning wood made him start up in wonder and alarm.
+
+But it was only the morning watch, in the persons of Joe Cross and the
+appointed cook, making up the fire afresh in view of what Joe called
+boiling the billy and to give the cook some good broiling embers, for it
+was the break of day once more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY THREE.
+
+THE STRANGERS.
+
+Rodd's toilet did not take him long, for though the water was clear and
+tempting as it rippled on the sand, the recollection of what might
+possibly be there in the way of ravenous fish, if even there were no
+reptiles, kept him from venturing for a swim, while when he suggested to
+the Spaniard the possibility of bathing in safety, the man looked at him
+in surprise, and his words were tinged with contempt as he said--
+
+"Bathe!  What for?"
+
+Rodd did not answer, but turned his back quickly and hurried away to
+where Morny was questioning Joe Cross and the cook about whether the men
+they had succeeded in the watch had heard anything in the night.
+
+"Here, catch hold of me, you two," Rodd gasped out, "and help me away
+there among the trees."
+
+"Hah!  What's the matter?" cried Morny.  "Are you taken bad?"
+
+"Horrid.  Don't talk to me.  Get me out of sight.  I am going off."
+
+Morny and Joe each caught him by an arm and hurried him in amongst the
+trees.
+
+"Don't be frightened," gasped out Rodd.  "Oh, that Spanish chap!  He'll
+be the death of me!"
+
+"Why, you are laughing!" cried Morny angrily.  "How dare you frighten us
+like this!"
+
+"I--I--I--I--" gasped out Rodd--"couldn't help it, old fellow.  Oh, that
+Spaniard!"
+
+Morny was really angry, but Joe Cross's frank face had expanded into a
+grim smile.
+
+"What game's he been up to, Mr Rodd, sir?"
+
+"Oh, it was very stupid of me," said Rodd, wiping his eyes; "but I was
+afraid of laughing in his face, and the more I tried to look serious the
+more it would come; and I didn't want to offend him."
+
+"Just like 'em, sir," said Joe, as Rodd explained himself more fully.
+"'Tis their natur' to; and besides, it's what an old woman I used to
+know called being codimical.  Yes, sir, I've watched 'em aboard that
+there three-masted schooner.  Them there mongrel chaps, they must save a
+wonderful lot of money every year in soap."
+
+"There," said Rodd, wiping his eyes again, "I am all right now; but it's
+very comic.  The more you feel you mustn't laugh, the worse you are.  I
+suppose laughing must do one good.  I always feel so much better after
+having a good grin."
+
+"Do you good, Mr Rodd, sir!  I should just think it does!  Why, it's
+natur'.  Does you good to have a long talk sometimes, don't it; eh, Mr
+Morny, sir?"
+
+"Oh yes, I suppose so," replied the lad.
+
+"And you know it does you a lot of good to get your teeth to work when
+you are hungry, Mr Rodd."
+
+"Yes, Joe," cried the lad eagerly.  "What's for breakfast?"
+
+"Ah, you wait a bit, sir, and you will see.  But as I was saying about
+laughing, what's your smiling tackle for, and your grinning kit for, if
+they aren't to use and set you right when otherwise you would be all in
+the dumps?  Yes, sir; give me a good laugh.  But one don't always get
+one's share along with our old man.  Still we like him, for he always
+means right by us.  Ay, there's worse chaps in the world than old Chubb,
+and I'm just ready and waiting to drink his health and long life to him
+in a pannikin of the finest coffee a coxswain ever brewed; and as for
+the frizzled ham that cookie's got thriddled on sticks over them embers
+to eat with the dough-cakes he's baking in the ashes--Here, let's get
+back, for fear there's an accident."
+
+"Accident?" said Morny.  "Why, what accident could happen?"
+
+"Out of sight, sir, out of mind; and that aren't a French proverb, but
+you might like to turn it into one as your countrymen could use.  They
+might forget, sir, as we are here."
+
+Well rested, in high spirits, and with a good breakfast waiting, the
+morning meal was eaten with the greatest of gusto, while to every one
+the expedition wore more and more the appearance of a delightful
+holiday.
+
+There was an exception, though, and that was in the person of the
+Spanish captain, who looked grim and sombre, and ate little, but smoked
+a great deal.
+
+Just as the tent was being struck and a clearance being made of the
+remains of the breakfast, Rodd suddenly called out--
+
+"There they are again!"  And he called attention to the two nearly nude
+blacks, who were creeping along the edge of the bank opposite to them in
+their canoe.
+
+"Why, they are watching us," said Uncle Paul.
+
+"Hungry," said the Spanish skipper laconically.
+
+"Yes, that's it," cried Rodd, and after a glance at his uncle he tore
+down a wild banana leaf, turned it into a natural green dish, heaped
+upon it some of the remains of the breakfast, and carried it a short
+distance along the bank, where he placed it close to the water's edge,
+signed to the blacks, and then joined his companions, who were about to
+enter the boat.
+
+Very soon afterwards they were gliding along the stream again, after the
+sailors, by Uncle Paul's orders, had carefully extinguished the remains
+of the fire.
+
+"We don't want to start a conflagration, my boys," he said.
+
+As the men slowly dipped their oars, for there was not a breath of wind,
+the two lads had to make an effort to, as it were, drag their eyes from
+the lovely floral scene on either side of the little river, while they
+watched the proceedings of the blacks.
+
+"Well, they are a pair of stupids," said Rodd.  "What is it--ignorance
+or suspicion?"
+
+For the two dark objects remained on the farther bank, one seated with a
+paddle, the other upright, spear in hand, holding on by an overhanging
+bough to keep their boat from drifting on with the current.
+
+"Suspicion," said Morny quietly.
+
+"Miserable wretches!  Do they think I want to poison them?"
+
+"No.  I'll tell you," said Morny.  "Poor creatures, they have been so
+ill-used by the white people with black hearts who come to these shores
+that they think the food you have put there is the bait of a trap."
+
+"To catch blackbirds!  Why, of course!  They think we want to carry them
+off for slaves.  They're as bad as old Captain Chubb; eh, uncle?  He
+took us for slavers, Morny, when uncle wanted to engage him.  Well, I
+forgive them, poor chaps.--Ah, they think it's safe now.  They're going
+to risk taking the bait."
+
+For all at once the two negroes began to paddle themselves slowly across
+the river to where the bright green banana leaf lay glistening upon the
+sand, and the last the two lads saw then of those they had tried to
+benefit, as the boat glided on with four oars dipping and making the
+water flash like silver, was with the canoe drawn up on to the sands,
+the two savage-looking blacks squatting on their heels, eagerly
+devouring the remains of the breakfast.  "Oh, never mind the sun being
+hot, uncle," cried Rodd, as they went on and on.  "I don't mind if I'm
+half roasted.  Look, Morny; did you ever see anything so lovely?  Look
+at the flowers on that great tree.  Why, it seems to blaze with
+scarlet."
+
+"Yes, and look at the birds," was the reply.  "I wish my father were
+here, with his mind at rest, to enjoy all this as I do, or should if he
+were with us.  There, quick!  What's that--running in there among the
+leaves on that tree?"
+
+"Snake," cried Rodd, who just caught sight of the movement.  "No.  Who
+ever saw a snake with four legs?  Why, it's a great lizard of a thing!
+Why, uncle, that must be one of those queer chaps that turn all sorts of
+colours."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, "you are right, Pickle," and he focussed upon it
+a little old-fashioned single opera-glass which he carried in his
+pocket.  "That's a chameleon, sure enough; and a big one too, I should
+say, though it's the first one I ever saw alive."
+
+"What's he after?" said Rodd.
+
+"Having a game, catching butterflies, I think, sir," suggested Joe
+Cross.  "So he is, Joe."
+
+"Why, Master Rodd, it makes us chaps wish we was boys again and ashore
+there running after them butterflies with our caps; only one couldn't
+run among the trees, and they fly too high.  I never see flutterbies, as
+we used to call them, with colours like these, though.  We used to catch
+white 'uns, and yaller ones, and sometimes what we used to call
+tortoiseshells.  But I call all this 'ere--Look there, sir; there's one
+as big as my hand--two--lots on 'em!  Yes, I do call this 'ere dead
+waste both of the butterflies and the birds."
+
+"Why, my man?" said the doctor quietly.
+
+"Why, sir, everything you see flying about in the air is as lovely as
+lovely, and no one to look at them.  Why, if I had my way I'd have all
+these sort of things flying about in old England.  Yes, sir, they are
+all wasted here."
+
+"That they aren't, Joe," cried Rodd.  "We are looking at them, and
+enjoying them; and I say, uncle, isn't it time we began to get some
+specimens?"
+
+"Plenty of time yet, my boy.  Why, captain, the country here on either
+side is very beautiful."
+
+"Satisfied, then?" said the Spaniard coolly.
+
+"Thoroughly," replied the doctor, "and very glad to have met with such a
+guide."
+
+"But I say, captain," cried Rodd, "don't forget the big monkeys and the
+leopards."
+
+"Oh no," said the Spaniard.  "Farther on yet; and I can't be sure.
+There are plenty in the woods one day, and the next they are gone.  But
+we shall come across some of them."  And he sank back smoking again.
+
+"Just look at him," said Rodd.  "He doesn't seem to take notice of
+anything."
+
+"These things have grown common to him," replied Morny quietly; "but
+don't look only at the trees on the banks.  Cast your eyes down
+sometimes into the clear water."
+
+"Don't say there are any of those great reptiles here," said Rodd
+hurriedly.
+
+"No, I have not seen one to-day; but look at the fish we disturb.  They
+go gliding away to right and left like so many flashes of silver and
+gold."
+
+"Now, boys, there's something," said the doctor.  "Right across the
+river."  For there was a rush and a splash as some animal that had
+evidently been wading close in under the bank sprang out of the water
+with a rush, and disappeared amongst the low growth.
+
+"What's that, captain?" cried Rodd, making a snatch at his gun.
+
+"Hog," said the Spaniard quietly.  "Did you see it?" asked Rodd.  "No; I
+know the noise they make.  Plenty here."  And then it was birds, anon
+flowers, and some two or three miles farther on Joe Cross, who sat just
+behind the boys, tiller in hand, glanced at the doctor and asked--"Which
+way?"
+
+For the river forked into two of equal size, and at his question the
+Spaniard raised his eyelids a little and made a sign with his left hand.
+
+This branch proved to be if anything more rich in its objects of beauty
+than the winding stream they had left, for there was enough to sate even
+the most exacting lover of nature, while there always seemed to be
+something fresh.  One minute a sailor would be pointing out a
+brilliantly-scaled thin green serpent gliding along the surface of the
+water, eel-like in motion, but with its back quite exposed to the
+sunshine, giving it the look of frosted silver, while before long
+another man made his discovery, the whole party being eagerly on the
+watch for fresh objects of interest, and at this, without waiting for
+orders, the rowers ceased dipping their oars, to let the boat drift
+slowly by a lovely curtain of fine strands and leaves dotted with
+flowers which hung down from some fifty feet up, till the tips of the
+twigs touched the water.
+
+In amongst these vine-like branches a vividly-coloured serpent that
+appeared to be some six or eight feet long, and but little thicker than
+a man's thumb, was deliberately climbing and twining, its eyes having
+first attracted attention by sparkling in the sunshine.
+
+"Don't seem afraid of tumbling into the water," suggested Joe.
+
+"Wouldn't matter if it did," said Rodd.  "You saw that one a little
+while ago, how it could swim."
+
+"So, I did, sir; so I did," replied the man, who was as much interested
+as the naturalists of the party.  "But there are such a lot of good
+things to see that one seems to shove the other out of your head.  Now,
+what will that chap be doing there, slithering about over the water?
+Out for a walk?"
+
+"Trying to catch one of those bright little sunbirds, I suppose," said
+Rodd.
+
+"No," said the doctor, who was watching the serpent through his glass.
+"I should say that one is after birds' nests."
+
+"Think of that!" cried Joe.  "But he wouldn't blow the eggs, sir, would
+he, and make a string?"
+
+"No, my man," said the doctor, smiling, "but swallow them, I should say,
+or the young birds that he might find in the nest.  Why, Rodd, my boy,
+one wants three or four lives here, and then one wouldn't see half the
+wonders of this paradise.  Here's world within world of wonder and
+beauty."
+
+"Row away, my lads," said the Spaniard, who seemed to have only one
+object in life, and that the re-lighting of cigarettes.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" cried the men, and they dipped their oars again.
+
+Then on turning a bend of the stream there was a waft of warm wind to
+fan their cheeks, when the sailors forward stepped the mast, and hoisted
+the yard of the lug-sail, which filled out at once, the rowers laid in
+their dripping oars, which seemed to shed diamonds and pearls back into
+the stream, and away they glided among the glories of the low flat land,
+through which streams seemed to run like veins, forming a perfect maze
+of waterways, each if possible more beautiful than the other, while
+proving wonderfully similar in width and depth, so much so that at last,
+after winding round bend after bend of the last stream they had entered,
+the doctor turned suddenly to their guide and said--
+
+"Why, captain, how are we going to find the way back again?"
+
+The captain opened his eyes slightly and smiled, as he took a little
+compass from his pocket.
+
+"With this," he said; "but--pah!  I could find my way here with my eyes
+shut.  Look; there's a good place for a fire, and the boys here can get
+plenty of good fish, if you have a line, for the men to cook."
+
+At this suggestion Joe Cross handed the tiller to Rodd and made his way
+forward to the locker, from which he produced a couple of fishing-lines.
+
+The boat was run ashore at a similar patch of sand to that where they
+had made their previous halt, and while some of the men were collecting
+dead wood from beneath the trees, there was a sudden rush, and something
+yellowish dropped with a thud from the nearest great fork, made four or
+five great bounds through the low bushes, and disappeared.
+
+"Leopard," said the Spanish captain quietly.  "Get out your gun, sir.
+His mate will not be far away."
+
+He had hardly spoken before another of the great cats leaped from bough
+to bough of the huge forest tree they had approached, and disappeared in
+turn, escaping unscathed.
+
+"You are keeping your word, sir," said Rodd.  The Spaniard smiled, and
+remained in his place, while Joe Cross and the lads paddled the boat out
+again to a spot the Spaniard pointed out, and there dropped the grapnel,
+before beginning to fish, using small pieces of fat pork for their bait.
+
+Long before the fire had burnt up enough for cooking purposes or the
+great kettle had boiled in the shade of the huge tree that had been
+chosen for kitchen, bites had become frequent, and fine carp-like fish,
+whose golden scales glittered in the light, were being hauled into the
+boat; but eager though the lads were, and full of enjoyment of their
+sport, it was hot out there in the sun, and arms were beginning to ache,
+while hunger asserted itself more and more.
+
+"I say, Morny," cried Rodd, "enough's as good as a feast."
+
+"Yes, sir," cried Joe, "and we have got enough and the feast to come,
+for these look as if they'd be good.  Shall we put ashore?"
+
+Rodd nodded assent, and soon after Joe and a couple of his mates had
+been busy with their knives on the sandy river bank, the unwonted sound
+made by a frying-pan arose from the fire, with the result that there was
+no doubt about the carp-like fish being good, and the _al fresco_ dinner
+proving a success.
+
+The afternoon was wearing on when the preparations for a fresh start
+were made, the Spaniard promising the doctor that he would point out
+another good resting-place for the night before it was dark.
+
+"All aboard!" cried Joe just then.  "Why, look at that now!  Well,
+there's plenty of fish left, Mr Rodd, and in this 'ere hot country we
+had better have it fresh."
+
+"Why, I didn't expect to see them again, uncle," cried Rodd, and he
+pointed across the river to where the two blacks with their canoe had
+suddenly appeared, as if they had been in hiding and watching the
+cooking going on till it seemed to them that their time had come, when
+they lay there with their boat just as before, apparently waiting till
+the strangers had gone on.
+
+"Do they mean to keep on following us like this, captain?" asked Rodd.
+
+"_Quien sabe_?" he said.  "It is a free country, and you will not mind?"
+
+"Mind!  No," cried Rodd.  "But they will have to cook what are left for
+themselves.  I say, uncle, can we trust them to put the fire out
+afterwards?"
+
+"Oh yes, my lad.  I suppose we must."
+
+"That's right, Mr Rodd, sir.  They'll take care not to fry themselves.
+But here, cookie, don't you leave them our pan."
+
+Once more as the boat swept round a bend a glimpse was caught of the two
+blacks, who had no hesitation now about paddling across to the deserted
+halting-place.
+
+The Spaniard was as good as his word that evening in guiding them to
+another bivouac, and that night, feeling perfectly secure, the lads lay
+down to sleep, looking forward to another day of intense enjoyment in
+the wondrous labyrinth of Nature's beauties, far from feeling satisfied
+with what had gone before.
+
+Three more days passed, and halt after halt had been made at spots which
+always presented just the right facilities required, the Spaniard
+proving how great was his knowledge of the geography of the country
+through which they rowed or sailed, while the two blacks, who over and
+over again seemed to have disappeared, always turned up again ready for
+the departure of the travellers, who now took it as a matter of course
+to leave plenty of fish or flesh collected by the guns for the poor
+savages' support.
+
+More than once the lads had made advances to these men, to try and get
+them to approach, but their shyness and suspicion were most marked, and
+they never came near till the departing boat was some distance off.
+
+"Now," said the doctor, one evening, "I have been mentally marking down
+such birds and insects as I wish for us to collect, so to-morrow morning
+all this pleasure-seeking must come to an end, and we'll all work hard,
+shooting, skinning, and boxing a few butterflies as well."
+
+"What a pity!" said Rodd.  "I should like to go on yet for weeks."
+
+"So should I, Pickle, but we must get back to the schooner."
+
+"And the brig," cried Morny eagerly.
+
+"Yes, my lad," said the doctor, "and I am afraid the Count will think we
+have exceeded our time; but we shall be going steadily back from
+to-morrow morning, collecting as we go, and I am sure you will agree
+that we have had a grand excursion, everything having been most
+successful."
+
+The following morning broke as gloriously fine as ever.  The fire was
+crackling, and Joe Cross announced that it was not fish that morning,
+but fried bacon, and soon after the pleasant aromatic scent of the
+coffee was rising in the morning air as they took their seats in the
+shade of a great fig-like tree whose boughs seemed to be full of
+twittering and whistling love-birds gathered in a huge flock to feed
+upon the saccharine embedded seeds of the little fruit.
+
+"Hullo!" said the doctor suddenly, turning to Rodd.  "Where's the Don?"
+
+"Having another cigarette somewhere, I suppose, uncle," said Rodd,
+laughing.  "I thought he was along with you."
+
+"No, my boy," replied Uncle Paul.  "I thought he went with you this
+morning when you made the men row a little farther along the stream."
+
+"That was only to take a last look upward and see what it was like
+farther on before we turned back; and it is so beautiful up there--
+better than anything we have seen.  I say, uncle, let's have another
+day."
+
+"No, no, Rodd," cried Morny, catching him by the arm.  "I couldn't bear
+it.  We must go back now."
+
+"Quite right, Morny, my boy," said the doctor quietly.  "Yes, we have
+come to the end of our tether.  Let's get back to the Count and Captain
+Chubb."
+
+"Well, all right," said Rodd.  "Never mind what I said, Morny, old chap.
+I always was a pig when I was getting anything I liked.  Let's have
+breakfast, and then--
+
+  "Huzza!  We're homeward bound--ound--ound!
+  Huzza!  We're homeward bound!"
+
+he trolled out merrily; and then, clapping his hands to his lips,
+"_Espanol_ ahoy!" he shouted.
+
+"Ahoy!" came back from the bank of trees across the little river.
+
+"_Espanol_ ahoy!" shouted the boy again, and there was the answering
+echo.
+
+"Well, I hear you!" cried Rodd merrily.  "But how did you get there
+without the boat?"
+
+There was no answer to this.
+
+"Coffee and fried ham!" roared Rodd.
+
+"'Am!" came back.
+
+"Yes, but it's only bacon!" shouted Rodd.
+
+"'Acon!"
+
+"Well, why don't you come?"
+
+"Don't be stupid, Rodney," cried the doctor shortly.  "Here, Cross--
+cook--any of you; have you seen the Spanish skipper?"
+
+"No, sir!" came in chorus.
+
+"Dear me," said the doctor thoughtfully; "now I come to think of it I
+don't remember seeing him this morning."
+
+"No, uncle; nor I neither.  Did you see him, Morny?"
+
+"No, not this morning.  I saw him talking with you last night, sir."
+
+"Yes; that was when I was saying that we should start back for certain,
+and he went and lay down in his usual place, close to the side of the
+tent, directly afterwards."
+
+"Oh yes; he was there when we lay down, wasn't he, Morny?"
+
+"Yes; I remember that."
+
+"But we have not seen him since, uncle."
+
+"Very strange," said the doctor, and turning to the men he questioned
+them in turn, with the result that all were sure that they had not seen
+the Spaniard since over-night.
+
+The doctor and the two lads stood gazing at one another for some minutes
+in silence.
+
+"Do you think anything could have happened to him?" said Morny at last.
+
+"Oh no," cried the doctor sharply.  "He's too much at home here in these
+wild parts for that."
+
+"But I was thinking, uncle--" said Rodd, in a hesitating way.
+
+"Thinking of what, my boy?"
+
+"That there might be some few crocodiles up here in this narrow part of
+the river, after all."
+
+"Absurd, Rodney!  Don't jump at conclusions like that!" cried the
+doctor.
+
+"But they are such horribly fierce creatures, uncle."
+
+"Don't be absurd, sir!  Is it likely that one of those reptiles could
+have come up out of the river, crawled into the tent, and dragged him
+out again, without some one knowing it?  No; he must have got up early
+and gone off by himself somewhere, as this is as far as we were to go,
+meaning to see if he could find the traces of a chimpanzee, so as to
+show us one or more before we start back."
+
+"Yes, that's possible, uncle," said Rodd.  "And perhaps he has found
+one."
+
+"Very likely; and if he has he'll soon be back to take us on the trail."
+
+"Perhaps so, uncle," said Rodd meaningly.
+
+"Why do you speak like that, sir?"
+
+"Because I say he may have found one, uncle."
+
+"Well--and then?"
+
+"The chimpanzee won't let him come back."
+
+"Really, Rodney, you make me very angry sometimes," cried the doctor.
+"If ever there happens to be a little hitch of any kind you immediately
+clap it under your mental microscope and try to make it as large as you
+possibly can.  That's it for certain, Morny.  He wants to keep perfect
+faith with us, and so he has gone to see whether he can find any signs
+of these great apes.  Well, we won't let the breakfast spoil, and it
+would be a sort of madness to go hunting about in the forest for his
+tracks; so come along.  I dare say he'll be back long before we have
+done."
+
+But the breakfast was eaten without any sign of the Spaniard, and now
+the doctor began to be thoroughly uneasy, for the time was there when
+they ought to be starting on their backward journey, and minute by
+minute he grew more impatient.
+
+His excitement was shared by the two lads, and the men were questioned
+again and again, while all joined in searching round the little
+encampment as far as was possible; and that was a very short distance,
+for almost directly after the stretch of sand was passed they came upon
+dense shrubby growth, and beyond this there were the huge forest trees
+matted together by vines and lianas into an impassable wall, while as
+far as could be made out there was no trace of any one having tried to
+force his way through.
+
+"Most singular thing," said the doctor.  "We can't go away and leave him
+alone in these wilds.  But have everything ready for an immediate start,
+and we must wait."
+
+"I say, Morny," said Rodd, "what do you make of this?  Here, stop a
+minute, though.  Can you think of any way by which he could go?"
+
+Morny shook his head.
+
+"There's no path into the forest," he said, "and it's just as dense on
+the other side if any one ventured to swim across the river to go from
+there."
+
+"To go where?" said Rodd sharply.
+
+"I don't know.  I was only thinking of what any one might try to do."
+
+"And then," said Rodd, "there's only up the river and down the river,
+and he had no boat.  But it's no use to bother; we have got to wait and
+see; and we mustn't forget those two poor niggers.  I wonder whether
+they will follow us back?"
+
+"Sure to," said Morny; "right back to the vessels."
+
+"Hi!  Joe Cross!" cried Rodd.  "Put what's left of the breakfast in a
+wild banana leaf again and leave it on the bank."
+
+"Got it all ready here, sir," was the reply.
+
+"Why, Morny," cried Rodd, catching his companion sharply by the arm,
+"where are the niggers?"
+
+"Where are the niggers?" said the young Frenchman, staring.
+
+"Yes; they have always been ready waiting till we finished our meals.
+They were there last night."
+
+"Yes," said Morny; "they were there last night."
+
+"Then where are they this morning?"
+
+Morny looked across the river and back at his companion, while the
+doctor, who had been conversing with the men, came hurriedly up and
+joined them.
+
+"What are you two talking about?" he said.
+
+"About those two blacks, uncle," said Rodd, whose voice sounded rather
+husky.
+
+"What about them, sir?"
+
+"They have always been hanging about, uncle, till we had done our meals,
+and then waited for what was left."
+
+"Yes.  True.  I saw them paddle across last night in the dark and fetch
+what was put for them, in a curious animal-like way."
+
+"But you didn't see them go back, uncle?"
+
+"Yes, I did, sir, and I remember thinking how cat-like they were in
+their actions, pouncing upon the food and eating it there and then.  I
+watched them till they had done, so as to see them steal off again with
+their boat, and I meant to write a note about it in my paper regarding
+this trip."
+
+"Well, they are not waiting this morning, uncle," said the boy
+meaningly.
+
+"No," said the doctor, glancing in the direction of the wild banana
+leaf.
+
+"Well, uncle, what do you make of that?"
+
+"I don't know, my lad.  What do you make of it?"
+
+"I don't quite know, uncle.  They are savages."
+
+"Yes, boy, they are savages."
+
+"And they've got spears, uncle," said the boy meaningly.
+
+"There you go again, sir!" cried Uncle Paul, irascibly now.  "You know
+perfectly well, Rodney, how this sort of thing annoys me.  I suppose the
+next thing you will be telling me is that one of them came with his
+spear and behaved as one of Captain Cook's friends says the Australian
+blacks behaved to the girls they wanted to steal for their wives."
+
+"No, I don't, uncle," cried the boy ill-humouredly.  "I don't know what
+Captain Cook's friends say.  I hardly know who Captain Cook is--Yes, I
+do: he's the man who sailed round the world."
+
+"Well, then, I'll tell you, sir.  He said the blacks come in the dark,
+twist their spears in the girls' hair, and carry them away.  And I
+suppose you mean to infer that that's what has become of the Spanish
+captain?"
+
+"I don't, uncle," cried Rodd.
+
+"But if you do, sir, you are wrong; for the Don, as you two lads
+nicknamed him, had hardly a bit of hair on his head.  There, there,
+there; being cross won't make any better of it.  Hope to goodness that
+nothing has happened to the poor fellow.  Can't have got up in the night
+and walked away in his sleep, can he?"
+
+"Well, but if he had, uncle, he must have woke up by this time, and then
+he'd walk back again."
+
+"Well, we can't go without him, my dear lads.  He has been a very
+faithful servant to us, and it would be a mean, cowardly, despicable act
+for us to leave him in the lurch.  Oh, it's impossible.  It would be
+little better than murder to leave a man here without a boat."
+
+Rodd looked hard at Morny, as if questioning him with his eyes; and so
+the French lad took it to be, for he made a deprecating gesture with his
+hands.
+
+The doctor was watching his nephew keenly, and now clapped him sharply
+on the shoulder.
+
+"What are you thinking about, sir?" he cried.
+
+"About what you said, uncle," said the lad, rather confusedly.
+
+"I didn't say anything, sir.  I was listening to you."
+
+"Yes, you did, Uncle Paul," said the boy sternly.  "You said that it
+would be murder to leave a man here without a boat."
+
+"Oh, of course.  So I did.  And so it would be, sir.  But now look here,
+Rodd.  I haven't known you, sir, since you were little more than a baby
+without being able to read some of the changes which come over your
+face.  What were you thinking about that boat?"
+
+"I was thinking, uncle, suppose he had one."
+
+"But he hadn't one.  Look here, sir; you are thinking something, and
+suspecting something."
+
+"Yes, uncle, I am; but I don't know what."
+
+"I suppose that's because you were prejudiced against the Spaniard by
+what Chubb said."
+
+"I suppose so, uncle.  You know how he said he wouldn't trust that man a
+bit?"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"Well, I always felt that I couldn't trust him a bit."
+
+"Prejudice, boy--prejudice."
+
+"I dare say it was, uncle; and when I found how he showed us everything
+we wanted I tried to believe in him; but my head felt as if it wouldn't
+go."
+
+"He hadn't got a boat; he hadn't got a boat," said the doctor, as if to
+himself.
+
+"No, uncle; but suppose he had got a canoe?"
+
+"That's it," cried Morny excitedly.  "You are right, Rodd.  You think
+those were his two men?"
+
+"Yes," said Rodd.  "Two black fellows out of his schooner."
+
+"And--and--" panted Morny, as the doctor's jaw fell and he stood staring
+at the two lads, utterly speechless--"you believe that he has led us
+right out here in this wild maze of a place to lose us, while he goes
+back to--to--"
+
+The poor fellow broke down, and Rodd caught him by the hand; but Morny
+in the passion of his emotion snatched his away.
+
+"Don't--don't say it!" he cried.--"While he has gone back for who knows
+what?  Oh, father, father, why did I come away?"
+
+"Stop, boys, stop!" cried Uncle Paul; and to the surprise of both he
+plumped himself down upon the sand, drawing up his knees, planting his
+elbows upon them, and resting his burning head upon his hands.  "Wait a
+bit," he said.  "I want to think; I want to think; I want to think.
+Ah-h-h!" he groaned, at last.  "Who could have imagined it?  Who could
+have thought it?  A trick--a ruse!"
+
+Then springing up he looked sharply round, to see that the boat's crew
+were grouped together watching him wonderingly, and that seemed to bring
+him to himself at once.  He turned sharply upon Rodd and gave him a
+grave nod of the head, and said quietly--
+
+"I am afraid you are right, my boy.  Morny, my lad, I told your father
+that in this expedition you should be to me as my son.  Let me play the
+father to you now, and tell you that it is your duty to act as a man."
+
+"Act as a man, sir--" began Morny.
+
+"Yes, my boy; act and not talk.  Aboard, every one of you, my lads," he
+continued, to the sailors.  "I am afraid we have been wiled away here by
+a cunning trick, for what reason remains to be proved.  But whatever it
+means, we are twelve staunch men with our duty before us, and that is,
+to get back as quickly as possible to the schooner and the brig.  I may
+be deceived, but I believe we are the victims of a plot, and if so I am
+afraid it will go hard with that Spaniard when we meet.  Now, then, I
+don't know how long it will take, but we have got to do it, and when we
+get back to our schooner, no matter what has happened, there's ten
+guineas apiece as a sort of prize-money for the brave lads who have
+helped to pull us through."
+
+A loud excited cheer burst from the crew, and several voices broke in
+afterwards with something indistinguishable amidst the noise.
+
+"What's that?  What's that I hear?" cried the doctor sharply to Joe
+Cross.
+
+"The lads say they don't want no ten guineases, sir, but they'd all give
+as much as that to get hold of that dirty Spaniel by the neck."
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated the doctor.  "Now then, not ten guineas, but twenty,
+for the man among you who can guide us through this wilderness of waters
+back to our stout Devon boat.  Now then, who's the one among you who can
+act as guide?"
+
+A dead silence fell upon the group, and for the first time since their
+start a black storm-cloud began to spread slowly over the sky.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.
+
+WET DUST IN THE EYE.
+
+It was the precursor of a terrible tropic tempest, with bluish lightning
+that was blinding, while the roar of heaven's artillery was incessant.
+But not a man blenched as the rowers bent to their oars, gladdened by
+the feeling that the current was with them, as they sent the boat
+rapidly along for their last halting-place.  But a mile had hardly been
+covered when, with a wild shriek and roar, down came the rain, not in
+showers or in drops, but in sheets so heavy that before a minute had
+elapsed every one was drenched, and soon after two of the men had to
+begin to bale.
+
+To proceed was impossible, and braving the risk, the boat was rowed
+beneath the overhanging branches of one of the monarchs of the primeval
+forest which reached its limbs far out over the stream, and there,
+somewhat protected, the boat was moored.  For quite a couple of hours
+the little party crouched in the bottom, aiding the shelter by spreading
+the sail over the awning, the men holding on to keep the canvas from
+being swept off by the howling gale, while the rain poured off in
+buckets-full, as the men said.
+
+Then a new danger attacked them.  The stream swelled and swelled till
+the boat rose feet higher and was forced in among the low-hanging
+branches, while the great risk now was that they might be swept out and
+along the furious torrent into which the sluggish river had been turned.
+
+But just as it seemed impossible to hold on any longer, and when the
+forest on either side had become river too, the rain ceased as suddenly
+as it had begun, the wind dropped, and the clouds began to pass away,
+while in less than an hour the sun was shining brightly down, and huge
+clouds of steam floated over the flooded land.
+
+It was impossible to cast off from their mooring, for every man agreed
+that to follow the course of the rushing water would mean that they
+would be swept away from the river and in all probability be capsized
+before they had gone many hundred yards.
+
+There was nothing for it, then, but to bale hard and free the boat from
+water, wring out and try to dry their saturated garments, and do what
+they could in the way of drying the sail and awning, in the hope that
+the flood would soon pass away.
+
+Fortunately Cross was soon able to announce that the water was sinking,
+and this continued so rapidly that before many hours had passed they
+were able to put off once more into the stream, which had pretty well
+returned to the limits of its banks; and the drying of their clothes and
+of such stores as had suffered followed in rapid course.
+
+But it was a disheartening commencement of their journey back to the
+main river, and darkness fell upon a desolate and terribly depressed
+company, who passed the night of solitude and despair wondering what had
+happened at the anchorage where the brig had been left careened.
+
+Rodd had tried to whisper comfort to his comrade, but only to be met
+with imploring words, the lad begging to be allowed to sit and think;
+and Rodd respected his prayer.
+
+No better fortune attended him with Uncle Paul, who sternly bade him be
+silent.
+
+"I too must think, my lad," he said--"and pray."
+
+The silence was shared by the sailors, who only indulged in a whisper
+now and then.
+
+And how the rest of that night passed away Rodd hardly knew.  Of one
+thing only was he quite certain, and that was that sleep never visited
+the occupants of that boat.
+
+Daylight at last, when such provisions as were absolutely necessary were
+partaken of as the boat went steadily down-stream, for there was water
+enough in the river still to have completely changed its sluggish
+character, while this was hailed by the men with delight, seeing that it
+helped their course, while wherever the wind was available the sail was
+hoisted and they sped along, every one keeping a sharp look-out for
+their last bivouac but one, it having been decided amongst them that
+they must have been swept by that one, which was hidden by the swollen
+stream.
+
+But in spite of the keen observation of the sailors and the sharp
+look-out by the doctor and the two lads, that day passed without the
+familiar sandy embayment among the trees being sighted, and before long
+it became a certainty that they were gliding along a different channel
+to any they had passed before.
+
+The flood might have altered the stream to a certain extent, but they
+passed banks that were certainly different, and just at dusk when a
+brisk breeze was blowing they glided through an opening among the trees
+which did not seem familiar, and the question arose, should they turn
+back?
+
+But before it was settled, darkness fell, and another dismal night was
+passed.
+
+The next day broke bright and fine, and encouraged thereby, every man
+was keenly on the alert to try and sight one of the Spaniard's
+halting-places; but it was long before such an opening was found, and
+then when it was hailed with delight as their resting-place at the end
+of that day's work, it was forced upon them that they had never been
+there before.
+
+Fortunately, though their stores were diminished in quantity, fish were
+plentiful, and every now and then a bird fell to Rodd's or the doctor's
+gun, for it was felt to be a necessity, as more and more all realised
+that they were involved in a perfect labyrinth or network of watery
+ways, and that their stores should be supplemented.  For opening after
+opening in the great walls of verdure kept presenting itself, nearly
+always involving the party in a dispute as to whether they had been
+there before, till their mental confusion became greater, their ideas
+more sadly confused, and the tract of low-lying water-netted country,
+far from seeming the paradise through which they had glided on their way
+up, now seemed the dwelling-place of despair.
+
+"Isn't there one of you who can guide us aright?" cried the doctor
+despairingly.  "Is it possible that what seemed so easy to that
+treacherous Spanish wretch should prove such a horrible problem to us
+all?"
+
+For a time no one spoke, the men hanging their heads, and by way of
+showing their earnestness tugging harder at their oars.  But at the next
+appeal Joe Cross was egged on to make some answer.
+
+"You see, sir," he said, "there isn't anything we wouldn't do for you.
+The lads here are sharp enough, but they wants a handle to work them.
+We are only sailors, used to having an officer over us, and without him
+we aren't much account."
+
+"Oh," groaned the doctor to Rodd, "and I cannot direct them!  Rodd, boy,
+my brain feels as if it were giving way."
+
+"Don't be down-hearted, sir.  Don't chuck up your pluck, young
+gentlemen," continued the poor fellow earnestly.  "We must get out at
+last.  It all seemed so easy as we come up; but without that Spanish
+chap, and now that it seems to be all turned upside down like, as we are
+coming back'ards, it's like looking for a needle in a bottle of hay.
+You see, me and my messmates have turned it all over in our heads, and
+it always comes to this, that that storm either made us take a wrong
+turning, or else that that Spaniard took us into a tangle of
+watercourses out of which no one but him and them niggers could find the
+way."
+
+"Yes, yes," said the doctor; "we were thoroughly trapped into what has
+proved to be a horrible maze."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" cried Joe.  "And amazing it is; but we are not going to
+give up, sir.  Wish we may all die if we do; for you see, it must all
+come right at last.  We have a lot of provisions, plenty of powder and
+shot; we can't fail for fresh water, which is a great thing for sailors;
+there's wood enough to make fires for five hundred years; and as for
+good fish to eat, why, you could almost catch them with your hands."
+
+"No, my men," said the doctor, more firmly, "we are not going to
+despair, for if we keep going down-stream we must reach the main river
+at last."
+
+"That's what I keep thinking, uncle," cried Rodd; "but every time we
+turn out of one of these rivers we seem to get into another, and I want
+to know why it is that we have never yet come upon a sandy patch where
+we made a fire."
+
+Embayments of this kind they found again and again during the next few
+days of their, so to speak, imprisonment in this labyrinth, and in which
+they were fain to halt for food and sleep; but whether the flood had
+obliterated all signs of their occupation, or whether the places were
+absolutely fresh, they never knew.
+
+One thing was determined on, and that to keep on with dogged British
+obstinacy till the problem was solved, and after losing count of the
+days that they had spent in the forest, and after vain usage of the
+compass, which had only seemed to lead them more and more astray, they
+had their reward one noon, when the boat was run up on to the sand of a
+forest nook which seemed strikingly familiar, and Rodd and Morny both
+sprang out, gun in hand, followed by Joe Cross, who excitedly cried--
+
+"All right, gentlemen!  Here we are at last!  I'd just swear to this
+tree and that other big one right across the river."
+
+"Yes," cried the doctor; "this, I am quite certain, is where we set up
+our tent the night we missed our guide."
+
+"The morning, uncle," cried Rodd.  "Yes, boy; I should have said the
+morning.  Look, Morny!  You do not speak.  Isn't this our last
+halting-place on our way up?"
+
+The French lad gave his hands a despairing wave in the air.
+
+"Yes," he said; "that's what I feel, sir.  Why, we have been all these
+weary, weary days trying to get back to the river so that we might row
+away to the brig, and this is the spot from which we started!"
+
+"Well, gentlemen," cried Joe Cross, "I say hooray to that.  Yes, this is
+the place, aren't it, messmates?"
+
+"Yes, yes," came in an excited chorus, for the discovery seemed to have
+sent a thrill of joy through all the men.
+
+"That's right, messmates," cried Joe.  "Then all we have got to do now,
+gentlemen, is to try and take our bearings right, rub the wet dust out
+of all our eyes, and make a fresh start."
+
+"The wet dust, Joe!" cried Rodd, with the nearest approach to a smile
+which had appeared upon his face for many days.  "Here, uncle, get out
+the compass, and let's see what we can do with that."
+
+"No," said the doctor quietly.  "We must make a fresh start, but it must
+be calmly and well, and after food and a good night's rest.  Collect
+wood, my lads, to make a fire.  Boys, take your guns and go up-stream a
+little higher where we have never been before, and shoot what birds you
+can.  Two or three of you men do what you can from the shore with the
+fishing-lines.  To-morrow morning we will start calmly and trustingly to
+the river once again.  Be of good heart, Morny, my lad, for the end of
+our awful struggle must be coming near, and every one of us must do all
+he can to help his brother for the one great end."
+
+A cheer rose at the doctor's words, and the change in the whole party
+was wonderful.
+
+All worked with such energy that long before darkness set in the tent
+was rigged up for the night, a good meal had been prepared, and almost
+as full of hope as on the night when they had last encamped there for
+their rest, a couple of hours were pleasantly passed before the fire was
+once more made up and the watch set.  Very soon afterwards all were
+plunged in a deep and restful sleep, one from which Rodd and Morny were
+startled by a terrific clap of thunder.  Then the interior of their tent
+was lit up by a vivid blue flash of lightning, by which they saw the
+watch--Joe Cross and one of the sailors leaning over them, the former
+saying--
+
+"There's going to be an awful--"
+
+"Storm," he would have said, but his words were drowned by another crash
+which came instantly upon a sheet of lightning, and pretty well stunned
+them with its roar.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY FIVE.
+
+STORM WATERS.
+
+In the intervals between the almost incessant peals of thunder Joe Cross
+informed the lads that the storm had been coming on for the last three
+hours, faint and distant at first, the merest mutterings, and gradually
+increasing till it was the terrific tempest now raging.
+
+"They must have had it horrid, sir, somewhere, only I don't suppose
+there's no people.  What we had before was nothing to it."
+
+"There," cried the doctor, "something must be done to the boat in the
+way of making it thoroughly secure."
+
+"Can't be no securer, sir.  We've got her moored head and stern to a
+tree, and two grapnels down as well."
+
+"Capital," cried the doctor.  "Well thought of!  But we must have the
+sail and some of the canvas that we have got here spread over the boat
+to keep the water out."
+
+"That's done, sir, as far as the stuff would go, and now I want what we
+have got up here, before the rain comes."
+
+"Down with it at once," said the doctor; and in an incredibly short
+space of time the tent was struck, what they had ashore was transferred
+to the boat, and she was covered in as much as was possible.
+
+And none too soon, for the party had only just embarked when a few heavy
+drops of rain came pattering down upon the tightened canvas, soon
+increasing to quite a deluge, but, with the peculiarity of a tropic
+storm, just when it was beginning to try the canvas and threatening to
+soak the interior of the boat, it ceased almost instantaneously, and
+they sat listening to the rushing sound of the rain as it swept over the
+forest, rapidly growing more distant till it died away.
+
+"Gone!" cried Rodd excitedly.  "We didn't want any more troubles, and it
+would have been dreadful to have been wet through again."
+
+"Don't be too hopeful, my boy," said Uncle Paul.  "That may only be the
+advance guard of a far worse storm.  It seems too much to think this is
+the end."
+
+"It might be all, sir," said Joe Cross, "for it's been an awful bad 'un,
+going on for hours in the distance."
+
+"Then we shall be having the water rise again," cried Uncle Paul.
+
+"Yes, sir; that's what I thought," replied the man, "and why I moored
+the boat so fast."
+
+"Quite right," cried the doctor, "for likely enough we shall be having
+the water coming down from far away, and we must hold on here at any
+cost, or we shall be lost again."
+
+"What time do you suppose it is, Joe?" asked Rodd.
+
+"Wants about a couple of hours to daylight, sir."
+
+"Morning!" cried the lads together.  "Ah, then it will be easier to
+bear!"
+
+During the rest of the darkness it was evident that the storm had passed
+over them.  There were a few distant mutterings of thunder and little
+flickerings of lightning which grew fainter and fainter, to die away in
+the west.
+
+The sailors crept out from beneath their awning on to the sand, and were
+able to announce that the river had only risen a few inches, and the
+rain that had fallen had rapidly soaked in and drained off, while a
+pleasant cool air swept briskly over them from the east, heralding a
+fresh bright dawn, which came at last with all the promise of a glorious
+day.
+
+With some difficulty a fire was started, but once begun the men soon
+contrived to get up sufficient for the hurried breakfast; the canvas was
+struck where necessary, and the rest spread to dry in the coming
+sunshine; and then all being ready for their next start, the doctor
+consulted with the coxswain, who after a little pressing gave his
+opinion as to what would be the best course to take.
+
+"You see, sir," he said, "I have been thinking that I could get us back
+to our last camping-place; I mean, before we came here."
+
+"Well, that's what we all thought before, Joe," cried Rodd pettishly.
+
+"Wait, Rodney, my boy, and let Cross finish," said the doctor.
+
+"I've about done, sir," said the man.  "What Mr Rodd says is quite
+true, but he aren't quite got what I mean.  You see, sir, when we come
+up here with the Spanish skipper aboard I sat astarn steering, and when
+we went away again I had hold of the tiller once more, same as before."
+
+"Well, we know that," said Rodd shortly.  "Be silent, Rodney!" cried the
+doctor.  "Go on, Cross."
+
+"Well, sir, when we come I was looking this 'ere way; when we started
+back I was looking t'other way.  Now it seems to me, now we are going to
+start again, if instead of sitting astarn and looking straight forward,
+if I was to go and sit right in the bows and left somebody else to steer
+while I looked over his head, I should be looking up both sides of the
+river just as it was when we were coming, and I should see the landmarks
+again as I saw them when we were coming here, and consekently I should
+know my way better, and I don't think I should miss the next
+landing-place again."
+
+"Yes, I see what you mean," cried Rodd excitedly.  "Why, to be sure,
+Joe!  Don't you see, uncle?"
+
+"Yes," cried the doctor.  "Quite right, Cross.  We will start at once,
+going as slowly as we can, and we will, all but the steersman, ride
+backwards, keep a sharp look-out, and help.--What's the matter, Morny?"
+
+For the young Frenchman had suddenly started up in the boat, to stand
+peering in the direction that they were about to take, and held up his
+hand as if to command silence.
+
+"What's that?" cried Rodd, leaping up too.
+
+"What?" asked the doctor.
+
+"Sounds like distant roaring of some kind of wild beast, sir," said one
+of the men.
+
+"That it aren't, messmate," said Joe, who had also risen to his feet,
+and stood with his hand behind his ear.  "It's another storm coming.
+Nay, it aren't.  It's all bright and clear that way.  Why, it's water,
+gentlemen, coming with a rush from just the way we want to go."
+
+"Impossible!" cried the doctor.  "Why, it would be against the stream."
+
+"I don't care, sir, begging your pardon.  I've been in the Trent and the
+Severn and the Wye.  It was only when I was a boy, but I recollect right
+enough.  It's what they used to call a bore, with a great wave of water
+coming up the river like a flood and washing all before it."
+
+"Had we better land?" cried the doctor.
+
+"And lose our boat, sir?  No.  Be smart, my lads.  It can't be very far
+away.  All eight of you, oars out, and we must keep our head to it so as
+we can ride over the big wave and let it pass under us.  I don't suppose
+there will be much of it.  It's a sort of flood water coming down from
+yonder after the storm, and it will soon be over.  Don't you worry about
+it, gentlemen.  It will be nothing to a big wave at sea."
+
+The men made ready with all the discipline of a trained crew, and heads
+were turned in the direction of the increasing sound, while it seemed
+hard to believe, in the midst of the brilliant sunshine, with the smooth
+river gliding onwards as if to meet the supposed wave, that there could
+be anything wrong.
+
+The expected danger had seemed to be close at hand, but it had been far
+more distant than the party had supposed, for the roar went on steadily
+increasing, but with no other suggestion of peril save the noise, though
+that was enough to make the stoutest-hearted there quail.
+
+It seemed an age, but was certainly less than an hour, before the dull
+heavy roar began to be mingled with a strange crashing and breaking
+sound which puzzled all, till the coxswain, who was standing up in the
+bows, boat-hook in hand, announced that it was the breaking of trees and
+crashing together of their branches as they were being torn up by the
+roots.
+
+"Impossible!" said the doctor impatiently.
+
+"Nay, sir, it aren't," said the man.  "I don't mean the big trees, but
+the little 'uns along the banks; and it's getting close here, sir.  It's
+a big flood, that's what it is, coming down from the mountains, for
+there must be some inland.  There!  Look yonder.  Can't you see the
+trees beginning to wave?  It's just as if a lake had broke loose and was
+coming sweeping over the country.  You, Harry Briggs, hold fast to that
+tiller.  You others, look at your work, and pull.  Turn your heads, you
+lubbers!  I'll do all the looking out.  And when I say row, every
+mother's son of you pull for his life."
+
+Joe Cross's words were beginning to sound indistinct before he had
+finished, half-smothered as they were by the increasing roar, as from
+far down the river a dark line of something could be seen rising some
+six or eight feet like a huge bank extending right across the river and
+apparently into the forest on both sides.
+
+For as far as eye could reach the trees seemed to be in a strange state
+of agitation, the lower branches bending towards the party in the boat,
+as if beneath the blast of a tremendous gale.
+
+"Sit fast, boys, every one!" yelled Joe; but he stood upright himself,
+and the next minute with a wild rush a great bank of water was upon
+them, seeming to come with a leap and dash, to plunge beneath the boat's
+bows as if to toss her on high and roll her over and over in the flood.
+But as it struck them the trained men sat for a moment or two, till in
+little more than a whisper above the roar of water, Joe Cross's voice
+was heard to give the order "Pull," when seven balanced oars dipped
+together, and the bows began to sink.
+
+The men got well hold of the water, and after three or four rapid tugs
+the boat sat level once more upon the surface of the flood, obeyed her
+helm, and though being carried rapidly along stern on, she shipped very
+little water, and in a very few minutes the greater peril was passed.
+
+The crashing roar and rush of the water was almost deafening, but Joe
+retained his upright position and signalled with one hand to the
+steersman, while he followed suit to the rowers, who kept up a steady
+pull against the furious stream, with the result that now the boat sped
+on stern foremost at the same rate as the flood.
+
+But the frail craft was exposed to endless risks as the water rushed
+along between the two great walls of verdure which marked out the
+devious winding course of the river.  Time after time they were within
+an ace of being swept amidst the boughs of some towering tree; at others
+they were brushing over the tops of the shrub-like growth; and yet
+amidst the many dangers the crew never flinched, but kept on for hour
+after hour, head to stream, with the boat always being borne onward
+along straight reaches and round winding curves which looped and almost
+doubled back, till at last the violence of the flood grew less, leaving
+them more and more behind, till the greatest danger was over and the
+speed at which they glided was reduced to nearly half that of the first
+rush of the flood.
+
+Another hour passed, and they were still gliding on, and now as they
+were swept into a wider reach, it was plain to see how the whole forest
+was flooded on either side, apparently to the depth of some six or eight
+feet, as near as the coxswain could judge.
+
+Four times over he had drawn attention to the fact that they were
+passing the entrances to similar rivers to that down which they sped,
+one of them being remarkable for the fact that a portion of their stream
+set right into it, while from the others it glided out in the opposite
+way.  Soon afterwards, with a little clever scheming, the boat was
+guided into an eddy where the water swirled round comparatively slack;
+and here her head was turned and she resumed her strange journey onward
+in the normal way.
+
+The men's labour too now had pretty well ceased, only a dip or two of
+the oars being required occasionally to keep the boat's head straight
+and make her answer her helm.
+
+And now conversation became more general.  The danger being evidently
+over, one man hazarded a joke, something about a near shave, while
+another said it was a pity because they would have all this 'ere work to
+go over again.
+
+Joe Cross heard the remark, and this started him talking, as he laid
+down his boat-hook and wiped his streaming face.
+
+"Yes, Mr Rodd," he said, "you wanted to come farther up the river, and
+here you have had it.  Well, I suppose when the flood's spread all over
+it will do same as they always does, begin to drain off again and carry
+us back.  But I am afraid, Dr Robson, sir, that I must give up what I
+undertook to do."
+
+"What?" cried the doctor.
+
+"Ride back'ards, sir, and find the way out of this wet cat's-cradle of a
+place.  I am very sorry, sir."
+
+"Sorry!" cried the doctor cheerily.  "My good fellow, what you have done
+during the last few hours has earned the lasting gratitude of us all."
+
+"Has it, sir?" said the man, staring.  "Why?"
+
+"Haven't you saved all our lives," cried the doctor, "by your clever
+management of the boat?"
+
+"Oh, that's what you mean, sir!  But you must play fair, sir.  You
+mustn't blame me for that.  Part on it's my being on board a man-of-war;
+part on it's due to Captain Chubb.  So you must thank him."
+
+The doctor smiled, and noting this absence of anxiety, Rodd broke out
+with--
+
+"I say, uncle, Morny's starving.  Isn't it time we had something to
+eat?"
+
+"Oh, Rodd!" cried Morny.
+
+"Yes, of course," replied the doctor.  "See what you can do, cook, at
+once.  But surely, Cross, some of the men might lay in their oars?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and if it goes on like this I don't see that we need let this
+flood keep on carrying us farther away.  There's a nice wind, and not so
+much washed-out wood afloat.  I am thinking I might have the sail
+hoisted and begin to sail back.  But my word, look here: how we are
+widening out, sir!  Look ahead yonder.  It's getting 'most like a lake.
+Perhaps it is one."
+
+"No," cried Rodd; "it's the river still.  Look yonder at the forest
+right along the bank."
+
+"Yes, sir, but I was looking at the forest on both sides here where we
+are.  Why, we are running into another river.  It aren't a lake, but
+it's ten times as big as this one that we've been spinning along, and--
+Well! it's a rum 'un!  No; it's unpossible."
+
+"What's impossible?" cried Rodd sharply, and all gazed at the sailor,
+who sat looking forward, holding on by one ear and scratching the other.
+
+"Why, this 'ere, Mr Rodd, sir.  Just you look, Dr Robson, and see what
+you think on it."
+
+"Of what, my man?"
+
+"Why, this 'ere, sir, what I am asking you of.  Can't you see, Mr Rodd,
+sir?"
+
+"I can see that we are gliding out of a muddy stream covered with green
+twigs and great tufts of jungle grass, into a big river flowing right
+across us and all thick with what seems to be a different-coloured mud."
+
+"That's right, sir; and didn't you see that splash, just as far off as
+you could look?"
+
+"No, Joe."
+
+"Would you mind lending me that there glass of yourn, sir?" said Joe to
+the doctor, who passed the little field-glass to the man, whose hands
+trembled as he focussed it to suit his eye, and he once more stood up in
+the boat and swept the water as far as he could see.
+
+"Thank you, sir," he said, handing it back.  "Perhaps you would like to
+have a look yourself.  But it's all right, gentlemen, and my lads.
+Them's crocs out yonder, and we have been washed out into the big river
+again with no more trouble; and if we don't see our brig and our
+schooner again before many hours, why, my name aren't Joe!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY SIX.
+
+A KNOT IN THE NETWORK.
+
+Incredulity was impossible, although at first it was very hard to
+believe.  But there was the fact.  They had been wandering through the
+sluggish network of streams of a vast tropic, marshy forest, until a
+tremendous storm in the hinterland had flooded the low country and they
+had been swept out again far away from the spot where the Spanish
+captain had guided them in, and, as they were soon to learn, for reasons
+of his own.
+
+Without question they had descended some miles along the main river,
+which ran swiftly, burdened as it was by the waters of the flood, but
+not sufficiently to do more than raise it to a rather abnormal height.
+Still it was not safe to continue their journey downward by night, and
+in spite of the anxiety of all, the boat was moored to a huge tree up
+which the water had risen some three or four feet, and all anxiously
+watched for the coming of the next day.  They slept but little, for
+there was so much to discuss, the doctor feeling now sure that when they
+missed the Spanish captain it must have been because when all were
+asleep he had stolen down to where the two blacks would be waiting for
+him with their canoe, and then gone on up the river beyond their camp.
+
+"But I don't see quite what for, uncle," said Rodd.
+
+"I do," cried Moray.  "He knew the country so well, and our ignorance,
+which would make us go wandering helplessly about, while he knew of a
+nearer way out into this river again, through which we seem to have been
+providentially swept."
+
+"That's right--quite right, Moray," said the doctor.  "You see now,
+Rodd?"
+
+"Yes, uncle, it's quite clear now.  I wish I wasn't so dense.  Do you
+see, Joe?"
+
+"I didn't afore, sir; but it's all as clear as crystal now, and I should
+just like to explain it to the lads.  My word, gentlemen!  That chap's
+been running up a big bill again hisself, and when we get hold of him
+he'll have to pay!"
+
+"What are you thinking of, Moray?" said Rodd, a little while after,
+while they were sitting listening in the darkness to the murmur of Joe's
+voice forward as he was explaining matters to the men.
+
+"I was thinking," said Moray gravely, "of how long it would be before it
+is day."
+
+The longest night comes to an end, and the breaking of that next day
+showed the river much sunken and pretty well at its normal tidal height;
+and with four men rowing steadily the boat glided downward, with the sun
+when it rose showing first one and then another landmark which seemed
+familiar; but after their one journey upward no one present could recall
+how far they were above the careening place.
+
+Again and again as they passed round some great bend Moray rose from his
+seat, and, as Rodd afterwards told him, made them all miserable by
+gazing wildly downwards in the expectation of catching sight of the
+brig, or of seeing his father in his boat coming upward in search of the
+missing ones, who had quite outstepped the time that their stay was to
+last.
+
+It was always the same; the poor fellow sank back into his place
+wearily, his countenance drawn and a look of despair in his eyes.  At
+such times Rodd would watch his opportunity, steal his hand quietly
+along, and give Morny's arm a long and friendly grip, with the result
+that the dim eyes would brighten a little and dart a grateful glance in
+the English lad's direction.
+
+The journey downwards seemed endless, and proved to be far longer than
+any one there anticipated.  But just as the longest and darkest watch
+nights come to their end, so it was here, when, skimming along under
+sail, taking long reaches, for the wind was abeam, all at once Joe
+Cross, who was the first to see, sang out a loud and hearty--
+
+"Ship ahoy!"
+
+"Hah!" cried Morny.  "Do you see the brig?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the man, as Morny, the doctor and Rodd shaded their
+eyes and gazed down-stream; "I can't make out the brig."
+
+"Oh, you don't half look," cried Rodd.  "There's the Spanish schooner,
+and ours, and just beyond them, half hidden by the trees and land, there
+are the tops of the masts of the brig.  Hurrah, Morny!  She's all right,
+afloat, and--Here, what are you looking that way for?"
+
+"Because I can't see her," said the French lad despairingly.  "There is
+something wrong."
+
+"Why, my dear old chap," cried Rodd, "you can't see well, because of the
+trees, but as we get farther out, there she lies, to the left, with her
+two masts as plain as plain."
+
+"I can see those two masts you mean," said Morny sternly, "but they are
+low-down raking masts; the _Dagobert's_ are much higher, and stand up
+stiffer than those.  Do you forget she's square-rigged?  Why, that's a
+schooner."
+
+"So it is," cried Rodd.  "I was deceived by the two yards on her
+foremast.  But look here, it can't be another schooner.  Captain Chubb
+may have been altering her rig when he got her upright again.  Why, of
+course!  It must be so.  There can't be three schooners there.  They
+must have had some accident to the brig's mainmast when they raised her
+again.  Broke her topgallant, perhaps, and rigged her fore and aft."
+
+"Not they, Mr Rodd, sir.  Our old man would have cut a spar somewhere
+from the forest and rigged her square, if it was only a jury-mast.
+'Sides, they'd got spare spars on board, same as we.  That's another
+schooner.  You can see her clearer now--a long low one, with masts that
+rake more than the Spanish skipper's vessel.  Strikes me as we shall
+find that for some reason or another they haven't got the brig afloat."
+
+"Another schooner, Joe?" cried Morny passionately.  "The brig not
+finished?  For some reason or another!  What reason?  What does it all
+mean?"
+
+"Be calm, my lad; be calm," cried the doctor.  "In a very little while
+we shall know the worst, or the best.  Mind, we know nothing as yet.  It
+is all suspicion.  For aught we can say to the contrary, that man whom
+we have condemned may be innocent, misjudged by us, and now be lying at
+the bottom of the river where we missed him in that mysterious way."
+
+Morny bowed his head and tried to look gratefully at the doctor; but his
+agony was too great, and he stood there till their boat had got to the
+end of its tack and swung round in the other direction, when with shaded
+eyes he gazed before him wildly, trying to get a view beyond where the
+three schooners could now be plainly seen, anchored in mid-stream.
+
+But for some time the curvature of the river put this out of the
+question, and to break the painful silence the doctor said quietly--
+
+"Another long low schooner, with raking masts.  But it may be only
+another trader, anchored in company with the rest."
+
+"Ah," cried Morny to Joe Cross, "you see something more than we do!"
+For the man, who was looking out from beyond the sail, suddenly gave a
+start and angrily slapped his thigh.
+
+"Well, I'm very sorry, sir; but yes, I do.  The brig's lying careened
+right over, just as she was when we started on our trip."
+
+"But look here, Morny," cried the doctor; "that may mean nothing more
+than that she is not finished yet.  Remember, to those we left we are
+missing, and in their anxiety about our lengthened stay they may have
+started up-stream to find us."
+
+"You are saying this to comfort me," cried Morny passionately.  "No,
+doctor; we have got to face the worst.  It is not so."
+
+It seemed cruelty to prolong the conversation, and soon after the order
+was given to lower the sail and unstep the mast, for the wind had pretty
+well dropped as they swept in towards where the vessels were anchored,
+and the distance being short, the men took to their oars once more,
+while, with no impediment to their view, the doctor took out his glass
+and offered it to Morny.  But the lad made a quick gesture, and sat back
+looking straight before him, while the doctor used the glass himself,
+gazing with it first at the brig, about whose hull no one was visible,
+while all seemed still on board the three schooners.
+
+"Take a look, Rodney," said the doctor aloud, as he handed the glass.
+"I can see nothing wrong."
+
+Rodd eagerly took the glass, raised it to his eyes, and said quietly--
+
+"Why, I can't see a soul on board the _Sally_, uncle, and the people on
+the other schooners must be asleep.  They haven't seen us yet--Yes, they
+have!" he cried.  "The men are hurrying up on our vessel from below,
+but--"
+
+"But what, my boy?"
+
+"I--I don't quite know, uncle.  Something isn't right.  Oh, Morny, what
+have I said?"
+
+As the boy spoke he let the glass drop to the full length of his arm,
+and in all probability it would have fallen to the bottom of the boat
+had not Joe Cross caught it in his hand.
+
+"May I look, sir?" he said sharply, and without waiting for consent, he
+raised it to his eyes and quickly scanned all three of the schooners in
+turn.
+
+"It's no use beating about, gentlemen," he said sharply.  "Something is
+wrong, for all three decks are swarming now with men like bees--wasps, I
+ought to say," he muttered, as he concentrated his gaze upon the _Maid
+of Salcombe_.  "Our vessel, doctor, is in the hands of pirates, or
+slavers, and they are making ready the long gun.  Now, my lads, look
+alive.  Every man buckle on his arms and then load."
+
+The oars were allowed to swing from the tholes, and the boat was left to
+glide slowly downwards, while in their smart orderly way her crew
+prepared for action.
+
+"You will load too, gentlemen--with ball.  Now, doctor, will you take
+command and lead us?"
+
+"What to do?" asked the doctor.
+
+"Why, to take our schooner again, sir.  She's in the hands of an enemy."
+
+"But is it possible that we can do this, Cross?" cried the doctor.
+
+"I don't know, sir, for she's got a lot of men on board; but we have got
+to try."
+
+"Stop.  Let me think," said the doctor.  "I am no man of war, and this
+is not in my way.  If any unfortunate fellow were wounded I could do my
+best.  But look here, my lads; you are nearly all men-of-war's men, and
+you, Morny, you are a naval officer.  Seeing the odds before us, what is
+our duty here?"
+
+"To fight," cried the young man passionately, through his clenched
+teeth.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" came heartily from the men; and as the doctor turned his
+eyes inquiringly upon Rodd, who was fiercely ramming the second bullet
+upon the small shot already in the two barrels of his gun, he saw a look
+in the lad's face that he had never seen there before, and in spite of
+the pain of the situation, he felt a thrill of satisfaction running
+through his breast at the thought that, young as his nephew was, he was
+English to the core.
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, "we must fight; but with such odds against us we
+must bring cunning to bear."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!  That's right," cried Cross.  "But perhaps, as we've got
+right on our side and only a set of mongrels before us, a good bold dash
+to board them will make us as strong as they.  I say, sir, if you will
+let me lead, we will try and take our schooner, give them a broadside of
+bullets when we get close up, and then out steel and board her like men.
+Once over her side, there won't be many of them left on deck at the end
+of five minutes; and as soon as we have got her and the use of her guns,
+if we don't sink them other two pirates I have never been to sea."
+
+"That's right, Joe," came in chorus, as, standing in the bows with one
+hand upon his gun, the other upon his right hip, he looked the very
+perfection of a British man-of-war's man, ready to lead or be led,
+wherever duty called.
+
+Then, as if inspired by his appearance, the crew burst out into a
+ringing cheer, helped by the two lads, while the doctor took off and
+waved his straw hat as he joined in.  _Bang_--_thud_!
+
+A great grey puff of smoke started from the schooner's deck and a ball
+came skipping in their direction over the smooth stream.
+
+"Well, I do call that too bad," cried Joe, as the men uttered a
+deep-toned "Yah-h-h!"
+
+"Arter the way in which I cared for you and kept you clean, to go and
+behave like that!"
+
+"Well, poor dumb beast," growled Briggs, "she don't know no better."
+
+"Do you call that dumb?" cried Joe, merrily enough.  "Well, I s'pose she
+was obliged; but I don't think much of their gunnery, messmates,"
+continued the man, as he made use of the glass again.  "Oh, they're all
+at work, sir, re-loading, and it will soon be our turn.  I propose, sir,
+that we let them give us another shot, and then dash in before they have
+time to re-load.  They won't hit us; will they, boys?"
+
+"Not they!" came in chorus; but the next moment there was another
+report, and a smaller ball struck the water so near the boat that the
+spray was sent flying over them.
+
+"They've got the two small guns to bear, sir," said Joe quietly, "and
+there's somebody aboard as knows how to aim."
+
+He had hardly ceased speaking when there was another puff of smoke from
+the schooner's deck, accompanied by a whizzing, shrieking sound through
+the air just above their heads, while before they had glided with the
+stream another dozen yards there was a puff of smoke from the
+three-master's deck, followed directly after by a puff from the strange
+schooner, and as the reports of the two heavy guns were echoed from the
+great walls of verdure upon the river's bank, the air over their heads
+seemed full of shrieking missiles.
+
+"Grape and broken iron," growled Joe Cross.  "Take the tiller, Harry
+Briggs.  Step the mast, my lads, and run up the sail.  Don't take no
+notice of their shot.  It don't do to go mad, even if we do want to
+fight.  Don't go to sleep over it, boys.  We are in the breeze again,
+and we must run into shelter and think."
+
+A low growl came from the men as they rapidly obeyed orders, and not a
+man seemed to flinch as the long gun of the English schooner sent forth
+its heavy missile again, this time to strike the water some distance
+ahead and then rise and go crashing amongst the trees, whose leaves
+could be seen to come pattering down.
+
+Three more shots came skipping over the river before the boat began to
+glide swiftly, under the pressure of her sail, and yells of derision
+came ringing from the enemy as they saw the effect of their fire and the
+effort being made to escape.
+
+"Ah!" half sighed Rodd.  "They've left off."
+
+"Ay, sir," said the coxswain.  "They know they can't hit us now we are
+flying through the water; and the worst of it is, they think we are
+afraid and that we English dogs are running away as hard as we can, with
+our tails between our legs.  But they aren't, sir; they're a-standing up
+stiff and at right angles, as our old man calls it, to our backs; eh,
+messmates?"
+
+"Ay, ay, Joe!" came from the crew, with a roar of laughter.
+
+"And as for my teeth--our teeth, I mean--they are about as sharp as
+sharp.  But we have got the wind with us, gentlemen, and we will just
+run up-stream and round the bend yonder, so as to get behind the trees
+just somewhere where we can keep watch with that there little spy-glass,
+and by and by we will have another try.  This go they a'n't played fair,
+but next time we'll make 'em."
+
+"How, Joe?" cried Rodd.
+
+"Well, sir, my idea is to tackle 'em man to man when they can't use
+their guns.  I mean when it's too dark for them to aim; and then we can
+drop down upon them, or sail up to them fore or aft or either side, and
+them not know where to have us.  It won't be shooting then, but cold
+steel, as we know how to use.  Well, think of that now!" cried the man,
+as the boat was now literally skimming over the surface.  "Call myself a
+leader!  Why, as true as I am here, I never once thought of firing a
+shot.  Why, we might have given them one volley, messmates.  I don't
+suppose we should have hit, with them behind the bulwarks, but we might
+have startled the beggars at the guns.  Never mind; we have saved our
+gunpowder.  A man must miss sometimes, and this has been a bad 'un.
+Next time, though, my lads, we must make it a hit."
+
+The sailor ceased speaking, for his eyes had suddenly lighted upon
+Morny's face, and, as he afterwards said to Rodd, "Blest, sir, it sent a
+regular chill through me, for in all the hooroar of that job I forgot
+all about his father and our old man.  But never say die, sir.  They may
+have got away in one of the boats and be coasting along out to sea."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN.
+
+FIREWORKS.
+
+The boat was well run up out of reach and sight of the enemy, a spot
+being selected where by a little manoeuvring beneath the shade of an
+overhanging tree a few boughs could be pressed aside and a watch kept
+upon the movements of those on board the schooners, in case of their
+boats coming in pursuit, or, what was quite probable, one or other of
+the vessels heaving anchor and coming up with the tide.
+
+But the time wore on without any sign being made, and as far as could be
+made out through the glass, the Spaniards seemed to be quite content
+with beating off the attack, and from their movements they had
+apparently come to the conclusion that they had seen the last of the
+occupants of the boat.
+
+But they did not know the temper of those on board, nor that a quiet
+little council of war had been going on, till, feeling the necessity for
+the men being properly prepared ready for any fresh attempt, the doctor
+suggested that a substantial meal should be made; and this was partaken
+of with a far better appetite than could have been expected.  More than
+one plan had been suggested regarding the next proceedings.  One was
+that they should steal down the river under cover of the darkness and go
+in search of their friends; another, that an attempt should be made,
+when the tide was flowing most swiftly, to cut the cables, in the hope
+that the vessels might drift ashore; but Joe Cross disposed of this
+directly as not likely to be of any permanent advantage, and declared
+that there was only one thing to be done, and that was, to follow up
+with another bold attempt to board.
+
+"You see, gentlemen," he said, "we never had a chance to get within
+touch of the Spanish mongrels.  I don't want to brag, but with a fair
+start there aren't one of our chaps here as wouldn't take a good grip of
+his cutlass and go for any three of them; eh, messmates?"
+
+"In an or'nary way, Joe," said Harry Briggs.
+
+"Well, this is an or'nary way, messmate."
+
+"Nay; I call this a 'stror'nary one."
+
+"Well, speak out, messmate, and say what you mean."
+
+"Well, same as you do, Joe, only I put it a little different.  Win or
+lose, I'd go in for tackling three of them in an or'nary way, but I says
+this is a 'stror'nary one, and you may put me down for six, and if I get
+the worst of it, well, that'll be a bit of bad luck.  But anyhow I'd
+try."
+
+"And so say all of us," came from the rest.
+
+"Well," said Joe, laughing, "I never knew afore that I was the most
+modest chap in our crew."
+
+"Oh, I have no doubt about your courage, my lads," said the doctor, "nor
+that my nephew here, though he is a boy, will fight like a man; but if
+we are to do any good we must work with method against such great odds.
+So now, Cross, let us hear what you propose to do."
+
+"Try again, sir--in the dark--and play a bit artful."
+
+"But how?" cried Rodd eagerly.
+
+"Well, I'll tell you, Mr Rodd.  I proposes that we just show ourselves
+once or twice towards evening, and then make a dash right across the
+river to hide again among the trees.  That'll set 'em all thinking and
+asking one another what our game's going to be.  Then we will lie up
+till it's dark, up with the grapnel, and steal quietly down the river,
+keeping pretty close to the trees, till we are about opposite the enemy,
+and then we'll make a mistake."
+
+"Make a mistake?" said Rodd.  "I don't understand you."
+
+"Well, sir, I aren't done yet.  What I mean is, have an accident like;
+one of us sneeze, or burst out a-coughing, and me break out into a
+regular passion, calling him as coughed a stoopid lubber and a fool for
+showing the enemy where we are.  It will be best for me to be him as
+coughs or sneezes, and do it all myself so as not to have any muddle
+over it.  Then I shouts out, `Pull for your lives, boys--pull!'  And we
+makes no end of splashing as we goes on down the river, and all the time
+as supposing that it's going to be dark enough so as they can't fire at
+us.  Then it seems to me, Dr Robson, sir, that the enemy will say to
+theirselves, `They want to get out to sea, and they are gone,' while as
+soon as we have got a bit lower down we'll lie up under the trees and
+wait till about an hour before daylight, and all as quiet and snug as so
+many rats.  They'll think they have got rid of us, and all the while we
+shall be waiting our time to steal up again right by 'em and begin to
+come down once more from where they don't expect; and then--board."
+
+"Hah!" cried Rodd.  "Capital!"
+
+"You see, gentlemen, it'll all have to be done as quiet as quiet, for
+they're sure to have a watch set.  I know what out-and-outers they are
+to sleep, but it's too much to expect that they will have both eyes shut
+at a time like this.  One way or t'other we shall have the tide with us,
+but even if we don't I think it might be managed, and anyhow we shall
+have no big guns at work upon us, and watch or no watch we'll manage to
+lay this 'ere boat alongside of our schooner, and if any one says
+anything again' our getting aboard, I should like to know why, and if we
+do get aboard I don't think it's in the schooner's new crew to drive us
+back again into the boat.  There, gentlemen, that's all I know, and if
+some one else--the doctor here, or Mr Rodd, or Mr Morny, who is a
+French naval officer--can give us a better way, I'll follow anywhere,
+and I know the lads will come after me like men."
+
+There was silence for about a minute, and then the doctor coughed,
+drawing all eyes upon him.
+
+"There is no better way," he said.  "It's a splendid plan."
+
+A murmur of assent arose, and Joe Cross looked quite modest.
+
+"But it will be some time yet before we can make our attempt," said the
+doctor; "and how are we to pass the weary time till then?"
+
+"Oh," said Joe cheerily, "we can watch these 'ere great smiling efts
+till then.  They seem to be sailing about and watching us as if they'd
+got some sort of an idea that they were to have us to eat by and by,
+which I don't mean that they shall.  And then there'll be making the
+false starts.  I think, sir, as we'll make one or two, as if we was half
+afraid to make a dash for it, and that'll draw their fire."
+
+"But suppose they hit us, Joe," cried Rodd.
+
+"Oh, we must chance that, sir.  They can't hit us.  They couldn't hit a
+hay-stack in a ten-acre field; let alone a boat being pulled hard across
+stream.  That'll be all right."
+
+And so it proved when Joe Cross put his tactics into force, making the
+men row out into the river, and then ordering them to lie on their oars,
+while Rodd watched the schooner's decks and announced that some of the
+men were busy about the guns and all crowding to the bulwarks to watch
+the proceedings of the boat.
+
+Then a feint was made in one direction, then in another, and at last Joe
+stood up in the stern, to begin gesticulating to the men, as if bullying
+them into making a bold dash to row swiftly down as near the farther
+shore as they could go.
+
+A minute later two puffs of smoke from different vessels shot out into
+the clear evening air, the balls ricochetting from the water in each
+case a few yards away.  Then, with the men pulling as hard as ever they
+could, the boat's head was swung round, and rowing diagonally across the
+stream they made for the shelter of the shore from which they had come,
+the sail was hoisted, filled, and away they went till they were right
+round the bend and the anchored schooners were out of sight.
+
+"There, Mr Rodd, sir, what did I tell you?" cried Joe triumphantly.  "I
+knew they couldn't hit us.  Chaps like them ought never to be allowed to
+handle a gun."
+
+"Well, my man," said the doctor, "if the rest of your plan will only
+succeed like this we shall achieve a victory."
+
+"Nay, nay, sir; only a little boat action.  There, my lads, now we'll
+have a rest.  They're sure to think we have gone right up the river."
+
+"But they may send boats to follow us," suggested Rodd.
+
+"Certainly, sir, they may; but I don't think they will.  They won't come
+to close quarters so long as they have got bulwarks to fight from behind
+and the guns to tackle us when we show.  They think that we can't face
+the pieces.  Well, I don't say as we are very ready to when there's
+another way round, but we haven't got long to wait before we must make
+another move, for the sun's down behind the trees, and I shouldn't be
+sorry if it was to come on a fog."
+
+But no fog came, only darkness the blackest of the black, and the few
+stars that peered out only looking strangely dim.
+
+The wind had fallen soon after the sail had been lowered and the mast
+laid well out of their way.  One of the balls of spun yarn they had in
+the locker had been brought into use, cut into lengths, and the oars
+secured so that they could not slip away when they were left to swing,
+and at last under cover of the night the next part of Joe's programme
+was begun.
+
+It was harder work than had been anticipated, for though the current
+close in shore was slack, it was very difficult to keep at a respectable
+distance from the bank as they glided down-stream, while every now and
+then there was a swirl in the water suggesting that one of the great
+reptiles had been disturbed.
+
+But still the adventurers progressed, and their leader was keenly on the
+alert, looking out for the lights of the anchored vessels, ready to
+raise his false alarm as soon as he got abreast.
+
+But he looked in vain; the Spaniards had taken the precaution to cover
+their riding lights, and Joe Cross was about to draw his bow at a
+venture, when a sharp shock which made the boat thrill suggested that
+they had struck upon a floating tree trunk, washed probably out of the
+bank during the past flood.
+
+But the next moment they were aware that the boat's stem had come in
+contact with one of the crocodiles, which gave a tremendous plunge and
+began to send the water flying in all directions as it beat heavily upon
+the surface with its tail.
+
+"Starn all!" roared Joe Cross involuntarily, and then recollecting
+himself, he roared out, "Pull, lads!  Pull for your lives!"  For a light
+suddenly appeared some thirty or forty yards to their left, followed by
+another lower down the river.
+
+There was the buzz of voices upon the anchored vessels' decks, and Joe
+kept on yelling wildly to the men to pull, the noise and excitement
+being increased by the reports of muskets fired at them in a hurried
+ungoverned way, the flashes of light giving them faint instantaneous
+glimpses of the vessels and the faces of the men on board.
+
+"Steady, my lads, steady!  Ease off," said Joe, "gently.  We have got to
+come back again, you know, so we needn't go too far.  Two or three
+cables' lengths is plenty.  How do you think we're getting on, sir?"
+
+"Is it possible they may come in pursuit?" whispered the doctor.
+
+"Nay, sir, I don't think it's likely.  If it was us aboard those
+schooners we should think that we--meaning us--there, sir--you know what
+I mean--we should think t'other side was making for the sea.  Well,
+that's what they think, and now, sir, if they'll only show their lights
+for the rest of the night, why, so much the better for we."
+
+"I don't see why, Joe," said Rodd, after a few minutes' thought.
+
+"Well, I'll tell you, my lad," whispered Joe.--"Steady there--steady!  I
+am going to lower down the grapnel, for I dursen't run in among the
+trees.  They'd crackle too much if we tried to moor to a branch, and we
+don't want to capsize.  Harry Briggs, look alive, and drop the flukes
+overboard; make fast, and let us swing."
+
+This was all done almost without a sound, and just then a faint gleam of
+light as the boat swung round showed them that certainly one of the
+anchored vessels was still showing her light, while as it swung round a
+little farther there were a couple more gleams higher up, as of distant
+stars.
+
+"That's all right, gentlemen.  Now, Mr Rodd, sir, I haven't answered
+your question.  Here's just enough breeze blowing to make me alter my
+plans, so after a bit we'll step the mast again and have the sail ready
+for hoisting, for we shall be able, with the lights to guide us, to sail
+close up under the farther shore and come down again from just the way
+they don't expect, run the boat alongside our schooner, and then one on
+us will hold on by the boat-hook, while with the rest it's all aboard,
+and the schooner's ours."
+
+That night seemed to Rodd almost as long, at times longer than the one
+he had passed in the tree.  But here it certainly was shorter, as he
+afterwards declared, for about a couple of hours before daylight Joe
+whispered his belief that they had none of them heard the slightest
+sound from the direction of the lights, that if any one on board the
+schooner's deck would be sleeping it would be then, and that they must
+start at once.
+
+There was no question of all being ready, and at the whispered orders
+Harry Briggs hauled softly upon the grapnel line, while very slowly and
+silently the yard ran up the little mast, and the boat began to careen
+over as the sail filled.
+
+Then with Joe Cross at the tiller she began to glide up-stream, the
+grapnel was lifted on board without a sound, and silently and steadily
+they began to cross the river diagonally till they were as near as the
+steersman dared lay the little craft to the farther shore.
+
+Under his skilful management all went well, and so silently that nothing
+but the faint pattering lap of the water against the bows could be
+heard.
+
+To the two lads, though, that sounded unusually loud, as they crouched
+down involuntarily but quite unnecessarily lower and lower in the boat
+lest they should be seen, the light hoisted in each schooner seeming
+bound to show the white sail to the watch of each vessel in turn.
+
+But no alarm was raised; not a sound reached the adventurers, and to
+Rodd it seemed as if, after terrible periods of agony, three heavy loads
+had been lifted from his breast.  He wanted to whisper a few words to
+Morny, who all through had been seated by his side, but nothing but the
+pressure of hand upon arm passed between them, while they could hardly
+hear the doctor breathe.
+
+At last, though, that period of the terrible suspense was at an end, and
+the third light they had passed, that of the _Maid of Salcombe_, was
+beginning to grow fainter, and being left behind.
+
+"Now, what next?" thought Rodd.  "How much longer shall we have to wait
+before the attack is made?"
+
+The answer came very shortly after, for Joe Cross bore lightly upon the
+tiller, sent the boat gliding round in a wide circle which ended by
+bringing the three mooring lights they had left behind all in a line,
+and then as they began to glide down-stream he whispered--
+
+"It's now or never, sir.--Cutlashes, my lads; in five minutes we shall
+be alongside.  You, Harry Briggs, shy the grapnel on deck and make fast;
+we shall soon be all aboard.  Then come and help us all you can."
+
+There was a low deep breath like a thrill passing through the boat, a
+peculiar sound of movement which Rodd knew was the men drawing their
+cutlasses, and then as his heart went heavily thump, thump, thump within
+his breast, he felt that two hands were seeking for his, and as he
+raised it towards the right it was grasped firmly a moment by Uncle
+Paul's, and the next moment, as it was released, by that of Morny.
+
+It was short work, for the boat was gliding steadily down, and directly
+after the lad felt Joe Cross bending over him.
+
+"She's just right, sir," he whispered.  "Ketch hold of the tiller, and
+keep her as she is.  I must go for'ard now to lead."
+
+The boat swayed a little as the man stepped between his mates to the
+front.  Then as soon as the distance was considered right a light
+rattling sound was heard, and Rodd was conscious of the sail being
+lowered, though he could see nothing of it, while almost the next minute
+there was a faint shock as the boat glided against the side of the
+schooner.
+
+Then Joe Cross's cry, "All aboard!" rang out, followed by a stentorian
+cheer, and amidst the rush and hurry the tiller slipped from the boy's
+hand and he was climbing over the thwarts to spring into the
+fore-chains.  Then he tottered as if about to fall back into the boat,
+but a big hand grasped him by the shoulder, steadied him for a moment,
+and then he was with the little party dashing side by side into what
+seemed to be a chaos of savage yells and shrieks which rose in wild
+confusion from the gang of Spaniards who had sprung up from their sleep,
+where they lay scattered about the deck.
+
+English shouts to come on, Spanish yells, wild mongrel cries, a shriek
+or two of despair, a heavy plunge followed by another and another,
+savage blows, and utterances such as fierce men make in the wild
+culmination of their rage; then plunge after plunge in the water
+alongside and astern, the splash of swimmers, strange lashings about in
+the river, followed by shrieks and gurgling cries, and then, heard over
+all, the combined voices of so many stout Englishmen in a fierce--
+
+"_Hurrah_!"
+
+"Now then, all of you," shouted Joe Cross.  "There's a lot of them down
+below.  Close that cabin hatch.  Two on you to the fo'c'sle; serve that
+the same.  If you run against anybody in the dark, tell the beggar he'll
+be safer overboard than here."
+
+But there proved to be no one below in the men's quarters, and after
+making quite sure the two men returned to their comrades.  Then--
+
+"Where's Mr Rodd?" shouted Joe.
+
+"Here, Joe," came out of the darkness.
+
+"Mr Morny?"
+
+"I'm here," came in a breathless voice.
+
+"And the doctor?"
+
+"Helpless, Joe.  My ankle's sprained."
+
+"Bad luck to it," cried the man.  "Where's Harry Briggs?"
+
+"All right, mate," came in a gruff surly voice; "but you needn't have
+been in such a hurry to get it done."
+
+"Hurry?" cried Joe.  "Why, it's only just in time.  Later than we
+thought.  It's getting light.  Now then, who else is hurt?"
+
+There was a growl or two, and Joe shouted again--
+
+"Is any one killed?  Bah!  Won't say so if he is!  What about that boat,
+Harry?"
+
+"She's fast enough, messmate."
+
+"Hah!  That's right.  Now then, hold hard a moment.  Hear 'em aboard the
+other boats?"
+
+The question was unnecessary, for shouts and yells for help were
+evidently rising from men who had swum down-stream to the sides of their
+consorts, and ceased as they were dragged on board.  But a low buzzing
+murmur kept on, as from a couple of wildly-excited crowds.
+
+Then a sharp shrill voice began giving orders in Spanish, one being
+followed up with a pistol shot, which was succeeded by a yell and a
+partial cessation of the buzz of excitement that sounded as if coming
+from a swarm of human hornets.
+
+"That was the Spanish captain's voice, I am sure," cried Rodd.
+
+"Eight, sir," shouted Joe.  "I'd swear to it.  Well, he's getting part
+of his dose.  Oh, if it wasn't so dark!  Big gun's crew!" he cried.  "Is
+the tackle with her?"
+
+"Ay, ay!" came in answer, after a short bustle of movement, in which
+trained men took their places.
+
+"Here, run the rammer down her throat, my lads.  She may be loaded."
+
+There was the sound of the stout ash staff passing down the bore of the
+gun, and the answer came--
+
+"Right!"
+
+"Good," replied Joe.  "Lower down that light.  We must use that--if we
+fire.  But we want fresh charges, and there will be no more here."
+
+There was a quick search made, but without result, and Joe Cross stood
+silent for a few moments.
+
+"Well," cried the doctor, "why don't you send below, to the magazine?"
+
+"Cabin hatch is closed, sir, and some of the slavers are below.  This
+way, my lads--cutlashes.  We must have them out."
+
+"Of course!" cried Rodd excitedly, and Morny uttered a suppressed hiss,
+as he pressed forward, sword in hand.
+
+"Yes, gentlemen," said Joe; "it's their doing, and they must chance the
+crocs, for we must clear the vessel before it's broad day."
+
+At that moment there was a crashing sound as if the cabin hatch was
+being forced open, and as Joe Cross, followed by the rest, dashed aft,
+there was a yell, a rush, and some eight or ten of the mongrel enemy
+forced their way on deck, to be met at once by the schooner's crew, who
+charged at them as men-of-war's men know how to charge.
+
+There was a short encounter, the clash of steel against steel, and the
+fresh-comers who had taken refuge below began to give way, and in a
+couple of minutes more the deck was once more cleared, the splashing and
+plunging of swimming men making for the rapidly dimming light of the
+next schooner being followed by more blood-curdling yells and groans,
+mingled with cries for help, while a few minutes later a boat could be
+faintly seen and efforts were evidently being made to drag the swimmers
+on board.
+
+"Now then for the gun!" cried Joe.
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked Rodd, who with Morny kept close to the
+coxswain's side.
+
+"Fight, sir," replied Cross fiercely, "before they begin to fight us.
+See to the other guns, my lads.  The way's open to the magazine now.
+It'll be light directly, and that Spanish skipper won't leave us long
+before he begins.--There, what did I say?"
+
+For all at once the meaning of the Spaniards' orders, enforced by a
+pistol shot, was explained by a bright flash, the roar of a heavy gun,
+and the whistle of a shot just over the speaker's head.
+
+A dead silence now fell for a few moments upon the deck of the _Maid of
+Salcombe_.  There was a little bustle of preparation, and then a period
+of waiting, during which Joe Cross carefully sighted the loaded gun,
+depressing her muzzle all he could, the two lads the while listening
+excitedly to the stir and orders which came from the Spanish
+three-master's deck.
+
+"Oh, fire, Joe--fire!" whispered Rodd.  "We shall have another shot from
+her directly."
+
+"Yes, my lad, I know; but I want to make sure of a little more
+light.--_Fire_!" he said, directly afterwards.
+
+A spark was seen to sink at once upon the touch-hole of the long gun,
+there was a deep roar as she seemed to leap from the deck, a heavy
+instantaneous crash, and then a return shot which went wide of their
+schooner.
+
+"You've hit, Joe," cried Rodd excitedly, as he stood amidst the smoke,
+which began to spread about where they gathered.
+
+"Yes, sir, I hit," said the man, with a half-laugh, as the crew of the
+gun busied themselves sponging out and preparing to re-load.  "They
+pretty well filled her to the muzzle, but they got what they meant for
+us.  But hallo! what's the meaning of this 'ere?  What's the matter with
+us now?"
+
+Only this, that the _Maid of Salcombe_ was adrift and threatening, if
+something were not done to bring her up, to drift ashore not far from
+where the faint morning light revealed the brig lying right over on her
+side as helpless as any hulk.
+
+Joe Cross, closely followed by the lads, ran forward to the bows, Rodd
+one side, Joe and Morny the other.
+
+"Why, the cable must have broke adrift," cried the coxswain, leaning
+over, to see that the great rope was hanging down straight from the
+starboard hawse-hole.
+
+"Cut, Joe, cut," shouted Rodd.  "Quick!  Look out!"  For as he had
+leaned over the bulwarks just above the larboard hawse-hole, a great
+swarthy mulatto, knife in hand, was climbing up, and as soon as he
+caught sight of the lad he made for him at once.
+
+Rodd stood upon his guard and managed to strike aside the thrust made at
+him by the mulatto; but the latter was lithe and active as a monkey.  He
+struck at the boy again, and as Rodd gave way the fellow threw himself
+on to the rail and sprang over, but only to be cut down by Joe Cross,
+who had answered the boy's call.
+
+It was the saving of Rodd's life, but the mulatto was dangerous still,
+and recovering himself he made a dash at Morny, who stepped aside,
+while, with all the ferociousness of a Malay running amok, the man
+sprang aft, avoided two or three cuts made at him by the sailors, and
+then plunged over the side, to begin swimming towards the three-master,
+which was in the act of sending another shot at the doctor's vessel.
+
+This one crashed through the bulwarks, sending the splinters flying in
+all directions, and making the coxswain shout to his men to stand firm,
+as, seeing their perilous position, he hurried to their help, for the
+big schooner had slipped her cable, a sail had been run up, and she was
+beginning to answer her helm, while the _Maid of Salcombe_ was drifting
+helplessly towards the shore.
+
+It was a choice between hoisting sail and letting go another anchor
+while the chance was there, as the two vessels forged slowly ahead
+preparing to send in another shot.
+
+This latter in his excitement Joe Cross essayed to do, striking their
+enemy just at the water-line as she passed them, while now the slaver's
+sister craft began firing as she too, hoisting sail, was coming
+up-stream.
+
+"Ah!" panted the sailor, as he turned to Uncle Paul.  "Here's your
+peaceful schooner, sir, as trades in palm-oil!  Why, they are pirates
+and slavers, sir, and I've done it now.  Too late, my lads--too late!"
+he cried to the men, who had let go the other anchor.  "Nothing can save
+us now.  We are going ashore."
+
+"Oh, don't give up, man," cried the doctor angrily.
+
+"I won't, sir.  None of us will; but--There, I said as much.  We just
+touched bottom then.  There she goes again!  And in another minute we
+shall be fast in the mud, and they'll have nothing to do but powder away
+at us till we are a wreck.  Slew that there gun round, boys, and let's
+give her another shot or two while there's a chance."
+
+"No, no," cried Rodd.  "Not at that!  Fire at the other.  Can't you see,
+Joe?  Uncle!  Morny!  The three-master's going down!"
+
+It was quite true, for the first shot from the _Maid of Salcombe_, that
+sent from the long gun, crammed as Joe had said almost to the muzzle,
+had torn into the slaver just below water-line.  The second had been
+just as effective in its aim, the water had been pouring in ever since,
+and now, as she was evidently settling down by the head, her guns were
+forsaken, all discipline was at an end, and her crew had made a rush for
+the boats, which were soon after overcrowded and being pushed off by
+their occupants to make for the third schooner.  This last, fairly well
+managed, came slowly on, firing from time to time at the English craft,
+which, had now swung round upon her heel and lay bowsprit to the shore
+in a falling tide.
+
+As far as was possible her guns were slewed round, and a steady reply to
+the enemy's fire was kept up; but her doom seemed to be sealed, the
+Spaniard being able to choose her own position, while minute by minute
+the English vessel was getting more helpless.
+
+"Well, gentlemen, what's it to be?" said Joe, as he stood coolly wiping
+the blackened perspiration from his forehead.
+
+"Keep on firing to the last," said the doctor sternly.  "Better die like
+men than surrender and be murdered, for after what has passed there can
+be no mercy here."
+
+"That's right, sir," said the man, "but there's the young gentlemen, and
+we don't any of us want to die if we can help it."
+
+"Why, you are not beaten, are you, Joe?" cried Rodd fiercely.
+
+"Not a bit of it, sir, but here's our schooner, and there's Mr Morny's
+brig.  It's no use to make an ugly face over a nasty dose.  We are
+beaten, and nothing that we could do could keep that slaver from seeing
+that she's won."
+
+"Go on firing, and sink her," cried Rodd.  "Look at the other one," and
+he pointed to the three-master, whose decks looked as if they were
+awash.
+
+"Well, sir, that's what we have been trying to do; but she won't sink.
+How so be, here goes, my lad, for another try, and--What's the meaning
+of that?"
+
+For all at once through the smoke that rose from the schooner they could
+see that something fresh had taken place--what, they could not make out,
+but it was something important, and one of the enemy's smaller guns was
+fired in the other direction.
+
+"Why, there must be help coming from down the river," cried the doctor
+excitedly.  "Yes, hark at that!"
+
+For in reply to the schooner's gun a desultory series of musket shots
+began to ring out, and encouraged by this and the knowledge that help
+must be at hand, the little English crew sent forth a cheer, dragged the
+long gun more and more round, and sent one of the most successful shots
+they had fired crash into the enemy's stern.
+
+To the astonishment of all, the firing on board the enemy ceased;
+another sail was run up, and as it filled the schooner swung round upon
+another tack and began to sail steadily down the river, clearing the way
+for those on board the English vessel to see a couple of well-manned
+boats being rowed steadily up-stream, with men in the stern-sheets
+keeping up a musketry fire.
+
+"Quick!" shouted Moray.  "Another shot!  Friends!  Friends!"
+
+"Yes, sir," said Joe quietly, "but I don't see how it's to be done.
+Yes, we might do it from a little gun;" and he ran with a part of the
+crew to try and slew her round.
+
+"No good, gentlemen," he said.  "By the time we can get a shot off we
+shall risk hitting those boats, whatever they are, and they are coming
+to our help.  Here, hasn't anybody got a glass?"
+
+"No," cried Rodd; "it was left in the boat."
+
+"Well, there's one in the cabin.  Here, one of you run down."
+
+"No, no," cried Morny excitedly; "they're our boats.  Look!  That's my
+father in one," he cried hysterically.
+
+"And if that aren't our old man in the other my name aren't Joe Cross!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT.
+
+THE HELP THAT CAME.
+
+In those brief few minutes despair and dogged determination were turned
+into the mingled emotions of triumph and delight, for the two boats,
+after giving two or three volleys at the schooner, whose crew contented
+themselves with hoisting a couple more sails to increase their speed,
+came on as hard as the men could row, their crews cheering in French and
+English with all their might, while in the stern of one the Count stood
+up waving his cap; in that of the other Captain Chubb, looking grim and
+stern, stood like a statue, his left foot on the thwart before him, his
+right resting upon the muzzle of a musket.
+
+"Here, I don't feel as if I'd got a cheer left in me, lads," cried Joe
+Cross to his tired companions on board the stranded schooner; "but we
+must give them one, or they'll think we aren't much obliged to them for
+coming, and there's no gammon about it, we are, and no mistake."
+
+"Cheer, yes!" cried Rodd.  "With all your might, my lads.  Take your
+time from me.  Now then, as you never cheered before--Hooray!"
+
+There was no want of heartiness either in that or in those which
+followed, to be returned as enthusiastically from the two boats, which
+were rapidly nearing, so that in a few minutes Rodd and his uncle were
+wringing the hands of the bluff old skipper, while it was observable
+that all three kept their backs to the French Count and his son till
+they came up together, when the three started round in surprise, going
+through a curious kind of pantomime as if they were astonished to see
+the Frenchmen there.
+
+Meanwhile a regular fraternisation had gone on between the crews, and
+after a mere glance at the three masts of the schooner, which were
+standing out of the water about a couple of hundred yards away, the
+skipper's whole attention was directed to their own vessel, whose keel
+was now fast in the mud, and which was beginning to heel over slightly.
+
+"Then I suppose you took her again, doctor?" he said gruffly.
+
+"Well, hardly," said Uncle Paul.  "It was Cross and the lads who did
+that."
+
+"More shame to him, then," growled the skipper.  "I should have thought
+you were seaman enough, Joe Cross, to have kept her afloat and not run
+her aground like this."
+
+"Well, I do call that ungrateful," cried Rodd.  "I say, uncle, oughtn't
+he to have saved the schooner from being taken?"
+
+"That's one for me, doctor," said the skipper, with a grim smile and a
+twinkle in his eye.  "The boys of this here generation seem to grow up
+pretty sharp.  But he's quite right.  They pretty well caught a weasel
+asleep that time."
+
+"But how was it?" cried Rodd.
+
+"How was it, my lad?  Why, we was hard at work one morning, when up the
+river comes another of them nice respectable schooners in the oil trade.
+Oil trade, indeed!  Rank slavers, that's what they were, carrying on
+trade with one of those murderous chiefs up country!  Set of black
+Satans as attack villages and carry off the poor wretches to sell to
+your oil traders for sending off to the plantations.  Well, one don't
+like killing fellow-creatures, or seeing them pulled down below by the
+crocs, but somehow I don't feel so very uncomfortable about them as we
+had to fight with and have got the worst of it.  What are you smiling
+at, young Squire Rodd?"
+
+"I was only thinking how you always hated the slave trade, captain."
+
+"Right," said Captain Chubb, with a friendly nod.  "Well, the schooner
+sends her skipper aboard the three-master.  Then he comes to where I was
+busy at work with the men, putting the finishing touches to the brig,
+and tells me and the Count a long tale about his having come up to join
+his friend the Spanish captain, who he hears has gone up the river for a
+row.  Then he goes back to his schooner, makes her snug, and it seemed
+as if him and his men had all gone to sleep, when it was me."
+
+"You?" cried Rodd wonderingly.
+
+"Well, what they call metyphorically, my boy, for I was wide awake
+enough; but I couldn't see anything beyond the _Dagobert_, nor the Count
+neither, for he wanted her afloat.  Then the time went on, and all very
+quiet, till just in the middle of one of the hottest days when I was in
+full feather, thinking that I could tell the Count that night that the
+job was done, and we could let her sit the water again next day when the
+tide served, all at once we had a surprise.  There were only four or
+five men aboard the schooner, and I suppose they were keeping their
+watch, but just all at once a couple of boats rowed up to them, one from
+one schooner, one from the other, and before any of us knew what was up,
+our fellows were swimming for the shore, and if it hadn't been for the
+Count, who was on the look-out for crocs, and let them have two barrels
+twice over, neither of the poor fellows would have joined their mates as
+had been working with me."
+
+The speaker turned to the Count, who nodded his head quickly, and then
+looked at his son as much as to say, Yes, this is quite true.
+
+"Well," continued the skipper, "I felt as if all the wind had been
+knocked out of me, and as soon as I could speak and quite understand
+that my schooner had been took, I began to bully-rag the poor lads who
+had just escaped with their lives, for, not having time to get a gun or
+a cutlass, they had been almost as helpless on board as they were in the
+water among them reptiles.  I couldn't even believe it then, and began
+questioning the lads, and you might have knocked me down with a feather,
+as people say, and the Count there with another, when they all swore
+that our Spanish skipper had led the men from his three-master in one of
+the boats.  Then we began to see the worst."
+
+The skipper turned with a questioning look at the Count again, to
+receive a second grave nod, while this time the latter laid his hand
+upon his son's shoulder, and a long eager glance passed between them.
+
+"Well, I don't know that I have much more to say," said the skipper,
+"only that it was a bad job, being a fresh one we had got to tackle and
+meant to do.  The Count here fitted me and my lads up with some weepuns,
+and we settled that as soon as it was dark we'd man two of the brig's
+boats, and board first one and then the other of the two schooners.
+Well, we tried, but they were waiting for us, and I don't know how we
+escaped, for they met us with such a fire that if we had kept on both
+boats must have been sunk, and we never got within touch of either of
+the enemy, but drifted down with the tide; and somehow just then I
+suppose there must have been a flood somewhere up the river, down came
+the water in a way that we couldn't meet, and it was only by pretty good
+seamanship on the part of the Frenchmen more than ours, though we helped
+all we knew, that we were able to keep afloat; and since then we have
+been right down to the sea, and it's been very hard to get enough to
+eat.  But somehow we managed to keep alive, shooting what we could and
+catching a fish or two now and then as we came up the river again.  For
+of course we were not going to give up without finishing our job; and it
+seems to me that we got here just at the right time, and found that
+things weren't half so bad as we thought; eh, Count?"
+
+"My friend," replied the latter, "how can I ever repay you?"
+
+"Oh, let's talk about that, sir, when I have done something to keep the
+_Maid of Salcombe_ upright and finished my other job and the brig's
+afloat, which it seems to me we can manage at high water; but I never
+bargained for having our schooner to set right too through the lubberly
+management of that chap Joe Cross.  There," he cried angrily, "I can't
+and won't say another word till I have had something to eat, for we are
+all half starved."
+
+"Get on board the schooner, then, every one," cried the doctor, "for I
+have got my work here."
+
+It was a fact, for now the fight was over the men began to stiffen, and
+several unexpectedly turned faint, it proving that though not a single
+man was seriously wounded, nearly every one of those who had followed
+Joe Cross in his gallant achievement of boarding the schooner, and in
+beating down the slaver's crew when they forced their way out of the
+cabin, was more or less injured and had been doing his best to hide the
+knife stabs and contusions he had received.
+
+It was during the next two or three days that the doctor proved that he
+was in his element, and that his knowledge of natural history was not
+confined to his ordinary scientific pursuits, for no surgeon could have
+been more skilful in his treatment of wounds, no physician more able in
+alleviating the fever which supervened.
+
+It was a busy time for all, for not only was there the grounded schooner
+to guard from going over, but strict watch to keep for the return of
+enemies, and then, when the high tide served, all hands were at work,
+save the poor disappointed fellows whose injuries kept them to their
+bunks, in raising the brig to her old proud position.  As she floated
+out, herself once more, and dropped anchor in the stream, the men
+literally yelled themselves hoarse, while on the following day at the
+Count's request both vessels were dropping down with the tide, all on
+board eager to leave behind the river, which in spite of its many
+beauties was too full of painful recollections for its waters to be
+recalled without horror and disgust.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY NINE.
+
+THE COUNT'S APPEAL.
+
+The south-west coast of Africa was fading away in the distance as the
+two consorts with their natural history seekers rode over the dazzling
+silver sea.  The lads were abaft the schooner's wheel, quite inseparable
+now, looking down through the eddying water at the fish, which seemed to
+have taken the swift vessel for some mighty companion of their own
+nature, in whose wake they could swim along in peace without fear of
+lesser enemies.
+
+About an hour before, the brig's gig had brought the Count and his son
+alongside the schooner, and the former was below in the doctor's
+museum-like laboratory, listening to his learned friend's remarks upon
+some fresh object that, now they had returned to the ways of peace, had
+been fished up from just below the surface of the sea.
+
+Four of the schooner's crew were under an awning, lying upon a couple of
+doubled-up spare sails which had been spread upon the deck, and the two
+lads had been seated with them chatting for some little time before they
+strolled aft.
+
+"How well your men look," Morny said suddenly--"all except Joe Cross."
+
+"Yes, he looks rather thin and pale, doesn't he?" said Rodd quickly;
+"but he isn't ill.  You saw how full of fun he was, and ready to joke
+about having been bled too much.  Uncle says he'll soon be well again,
+for he's in such good spirits.  But uncle told me quietly that it was a
+wonder to him none of the poor fellows were killed.  But oh, I say,
+isn't this nice!"
+
+"Lazy," said Morny.
+
+"Oh, I don't call it lazy.  It's so jolly to be able to hang about in
+the sunshine without feeling that there's some great trouble coming on
+directly."
+
+"Ah, yes," replied Morny, with a sigh, "and that perhaps you may not
+live to see me next day."
+
+"Well," said Rodd, "I don't think it's lazy.  Uncle says that after you
+have been at work very hard it's like unstringing the bow; and so it is.
+I want to begin fishing or dredging or sounding again.  I don't want
+any more shooting.  Now, do you know what I should like just now?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I'd soon show you then that I wasn't lazy.  I should like to see one of
+those beautiful ripples two or three hundred yards off which show
+that there's a shoal of fish feeding on the transparent
+what-you-may-call-'ems--I forget Uncle Paul's name for them."
+
+"Well, if that would give you any satisfaction," said Morny, laughing,
+"I wish that a shoal would rise."
+
+"Don't you be in such a hurry; I hadn't finished.  I was going to say I
+should then like to see one of those great sea-serpent-like creatures
+rise slowly from below, to begin feeding on the fish--one of those great
+scientific wonders that you and your father are trying to discover and
+capture; for that's it, I suppose, though you do keep so squat about
+it."
+
+"Ah-h-h!" said Morny, with a sigh; and he glanced sidewise at his young
+English companion.
+
+"It is quite a joke, that it is," continued Rodd.  "It's just as if you
+were jealous and afraid that uncle and I would get beforehand with you,
+and win the credit of the discovery for old England, instead of you
+carrying it off for your _la belle France_."
+
+"Ah!" sighed Morny again, with a sad smile upon his lips.
+
+"You French chaps are so sentimental.  _La belle France_ indeed!  Just
+as if old England or the British Isles weren't quite as beautiful!  Only
+we don't go shouting about it everywhere.  I say, Morny, you don't half
+believe in me."
+
+"It is false!" cried the young Frenchman angrily.  "Why, I believe in
+you more than in any one living--except my father."
+
+"Oh, indeed!" cried Rodd banteringly.  "And here since I have known you
+I have told you everything till I haven't a secret that I have kept from
+you."
+
+"Why, you have had no secrets," said Morny.
+
+"Well--no; I suppose you couldn't call them secrets.  But you've got
+one, and you have never let it out to me."
+
+"No," said Morny gravely, "because it was not mine to tell.  You don't
+want me to be dishonourable, Rodd?"
+
+"Why, of course I don't, old chap.  I don't want you to tell me till you
+like, only it is rather a joke sometimes that you make such a mystery of
+what uncle and I know as well as can be."
+
+"You know!" cried Morny sharply.
+
+"Why, of course I do.  It's what I say.  You want--I mean, your father
+does--to carry off the honour of having solved the mystery of the great
+fish or reptile that has been talked about for the last hundred years.
+I say, though, there's that other great old-world thing that they find
+in the rocks.  What's his name?"
+
+Morny shook his head.
+
+"Here, I've got it--the sea-sawyer!  That isn't quite right, but it
+sounds something like it.  Why, he must have been just like a great
+crocodile."
+
+"Ugh!  Don't talk about them," said Morny, with a shudder.
+
+"Eh, why not?  There are none of them here.  I wish we could have caught
+one to dry or stuff, or keep in spirits.  I mean quite a little one, you
+know.  Ah, those were rather horrid times, though, and I shan't want a
+specimen reptile to make me remember them."
+
+"No," said Morny musingly; "we want nothing to make us recollect them."
+
+"But I suppose it is nearly all over now, for our voyages will soon come
+to an end."
+
+"Oh no?" cried Morny eagerly.  "Why should they, now that your uncle and
+my father have become such friends?"
+
+The lads both started, for those of whom they were speaking just then
+strolled up behind them.
+
+"Well, boys," said the Count gravely, "what are you two talking about?"
+
+"Rodd was saying that he supposed our friendship would soon come to an
+end."
+
+"Indeed?" cried the Count, raising his eyebrows and turning to give a
+meaning glance at Uncle Paul.  "Why should it, eh, my lad?  I thought
+you and Morny had become such fast friends."
+
+"Yes, so we have, sir," cried Rodd, flushing; "but I didn't quite mean
+that, for I hope we shall often meet; but I thought that now we are out
+at sea again we should be separating.  The brig will be going one way,
+and we shall be going another."
+
+"Do you wish this to be so?" said the Count, after another glance at
+Uncle Paul.
+
+"I?  Oh no, sir."
+
+"And you, Morny, my son?"
+
+"I, my father?  They should not go away if I could stop it."
+
+"You hear, doctor?  Is not this strange after what we have been saying
+in the cabin.  I tell you again, before long I will be quite open with
+you about the object of my voyage.  At present I ask you not to press
+me."
+
+"I have told you," said the doctor, smiling, "that I will not.  I have
+told you also that my object for the short time that I shall stay down
+here in the south is to keep close inshore, while you tell me that you
+wish to be able to sail right out to sea, and free to carry out your
+project, whatever it may be."
+
+"Yes, yes, and I have told you too that you could be of the greatest
+service to me by following close at hand, and that I should always be
+most grateful if without injury to your own cruise you would keep in
+company with me for the present."
+
+"Ready to help in case of further emergencies?"
+
+"No," cried the Count warmly; "my ideas were not so selfish as that.
+But tell me this--is it urgent that we should part company now?  I mean,
+would you suffer loss, or would your own researches be injured by
+keeping in company with us for say another month?"
+
+"No-o," said the doctor carelessly; "I am just as likely to make
+discoveries far out to sea as close inshore."
+
+"Then stay with us for the present.  I ask it as a friend, while I
+guarantee that you shall not suffer by what you do for me."
+
+"Well," said the doctor, slowly and thoughtfully, as he looked at the
+two lads, who were intently listening for his words, "what do you think,
+Rodd?  Shall we sail in company with the brig for a little longer?"
+
+"Am I to be judge, uncle?" said the boy merrily.  "Yes, if you like."
+
+"Well, then," said the lad, with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, as
+he found that Morny with lips parted was gazing at him with a look of
+appeal, "you see, uncle, we have been together a good while now, and
+though we tried to help the brig we seem to have dragged it into a good
+deal of mischief."
+
+"What are you saying, Rodd?" cried Morny passionately.
+
+"Oh, I mean that we have helped you a bit, but you have been very
+unlucky since we have been together.  Still, if Morny doesn't mind
+risking it, and doesn't mind putting up with my jokes about _la belle
+France_, and yours, uncle, about the Emperor Napoleon--"
+
+Morny started, and looked sharply at his father.
+
+"--though by this time," continued Rodd, "I suppose you, sir, have found
+out that at heart uncle is very fond of the Emperor, and admires him
+very much--"
+
+"You impudent young scoundrel, how dare you!" growled the doctor.
+"Bah!" he muttered to himself, "Temper!"  Then turning quickly to the
+Count, he said almost apologetically, "Don't take any notice.  I have
+spoilt him, sir; I have spoilt him.  Look here, my dear sir; I shall
+very much regret the day when we have to part, for my own sake and for
+my nephew's, for since he has had the advantage of your son's
+companionship I have been in hopes that he would acquire something of
+his refinement and polish, and that it might lead in time to his
+achieving to somewhat of the carriage of a gentleman.  I regret to say
+that so far he is as rough and boorish as ever.  Still, in the hope that
+every one of his opportunities may not be thrown away, I shall be glad
+to prolong the intimacy a little longer.  There, sir," he snapped out,
+as he turned sharply upon Rodd, "what do you say to that?"
+
+"It's all right, Morny," said the boy quietly.  "Go on polishing.  I'll
+be more attentive now, uncle."
+
+Morny gave him a quick nod, and turned then to grasp Uncle Paul's hand,
+while the brig and the schooner went sailing on westward ho!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY.
+
+THE DOCTOR WILL NOT BELIEVE.
+
+It was about a fortnight later, during which time, in deliciously calm
+weather, the two vessels had been cruising here and there, to the great
+satisfaction of the doctor, who was in a high state of delight, for he
+had been harvesting, as he termed it--bottling, Joe Cross said--
+numberless specimens of the strange creatures that swarm upon the
+surface of the southern Atlantic.  And as they had got out so far, the
+doctor had been sounding Captain Chubb as to the possibility and
+advisability of making for that strange volcanic island known as
+Trinidad--not the richly verdant island of the same name that seems as
+if it had been once a portion of the north-east shoulder of
+leg-of-mutton-like South America, but the solitary island right away
+south-east from Bahia, which stands lonely in the ocean, the remains of
+the great volcanic eminence swept by the terrific seas and tempests that
+come up from the South Polar Ocean--an island that is the habitat of
+strange sea-birds, the haunt of fish, and the home and empire of those
+most hideous of the crustaceans, the land crabs.
+
+Captain Chubb grunted and said he would think about it and consult the
+chart.  As for the brig, Rodd did not banter Morny upon the subject when
+he came aboard, as he did pretty well every day when Rodd and his uncle
+had not visited the brig; but it was a standing joke between the lad and
+Uncle Paul that King Dagobert had not sighted the sea-serpent as yet.
+
+"And it's my belief, Pickle, that they are going the wrong way to work."
+
+"Why, what would you do, then, uncle?"
+
+"Well, I'll tell you, my boy.  He's a very shy bird, and if he knows you
+are looking for him he won't show.  If you and I take up the search I
+tell you what we'll do; we won't look for him; we'll let him look for
+us."
+
+"According to that, then, uncle, we are more likely to find him than
+they are."
+
+"Of course, my boy.  Why, haven't we proved it?"
+
+They were down in the laboratory, where Joe Cross had been helping them
+over the bottling, but he had gone up on deck, the day's task being
+over, and the skipper now came down, looked and snorted at the fresh
+regiment of bottles, and made some remark about the doctor seeming out
+of spirits.  But he did not mean it for a joke.  Captain Chubb never did
+joke, for he was one of those men who pass their lives looking out for
+squalls, and his allusion was to the emptiness of the doctor's set of
+kegs.
+
+"Well, it doesn't matter," said the doctor.  "Sit down and let's talk.
+I have got quite as many preparations in spirits as will last me for
+years.  By the way, did you think any more about Trinidad?"
+
+"Deal," said the skipper shortly, and he gave the fixed table a rap with
+a roll of paper which he had brought down tucked under his arm.  "Here's
+the chart."
+
+"Well?" said the doctor, wincing, as the skipper unrolled the map on the
+dresser-like table, and catching up first one specimen bottle and then
+another used them as paper-weights to keep the chart flat, while he
+began to operate with his big rough, brown, index finger.
+
+"Here y'are," he said, "and its character written about it: currents,
+shoals, stormy seas, all kinds of dangers.  Bad landing-place; very
+rocky--place if you go to you ought to stop away."
+
+"Sounds hopeful; eh, Pickle?"
+
+"Oh, but curious, uncle.  I should like to go."
+
+"Well, then, you won't," said the skipper gruffly, "because your uncle's
+too wise to tell me to risk the schooner in such a sea."
+
+"Humph!" grunted the doctor.
+
+"I'll obey your orders, sir, and sail anywhere," continued the skipper,
+frowning very heavily, "but it's my duty to tell you when you are going
+wrong."
+
+"Of course," said the doctor, "and as you give the place such a bad
+character, captain, we'll disappoint Rodd and stay away."
+
+"Right," cried the skipper.  Then after drawing a deep breath he looked
+fiercely at Rodd, and then glared at the doctor, who opened his eyes a
+little, wonderingly.
+
+"Do you know where you are now?" said the skipper.
+
+"Well, not exactly, only that we have been on ground rich in objects
+such as I wish to collect, and--excuse me, captain--that bottle--your
+elbow.  I wouldn't have an accident to that for the world."
+
+"Well, then," continued the skipper, very gruffly, as he dabbed his big
+finger down in the middle of the chart, "you are here."
+
+"Saint Helena," said Rodd, after a quick glance at the chart.
+
+"Right," grunted the skipper.  "Now, Dr Robson, am I to speak out, or
+will you send young Mr Rodd here up on deck first?"
+
+The doctor stared.
+
+"I see no reason for sending my nephew away," he said coldly.  "He and I
+have the fullest confidence in one another."
+
+Rodd, who was standing leaning over the map, moved very slightly, but
+somehow his left hand stole on to his uncle's shoulder.
+
+"Right, then," said the skipper harshly.  "It is my duty, Dr Robson, to
+tell you that you are in a false position."
+
+"Then, Captain Chubb, as my navigator in whom I have the most perfect
+trust, it is my duty to tell you that you ought to be on deck sailing us
+out of it as soon as you can."
+
+"Come down here on purpose," said the skipper shortly, "and here goes.
+Now then, doctor, you are such a busy man, and you are so wrapped up in
+your fads about natural history and that sort of thing, that anybody
+artful could take you in and cheat you as easy as swallowing a
+gooseberry."
+
+"Well, you have a nice opinion of me, Captain Chubb!"
+
+"I have, sir--a splendid opinion of you," cried the skipper, "and I'd
+say it before all the judges in the land--I mean at home--that there was
+never a more straightforward gentleman made than you.  I'd do anything
+for you."
+
+"Hear, hear!  Bravo, Captain Chubb!" cried Rodd.  "What about me?"
+
+"You, youngster?  Well, you aren't half a bad 'un as boys go.  But look
+here, doctor; time's come for me to speak out.  You are a bit too
+innocent."
+
+"Am I?  Well, captain, that's better than being a bit too guilty; eh,
+Rodd?"
+
+"A deal, uncle.  But what's the matter, captain?"
+
+"Why, this here, my lad.  I can't stand still no longer and see your
+uncle being made a cat's-paw of."
+
+"Cat's-paw, eh, captain?" said the doctor.  "Let's see, that means to
+fetch the roasted chestnuts out of the fire.  This must apply to you,
+Master Rodd."
+
+"To me, uncle?" cried the boy, aghast.
+
+"Yes; I don't know anybody else whom Captain Chubb looks upon as a
+monkey."
+
+"Nay-y-y!  I mean that there French Count."
+
+"Stop!" cried the doctor sternly.  "Mind what you are saying, Captain
+Chubb.  Count Des Saix is my friend--a gentleman, a nobleman."
+
+"I dessay he may be at home," said the skipper, meeting Rodd's indignant
+eyes, "but he aren't a gentleman, or he wouldn't be making such a tool
+of you.  Now, don't you put yourself in a fury, doctor, or you'll be
+saying words you'll be sorry for arter.  A gentleman like you as thinks,
+and is scientific too, has no business to go in a passion.  That's all
+very well for a skipper as has got to manage a lot of awkward sailor
+chaps; if he didn't use words sometimes there'd be no getting a ship
+along.  But you have got to take it cool like a Ann Eliza, and hear it
+right through, and then set yourself down and judge according."
+
+"But look here, Captain Chubb," said the doctor angrily, "I cannot be
+silent and let you malign my friend."
+
+"He aren't your friend, sir; he's only a Frenchman, and though I've done
+my duty by him right through, I allers felt as if I couldn't trust him."
+
+"Why not?" said the doctor hotly.
+
+"Because he being a natural born enemy of an Englishman, it didn't seem
+right that he should pretend to be such a friend of yourn."
+
+"Why not, sir?" cried the doctor warmly.
+
+"Now, none of that, doctor.  I did warn you about not getting put out.
+Don't you call me, _sir_, 'cause I don't like it."
+
+"Look here, Captain Chubb," cried the doctor, "I am sure you mean well."
+
+"Thankye, sir; I do."
+
+"Then why have you taken this prejudice against the Count?"
+
+"That's a straight question, sir.  Now let me ask you one.  What's he
+doing here?"
+
+"Upon some kind of research."
+
+"Not him, sir!  That's what he's told you, and it aren't honest.  He's
+carrying on a game of his own behind you; and the boy's as bad as the
+old man."
+
+"How dare you!" flashed out Rodd.
+
+"Silence, Rodney!"
+
+"I can't be silent, uncle.  I won't stand here and listen to such an
+outrageous charge against those two gentlemen.  I don't know what has
+come to Captain Chubb, but he ought to be made to apologise before he
+leaves this place."
+
+"Well, he aren't going to be made to, young pepper-caster," growled the
+captain.  "Honest men don't apologise for telling the truth, even if it
+don't taste nice."
+
+"Look here, Chubb," said the doctor, "we are having too many words.
+Let's have a clear understanding about what you think."
+
+"Right, sir.  Let's get to the bottom of it at once.  You want an
+explanation.  It's this now.  I have been very suspicious from the
+first.  What about this 'ere Count and his son?  First you knowed of 'em
+was as they was prisoners at Dartmoor.  Well, it sounds bad for a man to
+be a prisoner, but as he was took in war that don't count for much, so
+we'll let that go.  Next thing is, you runs agen 'em at Havre, cutting
+their cable and running for it when Government gives orders for them to
+stop.  Next thing is, they boards our schooner like a set of pirates,
+only we seem too many for them; and then they cackles up a cock-and-bull
+story about wanting help, when they see they couldn't seize the
+schooner."
+
+"Look here, Captain Chubb--" began the doctor.
+
+"Give me my chance, sir, and let me finish, and then have your say.
+Help they had, and plenty on it, and I will say that a nicer, more
+gentlemanly-tongued chap than the Count I never met, nor had to do with
+a pleasanter nor nicer young fellow than his son."
+
+"Thank you," said Rodd sarcastically.
+
+"Now, don't you sneer, youngster," growled the captain, "for it aren't
+clever, nor it aren't nice.  Well, now, doctor, we all went through a
+deal all along of these Frenchies, for I don't see how it could have
+happened if it hadn't been for them."
+
+"Why, you took us up the river, captain," cried Rodd indignantly.
+
+"That's true, sir, but it was to do the best for their leaky brig, and I
+made her as good a craft as ever she was; so you needn't chuck that in
+my teeth."
+
+"Be silent, Rodney, and let the captain speak."
+
+Rodd gave himself a snatch and clenched his fists.
+
+"Well, sir, to make a long story short, the Count gammoned you into
+keeping company with him, and brought you here--here, of all places in
+the world--here, to Saint Helena," and he thumped the chart just where
+the island was marked.
+
+"Yes," said the doctor thoughtfully--"here, to the neighbourhood of
+Saint Helena; upon a scientific research."
+
+"Scientific research!" growled the skipper scornfully.  "Look here, sir,
+don't you be so innocent.  You make me wild.  What's this 'ere Count?  A
+Frenchman, aren't he?"
+
+"Well, plenty of clever Frenchmen have followed science," said the
+doctor indignantly.
+
+"Chinese too, sir, though they can't dress like Christians," cried the
+skipper.  "But just you tell me this 'ere, sir; who lives at Saint
+Helena?  Don't old Bony?  Him as we shut up like the warlike lunatic he
+is, to keep him out of mischief?"
+
+"Well, yes," said the doctor, much more suavely; "there is something in
+that."
+
+"I should think there is, sir!  Haven't I heard you carry on dozens of
+times about what a bad 'un he's been to the whole world?"
+
+"Yes, yes, Chubb; I certainly do entertain strong feelings against that
+tyrant and usurper."
+
+"You do, sir.  I've heard you say things at times as have sounded
+red-hot."
+
+"And I'm not ashamed of them, Captain Chubb," cried the doctor warmly.
+
+"'Shamed on 'em!  Not you, sir!  They're a honour to you as an English
+gentleman.  Not much of the innocent in you about that."
+
+"Thank you, Captain Chubb; thank you," said the doctor.
+
+"Oh, uncle!" cried Rodd, between his teeth.
+
+"You let your uncle alone, youngster; I aren't done with him yet.  Now
+then, doctor, your eyes aren't quite open now, but you are beginning to
+peep.  Now, just have the goodness to tell me what you are a-doing here
+at Saint Helena--a place that a gentleman with your sentiments ought to
+have kept clear of like pison."
+
+"Well," cried the doctor, warming up again, "you know I have accompanied
+my friend the Count upon his scientific expedition."
+
+"Your friend the Count, sir!  His scientific expedition!" snarled the
+skipper.  "Do you call old Bony a scientific expedition?"
+
+"I don't understand you, captain."
+
+"Then here you have it, sir, plain.  Your friend the Count is a Bony
+party, and as the French Government knew what game he was on and tried
+to stop him from running out of Havre, when he come upon us and found
+out what we were doing, `Here's my man,' he says; `I will just creep
+under his cloak and carry on my little game to carry off Bony.  No one
+will suspect me if I am in good company, and on what he calls scientific
+research.'  Consekens, here's you, sir, off the island of Saint Helena
+in co and company with this 'ere Bony party come to carry off and set
+free the man of all others you hate most in the world.  Now you
+understand what you have come to do."
+
+"I'll be hanged if I have!" cried the doctor, bringing his fist down
+with a tremendous thump upon the table, making one of the bottles leap
+up, fall over upon its side, and discharge its stopper at Rodd, who
+fielded it cleverly, though the contents--gelatinous infusoria and
+spirit of wine--were scattered all over the map.
+
+"That's spoke like you, sir," cried the skipper; "but you needn't have
+spoiled my chart."
+
+"Confound your chart, man!  Here, Rodney, you hear all this?  Do you
+think it's true?"
+
+"No, uncle, I can't."
+
+"Neither can I, sir.  I cannot.  I will not.  You, Captain Chubb, you
+mean well, I know, but--Oh, it's outrageous!  That I, Paul Robson, a man
+of my sentiments, should come to do such a disloyal thing as this--
+this--this--this treachery against my country and my King!  Here,
+Captain Chubb, are you mad, or--"
+
+"Drunk, sir?  Say it out.  I don't mind.  It does me good to see you
+come to your senses like this.  Brayvo, sir!  That's the way to take
+it."
+
+"Oh, uncle!" panted Rodd.
+
+"You let him alone, sir.  He's all right," cried the skipper.  "I've
+stuck the harpoon into him.  You give him line, and you'll see we shall
+have him in his flurry directly."
+
+"Stop, man!  Where are your proofs?"
+
+"Yes," cried Rodd, stamping excitedly about the cabin; "where are your
+proofs?"
+
+"Proofs?" said the skipper.  "I d'know.  Yes, I do.  You ask the Count
+to his face, and his boy with him, whether what I say aren't true."
+
+"Yes," cried the doctor.  "Go on deck, and take that confounded speaking
+trumpet of yours.  Hail the brig, and ask the Count to come on board."
+
+"Yes--with his son!" stormed Rodd.  "How can I?  They went off this
+afternoon on some game or another, and haven't been in sight since."
+
+"Hah!" said the doctor, fanning himself with one hand, wiping his face
+with the other, and then shaking his bandanna silk handkerchief up and
+down to try and get cool.  "There, I am not going to be in a passion,
+Rodney.  I am not going to say angry words to you, Chubb, for you
+believe all this, while I--I--I can't believe it.  The Count is too
+grand a gentleman to have made a--a--what you said, of me.  But I will
+have this matter cleared up, and you will have to apologise to me and
+the Count."
+
+"And to Viscount Morny des Saix," cried Rodd.
+
+"Yes, my boy; exactly," said the doctor; and then to the skipper--"If
+you are wrong!"
+
+Saying this, he literally stamped out of the cabin.
+
+"Where are you going, uncle?" cried Rodd, following.
+
+"Up on deck, my boy," cried the doctor, without turning his head.  "I
+feel like a furnace, and if I speak any more words they'll be like the
+skipper said--red-hot."
+
+"Well," said the captain, as he stood staring towards the cabin stairs,
+"I never see'd the doctor with his monkey up like that afore.  Anyhow,
+he aren't afraid to trust me with his bag of tricks down here, and
+bottles of mixture.  But he needn't have spoiled my chart!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY ONE.
+
+THAT'S SAINT HELENA.
+
+Night, and no sign of the brig.  Morning, and the doctor and his nephew
+both on deck, with a sail in sight upon the distant horizon, while just
+beyond it, looming up, was what seemed to be a dark cloud.
+
+"There she is!" cried the doctor, glass in hand.  "We will soon know the
+truth now, Rodd."
+
+"That, sir?" said a voice close behind them.  "That's Saint Helena."
+
+The doctor started round as though he had been stung, to stare fiercely
+in the frank face of Joe Cross, who looked rather thin and
+hollow-cheeked, but had declared himself well enough to take the morning
+watch.
+
+"It is, sir," said the man, who took the doctor's angry stare for a look
+of doubt.  "That's right enough, though it don't look like an island.
+It's the big rock where they've got Bony shut up."
+
+"Bah!" snapped the doctor, and he turned on his heel and walked away.
+
+"Turned out of his bunk wrong side up'ards, sir?" asked the man, with a
+smile.
+
+"Pah!" ejaculated Rodd, and he stamped off in the other direction.
+
+"Old 'un's been giving it to him, I suppose," said Joe to himself.  "Oh,
+I know; he'd been upsetting that bottle of fish soup as the skipper
+fetched me down to swab up last night--that as went all over the
+skipper's chart.  Pore young chap!  I'll go and smooth him down."
+
+"What do you want?" cried Rodd angrily.
+
+"Oh, nothing, sir.  I only wanted to say I'm sorry I put your uncle out
+about the island.  I'm a bit deaf in one ear since I got hurt over that
+fight, and I mis-underconstumbled him.  He said, `There she is,' and I
+thought he was talking about Bony's island, and he meant the brig."
+
+"Well, suppose he did?  There she is."
+
+"Nay, sir; you take another look.  That's a three-master, sir.  Don't
+you see?"
+
+"Oh yes, I see now, Joe," said Rodd, who was rather ashamed of his
+petulance to the man.  "She was end on to us, and I didn't see the
+mizzen.  Why, she's in full sail!"
+
+"Yes, sir, a regular crowd of canvas, topgallants and stunsles all up,
+and if I haven't forgotten all about a man-of-war, that's what she is,
+as we used to say, by the cut of her jib, which is a very sensible
+remark, sir, as from here her jib's quite out of sight."
+
+The doctor kept on deck till breakfast-time, sweeping the horizon with
+his glass, while the skipper walked up and down with his long
+mahogany-covered glass tucked under his left arm, and his hands very
+deep down in his pockets, while his shoulders were hitched up to his
+ears.
+
+Then breakfast, with everything hot except the conduct of the occupants
+of the cabin.  This was almost icy, and hardly a word was spoken.
+
+Up on deck again, with the schooner careening over to the pleasant
+breeze, but no sign of the brig; but the three-masted vessel was
+overhauling them fast, and before long a gun said, Heave to, in the very
+emphatic monosyllable so well understood in the Royal Navy.
+
+The skipper gave a glance at Uncle Paul with one eye, and that morning
+it seemed if as he had been suddenly afflicted with a cast, for the
+other eye turned outward and looked at Rodd.
+
+Then he gave the order to the man at the wheel, who with a few turns of
+the spokes ran the swift little vessel well up into the wind, her sails
+began to flap, and she quietly settled down into a gentle rock upon the
+beautifully rippled heaving sea.  Then time went on, with the man-of-war
+bearing down upon them rapidly, while the doctor stood scowling angrily
+at the rock which had so much to do with the fate of nations standing
+out more clearly in the sunlit air.
+
+In due time a boat full of men was swung down from the davits of the
+cruiser, the oars dipped, and she came skimming along with a steady
+pull, and every stroke pulled clean and with hardly a splash, till she
+came alongside, when, to the delight of Rodd, there in the stern-sheets
+were the same officer and middy who had overhauled them off the African
+coast.
+
+Rodd was all eagerness, and advanced ready to grasp hands with the
+reefer, but to his great surprise everything was coldly stern and
+formal.  Two marines followed the officers on board, and the skipper,
+doctor, and Rodd were ordered down into the boat as prisoners, while a
+prize crew under the command of the middy, who looked more important
+than he did upon his first visit to the schooner, and stared at Rodd as
+if he had never seen him before, was left on board.
+
+Uncle Paul spoke to the lieutenant, but his words were received almost
+in silence, while no explanation being forthcoming, he sat still and
+frowned.
+
+The sloop of war, their old friend, was soon reached, and the prisoners
+were marched up to the quarter-deck where the captain stood waiting for
+them, scanning them sternly before beginning to question the skipper as
+to the name of the schooner and their object in those waters.
+
+Questions were answered and explanations given in Captain Chubb's most
+blunt and straightforward way, before the captain turned his searching
+eyes upon Uncle Paul.
+
+"Then you are Dr Robson, sir?" he said.
+
+"Yes.  May I ask--"
+
+"You are here carrying out a scientific research?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"In company with your consort, Count Des Saix, of the French brig
+_Dagobert_?"
+
+"That's quite right, sir; but may I ask--"
+
+"Why you are my prisoners?  Certainly.  But I will shorten matters by
+telling you that your scientific research was a plot to carry off the
+prisoner of the British Government, the ex-emperor Napoleon Bonaparte."
+
+"No, sir, I'll be hanged if it was!" cried the doctor.
+
+"Which plot has completely failed," added the captain.  "As I have said,
+sir, you are my prisoner."
+
+"And what about Captain Chubb, here, and my nephew?"
+
+"They are prisoners too, of course."
+
+"But my schooner--my pleasure yacht?" said the doctor.
+
+The captain slightly shrugged his shoulders, as he smiled--
+
+"That will be well taken care of, sir, you may depend."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"Ah, Rodd, my boy," said the doctor, shortly afterwards, "you are
+getting plenty of adventures; but you needn't be uncomfortable.  This
+will all be cleared up.  Well, Chubb, I am afraid you were right; at any
+rate the King's officer seems to be quite of your opinion."
+
+"Yes, sir, but wait a bit," said the captain.  "I suppose they'll get us
+close in, and I shouldn't be at all surprised if we find, when we get to
+the other side of the island, that they've got the brig snug in shelter
+there."
+
+"What, captured too?" cried Rodd excitedly.
+
+"Yes, sir.  This sloop of war is kept here to cruise about the island
+and keep strangers off.  That's what she's for."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY TWO.
+
+I HAVE SINNED--FORGIVE.
+
+That same afternoon the sloop of war was lying close inshore, with the
+brig and schooner near at hand, when a barge put off from the
+landing-place bearing the Governor and other officials, who were
+received at the gangway of the sloop with the customary salute, and
+shortly afterwards a little informal court was held, with the prisoners
+present, while the First Lieutenant of the sloop gave evidence to the
+effect that just after dark he had observed, from the anchorage where
+the sloop lay, a light, evidently intended for a signal, exhibited in a
+peculiar way from the masthead of some vessel.
+
+He had noticed the brig now lying at anchor some distance in the offing
+early in the evening, but an adverse wind had prevented the sloop from
+going out.  This light appeared at intervals during the next two hours,
+and on reporting the matter to the captain it was considered
+sufficiently suspicious for the brig from which it evidently came to be
+overhauled.  This was done during the night; the prisoners brought in;
+and they were here to give an account of themselves.
+
+Upon being asked if there was any difficulty in overhauling and seizing
+the brig, which appeared to be well manned and armed, the lieutenant
+smiled and said no, for the simple ruse of answering the brig's signal
+by the exhibition of lights in a similar way brought her close inshore,
+and then in the darkness the rest was easy, for it fell perfectly calm,
+and the sudden advance in the darkness of three well-armed boats made
+resistance vain.
+
+"They offered no resistance, then?" asked the Governor.
+
+"Oh yes," was the reply; "a very brave resistance; but they were
+overpowered by numbers and brought in."
+
+As this evidence was given the Count and his son stood together, the
+former looking calm and dignified, the latter defiant, and when asked
+what defence he had to make for his clandestine approach to a place
+where it must have been well-known to him landing could be only allowed
+by the special permission of the Governor, and told that it was
+perfectly evident his coming could have but one intent, to aid in the
+escape of the prisoner who had been so long in the island--the Count
+spoke out at once bravely and earnestly in the defence of those who were
+there standing as fellow-prisoners.
+
+He wished, he said, to exonerate the English doctor and the captain of
+the schooner from all participation in his attempt.  They had met on the
+high seas quite by accident, and finding how carefully the prison of his
+august master was watched, he had led the doctor into the belief that he
+too was engaged upon a scientific expedition.
+
+Just then the eyes of the two lads met, and as Rodd darted an angry
+indignant look at Morny, the latter made a deprecating gesture, while he
+seemed to say, Be merciful; you do not know all.
+
+The Count went on, taking the whole blame of the proceedings upon
+himself, and asking for mercy for his son, who had acted entirely under
+his orders and had been perfectly obedient, as a son should be.  As he
+spoke these words he looked hard at Rodd, and then at his uncle, who
+stood frowning there.
+
+"I failed in my enterprise," continued the Count, "for I was growing
+desperate at the difficulties which surrounded me.  Certain signals
+should have answered mine, and the lights which were shown from the
+direction of the shore were not exactly those which I anticipated.  But,
+as I have said, I was growing desperate at my want of success, and in
+the hope that after all these signals might mean that my august master
+would be brought off in a fishing-boat, I risked all and allowed myself
+to be deluded, as it were, into what proved to be a trap.  I have no
+more to say, gentlemen, save this, that I ask no mercy for myself.
+Whatever the English laws award to one who has acted as I have done, I
+accept.  But my son, as I have said, was entirely under my orders, and
+as for my crew, they have only been my faithful servants, and tried to
+carry out my will.  England must be too brave to wish to punish such as
+these.  As to the doctor, his nephew, and the crew of the schooner, it
+would be absurd for England after my explanation to say more to them
+than `Go in peace.'"
+
+There was perfect silence for a minute or so, and then the Governor, one
+of his staff, an officer of foot who was the commander of the military
+force stationed in the island, and the captain of the sloop, held a
+short consultation together, after which the officers drew back into
+their places and left the Governor to speak.
+
+"Dr Robson," he said, "Captain Ellison, in command of the sloop of war,
+has told me of his previous meeting with you at the mouth of one of the
+West African rivers, and the way in which your vessel was fitted out,
+and of the state of your papers.  Everything, in fact, goes to prove the
+perfect truth of your story and the fact of your ignorance of the plan
+for the escape of the prisoner.  I can offer you no apology for your
+being made prisoner and brought here, for I think that due consideration
+will prove to you that you were somewhat imprudent in your action and
+choice of friend.  You and yours, sir, are perfectly at liberty to leave
+the island at once.  As for you, Count Des Saix," he continued, "as the
+Governor of this island I have certain duties to perform, and after such
+an important and daring attempt as yours, I must tell you that in spite
+of peculiar circumstances which I will refer to shortly, this matter
+cannot end here.  It is an affair of diplomacy in which others are
+concerned as well as England.  For the present you and your people must
+consider yourselves prisoners pending the arrival of the dispatches that
+I must send to the British Government.  Yours, sir, was a daring and
+extremely hazardous plot, designed in extravagance and I may say in
+ignorance of the impossibility of its execution.  The prisoner was too
+closely guarded and watched, and, as you have seen, it was quite
+impossible for your vessel to approach this island without being seized.
+I gather that you have been a naval officer in the service of the late
+Government of France, and I presume that it was from a feeling of
+devotion to the Emperor Napoleon--I should say, our prisoner here--that
+you and your friends devoted yourselves to this task, which has proved
+so signal a failure.  Sir, I can only admire your act and the devotion
+of the followers of the late Emperor."
+
+"Sir, to us," cried the Count, "your way of speaking of our august
+master is little better than an insult.  With us there is no late
+Emperor; he is still the ruler of the French Empire, our august master
+while he lives."
+
+"Sir," said the Governor, slowly and gravely, "mine is the painful duty
+to announce to you that my words were well chosen and correct, that your
+designs were as hopeless as they were vain; the late Emperor Napoleon
+died two nights since."
+
+The Count gave a violent start, gazing wildly in the Governor's eyes, as
+if asking whether his words were true.  Then turning to his son he took
+off his cap and stood in silence with his head bowed down, before saying
+in a low broken voice that reached no farther than the ears of Uncle
+Paul and Rodd--
+
+"Morny, my son, we were faithful to the end, even though we failed.  Our
+august master is free at last.  But our country lives, and in the future
+there is always for us _la France_."
+
+There were several meetings between Uncle Paul, Rodd, and the
+prisoners--if prisoners they could be deemed, for their captivity was of
+the easiest kind--before the schooner set sail for England and home, and
+during one of these, when all seemed once more the best of friends, the
+doctor was heard to say--
+
+"Yes, of course, I forgive him now, and you know, Des Saix, since that
+sort of a trial we had I have never said one word of reproach.  I was
+not going to trample on a fallen man.  But, you know, all that business,
+to use a coarse old English expression, sticks in my gizzard.  It was
+not honourable, nor gentlemanly; I won't add noble.  I don't think you
+ought to have done it to one who trusted you and helped you as I did.
+Now, look here; do you think it was a good example to set your son?"
+
+"My friend," said the Count humbly--"May I still call you my friend?"
+
+"As long as you live, sir!" cried the doctor warmly.
+
+"Then I say to you, No; it was dishonourable, treacherous, and vile.
+But my sword was devoted to the service of my dead master, my life was
+his, and I was ready to give all to save him from his unhappy fate.  Can
+I say more than this: I have sinned.  Forgive."
+
+As matters turned out it was many, many months, owing to an accident to
+the schooner and the delays in re-fitting at Las Palmas, and long stays
+made in the Mediterranean--the entrance to which could not be passed
+without a cruise within--before the _Maid of Salcombe_ approached the
+English coast, and, oddly enough, once more Captain Chubb was driven to
+take refuge for a few hours at Havre-de-Grace, where one of the first
+things to be noticed was the familiar brig.
+
+Inquiries followed at last, and Rodd and his uncle learned that the
+vessel had been lying there for some time while her captain, the Count,
+and his son were at Paris.
+
+No: the officer in charge of the brig could give no information about
+their residence in Paris, but he had heard that they were not going to
+sail in the brig again, as they were about being appointed to a large
+ship in the King's Navy.
+
+"Humph, Rodd!" said the doctor.  "This sounds like good news."
+
+"Yes, uncle, but we must try and see them again."
+
+"Would you like to?"
+
+"Of course!" cried Rodd warmly.  "For a good long talk about old days."
+
+"Perhaps," said the doctor, "they may hear of our return, and may try to
+see us."
+
+"And if they do, uncle?"
+
+"Well," said the doctor, smiling, "they know our address."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Ocean Cat's Paw, by George Manville Fenn
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