Part 24 (1/2)

”Where have you sprung from?” he said shortly.

”I hail last from the admiral's cabin,” Harry said with a laugh.

”Before that from his majesty's s.h.i.+p _Viper_, and before that from the sea.”

”You look like the sea,” said the mids.h.i.+pman. ”But what have you been doing? Have you served before?”

”Not in a king's s.h.i.+p,” Harry said; ”I have only just been appointed.”

The mids.h.i.+pman was too surprised at Harry's appearance to question him further. He felt that there was some mystery in the affair, and that it would be better for him to wait until he saw the footing upon which Harry was placed. He had little doubt from the fact of his appointment being made under such circ.u.mstances that there must be something at once singular and noteworthy about it.

Upon reaching the s.h.i.+p Harry's new messmate at once led him up to the first lieutenant, and presented the captain's note. The lieutenant opened it and glanced at the contents. They were brief:

”Harry Langley has been appointed mids.h.i.+pman on board the _Caesar_, and has been promoted by Sir Hyde Parker himself. He has performed a most gallant action, and one of the greatest importance. Make him at home at once, and let him have poor De Lisle's kit. I will arrange about it.”

The senior mids.h.i.+pman was at once sent for by Mr. Francis, and Harry handed over to him. The first lieutenant intimated to him briefly the contents of the captain's letter, telling the mids.h.i.+pman to make him as comfortable as possible.

Harry was led below to the c.o.c.kpit, where his arrival was greeted with a storm of questions, as his appearance on the quarter-deck had naturally excited a great deal of observation. The mids.h.i.+pman who had come with him could, of course, furnish no information, and beyond the brief fact mentioned by the captain and repeated by the first lieutenant, his new conductor could say no more.

”Just wait,” the mids.h.i.+pman said, ”till he's got into his new clothes and looks presentable. He's in my charge, and I am to make him comfortable. As he has been put on the quarter-deck by Sir Hyde himself you may be sure he has done something out of the way.”

In a few minutes Harry was rigged out in full mids.h.i.+pman's dress, and being a very good-looking and gentlemanly lad, his appearance favorably impressed his new messmates, who had at first been disposed to resent the intrusion among themselves of a youngster whose appearance was at least the reverse of reputable.

”Now,” said one of the pa.s.sed mates, ”this meeting will resolve itself into a committee. Let everyone who can, sit down; and let those who can't, stand quiet. I am the president of the court. Now, prisoner at the bar,” he said, ”what is your name?”

”Harry Langley.”

”And how came you here?”

”I was brought in the captain's gig.”

”No equivocation, prisoner. I mean what brought you onto the quarter-deck?”

”I had the good luck,” Harry said, ”to prevent a very important dispatch falling into the hands of the French.”

”The deuce you had!” the president said; ”and how was that? That is to say,” he said, ”if there's no secret about it?”

”None at all,” Harry said, ”the matter was very simple;” and for the second time that morning he told the story.

When he had done there was a general exclamation of approval among those present, and the mids.h.i.+pmen crowded round him, shaking his hand, patting him on the back, and declaring that he was a trump.

”The prisoner is acquitted,” the president said, ”and is received as a worthy member of this n.o.ble body. Boy!”

”Yes, sir.”

”Go to the purser and ask him to send in two bottles of rum for this honorable mess to drink the health of a new comrade.”

Presently the boy returned.

”The purser says, sir, who is going to pay for the rum?”

There was a roar of laughter among the middies, for the master's mate, who had acted as president, was notoriously in the purser's books to the full amount of his credit. However, a mids.h.i.+pman, who happened that morning to have received a remittance, undertook to stand the liquor to the mess, and Harry's health was drunk with all honors.