Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: Hunting the Skipper: The Cruise of the Seafowl Sloop by Fenn George Manville Piffard Harold Illustrator
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page
Ebook has 5023 lines and 143932 words, and 101 pages
"Steam out of a copper."
"Bah!"
"What, won't that do?"
"Do? No! There--like a dream."
"Brayvo! Werry pretty, as Sam Weller said. Oh, here's Tommy May--Here, Tom, what do you think of the weather?" said the lad, addressing a bluff-looking seaman.
"Weather, sir?" said the man, screwing up his face till it was one maze of wrinkles. "Beg pardon, sir, but did you mean that as one of your jokes, sir, or was it a conundydrum?"
"Oh, don't ask questions, Tom, but just tell us plainly what you think of the weather."
"Nothing, sir; it's too hot to think," replied the man.
"Quite right, May," said the other midshipman. "Don't bother the poor fellow, Murray. Here, May, what do you fellows before the mast think about the slavers?"
"Slippery as the mud of the river banks, sir."
"Good," said Murray. "Well spoken, Tom. But do you think there are any about here?"
"Oh yes, sir," said the man; "no doubt about it. They on'y want catching."
"No, no," cried Murray. "That's just what they don't want."
"Right you are, sir; but you know what I mean."
"I suppose so," said Murray; "but do you chaps, when you are chewing it all over along with your quids, believe that we shall come upon any of them?"
"Poor sluggish sloop of war!" said Roberts.
"Nay, nay, sir," said the man, "begging your pardon, she's as smart a vessel as ever I sailed in, with as fine a captain and officers, 'specially the young gentlemen."
"Now, none of your flattering gammon, Tom."
"If!" said Roberts bitterly.
"That's what we want to see, Tom," said Murray.
"Course you do, gentlemen, and all we lads forrard are itching for it, that we are--just about half mad."
"For prize money?" said Roberts sourly.
"Prize money, sir?" replied the man. "Why, of course, sir. It's a Bri'sh sailor's nature to like a bit of prize money at the end of a v'y'ge; but, begging your pardon, sir, don't you make no mistake. There arn't a messmate o' mine as wouldn't give up his prize money for the sake of overhauling a slaver and reskying a load o' them poor black beggars. It's horrid; that's what it just is."
"Quite right, May," said Roberts.
"Thankye, sir," said the man; "and as we was a-saying on'y last night-- talking together we was as we lay out on the deck because it was too stuffycatin' to sleep."
"So it was, May," said Roberts.
"Yes, sir; reg'lar stifler. Well, what we all agreed was that what we should like to do was to set the tables upside down."
"What for?" said Murray, giving his comrade a peculiar glance from the corner of his eye.
"Why, to give the poor niggers a chance to have a pop at some of the slavers' crews, sir, to drive 'em with the whip and make 'em work in the plantations, sir, like dumb beasts. I should like to see it, sir."
"Well said, Tom!" cried Murray.
"Thankye, sir. But it's slow work ketching, sir, for you see it's their swift craft."
"Which makes them so crafty, eh, Tom?" cried Murray.
"Yes, sir. I don't quite understand what you mean, sir, but I suppose it's all right, and--"
"Sail on the lee bow!" sang out a voice from the main-top.
BOTHER THE FOG.
A minute before those words were shouted from the main-top, the low-toned conversation carried on by the two young officers, with an occasional creak or rattle from a swinging sail was all that broke the silence of the drowsy vessel; now from everywhere came the buzz of voices and the hurrying trample of feet.
"That's woke us up, Richard, my son," said Murray.
"Yes, and it means a chance at last."
"If."
"Only this; we just managed to sight that schooner before she died away again in the haze."
"Not quite, old fellow."
"Bah! What a fellow you are, Frank! You're never satisfied," cried Roberts. "What have you got in your head now?"
"Only this; we had long enough before the haze closed in to sight the schooner well."
"Of course. We agreed to that."
"Well, suppose it gave them time enough to see us?"
"Doubtful. A vessel like that is not likely to have a man aloft on the lookout."
"There I don't agree with you, Dick. It strikes me that they must keep a very sharp lookout on board these schooners, or else we must have overhauled one of them before now."
"Humph!" said Roberts shortly. "Well, we shall see. According to my ideas it won't be very long before we shall be sending a shot across that schooner's bows, and then a boat aboard. Hurrah! Our bad luck is broken at last."
"Doesn't look like it," said Murray, who had dropped all light flippancy and banter, to speak now as the eager young officer deeply interested in everything connected with his profession.
"Oh, get out!" cried Roberts. "What do you mean by your croaking? Look at the way in which our duck has spread her wings and is following in the schooner's wake. It's glorious, and the very air seems in our favour, for it isn't half so hot."
"I mean," said Murray quietly, "that the mist is growing more dense."
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page