Facing a Difficulty
"Here you are, my lad," said the sergeant, when he brought the news of
the impending change to Owen. "A good friend we have both got, that I
can tell you, for ever since the fight, when I stuck up for you and beat
that ruffian, this Mr. Benjamin has never forgotten us. What's he done
for me?"
He put the question to the youthful corporal, who stood at attention
before him, as if he expected the lad to be able to answer. Then he
struck the calf of his leg a sounding thwack with his cane and gave the
information which he had asked for.
"Of course you wouldn't know," he said, "because I was told not to say.
But I can speak now, and you had best listen. It's this. Mr. Benjamin
has no children of his own, as you know, and ever since he heard the
tale of your being found, he has looked after your education as if you
were his son. 'Let him rough it,' is what he said to me. 'Let him fight
his own battles and find his own place. He's well able to do that.' And
that, lad, is why I have never interfered. That is why you fought young
Jackson with never a word from me, and took your licking handsomely.
Yes, yes, I know," he went on, as Owen was about to interrupt, "he was a
bully, and I knew that well. You had to knuckle under, and did so for a
time."
"Till I was bigger and stronger, sergeant. Then----"
"You gave him the drubbing he had been asking for so long. That's what
comes of not interfering. Things levelled themselves. You were beaten at
first, and the fellow never allowed you to forget your hiding. If you'd
been a meek kind of lad, he'd have crowed it over you for ever. But
you've a little pride, my boy, and you waited till you were able to take
him in hand again. That wasn't long either, though he's two stone
heavier than you are, and taller by half a head. But you've had
training, and that's the secret, if only you happen to have pluck as
well. But I am getting away from my yarn."
"You were about to tell me what Mr. Halbut has done for you and for me,
sir," said Owen.
"Ah, yes, I was. Well, he took a fancy to me and to you, and he put me
in charge of you, as it were. 'I could take him in hand at once, and
have him sent to a good school,' he said to me when first we talked it
over, 'but I won't. The lad shall rise from a rougher school. Teach him
manners, sergeant. Let him see that a lad with respect for his elders
will get on, and, above all, turn him out a man. When the time comes I
will take him in hand myself, and I have a place for him already decided
on.' That's what he's done. Every quarter I have received a handsome sum
from him for my work, and, my lad, let him see that I have earned it.
He knows that you can hold your own with others here, and that there
isn't another lad in the regiment who can handle the gloves as you can,
or who can use a weapon with the science that you have learned. Let him
see that there's more. They call you the gentleman corporal here. Let
Mr. Halbut see that they have reason for that."
"I will, sergeant," answered Owen earnestly. "As you say, I have learned
a lot since I came to the regiment, and thanks to your teaching I shall
have no fear, but a great deal of confidence, should it ever come to my
lot to take part in a hand-to-hand contest. And that I hope to have the
fortune to do before very long, or else what's the good of being a
soldier?"
"You're likely to meet with that in other walks of life," was the
answer. "Soldiering isn't everything, and you'll learn that Mr. Halbut
thinks so too."
"At any rate I have learned the use of my fists and other weapons," went
on Owen, "and thanks to the opportunities which have been given me I
believe my manners are a little different from those of the other
fellows. I don't say that boastfully, sergeant. It is a fact, I
believe."
"And you've to thank Mr. Tasker for that," was the sergeant's comment.
"He took up the work willingly, and he's done well. He himself says he
is more than pleased."
Mr. Tasker was a gentleman who lived in a small house in the town, and
who had once been the principal of a school for the sons of gentlemen.
He had, owing to ill-health, to give up his school, and had eagerly
undertaken to educate Owen Jones whenever his duties would allow him to
attend at his house. And so, at the direction of Mr. Halbut, Owen had
spent a couple of hours with Mr. Tasker every day, and it was thanks to
the teaching of this quiet and courtly gentleman that the young corporal
of the 64th had a polish about him which was lacking in his comrades.
"It will all help you to take the place Mr. Halbut has selected for
you," said the sergeant. "You know he's one of the powerful directors of
the East India Company--John Company as it's often called. As such he is
able to find a place for any protégé, and he is sending you out to India
by the next boat to take a commission in the native horse or infantry.
There, lad, that's the news, and you can get further particulars from
him yourself. You'll be formally discharged from the regiment to-morrow,
and will go to London at the end of the week. After that I fancy you'll
have a day or more to prepare for the passage out."
The news came as a great surprise to Owen, for he had never even
imagined that he would rise to the commissioned ranks, and the statement
that he was now to prepare to sail for India, there to join a regiment
as an ensign, filled him with huge excitement and delight. The prospect
of going to India at all was sufficiently pleasant, for the older he got
the more had he cogitated over the mystery of his birth, and the more
sure had he become that his recollection of early events was correct,
and that he had actually been born abroad, in India most likely, and had
been sent home for some reason.
"And promptly abducted and left on the road," he had often said to
himself. "Some one must have had a huge interest in getting rid of me,
and he did it effectually. However, if Mr. Halbut has been unsuccessful
in tracing the mystery so far, I may have better fortune and succeed in
the end."
"Now, lad, we'll get to work, if you please," said the sergeant, with a
pretence to be light-hearted, though the gallant fellow felt no great
joy at the prospect of separation from Owen.
"He's been like a son to me," he often said to his friends. "He's as
true as possible, and as game to learn as one could wish. And see what
I've made of him! A pluckier youngster does not exist, and no one can
call him conceited."
And now he was to part with Owen. The sergeant was an unmarried man, a
rarity in the service in those days, as in these, for he was now forty
years of age, and he knew well that he would miss the young fellow.
However, he was a sensible man, far better educated than the majority of
his rank, and he saw that the new move would be advantageous to Owen.
"We've a deal to do, Owen," he said. "There are the clothes to be got
ready, for instance. Your uniform will be made in India, but you are to
have some sort of undress to wear on the ship. I have instructions to
take you to the best tailor in the town."
Two days later our hero said good-bye to all his old comrades and
walked out of the barrack square, feeling sad at heart at the parting.
There was a big lump in his throat as he passed through the gate and
looked back to the sentry, and for a few moments he longed to return,
and would have almost sacrificed his prospects in India for the old
life. Then he threw off the feeling, and as the sergeant tucked his cane
under his arm and commenced to whistle Owen fell in beside him, his head
in air, and joined in the tune bravely, though it was as much as his
trembling lips could do.
"A good heart is nothing to be ashamed of, lad," said the sergeant
heartily, some minutes later, as they walked into the town. "You're all
the better for remembering old friends, and parting with them in sorrow.
The day will come, never fear, when you'll look back to these times with
the old 64th as the jolliest and happiest days in your life, perhaps,
and you'll think of the times we've had, of the parades, when we've
fallen in together, and of the boxing bouts at the back of the barracks.
But here we are. From Mr. Benjamin Halbut, sir."
The tailor showed unusual interest when he heard the name, and at once
commenced to take Owen's measurements. Then he wrote down a list of
clothing, including boots, hats, and under-things, which he considered
necessary, till Owen was ashamed to think that his kind friend would
have to pay for them. However, Mr. Halbut had given directions, and
there was an end of the matter. A week later, when Owen mounted the
stagecoach and took his place for London, he appeared as an altogether
different individual. He was dressed in the undress uniform of an
ensign, and very smart and gentlemanly he looked, too. Nor had those who
had looked to his upbringing any need to be ashamed of him. Old Mrs.
Towers had wept that very morning when he went to take farewell of her.
"I always thought that you were a gentleman, Owen Jones," she said, as
she mopped her eyes with her apron, "and here you are, as fine a young
fellow as ever I saw. Well, well, to be sure, but the strangest things
happen."
Having given vent to this ambiguous statement she hugged Owen very
heartily, and then plumped down in her chair, with her apron thrown over
her face to hide her tears.
Five hours after leaving Winchester the coach rattled over the cobbles
of the London streets, and for the very first time in his life Owen saw
the great city, with its thronging population, its huge buildings, its
endless rows of houses and streets, and its vast army of coaches and
flies. What would his amazement have been could he have seen the London
of to-day, extending its arms like a gigantic octopus in every
direction, absorbing the country around; its teeming millions, each bent
on his or her own business or pleasure, going to and fro through the
vast widened streets, or being carried there in swift mechanically
propelled vehicles! What if he could have imagined that the horse would
one of these days become almost a rarity in the streets of Mighty
London!
But he had little time for thoughts. He descended from the coach at the
Half Moon, in the Borough, and took a fly to Chelsea, where Mr. Halbut
lived. A week later he was aboard one of the East Indiamen, bound for
India, with the coast of England fast fading from sight.
"Here are letters which you will present when you arrive at Calcutta,"
Mr. Halbut had said to him as he was about to depart. "You will go to
see the Governor, and you will be gazetted to one of the native
regiments. On the way out you will apply yourself to such matters as Mr.
Parkins, who sails with you, shall decide, and I need hardly urge you to
work hard. Your progress in the future must depend on yourself. I will
help no one who will not help himself."
Owen made up his mind to do credit to his friend, and once he had
settled down on the ship, and had overcome his first attack of
sea-sickness, he began the close study of Hindustani.
"You will find it invaluable," said Mr. Parkins, a gentleman of middle
age, a servant of the great John Company, who was returning to India
from leave. "When I first went to India I found myself constantly
hampered by my ignorance, and, in fact, did not rise as quickly as I
might have done. We shall take three months to reach Calcutta, and by
then you should have made fine progress."
To Owen's amazement, and to the delight of Mr. Parkins, he made even
more rapid advancement than could have been expected. The language came
to him not so much as an entirely strange tongue, but as one which he
had partially known before, and which he had forgotten.
"Which proves Mr. Halbut's assertion that you have been in India, and
were born there," said Mr. Parkins. "No one else could pick up
Hindustani so rapidly. We have been at our studies for barely three
weeks, and here you are able to converse a little. Now I will give you a
piece of advice. There are numbers of natives amongst this crew, and if
I were you I would spend some time amongst them every day, chatting with
them. Perhaps you will find one who is a little more intelligent than
his fellows, and from him you may be able to learn some dialect which is
not very different from the language you are studying, but which may be
of very great advantage to you."
Owen took the advice seriously, and thereafter went every morning
forward to the quarters of the crew. Nor was it long before he came upon
one of the men who was of very different character from his comrades. He
could speak English tolerably, and soon told his story.
"I am not like these other lascars, who are men of low caste," he said,
with every sign of disdain. "I come from Bhurtpore, and am a Mahratta by
birth. There I lived with my father till ten years ago, when I fled for
my life. It is a little tale, which is of no great interest, sahib, but
here it is. It happened that there was a girl, the daughter of a
neighbouring farmer, to whom I was to be married, and should have been
but for my half-brother. He acted like a cur. He stole her from me, and
then killed her with his cruelty. In a fit of rage one day I slew him,
and fled from the punishment which would have followed. That is why I am
here now. Some day, perhaps, I shall return to my home."
"And in the meanwhile I want you to talk to me every day, Mulha,"
answered Owen. "One of these days I may find it useful, and if you have
the time to spare I shall be glad. I will pay you a rupee a week for the
service."
"I gladly accept, sahib," was the answer.
Thereafter Owen spent many hours forward in the early morning, while in
the later part of the day he and Mr. Parkins tramped the narrow deck, or
lay under the awnings, talking in Hindustani, till our hero was really
very proficient.
"You are remembering my rules well," said his instructor, when they had
been at sea for six weeks. "After the first week I said that whenever
you spoke to me out of the saloon it must be in Hindustani. If you
forgot, you were fined a trifle, which went to the box set aside for the
help of the sailors' orphans. There is nothing like a penalty to make
one sharp of memory, and the result is that you have got on even more
rapidly. When you land you will be able to take up your duties at once.
That will be an eye-opener to the authorities, who generally allow six
months for learning the language."
Altogether Owen enjoyed his trip out immensely. He was a steady young
fellow, and he had set out with keen determination to get on. His work
made the hours run away, while to the numerous other young fellows
going out time hung on their hands, till they became quarrelsome and
discontented. And it so happened that amongst these youths, some of whom
were to take up commissions like his own, while others were going out as
clerks to the East India Company, was a young man, some twenty years of
age, who seemed to have taken a great dislike to our hero. He had
quickly asserted his position as the leader of all the young men aboard,
and when he found that Owen took little notice of him, and was so busy
that he had little time to spare for his company, he commenced upon an
irritating course intended to humiliate our hero. Every time Owen passed
him and his comrades he would make some loud remark, and finally came to
openly scoffing. Owen stood it for a long while till his patience was
exhausted, then he turned upon the bully.
"You spoke of me, I think," he said suddenly, swinging round and
approaching the group, whom he had been about to pass on his way to the
lower deck. "Repeat what you said."
"Certainly, with the greatest pleasure. I said that it was bad form for
an ensign to spend his time with the deck-hands and the lascars, and
that it was only to be expected from one who I happen to know was a
corporal some few weeks ago, and who, in his earlier days, came from a
poorhouse. That's what I said, and I know I'm right, for Dandy here
happens to come from the neighbourhood of Winchester."
"And recognised you at once," burst in that worthy from the background.
"Which is all the more flattering to me," answered Owen calmly, though
it was as much as he could do to curb his anger. "I freely admit the
truth of what has been said. I have come from a poorhouse, and I was a
corporal. But as to the bad form, well, I hardly fancy one would go to
Mr. Hargreaves for a decision on that matter."
He looked the bully squarely in the face, while the latter flushed red.
Perhaps there was very good reason. It may have been that his own
antecedents were not of the best. He became flurried, and began to
bluster.
"You wouldn't!" he exclaimed. "Why? If you're impertinent I shall have
something more to say."
"You will have more to say in any case," blurted out Owen, now letting
himself go. "For days you have openly scoffed at me, Mr. Hargreaves, and
now you have to stop promptly. You talk of impertinence after what you
have said! I reply that I am proud of what I have been in the past, and
that if the truth were known it is possible that you who crow so loud,
and are so ready to sit upon one who is new to the position of officer,
would not have such a fine tale to tell."
Whether the shot went home it would be impossible to state, but
something stung the bully to the quick. He started forward, and stepping
to within a foot of Owen stared into his face and challenged him to
repeat the statement. Owen complied by instantly knocking him down with
a blow between the eyes. Then he calmly divested himself of his coat and
neckerchief, while the bully and a few of his companions stood about
him in a threatening attitude.
"Steady on there! We'll have the matter settled squarely, gentlemen.
From what I have seen--and I have had my eyes and ears open--Mr. Jones
here has been very studious, while you others have been hanging about
doing nothing. Mr. Hargreaves has considered himself a much finer
individual than our young friend Mr. Jones, and he has not been over
pleasant. Oh yes, it is useless to deny that. I have seen it. We have
all seen, and we have wondered how long our studious friend would put up
with such treatment. Now he has brought the thing to a head he shall
have fair play. Remember, we are Englishmen, and fair play is
everything."
The group swung round to find that a passenger of some forty years of
age, a gentleman known to be of some importance, and therefore to be
duly respected, had suddenly come amongst them. The threatening looks of
a few of Hargreaves' partisans at once vanished.
"Fair play, you understand," said the newcomer. "I will not interfere,
but I am sure there are some here who will take Mr. Jones's part."
He was right there, for not all aboard the ship were of Hargreaves' way
of thinking. There were some of the young men going out to the army or
as clerks who secretly or openly admired Owen because of the efforts he
was making; and now that they had heard him so candidly acknowledge his
former position, and the fact that he had come from a poorhouse, they
admired him the more, and came forward to support him at once.
"I'll hold your coat, Jones," said one of them, a young man of nineteen.
"By Jove! it was pluckily done. I have often thought it was a shame to
treat you so badly, and I think you have shown pluck. Give me your
things and I'll look after you."
"Then I am ready," said Owen promptly. "Thank you, Simpson, I shall be
glad if you will act as second. Now, Mr. Hargreaves, I am ready to give
you satisfaction for the blow I have dealt you."
"And I shall take it to the full," was the surly answer. "If we had been
in India I would have called you out with a pistol, I can tell you; but
here we shall have to fight it out with fists."
"Either would please me," answered Owen calmly, knowing well that his
practice already with pistols under the tuition of the sergeant would
act in his favour. Still, he had a horror of bloodshed, and far
preferred to have matters as they were. But in those days an insult or
an injury meant inevitably a duel.
"Then we will go to the lower deck," said Simpson, leading the way.
The group made their way down the companions to the lower deck, where
they found that a number of sailors had already collected. A couple of
midshipmen, of the East India service, were also there, and in one
corner Owen caught sight of his Mahratta friend.
"I'll bet yer a pound of bacca on the little 'un," growled one of the
sailors, as he leaned against a bulkhead. "He'll fight as he works, and
blest if he ain't a glutton for work. See 'im a learnin' the lingo from
this darkie here, when he might be takin' it easy on deck."
"Done with yer," was the answer. "It'll be a toss up. This is a-goin'
ter be a fight."
Evidently others were of the same opinion, for the news had already
spread through the ship, and while those in authority purposely kept out
of the way, others, whose official duties could not interfere, found
their way to the lower deck to watch the encounter. For Hargreaves had
given umbrage all round. His high-handedness, his want of respect for
men older than himself, and his treatment of Owen Jones, had won him
many enemies. They came, therefore, hoping to see him worsted, but
fearing the reverse.
"I'll give you a chance to take back what you have said and apologise
for the blow," said Hargreaves, as, divested of his coat and
neckerchief, and with sleeves rolled to the elbow, he entered the circle
formed between the supporting bulkheads.
Owen hardly deigned to reply. After his long practice with the sergeant
he felt the greatest confidence in himself, and was not afraid of the
superior weight or height of his antagonist. But there was more reason
than that why he should fight. He was never a quarrelsome fellow, and
this trouble had been forced upon him. If he were to back out now the
tale of his having been a pauper would hang to him all his life, and
Hargreaves and his friends would have occasion for many a sneer. No, it
was essentially a time for blows. As his opponent spoke Owen walked
calmly into the centre of the square and rolled his sleeves to a
nicety. Then he put up his fists in a manner which showed that it was
not for the first time, and faced his antagonist.
"It is your quarrel," he said quietly, "and I am the one who has
suffered. We will fight, if you please."
"Bravo, bravo, young 'un!" shouted one of the sailors in the background.
"Then look to yourself," cried Hargreaves, as he swung his fists. "I'll
show you whether a youngster from the poorhouse can do as he likes
aboard ship."
He came at our hero warily, for there was something about the latter's
attitude which spoke of good training in the art of self-defence. Then,
as Owen did nothing more than keep him at a distance, he mistook his
caution for fear and temerity. He rushed in with big swinging blows,
only to retire with stars flashing before his eyes, and a severely cut
lip. After that he lost his temper, and for a time Owen had his hands
very full. Twice he was caught by a rush and knocked to the ground. But
he was on his feet in a moment, facing Hargreaves. When four rounds had
been fought the latter was almost exhausted, while his younger and more
active antagonist was comparatively fresh.
"You have him now," said Simpson, as Owen sat at his corner waiting for
the call of time. "Go in and win this time. Give him a good beating, and
you will never need to fear trouble from any one again."
Our hero followed the instructions to the letter. Hitherto he had
allowed his opponent to prance round him, and had only struck when he
was sure of being able to reach his antagonist. But now he closed with
him, and for a minute beat him round and round the circle, getting in
beneath his guard and finally sending him with a crash amidst the
audience.
"Time!" shouted Simpson. "Dandy, is your man beaten? Does he give in?"
There was a sulky nod from the other side, and then a roar of cheering
which could be heard on the upper deck. Owen rose from his seat, wiped
his face with a towel, and went across to his enemy.
"We have had a fair fight and I have won," he said in friendly tones.
"You did not understand me before, and perhaps I did not like you. Let
this settle our differences, and be friends."
There was another shout at that, while Hargreaves lifted his head and
smiled. At heart he was a very good fellow, and he was man enough to own
that he was beaten.
"I behaved badly, Jones," he said, "and you have beaten me handsomely
for my treatment of you. I apologise for what I have done, and I will
gladly be friends."
They shook hands, and then went off to their cabins to clean themselves
and remove all traces of the combat. And that evening Owen once more
took up his Hindustani, as if nothing out of the way had occurred. But
he had made his place in the ship and amongst his comrades, and the tale
of his prowess and of his pluck was bound to reach India and there act
in his favour. More than that, an inkling of his history, of the
mystery hanging about his birth, of his friend, the powerful director of
the Company, leaked out, and the discussion which followed raised him
vastly in the estimation of all on board. They found it a fine thing to
follow his example, and that week quite a number set themselves to make
the most of their opportunities and to learn the language. However, they
had very little time before them, for within a few days the even tenor
of the voyage was rudely upset, and the passengers and crew found
themselves face to face with a difficulty and danger which none had
foreseen.