The remainder of Dick Maitland's time in England was pretty fully
occupied in comforting and encouraging his mother, in view of the
pending separation, and in getting his somewhat slender wardrobe ready
and packed for the voyage. The first-mentioned part of his task proved
very much more difficult than the other, for Mrs Maitland was rather a
helpless kind of person, and had already come to look to Dick for advice
and help in every sort of difficulty, whether great or small; the
prospect, therefore, of being henceforth obliged to look after herself
and manage her affairs unaided filled her at first with dismay.
Besides, there was the separation from her son, the feeling that she
knew not whether she would ever again set eyes on him in this world, and
the terrible uncertainty generally of the future, to further distract
her; but at length the buoyancy and unquenchable hopefulness of Dick's
spirit had its effect upon her; and, finally, when the moment of parting
came, she had been brought to a frame of mind that enabled her to say
the last words of farewell almost with calmness. As for Dick, he had
already received Humphreys' assurance that he would keep in touch with
Mrs Maitland, and see, in conjunction with his friend Graham, the
solicitor, that she came to no harm; therefore he had few fears for her
immediate future; while, for the rest, he was confident that before his
mother's little capital became exhausted he would have found means to
replenish it. He spent with her the remainder of the day upon which he
had interviewed the skipper of the _Concordia_, and practically the
whole of that which succeeded it, finally bidding her farewell about six
o'clock in the evening, in order that he might spend the remainder of
the day with Humphreys, with whom he had still much of importance to
discuss.
Upon Dick's return to Number 19 Paradise Street he found the genial
Doctor so busily engaged in dispensing drugs and advice that the two had
time for little more than a mutual nod of greeting; but later on, when
the last patient had departed and business had been brought to a close
for the night, they sat down together for a chat over a cup of coffee
and--so far as Humphreys was concerned--a pipe. Dick had not yet taken
to tobacco, and Humphreys, although an inveterate smoker himself, so far
from urging his young friend to adopt the habit, had strongly dissuaded
him from having anything to do with the weed, at least until he had
reached his twenty-first birthday, learnedly descanting upon the
injurious effects of nicotine upon the immature constitution, and
incidentally warning him to eschew narcotics generally, which, he
insisted, were always injurious, and only to be resorted to, even
medically, when it became a choice between a narcotic and some greater
evil.
"Well, my boy," remarked the Doctor, when they were at length
comfortably settled in their respective chairs, "so you have parted with
your mother. I hope you were able to cheer the poor lady and reconcile
her to the separation. It is of course very hard upon her that at her
time of life she should be left absolutely alone, but necessity is a
pitiless jade, exacting her tribute of sorrow and suffering from all
alike, from the monarch to the pauper, and when she lays her hand upon
us there is no escape. But do not allow anxiety on behalf of your dear
mother to worry you for a moment, lad, for I have promised to keep an
eye upon her, and, as you know, I am a man of my word, and no harm shall
befall her so long as I have the power to avert it. No, don't thank me,
Dick, there is no need; the satisfaction and pleasure that I shall
derive from helping your dear mother will be reward enough for me, for I
regard her as a personal friend, and shall consider it a privilege to be
allowed to do all that I can for her."
"And now, to pass on to another topic, let me show you the medicine
chest which I intend shall be my parting gift to you. Here it is,"--
producing a stout case measuring about eighteen inches long by fourteen
inches wide and twelve inches high. "It is not inconveniently bulky or
heavy, but it contains a practically complete assortment of drugs,
sufficient in quantity to enable you to fight successfully about half a
dozen cases of almost every known disease. More than that it would be
inconvenient to carry about with you; and when any particular drug shows
signs of exhaustion you must take timely steps to replenish your supply.
And, with reference to that same replenishment, you will find a little
manuscript book, written by myself, containing full instructions in the
art of preparing several of the drugs from their parent plants, which I
believe you will find exceedingly useful." Here Humphreys' talk became
professional and his speech surcharged with technicalities--for he was
an enthusiast in everything relating to the combating and cure of
disease, and far into the small hours he descanted learnedly upon his
beloved science, confiding to and instructing Dick in many valuable
secrets that, by dint of laborious research and much consumption of
midnight oil, he had wrung from Dame Nature. And on many an occasion in
the not-far-distant future Dick Maitland had ample cause to look back
with gratitude upon that long midnight conversation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
With exemplary punctuality young Maitland presented himself at the
shipping office at ten o'clock in the morning, and duly "signed on" as
ordinary seaman in the good ship _Concordia_, bound for Natal; Mr
Sutcliffe, the chief mate, privately congratulating Captain Roberts, the
skipper of the ship, immediately afterwards, upon his good fortune in
securing so "likely" a hand for the small sum of one shilling per month,
and expressing his fixed determination to "make a man of him" before
they reached the Line. At the private suggestion of the said chief
mate, Dick lost no time in conveying his belongings to the ship and
depositing his bedding in the best-sheltered bunk in the forecastle;
after which he returned to Number 19 Paradise Street, where he spent the
few hours of freedom remaining to him in assisting his friend the
Doctor, and absorbing further knowledge from him. Finally, as the
clocks in the immediate neighbourhood were striking the hour of eight in
the evening, Dick stepped over the rail of the _Concordia_ and formally
reported himself to the chief mate, thereafter repairing to the
forecastle and making his preparations for the night. He was the first
hand to join the ship, notwithstanding the fact that the entire crew had
been ordered to be on board not later than eight o'clock that evening;
and it was not until close upon midnight that the remainder found their
way down from the neighbouring public houses, all of them as surly and
quarrelsome as bears at the termination of their short period of
liberty. Fortunately for Dick, all hands were too far gone in drink to
admit of their quarrelsomeness going further than words, and eventually,
by about one o'clock in the morning, he was able to compose himself to
sleep, to the accompaniment of the snores and mutterings of his
companions--thirteen in number.
Many lads in Dick Maitland's position, and brought up amid refined
surroundings, as he had been, would have regarded with horror and
loathing such a situation as that in which he now found himself, and
would have been overwhelmed with self-pity at the cruelly hard luck
which forced them to herd with such uncongenial companions in such a pig
sty of a place as the _Concordia's_ forecastle just then presented; but
Dick was something of a philosopher, and was, moreover, full of "grit".
He held the doctrine that a man can make what he chooses of his
surroundings, and always find in them something of amusement or
interest, if he cares to look for it; and now he consoled himself with
the reminder that life in that forecastle, and among those men, whose
highest ideal of happiness seemed to be helpless intoxication, would
after all be but a brief experience, out of which it would be hard
indeed if he could not learn some useful lesson. With this philosophic
reflection, he curled himself up in his blankets and dropped into a
sound, dreamless sleep.
At six o'clock next morning the mate came thundering upon the fore
scuttle with a handspike, following up the resounding blows with a yell
of:
"All hands ahoy! tumble up there, you sleepers, and don't wait to curl
your hair. Hurry up, now, and give me a chance to see who are the
`smarties' among you!"
With low growls of disgust at such rude and untimely disturbance of
their slumbers the fourteen occupants of the forecastle rolled
unwillingly out of their bunks and proceeded to scramble into their
garments, most of them anathematising the sea life generally, and their
present ship in particular. For forecastle Jack is a curious creature,
and, if you are to believe him, "last voyage" is invariably the supreme
period of his life, wherein has been crowded the utmost comfort and
pleasure and the most remarkable adventures, while the ship on board
which he happens to be at the moment is, as invariably, the slowest,
ugliest, most uncomfortable, and most rotten tub that he ever had the
ill luck to ship in. And all this, mind you, as likely as not before
the much-maligned craft has passed out through the dock gates, or Jack
has done a hand's turn of work on board her. Dick listened with a good-
tempered grin to the chorus of grumbling that was proceeding around him,
interjected a merry jest or two which caused the growlers to stop in
mid-career in amazement at his audacity, and then, having slipped nimbly
into his clothes, he sprang up through the hatchway and presented
himself first on deck of the forecastle hands, to be greeted by the mate
with a cheery:
"Well done, youngster! First to answer the call. That comes of joining
your ship with an unmuddled brain. I think you and I are going to get
on well together."
"I sincerely hope so, sir," answered Dick. "If we don't it shall not be
my fault. And although I am rather an ignoramus at present in respect
of a sailor's work generally, you will find me both willing and eager to
learn."
The mate stared at Dick for a moment with compressed eyebrows, rather
taken aback at the lad's refined tone and manner of speech; then he
nodded, and remarked gruffly:
"That's all right; if you are willing to learn I'll take care that you
have the chance. And, as a starter, you may get a broom and sweep up
all this litter. But don't heave it overboard, or you'll have the dock
people after you. Sweep it all together and put it into that empty
barrel until we get out of dock and can heave it over the side."
The rest of the forecastle hands now came stumbling up on deck, and were
set by the mate to various tasks, pending the opening of the dock gates
and the arrival of the tug which was to tow the _Concordia_ down the
river. At length the order was given to unmoor ship, the dock gates
swung open, the vessel was warped through the opening to where the tug
awaited her, the towrope was passed, and presently the _Concordia_ was
heading down the river toward Gravesend, from whence, having first
shipped her passengers, she was to take her final departure for the
southern hemisphere.
The _Concordia_ was a steel barque of eight hundred and seventy-four
tons register, Clyde built, and modelled upon lines that combined a very
fair cargo-carrying capacity with high speed possibilities. She was a
very handsome vessel to look at, and Captain William Roberts, who had
commanded her since she left the stocks some two years prior to the date
at which we make his and her acquaintance, was inordinately proud of
her, sparing no pains either to himself or his ship's crew--and
especially, his boatswain--to keep her as trim and neat as a man-o'-war.
The decks were regularly holystoned every morning when the ship was at
sea--to the intense disgust of the crew--the brasswork was as regularly
polished, not with the usual rottenstone and oil, but with special metal
polish provided out of the skipper's private purse; and there was no
more certain way of "putting the Old Man's back up" than for a man to
allow himself to be seen knocking the ashes of his pipe out against any
portion of the ship's painted work. It was even asserted of Captain
Roberts that, so anxious was he to maintain the smart appearance of the
ship, he would, whenever she ran into a calm, have the quarterboat
lowered and manned, in order that he might pull round his vessel and
assure himself that her masts were all accurately stayed to precisely
the same angle of rake; and woe betide the unhappy boatswain if there
seemed to be the slightest occasion for fault-finding.
The _Concordia_ was a beamy ship in proportion to her length, and she
carried a full poop extending forward to within about twenty feet of her
mainmast, underneath which was a handsome saloon, or cuddy, fitted with
berth accommodation for twenty passengers; for although the steam liners
have, for all practical purposes, absorbed the passenger traffic, there
still remains a small residue of the travelling public who, either for
health or economy's sake, choose a well-found, well-built sailing
clipper when they desire to make a sea voyage.
Such was the vessel in which young Dick Maitland was to make his first,
and, as he hoped, his only, essay as a seaman before the mast, and after
the slight sketch which has been given of her and her skipper, it will
be readily seen that he could scarcely have hit upon a craft where he
would be likely to have more hard work, or better opportunities for the
acquirement of a large measure of seafaring knowledge in a very short
time.
Mr Sutcliffe, the chief mate, had been favourably impressed by Dick
from the moment when the two had encountered each other at the shipping
office, and Mr Sutcliffe's method of showing his favour was to provide
his favourites with an ample sufficiency of work to do. The ship had,
therefore, not been out of dock half an hour when Dick was sent aloft
with an able seaman named Barrett to get the fore and main royal-yards
across; and so eager was the lad to learn as much as he could that
Barrett very willingly permitted him to do all the work, merely
directing him what to do and how to do it, and at the same time
instructing him as to the nomenclature and purposes of the various parts
of the gear which were manipulated during the operation. Naturally,
Dick, being a novice, took about twice as long as his companion would
have taken over the job; but so eager was he to learn and such aptitude
did he exhibit that he won the unqualified approval of Barrett, as well
as of Mr Sutcliffe, who had been keeping a sharp eye upon what was
going on aloft. As for Dick, although it was the first time that he had
ever been aloft in anything deserving the name of a ship, and although
the hull upon which he looked down seemed ridiculously inadequate to
support the lofty spar upon which he was working--suggesting the idea
that unless he exercised the utmost caution in the disposition of his
weight he must inevitably capsize the entire complicated structure--he
felt neither giddy nor nervous, but went about his work with all the
coolness and confidence of a thoroughly seasoned hand.
Arrived off Gravesend, the anchor was let go, and the ship swung to the
now fast ebbing tide, the quarterboat was lowered, and the skipper was
rowed ashore, while Mr Sutcliffe went the rounds of the decks and
satisfied himself that everything had been done to make the _Concordia_
perfectly ready to get under way at a moment's notice; the yards were
accurately squared by the lifts and braces, the running gear hauled taut
and neatly coiled down, the decks once more swept; and then the worthy
mate found himself compelled to admit, with a sigh, that nothing more
could be done, at least to advantage, until the passengers should have
come off and the ship be once more under way. These two events happened
late in the afternoon, and meanwhile the occupants of the forecastle
were sent below to snatch a few hours' rest in preparation for the
coming night, during which Dick Maitland had an opportunity to become
better acquainted with his messmates. For a wonder these proved to be
without exception British, consisting of two Irishmen, five Scotchmen,
and one Welshman, while the rest were English. There was nothing very
remarkable about any of them, they were all just ordinary average
sailormen, but it did not take Dick very long to make up his mind that,
with the possible exception of the carpenter, and Barrett, the A.B. who
had been his companion and instructor aloft during the morning, the five
Scotchmen were the pick of the bunch. But all hands seemed to be very
decent fellows in their own rough way, now that they had had time to
recover from their previous day's debauch, and manifested a distinct
disposition to be friendly toward the young greenhorn whom they found in
their midst, especially as they had already had an opportunity to see
that the greenhorn's greenness was not of such a character as to entail
upon them very much extra work.
The afternoon was well advanced when at length the passengers, seventeen
in number, came off to the ship; and the moment that they and their
baggage were embarked the anchor was hove up, the tug once more came
alongside and took the towrope, and the _Concordia_ proceeded upon her
voyage, the hope being freely expressed, both fore and aft, that there
would be no more anchoring until the ship should have arrived under the
shadow, so to speak, of Natal Bluff. As soon as the ship was fairly
under way, and the anchor at the cathead, the chief and second mates
picked the watches, and Dick, to his satisfaction, found himself picked
by Mr Sutcliffe as a member of that officer's watch.
As the ship drew down toward the lower reaches of the river she met a
slight breeze breathing out from the north-east, to which she spread,
first, her fore-and-aft canvas, and, later on, her square sails, so that
by the time of her arrival off Deal, near midnight, she was practically
independent of the tug, which at that point cast her off. Here also the
pilot left her, taking with him a goodly packet of letters from the
passengers to their friends ashore; and the _Concordia_, spreading her
studding-sails, swept on into the broadening waters of the English
Channel. With the other letters went one from Dick to his mother and
another to Dr Humphreys, written during his watch below.
The fair wind which the _Concordia_ fell in with at the mouth of the
Thames lasted long enough to carry the ship, not only clear of the
Channel, but also well to the westward of Ushant, Captain Roberts having
availed himself to the utmost of the opportunity to make as much westing
as possible, as his experience had taught him that at that season of the
year the prevailing winds which he might expect to meet with to the
northward of Madeira would most probably be strong from the south-
westward. And the event proved the correctness of that mariner's
surmise, for on his seventh day out from Gravesend he fell in with the
expected shift of wind, and four hours later the _Concordia_ was
fighting her way to the southward, under double-reefed topsails, against
a heavy and fast-rising sea.
Those seven days had made a vast amount of difference to Dick Maitland,
so far as his usefulness as a seaman was concerned. In that
comparatively brief period he had contrived not only to learn the name
and function of every bit of running rigging in the ship, but also to
lay his hand unerringly upon any required halyard, brace, sheet,
downhaul, clewline, or other item of gear in the darkest night; he was
as active and almost as handy aloft as the smartest A.B. in the ship;
and he proved to be a born helmsman, standing his "trick" at the wheel
from the very first, and leaving a straighter wake behind him than any
of the other men, even when the ship was scudding before a heavy
following sea. Mr Sutcliffe, the chief mate, was delighted with his
young _protege_, and declared, in unnecessarily picturesque language,
that he would qualify the boy to perform the duties of an able seaman
before Natal Bluff should heave in sight.
But Dick was to prove his mettle in quite another fashion before long;
for the strong south-westerly breeze which the _Concordia_ encountered
on her seventh day out rapidly developed into so furious a gale that,
after battling with it for some fourteen hours, Captain Roberts decided
to heave-to under close-reefed fore and main topsails, and at eight
bells--noon--the order was accordingly given to clew up and furl the
already reefed courses, and to haul down and stow the fore-topmast
staysail. This, under the weather conditions of the moment, was a task
requiring the services of all hands, and by the orders of the chief
mate, who was conducting the operations, Dick was stationed at the
weather fore clew-garnet, with three other hands. The men, having gone
to their stations, were waiting for the word of command when suddenly
the chain main-tack carried away, and the part attached to the sail,
acting like a whip, struck one of the men who was standing by to ease it
away, smashed the poor fellow's right arm above the elbow, shattered his
jaw, and laid open his right cheek from the turn of the jaw to the right
ear, which was all but torn away from the man's head; the force of the
blow also was such as to dash the unfortunate fellow against the
bulwarks so violently that he instantly fell to the deck senseless.
The accident, naturally, at once occasioned the utmost confusion, in the
midst of which the mainsail promptly threshed itself to rags, the mate
sprang down the poop ladder and rushed to the spot, yelling a whole
string of orders, to which nobody paid the slightest attention, and
Dick, with two or three others, abandoned their posts and ran to the
injured man's assistance.
"Back to your stations, you skowbanks," roared the mate. "What d'ye
mean by rushing about like a flock of frightened sheep? D'ye want to
see the ship dismasted? Here you, Dick, and Joe, pick him up and carry
him below to his bunk until the skipper can attend to him."
"I beg your pardon, sir," spoke Dick, "but I am afraid we may do the
poor fellow some further injury if we attempt to carry him below. I
understand that there is a spare bunk in the deckhouse where the
boatswain and carpenter are quartered. May we not take him in there?
And, if you will give me leave, I will attend to his hurts. I have
studied both medicine and surgery, and feel sure that I can do better
for him than anyone else, excepting, of course, a qualified surgeon."
"The dickens! You don't say so?" ejaculated the mate, staring at Dick
in amazement. "Very well, then, in that case you had better take charge
of him. And--yes, of course, take him into the deckhouse. Now, lads,
clew up that fore-course, and be lively with it; haul taut your clew-
garnets, ease up your tack and sheet; man your buntlines and leach-
lines; that's your sort, up with it; away aloft, some of you, and make a
good, snug furl of it!"
Quickly, yet with the utmost care, the injured seaman was lifted up and
carried into the deckhouse, where, in accordance with Dick's
instructions, he was laid upon the table, a mattress having first been
hurriedly dragged from one of the bunks and placed to receive him.
Then, leaving the patient for the moment in charge of the other man,
Dick hurried to the forecastle and brought up the medicine chest which
had been Humphrey's parting gift to him, and his case of surgical
instruments, which he opened and placed upon the carpenter's chest, to
the undisguised admiration and horror of his assistant, who gazed as
though fascinated at the array of highly polished saws, knives,
scissors, and other instruments of queer and horribly suggestive shape.
Then, dexterously removing the man's jacket and shirt while he still
remained unconscious, Dick rapidly proceeded to give his patient a
systematic overhaul, with the object of ascertaining the precise nature
and extent of his injuries.
He had just completed this examination when the injured man showed signs
of returning consciousness, at the same moment that the skipper, having
heard from the mate the particulars of the accident, came bustling into
the deckhouse with a bottle of brandy in one hand and a tumbler in the
other, intent upon doing something, though he scarcely knew what, for
the relief of the sufferer. The brandy arrived in the nick of time,
and, seizing the bottle and tumbler unceremoniously, Maitland poured out
a small quantity and held the tumbler to the patient's lips. With
difficulty the man contrived to swallow about a teaspoonful, which
considerably revived him, and then, with a groan of anguish, strove to
mumble a few words in spite of his broken jaw. Now, if ever, was the
moment when Humphreys' doctrine of the efficacy of hypnotism might be
effectively tested, and fixing the man's upturned gaze with his own, in
the peculiar manner which Humphreys had described and illustrated, Dick
said to his patient, in a quiet, yet firm and confident tone of voice:
"Now, Tom, don't attempt to say anything or ask any questions, but
listen to me. You have met with an accident, but it is not at all
serious; and I am going to put you right and make you quite comfortable.
I shall be obliged to pull you about a bit, but understand this, you
will suffer no pain whatever, and when I have finished with you you will
fall into a quiet and refreshing sleep, from which you will awake
without fever or complication of any sort. Now, turn over on your left
side, and let me begin by attending to the injuries of your face."
To the utter amazement of the skipper and Joe--the man who had assisted
Dick to carry the injured man into the deckhouse--the patient turned
quietly over on his left side as directed, without a groan or any other
sign of suffering, and resigned himself quite contentedly to Dick's
ministrations. The latter, to all outward appearance perfectly calm and
self-possessed, but inwardly full of astonishment at the complete
success of his first experiment, at once proceeded with quick and deft
hands to arrange in position the shattered fragments of the jaw,
strapping them firmly in place with bandage and sticking plaster; then
he deftly drew together the edges of the gashed cheek, stitched up the
wound, applied an antiseptic dressing, and bound up the injured face in
such a manner that the patient might be enabled to take liquid
nourishment without disturbance of the dressings. Lastly, he placed the
broken bone of the arm in position, and firmly secured it there with
splints and bandages. As Dick inserted the last pin in the bandage and
arranged the arm in a comfortable position the patient closed his eyes,
and a minute later his quiet and regular breathing showed that he was
fast asleep!