Part 1 (1/2)
The Black Bar
by George Manville Fenn
CHAPTER ONE
TWO MIDDIES AND A MONKEY
”We've done wrong, Van There'll be a jolly row about it”
”Get out! What's the good of talking now? You were as ready to have him as I was Lie still, will you? or I'll pitch you overboard”
Twoto Her Majesty's fast little cruiser _Nautilus_, stationed on the west coast of Africa ”blackberrying,” so theas the reason that the job was ”black and berry nasty” The sun shone as it can shi+ne in the neighbourhood of the equator, and the sea looked like sooil, as it slowly heaved up and sank with the long ground swell, the light flashi+ng fro the faces of so aside the smart crew of the cutter in their white duck shi+rts and trousers and straw hats, with faces, necks, and hands of a any brown, the two speakers may be taken as fair salish lad of sixteen or seventeen
Mark Vandean, who leaned back and had wrenched hi behind hiood warm Russian leather brohile his companion, Bob Howlett, who held the rudder-lines, displayed in addition to ruddy brown cheeks a nose in a
The boat went swiftly through the water, as the h ash blades of their oars curve ere they rose and scattered the flashi+ng drops, which seehten the scene where all was flat and monotonous, and the view contracted by a dead silvery haze of heat Behind them was the low flat shore with a few scattered white houses and factories behind a rough landing-stage
There were pal line, and on either side of the opening out of a roves--tree cripples, Mark Vandean called the up on crutches A few boats lay in thewith its yards unsquared was at anchor higher up, and a sharp eye could detect a figure or two about the beach On either side, as far as eye could reach, there was a line of surf
That was all shoreward, while out to sea, a couple of miles or so away, smart and business-like, with her tall spars and carefully squared yards and rigging, cobweb-like in texture at that distance, lay at anchor in the open road-stead HMS _Nautilus_ waiting to gather ”blackberries” at the first opportunity, and tohich s steadily propelled
The object ordered to lie still under pain of being pitched overboard did not lie, but crouched a little lower, and increased the wrinkles in its deeply lined forehead, above which was a thin fringe of hair, blinked its wondering eyes, and looked piteously at the speaker
It was the face of an old ether, and devoid of lips, but giving the idea that it was about to s in its place, but as if to ely developed, rounded, and stood out on either side in a pronounced fashi+on For it was theas a sturdy two-year-old boy
All at once the stroke oarsan to wipe the perspiration froood-humoured face
”Hullo!” shouted one of the ?”
”Beg pardon, sir; won't be none ofall away Like to put the new hand in my place?”
”New hand?” said the other middy; ”what do you mean?”
”Gent as you have behind you there”
Mark Vandean frowned, and drew himself up, tried to look severe as an officer, but he was confronted by five grinning faces, and the ious; he smiled at the idea, and the et on board This is no tiain, and the boat answered to its nah the water towards the little man-o'-war
”But there will be a row about it, old fellohispered Bob Howlett
”Oh, very well then, they must row,” said Mark Vandean pettishly
”There's no haret it there”
”Don't you be uneasy about that, Mr Vandean, sir,” said the stroke oarsent aboard somehow, even if I has to lend hi jokes, Tom Fillot, and pull hard”