A COUNCIL OF WAR.
"This is a very serious matter for us, Captain Blockstrop," said Sam,
as they were walking back to the boats. "An exceedingly serious matter."
"I have only one advice to give you, Mr. Buckley," said the Captain;
"which is unnecessary, as it is just what your father will do. Fight,
sir!--hunt 'em down. Shoot 'em! They will give you no quarter: be sure
you don't give them any."
A wild discordant bellow was here heard from the ship, on which the
Captain slapped his leg, and said,--
"Dash my buttons, if he hasn't got hold of my speaking-trumpet."
The midshipman came up with a solemn face, and, touching his cap,
"reported,"--
"Colonial Secretary hailing, sir."
"Bless my soul, Mr. Vang, I can hear that," said the Captain. "I don't
suppose any of my officer would dare to make such an inarticulate, no
sailor-like bellow as that on her Majesty's quarterdeck. Can you make
out what he says? That would be more to the purpose."
Again the unearthly bellow came floating over the water, happily
deadened by the wind, which was roaring a thousand feet over head. "CAN
you make out anything, Mr. Vang?" said the Captain.
"I make out 'pork-chops!' sir," said the midshipman.
"Take one of the boats on board, Mr. Vang. My compliments, and will be
much obliged if he will come ashore immediately! On important business,
say. Tell him the convicts have landed; will you? Also, tell the
lieutenant of the watch that I want either Mr. Tacks, or Mr. Sheets:
either will do."
The boat was soon seen coming back with the Colonial Secretary in a
statesman-like attitude in the stern sheets, and beside him that
important officer Mr. Tacks, a wee little dot of a naval cadet,
apparently about ten years old.
"What were you bellowing about pork-chops, Pollifex?" asked the
Captain, the moment the boat touched the shore.
"A failure, sir," said the Colonial Secretary; "burnt, sir;
disgracefully burnt up to a cinder, sir. I have been consulting the
honourable member for the Cross-jack-yard (I allude to Mr. Tack's N.C.,
my honourable friend, if he will allow me to call him so) as to the
propriety of calling a court-martial on the cook's mate. He informs me
that such a course is not usual in naval jurisprudence. I am, however,
of opinion that in one of the civil courts of the colony an action for
damages would lie. Surely I have the pleasure of seeing Mr. Buckley of
Baroona?"
Sam and he had met before, and the Secretary, finding himself on shore
and where he was known, dropped his King Cambyses' vein, and appeared
in his real character of a shrewd, experienced man. They walked up
together, and when they arrived at the summit of the ridge, and saw the
magnificent plains stretching away inland, beyond the narrow belt of
heath along the shore, the Secretary whispered to the Captain,--
"I have been deceived. We shall get some breakfast, after all. As fine
a country as I ever saw in my life!"
The party who were just sitting down to breakfast at the station were
sufficiently astonished to see Captain Blockstrop come rolling up the
garden walk, with that small ship-of-war Tacks sailing in his wake,
convoying the three civilians; but on going in and explaining matters,
and room having been made for them at the table, Sam was also
astonished on looking round to see that a new arrival had taken place
since that morning.
It was that of a handsome singular-looking man. His hair was light, his
whiskers a little darker, and his blonde moustache curled up towards
his eyes like corkscrews or a ram's horns (congratulate me on my
simile). A very merry laughing eye he had, too, blue of course, with
that coloured hair; altogether a very pleasant-looking man, and yet
whose face gave one the idea that it was not at all times pleasant, but
on occasions might look terribly tigerish and fierce. A man who won you
at once, and yet one with whom one would hardly like to quarrel. Add to
this, also, that when he opened his mouth to speak, he disclosed a
splendid set of white teeth, and the moment he'd uttered a word, a
stranger would remark to himself, "That is an Irishman."
Sam, who had ensconced himself beside Alice, looked up the long table
towards him with astonishment. "Why, good gracious, Captain
Desborough," he said, "can that be you?"
"I have been waiting," said Desborough, "with the greatest patience to
see how long you would have the audacity to ignore my presence. How do
you do, my small child? Sam, my dear, if ever I get cashiered for being
too handsome to remain in the Service, I'll carry you about and exhibit
you, as the biggest and ugliest boy in the Australian colonies."
Captain Desborough has been mentioned before in these pages. He was an
officer in the army, at the present time holding the situation of
Inspector of Police in this district. He was a very famous hunter-down
of bushrangers, and was heartily popular with every one he was thrown
against, except the aforesaid bushrangers. Sam and he were very old
friends, and were very fond of one another.
Desborough was sitting now at the upper end of the table, with the
Colonial Secretary, Major Buckley, Captain Blockstrop, Captain
Brentwood, and Doctor Mulhaus. They looked very serious indeed.
"It was a very lucky thing, Desborough," said the Major, "that you
happened to meet Captain Blockstrop. He has now, you perceive, handed
over the care of these rascals to you. It is rather strange that they
should have landed here."
"I believe that they were expected," said the Doctor. "I believe that
there is a desperate scheme of villany afloat, and that some of us are
the objects of it."
"If you mean," said Desborough, "that that man you saw on the Cape last
night was watching for the boat, I don't believe it possible. It was,
possibly, some stockman or shepherd, having a look at the weather."
The Doctor had it on the tip of his tongue to speak, and astound them
by disclosing that the lonely watcher was none other than the ruffian
Touan, alias George Hawker; but the Major pressed his foot beneath the
table, and he was silent.
"Well," said Desborough, "and that's about all that's to be said at
present, except that the settlers must arm and watch, and if necessary
fight."
"If they will only do that," said the Colonial Secretary; "if they will
only act boldly in protecting their property and lives, the evil is
reduced by one-half; but when Brallagan was out, nothing that I or the
Governor could do would induce the majority of them to behave like men."
"Look here, now," said Barker, the host, "I was over the water when
Brallagan was out, and when Howe was out too. And what could a lonely
squatter do against half-a-dozen of 'em? Answer me that?"
"I don't mean that," said the Colonial Secretary; "what I refer to is
the cowardly way in which the settlers allowed themselves to be
prevented by threats from giving information. I speak the more boldly,
Mr. Barker, because you were not one of those who did so."
Barker was appeased. "There's five long guns in my hall, and there's
five long lads can use 'em," he said. "By-the-bye, Captain Desborough,
let me congratulate you on the short work you made with that gang to
the north, the other day. I am sorry to hear that the principal rascal
of the lot, Captain Touan, gave you the slip."
The Doctor had been pondering, and had made up his mind to a certain
course; he bent over the table, and said,--
"I think, on the whole, that it is better to let you all know the
worst. That man whom we saw on the cliff last night I met afterwards,
alone, down on the shore, and that man is no other than the one you
speak of, Captain Touan."
Any one watching Desborough's face as the Doctor spoke would have seen
his eyebrows contract heavily, and a fierce scowl settle on his face.
The name the Doctor mentioned was a very unwelcome one. He had been
taunted and laughed at, at Government-house, for having allowed Hawker
to outwit him. His hot Irish blood couldn't stand that, and he had
vowed to have the fellow somehow. Here he had missed him again, and by
so little, too! He renewed his vow to himself, and in an instant the
cloud was gone, and the merry Irishman was there again.
"My dear Doctor," he said, "I am aware that you never speak at random,
or I should ask you, were you sure of the man? Are you not mistaken?"
"Mistaken in HIM,--eh?" said the Doctor. "No, I was not mistaken."
"You seem to know too much of a very suspicious character, Doctor!"
said Desborough. "I shall have to keep my eye on you, I see!"
* * * * *
Meanwhile, at the other end of the table, more agreeable subjects were
being talked of. There sat our young coterie, laughing loudly, grouping
themselves round some exceedingly minute object, which apparently was
between Sam and Alice, and which, on close examination, turned out to
be little Tacks, who was evidently making himself agreeable in a way
hardly to be expected in one of his tender years. And this is the way
he got there:--
When Captain Blockstrop came in, Alice was duly impressed by the
appearance of that warrior. But when she saw little Tacks slip in
behind him, and sit meekly down by the door; and when she saw how his
character was appreciated by the cattle-dogs, one of whom had his head
in the lad's lap, while the other was licking his face--when she saw, I
say, the little blue and gold apparition, her heart grew pitiful, and,
turning to Halbert, she said,--
"Why, good gracious me! You don't mean to tell me that they take such a
child as that to sea; do you?"
"Oh dear, yes!" said Halbert, "and younger, too. Don't you remember the
story about Collingwood offering his cake to the first lieutenant? He
became, remember, a greater man than Nelson, in all except worldly
honour."
"Would you ask him to come and sit by me, if you please?" said Alice.
So Halbert went and fetched him in, and he sat and had his breakfast
between Alice and Sam. They were all delighted with him; such a child,
and yet so bold and self-helpful, making himself quietly at home, and
answering such questions as were put to him modestly and well. Would
that all midshipmen were like him!
But it became time to go on board, and Captain Blockstrop, coming by
where Alice sat, said, laughing,--
"I hope you are not giving my officer too much marmalade, Miss
Brentwood? He is over-young to be trusted with a jam-pot,--eh, Tacks?"
"Too young to go to sea, I should say," said Alice.
"Not too young to be a brave-hearted boy, however!" said the Captain.
"The other day, in Sydney harbour, one of my marines who couldn't swim
went overboard and this boy soused in after him, and carried the
lifebuoy to him, in spite of sharks. What do you think of that for a
ten-year-old?"
The boy's face flushed scarlet as the Captain passed on, and he held
out his hand to Alice to say good-bye. She took it, looked at him,
hesitated, and then bent down and kissed his cheek--a tender, sisterly
kiss--something, as Jim said, to carry on board with him!
Poor little Tacks! He was a great friend of mine; so I have been
tempted to dwell on him. He came to me with letters of introduction,
and stayed at my place six weeks or more. He served brilliantly, and
rose rapidly, and last year only I heard that Lieutenant Tacks had
fallen in the dust, and never risen again, just at the moment that the
gates of Delhi were burst down, and our fellows went swarming in to
vengeance.