Part 54 (1/2)
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
EFFORTS MADE TO RECOVER THE MIDs.h.i.+PMEN--MURRAY SAILS FOR ENGLAND--AN OFFER FROM A NATIVE TO RECOVER THE MIDs.h.i.+PMEN--THE FLEET ASCENDS THE PARANA--THE SUPPLEJACK SENT IN SEARCH OF THE ENEMY'S VESSELS--CHASES A SCHOONER UP A RIVER--NEEDHAM CAUGHT IN A TRAP--BOAT EXPEDITION--SCHOONER BLOWS UP, AND JACK IS BLOWN UP WITH HER--RETURN--NO NEWS OF THE MIDs.h.i.+PMEN--THE SUPPLEJACK COMMENCES VOYAGE UP THE PARANA.
Jack keenly felt the loss of his brother Tom. What might be his and Desmond's fate it was impossible to say, though he could not suppose that the gauchos, savage as they were supposed to be, would put the two young mids.h.i.+pmen to death. He and Adair had for several days made vain attempts to gain information about them.
Their captors might by this time be hundreds of miles away. All they could learn was that the troops of Rosas, having entirely abandoned Fort Obligado, had retreated to a distance. Jack, too, heard that Murray was certainly to be sent home in the _Tudor_, and for the sake of his friend he was glad of this, but he then should lose the a.s.sistance of Adair in his endeavours to recover Tom and Desmond.
He was seated in his cabin one evening after the work of the day was over, with his head resting on his hands--a very unusual position for him--when Lieutenant Adair was announced.
”Beg him to come below,” answered Jack, and Adair entered the cabin.
”I am glad to say, my dear Jack, that I am to remain out here instead of taking the corvette home, which, for Murray's sake as well as my own, I should have naturally wished to do; but besides wis.h.i.+ng to see the end of this affair with Rosas, I should have been excessively unwilling to leave the country till we can get back our young scapegraces. I wish we could see Murray looking as if he was in a fair way to recover. Still the doctors say he will do well, and the thought of again meeting with his lady-love will, I hope, a.s.sist to bring him round. He expects to find her in England, though I fancy that he has not heard from her since we came out here.”
”I am indeed glad that you are to remain,” said Jack. ”What s.h.i.+p are you to join?”
”I am appointed to the commodore's s.h.i.+p, but I have received directions to serve under your orders on board the _Supplejack_, which I a.s.sure you gives me infinite satisfaction, as I have hopes that you and I, by putting our heads together, may devise some plan for the recovery of the youngsters.”
Jack of course said how glad he was.
”When does the _Tudor_ sail?” he asked.
”As soon as the wind will allow her,” said Adair.
”At all events, I will go on board early to-morrow morning to see Murray,” said Jack. ”The worst of it is that I must, of course, send a letter by him; and yet I scarcely like to write home with the unsatisfactory intelligence I have to give. However, they will be more anxious and alarmed if they do not hear, so I must tell the whole truth, and express my hopes that we shall recover the youngsters before long.”
”I must write the same to my poor sister Nora,” observed Terence. ”I was half inclined to say nothing at all about the matter; but as it is certain to get into the papers, the poor woman will see it and be troubling herself about her boy, and fancying that she is never to see him again. For my part, I feel sure, however, that the youngsters will turn up somewhere or other; as it is my firm conviction, from experience, that a mids.h.i.+pman has as many lives as a cat, or, considering the immense trouble most youngsters take to expend themselves, there would be no superior officers in the service.”
”What is the squadron to do next? have you heard?” asked Jack.
”To proceed up the Parana to Santa Fe de Baxadar, and to convoy down a fleet of merchantmen which Rosas has shut up there,” answered Adair.
”Whether or not he will let us pa.s.s peaceably up is the question. He has still got plenty of light artillery, which will prove excessively troublesome to us, as they can fire from the top of the cliffs right down on our decks, and, as we may probably be peppered pretty severely for the greater part of the way, it will not be altogether an amusing expedition, though we may get plenty 'of the bubble reputation, e'en at the cannon's mouth.' Anything, however, is better than idleness.”
”We are not likely out here to meet with much besides fighting to amuse us,” observed Jack. ”However, I am thankful to find that you are to join the brig, and am much obliged to the commodore for it.”
The two old s.h.i.+pmates sat talking for some time, and as soon as Terence returned to the corvette, Jack took out his writing materials and indited his letter for home. He made as light of Tom's capture as possible, and spoke as if it was certain that he and Desmond would find their way back again before many days were over. He begged that his father would find out Murray through Admiral Triton, and from him learn where the Bradshaws, with Miss O'Regan, were staying, that his family might pay them any attention in their power; he expressed a hope that, after the Parana business was over, he himself should be sent home, and bring back Tom safe and sound.
He tried to make his letter appear cheerful, but in reality he never in his life before felt so much out of spirits.
Next morning he took it on board the _Tudor_ and wished Murray farewell.
”You will do well, depend on it, Alick,” he said. ”You already look better, and we shall meet again before long in old England.”
Murray smiled faintly; his wound was painful, though the surgeon a.s.sured him that it was going on favourably. The officer who was to supersede Adair having come on board the corvette, the latter accompanied Jack back to the brig.
He received an order directly afterwards to proceed in search of a schooner, supposed to be in one of the numerous pa.s.sages which carries the waters of the Parana into the River Plate.
”It is very well to say go, but we must get a breeze first,” said Jack.
A breeze soon afterwards got up, but it came from the wrong direction; it was, however, favourable for the _Tudor_, and Jack and Terence watched her as her sails were let fall, and she glided away down the river. They would for many reasons have liked to have been on board her. Few men, after having spent several years on a foreign station, can look without concern on a homeward-bound s.h.i.+p, which carries away friends and acquaintances, while they themselves are left behind.