MR. MOLE'S TROUBLES AGAIN--AN ADVENTURE WITH NERO--LAND HO!--THE
FIRST VIEW OF AUSTRALIA.
Let us draw the curtain.
The particulars given in the preceding chapter must be as unpleasant to
the readers as they were to Harkaway, to Jefferson, to Dick Harvey, and
beyond all to Harry Girdwood and young Jack.
They are not agreeable matters to relate, and we gladly draw the veil
upon such a scene.
Once in the care of Doctor Anderson, the prisoner was tended carefully,
and the doctor's best skill was employed in bringing him back to
health.
But his convalescence was a long time in being brought about, for not
only was he cruelly maimed, but, to use the doctor's own expression--
"The scourge had knocked him to bits in health generally."
* * * * *
"What a capital sailor old Nero makes, Harry."
"Splendid."
"He only wants to know how to chew."
"And take grog like old Mole."
"True, and then he'd be an out-and-out sailor."
These words were part of a conversation which our two young comrades
were indulging in one afternoon towards sun-down as they walked to and
fro on deck.
They had rigged Nero out in full nautical costume, and taught him
several sailor tricks of manner.
He hitched up his inexpressibles with a jerk that the late T. P. Cooke
might have made studies from.
And his bow and scrape, although more like a stage sailor than the real
thing itself, were ticked off so admirably, that you expected him to
start off into a rattling hornpipe.
But perhaps the greatest treat of all was to see him pretending to take
observations through a telescope.
"Nero," cried young Jack.
The monkey ran up at the word.
"Give us your arm, Nero."
And so drawing a paw under each of their arms, they promenaded the
deck, these three young monkeys together, to the great amusement and
delight of the sailors generally.
"Why, Joe!" said Sam Mason, "he looks as great a swell as the port
admiral."
"Port admiral! As the first lord himself."
"Do you know, Joe, that Billy Longbow had a monkey once as would--"
"Now for a yarn."
"No, this is a born fact," persisted Sam Mason, stoutly. "Billy Longbow
had a monkey on board ship as used to mock the bos'en, and one day when
he see the bos'en take out his rattan to larrup one of the powder
monkeys, Jocko went for to give the bos'en one for hisself."
"By way of protecting one of his own species, I s'pose," suggested Joe.
"Perhaps. Well, he felt in all his pockets for a rattan, and he
happened to get hold of the tip of his tail. Now he seed the bos'en
lugging hard to get the rattan out of his pocket, for it had got
entangled with the lanyard of his jack-knife, and so Jocko tugs
precious hard at his tail, presuming it to be a rattan likewise, I
s'pose, and, by Jove, if he doesn't pull it right out."
"Come, now," cried Joe Basalt, with a grunt, "I ain't agoing to swaller
that tale."
"It's a fact. Billy Longbow was the most truthful pal I ever had--out
came his nether rattan."
"Well, what next?"
"Nothing next," answered Sam Mason, with a sly look. "That was the end
of Jocko's tail, and it's the end of mine too."
Now while they were engaged in listening to Sam Mason's Billy Longbow
anecdote, they saw Mr. Mole come out of the deck saloon, where he had
been dozing.
He walked up the deck with a certain apparent unsteadiness of gait.
"Old Mole is half seas over," said Harry Girdwood.
"I'll tell you what. Wouldn't it be a lark if we could get him to strut
up and down with Nero, without knowing it?"
"That's more easily said than done, I imagine."
"Wait and see."
They crept back out of sight as Mr. Mole passed along. Then, having
made a hurried whispered consultation, young Jack stepped forth alone
and tackled Mr. Mole.
"Taking the air, sir?"
"Yes, Jack--hiccup--yes, my dear boy, and I have come to look out for
land."
"Land?"
"Yes."
"Are we near?"
"Sho--sho--I mean so--I shpose--s'pose--"
Mr. Mole was conscious of his speech being a little bit thick, and he
hastened to add that he was suffering from toothache.
"My mouth ish sho shwollen--swollen, I mean--that I can hardly
sp--speak plainly," he said.
"Dear me! how shocking!" exclaimed young Jack.
Slipping his arm under Mr. Mole's they walked up and down talking.
Meanwhile, young Jack tipped the wink to Harry Girdwood, who slipped
out of his hiding-place with Nero, and followed Mole and Jack along the
deck.
Young Jack chose his opportunity well, and drawing his arm out of Mr.
Mole's he pushed Nero's in its place.
Mr. Mole, all unconscious of the change in his companion, strutted
along, chattering away, secretly pleased at having such an excellent
listener by his side.
"It'sh really pleasure to talk to you, my dear boy," he said.
"You un--stand with half a word--and I enjoy--a
conservation--conserva--singular thing--I can't say conservashun. I
enjoy--a talk--an intellectshul chat more with you than sitting down
to wine with Jeffershon and Harvey, and your dear father. Good
fellarsh--jolly good fellarsh--only too fond of sitting over wine.
Shocking habit--shpending hours in getting tipshy--hiccup!"
* * * * *
Now, while Mr. Mole poured out his philosophical reflections into
Nero's ear, Harry Gridwood went and fetched Harvey; old Jack and
Jefferson.
Young Jack stepped back to the door of the deck saloon, and sat down
while Mole turned round and hobbled up the deck again, with Nero still
leaning upon his arm.
As the old gentleman came up to where they all stood, they could hear
him still laying down the law to Nero.
"Yesh, Jack, my dear boy," he was saying, "wine'sh a jolly good
thing--to be ushed and not abushed. Blow my toothache--toothache--so
very dericulous--don't know what I'm shaying."
Mr. Mole winked and blinked like an owl in daylight.
"Jack."
"Sir."
"Whash the devil--Jack!"
He started in utter amazement.
"Yes, sir."
"Why, Mr. Mole," said Harvey, suddenly popping out of the cabin,
followed by Jefferson and old Jack, "what on earth are you walking up
and down with him for?"
"Who?"
Before another word could be spoken, Nero, on a secret sign from his
young master, took off his tarpaulin hat, and dabbed it on Mr. Mole's
head.
Mole turned suddenly round upon his companion.
"Nero--the devil fly away with you, you beast!"
He made a dash at the monkey; but the latter was up in the shrouds and
out of danger in the twingling of an eye.
* * * * *
"Land ho!"
"Which way?"
"Due south."
Harkaway had a glass up in a crack.
"That's right," he said. "Gentlemen all, allow me to introduce you to
Australia."