Part 25 (1/2)

This was followed by a deluge of rain, which washed our decks cleaner than they had been since we left our home port, though the first lieutenant was pretty sharp about seeing them scrubbed and washed down daily.

The same afternoon, when it had cleared up again, the sun coming out and the waves calming down, our lookout-man aloft in the foretop sighted something in the distance.

”Sail ho!” he cried, ”on our lee bow.”

Every eye was c.o.c.ked as we peered over the bulwarks, and every ear strained to catch what followed.

”Where away?” hailed the commodore, who was walking up and down aft, taking a const.i.tutional after his lunch, I suppose. ”What do you make it out to be?”

”A boat adrift, sir, I think,” replied the lookout-man, stopping to have another good look at the object. ”It's well away on our lee bow, sir, and we're pa.s.sing it abeam now.”

”Very good, my man,” said the commodore; and, turning to the officer of the watch, he added, ”Square the yards, Mr Osborne, and we'll run down and see what it is.”

This order was soon carried out; when, with our sticks braced round to the brisk breeze, which had s.h.i.+fted to the westward since the thunder- storm, we were soon bowling down before it, our sails bellied out to their utmost in the direction indicated by the lookout-man in the foretop, who was now aided by the eyes of half a dozen mids.h.i.+pmen or more, all eagerly scanning the horizon ahead with all sorts of telescopes and binoculars.

”Lookout-man!” hailed the commodore after a bit, ”how does the boat bear now?”

”Dead on the weather bow, sir,” returned the man the next instant.

”We're about a couple o' mile off her, sir.”

The commodore then addressed the quarter-master aft.

”Luff up!” he cried--”half a point will do; and, Mr Osborne, take a pull at your lee braces. That will do--steady!”

The s.h.i.+p having good way upon her, we soon overhauled the drifting boat, which we could make out presently quite clearly from the deck.

Nearer and nearer we approached it, until we could look down right into it and see a number of figures, all of whom, however, were motionless.

”Begorrah!” cried Mick, who stood near me in the fore-chains, ready with a rope to chuck down into the little craft as we surged alongside it, as indeed were several others also, like prepared, forwards; ”they've bin havin' a divvle ov a row, or foightin', or somethin', sure; fur Tom, look thare, me bhoy--can't ye say some soords or a pair of cutlashes or somethin' like 'em oonder the afther-thwart theer?”

CHAPTER TWENTY.

”JOCKO.”

”I believe I do, Mick,” I said, squinting down as eagerly as himself into the boat, near to which the s.h.i.+p was gradually sidling up, her way having been checked by her being brought up to the wind and the maintop- sail backed. ”They are very quiet, poor chaps. I wonder if they are all dead?”

The same thought seemed to have occurred to the old commodore; for, as I said this, in pursuance of some order he must have given to that effect--for n.o.body does a thing on board a man-o'-war without the previous command of his superior officer--the boatswain hailed the little craft.

”Boat ahoy!” he shouted, with his lungs of bra.s.s and voice of a bull.

”Ahoy! Ahoy-oy!”

No answer came, nor was there any movement amongst the boat's occupants, who were lying pell-mell along the thwarts and on the bottom boards in her sternsheets.

”Poor fellows, they must be all dead!” exclaimed the commodore, almost in my own words. ”Mr Osborne, get a boat ready to send off and overhaul her!”

The officer of the watch, however, had already made preparations to this end, the first cutter's crew having been piped and the men standing ready by the davits to lower her into the water, with the gripes cast off and the falls cleared.

”All ready there, c.o.xsun, eh?” he cried; and then, without waiting for any answer, he sang out, ”Lower away!”