A BULLY GETS A LESSON.
For a moment the big form of the paint-covered bully swayed about
blindly and helplessly. Then, dashing the paint from his eyes, he
emitted a roar like that of a stricken bull.
Jackies at work near at hand, who had seen the accident, gazed at
Herc, who had by this time slid to the deck--in a sort of pitying
way. They knew Kennell too well to suppose that he would let such an
occurrence--even if it were an accident--pass by unrevenged.
"I'm sorry, Kennell; it was an accident," exclaimed Herc, one hand
extended, and the other gathering up the loose end of his work-blouse;
"here, let me wipe some of it off with this."
He stepped forward, with the intention of doing all he could to repair
the damage he had unwittingly caused, but Kennell, with an angry sweep
of his arm, waved him furiously back. To increase the bully's rage,
some of the men near at hand began to laugh.
"My! what a lovely complexion the kid has when he's all rouged up!"
laughed one.
"Kennell's got his battle-paint on," jeered another.
It was easy to see that none of the men particularly regretted the
accident to the bully, whom none of them had any particular reason to
love.
From their suspended bosn's chairs, Ned and old Tom watched the scene
with some apprehensions. Ned was a shrewd enough reader of character
to know that the affair could hardly end by Kennell's peaceably
accepting Herc's apology; while old Tom knew Kennell's nature too well
to entertain any doubt that the young seaman was in for a terrible
trouncing.
"You--you--red-headed clod-hopper!" grated Kennell savagely through his
mask of "war-paint," when he found his voice. Somehow, he looked so
ludicrous, showing his teeth, like a snarling dog, through his panoply
of pigment, that Herc, to save his life, could not have restrained
himself from bursting into a hearty laugh.
"I--pardon me, Kennell; oh, ha! ha! ha! ha! I--I'm awfully sorry.
Please accept my apologies. It was, ha, ha, ha, ha! an accident--really
it was. Won't you forgive me?"
Herc held out his hand once more. As he did so, Ned shouted a sharp
warning from above.
It came too late.
Kennell's mighty arm shot out with the speed of a piston-rod, and its
impact, full on Herc's laughing face, carried the boy crashing against
the side rails.
"Take that, you pup, as a starter!" hissed Kennell "and I'm not through
with you yet, either. I'll keep after you two whelps till you slink out
of the service."
Herc, half-stunned, clambered to his feet, and stood swaying for a
moment, as if he were about to keel over altogether. He rapidly pulled
himself together, however, and fixed a furious gaze on Kennell, who
stood glaring at him with an upcurled lip and narrowed eyes.
Echoing the bellow that Kennell had let forth when the paint obscured
his vision temporarily, Herc threw himself into a boxing attitude, and
sprang straight for his opponent. It was the onslaught of a wild-cat on
a bull.
"Take that, for tripping me overboard, you big coward," he snapped, as
he aimed a terrific uppercut at the ship's bully.
The unexpected blow caught Kennell with the force of a young
battering-ram. Full on the point of his blunt jaw it landed, and raised
him a good foot off the deck. He came crashing down like a felled tree,
in a heap at the foot of the turret's barbette.
He lay there, seemingly senseless, while the ship plunged onward, and a
thin stream of red began to trickle from his head and spread over the
newly whitened deck.
Herc gazed down at his handiwork in consternation.
What if he had killed the man? Kennell lay there so still that it
seemed reasonable to suppose that his life might be extinct. The stream
of blood, too, alarmed Herc, who had struck out more on impulse than
with any well-defined idea of knocking out the ponderous "Kid Kennell."
"Kennell, Kennell!" he breathed, bending over the prostrate man.
"Speak! Are you badly hurt?"
"Leave him alone, matey," counseled old Tom, who, with Ned, had slid
down from the turret-side. "He's a long way from dead. He's just
asleep for a few minutes, and only got what was coming to him."
"Oh, is he all right?" questioned Herc, much relieved.
"Sure; it would take a harder punch than you've got to hurt 'Kid'
Kennell seriously," put in a sailor at Herc's elbow; "but Heaven help
you when the kid gets about again."
"Why?" asked Herc simply.
"Why? Oh, Lord!" groaned the sailors mirthfully, "why, red-head, he'll
pound that ruby-colored head of yours into the middle of next Fourth of
July or pink calves'-foot jelly."
"Carry on, men! Carry on!" exclaimed a boatswain's mate, coming round
the barbette at this moment.
"Why, what's all this?" he exclaimed the next minute, as his eyes
lighted on the recumbent and paint-smeared figure of Kennell, and the
flushed faces and anxious eyes of Ned and Herc.
"It's Kennell, sir; he's knocked out," volunteered one of the jackies.
"So I see. Who has so grossly violated the rules of the service as to
have been guilty of fighting?"
All eyes rested on poor Herc, who, coloring up to the roots of his
colorful thatch, said, in a low voice:
"I have, sir."
Though the lad's tone was low, his voice never quavered.
"What you--Recruit Taylor--fighting?" queried the amazed boatswain's
mate, who was no stranger to the record of the redoubtable Kennell, and
inwardly marveled at what sort of fighting machine Herc must be to have
laid him low.
"Yes, sir; I'm sorry to say that I have," replied Herc, looking his
superior straight in the eyes.
At this juncture the officer of the deck hastened up. From his station
amidships he had noted the sudden cessation of all activity forward. He
had at once hastened to see what had occurred to stop the monotonous
clock-work of the routine duties aboard.
"What's all this, Stowe?" he shot out sharply at the boatswain's mate,
as his eyes took in the scene.
All the jackies had come to attention as the officer hurried up, but at
his sharp command of:
"Carry on, men!" the work had gone forward, apparently as before,
although, as my readers will judge, the men had one eye on their work
and another on the scene that now transpired.
"Why, as well as I can make out, sir, this young recruit here,
sir--Taylor, sir--has been fighting with Kennell, here, sir, and----"
"Seemingly knocked him out," snapped the officer, as Kennell began to
stir. He sat up, blinking his eyes like a man who has been summoned
back from another world.
As the bully rose, the officer--a young man with a good-natured
face--suddenly coughed violently and turned to the rail. His shoulders
heaved and his handkerchief was stuffed up to his face.
The boatswain's mate gazed at him apprehensively. He thought his
superior had become suddenly ill. As a matter of fact the sight of
Kennell's puzzled countenance, blinking through the paint and vital
fluid, with which his features were bedaubed, had been too much for the
officer's gravity, and he had been compelled to turn away or suffer a
severe loss of his dignity by bursting into a roar of laughter.
Finally he recovered himself, and turned, with a still quivering lip,
which he bit incessantly, toward the battered Kennell and the others.
"What explanation have you to make of this?" he demanded of Herc, in as
unshaken and stern a voice as if he had never suffered the loss of an
ounce of his gravity.
Poor Herc saluted and shuffled uneasily from one foot to another.
"Oh, I know he'll make a mess of it," thought Ned to himself. "I wish
the regulations would allow me to speak up for him."
"Come, sir; what have you to say?" reiterated the officer, as the
sorry-looking Kennell got slowly to his feet. He glowered menacingly at
Herc, as recollection of what had occurred began to come back to him.
"Why, sir, that young cur----" Kennell began.
"Silence, sir!" roared the officer; "I'll attend to you when your turn
comes."
"I was painting the side of the turret," began Herc; "and, quite by
accident, the handle of my painting pail came off. Unfortunately, this
man happened to be passing below and the stuff doused him, just like a
sheep at dipping time, and----"
"Attention, sir! Never mind your comparisons. Proceed. You have
not yet accounted for the extraordinary condition of this man's
countenance."
"Why, sir, _that's_ the paint," sputtered Herc, as if astonished at the
officer's simplicity.
"Exactly. I understand. You say that such a thing was an accident.
Possibly, it was. But how do you account for the fact that the man
Kennell was lying insensible at the foot of the turret, with that cut
over his eye?"
"I did that, too, sir," admitted Herc ruefully.
"What, you cut his eye like that?"
"No, sir; I guess that he must have done that when he fell. I just gave
him a sleep wallop----"
"Attention, sir! Use more respectful intelligible language," said the
lieutenant, suddenly becoming much more interested in some object on
the far horizon; so much so that he had once more to turn his back
on the Dreadnought Boys, the boatswain's mate and the open-mouthed
jackies. In a minute he faced round again, as grave as before.
"I hope you are not sea-sick, sir?" began Herc solicitously, for he had
observed the officer's handkerchief at his mouth. The lad could not
imagine that a scene so serious to him could appear ludicrous to any
one else. "If you are, Pills, the doctor, I mean----"
"Silence, sir! You need disciplining. You admit, then, that you hit
this man?"
"Yes, sir, but he----"
"Silence! Answer 'yes' or 'no,' please."
"Well, 'yes'," admitted Herc.
"Why in the great horn-spoon doesn't he ask him if Kennell hit him
first?" groaned Ned, regarding the examination from a prudent distance.
"This case calls for a full investigation," snapped the officer;
"fighting aboard a man-o'-war is one of the most serious offenses an
enlisted man can commit. Messenger!"
"Sir!"
"Get the master-at-arms, and request him to come forward and report to
me at once."
"Aye, aye, sir!"
The messenger sped aft on his errand, while a dreadful silence ensued,
which even the irrepressible Herc had not the courage to break.
Evidently something dire was about to happen to him.