“Now, Hargate, what a fellow you are! I've been looking for you
everywhere. Don't you know it's the House against the Town boys. It's
lucky that the Town have got the first innings; they began a quarter of
an hour ago.”
“How tiresome!” Frank Hargate said. “I was watching a most interesting
thing here. Don't you see this little chaffinch nest in the bush, with a
newly hatched brood. There was a small black snake threatening the nest,
and the mother was defending it with quivering wings and open beak. I
never saw a prettier thing. I sat quite still and neither of them seemed
to notice me. Of course I should have interfered if I had seen the snake
getting the best of it. When you came running up like a cart horse, the
snake glided away in the grass, and the bird flew off. Oh, dear! I am
sorry. I had forgotten all about the match.”
“I never saw such a fellow as you are, Hargate. Here's the opening match
of the season, and you, who are one of our best bats, poking about after
birds and snakes. Come along; Thompson sent me and two or three other
fellows off in all directions to find you. We shall be half out before
you're back. Wilson took James's wicket the first ball.”
Frank Hargate leaped to his feet, and, laying aside for the present all
thoughts of his favorite pursuit, started off at a run to the playing
field. His arrival there was greeted with a mingled chorus of welcome
and indignation. Frank Hargate was, next to Thompson the captain of the
Town eleven, the best bat among the home boarders. He played a steady
rather than a brilliant game, and was noted as a good sturdy sticker.
Had he been there, Thompson would have put him in at first, in order
to break the bowling of the House team. As it was, misfortunes had come
rapidly. Ruthven and Handcock were bowling splendidly, and none of the
Town boys were making any stand against them. Thompson himself had gone
in when the fourth wicket fell, and was still in, although two wickets
had since fallen, for only four runs, and the seventh wicket fell just
as Frank arrived, panting, on the ground.
“Confound you, Hargate!” Thompson shouted, “where have you been? And not
even in flannels yet.”
“I'm very sorry,” Frank shouted back cheerfully, “and never mind the
flannels, for once. Shall I come in now?”
“No,” Thompson said. “You'd better get your wind first. Let Fenner come
in next.”
Fenner stayed in four overs, adding two singles as his share, while
Thompson put on a three and a two. Then Fenner was caught. Thirty-one
runs for eight wickets! Then Frank took the bat, and walked to the
ground. Thompson came across to him.
“Look here, Hargate, you have made a nice mess of it, and the game looks
as bad as can be. Whatever you do, play carefully. Don't let out at
anything that comes straight. The great thing is to bother their bowling
a bit. They're so cocky now, that pretty near every ball is straight on
the wickets. Be content with blocking for a bit, and Handcock will soon
go off. He always gets savage if his bowling is collared.”
Frank obeyed orders. In the next twenty minutes he only scored six runs,
all in singles, while Thompson, who was also playing very carefully, put
on thirteen. The game looked more hopeful for the Town boys. Then there
was a shout from the House, as Thompson's middle wicket was sent flying.
Childers, who was the last of the team, walked out.
“Now, Childers,” Thompson said, “don't you hit at a ball. You're safe to
be bowled or caught if you do. Just lift your bat, and block them each
time. Now, Frank, it's your turn to score. Put them on as fast as you
can. It's no use playing carefully any longer.”
Frank set to to hit in earnest. He had now got his eye well in, and the
stand which he and Thompson had made together, had taken the sting out
of the bowling. The ball which had taken Thompson's wicket was the last
of the over. Consequently the next came to him. It was a little wide,
and Frank, stepping out, drove it for four. A loud shout rose from
the Town boys. There had only been one four scored before, during the
innings. Off the next ball Frank scored a couple, blocked the next,
and drove the last of the over past long leg for four. The next over
Childers strictly obeyed orders, blocking each ball. Then it was Frank's
turn again, and seven more went up on the board. They remained together
for just fifteen minutes, but during that time thirty-one had been added
to the score. Frank was caught at cover point, having added twenty-eight
since Thompson left him, the other three being credited to Childers. The
total was eighty-one--not a bad score in a school match.
“Well, you've redeemed yourself,” Thompson said, as Frank walked to the
tent. “You played splendidly, old fellow, when you did come. If we do as
well next innings we are safe. They're not likely to average eighty. Now
get on your wicket-keeping gloves. Green and I will bowl.”
The House scored rapidly at first, and fifty runs were put on with the
loss of four wickets. Then misfortune fell upon them, and the remaining
six fell for nineteen. The next innings Frank went in first, but was
caught when the score stood at fifteen. Thompson made fourteen, but the
rest scored but badly, and the whole were out for forty-eight.
The House had sixty-one to get to win. Six wickets had fallen for
fifty-one runs, when Thompson put Childers on to bowl. The change was a
fortunate one. Ruthven's stumps were lowered at the first ball. Handcock
was caught off the second. The spirits of the Town boys rose. There were
but two wickets more, and still ten runs to get to win. The House played
cautiously now, and overs were sent down without a run. Then off a ball
from Childers a four was scored, but the next ball leveled the outside
stump. Then by singles the score mounted up until a tremendous shout
from the House announced that the game was saved, sixty runs being
marked by the scorers. The next ball, the Town boys replied even more
lustily, for Childers ball removed the bails, and the game ended in
a tie. Both parties were equally well satisfied, and declared that a
better game had never been played at Dr. Parker's. As soon as the game
was over Frank, without waiting to join in the general talk over the
game, put on his coat and waistcoat and started at a run for home.
Frank Hargate was an only son. His mother lived in a tiny cottage on the
outskirts of Deal. She was a widow, her husband, Captain Hargate, having
died a year before. She had only her pension as an officer's widow,
a pittance that scarce sufficed even for the modest wants of herself,
Frank, and her little daughter Lucy, now six years old.
“I hope I have not kept tea waiting, mother,” Frank said as he ran in.
“It is not my beetles and butterflies this time. We have been playing a
cricket match, and a first rate one it was. Town boys against the House.
It ended in a tie.”
“You are only a quarter of an hour late,” his mother said, smiling,
“which is a great deal nearer being punctual than is usually the case
when you are out with your net. We were just going to begin, for I know
your habits too well to give you more than a quarter of an hour's law.”
“I'm afraid I am horridly unpunctual,” Frank said, “and yet, mother, I
never go out without making up my mind that I will be in sharp to time.
But somehow there is always something which draws me away.”
“It makes no matter, Frank. If you are happy and amused I am content,
and if the tea is cold it is your loss, not ours. Now, my boy, as soon
as you have washed your hands we will have tea.”
It was a simple meal, thick slices of bread and butter and tea, for Mrs.
Hargate could only afford to put meat upon the table once a day, and
even for that several times in the week fish was substituted, when the
weather was fine and the fishing boats returned, when well laden. Frank
fortunately cared very little what he ate, and what was good enough for
his mother was good enough for him. In his father's lifetime things had
been different, but Captain Hargate had fallen in battle in New Zealand.
He had nothing besides his pay, and his wife and children had lived with
him in barracks until his regiment was ordered out to New Zealand, when
he had placed his wife in the little cottage she now occupied. He had
fallen in an attack on a Maori pah, a fortnight after landing in New
Zealand. He had always intended Frank to enter the military profession,
and had himself directed his education so long as he was at home.
The loss of his father had been a terrible blow for the boy, who had
been his constant companion when off duty. Captain Hargate had been
devoted to field sports and was an excellent naturalist. The latter
taste Frank had inherited from him. His father had brought home from
India--where the regiment had been stationed until it returned for its
turn of home service four years before he left New Zealand--a very large
quantity of skins of birds which he had shot there. These he had
stuffed and mounted, and so dexterous was he at the work, so natural
and artistic were the groups of birds, that he was enabled to add
considerably to his income by sending these up to the shop of a London
naturalist. He had instructed Frank in his methods, and had given him
one of the long blowguns used by some of the hill tribes in India. The
boy had attained such dexterity in its use that he was able with his
clay pellets to bring down sitting birds, however small, with almost
unerring accuracy.
These he stuffed and mounted, arranging them with a taste and skill
which delighted the few visitors at his mother's cottage.
Frank was ready to join in a game of football or cricket when wanted,
and could hold his own in either. But he vastly preferred to go out for
long walks with his blowgun, his net, and his collecting boxes. At home
every moment not required for the preparation of his lessons was spent
in mounting and arranging his captures. He was quite ready to follow
the course his father proposed for him, and to enter the army. Captain
Hargate had been a very gallant officer, and the despatches had spoken
most highly of the bravery with which he led his company into action in
the fight in which he lost his life. Therefore Mrs. Hargate hoped that
Frank would have little difficulty in obtaining a commission without
purchase when the time for his entering the army arrived.
Frank's desire for a military life was based chiefly upon the fact that
it would enable him to travel to many parts of the world, and to indulge
his taste for natural history to the fullest. He was but ten years
old when he left India with the regiment, but he had still a vivid
recollection of the lovely butterflies and bright birds of that country.
His father had been at pains to teach him that a student of natural
history must be more than a mere collector, and that like other sciences
it must be methodically studied. He possessed an excellent library of
books upon the subject, and although Frank might be ignorant of the name
of any bird or insect shown to him he could at once name the family and
species.
In the year which Frank had been at school at Dr. Parker's he had made
few intimate friends. His habits of solitary wandering and studious
indoor work had hindered his becoming the chum of any of his
schoolfellows, and this absence of intimacy had been increased by the
fact that the straitness of his mother's means prevented his inviting
any of his schoolfellows to his home. He had, indeed, brought one or two
of the boys, whose tastes lay in the direction of his own, to the house,
to show them his collections of birds and insects. But he declined their
invitations to visit them, as he was unable to return their hospitality,
and was too proud to eat and drink at other fellows' houses when he
could not ask them to do the same at his own. It was understood at Dr.
Parker's that Frank Hargate's people were poor, but it was known that
his father had been killed in battle. There are writers who depict
boys as worshipers of wealth, and many pictures have been drawn of the
slights and indignities to which boys, whose means are inferior to those
of their schoolfellows, are subject. I am happy to believe that this is
a libel. There are, it is true, toadies and tuft hunters among boys as
among men. That odious creature, the parasite of the Greek and Latin
plays, exists still, but I do not believe that a boy is one whit the
less liked, or is ever taunted with his poverty, provided he is a good
fellow. Most of the miseries endured by boys whose pocket money is less
abundant than that of their fellows are purely self inflicted. Boys and
men who are always on the lookout for slights will, of course, find what
they seek. But the lad who is not ashamed of what is no fault of his
own, who frankly and manfully says, “I can't afford it,” will not find
that he is in any way looked down upon by those of his schoolfellows
whose good opinion is in the smallest degree worth having.
Certainly this was so in the case of Frank Hargate. He was never in the
slightest degree ashamed of saying, “I can't afford it;” and the fact
that he was the son of an officer killed in battle gave him a standing
among the best in the school in spite of his want of pocket money.
Frank was friends with many of the fishermen, and these would often
bring him strange fish and sea creatures brought up in their nets,
instead of throwing them back into the sea.
During the holidays he would sometimes go out with them for twenty-four
hours in their fishing-boats. His mother made no objection to this, as
she thought that the exercise and sea air were good for his health, and
that the change did him good. Frank himself was so fond of the sea that
he was half disposed to adopt it instead of the army as a profession.
But his mother was strongly opposed to the idea, and won him to her way
of thinking by pointing out that although a sailor visits many ports he
stays long at none of them, and that in the few hours' leave he might
occasionally obtain he would be unable to carry out his favorite
pursuits.
“Hargate,” Ruthven, who was one of the oldest of the House boys, and
was about Frank's age, that is about fifteen years old, said a few days
after the match, “the Doctor has given Handcock and Jones and myself
leave to take a boat and go out this afternoon. We mean to start soon
after dinner, and shall take some lines and bait with us. We have got
leave till lockup, so we shall have a long afternoon of it. Will you
come with us?”
“Thank you, Ruthven,” Frank said; “I should like it very much, but you
know I'm short of pocket money, and I can't pay my share of the boat, so
I would rather leave it alone.”
“Oh, nonsense, Hargate!” Ruthven answered; “we know money is not your
strong point, but we really want you to go with us. You can manage a
boat better than any of us, and you will really oblige us if you will go
with us.”
“Oh, if you put it in that way,” Frank said, “I shall be glad to go
with you; but I do not think,” he went on, looking at the sky, “that the
weather looks very settled. However, if you do not mind the chance of a
ducking, I don't.”
“That's agreed then,” Ruthven said; “will you meet us near the pier at
three o'clock?”
“All right. I'll be punctual.”
At the appointed hour the four lads met on the beach. Ruthven and his
companions wanted to choose a light rowing boat, but Frank strongly
urged them to take a much larger and heavier one. “In the first place,”
he said, “the wind is blowing off shore, and although it's calm here
it will be rougher farther out; and, unless I'm mistaken, the wind is
getting up fast. Besides this it will be much more comfortable to fish
from a good sized boat.”
His comrades grumbled at the extra labor which the large boat would
entail in rowing. However, they finally gave in and the boat was
launched.
“Look out, Master Hargate,” the boatman said as they started; “you'd
best not go out too far, for the wind is freshening fast, and we shall
have, I think, a nasty night.”
The boys thought little of the warning, for the sky was bright and
blue, broken only by a few gauzy white clouds which streaked it here
and there. They rowed out about a mile, and then laying in their oars,
lowered their grapnel and began to fish. The sport was good. The fish
bit freely and were rapidly hauled on board. Even Frank was so absorbed
in the pursuit that he paid no attention to the changing aspect of the
sky, the increasing roughness of the sea, or the rapidly rising wind.
Suddenly a heavy drop or two of rain fell in the boat. All looked up.
“We are in for a squall,” Frank exclaimed, “and no mistake. I told you
you would get a ducking, Ruthven.”
He had scarcely spoken when the squall was upon them. A deluge of rain
swept down, driven by a strong squall of wind.
“Sit in the bottom of the boat,” Frank said; “this is a snorter.”
Not a word was said for ten minutes, long before which all were drenched
to the skin. With the rain a sudden darkness had fallen, and the land
was entirely invisible. Frank looked anxiously towards the shore. The
sea was getting up fast, and the boat tugging and straining at the
cord of the grapnel. He shook his head. “It looks very bad,” he said to
himself. “If this squall does not abate we are going to have a bad time
of it.”
A quarter of an hour after it commenced the heavy downpour of rain
ceased, or rather changed into a driving sleet. It was still extremely
dark, a thick lead colored cloud overspread the sky. Already the white
horses showed how fast the sea was rising, and the wind showed no signs
of falling with the cessation of the rain storm. The boat was laboring
at her head rope and dipping her nose heavily into the waves.
“Look here, you fellows,” Frank shouted, “we must take to the oars. If
the rope were a long one we might ride here, but you know it little more
than reached the ground when we threw it out. I believe she's dragging
already, and even if she isn't she would pull her head under water with
so short a rope when the sea gets up. We'd better get out the oars and
row to shore, if we can, before the sea gets worse.”
The lads got up and looked round, and their faces grew pale and somewhat
anxious as they saw how threatening was the aspect of the sea. They had
four oars on board, and these were soon in the water and the grapnel
hauled up. A few strokes sufficed to show them that with all four rowing
the boat's head could not be kept towards the shore, the wind taking it
and turning the boat broadside on.
“This will never do,” Frank said. “I will steer and you row, two oars on
one side and one on the other. I will take a spell presently.
“Row steadily, Ruthven,” he shouted; “don't spurt. We have a long row
before us and must not knock ourselves up at the beginning.”
For half an hour not a word was spoken beyond an occasional cheery
exhortation from Frank. The shore could be dimly seen at times through
the driving mist, and Frank's heart sank as he recognized the fact that
it was further off than it had been when they first began to row. The
wind was blowing a gale now, and, although but two miles from shore, the
sea was already rough for an open boat.
“Here, Ruthven, you take a spell now,” he said.
Although the rowers had from time to time glanced over their shoulders,
they could not, through the mist, form any idea of their position. When
Ruthven took the helm he exclaimed, “Good gracious, Frank! the shore is
hardly visible. We are being blown out to sea.”
“I am afraid we are,” Frank said; “but there is nothing to do but to
keep on rowing. The wind may lull or it may shift and give us a chance
of making for Ramsgate. The boat is a good sea boat, and may keep afloat
even if we are driven out to sea. Or if we are missed from shore they
may send the lifeboat out after us. That is our best chance.”
In another quarter of an hour Ruthven was ready to take another spell
at the oar. “I fear,” Frank shouted to him as he climbed over the seat,
“there is no chance whatever of making shore. All we've got to do is to
row steadily and keep her head dead to wind. Two of us will do for that.
You and I will row now, and let Handcock and Jones steer and rest by
turns. Then when we are done up they can take our places.”
In another hour it was quite dark, save for the gray light from the
foaming water around. The wind was blowing stronger than ever, and it
required the greatest care on the part of the steersman to keep her dead
in the eye of the wind. Handcock was steering now, and Jones lying at
the bottom of the boat, where he was sheltered, at least from the
wind. All the lads were plucky fellows and kept up a semblance of
good spirits, but all in their hearts knew that their position was a
desperate one.