Part 31 (1/2)

”Yes, sir, I'm very sorry,” I said; then, anxiously, ”But you are sure you are not hurt, sir?”

”Tut, tut! I told you no, boy. There, there, I don't mean that. Not even scratched, Mr Herrick. You can go to your messmates now with an adventure to tell them,” he added, smiling; ”only don't dress it up into a highly-coloured story, about how your superior officer relaxed the strict rules of dis.h.i.+pline; do you hear?”

”Yes, sir, I hear,” I said, and I left him going to join the captain, while I went down and told Barkins what had been going on, but I had not been talking to him five minutes before I heard a heavy splash as if something had been thrown over the side.

”What's that?” said Barkins, turning pale.

I did not answer.

”Sounds like burying some one,” he whispered. ”Don't say poor old Blacksmith has gone?”

”No no,” I said. ”I know what it is. Wait till I've told you all I have to tell, and then you'll know too.”

He looked at me wonderingly, and I completed my account of the scene in the black-hole place.

”Oh, I see,” he cried; ”it was the Chinaman?”

I nodded carelessly, but I felt more serious than ever before in my life, at this horrible sequel to a fearful scene.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

A DISAPPOINTMENT.

”Very jolly for you,” said Barkins, as we cast anchor off Tsin-Tsin a couple of mornings later. ”You'll be going ash.o.r.e and enjoying yourself, while I'm condemned to hobble on deck with a stick.”

”I say, don't grumble,” I cried. ”Look how beautiful the place seems in the suns.h.i.+ne.”

”Oh yes, it looks right enough; but wait till you go along the narrow streets, and get some of the smells.”

”Hear that, Smithy?” I said to our comrade, who was lying in his berth.

”Grumbles because he can't go ash.o.r.e, and then begins making out how bad it is. How about the fox and the grapes?”

”If you call me fox, my lad, I'll give you sour grapes when I get better. Where's your gla.s.s?”

I took down my telescope, adjusted it for him, and pushed his seat nearer to the open window, so that he could examine the bright-looking city, with the blue plum-bloom tinted mountains behind covered with dense forest, and at the s.h.i.+pping of all nations lying at the mouth of the river.

”S'pose that tower's made of crockery, isn't it?” said Barkins, whose eye was at the end of the telescope.

I looked at the beautiful object, with its paG.o.da-like terraces and hanging bells, and then at the various temples nestling high up on the sides of the hills beyond.

”I say,” said Smith, ”can't you tell Mr Reardon--no, get the doctor to tell him--that I ought to be taken ash.o.r.e for a bit to do me good?”

”I'll ask him to let you go,” I said; but Smith shook his head, and then screwed up his white face with a horrible look of disgust.

”Oh, what a shame!” he cried. ”He gets all the luck;” for a message came for me to be ready directly to go ash.o.r.e with the captain in the longboat.

It meant best uniform, for the weather was fine, and I knew that he would be going to pay a visit to some grand mandarin.

I was quite right; for, when I reached the deck a few minutes later, there was Mr Brooke with the boat's crew, all picked men, and a strong guard of marines in full plumage for his escort.