"Well, youngsters!" saluted us as soon as we stepped on deck, and the
bluff, brown-faced captain gave me a searching look. "Ready for work?"
"Yes, sir."
"That's right. Well, I don't want you yet. Run about the ship, and
keep out of my way. That'll do for the present. Be off!"
He was rather rough, but it was in a good-tempered fashion, and I felt
as if I should like the captain in spite of a whisper from Walters which
sounded like "boor."
Then feeling free for the day, I upset my new friend and patron by going
amongst the men and passengers as they came on deck.
"Here, don't you be so fast," said Walters, as I was hurrying from place
to place asking questions of the sailors, and finding interest in
everything on board, where, though bearing a certain similarity, all was
so different to the arrangements upon a yacht.
"Fast!" I said, wonderingly.
"Yes," said Walters, shortly. "You'll be getting into trouble. You'd
better, now you're so new, let me lead, and I'll tell you all that you
want to know."
"Mind your eyes, youngsters," sang out a good-looking, youngish man,
"Now, my lads, right under, and lash it fast."
"Second mate," whispered Walters to me, as about a dozen men dragged a
great spar, evidently an extra top-mast, close under the bulwarks, to
secure it tight out of the way.
"Quite right, youngster," said the officer, who seemed to have
exceedingly sharp ears, and then he gave me a nod.
"Hang him and his youngsters," grumbled Walters as we went forward. "He
has no business to speak like that before the men."
"Oh, what does it matter?" I said. "Look there, at that thin gentleman
and the young lady who came on board yesterday evening. He must be ill.
Oh! mind," I cried, and I sprang forward just in time to catch the
gentleman's arm, for as he came out of the cabin entrance, looking very
pale, and leaning upon the arm of the lady, he caught his foot in a rope
being drawn along the deck, and in spite of the lady clinging to him he
would have fallen if I had not run up.
"Don't!" he cried angrily, turning upon me. "Why do you leave your
ropes about like that?"
"John, dear!"
Only those two words, spoken in a gentle reproachful tone, and the young
lady turned to me and smiled.
"Thank you," she said; "my brother has been very ill, and is weak yet."
"Lena," he cried, "don't parade it before everybody;" but as he turned
his eyes with an irritable look to the lady and encountered hers, a
change came over him, and he clung to my arm, which he had thrust away.
"Thank you," he said. "Give me a hand to the side there. My legs are
shaky yet." Then with a smile which made his thin yellow face light up,
and gave him something the look of his sister, as he glanced at my
uniform--"You're not the captain, are you? Ah, that's better," he
sighed, as he leaned his arms on the bulwark, and drew a deep breath.
"Thank you. Just wait till we've been a month at sea, and I'll race you
all through the rigging."
"All right," I said, "you shall. My father says there's nothing like a
sea trip when you've been ill. He took me in his yacht after I had had
fever."
"And you got well in no time, didn't you?"
I nodded, as I looked at his wasted figure, and noted his eager, anxious
way.
"There, Lena, hear that," he said quickly. "I told you so." Then
turning to me again--"Come and sit near us in the cabin; I shan't be so
nasty and snappish when I've had my breakfast."
He laughed in a forced way, and promising that I would if I could, I
drew back to leave the brother and sister together, for Walters gave my
jacket a twitch.
"I say, I shall never get you round the ship," he said, in an ill-used
tone. "Now look here," he began, "this is the saloon-deck, that's the
mizzen-mast, and come along here and I'll show you the binnacle."
"Why, I know all these," I said, laughing merrily. "Come, I'll box the
compass with you."
"Tuppens as you can't do it right, young gent," said a rough-looking
elderly sailor, who was coiling down the rope which had nearly overset
the sick passenger.
"You keep your place, sir, and speak when you're spoken to," said
Walters, sharply.
"Certeny, sir. Beg pardon, sir, of course. Here, you Neb Dumlow, and
you Barney Blane," cried the man to a couple of his fellows, who were
busy tightening the tarpaulin over a boat which swung from the davits.
The two men, whose lower jaws were working ox-fashion as they ruminated
over their tobacco, left off and faced round; the first addressed, a
big, ugly fellow, with a terrific squint which made his eyes look as if
they were trying to join each other under the Roman nose, held a tarry
hand up to his ear and growled--
"What say, mate?"
"These here's our two noo orficers, and you've got to be wery 'spectful
when you speaks."
"Look here, young man," said Walters, haughtily, "I've been to sea
before, and know a thing or two. If you give me any of your cheek I'll
report you to the first mate. Come on, Dale."
He turned away, and the bluff-looking sailor winked at me solemnly as I
followed, and muttered the words, "Oh my!"
"Nothing like keeping the sailors in their places," continued Walters,
"and--"
"Morning," said a handsome, keen-looking man of about thirty.
"Morning, sir."
"Our two new middies, eh? Well, shall you want me to-morrow?"
He looked at me as he spoke.
"Want you, sir!" I replied. "Are you one of the mates?"
"Every man's mate when he's on his back," was the laughing reply. "I'm
the doctor."
"Oh!" I cried, catching his meaning, "I hope not, sir, unless it's very
rough, but I think I can stand it."
"So do a good many folks," he continued. "Morning."
This was to a big, heavy-looking gentleman of about eight-and-twenty,
who came up just then and shook hands with the doctor, holding on to him
it seemed to me in a weak, helpless, amiable fashion, as if he was so
glad he had found a friend that he didn't like to let go.
"Good--good-morning, doctor," he said, and as he spoke, I felt as if I
must laugh, for his voice was a regular high-pitched squeak, and it
sounded so queer coming from a big, stoutish, smooth-faced man of six
feet high.
Walters looked at me with a grin.
"Oh, here's a Tommy soft," he whispered.
"Don't," I said with my eyes, as I screwed up my face quite firmly.
"I'm so glad I met you, as every one is so strange, and I don't like to
question the servants--I mean the stewards--because they are all so
busy. How long will it be to breakfast?"
"Quite half-an-hour," said the doctor, smiling, as he looked at his
watch. "Hungry?"
"Oh no; I wanted to know if there would be time to see to my little
charges first."
"Your little--Oh yes, I remember the captain told me. You have quite a
collection."
"Yes, very large, and I am anxious to get them all across safely."
"I wish you success, I'm sure," said the doctor quietly. "You
naturalists take a great deal of pains over your studies."
"Oh, we do our best," said the big man mildly, and it was just as if a
girl was speaking. "Perhaps your two young gentlemen would like to see
them."
"To be sure they would," said the doctor. "Let me introduce them. Let
me see, your name is--"
"Preddle--Arthur Preddle."
"To be sure, you told me last night in the cabin. Then here are two of
our embryo captains, Mr--"
"Nicholas Walters," said my companion, trying to speak gruffly.
"And--"
"Alison Dale."
"That's right; I like to know the name of my patients present or to be.
Let me make you known to Mr Arthur Preddle, FZS."
"And FLS," said the big passenger, mildly.
"To be sure, forgive my ignorance," said the doctor. "Now let's go and
see the fish."
Mr Preddle led the way--that is, his words and looks were eager, but
his body was very slow and lumbering as he walked with us to the steps,
and then down to the main-deck, and forward; and all the time, as he
moved his feet, I could not for the life of me help thinking about the
way in which an elephant walked onward in his slow, soft way. It put
one in mind of india-rubber, and all the time our new acquaintance gave
a peculiar roll from side to side.
There was still a great deal of lumber about the deck, but the officers
were rapidly getting everything cleared, and we soon reached a
well-protected and sheltered spot forwards, where several large frames
had been fitted up on purpose, and the boards which had been screwed on
when they were brought on board having been removed, there they were,
several shallow trays of little fish swimming hurriedly about in shoals
in the clear water, but ready enough to dash at the tiny scraps of food
Mr Preddle threw in.
"For fresh food, sir?" said Walters. "Won't they be very small?"
The doctor laughed, while the naturalist's eyes opened very wide and
round, so did his mouth.
"For food, my dear young friend?" he said in his quiet way. "They are
being sent out by an acclimatisation society, in the hope that they will
assist to furnish Australia and New Zealand with a good supply of salmon
and trout. Look at the little beauties, how strong and healthy, and
bright and well they seem!"
I was afraid to look at Walters for fear he should make me laugh, so I
stood staring first in one tray then in the other, till it was time for
breakfast, and Walters whispered as we hung back to the last--
"I say, how I should like to kick that fish chap."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because he is so soft and fat."
By this time we were up by the cabin-door, and as we entered rather
awkwardly, the captain shouted to us from the other end--
"Here, youngsters, you can find a seat at this table," and just then I
saw my sick acquaintance standing up, and he beckoned to me.
"Come and sit by me," he said; "you will not mind, Captain Berriman?"
"Not I, sir," said that gentleman bluffly, and as I moved towards where
my new friend was seated, Walters said sharply in my ear, "Oh, that's
it, is it? Well, you are a sneak!"