Part 2 (1/2)

I answered that I was perfectly ready, for I at once took a great fancy to him, and thought I should be very happy in the cutter.

He now observed Larry for the first time.

”What! old s.h.i.+pmate,” he exclaimed, shaking him warmly by the hand, ”are you the trustworthy person Dr Driscoll told me he would send to look after the youngster? I'm delighted to see you again, and wish I could give you a berth on board my craft, but I'm afraid the service won't permit that. You must, however, come and take a cruise with us, and talk over old times.”

”Faith, your honour, I'm not much fit for duty, I own, with my timber toe, afloat, and I've just found a snug berth on sh.o.r.e, which I intend to keep till Master D'Arcy settles down in the halls of his fathers, and wants my services; but I'll gladly take a cruise with your honour, and just see how he practises all I've taught him. You'll find him in a few days, I'll warrant, as smart a seaman as many who've been two or three years afloat.”

To make a long story short, while Larry remained on sh.o.r.e with his new-found wife, I went on board the cutter; and the following day we ran out of harbour, round by Saint Helen's, and stood down Channel in search of a smuggling craft, of whose movements the Commander had received notice.

I found my uncle, on further acquaintance, to be what his looks betokened him, a thoroughly honest, hearty sailor. His first officer was a very old mate who had long given up all hopes of promotion in the service. He was married; and his wife and family lived near Portsmouth.

His name was John Hanks. There was a second master and a clerk in charge; so that, for a cutter, we made up an unusually large mess. We had no surgeon, as we could always run into harbour if any of us required doctoring.

My uncle, who was a poor man, had taken the command of the cutter for the sake of his wife and family; and when I came to know my sweet young aunt, I felt, with her smiles to welcome him when he got home, Lieutenant O'Flaherty was a happier man far than many who roll in their easy carriages about the streets of smoky London.

Mrs O'Flaherty, with the two children she then had, lived in a pretty little cottage near Ryde, where he was able every now and then to go and see her. Of course he was never wanting in an excuse, when duty would allow him, to be off Ryde; and on one of these occasions he first introduced me to his wife. I loved her at once, for she was a thoroughly genuine, graceful woman, young and pretty, with a kind, warm heart, and a sweet expression of countenance, which her character did not belie. My little cousins and I also became great friends, and I confess that I felt I would much rather stay with her than have to go to sea and knock about in all weathers in the cutter; but duty sent us both on board again, and it was a long time before I had another opportunity of paying a visit to Daisy Cottage.

But I have been going ahead of my narrative.

We were standing down Channel in the _Serpent_. Our cruising ground was chiefly from Saint Helen's to the Start; but we were liable to be sent elsewhere, or might go wherever our Commander had notice there was a chance of catching a smuggler.

We had been out some days, keeping a sharp look-out off Portland Point for a noted fellow, Myers by name, the owner of a fast lugger, the _Kitty_, who was expected to try and run a cargo of tubs in that neighbourhood.

The smugglers played us all sorts of tricks, and I must own we were more than once taken in by them. On one occasion, while it was blowing very fresh, a cutter hailed us and told us that she had just pa.s.sed over a number of tubs, pointing out the direction where we should find them.

While we were engaged in picking them up, she made sail for the sh.o.r.e; and we afterwards learned, to our mortification, that she had run a very large cargo of contraband goods.

Thanks to Larry's instructions, as I was very handy in a boat, and understood the duties of a mids.h.i.+pman tolerably well, I was, to my great delight, soon placed in charge of one of the gigs.

A few days after the occurrence I have described, when we were about mid Channel, we observed a vessel whose appearance was suspicious. It had just gone two bells, in the forenoon watch. It was blowing pretty fresh from the south-west, and there was a lop of a sea, but not enough to endanger a boat. We made sail towards the stranger, and as we neared her we perceived that she was veering about, apparently under no control.

”Her main-boom has gone,” observed Hanks, ”and there doesn't seem to be a soul on deck; her crew have been knocked or washed overboard, I suspect.”

”I am afraid so,” said the Commander. ”She looks to me like a pilot-boat. She was probably struck by a squall, with only a couple of hands left in her.”

”Lubberly work somehow, at all events,” remarked Hanks.

In another ten minutes we were close to the pilot-boat, and the cutter being hove-to, a boat was lowered, and Hanks and I were ordered to go in her and see what was the matter. When we gained the deck, we found that the boom had knocked away part of the bulwarks and companion-hatch, and committed other damage. The first thing we did was to lower down the mainsail and to secure the boom, which task, after some difficulty, we accomplished. We next set about searching the vessel, thinking that no one was on board. The main hatch was on, but there was a little cabin aft, with a small stove in it, and six berths, in which the crew lived.

There was a table in the cabin, and on it were a couple of tumblers, a thick-necked, square-sided gla.s.s bottle, on its side, a broken pipe, and wet marks, and ashes of tobacco, as if people had very lately been drinking there.

”What's wrong here?” said Hanks. ”It could not have been long ago since some one was on board.”

Our eyes soon began to get accustomed to the sombre light of the cabin, which was darkened by the mainsail hanging over it. I happened to stoop down, and my eyes glanced under the table, where we had not before looked.

”Hillo,” I exclaimed, ”why here are a man's legs.”

”There seems to be two brace of them,” said Hanks, laughing. ”Come out, my hearties, and give an account of yourselves.”

Saying this, he began to drag towards the companion-ladder one of the men; I following his example with regard to the other.