Part 6 (1/2)
”No, of course not,” I replied. ”I've only just joined the service, I tell you.”
”Ah, you jist wait then,” said he, taking this observation of mine for a fresh lead. ”I wer' out once, I tells yer, in the brig when the sea wos mountings 'igh, an' the wind--Lor'! Yer shood 'a 'errd it blow! It took the mizzen to's'le right clean out of 'er; an' there wos four on us at the wheel, ay, 'sides old Jellybelly.”
”Why,” I exclaimed, ”who is he?”
”The quarter-master, in course,” rejoined Larrikins indignantly. ”Where wos yer raised not fur to know that afore? He allers goes by that name aboard s.h.i.+p, as everybody knows.”
He was proceeding to tell me some thrilling and highly adventurous experiences he had had in the Channel and off the Isle of Wight, out on the autumn cruise in the training-brig, when the bugle sounded, and the boys all mustered at quarters before turning in for the night.
Staying on the upper deck for a time, Mick Donovan and I witnessed the mad race which presently took place on the order being given to sling hammocks; each boy scurrying to the nettings and hurrying below, hammock under arm, to rig up the same in the billet allotted to him on the lower deck.
Ere long, the idea struck both Mick and myself, almost simultaneously, that it was high time for us to think of our sleeping accommodation for the night; and so, we hurried down at the tail end of the crowd of other fellows, to seek the aid of our old friend the master-at-arms, the 'Deus ex machina' of our hopes and fears.
Our new hammocks had been left in the police office of the s.h.i.+p under his immediate eye; so, on ascertaining the doubt that hara.s.sed our minds anent the night-lodging question, the 'Jaunty,' as heretofore, solved the difficulty at once by saying that we were to sling our hammocks on the middle deck, adjacent to the mess-place where we had dined and supped so sumptuously. Just then, as luck would have it, Larrikins, our old cicerone, came up abreast of where we were standing.
”Hi there!” sang out the master-at-arms. ”Come and show these boys how to sling their hammocks.”
”Yes, sir,” replied Larrikins, with a sc.r.a.pe and a touch of his cap.
”Werry good, sir.”
So saying, he set about knotting the lanyard of Irish Mick's hammock; and, after slinging it from the hooks in the deck beams, over the mess- table where the famished lad had enjoyed such a rare 'tuck out' that day, Larrikins went on to explain how the blankets should be 'tucked in'
to the frail structure and wrapped round the occupant, so as to prevent him from tumbling out, which Larrikins declared, almost with tears in his eyes, he should deeply regret were such a catastrophe to occur.
”Lor',” he a.s.severated, ”I'd never forgive myself--strike me silly if I would!”
”Faith an' sure, is it ai'ther expectin' me now for to schlape in that thare outlandish consarn yez are?” exclaimed Mick, to whom a hammock was an entire novelty. ”It's jokin', faith, ye are entirely, sure!”
However, after, like 'vaulting ambition,' overleaping himself when trying to jump into his unaccustomed bed-place, falling, equally unceremoniously, 'on t'other side,' Mick succeeded in ensconcing himself very comfortably in his hammock.
Now came my turn, my friend Larrikins being even more obsequious in his aid to me than to Mick.
The result amply justified his solicitude, for, although I managed to jump in all right, and even to go to sleep presently soundly enough, wearied out with all the excitement of the day, I was in the midst of a terrible dream, in which I thought I was at sea in the _Martin_ brig, in a fearful tempest, with the waters overwhelming us, and the vessel on the point of foundering, when I was awakened by a crash that seemed to resound through the s.h.i.+p, and then I'm sure I saw more stars than were ever seen by mortal in the bright blue firmament of heaven!
I had been 'cut down,' as the nautical phrase goes.
CHAPTER FIVE.
BOXING THE COMPa.s.s.
Sudden as had been my downfall, I was sufficiently awake, after the first momentary giddiness caused by the sharp crack with which my head came against the deck had pa.s.sed away, to have a shrewd idea as to who had brought about my sad calamity; the giggling and whispering, that went on around, in the semi-darkness, telling me, had I needed any such a.s.surance, that my fall was due to no accident.
”Hullo, my joker!” I sang out, recognising the voice of Larrikins as I fumbled about amongst the blankets and loose hammock cloth, feeling very much as if I were tightly tied up in a sack, part of the lanyard having taken a round turn round my neck. ”I say, you first-cla.s.s boy, there!
You with the mug on you like a vegetable marrow! Wait till to-morrow morning and I'll serve you out for this--see if I don't!”
”Lor', yer doesn't mean fur to say as how ye've gone a downer?” cried my tormentor, in a tone of great commiseration, lending a hand to extricate me from the folds of the blankets. ”I never seed a chap go down so sudd.i.n.k. Lor'! Yer must hev made a slippery hitch when yer fastened up the end on yer lanyard to the hook. Lor', I am that orful sorry!”
”Oh yes,” said I, shaking myself free from the last of my enc.u.mbrances and standing up erect, ”you can just tell that to the marines!”
I was not, however, at all out of temper, having learnt long since from my father, even were I not fond of a bit of practical-joking myself, not to take umbrage at the skylarking of any of my comrades on board s.h.i.+p where no malice was really intended. As he told me, the more a fellow shows he's 'riled,' the more his s.h.i.+pmates ever will tease him.