Rattlin the Reefer Part 21

"You may test my wit by my book, Mr ---, if you choose to read it," and the author looked scornfully, "and my courage, when we reach Port Royal;" and the officer looked magnificently.

"No more of this," said the captain. "I was going to observe, that perhaps I am the only officer on the station or even in the fleet, that has under my command a live author, with the real book that he has published. Now, Mr Silva, we are all comfortable here--no offence is meant to you--only compliment and honour; will you permit us to have it read to us at the present meeting? we will be all attention. We will not deprive you of your wine--give the book to the younker."

"If you will be so kind, Captain Reud, to promise for yourself and the other gentlemen, to raise no discussion upon any particular phrase that may arise."

The captain did promise. We shall presently see how that promise was kept. The book was sent for, and placed in my hands. Now I fully opined that at least we should get past the second page. I was curiously mistaken.

"Here, steward," said the skipper, "place half a bottle of claret near Mr Rattlin. When your throat is dry, younker, you can whet your whistle; and when you come to any particular fine paragraph, you may wash it down with a gla.s.s of wine."

"If that's the case, sir, I think, with submission, I ought to have my two bottles before me also; but, if I follow your directions implicitly, Captain Reud, I may get drunk in the first chapter."

Mr Silva thanked even a mids.h.i.+pman, with a look of real grat.i.tude, for this diversion in his favour. I had begun to like the man, and there might have been a secret sympathy between us, as one day it was to be my fate also to write myself, author.

Having adjusted ourselves into the most comfortable att.i.tudes that we could a.s.sume, I began, as Lord Ogleby hath it, "with good emphasis, and good discretion," to read the "Tour up and down the Rio de la Plate."

Before I began, the captain had sent for the master, and the honourable Mr B---; so I had a very respectable audience.

I had no sooner finished the pa.s.sage, "After we had paved our way down the river," than with one accord, and evidently by preconcert, every one stretching forth his right hand, as do the witches in Macbeth, roared out, "Stop!" It was too ludicrous. My eyes ran with tears, as I laid down the book, with outrageous laughter. Mr Silva started to his feet, and was leaving the cabin, when he was _ordered_ back by Captain Reud.

An appearance of amicability was a.s.sumed, and to the old argument they went, baiting the poor author like a bear tied to a stake. Debating is a thirsty affair; the two bottles to each, and two more, quickly disappeared; the wine began to operate, and with the combatants discretion was no longer the better part of valour.

Whilst words fell fast and furious, I observed something about eight feet long and one high, on the deck of the cabin, covered with the ensign. It looked much like a decorated seat. Mr Silva would not admit the phrase to be improper, and consequently his a.s.sociates would not permit the reading to proceed. During most of the time the captain was convulsed with laughter, and whenever he saw the commotion at all lulling, he immediately, by some ill-timed remark, renewed it to its accustomed fury. At length, as the seamen say, they all had got a cloth in the wind--the captain two or three,--and it was approaching the time for beating to quarters. The finale, therefore, as previously arranged, was acted. Captain Reud rose, and steadying himself on his legs, by placing one hand on the back of his chair, and the other on the shoulder of the gentleman that sat next to him, spoke thus: "Gentlemen--I'm no scholar--that is--you comprehend fully--on deck, there!--don't keep that d.a.m.ned trampling--and put me out--where was I?"

"Please, sir," said I, "you were saying you were no scholar."

"I wasn't--couldn't have said so. I had the best of educations--but all my masters were dull--d.a.m.ned dull--so they couldn't teach a quick lad, like me, too quick for them--couldn't overtake me with their d.a.m.ned learning. I'm a straightforward man. I've common sense--com--common sense. Let us take a common sense view of this excruciation--ex--ex--I mean exquisite argument. Gentlemen, come here;" and the captain, between two supporters and the rest of the company, with Mr Silva, approached the mysterious looking, elongated affair, that lay, covered with the union-jack, like the corpse of some lanky giant, who had run himself up into a consumption by a growth too rapid. The doctor and purser, who were doubtlessly in the secret, wore each a look of the most perplexing gravity--the captain one of triumphant mischief; the rest of us, one of the most unfeigned wonder.

"If," spluttered out Captain Reud, see-sawing over the yet concealed thing. "If, Mr Paviour, you can pave your way down a river--"

"My name, sir, is Don Alphonso Ribidiero da Silva," said the annoyed lieutenant, with a dignified bow.

"Well, then, Don Alphonso Ribs-are-dear-o d.a.m.ned Silva, if you can pave your way down a river, let us see how you can pave it in a small way down this _hog-trough_ full of water," plucking away, with the a.s.sistance of his confederates, the ensign that covered it.

"With fools' heads," roared out the exasperated, and, I fear, not very sober, Portuguese.

Though I was close by, I could not fully comprehend the whole manoeuvre.

The captain was head and shoulders immersed in the filthy trough, which, uncleaned, was taken from the manger, that part of the main-deck directly under the forecastle, and filled with salt water. The doctor and purser had taken a greater lurch, and fallen over it, sousing their white waistcoats and well-arranged s.h.i.+rt frills in the dirty mixture.

The rest of us contrived to keep our legs. The s.h.i.+p was running before the wind, and rolling considerably, and the motion, aided by the wine and the act of plucking aside the flag, _might_ have precipitated the captain into his unenviable situation; he thought otherwise. No sooner was he placed upon his feet, and his mouth sufficiently clear from the salt water decoction of hog-wash, than he collared the poor victim of persecution, and spluttered out, "Mutiny--mu--mu--mutiny--sentry.

Gentlemen, I call you all to witness, that Mr Silva has laid violent hands upon me."

The "paviour of ways" was immediately put under arrest, and a marine, with a drawn bayonet, placed at his cabin door, and the captain had to repair damages, vowing the most implacable vengeance for having been shoved into his own hog-trough. _Did ever anybody know any good come of hoaxing_?

CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.

THE PALISADE BANQUET, AND MAJOR FLUSHFIRE'S ANTHEM TO YELLOW JACK--WHO'S AFRAID?--THE SANDS OF LIFE'S HOUR-GLa.s.s WILL RUN OUT RAPIDLY, UNLESS WELL SOAKED WITH WINE.

We will despatch the object of persecution in a few words. Lieutenant Silva was given the option of a court-martial or of exchanging into a sloop of war. He chose the latter. The captain and his messmates saw him over the side, two days after we had anch.o.r.ed in Port Royal. The spiteful commander purposely contrived, when his effects were whipped into the boat, that one of the heavy, suspicious-looking cases should be swung against the gun and smashed. The result was exactly what we all expected. The water was strewn with copies, in boards, of the "Tour up and down the Rio de la Plate." They must certainly have been light reading, as they floated about triumphantly. "I wonder whether they will pave their way up to Kingston," said the captain, with a sneer.

As the author would not suffer them to be picked up, they sank, one by one, and disappeared, like the remembrance of their creator in the minds of his companions. We heard, a few weeks after, that he had died of the yellow fever: and thus he, with his books, was consigned to oblivion, or is only rescued from it, if happily this work do not share his fate, by this short memento of him.

Yellow fever!--malignant consumer of the brave!--how shall I adequately apostrophise thee? I have looked in thy jaundiced face, whilst thy maw seemed insatiate. But once didst thou lay thy scorched hand upon my frame; but the sweet voice of woman startled thee from thy prey, and the flame of love was stronger than even thy desolating fire. But now is not the time to tell of this, but rather of the eagerness with which most of my companions sought to avoid thee.

Captain Reud had got, apparently, into his natural, as well as native, climate. The hotter it was, like a cricket, he chirped the louder, and enjoyed it the more. Young and restless, he was the personification of mischievous humour and sly annoyance. The tales he told of the fever were ominous, appalling, fatal. None could live who had not been seasoned, and none could outlive the seasoning. For myself; I might have been frightened, had I not been so constantly occupied in discussing pine-apples. But the climax was yet to be given to the fears of the fearful.

All the officers that could be spared from the s.h.i.+p were invited to dine with the mess of the 60th Regiment, then doing duty at Kingston and Port Royal. That day, Captain Reud having been invited to dine with the admiral at the Penn, we were consequently deprived of his facetiousness.

All the lieutenants and the ward-room officers, with most of the mids.h.i.+pmen, were of the party. The master took charge of the frigate.

Suppose us all seated at the long table, chequered red and blue, with Major Flushfire, the officer in command of the garrison, at the top of the table, all scarlet and gold, and our own dear Dr Thompson, all scarlet and blue, at the bottom. These two gentlemen were wonderfully alike. The major's scarlet was not confined to his regimentals: it covered his face. There was not a cool spot in that flame-coloured region; the yellow of his eyes was blood-shot, and his nose was richly Bardolphian. The expression of his features was thirst; but it was a jovial thirst withal--a thirst that burned to be supplied, encouraged, pampered. The very idea of water was repugnant to it. Hydrophobia was written upon the major's brow.

We have described our rubicund doctor before. He always looked warm, but since his entrance into the tropics, he had been more than hot, he had been always steaming. There was an almost perceptible mist about him. His visage possessed not the adust scorch of the major's; his was a moist heat; his cheeks were constantly par-boiling in their own perspiration. He was a meet _croupier_ for our host.

Ranged on each side of this n.o.ble pair were the long lines of very pale and anxious faces (I really must except my own, for my face never looked anxious till I thought of marrying, or pale till I took to scribbling), the possessors of which were experiencing a little the torment of Tantalus. The palisades, those graves of sand, turned into a rich compost by the ever-recurring burial, were directly under the windows, and the land-breeze came over them, chill and dank, in palpable currents, through the jalousies, into the heated room; and, had one thrust his head into the moonlight and looked beneath, he would have seen hundreds of the sh.e.l.l-clad vampires, upon their long and contorted legs, moving hideously round, and scrambling horribly over newly-made mounds, each of which contained the still fresh corpse of a warrior, or of the land, or of the ocean. In a small way, your land-crab is a most indefatigable resurrectionist. But there is retribution for their villany. They get eaten in their turn. Delicate feeding they are, doubtlessly; and there can be no matter of question, but that, at that memorable dinner a double banquet was going on, upon a most excellent principle of reciprocity. The epicure crab was feeding upon the dish, man, below--whilst epicure man was feeding upon the dished-up crab above. True, the guests knew it not; I mean those who did not wear testaceous armour: the gentlemen in the coats of mail knew very well what they were about. It was, at the time of which I am speaking, a standing joke to make Johnny Newcome eat land-crab disguised in some savoury dish. Thank G.o.d, that was more than a quarter of a century ago.

We trust that the social qualities and the culinary refinements of the West Indians do not now march _a l'ecrevisse_ and progress _a reculons_.

There we all sat, prudence coqueting with appet.i.te, and the finest yellow curries contending with the direst thoughts of yellow fever.

Ever and anon some amiable youth would dash off a b.u.mper of claret with an air of desperate bravery, and then turn pale at the idea of his own temerity. The most cautious were Scotch a.s.sistant-surgeons, and pale young ensigns who played the flute. The mids.h.i.+pmen feasted and feared.

The major and the doctor kept on the "even tenor of their way," that is, they ate and drank _a l'envi_.

We will now suppose the King's health drank, with the hearty and loyal, G.o.d bless him! from every lip--the navy drank, and thanks returned by the doctor, with his mouth full of vegetable marrow--the army drank, and thanks returned by the major, after clearing his throat with a b.u.mper of brandy--and after "Rule Britannia" had ceased echoing along the now silent esplanade, and that had been thundered forth with such energy by the black band, an awful pause ensues. Our first-lieutenant of marines rises, and, like conscience, "with a still small voice," thus delivers himself of the anxiety with which his breast was labouring.

"Major Flushfire, may I claim the privilege of the similar colour of our cloth to entreat the favour of your attention? Ah! heh!--but this land breeze-laden, perhaps, with the germs of the yellow-fever--mephitic--and all that--you understand me, Dr Thompson?"

"As much as you do yourself."

"Thank you--men of superior education--sympathy--and all that--you understand me fully, major. Now this night-breeze coming through that half-open jalousie--miasmata--and all that. Dr Armstrong, Dr Thompson--medical pill--'pillars of the state'--you will pardon the cla.s.sical allusion--"

"I won't," growled out the doctor.

"Ah--so like you--so modest--but don't you think the draught is a little dangerous?"

"Do you mean the doctor's, or this?" said the inattentive and thirsty major, fetching a deep breath, as he put down the huge gla.s.s tumbler of sangaree.

"Oh dear, no!--I mean the night draught _through_ the window."

"The best way to dispose of it," said the purser, nodding at the melting Galen.

"No," replied Major Flushfire, courteously, "there's no danger in it at all--I like it."

"Bless me, major," said the marine, "why it comes all in _gusts_."

"Like it all the better," rejoined the major, with his head again half buried in the sangaree gla.s.s.

"_Degustibus non est disputandum_," observed Thompson.

"Very true," said the marine officer, looking sapiently. "That remark of yours about the _winds_ is opposite. We ought to _dispute_ their entrance, as you said in Latin. But is it quite fair, my dear doctor, for you and me to converse in Latin? We may be taking an undue advantage of the rest of the company."

"Greek! Greek!" said the purser.

"Ay, certainly--it was Greek to Mr Smallcoates," muttered Thompson.