Part 15 (2/2)
If not so particular as this Scotch lad in respect of numbering the strokes I received, their effect was much more lasting in my case; for, adopting Mick's advice rather late in the day, I threw overboard the remaining stock of tobacco and pipes I had stowed in my 'ditty box'
below and abjured smoking so long as I remained in the training-s.h.i.+p, not resuming the habit until some years later when I was grown up and was on active service abroad.
My good character, too, returned to me after a time; and I may say, without boasting, I never lost it again while I remained on board the _Saint Vincent_, keeping steady and trying to do my duty through good report and ill until I left the s.h.i.+p.
A couple of months later on, also, I became also restored to the captain's favour in rather a funny fas.h.i.+on.
I was out in the _Martin_ during her last cruise for the year, it having got to be late in the autumn, and approaching the time for her to be dismantled and lay up for the winter.
We had run down to Plymouth as usual, and were on our way back up Channel, beating against strong headwinds, when the weather got thick, as on our former cruise, and it came on to blow pretty stiff, the sea getting up and the brig having such a bad time of it that it took four of us at the wheel, besides old Jellybelly the quarter-master, to keep her on her course.
As luck would have it, 'Gyp' the captain's dog had come with us for the trip, his master being away on leave, and the commander of the _Martin_, who had volunteered to take charge of him during the captain's absence, thinking it best to keep him under his own eye.
'Gyp' was very partial to me, as might be imagined from the fact of my having been so long in the habit of taking him ash.o.r.e with me; and, consequently, during our cruise he attached himself with that strong bias for which his breed is proverbial to my humble self, preferring, when allowed the opportunity, to share my quarters even to enjoying the luxuries of the wardroom of the brig aft.
His keen eye ever watched my movements when on deck and a word or look from me was sufficient to set his stumpy tail wagging as if it would never stop; while he would lick my bare feet in a most affectionate manner should I ever pa.s.s near him and give him the chance, showing me his 'bad leg,' if the slightest hint to that effect were given, by holding up one of his hind limbs and stretching it out in a most extraordinary manner, the captain's valet having taught him this trick when he was a puppy and 'Gyp' never having forgotten it though he had arrived at maturer years.
Nor, likewise, had he forgotten the art of balancing a biscuit on his nose and not dropping it or offering in any way to masticate the same, however much his feelings might be inclined thereto, without the permissive order, 'Now you may have it,' being uttered.
'Gyp,' I am afraid, was not a born sailor like myself and family.
No ancestral fox-terrier of his race could possibly, I fancy, have 'gone aloft' like the original head of our house; for, though he liked being at sea well enough in fine weather, he got in the dumps when it came on to blow, his apology for a tail becoming so limp that what there was of it drooped and lost its wag, so, that being left in the lurch through his rudder not answering the helm, he stumbled about the deck like any young Johnny Raw just come afloat.
Rolling and labouring, heeling over gunwales under sometimes, the _Martin_ managed to reach Spithead in the teeth of a stormy south- easter, which was sending the surf over Southsea Castle as the big rollers coming in from the offing broke against the pile-protected rampart below; and, we were just going to anchor in our usual berth under the lee of the Spit, 'Gyp' standing as well as he could with his rickety sea-legs by the taffrail.
He was watching me coming down from aloft, where I had gone with some of the other boys of the starboard watch to furl the mizzen-topsail, waiting, poor fellow, to greet me with a sniff of welcome; when, in the excitement of my near approach, he wagged his tail somewhat incautiously and, thereby losing his footing, the affectionate animal fell overboard.
CHAPTER TWELVE.
”DRAFTED.”
Shouting out without thinking as loud as I could, ”Man overboard!” I plunged into the tideway after him; and, before 'Gyp' knew where he was or had time to shake the water out of his eyes and ears after rising from his unexpected plunge, breasting the choppy seas with his quick- working paws and paddling all round in a circle in his flurry, I had struck out after him, gripping him by the collar in half a dozen strokes.
Poor old chap, he whined and licked my face as I came alongside him, his wistful eyes saying as plainly as dog could speak, ”Thank G.o.d, Tom, you've come to help me,” or something to that effect.
I was a good swimmer, having won the long-distance prize in our summer sports off Haslar Creek; but, I now found the task of battling with the big billows brought in by the south-easter, which were all the rougher from the cross tide setting against them, none too easy, wind and sea- going one way and the tide another.
I could hardly make a stroke towards the beach, which I aimed for at first, the undercurrent pulling me back and sweeping me out seaward; while, the rough water, smacking against my face, bothered me and palsied my every effort.
They had let go the life-buoy, of course, on board the brig when I sang out before jumping off from the taffrail; but the buoy was more difficult to reach than the sh.o.r.e, the wind catching it up and tossing it from wave crest to wave crest till it was cast up on top of one of the piles in front of the Castle far ahead.
Treading water to regain my breath after a futile struggle of some minutes' duration, and holding poor 'Gyp's' head well up so that he should not be drowned by the spent seas that broke against us, I squinted round to see what they were doing on board the _Martin_ in the way of trying to pick us up.
A boat, I saw, was being lowered to leeward; but, the brig was such a long way off now that I was afraid they wouldn't be in time to save us.
I must look for a.s.sistance in another direction.
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