Frank and Duncan spent a very happy evening indeed with their friend
Talbot.
Without the aid of wine either, which no one with youth on his side
should require to make him gay. But I do not mind telling you that the
old skipper himself had a drop of the "rosy" as he called it. And the
"rosy" meant rum, aromatic, and of great age.
Well, there was quite a deal to talk about; they told each other their
adventures, and they spoke also of their future prospects, and the
cruise of the _Flora M'Vayne_.
"She will be furnished and fitted complete," the captain said. "We
shall make sure enough of the sea elephants, but I'm going to tap a
whale or two also, if I don't find elephants enough. And, bother me,
Conal," he added, "I don't see any reason why you shouldn't write a book
about our cruise."
It was long past ten before the merry little meeting broke up. This
isn't late for land-lubbers, but with sailors it is different. "Early
to bed when on shore" is their motto.
----
It was early in August--only the first week, in fact--when the boys and
their captain found themselves back once more at Glenvoie. The colonel
had expressed a wish to run down with them, but he had to defer it,
owing to the surly way in which his liver asserted itself.
They found everything very much in the same state as when they left it,
only Florie was now fourteen, and far more demure.
It is Burns who says:
"In Heaven itself I'll ask nae mair,
Than just a Highland welcome".
And a true Highland welcome they had. There were no tears shed except
some of joy, which trickled over the somewhat pale cheeks of Mrs.
M'Vayne herself when she noted how manly her boys had grown.
Frank hadn't grown an inch. Nor did he want to. You do not require very
tall or leggy men as sailors. But the young fellow's heart was in the
right place, and he was even more full of genuine fun and humour than
ever.
But if we talk about a Highland welcome, what shall I term that which
poor Vike accorded to Duncan and Conal, and in a lesser degree to Frank.
Lucky it was that the meeting took place out-of-doors.
Had it been inside, this splendid Newfoundland would undoubtedly have
knocked down tables, and demolished crockery in his mad glee.
As it was, he contented himself with knocking first Duncan and then
Conal down, and licking their faces and hair as they lay, helpless, on
their backs.
Then, laughing down both sides, as it seemed, with white teeth flashing
and hair afloat behind him, he set out for a circular spin by way of
getting rid of his superfluous feelings. For the time being indeed he
had really resolved himself into a kind of hairy hurricane or tornado.
But he gradually became calmer, and when he entered the house at last,
where dinner was already laid, he threw himself down by Duncan's side
with a sort of sixty-pounder sigh, as much as to say:
"I'm the happiest dog in Scotland, for I thought I'd never, never see my
master again. And now that I have got him I mean to stick to him."
And he kept to that determination too, for nowhere would he sleep that
night except in the boys' room.
----
All the dear old rambles over moorland and mountain and through the dark
depths of the forest, were resumed next day, and kept up for over a
week. I do not mean to describe these happy days, for soon indeed must
we sail far, far away to wilder scenes, and our adventures will be more
exciting than any that ever our heroes had in the romantic Highlands.
Florie was still Frank's innocent little sweetheart. So he told her, at
all events, as he made her a present of a lovely locket with his own
portrait in it and a copy also of hers.
Not that Frank was proud of his phiz. Oh, no; for in fact no one would
have called him a real beauty, nor say his features were altogether
regular.
But he had eyes that sparkled with the radiance of health, and his face
changed in expression with almost every sentence he uttered.
He would have made an excellent actor. He had been told so more than
once, and his answer was: "Well, I shall turn an actor when all the seas
run dry".
And now having bidden farewell to Glenvoie, our heroes had to lie at
Dundee for a whole week finishing the fitting-out of the good ship
_Flora M'Vayne_. It was really a tiresome time, for the constant
arrivals of visitors to see the ship and the crew that were about to
embark on so long and so perilous a voyage was incessant all day long.
Nobody, therefore, was sorry to hear the last cheer that arose from an
assembled multitude, although it was a right kindly one, and though
prayers and blessings followed the barque.
That same evening they were far away from the eastern coast, for this
was a lee shore, and they were wise to have a good offing before making
direct for the south.
The barque might have been called somewhat clumsy, but nevertheless she
carried a splendid spread of canvas, and sailed remarkably close to the
wind.
Captain Talbot had told Duncan that he had made the _Flora M'Vayne_ as
sweet as a nut, and certainly he had done so. No one to walk her decks
could ever have guessed she had been a greasy, grimy blubber-hunter not
so long ago.
Why, everything on deck looked as bright and as clean as a brand-new
sovereign. The quarter-deck was as white as wheaten straw, the binnacle
was an ornament, that would have looked excellently well in the best of
drawing-rooms. The brass and hard-wood work were as bright as silver,
every rope's end was coiled on deck, as if the barque had been an
old-fashioned man-o'-war, and the men were all suitably dressed and
tidy. The bo's'n was a most particular man, and, although some men
chewed tobacco, to have expectorated anywhere on deck, would have been
an offence for which a rope's-ending would be well merited.
The galley was of the newest type; so, too, was the donkey engine, and
this would be used at sea when very far from land for the purpose of
condensing water.
All told, the mustered crew were eight-and-thirty. The men forward had
been picked by Talbot himself, and every one of them had been to the
Arctic regions more than once.
They were therefore good ice-men, and neither frost nor cold was likely
to have any terrors for them. Nor the great green waves of far southern
lands, that somehow always sing in the frosty air as they sweep past a
vessel's sides.
But there was something else on board which I should draw especial
attention to, and this was nothing less than a huge balloon. It was not
filled, of course, but the means to inflate it were all on board, and
having reached the great Antarctic ice-wall or barrier, the captain
meant to make an aerial voyage of discovery, farther to the south than
any traveller had ever been before.
There is nothing I love better than acts of daring and wild adventure,
and Talbot was certainly to be commended on this score.
His balloon was certainly not anything like the size of Andree's, yet it
was capable of rising and floating for an indefinite period with three
men, and provisions for as many months.
A special house had been built for this great uninflated balloon between
the fore and main masts, and on each side, bottom upwards, lay the
whalers, or boats with bows at each end, and steered by an oar only.
These were to be used in the fishery.
The ship's ballast was water-filled tanks, and tanks laden with coals.
But Talbot hoped to return to Scottish or English shores with ballast of
quite a different sort, and better paying--oil, to wit.
The _Flora M'Vayne_ was to touch nowhere on her voyage out until she
reached the Cape. That at least was the good skipper's intention, but
circumstances alter cases, as will presently be seen.
They had fine weather all the way till far past the dreaded Bay of
Biscay. On this occasion two boys in a dinghy might have crossed it.
But it is not to be supposed that they could go on for a very long time
without encountering what Jack calls dirty weather. And so when, in
about the latitude of Lisbon, and to the east of the Azores, it came on
to blow, no one was a bit surprised.
"We'll have a gale, mate," said the captain; "but though abeam, or
rather on the bow, we have plenty of sea-room; and on the whole I
sha'n't be sorry, for I really want to see how the _Flora_ behaves."
The wind, even as he spoke, began to roar more wildly through the
rigging, but in gusts or squalls, that at times rose for a few minutes
to almost hurricane pitch.
Before the storm had come on many beautiful gulls had been screaming
around the barque and diving for morsels of food that Frank was throwing
to them, but now they disappeared. Back they flew to the rocks that
frown over the waters of their sea-girt homes. Little dark chips of
stormy petrels, however, continued to dash from wave-top to wave-top,
and for once in a way, they brought tempest.
But the ship was now eased, for the lurid sun was setting, and a dark
and moonless night must follow. The men were hardly down from aloft when
the storm seemed to increase, but it blew more steadily, so she was kept
away a point or two, and now went dancing over the heavy seas as if she
imagined she was the best clipper ever built.
A little heavy-headed she proved, however, so that she shipped a good
deal of water over the bows, otherwise the thumping, thudding, buffeting
waves seemed to make not the slightest impression on her.
The chief cabin or dining-saloon was down below, there being no poop,
but a flush-deck all along. Both Frank and Duncan were off duty, and,
seated in this small but comfortable saloon, the former could not help
remarking on the strange feeling and sound of each heavy wave that
struck the ship abeam. She appeared to be hit by a huge, soft
boxing-glove, about a thousand times as large as any we ever use.
Immediately after there was the whishing sound of water on the deck, but
although the vessel was heeled over somewhat by every awful blow, she
took no other notice.
"Batter away, old Neptune," the barque seemed to say; "it amuses you,
and it doesn't hurt me in the slightest."
About two bells in the first watch, Talbot came below, and supper was
ordered.
His face was radiant, but shining with wet. The steward, however,
assisted him out of his oil-skins and sou'wester, then, having wiped his
face with his pocket-handkerchief, he sat down.
"Well," said Duncan, "Frank and I are waiting to hear the verdict."
"Why, it is this," said the skipper. "The barque is a duck, and well
deserves the name of _Flora M'Vayne_. I don't believe a hurricane could
hurt her, and she'll chuck the small icebergs on one side of her as I
should chuck a cricket-ball. And ain't I hungry just. Sit in, boys.
It's all night in with you lads, isn't it?"
"Not quite," said Duncan. "I kept the last dog-watch, and don't go on
again till four."
Viking got up and seated himself by his well-beloved master's side.
He licked Duncan's hand, as much as to say, "When you go on deck so
shall I."
But his master seemed to divine his thoughts.
"No, my good dog," he said, "you must stay below to-night, else the seas
would sweep you off, and what should I do then?"
After supper Frank got out his fiddle and played for fully half an hour,
then he and Duncan, who both occupied the same state-room, retired.
As a sailor always sleeps most soundly when the wind blows high, and he
is really "rock'd in the cradle of the deep", it is almost unnecessary
to say that these lads dropped soundly off almost as soon as their heads
touched the pillows.
Nor did they awake until eight bells at the end of the darksome middle
watch, when Conal came down to call them.
"Oil-skins, Conal?"
"Ay, Duncan, and you'll need them too. Better lock Vike in your cabin."
"That is what I mean to do."
Poor Viking did not half like it though. There is no dog in the world
makes a better sailor's companion when far away at sea than a
Newfoundland, and I speak from experience. But such dogs do not
appreciate danger sufficiently high, nor have they good enough sea-legs
to face a storm and walk the deck of a heaving ship. Therefore they
often get washed into the lee scuppers.
On the present occasion Vike made up his mind to be as naughty a dog as
he could.
"I shall wake the skipper," he told Duncan, speaking through the
key-hole as it were. "Wowff!" he barked. "Wowff! wowff! What do you
think of that?"
Well, the sound could certainly be heard high over the roaring of the
wind and the dash of angry waves.
The captain heard it in his dreams; but it takes more than the barking
of a dog to awake a sailor born. So Talbot just hitched himself round,
and went off to sleep on the other tack.
By breakfast time both wind and sea had gone down, and there was every
expectation of fine weather once again.
"No damage done is there, mate?" said Talbot to Morgan.
"No, sir, nothing worth speaking about. Some of the coal tanks got a
drop o' water in them, that's all."
"Well, that will make them last the longer. But, mind you, Morgan, I'm
rather pleased than otherwise that we've had that blow."
"So am I."
"It just shows what the barque can do."
"That's it. If she is as good against the ice as she is against a
sea-way, then, by my song, sir, she'll take us safely to the Antarctic,
and just as safely back home again. Pass the sugar, sir."