Part 12 (1/2)
When Jack made this a.s.sertion, he had never been there. He talked on till he had worked himself up to a fit of enthusiasm, and almost made his family believe that the African station was not so bad a one after all. The truth was that when Captain Lascelles paid off the _Racer_ he promised Jack that should he get another s.h.i.+p soon he would apply for him, and Jack therefore felt pretty certain that he should himself be very soon on station, and he of course was anxious to prevent his parents or sisters from feeling any undue anxiety on his account. He could not sit down or turn his mind to anything all day till he discovered a copy of the _Cruise of the Midge_, over the graphic pages of which he was observed to be intently poring; and then he went and routed out of the library one or two books descriptive of the west coast of Africa. At dinner he could talk of nothing else but the Gold Coast, and the Ivory Coast, and Congo, and other places in those regions.
”Why, Jack, we might suppose that you were contemplating going out there from the way you talk about those places,” observed one of his brothers, who wanted to bring some other subject on the tapis.
”And so of course I am,” exclaimed Jack. ”I should like to stay at home among you all; but as I have chosen a profession, and there is not another like it, I hope to stick to it, and I intend always to look out where there is most work to be done, and to go there.”
”My dear child,” said his mother, ”but not to the coast of Africa.”
Then Jack went into all the arguments in its favour, which he flattered himself had made so favourable an impression at breakfast, but which he found had all been forgotten, while the original very natural prejudice against it had once more a.s.serted a pre-eminence in the minds of his family.
The next morning Jack was unusually fidgety till the post came in, and there was a blank look on his countenance when the post-bag was opened and it produced no letter for him. Soon after breakfast, however, Admiral Triton's carriage drove up to the door, and out of it stepped the admiral himself. He quickly stumped into the drawing-room, and having made his salaams to the ladies, produced an official-looking doc.u.ment from his pocket. Jack had followed him eagerly into the room.
”Here, my boy,” said he, ”is a letter from my friend Lascelles, your old captain. He says--let me see what he says. Oh! here it is. 'I cannot find the address of Jack Rogers, so pray tell him to come down to Portsmouth at once and join the _Ranger_. I have just been appointed to her, to go out as commodore on the African station. Let his outfit be got ready accordingly. I have no doubt that he will find some opportunity of distinguis.h.i.+ng himself; and as he has already served four years, there is a fair chance of his getting his promotion when he returns home.' The rest is private,” observed the admiral, when he had concluded this somewhat laconic epistle. ”And now, Jack, I congratulate you, my lad,” he continued. ”You have been quite long enough on sh.o.r.e to rub up your sh.o.r.e manners, and that is as long as a mids.h.i.+pman ought to remain at home. How soon shall you be ready?”
”In ten days or a fortnight I think that I could get his s.h.i.+rts and flannel waistcoats made, and his socks marked, and his--”
”I beg your pardon, my dear madam, but by that time the _Ranger_ may be halfway across the Bay of Biscay. Ten or fourteen hours you should say.
He must go and see his s.h.i.+p fitted out. He'll never be at home in her unless he does. Well, well, then the day after to-morrow I intend to go down with him. I enjoyed my last trip so much that I would not miss the opportunity of seeing him on board his new s.h.i.+p. I know what you would say, my dear madam, but a longer delay would be objectionable. Rogers will agree with me. There, it is settled, so let us say no more about the matter.”
Thus Jack found himself, more speedily than he expected, about to go once more afloat. That afternoon, in company with two of his brothers and his sister Mary, he galloped round and paid his farewells to his friends in the neighbourhood; and then his chest was packed, the contents of which all the womankind in and out of the house, for a long way round, had been employed without cessation, night and day, in getting ready. So when the admiral, as he had done four years before, drove up to the door, he was perfectly ready to accompany him. Jack did his best to keep up the spirits of his mother and sister to the last, though just as he was going they gave way, and he himself was nearly upset. All the fighting he had seen had not hardened his heart. Away he and the admiral went down to Portsmouth. The next morning they were, soon after breakfast, on board the _Ranger_, then fitting out alongside a hulk. She was a six and thirty gun frigate, no great improvement on the _Racer_, but still a s.h.i.+p which an actively disposed officer might well be glad to get. Several of the officers had already joined, and the admiral made a few favourable remarks about Jack, which placed him at once in a favourable light in their eyes. Captain Lascelles, who was living on sh.o.r.e, welcomed him very kindly, and Jack was very well pleased with what he saw of his future companions. The third lieutenant of the frigate had not been appointed. However, three or four days after Jack had joined, who should make his appearance but old Hemming, who had, on the paying off of the _Racer_, got his somewhat tardy promotion. Jack did not know that he was promoted, and was not a little pleased to find that he was their third lieutenant. Jack had written to Adair and Murray directly he found that he was appointed to the _Ranger_, urging them to exert all their interest to get appointed to her likewise, but he had not yet heard from either of them. One was in Ireland, the other in Scotland. Hemming laughed when he told him what he had done.
”Their friends may take some trouble to get them on board a s.h.i.+p going to the Mediterranean, or to keep them on the Home station; but depend on it they will not bestir themselves to have them sent out to the Coast,”
he remarked.
Captain Lascelles' character was well-known, so he soon got his s.h.i.+p manned and ready for sea. Admiral Triton had gone over to the Isle of Wight, and now came off to Spithead to see the last of them. There was still room for another mids.h.i.+pman. They were expecting every day to sail, and Jack was in despair at not hearing from either of his friends, wondering what would have become of them, when a sh.o.r.e-boat was seen coming off to the s.h.i.+p, and Paddy Adair and his chest came up the side.
”Hurrah!” exclaimed Jack, as soon as he saw him; ”that is jolly. But I say, old fellow, where is Murray? I wish that he was here too.”
Adair could not tell, and they puzzled their brains in vain to account for his silence. The topsails were loosed, the capstan was manned, and to a merry tune the men were running round and heaving up the anchor, and as the fine old admiral was shaking hands with all he knew on board just before stepping into his boat, Jack could scarcely persuade himself that four years had pa.s.sed over his head since, with the exception that Murray was not present as one of the _dramatis persona_, precisely the same scene had been enacted. The _Ranger_ had a quick run to Sierra Leone, where her arrival was welcomed with very great delight by all on board the s.h.i.+p she came to relieve. The frigate at last cast anchor opposite Freetown, and Jack and Adair were allowed with several of the officers to go on sh.o.r.e.
They were surprised at finding so large and flouris.h.i.+ng a town, with a population, although the greater number are black or coloured, so generally intelligent and well off. They saw churches, and colleges, and schools, and places of education of all sorts. They were told that many of the negroes liberated from slavers have become wealthy, and that the sons of men who landed on those sh.o.r.es twenty years ago ignorant savages, are now receiving a first-rate education, and studying Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, many of them diligently preparing for becoming ministers of the gospel. Freetown, built on rising ground, close to the sea, has a very picturesque appearance. Jack and Adair were also struck with the number of people who came into the town to trade, and with the signs of industry everywhere visible. However, they were not sorry to find themselves once more at sea, with a sharp lookout kept night and day for slavers. The officers were in general very different in appearance from those in the _Racer_, though they were all very good sort of fellows. The oddest looking was Dr McCan, the surgeon. He was a jovial-faced short man, and from having lived a life of ease on sh.o.r.e he had grown enormously fat. As he had also got into a very comfortable practice, he did not at all like coming to sea, but at the same time, as he was a true philosopher, instead of moaning and groaning, he tried to make himself as happy as under the circ.u.mstances he was able. The first lieutenant was a veteran of the old school, tall and thin, but as lithe and agile as he had been when he was twenty years younger. He was constantly employed, because every captain who knew him wanted him as his first lieutenant, and so, because he was so very good in that capacity, John Holt remained still a lieutenant. He did not complain beyond an occasional grumble; indeed those who knew him suspected that he rather preferred being looked on as one of the best first lieutenants instead of holding a higher rank, when he would have had to remain on sh.o.r.e and be forgotten. The second lieutenant and master were both rough and ready seamen, short, strongly-built men, with light hair, and large bushy whiskers and beard; they were wonderfully like each other.
The purser was one of the most gentlemanly and best educated men in the s.h.i.+p. The marine officer was also a very excellent fellow, but he squinted awfully, which made him carry his head somewhat on one side; and his face was broad and strongly seamed with lines, which twisted in a way that made him look as if he was always laughing. He however did laugh very frequently, more especially at his own jokes, which, if not always original, were very amusing. In the mids.h.i.+pmen's berth there were several mates of long standing, who had come out on the station in the hopes of getting their promotion, while besides Rogers and Adair there were three other mids.h.i.+pmen, with their usual complement of other grades. The frigate lay long enough off Freetown to make every one rejoice to find themselves once more at sea. Lookouts were constantly aloft on the watch for slavers. They had not been at sea many days, when the exciting cry of ”Sail ho!” was heard from the mast-head.
Several of the officers were soon seen going up the rigging with their spy-gla.s.ses slung over their shoulders to look out for the stranger.
She was made out to be a s.h.i.+p dead to leeward. All sail was instantly made in chase--she might be a merchantman, or possibly a man-of-war; but that was not likely, and Captain Lascelles had received information that a large slave-s.h.i.+p was expected off the coast. It was not till nearly an hour had elapsed that the stranger bore up and made sail to escape.
This left no doubt as to her character, and every one looked forward to the capture of an important prize. The frigate sailed remarkably well, but a stern chase is a long chase, and several hours more pa.s.sed before the topsails of the stranger were seen above the horizon. Jack and Terence could scarcely tear themselves from the deck even to go below to dinner.
”I say, Paddy,” observed the former, ”I wonder whether you or I shall be sent away in her when we take her. Will Hemming go in command, or will one of the mates?--Lee or Weedon, perhaps.”
”Let us catch our hare before we eat her,” said Adair. ”I tell you what I do wish; that we were in a smaller craft, and then you and I would have a chance of getting sent away together. Wouldn't that be fun?”
Jack agreed that it would, but both of them began to look very blank when darkness closed in on them, and the chase was still several miles ahead. When the frigate first made out the chase she was standing to the eastward, and was about a hundred miles off Cape Palmas. She was then running towards the Bight of Biafra. Captain Lascelles kept the frigate on nearly the same course, edging slightly in towards the land, for he suspected that the s.h.i.+p was bound in for one of the harbours on the Gold or Slave-Coast, and would probably stand in towards the land during the night. Neither of the mids.h.i.+pmen turned in that night. The thought that they were about to take their first prize kept, indeed, many others out of their hammocks, and sharp eyes were on the watch for her in every direction during the night. In spite of their sharpness, however, not a sign of the chase could be discovered. Yet as she was not seen on either hand, the probabilities were that she was still ahead.
”Do you know, Terence, this reminds me of the time when we chased the Turkish frigate which had you on board off the Egyptian coast,” said Jack. ”I only hope that we may be more fortunate, and catch her before she gets on sh.o.r.e and blows up.”
”I shall be glad if we can catch her on the water, or earth, or sky,”
answered Terence. ”These slavers are slippery fellows, and it is no easy matter to get hold of them.”
The night wore on. When the morning at length broke the mast-heads were crowded with visitors. They rubbed their eyes and their telescopes, and then looked through the latter, and rubbed and rubbed again; and then they pulled very long faces at each other, for the s.h.i.+p could nowhere be seen. Many of them remained aloft, still looking for her, but at last they came down and looked at each other, and voted themselves sold.
However, they went to breakfast, and as they walked the deck after it they hoped that they might have better luck next time.
The men's dinner was just over, when once more everybody was put on the alert by hearing ”Sail ho!” sung out from the mast-head.
”Where away?” asked Captain Lascelles, who was walking the deck at the time.