Part 6 (1/2)

”Uncle Terence, you bate me, I'll acknowledge, but if it hadn't been for the fat bishop I'd have won,” exclaimed Gerald, as they met Adair not very comfortable in his mind, coming back to look for them.

”We shall all get into a precious row, ye young spalpeen, in consequence of your freak,” answered Adair. ”Why didn't you pull up at once when I told you?”

”Pull up was it ye say, Uncle Terence?” cried the irrepressible young Irish boy. ”Faith now, that's a good joke. Didn't I pull till I thought my arms would be after coming off, but my baste pulled a mighty dale harder.”

”Really that nephew of mine will be getting into serious difficulties if he does not learn to restrain the exuberance of his spirits,” said Terence quite seriously to Jack, as they rode on together. ”When I was a youngster I never went as far as he does.”

”As to that, we are apt to forget what we were, and what we did, in the days of our boyhood,” answered Jack, laughing heartily.

”You certainly had a wonderful apt.i.tude for getting out of sc.r.a.pes when you had tumbled into them. However, as it is wiser to keep clear of them altogether, you will do well to give your nephew a lecture on the subject, and I hope that he will benefit by it. I intend to bestow some good advice on Tom on the subject. Many a promising lad injures his future prospects by thoughtlessness. Though we were not always as wise as Solomon, we were invariably sober fellows, or we should probably have come to grief like so many others we have known.”

”Faith, yes, it was that last magnum of Madeira floored the bishop and Commander Babbicome, no doubt about it,” observed Adair, with a twinkle in his eye.

By this time they had reached the beach, when the arrieros having claimed their horses, not forgetting a liberal payment for their use, the party returned in sh.o.r.e-boats to the s.h.i.+ps.

The next morning Commander Babbicome's anger was somewhat cooled down, though to vindicate his outraged dignity, as he could not punish the _Plantagenet's_ mids.h.i.+pmen, he stopped all leave from the _Tudor_.

Captain Hemming considering that the matter should not be altogether overlooked, took Tom and Gerald on sh.o.r.e to apologise to the bishop, who instead of being angry, laughed heartily, and gave them a basket full of sweet cakes and fruit, for which, though it was a gentle hint that he looked upon them as children, they were very much obliged to him, and voted him a first-rate old fellow.

When the mids.h.i.+pmen of the _Tudor_ heard of it they wanted to go and apologise also, but as none of them unfortunately had tumbled over his lords.h.i.+p, they could not find a sufficient excuse for paying him a visit, and though they sent a deputation on board the _Plantagenet_ to put in a claim for a share, old Higson declined to entertain it.

Captain Hemming afterwards went on board the _Tudor_, and having told Commander Babbicome of the kind way the bishop had behaved, suggested that it was more Christian-like to forgive than revenge an insult even if premeditated, while that of which he complained certainly was not, and finally induced him to promise that he would say no more about the matter.

The repairs of the _Tudor_ were nearly completed.

”A man-of-war steamer coming in from the eastward,” reported the signal-mids.h.i.+pman to Mr Cherry.

”She has made her number the _Pluto_,” he shortly added.

The _Pluto's_ huge paddle-wheels soon brought her into the bay, when the lieutenant commanding her came on board the _Plantagenet_, with despatches for Captain Hemming.

”It was thought possible that we might catch you here as we have had a good deal of calm weather, and our wheels carry us along rather faster than your sails under such circ.u.mstances,” observed the lieutenant, who knew that his tea-kettle was held in no great respect.

”Ah, yes, steam is useful for despatch-boats,” answered the captain, in a slightly sarcastic tone, as he opened the despatches.

He was to direct the _Plantagenet_ and _Tudor_ to proceed without delay to Trinidad, and thence to go on to Jamaica, calling at the larger Caribbean Islands, belonging to Great Britain, on their way. There was an idea that the blacks were in an unsettled state of mind, and that the appearance of a couple of men-of-war would tend to keep them in order.

Instantly the news became known there was a general bustle on board the frigate. Washed clothes had to be got off and fresh provisions obtained. She was to sail at daylight the next morning, and the _Tudor_ was to follow as soon as ready.

”What are we to do for our washed clothes?” exclaimed Higson. ”Mother Lobo wasn't to bring them on board till to-morrow evening, and if we send to her the chances are she doesn't get the message or doesn't understand it if she does.”

”Sure, the best thing will be to go for them, then,” exclaimed Gerald.

”Does any one know where she lives?”

”Well thought of, youngster,” said Higson; ”I know where she hangs out, to the west of the town, beyond the old convent, some way up the hill, but as I can't make her understand a word I say, even if I was to go there, I should not much forward matters.”

”But I can talk Portuguese like a native,” exclaimed Norris, a mids.h.i.+pman who had been on board a s.h.i.+p stationed at Lisbon for several months, and who, professing to be a great linguist, was always ready to act as interpreter. Whether he understood the replies of the natives or not, he never failed to translate them. It was reported of him that once having accompanied the first lieutenant on sh.o.r.e to get a new topmast made, he asked the Portuguese carpenter at the dockyard,--”In how many dayso will you make a new topmasto for mio fregato?”

”Nao intende,” was the answer.

”'Not in ten days,' he says, sir,” reported Norris to the lieutenant.