Cutlass and Cudgel, by George Manville Fenn.
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In some ways this book is reminiscent of "The Lost Middy", by the same
author, but I suppose that with a similar theme, a nosey midshipman
taken prisoner by a gang of smugglers, there are bound to be other
points of similarity. Anyway, it is a good fast-moving story, with
lots of well-drawn human interest.
It starts off with a comic scene, where the Excise patrol vessel is
cruising near an area suspected of being heavily involved with
smuggling. Suddenly a large object is seen swimming in the water, and it
turns out to be a cow. Then there's all the business of milking the cow
on the deck of a sailing-vessel. Pretty soon, however it gets serious,
and we meet various characters living nearby. Soon the inquisitive
midshipman is taken prisoner, and it falls to another teenager, the son
of one of the chief rogues, to bring him food. Both boys become
friendly with each other, but the midshipman can only express it by
appearing to hate the farm-fisher boy, whom he considers to be socially
far beneath him. The farm-boy tries so hard to be kind to the
midshipman, who is so rude in return.
Eventually the midshipman escapes, the smugglers are caught, and the
farm-boy becomes a seaman on the Excise vessel.
NH
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