Part 6 (1/2)
”Let me go,” I cried, struggling to reach the deck, from which I was just lifted by the rope; ”I can't breathe.”
”You can shout, anyhow,” replied the mate. ”You'll find your level presently. Then you'll walk circ.u.mspectly.”
”Can you spell it?” I sneered. I was annoyed then by the laughter.
”I T,” was the answer. ”And you'll spell 'rope's end' if you're impudent, my lad. So put that in your pipe!”
”I don't smoke,” I retorted. ”Let me go, please.”
”Presently. Keep quiet, as the captain says. You'll be glad presently. How do you feel now, eh?”.
”None the better for seeing you,” I said rudely. ”Let me go!”
”No, no; you must feel better first. You see this rope's end, you'll feel it presently. Just a little pleasant warming. See?”
He then suddenly laid the rope across my shoulders sharply, and on my back a few times.
”That will keep you,” he concluded, stepping forward and leaving me to my reflections. ”Now you know the ropes,” he cried jeeringly.
I was angry, and made up my mind to fight the mate when I got released.
The captain did not interfere at all, though he saw all that had occurred. However, I suspected he would have said something had he disapproved. I was very savage, though not really hurt--except in my inmost feelings. I wriggled, and kicked, and yelled aloud, but no one took any notice of me whatever. At length I subsided,--I felt rather sick and faint.
”Cut him down,” said the captain to one of the hands; ”he's had enough.
He'll lie quiet now.”
The man at once untied the knot which I could not reach; I fell on deck, and felt terribly ill.
”Come along o' me,” said the sailor. ”Just stand here to leeward!
You'll be all spry in a few minutes now. Hold up, matey! Why, you're a greenhorn, and no mistake! Shave my cat's whiskers, but you _are_!”
I felt too unwell to dispute the question. I considered that I had been most unkindly treated; that the captain and crew, including the mate most particularly, had been almost brutal! I longed to quit the s.h.i.+p and to return home. Even Granding and Smith's, I believed, would be more pleasant than the steamer. I began to _hate_ the sea, the waves, the voyage! Was _this_ the beautiful Ocean on which I had sailed so joyfully so often? What a mercy it was that I had been plucked in eyesight!
My eyes were open now, long before the usual nine days. I could see things in a different light. No doubt the Royal Navy was different from this ”tramp” steamer, but it was all the same feeling _at_ sea!
Oh, my head! my head!
CHAPTER IV
BOUND TO CHINA--THE VOYAGE AND MY EXPERIENCES--_CASH_ IN HONG KONG--RUMOUR OF WAR
”I've been thinking about ye,” said the skipper, two days later, when my head and legs became more easy, and obedient to my will. ”When we reach Gib ye must make yer choice--and I think ye'd better stay with me.”
”Yes, sir,” I replied doubtfully; ”I suppose I must.”
”There's no must in it, youngster. I'm bound for Hong Kong and Canton, and, further, I don't keep any idlers on board. If ye go with me ye must look lively. Yer mate, Tim, yonder, is already worth his salt.
He tells me ye're a cadet.”
”I wanted to be; my eyes were wrong, the doctor said.”