Part 3 (1/2)
”Ay; and I suppose when he handed it to you he made you feel as if you was a dog that he was giving a bone to; didn't he?” said Williams.
”No, he didn't; not by a long ways,” answered Jack. ”He looked and spoke like a thorough-bred gentleman; but he was as perlite and civil as ever a man could be.”
”Civil!” grunted Rogers. ”Well, I don't make no account of that; it's his business to be civil. He's what they calls a civil engineer; though hang me if I know what an engineer wants aboard of a sailing s.h.i.+p.”
”How come _you_ to know he's a civil engineer?” demanded another man.
”Because, d'ye see, mate,” replied Rogers, ”I was one of the hands as was told off to pa.s.s the dunnage up when the pa.s.sengers came alongside; and I read on one of the boxes 'Mr William Gaunt, C.E.' The mate saw it, too; and he says to the skipper, as was standin' close alongside of him, says he:--
”'Mr William Gaunt, C.E.'--what does C.E. stand for? And the skipper, he says: 'What, don't you know? Why, C.E. stands for Civil Engineer, which is the gentleman's purfession,' says he. And that's how I come to know it, matey.”
”Well, civil or not civil, I maintain he ain't a bit better than any of us,” insisted Williams; ”and I want to know by what right he or anybody else is to be allowed to give themselves airs over the likes of us. Can he do anything that any of us can't do? Answer me that if you can,” he demanded defiantly.
”Ay, that can he, my lad,” spoke up Parsons, promptly. ”Why, he's one of them people that builds railroads and bridges and harbours, and the likes of that. Civil engineers is among a sailor's best friends, s.h.i.+pmates. Look at the scores of snug harbours they've built where there was nothing but open roadsteads before. There's Colombo, for instance. Look what a snug spot they've made of that. Why, mates, I was lying at Colombo once before that harbour was built, and we had to keep watch and watch all the time we was there, just the same as if we was at sea, just to take care that the s.h.i.+p didn't strike adrift and go ash.o.r.e. And now, look at the place! Why, you're moored head and starn; and some s.h.i.+ps don't keep even so much as an anchor watch all the time they're there. Don't tell me! A civil engineer's a man of eddication, boys; and that's where he goes to wind'ard of chaps like us. Look at the skipper, again. Any one of us could take him up and toss him over the rail, so far as hard work's concerned. But you give him his charts, and chronometers, and s.e.xtants, and things; put him aboard of a s.h.i.+p, and tell him to take her clear round the world and bring her back again to the same place, _and he can do it_. Why? Eddication again. It's _eddication_, mates, that makes swells of men, that enables 'em to earn big pay, and makes 'em of consequence in the world. There'll be no such thing as equality in this world, Josh, as long as one man lets another get ahead of him in the matter of eddication. Them's my sentiments.”
And Parsons was right, lads. Simple, homely, and unpolished as was his language, he had succeeded in giving utterance to a grand truth; one which all boys will do well to lay to heart and profit by to the utmost extent of their opportunities.
It occupied the men fully until eight bells to get the canvas trimmed to Captain Blyth's satisfaction; after which the watch below retired to the forecastle and to their hammocks.
During the night the wind freshened somewhat, hauled a trifle, and came a point or two free, in consequence of which, when the pa.s.sengers made their appearance on deck next morning to get a breath or two of the fresh sea air before breakfast, they found the s.h.i.+p bowling along at a regular racing pace, with weather braces checked, sheets eased off, and every possible studding-sail set on the weather side. The strange sail was in sight, and still ahead--a shade on the _Flying Cloud's_ lee-bow, if anything--but the distance between the two s.h.i.+ps had been reduced to something like nine miles. Like the _Flying Cloud_, the stranger was covered with canvas from her trucks down; and it was evident, from the circ.u.mstance of her still being ahead, that she was a remarkably fast vessel. Captain Blyth had been on deck from shortly after sunrise, and, notwithstanding a somewhat windy look in the sky, had himself ordered the setting of much of the additional canvas which his s.h.i.+p now carried.
After getting matters in this direction to his mind, he had gone up into the fore-top with his telescope and spent fully half an hour there inspecting the stranger; and when he descended and met his pa.s.sengers on the p.o.o.p, he announced that though still too far distant to permit of actual identification, he was convinced that his first supposition was correct, and that the stranger ahead was none other than the _Southern Cross_.
”And he knows us, too,” he added with a chuckle; ”recognised us at daybreak, and at once turned-to and set his stunsails. But let him, ladies and gentlemen; we have the heels of him in this weather, and we'll be abreast of him in time to exchange numbers before sunset to- night.”
In this a.s.sertion, however, Captain Blyth proved to be reckoning without his host; for as the morning wore on the breeze freshened considerably, obliging him to clew up and furl his skysails one after the other, and then his royals, which seemed to give the leading s.h.i.+p an advantage.
For, whilst by noon the distance between the two vessels had been reduced to about seven miles, after that hour the stranger was, by the aid of Captain Blyth's s.e.xtant, conclusively proved to be holding her own. It was an exciting occasion for all hands; the pa.s.sengers entering fully into the spirit of the time and exciting Captain Blyth's warmest admiration by the sympathetic interest with which they listened over and over again to his story of the long-standing rivalry existing between himself and the skipper of the _Southern Cross_, with its culmination in the bet of a new hat upon the result of the pa.s.sage then in progress.
Mr Gaunt even went so far as to unpack his own s.e.xtant--an exceptionally fine instrument--and to spend most of the time between luncheon and dinner on the topgallant forecastle, in company with the skipper, measuring the angle between the stranger's mast-heads and the horizon. Sometimes this angle grew a few seconds wider, showing the _Flying Cloud_ to be gaining a trifle, then it lessened again; but when dinner was announced the two enthusiasts were reluctantly compelled to admit that, if gain there was on their side, it did not amount to more than a quarter of a mile.
Captain Blyth, however, though somewhat crestfallen at the non- fulfilment of his boast, was still confident in the powers of the s.h.i.+p; but the weather, he explained, had been rather against them that day, the wind had been just a trifle too strong for the _Cloud_ to put out her best paces, whilst it had been all in favour of the other and more powerful s.h.i.+p. But the wind had continued to haul during the day, working more round upon the weather quarter with every hour that pa.s.sed, and he was of opinion that they had caught the trades; the sky looked like a ”trades'” sky, and, if his opinion proved correct, he antic.i.p.ated that as the wind hauled further aft, so would the _Flying Cloud_ decrease the distance between herself and her antagonist.
CHAPTER FOUR.
A MEETING IN MID-OCEAN.
Mr Bryce, the chief-mate of the _Flying Cloud_, was one of those unfortunate men who are always more or less in an ill humour. He was, like poor Mrs Gummidge, ”contrairy,” and so disputatious that it was almost impossible for anyone to make a statement that he would not either deny outright or strive to prove fallacious. He had a permanent quarrel with Fate, which he considered had not treated him in accordance with his high deserts; but as Fate was rather too intangible for him to satisfactorily vent his spleen upon it, he made his fellow creatures Fate's subst.i.tute, and never missed an opportunity to vent his spleen upon them instead. And, as he was a vulgar, surly, ill-bred fellow, he was able to make himself excessively disagreeable when he seriously set about the attempt, as he did when he discovered Captain Blyth's anxiety to overhaul the s.h.i.+p ahead. He did not--he _dared_ not--set himself in opposition to the skipper, because that would have made matters unpleasant for himself; but he promptly saw that, by affecting to share the captain's anxiety, he could at one and the same time inflict great annoyance upon him and a large amount of unnecessary labour upon the crew, or at least upon that portion of it which const.i.tuted the larboard watch. Luckily for this watch it happened that they had to do deck duty only from midnight until four o'clock a.m. on this particular night, so Mr Bryce had only four hours in which to worry them. But during that four hours he did it most thoroughly. His first act on taking charge of the deck at midnight was to glance aloft, then he looked into the binnacle, after which he walked forward and had a look for the _Southern Cross_. That s.h.i.+p, or at least the s.h.i.+p which Captain Blyth averred to be the _Southern Cross_, was just discernible, a faint dark blot upon the star-lit sky; but in that imperfect light it was quite impossible to say whether she was gaining or being gained upon. The chief-mate, however, affected to believe the former, and exclaiming, loud enough for the men to hear him:
”Tut, tut, this will never do! the stranger is walking away from us, and the skipper will make a pretty fuss in the morning,” he there and then began forward with the flying-jib, and made the watch sweat up every halliard throughout the s.h.i.+p, and the same with the sheets of the square canvas. Then, the wind having hauled still further aft, a pull was taken upon all the weather braces; the jib, staysail, and trysail sheets were next eased up a trifle; and, finally, all three skysails were set, only to be clewed up and furled again just before the expiration of the watch. This kept the men pretty busy for the greater part of their four hours on deck, highly exasperating them--which was what the mate intended to do--and producing a general fit of grumbling among them, for which he cared not one iota.
Whether Mr Bryce's excessive zeal was productive of good results or not it is scarcely possible to say--the alterations he effected in the set of the canvas were so trifling that, with the s.h.i.+p running off the wind, it is probable they were not--but, be this as it may, the fact remains that at daylight next morning the stranger, still ahead, had been neared to within about four miles.
Captain Blyth, as might be expected, was on deck early that morning-- before, in fact, the watch had begun to wash down the decks--and, observing that the stranger was carrying skysails, he immediately ordered his own to be set, the sails, small as they were, being capable of doing good service now that the wind was so far aft. He was in the most amiable of humours; for not only was he getting a trifle the best in the race, but the look of the sky was such as to convince him that he had undoubtedly caught the north-east trades, and that he was therefore certain of a good run at least as far as the line. His enthusiasm at the breakfast-table became almost wearisome, though his pa.s.sengers listened to him with the most indulgent good-nature; but it was a distinct relief to them when he rose from the table to superintend on deck the setting of the larboard studding-sails, which had now become possible through the wind drawing dead aft.
This change of wind was slightly disadvantageous to both s.h.i.+ps, much of the fore-and-aft canvas becoming useless, whilst even the square canvas on the foremast was partially becalmed by that on the main; but it soon became evident that, relatively, the _Flying Cloud_ was a gainer by it, the distance between the two s.h.i.+ps now lessening perceptibly. By noon they were separated by a s.p.a.ce of barely half a mile, by which time the ident.i.ty of the stranger had been established beyond all doubt. Captain Blyth hastened, therefore, to get and work up his meridian alt.i.tude, hoisted his ensign at the peak, and, as both s.h.i.+ps appeared to be steering admirably, proceeded to edge down within hailing distance of the _Southern Cross_.
By half an hour after noon the two s.h.i.+ps were abreast of each other, and divided by a s.p.a.ce of little more than a hundred feet of water. The pa.s.sengers--of whom the _Southern Cross_ carried twenty in her saloon-- were mustered, in their fine-weather toggery, on the p.o.o.ps of the two s.h.i.+ps, eyeing each other curiously at intervals, but chiefly intent upon the impending ceremony of ”speaking,” the two captains having established themselves in their respective mizen-rigging. At length, when the two craft were as close to each other as it was prudent to take them, Captain Blyth took off his cap, bowed, and said:
”Good-morning, Captain Spence! This is a pleasant surprise for us; we scarcely hoped to see you before reaching Melbourne. What has happened to detain you on the way?”
”Good-morning, Captain Blyth! I am very glad we have fallen in with each other so early in the voyage,” answered Captain Spence. ”I have been looking out for you during the last three or four days, for, with such very fine weather as we have had lately, I expected you would completely outsail us. How has the wind been with you? We have had it light and shy, so far, during the entire voyage, except for the little slant we got down channel on our first day out.”