Part 19 (1/2)

”I made no bet,” answered Togle. ”You offered to bet yourself, but you didn't propose what it should be,--a dinner at the Star, or--”

Just then a personage appeared at the door of the berth, who was immediately appealed to.

”Oh! come in here, Muhajiar; you'll know all about it,” cried Jack Raby.

”Take a gla.s.s. We haven't seen you for some time. Have you heard whether we are going home?”

”So the purser's steward told me, gentlemen, and it is generally believed throughout the s.h.i.+p,” returned the individual addressed, who entered with such a bow as he could contrive to find room to make, and took his seat at the table, where with much gusto he drank off the porter offered to him. He was a stout, tallish man, with a good expression of countenance, and most of those who remember Malta in those and even later days, will recollect him as one of the most respectable tailors in the place. He had been, I believe, in the marines; but getting his discharge, set up for himself as a builder of garments, and soon managed to establish a very thriving business. He was always on the watch, and the moment a s.h.i.+p dropped her anchor he would come on board to take orders. He knew everybody and everything that was going forward, and was, consequently, a great authority.

”Huzza! it is true, for Paolo Muhajiar has heard it,” exclaimed Togle, looking hard at Duff. ”Well, Jemmy, I'll let you off your bet--but you will see that I am right.”

Signor Paolo Muhajiar took his leave, for he was not likely to get any orders, at all events, to be paid, if he executed them; and the berth was soon cleared of its rightful occupants--some to go on sh.o.r.e, others to their duties, and the rest to see what was going forward in the harbour.

The scene there was amusing. There were boats of all sorts and descriptions alongside; but there is one peculiarity of which Valetta may boast, to the disadvantage of nearly all other ports. The boats intended for the conveyance of pa.s.sengers are kept in good order, and beautifully clean; and the boatmen belonging to them are also very careful to dress neatly--their linen always looking as white as snow.

Some of the boats alongside had goats on board, and the aquatic goat-herds were offering to milk them to supply milk for the officers'

tea. It is not a bad way to secure pure milk.

The three mids of the _Ione_--Jack Raby, Duff, and Togle--were on the p.o.o.p leaning over the quarter-rail, and amusing themselves by discussing affairs in general, and watching the panorama round them, when a boat with two thin, slight lads pulled out of the dockyard creek.

”He for dive, signor,” sung out one of them, looking up at our mids.

”He says he'll bet you he'll dive to the bottom and be back again sooner than you will, Togle. So overboard with you, and show him he's wrong,”

said Duff, trying to heave over his messmate.

”He says he'll bring up a s.h.i.+lling if you heave it overboard,” answered Togle, retaliating by seizing the first coin he could lay hands on out of Master Jemmy's waistcoat pocket--it was fortunately only half-a-crown. ”There, Smaitch, it's too much for one of you though, so both of you be after it.”

And holding it up to show, before Duff could s.n.a.t.c.h at it, it was glancing through the clear water of the harbour. Over went both the lads after it, eager to appropriate so rich a prize, and it is to be feared, had they had knives, they would have fought for it under the waves, and have neither of them returned. Luckily Duff, as he could not save his own coin, had managed to seize a s.h.i.+lling from Togle, which served to attract the attention of the one who was furthest from the great prize, and both of them came up to the surface an instant afterwards, with the pieces of money in their hands.

”Me for dive, signor--me for dive,” they both again sung out, hoping to get another coin from Raby.

”No, no more me for dive, you blackguards,” he answered, shaking his head. ”You've had quite enough from these two Master Greens already.”

And the lads, after singing out a few more times, pulled on ahead, still crying, ”Me for dive, signor; me for dive;” though little, beyond a few pence, did they get from the crew of an old Mediterranean cruiser like the _Ione_.

”Now suppose there were sharks here as they have in the West Indies, it would not be quite so easy to go overboard as it is,” observed Duff, who quickly recovered his temper, which he had lost with his half-crown.

”Oh, these fellows would laugh at a shark,” answered Raby. ”Why even the blackies don't fear them, and will attack and kill the largest. By the by, did you ever hear of the big fellow they keep in Port Royal harbour to do the duty of guard-boat? Not a man dares swim on sh.o.r.e when big Tom is on duty, and he never takes a snooze they say.”

”You don't mean to say so,” said Togle, ”but how do they manage to keep him there?”

”Oh, the Government promised him a superannuated pension when he's no longer fit for work; but, as he finds he must go on sh.o.r.e to receive it, he is obliged to keep afloat; though he's been so many years at it that no one remembers when he first came on the station.”

”He must be a rum old joker,” observed Duff. ”Hillo, here comes old Monsieur Collet with his cargo of ginger-beer. Let's go and get some; for I'm very thirsty.”

And away they all three scrambled to the gangway, to which a boat had come with a little wizened old man in her, and laden with bottles of ginger-beer, and other refres.h.i.+ng drinks.

”Hand us up ginger-beer there,” sung out Jemmy Duff. ”But, I say, Monsieur Collet, remember, no pop--no pay.”

”Oh, no, signor. All my ginger-beer pop very much.”