Part 22 (1/2)

It was my first watch that night, and Swinburne was quarter-master on deck. ”Swinburne,” said I, ”you have often been in the Indies before, why did you not tell me that the men were '_sucking the monkey_,' when I thought that they were only drinking cocoa-nut milk?”

Swinburne chuckled, and answered, ”Why, Mr Simple, d'ye see, it didn't become me as a s.h.i.+pmate to peach. It's but seldom that a poor fellow has an opportunity of making himself a 'little happy,' and it would not be fair to take away the chance. I suppose you'll never let them have cocoa-nut milk again?”

”No, that I will not; but I cannot imagine what pleasure they can find in getting so tipsy.”

”It's merely because they are not allowed to be so, sir. That's the whole story in few words.”

”I think I could cure them, if I were permitted to try.”

”I should like to hear how you'd manage that, Mr Simple.”

”Why, I would oblige a man to drink off a half pint of liquor, and then put him by himself. I would not allow him companions to make merry with, so as to make a pleasure of intoxication. I would then wait until next morning when he was sober, and leave him alone with a racking headache until the evening, when I would give him another dose, and so on, forcing him to get drunk until he hated the smell of liquor.”

”Well, Mr Simple, it might do with some, but many of our chaps would require the dose you mention to be repeated pretty often before it would effect a cure; and what's more, they'd be very willing patients, and make no wry faces at their physic.”

”Well, that may be, but it would cure them at last. But tell me, Swinburne, were you ever in a hurricane?”

”I've been in everything, Mr Simple, I believe, except a school, and I never had no time to go there. Did you see that battery at Needham Point? Well, in the hurricane of '82, them same guns were whirled away by the wind, right over to this point here on the opposite side, the sentries in their sentry-boxes after them. Some of the soldiers who faced the wind had their teeth blown down their throats like broken 'baccy pipes, others had their heads turned round like dog vanes; 'cause they waited for orders to the '_right about face_,' and the whole air was full of young _n.i.g.g.e.rs_, blowing about like peelings of _ingons_.”

”You don't suppose I believe all this, Swinburne?”

”That's as may be, Mr Simple; but I've told the story so often, that believe it myself.”

”What s.h.i.+p were you in?”

”In the _Blanche_, Captain Faulkner, who was as fine a fellow as poor Captain Savage, whom we buried yesterday; there could not be a finer than either of them. I was at the taking of the _Pique_, and carried him down below after he had received his mortal wound. We did a pretty thing out here when we took Fort Royal by a coup-de-main, which means, boarding from the main-yard of the frigate, and dropping from it into the fort. But what's that under the moon?--that a sail in the offing.”

Swinburne fetched the gla.s.s and directed it to the spot. ”One, two, three, four. It's the admiral, sir, and the squadron hove-to for the night. One's a line-of-battle s.h.i.+p, I'll swear.” I examined the vessels, and agreeing with Swinburne, reported them to Mr Falcon. My watch was then over, and as soon as I was released I went to my hammock.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

CAPTAIN KEARNEY--THE DIGNITY BALL.

The next morning at daylight we exchanged numbers, and saluted the flag, and by eight o'clock they all anch.o.r.ed. Mr Falcon went on board the admiral's s.h.i.+p with despatches, and to report the death of Captain Savage. In about half-an-hour he returned, and we were glad to perceive, with a smile upon his face, from which we argued that he would receive his acting order as commander, which was a question of some doubt, as the admiral had the power to give the vacancy to whom he pleased, although it would not have been fair if he had not given it to Mr Falcon; not that Mr Falcon would not have received his commission, as Captain Savage dying when the s.h.i.+p was under no admiral's command, he _made himself_; but still the admiral might have sent him home, and not have given him a s.h.i.+p. But this he did, the captain of the _Minerve_, being appointed to the _Sanglier_, the captain of the _Opossum_ to the _Minerve_, and Captain Falcon taking the command of the _Opossum_. He received his commission that evening, and the next day the exchanges were made. Captain Falcon would have taken me with him, and offered so to do; but I could not leave O'Brien, so I preferred remaining in the _Sanglier_.

We were all anxious to know what sort of a person our new captain was whose name was Kearney; but we had no time to ask the mids.h.i.+pmen except when they came in charge of the boats which brought his luggage: they replied generally, that he was a very good sort of fellow, and there was no harm in him. But when I had the night watch with Swinburne, he came up to me, and said, ”Well, Mr Simple, so we have a new captain, I sailed with him for two years in a brig.”

”And pray, Swinburne, what sort of a person is he?”

”Why, I'll tell you, Mr Simple; he's a good-tempered, kind fellow enough, but--”

”But what?”

”Such a _bouncer_!!”

”How do you mean? He's not a very stout man.”

”Bless you, Mr Simple, why, you don't understand English. I mean that he's the greatest liar that ever walked a deck. Now, Mr Simple, you know I can spin a yarn occasionally.”

”Yes, that you can; witness the hurricane the other night.”

”Well, Mr Simple, I cannot _hold a candle_ to him. It a'n't that I might not stretch now and again, just for fun, as far as he can, but, d.a.m.n it, he's always on the stretch. In fact, Mr Simple, he never tells the truth except _by mistake_. He's as poor as a rat, and has nothing but his pay; yet to believe him, he is worth at least as much as Greenwich Hospital. But you'll soon find him out, and he'll sarve to laugh at behind his back, you know, Mr Simple, for that's _no go_ before his face.”