Crown and Anchor Part 38

We were, after this, cruelly tied with ropes that cut our wrists and ankles, and then dragged to prison, where we remained until one day we heard the booming of guns in the distance.

"Good heavens, Jack!" cried poor Ned, who was by this time the wreck of his former self, and whom n.o.body on board the s.h.i.+p certainly would have recognised, "Those must be Armstrongs! I know the sound of them too well. Thank G.o.d, our comrades now are near at last to release us or revenge us!"

Later on, the same day, some Chinese soldiers entered, instead of the usual Tartar guard which we had seen since we had been in this hole; and these, putting chains round our necks, marched us off, as we thought, to execution.

"Good-bye, Ned, old fellow, if they separate us," said I. "Should you escape, please tell my old Dad about me, and the people at home."

"Nonsense, Jack," he replied, trying to laugh it off. "If we die, we'll die together. But, I should like to pay out old 'yellow hat' first. By Jove, I should like to see him now!"

Talk of--angels!

At that every moment, as we were pa.s.sing through a narrow stone pa.s.sage beneath the walls of the city, as we judged from their height, the very individual of whom Ned had been speaking the instant before appeared on the scene; and, all I can say is, that if we had thought him the reverse of an angel previous to his coming, we were, on the contrary, inclined to believe him to be the genuine article as soon as he told us his errand!

It was to release us, and take my poor emaciated and ragged comrade and myself to the English camp.

Then it was that we heard the news that had happened since our imprisonment.

Sir Hope Grant, with the French troops under Montauban, had fought their way up to Yuen-ming-Yuen, the Summer Palace of the emperor.

This place, I may mention, was subsequently burnt to the ground by the English, after the French had looted it and carried off more than a million's worth of plunder, leaving only the husks of the spoil for our gallant men, who had done all the hard work of the campaign!

The Summer Palace was burnt, I should explain, as a punishment for the cruel murder by the Chinese of a number of our officers and men, as well as poor Mr Boulby, the special correspondent of the _Times_, all of whom had been taken prisoners and tortured to death, though at the time they were under the protection of a flag of truce!

Our troops had pretty well paid out the Chinese before this, however; their infantry being annihilated and the Tartar cavalry of Prince Sanko-liu-sin "doubled up" by our dragoons.

This news "yellow hat" told us on our way to the English camp opposite to the Anting gate to the north of the city, explaining that the reason we had not seen him before was that he had gone away trying to open communications with our friends, and that he had made arrangements that no harm should befall us in his absence.

"It didn't look much like it, though, half-an-hour ago!" said I, on Ned's translating this to me, his knowledge of Chinese, originally pretty good, having increased considerably during our long detention amongst our criminal companions of the prison. "That ugly beggar next me seemed just about to slice off your head like a carrot when he turned up."

"Better late than never, old chap," said Ned, with a grin. "He mightn't have turned up at all!"

The next moment, we pa.s.sed a couple of men of the Royals who were doing out-post duty; and, ere we could realise the fact almost, we were amongst friends and comrades once more!

This was on the 10th October, on which day Sir Hope Grant sent a demand to the Chinese authorities that unless the Anting gate was surrendered by the 13th, or in three days' time, the city would be bombarded.

The morning of the 13th came, but the Chinese were still unyielding; so, the guns in front of the fortifications were sponged out and run back ready for loading, with the gunners standing by awaiting the order to fire.

Every heart beat high with expectation, and it looked as if we were going to have a last fight of it; when, just on the minute of the hour fixed for the ultimatum to expire, the gates were thrown open and the defences of the city surrendered to the English army.

Another minute, and the Union Jack was floating over the walls of Pekin.

The rest is a matter of history.

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

AT HONG KONG AGAIN!

"Hullo, Bamboo Jack!" cried Larkyns, as I came up the side of our old s.h.i.+p again after a tedious voyage down the Peiho in one of the gunboats, accompanied by Ned Anstruther, my comrade not merely in arms but in captivity. "Chin, chin, my hearty, I'm delighted to see you and Ned safe and sound, after all your wanderings and wonderful adventures, which a little bird, not caged, though, has told us of! Come below, now, to the gunroom, old chap, and have 'one piecee chow chow,' and spin us a yarn about it all yourself. It seems like old times seeing your ugly old phiz once more, by Jove!"

All the other fellows, too, appeared quite as pleased to see us both back, except that surly brute Andrews, who looked as if he wished the Chinese had made puppy pies of Ned and myself.

Truth to say, I was jolly glad myself to be on board again with my messmates, amid the old familiar scenes and surroundings.

Indeed, when swinging in my hammock the first night after my return, I fancied all that occurred was but a dream--so it seemed to my heated imagination--and that I had never left the _Candahar_ for a day, nor pa.s.sed through such exciting experiences!

A week or so later, after all the details of our treaty with the Chinese Government had been settled, and Lord Elgin departed from Pekin on his way to Europe on the conclusion of his highly successful mission, we likewise weighed anchor before the Gulf of Pechili should be closed by the ice and our egress therefrom barred for the winter months; and then, bidding a long farewell to the poetically-named but "beastly hole of a place," as Mr Jellaby called it, the "Bay of the Wide-spreading-sand Islands," we sailed for Hong Kong.

Here we arrived at the end of November, the north-east monsoon being all in our favour, and the current along the coast as well; both these favouring causes making the old _Candahar_ travel as if "Old Nick" was after her.

None of us were sorry to be amongst an English-speaking community once more, with its attendant advantage of our being able to procure most of the comforts and luxuries of civilised life, for our commissariat was in the most deplorable condition.

My friend Larkyns, able caterer of the mess as he had hitherto proved himself to be from the date of his deposing poor Mr Stormc.o.c.k up to our going to the Peiho, was at his wits' end to replenish our sadly-depleted larder, which brought on the head of the unfortunate Dobbs every day at dinner more abuse than even the long-suffering steward could well bear.

The fact was, really, fish and rice were the only articles of food to be obtained to diversify our stock fare of pickled pork and salt horse from the neighbouring inhabitants of this northern portion of the domain of the Ruler of the Universe, and Emperor of the Sun, Moon and Stars; for our French allies had so bullied and plundered all the Celestials in the immediate vicinity on the seaboard that those dwelling in the interior, where provisions of all sorts was quite plentiful, were too frightened of the ferocious and light-fingered Gauls to care to come forward with their goods--although, we invariably paid for all we had from the natives in good, sound dollars, the reverse of the practice of Messieurs Achille and Jules of the Cha.s.seurs a Pied who generally reimbursed "ces pauvres betes des Chinois" for what they unceremoniously appropriated, with true Parisian deviltry, "in kind" of the most unkindly description!

Under these circ.u.mstances, the gourmands of the gunroom were most unfeignedly delighted at abandoning such an inhospitable region as that of "The Widespreading-sand Island," where they had to starve in the midst of plenty; so likewise was I, the only thing which I had to thank our sojourn off the province of Shan-tung for being the nickname Larkyns gave me in his sportive fancy on my return on board from Pekin after my imprisonment.

This was, certainly, nothing to be proud of; and yet, such is the incongruity of things, the sobriquet stuck to me from that day to this, following me about from s.h.i.+p to s.h.i.+p while I have been on active service.

Some fellow, whom I had never previously seen in my life, perhaps, or knew from Adam, accosts me immediately on hearing my proper patronymic, with a sudden lighting up of face and hand outstretched as if I were an old friend. "Oh, yes; why, I've heard of you before, I think, old chap!

Ain't you Bamboo Jack, eh?"

This, of course, is extremely gratifying, ill.u.s.trating the truth of the adage, which my poor old Dad used to quote to me frequently enough, that "More people know Tom Fool than Tom Fool knows!"

We all of us enjoyed our long stay at Hong Kong, accordingly, the _Candahar_ having a thorough overhaul and refit with the rest of the fleet, now that the campaign was over; for, the residents were accordingly hospitable and kind to us, including the princ.i.p.al merchants of the place and the government officials, as well as the military stationed at Kowloon on the mainland opposite, where there was a large camp--all of them keeping open house, where we were welcomed at all hours, dinners, b.a.l.l.s, picnics and all sorts of festivities being the order of the day while we remained in Victoria Bay.

Our s.h.i.+p, however, nearly left her bones behind her here during a terrific typhoon that sprang up of a sudden, on the eve of our departure; when all the junks and fis.h.i.+ng-boats in the harbour were wrecked, besides several trading vessels and most of the flimsier of the buildings ash.o.r.e demolished.

We dragged our anchors in the very height of the storm, although we were moored securely with both bowers down; and, it was only by good seamans.h.i.+p and the active exertions of all hands that we escaped, cutting our cables and putting to sea for safety, so as to let the old barquey brave it out on her own element, which she gallantly did.

When we were all ataunto again, we sailed for Bombay, whither the admiral had preceded us; and from thence, after a grand entertainment at the celebrated Biculla Club, we were despatched on detached service, spending the summer months in cruising up the Persian Gulf and about the Indian Ocean hunting up pirates and Arab slave dhows, in pursuit of which we ran down the East African coast as far as the Mozambique Channel.

We captured a lot of slavers, laden with cargoes of poor wretches that, but for our release of them, would have spent the remainder of their days in picking cloves at Pemba, or serving the Egyptians like the Israelites of old; and, giving a look in at Zanzibar, we handed over our prizes, for each of which we had a bounty of so much per head on the slaves captured, besides the value of the dhows we did not destroy. We then returned to Bombay whence we were ordered back to the China station, making our old port, Hong Kong, again at the beginning of spring in the following year.

From here, in company with the admiral and most of our fleet in the eastern seas at that time, we paid a visit to each of the Treaty Ports, which, mainly through the efforts of England, had been thrown open to the commerce of the world, and by which not only has the Manchester cotton spinner and Birmingham hardware dealer profited, but the empire of China herself and her people.

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.

HOMEWARD BOUND.

It was getting on for the expiration of the fourth year of our commission, when we had finished this tour and we paid a last visit to Hong Kong, before going on to Singapore to await our relief from England.

Here, having been over three years a mids.h.i.+pman and being specially recommended for promotion by Captain Farmer, there being three captains in port to const.i.tute our examining board, according to the Admiralty regulations, I pa.s.sed for lieutenant; whereupon, I was given an acting commission as mate until my return home, when, on getting my certificates in gunnery and steam at the Naval College, I would be ent.i.tled to my epaulets--the which, I may here state, I ultimately obtained in due course.