Part 20 (1/2)

Luckily for the sour-tempered chap, whom I had time to reckon up since I had been on board the corvette, the commodore did not hear what he said, or he would most probably, officer of the watch though he might be, have given him a 'dressing down' before us all.

The fact of our having sighted the _Ruby_ had already been communicated by one of the mids.h.i.+pmen to our chief, who was down in his cabin having a rest, never having left the deck either day or night, I believe, since the gale overtook us; and, as soon as we got within signalling distance, he ordered the yeoman at the signal halliards to make our number.

Although the weather was becoming finer, as I have said, the wind was still gusty and chopping about between the east and nor'-east quadrants; and, hardly had our pennant been run up to the mizzen truck than the 'fly' of the flag got foul of the halliards.

”Hi, boy!” cried Lieutenant Robinson, wis.h.i.+ng to be very smart, now the commodore was on deck. ”'Way aloft there and free that flag!”

I thought he spoke to me, and jumped towards the weather shrouds to obey the order, but as I got into the rigging I saw 'Ugly' was before me.

He was in the chains and on his way up to the top before the lieutenant spoke, and naturally he had first addressed him.

'Ugly,' however, was so sluggish in his movements through the corvette rolling a bit and the ratlines being none too steady, that Lieutenant Robinson grew impatient.

”Here, you boy!” he roared at me even louder than Jones had spoken to him shortly before. ”See if you can't teach that lubber how to climb aloft and free a flag when he is told, without taking a month of Sundays over the job!”

Almost before he had spoken I had sprung into the rigging after 'Ugly'; and by the time the lieutenant's last word was uttered I was more than half-way up to the top, overhauling 'Ugly' at the crosstrees.

From thence, he and I proceeded upward, he on one side of the mast, I on the other, and neither speaking a word as we s.h.i.+nned up the 'Jacob's ladder.'

So we climbed up to the cap of the topgallant-mast in company; but, as far apart as the poles, though so close together.

Then, each of us set about in his own fas.h.i.+on, without minding the other, to disentangle the fly of the pennant, which had been whipped by the wind round the halliards till it had formed itself into half a dozen granny's knots.

We were holding on to the royal lift and brace, both of us, each with one hand while with the other we tried to unloose the closely knotted bunting, our faces almost touching each other, and still without ever saying a word; when, all at once, through some one having neglected his duty when the topgallant-mast was sent aloft after the gale, the ends of the lift and brace slipped off the jack, to which they had been only loosely secured, leaving 'Ugly' and I suspended in the air partly by the signal halliards and partly by the flag, which latter parted with a ripping sound that I hear now in my ears as I speak of it. Aye, and as I always shall hear it, I believe!

I heard also at the time, confused cries and orders from below, singing out I know not what.

My companion's face was close to mine as we swung from the feeble cord and more fragile stuff that interposed between us and eternity; a fall to the deck beneath or into the sea meaning death in one way or the other, either by drowning or by a more cruel fate.

I could see into his very soul, I think, at that awful moment, and he into mine!

It all occurred in an instant, recollect!

But in that instant 'Ugly' had time to break the silence that had existed between us since our fight on the forecastle of the _Saint Vincent_ and my rescue of him aboard the same s.h.i.+p later on.

He spoke to me, at last, now.

”To-am Bowlin',” whispered he hoa.r.s.ely, ”two chaps can't hang on yere fur long. I'll give oop fur 'ee, me lad. Here goes!”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

”HIS LAST MUSTER!”

On that, the n.o.ble fellow, who thus unselfishly sacrificed his life for mine, fell with a whiz through the air that seemed to send the wind up into my face, down to the deck below.

Cannoning against the rigging on the port side, he was caught up in the belly of the mizzen-top sail, which slightly stopped the impetus of his descent, but, the concussion broke his spine, and when I, pale, trembling, and almost as lifeless as he, coming down from aloft, I hardly know how, reached his side, the doctor, who was bending over him and applying stimulants, said he had only a few moments longer to live.

The chaplain, too, was there, having been hastily summoned from his duties of instructing the young middies in the wardroom; as also was the commodore, with a graver face on him than I had ever seen before.