Young Tom Bowling Part 29

This statement was true enough; for, as the malacca cane came against the stonework, the head of it flew off, and from the hollow cavity within that was then disclosed there rolled out, if you please, a string of gold pieces some twenty at least in number--the result, probably, of this respectable mendicant's very industrious beggary since he had taken to the trade, the old rascal carrying his horde about with him for safety's sake.

He now burst into tears at his secret wealth being thus brought to light; judging, no doubt, from what he knew of the morals of his own countrymen, that Larrikins and I were going to appropriate it to our own use.

But, Larrikins and I were English sailors--not any of your Maltese riffraff; and so, picking up the scattered gold, we gave it back to the old impostor, the suspicious scoundrel counting each piece as we dropped it into his hands to make sure that we did not purloin any.

"Take that, yer old joker," said Larrikins, as we left the scene of the incident, tendering the old gentleman a parting kick. "That's some interest, old Bono Johnny, to stick inter yer ditty box along o' yer s.h.i.+ners!"

We had no further adventure at Malta, beyond finding out that most of the shopkeepers and other chaps with whom we dealt during our short stay were as great cheats as our beggar friend of the Nix Mangiare stairs.

Before leaving the port, however, to proceed up the Levant, we heard a piece of news that gave some of us much satisfaction.

This was, that, instead of the _Mermaid_ having to act for some months as jackal to the eastern division of the fleet, as had been intended when we were commissioned, we were now ordered to pa.s.s up the Mediterranean and proceed on through to the Red Sea, the cruiser which we had been hurriedly despatched to relieve on account of her condenser being cracked, having had her damages made good in the dockyard, the _Merlin_ indeed lying out in French Creek all ready to return to her station within forty-eight hours of our arrival at Valetta.

So, on the third morning, a lot of signalling went on between our s.h.i.+p and the flagstaff ash.o.r.e at the naval station, the upshot being that we were ordered to sail early in the afternoon; when, steam being got up and the anchor weighed, we bade adieu to the island, leaving Saint Elmo Point on our port hand and shaping a course eastward.

When we were nearing Alexandria, we had a bit of a 'Levanter,' which delayed our progress for half a day, during which time we had to slow down our engines and keep under easy steam, head to sea; but, after that, the weather was as fine as we could wish, and we got through the Ca.n.a.l without a hitch, not a single vessel blocking us, even after pa.s.sing the Bitter Lakes, a very unusual thing at this period of the year, when the China clippers crowd the narrow waterway and cause repeated stoppages as a rule to s.h.i.+ps outward bound.

On emerging from the Ca.n.a.l, at Suez, we made the best of our way down the Red Sea to Suakin, where we found despatches from the senior officer of the East African station, to which we were attached, directing us to join him off the island of Socotra; and that if we did not come across him there we were to cruise along the coast between Ras Hafim and Obbia, where it was reported the Somali Arabs were getting busy with the advent of the south-west monsoon, and carting cargoes of slaves over to Oman and the Persian Gulf--that is, when they saw a chance and none of our men-of-war were on the spot to stop them!

In obedience to these instructions, therefore, we steamed steadily onwards through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, and, making a wide stretch across the Gulf of Aden to take advantage of the current, steered straight for our appointed rendezvous.

Here, finding no one to meet us, nor hearing any news of import to alter our programme, Captain Hankey hauled up for Cape Guardafui, intending then to beat down the Somali coast as he had been directed.

Seeing the funnels of a steamer awash off Binna, we put in nearer to the sh.o.r.e, the steam cutter being piped away to examine the wreck, which was too close in to the rocks for the _Mermaid_ to approach her with safety.

There was no trace of any one living on board, though she had evidently been only recently abandoned, various articles lying about on the deck aft, which was clear of the water, that would not have remained long aboard had she been stranded for any length of time.

She was clean gutted, however, almost every single movable thing of any value having been stripped from her.

"Ha!" I heard Captain Hankey say to our first lieutenant, both of them coming in the cutter to inspect the steamer. "Those Somali Arabs have been here, Gresham."

"Not a doubt of it, sir," replied Mr Gresham. "Those beggars are the biggest thieves, I believe, in the world; and murderous rascals, too. I recollect, sir, when I was out here in the old _Vampire_, we had many a tussle with them, for they fight like wild cats!"

"Aye, they do that," said the captain. "I shouldn't be surprised if some of their dhows are knocking about here now!"

"Nor I, sir," agreed the other. "Oliver, of the _Magpie_, whom I saw at Suakin, told me there was a rumour of the Somalis running cargoes of arms, which they pick up somewhere in the German protectorate, to supply Osman Digna's forces for a fresh campaign that has been planned by the Arabs against us along the whole coast."

"That may be," said Captain Hankey; "but the beggars who have been at work here wore only on the lookout for loot, I think--though, perhaps, they may have murdered the crew and pa.s.sengers of this vessel, too, for all we know. However, to make matters sure, we'll look out for them!"

"Aye, aye, sir, that will prevent any mistakes," said Mr Gresham, with a laugh. "I don't think any Arab dhow, whether belonging to the Somalis or otherwise, can escape the _Mermaid_, should one heave in sight!"

There being nothing that we could do for the steamer, which would have to be 'written off as a loss' by the underwriters at Lloyd's, the captain gave the signal for the cutter to return to our s.h.i.+p; and then, making a good offing, so as to put the Arabs off their guard, we banked our fires, except under one boiler, keeping the screw just revolving so as to maintain our position abreast of Binna, well out of sight of the land.

A strict watch was maintained, though, all the same, lookouts being stationed in our military tops as well as on the forecastle; and, in the early morning, long before sunrise, the steam pinnace and first and second cutters were lowered alongside, and provisioned ready for action.

Captain Hankey had kept his eyes open to some purpose when he inspected the steamer, for he had seen a lot of things that had been stripped off the vessel put together in a heap under the bridge, as if her plunderers intended returning for them, not having been able to carry them away at their last trip; and, albeit he did not draw the attention of our first lieutenant to this, to my knowledge, when talking to him, no doubt, from the preparations he made, 'old Hankey Pankey' drew his own conclusions.

His judgment was not at fault.

Hardly had the first flush of dawn tinted the yellow eastern sky with its rosy light, heralding the glowing heat of day, ere one of the men stationed in the tops hailed the deck.

"There's something moving away off on our weather bow," sang out the man, shoving his head over the side of the top. "I can't make it out exactly, sir; there's a haze on the water ahead."

The second lieutenant, who was acting as officer of the watch, being an easy-going sort of chap and rather sleepy from being up pacing to and fro on the bridge since midnight, did not pay much attention to this intelligence.

"All right, lookout-man," he hailed back, after a portentous yawn.

"It's probably the morning breeze blowing the fog off the land that you see. Tell me, a-a-ah! When you are able to make it out more clearly, a-a-ah!"

And, he almost yawned himself out of his boots as he gave utterance to the last word.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

BOARDING THE SLAVE DHOW.

"On deck, there!" shouted out the lookout-man again, almost before the sound of Lieutenant Dabchick's last yawn had died away in the distance, like a groan or its echo. "There's a whole fleet o' dhows a-creeping up under the lee of the land and running before the wind to the north'ard, sir!"

This stopped Mr Dabchick's yawns and made him open his sleepy eyes pretty wide, I can tell you!

"A fleet of dhows, lookout-man!" he cried, fully awake at last, not only in his own person, but as regarded the responsibility attaching to him should he unhappily let our prey escape and so foil his captain's carefully arranged plan. "Are you certain, Adams?"

"Not a doubt of it, sir," replied the captain of the foretop, in an a.s.sured tone that expressed his confidence in his own statement.

"They're Arab dhows sure enough, sir. One--two--three; and, ay, there is two more on 'em jist rounding the p'int--that makes five on 'em, sir, all bearing to the north as fast as they can go, with slack sheets and the breeze dead astern, which they are bringing up with them. They're right off our weather beam, now, sir."

"The devil!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Lieutenant Dabchick, in his flurry using a stronger expression than he would probably have done had 'old Hankey Pankey' been on the quarter-deck, rus.h.i.+ng into the chart-house on the bridge and s.n.a.t.c.hing up a telescope, which he brought to bear on the horizon in the direction indicated by Adams in the foretop above, whose point of vantage, of course, gave him a wider range of view. "On our weather beam, you say?"

"Ay, ay, sir," roared back the lookout; "they're right abreast of our forrud funnel now, sir."

Mr Dabchick's hand shook so much from excitement that he could not hold the gla.s.s steady; so, propping it up athwart the stanchion at the weather end of the bridge, and sprawling out his legs to give him a good purchase, he worked the telescope about till he at last spotted the objects Adams had seen.

"By the Lord Harry!" exclaimed the lieutenant, "you are right, Adams. I must send down and tell the captain at once."

With that, he hailed the mids.h.i.+pman of the watch and despatched him with the news to Captain Hankey's cabin aft; while at the same time he rang the engine-room gong, and shouted down through the voice-tube to tell them below to 'stand by,' as probably we would want steam up in a very short time; directing also the c.o.xswains of the boats alongside to make ready, as well as pa.s.sing the word forward for the boatswain's mates and the drummer and bugler to be handy when wanted.

This done, all his orders having been issued and executed in less time than I take to tell of it, Mr Dabchick resumed his interrupted, if monotonous, task of walking up and down the bridge; stopping whenever he had to slew round, at the end of his promenade, to take another squint at the dhows, and warning Adams, though that worthy needed no such injunction, to 'keep his eye on them.'

Mr Dabchick had just sung out this for the second time on getting back to the weather end of the bridge, when Captain Hankey, accompanied by Mr Gresham and a lot of the other officers, rushed on deck, some of them half dressed and buckling on their gear as they came hurrying along.

'Old Hankey Pankey' made straight for the bridge, the first lieutenant close at his heels.

"Ha, Mr Dabchick," cried the captain, as he skated up the iron ladder leading from the deck below to the chart-house, taking three steps at each bound, "so you've sighted those beggars at last, eh?"

"Yes, sir," said the second lieutenant, smiling, and rubbing his hands, having put down his telescope on top of the movable slab on the bridge the navigator had for spreading out his charts; Mr Dabchick a.s.suming an air of great complacency, as if it were entirely through his exertions the dhows had been seen or were there at all--"I think you'll find 'em there to win'ard all right, sir."

'Old Hankey Pankey' caught up the telescope that Mr Dabchick had just deposited on the slab, putting it to his eye.

"Yes, they are dhows sure enough, Gresham," he said to the first lieutenant, after a brief inspection of the craft, which were stealing past us under the loom of the land far away to the westward. "No doubt, they are the very rascals who plundered the wreck we saw yesterday, and as likely as not murdered all the people on board! They are making for the same spot again, too, to pick up the rest of the loot they have not yet taken off; but we'll stop their little game. Bugler, sound the 'a.s.sembly'! Drummer, beat to 'quarters'!"