THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES YULE LOGS An Indian sprang up behind him.' Page 279. Longmans' Christmas Annual for 1898 YULE LOGS Edited by G. A. Henty With Sixty-one Illustrations Longmans, Green, and Co, 39 Paternoster Row, London New York and Bombay 1898 All rights reserved Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & Co. At the Ballantyne Press CONTENTS A FIGHTING MERMAID. By KIRK MUNROE I Illustrated by FRED. T. JANE. THE VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER. By HENRY FRITH 39 Illustrated by W. H. OVEREND. A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE. By Lieut.-Col. PERCY-GROVES . 74 Illustrated by J. FINNKMORE. THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT. By ROBERT LEIGHTON . 115 Illustrated by J. AYTON SYMINGTON. A DANGEROUS GAME. By G. MANVILLE FENN . . . .155 Illustrated by C. J. STANILAND. BY DEFAULT OF THE ENGINEER. By FRANKLIN Fox . . 203 Illustrated by GORDON BROWNE. THE KING OF SPAIN'S WILL. By JOHN BLOUNDELLE-BURTON . 236 Illustrated by ENOCH WARD. A NEW ENGLAND RAID. By E. F. POLLARD 271 Illusti ated by GORDON BROWNE. 627040 viii CONTENTS I'AGE SIR RICHARD'S SQUIRES. By CHARLES W. WHISTLER . . .310 Illustrated by R. WHEELWRIGHT. THE SLAVER'S REVENGE. By HARRY COLLINGWOOD . . .344 Illustrated by TREVOR HADDON. ON A MEXICAN RAXCIIE. By G. A. MENTY 383 Illustrated by H. BIRD. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "An Indian sprang up behind him" .... Frontispiece PAGE " The strange tow, slowly making its way up the harbour" . . 13 " She hovered like a gigantic fish " 17 " Then two dripping figures scrambled aboard " . . . -29 "The explosion, close under their bows, of a giant fire-cracker" . 31 " The Alfonso XIX. lay in a glow of diffused light that seemed to come from beneath her very keel " 33 "Threw the whole harbour into an uproar of terror" - 35 " The captain, overbalanced, dropped overboard, and disappeared in the raging sea "......... 43 " Hullo, my young spitfire ! so you want a lesson, do you ?" . . 47 "What are those black things, Mr. Stevens?" .... 54 " In the dim light two curious objects appeared" .... 63 "The end appeared near'' ........ 69 " I immediately ran forward to the scene of action " ... 77 " Our gunners hammered away at Rosetta " . . . -85 " Very cautiously we made our way down the sand-hills " . .91 "As the fog cleared off, there appeared before us the Turkish army" . 97 " Our standing ranks gave them a rattling volley ; ' . . . .105 " I dropped senseless to the ground " . . . . . .in " Suddenly a fluttering book flew past his curly head " . . 1 17 " Turned up a rusty old claymore " . . . . . . .124 x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE " Alan refused to accept this offer of friendship " . . . ! 35 " Colin handed him the lantern " ....... 146 "Neil? my brother Neil?" 151 " Whisked himself round and held his tar-kettle and brush out like a pair of balances ' 160 " Rev'nue cutter," said Hezz shortly . ...... 166 "A vigorous cut divided the fishing-line " ..... 171 " A signal ! came the next moment in answer " . . . .181 " For there below him, lit up by a few lanterns, he could make out the hull of a great lugger " . . . . . . .186 " Oh," he cried, " there you are, sir '." 193 " Master Lahnce, lad ! '' cried the old man, making a grab at the boy's hand 201 " A quiet smoke ".......... 205 "This is a pleasant prospect " . 209 "Caught a firm grip of her dress'' 214 " Uttering a wild yell, rushed off towards the nearest hut" . . 228 " Mr Urquhart tried the effect of the nine-pounders" . . . 233 " Ran his finger along a map of France " . ... 242 " We arc soldiers, not . 2 'i " Not so fast, mademoiselle, not so fast. What are you doing here?" . . 254 The Rescue 2 ^, " A friendship that eventually ripened ' . ->6o " I was afraid, and hid myself in the long rushes " . . . 273 "Quiet ! Josiah Blackstone" 2 g 7 "Be on your guard" ">95 "With a shout of triumph she leaped into the water" . . 303 " He fell forward dead in the black swamp" . . 307 " He came heavily to the roadside grass, where he lay stunned " . 311 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi PAGE " Sir Richard sat in his great chair on the dais " . . . .315 " I know where I am not wanted, at least" ..... 323 " She seemed to care little " ........ 327 " The next thing I knew was that my good steed was down on his nose among the stones " . . . . . . . . 336 " We were met by a ragamuffin crowd of swarthy, black-haired, fierce-eyed ruffians "........ 349 ' A gang of some fifty negroes appeared "..... 367 " Borne aloft on a sort of rude throne supported upon the shoulders of eight stalwart negroes" . . . . . . -37' " She waved her hand above her head by way of farewell ' . . 375 " Before he could pull the trigger I had struck up the weapon " . 380 " Horses, when required, could be lassoed" ..... 385 "Was often away on horseback with her dogs" .... 389 " The great assemblage of all the cattle, known as the round up" . 403 " Shot an unusually fine mountain lion " 411 " I struck Violetta sharply and she galloped off like an arrow . 418 "A loud shout burst from the bushes as he issued out" . . . 423 A FIGHTING MERMAID BY KIRK MUNROE Author of ^ The White Conquerors" "At \Varwith Pontiac" " Through Swamp and Glade," " IVith Crockett and Bowie," &c. &-'<:. CHAPTER I IT was a grand success. Every one said so ; and more- over, every one who witnessed the experiment predicted that the Mermaid would revolutionize naval warfare as completely as did the world-famous Monitor. Professor Rivers, who had devoted the best years of his life to per- fecting his wonderful invention, struggling bravely on through innumerable disappointments and failures, un- daunted by the sneers of those who scoffed, or the significant pity of his friends, was so overcome by his signal triumph that he fled from the congratulations of those who sought to do him honour, leaving to his young assistants the responsibility of restoring the marvellous craft to her berth in the great ship-house that had wit- nessed her construction. These assistants were two lads, eighteen and nineteen years of age, who were not only the Professor's most promising pupils, but his firm friends and ardent admirers. The younger, Carlos West Moranza, was the only son of a Cuban sugar-planter, and an American mother who had died while he was still too young to remember her. From earliest childhood he had exhibited so great a taste for machinery that, when he was sixteen, his father had sent him 2 A FIGHTING MERMAID to the United States to be educated as a mechanical engineer in one of the best technical schools of that country. There his dearest chum was his class-mate, Carl Bald- win, son of the famous American shipbuilder, John Baldwin, and heir to the latter's vast fortune. The elder Baldwin had founded the school in which his own son was now being educated, and placed at its head his life- long friend, Professor Alpheus Rivers, who, upon his patron's death, had also become Carl's sole guardian. In appearance and disposition young Baldwin was the exact opposite of Carlos Moranza, and it was this as well as the similarity of their names that had first attracted the lads to each other. While the young Cuban was a handsome fellow, slight of figure, with a clear olive com- plexion, impulsive and rash almost to recklessness, the other was a typical Anglo-Saxon American, big, fair, and blue-eyed, rugged in feature, and slow to act, but cling- ing with bulldog tenacity to any idea or plan that met with his favour. He invariably addressed his chum as " West," while the latter generally called him " Carol." The Rivers submarine boat, finally christened Mermaid, had been evolved during long years in the great Baldwin shipyard located on the Delaware, less than a mile dis- tant from the Baldwin technical school, and during his lifetime John Baldwin had taken a deep interest in its construction. Thus Carl had been familiar with its every detail from the time that he could remember anything, and had grown up with an abiding faith in its possibilities. That his chum was also enthusiastic concerning it consti- tuted one of the strongest bonds of sympathy between them. Now that its complete success had been demon- strated by four hours of trial, during most of which time it had been manreuvred under water with a party of six distinguished engineers on board, Carl's elation was only little less than that of the inventor, whose very life was bound up in it. Like him, however, the lad was slow to A FIGHTING MERMAID 3 express his deepest feelings ; but the enthusiasm of the day found ample vent through the young Cuban, who had been permitted to share in the glorious result, and who poured forth his exultation in a torrent of words as the two lads left the shipyard and wended their way homeward. " It is the crowning triumph of the century, my Carol, and will make immortal the name of our honoured in- structor. To have lived until this day and to be allowed a share in such glory is a vast privilege. Of war, what a revolution will be made ! Oh, if my poor country pos- sessed but one of these marvels, how quickly would she be free ! To destroy the ships of Spain and open to the world every Cuban port ! What an achievement ! what honour ! Carol, why may it not be done ? Why may we not take this Mermaid, and with her liberate Cuba from her centuries of slavery ? " " Because," answered Carl Baldwin slowly, " she is not ours to take, and even if she were, we would not be allowed to use her in any such fashion. The Government would not permit us." " But if she were ours. If the Professor would con- sent to allow us to attempt the experiment. If we could escape the vigilance of the American cruisers, and manage to convey our marvel of marvels to the scene of action, would you not join in the enterprise, my Carol ? Would you not aid in striking the blow for freedom ? " " It would certainly be most interesting to test the little craft in actual service," replied the young American cautiously. " Interesting, say you? It is of vital importance. What she has done is nothing. Who knows what she may ac- complish ? When will there come another such chance for trying her in warfare ? Where in the world is there a prize to be gained equal in value to that of a free Cuba ? That my father has sacrificed all but life itself for her is my proudest boast ; that I may soon fight by his side, my 4 A FIGHTING MERMAID fondest hope. Oh, if you cold-blooded Americans could but witness the cruelty, the oppression, the despair, the horror of it all. But, if I cannot win over my dearest friend among them, how may I hope to persuade others ? Ah, Dios ! it is hard, it is bitter, it is pitiful, that but for want of a single helping hand all should be lost." At this point the young Cuban's feelings so over- powered him that words failed to express them, and as Carl Baldwin's policy was to remain silent during these outbursts, the lads reached the school building in which they lodged without further conversation. Since Carlos Moranza had left home, the affairs of his native land had come to a sorry pass. The struggle for freedom had begun. Spanish armies devastated the fair island, killing its inhabitants, laying waste their fields, and destroying their homes, while Spanish war-ships patrolled its coasts to cut off all outside aid from the insurgents. The latter, devoid of nearly everything necessary for carrying on a war, save a desperate determination to re- sist to the death, occupied the interior of the island, xvhere they found impregnable strongholds amid its rugged mountains and dense forests. The sympathies of the American people \vere with them, and expeditions for their relief were constantly fitting out in the southern ports of the United States. Many of these failed to reach their destination, since international law compelled the Government to prevent them from sailing, if possible. Thus, in addition to the Spanish fleet patrolling the Cuban coasts, the southern waters of the United States were guarded by an equally numerous fleet of American men- of-war and vessels of its revenue marine. From the very outset of the war Don Cassar Moranza, after placing his only daughter, Catina, who was two years younger than Carlos, in what he conceived to be a safe retreat, had linked his fortunes with those who fought for liberty. He had quickly risen to the command of a A FIGHTING MERMAID 5 Cuban army, and, as General Moranza, the dashing cavalry leader, proved such a terror to the Spaniards, that to cap- ture him became an important object of their campaigns. With all the impetuosity of his nature Carlos longed to take part in the glorious struggle, and, in every letter that he found means of transmitting to his father, pleaded to be allowed to join him. Thus far his petitions had been denied on the ground that he would still have ample opportunity for fighting after he had become a skilled engineer. In the meantime he could do much for the cause where he was, and must remember that to perfect himself in his chosen profession would be of greater value to Cuba than the winning of a battle. This stimulant was what made young Moranza one of the most brilliant scholars in the Baldwin Polytechnic ; for he felt that every problem solved was a blow struck for his country. At the time of the Mermaid's successful trial trip, in which the young Cuban had been allowed to participate as a dis- tinguished reward of merit, he had received no word from his father or sister for many weeks, and so was filled with anxiety concerning them. As the lads reached the school they separated, Carlos proceeding directly to his room, and the other going in search of Professor Rivers to report the safe housing of the Mennaid. The Professor was so buried in thought that for a few moments he apparently took no notice of Carl's entrance. Suddenly, lifting his head and looking squarely at the lad, he exclaimed " Yes, yes, my boy, all is well so far as we have gone, but what will she do in actual service ? How will she behave in face of an enemy ? Is she capable of single- handed and successful attack against a fleet ? Until these questions are answered how may I know whether my life- work is a success or a failure ? To solve them I would willingly engage a navy in single combat ; but where may I find one willing to accept my challenge ? " 6 A FIGHTING MERMAID " Why not in Cuba, sir ? " suggested Carl with a sudden inspiration. " Cuba J Cuba ! " repeated the Professor slowly, as though bewildered by the idea thus presented, and then he plunged once more into abstracted thought. After waiting a few moments longer, and seeing that his guardian was disinclined for further conversation just then, Carl Baldwin departed to tell his friend of the seed he had planted. To his dismay he found Carlos standing as though petrified, and staring with bloodshot eyes at a telegram evidently just received. " What is it, West ? What has happened ? " inquired young Baldwin anxiously. " Read that," replied the other huskily. With this he extended the message, which was signed by the president of the Cuban Junta or War Committee, whose headquarters were in New York City. " General Moranza captured by treachery and shot by order of Weyler. His daughter seized, imprisoned, and held for transportation to a penal colony. May God help you in this hour of your affliction ! " " For my father's death I grieve not," cried the young Cuban. " He died for the cause he loved, and may be avenged. But for my sister, my own little Catina, in prison, at the mercy of those brutes, and consigned to the living death of a convict ! How may I bear it ? What can I do ? Tell me, my friend, for I am going mad." "No," cried Carl Baldwin, "you shall not go mad, nor even yield to despair, for we will yet save her. The Professor shall go with us, and we will take the MermaM. Even now he is inclined to consider some such under- taking. And when he reads this message he will be as ready to set forth as you or I. Oh yes, my dear fellow, we can rescue her and we will. Instead of going to a penal colony, she shall come to this country, and be as free as you are at this moment." A FIGHTING MERMAID 7 As he spoke the young American seized his friend's hand, and the latter looking into the brave blue eyes, now blazing with excitement, believed that Catina would be saved. CHAPTER II THE submarine boat Mermaid was a cigar-shaped shell of aluminium bronze, extremely light and strong, about forty feet in length and eight in greatest diameter. On its upper side was a small railed platform or deck, from the centre of which rose a low turret provided with four bull's-eyes, from which an observer might glance out ahead, astern, or on either side. Another bull's-eye was fitted into the hinged and water-tight cap that closed the turret when the boat was submerged. The interior of the boat was divided into three com- partments. Of these, the one farthest forward was fitted with an air-lock, through which a person wearing a diver's suit might leave the vessel while she was under water and return to her at will. This hold was also pierced for a bull's-eye through which could be made to shine an electric search light of intense power. The central compartment was the living and operating room. It also contained a dynamo, an air compressor, and a small condenser, by means of which sea-water could be made drinkable. In the after compartment was located a compact but powerful gasoline engine. This furnished the motive power for running on the surface, and also stored electricity by which the screw could be turned when surface air was no longer available. Beneath the floor of the central compartment was a tank for water ballast, which could be filled or emptied at will of the operator. In all parts of the boat were hundreds of tubes, wires, cocks, valves, and other devices of amazing ingenuity for ensuring the safety of her crew and the discomfiture of an enemy. 8 A FIGHTING MERMAID She was indeed, as Carlos Moranza had said, one of the crowning scientific marvels of the century. On the day succeeding that of her trial trip, the young Cuban was full of hope and courage, for Professor Rivers had been won to his cause by the enticing prospect of achiev- ing the rescue of a young girl from a dreadful fate, and at the same time testing under most trying conditions the powers of his beloved boat. He had only stipulated that she should not be used for the destruction of either life or property. Thus it happened that in less than a week one of the most powerful tugs on the Delaware cleared for Havana. She had in tow a great dumping scow, such as is used in New York harbour for conveying the city garbage far out to sea. This scow was built with a long central pocket, the bottom of which was longitudinally divided into two parts. Each of these was hung on massive hinges, and could be made to drop or open outward, thus allowing the contents of the pocket to fall into the sea. Then, by means of a donkey-engine, the great valves could be drawn up and closed as before. The question of how to get the Mermaid to Havana had proved most puzzling. She was too small to under- take such a voyage by herself, and had she been shipped on the deck of another vessel, her every movement would have been watched and heralded, while the success of the proposed expedition depended upon its secrecy. Thus, at the very outset, the would-be rescuers seemed to be confronted by an insurmountable difficulty. Then Carl Baldwin had thought of the sea -going clumping scows, several of which had been built in his father's ship- yard, where one recently completed even now awaited a purchaser. " Why couldn't we take the Mermaid to Cuba in it ? " he suggested, after several other plans had been dismissed as impracticable. A FIGHTING MERMAID 9 "The very thing," cried Carlos Moranza. "In that way we could carry her right into Havana harbour, and there offer the scow for sale to the Spaniards as a blind. It is a noble idea, my Carol, and will prove our salva- tion." " It might be done," said the Professor thoughtfully. " Let us go and take some measurements." This they did, and found that the pocket of the dump- ing scow was amply large to hold the Mermaid, at the same time allowing her free egress and exit. It would even float her when closed and half filled with water. Only a few alterations that readily suggested themselves to the Professor were needed to exactly suit the great craft to their purpose. While he took charge of these, and Carlos took a trip to New York for consultation with the President of the Cuban Junta, Carl Baldwin arranged for the charter of the finest sea-going tug on the Delaware, and through her captain for the purchase of the dumping-scow. The Professor had long since placed the practical direction of his school in the hands of able assistants, so that he was free to leave it at a moment's notice for any length of time. Thus, when he announced that he was about to devote a few weeks to the testing of his pet invention, and should need the assistance of his two rank- ing pupils, their departure was effected without arousing undue curiosity. The clearing of the tug, with its novel tow, for Havana, was, however, quite another thing ; and, from the moment their destination was announced, both craft were watched by Government officials and Spanish spies to see that no contraband cargo was taken aboard. Of course nothing of the kind was found ; but this did not prevent a revenue cutter from escorting the tow down the river and across Delaware Bay until it was clear of the breakwater and well out at sea. Finally, the cutter turned back ; but even io A FIGHTING MERMAID then her commander continued to watch the tow through a glass. ." In spite of their seeming innocence, I regard that as one of the most suspicious departures ever made from the Delaware," he remarked to a lieutenant who stood beside him. " The pretence of trying to sell that scow in Havana is only the baldest kind of a bluff. Any fool knows that those blooming Spaniards aren't going to put themselves to either the expense or trouble of carrying garbage out to sea so long as they can dump it in their harbours. Hello ! What's that ? Look quick and tell me if you don't see something between us and them." Through the glass thrust into his hand, the lieutenant took a long and comprehensive survey of the intervening waters. " No, sir, I don't see anything," he reported at length. " Neither do I now," said the other after another look. " I \vould have sworn, though, that I saw something like a raft moving towards that scow." The commander had indeed caught a glimpse of the Mermaid rising to the surface to get her bearings, but she had instantly dived, nor did she again visit the surface until safely within the shadow of the great scow. She had run down the river the night before, and had lain behind the breakwater with only a small portion of her turret above the surface, until the tow, with its ac- companying cutter, had passed out to sea. Then she followed, with her eyes just awash, and dove deep beneath the revenue vessel when it turned back. Upon next coming to the surface, she had been allowed to rise a little too far, and so was very nearly discovered. " H was a close shave," admitted Carl Baldwin, after the Mi rinaid was safely ensconced within the closed pocket of the great scow; "but a safe miss is as good as a thousand miles, and now we are all right till we get to Havana." A FIGHTING MERMAID n " Don't you he too sure of that," admonished the captain of the tug gruffly. " There's many a cruiser between here and there, and every one of 'em is sartin to board us." So it proved. At Charleston, where the tug put in for coal, leaving her tow in the lower bay, the scow was boarded by revenue officers, who did not leave her until she was again at sea ; and all the while the poor little Mermaid was dodging about under water, only coming up now and then for a breath and a quick glance at her surroundings, like a hunted sea-fowl. Off the mouth of the St. John's River, the tow was hove-to by a blank shot from a Government cruiser, and again was the Mermaid forced to seek safety at the bottom of the sea. This time she avenged herself by rising directly beneath the cruiser, and demonstrating to the Professor's entire satisfaction how easily he could if he chose place and fire a torpedo that would blow her from the water. It had been decided to touch at Key West, the most southerly extremity of Florida, as well as of the United States, and only eighty-five miles across the Gulf Stream from Havana, and finally, after many narrow escapes from discovery, our adventurers reached the port of that quaint island-city in safety. Here they found several American men-of-war, a small fleet of torpedo-boats, four revenue cutters, and a Spanish cruiser, to all of whom the strange tow, slowly making its way up the harbour, seemed an object of especial interest. Their fame had preceded them ; every one knew that they were bound for Havana, and that they had been objects of suspicion all the way down the coast. So, before they came to anchor, they were boarded by United States officers, and a guard was placed on both tug and scow, with orders to allow no communication between them and the shore, except under strict surveillance. In the meantime, the little Mermaid had sunk quietly J2 A FIGHTING MERMAID out of sight, nor did she again rise to the surface until safely beneath a wharf covered with freight sheds, that extended out to deep water. Here, hidden in deepest shadow, she lay unobserved until nightfall, when our lads found no difficulty in gaining the streets of the town, leaving the Professor in charge of his beloved boat. As Carlos Moranza had visited Key West before, he led the way without hesitation amid throngs of pro- menaders, among whom white was the rarest colour to be seen. Coal-black negroes from Jamaica, sallow-com- plexioned Spaniards, swarthy Cubans, mulattoes, quad- roons, octoroons, and Creoles, with faces tinted in every shade of brown or yellow, jostled each other on the side- walks, all talking, singing, or laughing, with eager gesticu- lations. Electric lights gleamed among the softly nestling leaves of tall cocoa-palms. Open carriages, bearing cigar- ette-smoking men in white linen, gaudily-clad negresses, or languid Cuban women, whose only sign of animation lay in their flashing eyes, rattled over the white pavements, while, above all, innumerable flags, displaying the blue and white stripes, the crimson field and single white star of Cuba Libre, fluttered in the faint night breeze. The entire city, which is wholly Cuban in sympathy, as well as two-thirds so in population, was rejoicing over the news just received of an insurgent victory. The exulting throngs were most dense about the building occupied by an agent of the Cuban Junta, on a balcony of which the glad tidings were being read aloud from a paper just snatched off the press, while a guard stationed at the main entrance forbade admission, except to such persons as were of well-attested patriotism. "Halt! You may not pass!" cried one of these, as our lads, having forced their way through the crowd, sought to enter. For answer Carlos Moranza spoke a few words in so low a tone that only he might hear them. A FIGHTING MERMAID 15 Instantly the man stood aside, touched his cap respect- fully, and motioned them to enter. As they did so, a third person attempted to pass the guard in their company, but was seized on the threshold. " Is this hombre of your party, senor ? " asked the guard. " Certainly not," replied Carlos. " I never saw him before." So the intruder, who was evidently of Spanish blood, was ignominiously thrust back, and as he slunk away he muttered words that boded no good to Carlos Moranza, in case they should again meet. In the meantime the young Cuban, accompanied by Carl Baldwin, made his way to the balcony where the agent of the Junta had just Finished reading of Garcia's victory. As Carlos touched him on the shoulder he turned quickly and frowned at sight of a stranger. Again the lad whispered his magic formula, and in another moment the agent was embracing him with the fervour of a life-long friendship. Then he led his guests to a private room, where for half-an-hour he engaged Carlos in earnest con- versation, of which young Baldwin could only understand an occasional word. When our lads finally left the building and regained the street, the latter asked curiously, " What was it all about, old man ? " " He said," replied Carlos, " that the Spanish cruiser now in port is here for the express purpose of escorting us to Havana, and that, as soon as we are outside Key West harbour, she will place a guard on both tug and scow." " Hm ! " remarked Carl Baldwin reflectively ; " we can't allow that." " I should say not," agreed Carlos Moranza ; " only I'd like to know how we are to prevent it." "Just you leave it to me, and I'll show you the trick," rejoined the young American. A FIGHTING MERMAID CHAPTER III So intent were the lads upon their conversation, that they mistook another freight shed for the one beneath which the Mermaid was hidden, and walked a few paces beside it before discovering their error. When they did so, they at once began to retrace their steps, and in turning a corner of the building came plump upon a cloaked figure evi- dently on their trail. " Hello ! what do you mean, sir, by following us ? " cried Carl Baldwin, seizing the stranger's arm as he spoke. With a muttered oath the man wrenched himself free and darted away, but not before the gleam of a street light had revealed his features to Carlos Moranza. "The very fellow who tried to force his way into the quarters of the Junta ! " he exclaimed, " and more than likely a Spanish spy. It is a narrow escape, my Carol, for if our blunder had not forced us to turn back, he must have discovered the Mermaid. In that case we should indeed have met with trouble." " Let us hasten, then, before he returns." " I don't believe he will dare do that. He is too badly scared." But the spy did return, and, crouching in deepest shadow, became convinced that those whose business he was so anxious to discover had passed beneath the wharf. As he dared not attempt to follow them through the im- penetrable gloom into which they had disappeared, he sought a hiding-place, and from it watched with infinite patience for them to again come forth. They had, in the meantime, safely regained the snug living-room of the Mcrnia-.', and reported all that had happened, to the Professor. Then Carl Baldwin unfolded his scheme for delaying the Spanish cruiser in port until after their departure. A FIGHTING MERMAID 17 As a result, the submarine boat was allowed to drift down the harbour with the ebbing tide, until she came abreast the great black hull of a man-of-war. Then she imperceptibly sank beneath the surface. The watch officer of the Spanish cruiser, leaning on her after-rail and gazing musingly down into the dark waters sweeping seaward, speculated idly concerning the stream of phosphorescent light tailing out from under her counter, but thought of it only as a natural phenomenon. " She hovered like a gigantic fish." Had he known that it was caused by the motion of the Mermaid's propeller necessary to hold her in position against the stream while she hovered like a gigantic fish directly above the screw of his ship, how easily could he have won the promotion for which he longed. But he suspected nothing ; and as Carl Baldwin, working from the diving chamber of the submarine craft, had succeeded in fastening one end of a short length of stout wire rope to the propeller blade, and shackling B l8 A FIGHTING MERMAID the other to a ring-bolt in the massive rudder, the officer turned with a sigh and walked away. On the following morning the Spanish spy, weary and cramped with his long vigil, was amazed to see an utter stranger emerge cautiously from beneath the wharf he had been watching, and walk quickly away. For a moment the spy was undecided as to whether he should follow this person or seek to discover where he had come from. Then choosing the former course, he followed Professor Rivers at a respectful distance, until he had the vast satisfaction of seeing him meet, near the custom-house, the captain of the tug that was avowedly bound for Havana. There was a connection then between those who hid beneath the wharf and the suspected tow anchored in the harbour. Undoubtedly a store of contraband goods was concealed under the wharf, and an effort would be made to convey them on board the tug before she sailed. What a reward was in prospect for him could he but discover it ! A little later the spy, with two companions, all armed, occupied a skiff that made its way cautiously through the dark spaces beneath the wharf he had watched so long. Suddenly between them and the outer daylight two men appeared one after the other. Both slid down one of the piles supporting the pier and dropped into the water, or at least the exulting spy thought they did so as he hastily urged his boat in that direction. To his amazement and disgust, when he reached the spot where they had disappeared, he could discover no trace of them. Neither was there a boat or a hiding- place into which they could have gone. The man was furious at being thus baffled, and uttered many a fierce Spanish oath. Finally, convinced that further search in that direction was fruitless, he pulled out into the harbour to watch the mysterious tow that still lay at anchor. As A FIGHTING MERMAID 19 he drew near to it he saw its captain come off from shore alone. Then the guard from one of the revenue cutters was withdrawn, anchors were lifted, and the tow began to move slowly down the channel. It was certain that no one save the captain had gone aboard, nor had any cargo been taken in except a few tons of carefully examined coal. Never in his life had the spy been so puzzled and disappointed ; but it was a slight consolation to know that Spain's vigilant cruiser would accompany the Gringos to Havana. Even now was the black-hulled warship preparing to follow the departing tow. As the massive anchor broke away from the bottom, her great screw began to churn the water, and she slowly forged ahead. Suddenly her screw ceased to act, she took a sheer in the wrong direction, there was a vast amount of con- fusion on her decks, and in another minute she was fast aground on a bank of the narrow channel. Every eye in Key West harbour was fixed upon her, and before any one again thought of the departing tow, it had gained the high seas, and was beyond the jurisdiction of either Spain or " Uncle Sam." A little later, with the saucy Mermaid safely hidden in the ample receptacle of the great dumping scow, the tow had vanished in the direction of Havana. That night the spy boarded a swift passenger steamer bound for the same port, which at sunrise of the follow- ing morning passed beneath the frowning walls of Moro Castle in company with the tow he had come to watch. The Mermaid retained her berth even after a pilot had boarded the tug, and her crew looked eagerly upon the wonderfully beautiful scene unfolding before them as they passed through a narrow entrance into the broad, land- locked harbour of Havana. Carl Baldwin, to whom everything was excitingly novel, viewed with delight the grim Moro with its tall lighthouse tower, the white Cabanas fortress, the tinted, 20 A FIGHTING MERMAID flat-roofed buildings of the city across the placid basin, the quaint cathedral spires, and the thousand other curious features of Spain's chief stronghold in the New World. Carlos Moranza, rilled with conflicting emotions at again approaching his native land under such strange conditions, gazed in silence, but as though hoping with the very intensity of his vision to pierce the crowding walls and discover the prison of his beloved sister. Professor Rivers had eyes only for the warships, of which the harbour held half-a-dozen, as he speculated upon the ease with which his little Mermaid could humble their pride and render them powerless. At this very moment the Spanish spy was regarding, and triumphantly recognising, all three of the Americans through a glass levelled at them from the deck of the steamer on which he was a passenger. Thus it happened that, as the captain of the tug was preparing to go ashore and make formal entry at the custom-house, after having successfully passed examination by both health officers and port authorities, two barges filled with soldiers dashed out from the mole and headed directly towards the new arrivals. One of these took possesion of the tug, while the other, in which sat the exulting spy, ranged alongside the dumping scow. For nearly an hour the soldiers searched every com- partment and corner of the two vessels, even overhauling the coal in the tug's bunkers. When there was no longer an unexplored crevice, even the spy was forced to confess that there was no person aboard unaccounted for in the tug's papers, and that he must have laboured under a delusion as to what he had seen. He was bewildered, mortified, and angry, and was rendered furious by the ridicule heaped upon him by the officer to whom he was obliged to report his failure to discover anything that would justify a seizure of the tug. This craft the Spaniards would have been glad to A FIGHTING MERMAID 21 possess, but when its captain went ashore and announced his desire to dispose of the dumping scow, the authorities only laughed at him, and referred him to General Weyler, who happened at that time to be absent with an expedition to the interior. This was gratifying information, as it afforded an excuse for remaining in Havana harbour until he should return. In the meantime the Mermaid, having sunk out of sight on the approach of danger, had found safe refuge under the stern of a Spanish man-of-war that was moored close at hand. Here she received a supply of fresh air through a flexible tube, one end of which was supported on the surface of the water by a small float. During the time that her occupants were thus compelled to remain in hiding, they amused themselves by so wedging the rudder of the warship as to render it immovable. With the earliest twilight of that evening they returned to the tug and held a short consultation with her captain, who had used his eyes to such good purpose while on shore that he was enabled to direct them to a place from which he believed they could gain the city streets. This was most important, for though in the darkness they might have landed anywhere along the quay, they would still have been shut off from the streets by a tall and stout iron fence, the gates of which were always guarded, and at sunset locked for the night. This is in accordance with a regulation that not only forbids any vessel to enter or leave the port of Havana between sunset and sunrise, but also prohibits all communication between the city and its harbour during the night. The place indicated by the captain was a dock in which lay a number of fishing craft, and the entrance to which was closed by iron gates. As it was not likely that these extended very far below the surface, it was possible that the Mermaid might pass beneath them. This proved to be the case ; for when, after a long search and several 22 A FIGHTING MERMAID narrow escapes from discovery, the dock was reached, the Mermaid managed to squeeze under the barrier, and when she next rose to the surface she was inside the city lines. Here she remained with her deck just awash, and in charge of the Professor, while the two lads, rilled with hopeful excitement, set forth in search of information that should guide their future action. CHAPTER IV THE part of the city in which our lads found themselves was dark and deserted, save for an occasional soldier pacing a lonely beat and a few slouching figures that seemed trying to avoid observation. At the suggestion of Carlos they kept the middle of the ill-paved streets, for in Havana no one uses the narrow side-walks at night. To do so would be to invite a knife-thrust from the iirst dark pasadizo. Even in the more open spaces that they sought, each lad kept a hand in the pocket containing his revolver, and they took care not to allow any person to approach them closely from behind. At length they came to a region of plazas and lighted thoroughfares, in which they encountered ever-increasing numbers of beggars and soldiers. The former were pitiable objects, horribly emaciated by the starvation which Spain was deliberately inflicting on her rebellious subjects, while most of the soldiers were mere boys, ill-fed, poorly clad, and wasted by sickness, but \vell armed and insolent to all save their own officers. These latter, who swaggered by in noisy, cigarette-smoking groups, seemed the only well-fed persons in the city, as well as the only ones who still found life worth the living. They stared impudently at our lads, and more than one, recognising Carl Baldwin as an American, treated him to insulting epithets, most of which he fortunately failed to understand. A FIGHTING MERMAID 23 Not knowing whom they might question, or even ad- dress with safety, the young adventurers finally turned into the brilliantly-lighted cafe of the Pasaje, where they hoped to gain some guiding clew from chance bits of conversation. The place was so crowded that for several minutes they failed to find vacant seats at any of the little tables scat- tered about the floor. At length they secured two that had just been vacated, and slipped into them. Two other seats at the same table were occupied by a supercilious- looking Spanish officer and a fashionably-attired civilian. The former, with an expression of deepest hatred cast toward Carl Baldwin, slowly rose, reversed his chair with a loud scraping on the marble pavement that attracted general attention, and reseated himself with his back turned squarely toward the young American. The latter had suspected the nature of the insulting epithets applied to him in the streets, but had been unable to reply to them on account of his limited knowledge of Spanish. With enforced silence his anger had smouldered until now, when it broke into a sudden fierce heat. Acting upon the impulse of the moment, he lifted his own chair, planted it in front of the Spaniard, deliberately reoccupied it, and stared his enemy full in the face, but without uttering a word. As Carlos Moranza realised his companion's intention, he started towards him, but was detained by the fourth man who had been seated at the table, and who whis- pered hurriedly " Fly for your life, amigo, while there is yet time. For a Moranza to be arrested in Havana means sure and speedy death." " But I cannot leave my friend," gasped the young Cuban, bewildered at being thus promptly recognised where he believed himself to be unknown. " He will only suffer imprisonment. They dare not kill him. His Government is too powerful." 24 A FIGHTING MERMAID For a moment Carlos Moranza hesitated. Then his resolution was taken. " I cannot desert him," he cried ; and, gaining the place where Carl Baldwin sat, he grasped his arm with the intention of dragging him from the cafe. At this, the officer, who had cowered irresolute beneath his adver- sary's unflinching gaze, clapped a hand to his sword and attempted to rise. In an instant the young American had thrust him back with such force that the frail chair crashed beneath him, and the uniform of Spain was rolled igno- miniously in the dust. Then, without regarding the man further, or noticing the other inmates of the cafe, who were thronging towards them, Carl turned to his friend, saying " I don't think I like this place, West. Isn't there some other in which we might be just as happy ?" " Yes, yes, come quick," replied Carlos, starting to- wards the street as he spoke ; but it was too late, for at that moment a file of soldiers appeared in the clorway. They were led by the Spanish spy who had followed our friends from Key West, and who had been sitting in the Cafe Pasaje brooding over the futility of his attempts to apprehend them when the two lads unsuspectingly entered it. " There they are ! Seize them ! " he now cried exult- ingly, and the obedient soldiers rushed forward. With all the latent fury of his nature aroused and blazing from his blue eyes, the young Anglo-Saxon Ameri- can fought single-handed the minions of Spain. Two of them fell like logs beneath crashing blows from his fists. Two more were hurled breathless to right and left. The others hesitated, and even shrunk before him as with a cry of " Come on, West ! " he dashed toward the door- way. At that moment some one flung a chair before him. He tripped over it, staggered wildly, and then measured his length on the pavement with half-a-dozen Spanish soldiers on his back. A FIGHTING MERMAID 25 When next he was allowed to regain his feet, he was helplessly bound and being marched away to prison, together with Carlos Moranza, who was in the same un- happy plight. Even then the spirit of the young American was unsubdued ; and, in defiance of his enemies, he raised a cry on gaining the street that he felt certain was as good Spanish as it was English. " Cock-a-doodle-doo ! " he shouted, with all the breath left in him. " Silencio, Gringo ! " growled the nearest soldier, at the same time striking his prisoner full in the mouth with the flat of his hand. For a wonder, Carl Baldwin retained sufficient wisdom to accept the blow without a word, though, had he known the full value of his outcry, he might have been tempted to repeat it. A crowd had already gathered in front of the cafe, and from it instantly arose answering shouts, in tones indi- cating both derision and amazement, of "El gallo ! El canto del gallo ! " Carlos Moranza wondered how his friend had obtained a knowledge of the Junta's defiant password for the current month, since even to him it had only been revealed under promise of a strict secrecy that he had not broken. He had used it but once, and then the whispered " Canto del gallo " had instantly admitted him to the presence of the Junta's agent in Key West. No matter, though, how Carl had discovered it, he was justified in using it under the circumstances, for it might raise friends to their assistance, if, indeed, there were any within hearing who understood its hidden meaning. Thus thinking, the young Cuban also uplifted his voice in a ringing " Canto del gallo." At sound of this second note of defiance, the Spanish spy, with a malediction upon the gallipollo, sprang towards the lad, but, ere he could strike a blow, some one in the crowd hurled a paving-stone that stretched him senseless 26 A FIGHTING MERMAID on the ground. As though this were a signal, the mob, led by a tall man in the dress of a carboncro or charcoal- burner, rushed upon the slender file of soldiers, and swept it irresistibly before them. A few moments of pandemonium -shots, yells, screams of pain, cries of exultation, a crash of flying missiles, the ominous clatter of a cavalry patrol galloping down the street, and then all was over. The mob melted away like a puff of smoke, leaving only a few innocent and in- offensive citizens to be cut down by the sabres of the troopers. The prisoners who had caused the outbreak had also disappeared, and when the Spanish spy, slowly regaining his senses, became aware of this fact, he gnashed his teeth with rage. Our lads were in the meantime dragged at top speed through a labyrinth of narrow streets and dark alleys, until, breathless and bewildered, they finally found them- selves in a dimly-lighted room, surrounded by a group of those who had effected their release. One of these severed the cords binding their arms with two blows of a dirk-like machete, and said in reassuring tones " Fear nothing, senors ; you are with friends, sworn to aid all who suffer in the cause of Cuba. Tell us, then, who you are, whence you come, and how it happens that you possess the most secret password of the Junta." " I," replied the young Cuban boldly, for to him alone of the two was this address intelligible, "am Carlos Moranza, son of Here the lad was interrupted by a great cry from one of his auditors, and in another instant he was folded in a close embrace by the carboncro who had led the mob to the rescue. " Carlos, my son ! my own brave boy ! do you not know your father ? " cried the man, half-sobbing, half- laughing in the excitement of his discovery. "Father! my father! can it be?" screamed Carlos, A FIGHTING MERMAID 27 staring wildly at the man. " It is indeed his voice ; hut without hearing it I should never have known him. But, father, they told me you were shot, and I have mourned you as dead." " I was indeed captured and condemned to be shot, hut managed to escape," replied General Moranza. " And I should have joined you in the land of freedom ere this, but for Catina." " What of her ? " inquired the young Cuban eagerly. " Is she still alive and well ? I heard that she was a prisoner, condemned to Africa, and am here to effect her release, if it be not too late." " The child is indeed an inmate of the vile Jacoba, and sentenced to transportation in a ship that will sail on the morrow," replied the General. "This I learned but an hour since from Don Estevan." " Now I know," interrupted Carlos. " It was also he who gave me warning in the cafe." " Twas to meet him, who is a true friend of the cause," continued the other, " that I lingered near the Pasaje, and so was on hand to rescue from Weyler's clutches those who appealed for aid with the password of the Junta." " Yes," laughed Carlos, " the ' Canto del gallo ' of my friend, who yet declares that he knew nothing of its secret value, did us a fine service ; but of Catina, my father, what more have you to tell ? " " Nothing, my son ; all efforts to rescue her have been made in vain, and on the morrow the little one will sail away for ever. I have lacked two things a demonstra- tion of sufficient magnitude to attract attention from the prisons, and the means of conveying her from the island undiscovered. But alas- " Both of them I can supply," cried Carlos eagerly. " Such a demonstration may be contrived as will cause every Spaniard in Havana to tremble in his shoes and call 2 8 A FIGHTING MERMAID on the saints for protection. As for a conveyance, it is already at hand. Furthermore, the transport ship can certainly be prevented from sailing on the morrow, and shall be." " What then, my Carlos ? Have the United States espoused our cause and sent a fleet to our aid ? " " Not so, father, only two of her brave citizens, of whom this, my dearest friend, is one, have come with me ; but we have brought that which may accomplish all that I claim and more. Do not question me as to its nature, for I am bound to present secrecy. Only be prepared for our demonstration which will be made to-morrow night ; effect the release of the little one from La Jacoba, bring her to the dock of the fishmarket on the exact stroke of midnight, and her safety together with thy own shall be assured." After another hour spent in joyful congratulations, explanations, and a perfecting of details for the proposed rescue, our lads took their departure, and cautiously re- turned to the place where Professor Rivers anxiously awaited them. CHAPTER V ALTHOUGH amid the excitements of the night Carl and Carlos had not realised the flight of time, the hours of waiting passed by their companion in anxious suspense on board the Mermaid had seemed interminable. He had not dared desert his boat for a minute, nor would it have been safe to move from the precise position in which the lads had left her. So he could only watch from the turret of his submerged craft, with every sense keenly alert for the return of his young friends. After a while he seemed to hear guarded footsteps and whispering voices close at hand, though unable to see the figures to which they belonged. The impulse to turn on a A FIGHTING MERMAID 29 search light and thus discover the nature of his surround- ings became so strong that at length he disconnected the wires in order to remove the temptation. He had hardly done this and resumed his position in the turret, when there came a shout, a shot, and a rush of feet. Then a cry in English of " Show a light, Professor ; a light quick ! " The startled man struck a match and held it aloft, where it was instantly extinguished by a little puff of wind. " Then two dripping figures scrambled alxxird." But its purpose was served, for even as it expired two dark forms leaped into the black water that closed above them. At the same moment half-a-dozen shots rang out spitefully, and one of them, evidently attracted by the Professor's light, glanced from the Mermaid's iron turret. Then two dripping figures scrambled aboard, the turret hatch was closed, and, with her crew safely reunited, the marvellous craft sank beneath the surface, without leaving a trace to be discovered by the flashing lanterns that, a 3 o A FIGHTING MERMAID few minutes later, were exploring every inch of the dock in which she had lain. The lads had made a second narrow escape, and that they had made it at all was not due to any lack of pre- caution on the part of the Spanish spy, who, fully convinced that they were in some way connected with the mysterious tow in the harbour, had taken every means to intercept them in case they should attempt to regain it from the water-front of the city. Daylight was tinting the eastern sky when the Mermaid again cautiously showed her eyes above the surface in close proximity to her tow, and, in obedience to a safety signal from the captain of the tug, who had long been watching for her, quickly regained her old position within the capacious pocket of the dumping scow. In the mean- time the lads had recounted their adventures and told of their joyful meeting with General Moranza, together with what Carlos had promised should be done on the follow- ing night. To all of this the Professor gladly agreed ; for would it not afford him the longed-for opportunity of testing the powers of his beloved boat to the utmost ? Thus, even before regaining her berth in the scow, the Mermaid paid a submarine visit to the Spanish transport that was to have borne many a heart-broken exile away from Cuba that day, and so tampered with propeller and steering- gear that her date of sailing was certain to be indefinitely postponed. A few hours later our adventurers watched with intense interest the consternation and bewilderment manifest on board the transport, and, when it became evident that she could not be moved, began to make active preparations for the coming night. On the part of the Professor these consisted in mixing certain chemicals that required the utmost delicacy and skill in handling. Carl Baldwin devoted himself to so arranging a number of giant dynamite crackers, that they A FIGHTING MERMAID 31 might he ignited under water and made to explode on reaching the surface, while Carlos spent his time in carrying out a design that he had borne in mind ever since the planning of their expedition. It was the pre- paring for service of two Cuban flags. One was a trans- parency fitted with electric wires and made fast to a float that would support it on the surface of the water. This was intended only for night use, while the other, which was of silk with a slender staff of steel, was designed to attract attention by daylight. m " The explosion, close under their bows, of a giant fire-cracker." Shortly before sunset, with everything in readiness for her great venture, the Mermaid forsook her snug berth and began to move across the harbour, with the eyes of her turret just awash and the flag of free Cuba fluttering bravely a foot above the surface of the water. It did not attract attention until it passed slowly within a hundred yards of the Spanish battle-ship Alfonso XfX., when a clamour of voices from her decks announced its discovery. 32 A FIGHTING MERMAID A few minutes later a boat, manned by Spanish blue- jackets and commanded by a dapper lieutenant, dashed forth in pursuit of the hated emblem. It was easily overtaken and the officer stretched forth a hand to seize it. As he touched its steel staff he received an electric shock that caused him to utter a scream of terror and fall like one paralysed in the bottom of his boat. With this the little flag, proudly displaying its broad stripes of white and blue and a single white star in a crimson field, danced away over the placid waters towards another great ship flying the red and yellow ensign of Spain. Again was the bait taken, and a second boat was sent in pursuit. This time not only was the man who attempted to seize the Cuban emblem numbed as though by a stroke of lightning, but the boat's crew was thrown into a state of wildest panic by the explosion, close under their bows, of a giant fire-cracker. " Isn't it great fun ? " cried Carl Baldwin, who was in charge of the diving-room, the ventilation, and the explosives. " It is bewildering," answered the Professor, without taking his eyes from the pressure-gauge that indicated their exact distance below the surface. " At this moment we three are demonstrating the worthlessness, as fighting machines, of the world's navies. From this time on, the nations of the earth will be compelled by fear to live at peace with each other." " I wish \ve could sink just one Spanish ship," said Carlos Moranza from the engine-room, " Of course we could do it," replied Professor Rivers. " In fact, we could within one hour's time destroy every warship in this harbour, but it would be a wicked and cowardly act. No, no, my boy, we will not harm a single human being in this glorious experiment. At the same time I am perfectly willing to inspire them with a whole- some fear." THE FIGHTING MERMAID 33 "Just scare 'em stiff," laughed Carl Baldwin. By the time darkness had settled over the scene the entire Spanish fleet was fully aroused. News of the mys- terious happenings in the harbour had even spread to all "The Alfonso XIX. lay in a glow of diffused light that seemed to come from beneath her very keel." parts of the city, and General Moranza realised that his powerful friends were already at work. Some two hours later, while the officers and crew of the Alfonso XIX. were still discussing with bated breath the recent supernatural appearance of the Cuban emblem, they were startled by again seeing it floating on the sur- C 34 THE FIGHTING MERMAID face but a short distance from them. This time, instead of being a simple silken flag, it was outlined in flames of red white and blue. There was a confused shouting of orders, and then the rattling fire of a machine-gun began to tear through the water just beyond the blazing emblem. With the first sound of firing it vanished, but a minute later the Alfonso XIX. lay in a glow of diffused light that seemed to come from beneath her very keel. And so it did, for that was the point from which the Mermaid was just then operating her 4000 candle-power search-light. As the Spaniards waited in breathless terror for what should happen next, and fully expecting to be hurled into eternity by s.ome tremendous explosion, a dense volume of sickening smoke rose slowly from the water on both sides of the ship, until she was completely enveloped in its suffocating folds. In a vain effort to escape this terror against which they could not fight, the Spaniards slipped their moorings with the idea of steaming out to sea, but, to their dismay, the great screw, that should have driven them through the water at a speed of twenty miles an hour, refused to move, and the vast bulk of the Alfonso XIX. only drifted helplessly. Now the fiery emblem of free Cuba was again seen moving swiftly from point to point, fired at by ship after ship, disappearing with each shot only to flash out again a moment later in some unexpected quarter. Its erratic course was marked by eddying clouds of pungent smoke, bursts of flame, and loud explosions that threw the whole harbour into an uproar of terror. The panic-stricken ships of Spain dropped their moorings and made des- perate efforts to escape from the enemy that they could neither see nor fight, but which seemed to hold them at its mercy. Some of them could not move, others could not be steered, and all drifted helplessly, colliding with one another, running aground, blinding each other with flashing search-lights that incessantly swept the black waters THE FIGHTING MERMAID 37 in every direction, and filled with terrified men who im- plored the saints to save them. Nor was the alarm confined to these, but it spread to the city, where in every quarter church-bells rang madly, drums sounded their quick call to arms, trumpets blared, masses of people poured through every avenue leading to the water-front, and Havana was dominated by such a reign of terror as its history had never known. While the confusion was at its height, a heavy firing from the south announced an insurgent attack, and, with the general call for troops that followed, even the military guards of the prisons were temporarily pressed into service. At five minutes before midnight, as marked by Carlos Moranza's watch, the cause of all this turmoil slipped unnoticed into the dock of the fishmarket, and lay motion- less with only her low turret rising above the surface. At exactly midnight the young Cuban closed his watch with a snap, and listened eagerly to a rapidly approaching rattle of wheels. Then a carriage dashed through the crowds lining the water-front, and staring like so many bewildered moths at the flashing search-lights of the warships. As it drew up sharply at the head of the dock, a man in the uniform of a Spanish general leaped from it, and was quickly followed by a slender youth, apparently a mere boy, also in uniform. At this moment the whole scene was suddenly illu- mined by a glare of light that seemed to come from the very waters of the dock, and a great cry rose from the spectators as they fell back in affright. Only two men dared press forward the Spanish general and his aide. These stood for a moment on the Very edge of the stone coping. Then the lad seemed to slip down into the water. As he disappeared, the general, waving his plumed chapeau high above his head, uttered a loud cry of " Viva Cuba libre ! " and sprang after his companion. Half-an-hour later the little Mermaid was slipping 38 THE FIGHTING MERMAID swiftly but unseen beneath the very walls of Moro Castle and out of Havana harbour. In her tiny cabin, Catina Moranza, weak with reaction from the terrible strain of the past few days, lay sobbing in her brother's arms, and striving to tell of her blessed deliverance from the horrors of La Jacoba. At the same time General Moranza stood beside Professor Rivers and watched with wondering admiration his conning of the most powerful battle-ship the world had ever known. Two miles out at sea they found their tug, that, with its tow, had taken advantage of the dire confusion in Havana harbour to leave it unnoticed. Here the Mermaid took the last dive of her eventful cruise, and in another minute was once more safely ensconced within the dump- ing scow. Ten days later the clumsy tow, with the real object of its long voyage still unsuspected, moved slowly up the Delaware River, and came to anchor off the Baldwin ship- yard. In answer to the chaff of such acquaintances as rallied him on the folly of trying to sell a dumping scow to the Spaniards of Havana, the captain of the tug was wont to say, " Yes, it is true I failed to sell the scow, but I made five thousand dollars out of the trip all the same." Professor Rivers is equally satisfied with the success of his venture, and so of course is Carlos Moranza. As for Carl Baldwin, he made the home voyage in a state of delightful bewilderment. "Why didn't you tell me, West, that your sister, in- stead of being a mere child, as I was led to suppose, was the very loveliest and most beautiful girl in the world ? " he asked of his friend after his introduction to Catina. " Because," answered Carlos Moranza, who had here- tofore only seen the young lady in question through the eyes of a brother, " I didn't know she was." THE VENTURE OF THE " BERTHA" WHALER A STORY OF THE ANTARCTIC BY HENRY FRITH Author of" The Search for the ' Talisman,' " "Jack o' Lanthorn" " The Opal Mountain" d~Y. &c. "~"\AX!" cried Arthur Rushton, as he and his brother Reginald struggled amicably on the sofa in the vessel's berth. " All right ! " assented the elder, a fine lad of sixteen. " How are you feeling this morning, Arthur ? Better ? " " Rather ! I feel like Samson already," replied the somewhat delicate-looking boy. " I am ready for several Philistines this morning, and mean to ask the steward- fellow for a couple of asses' jaw-bones for dumb-bell practice ! " " Better keep them shut, and not exercise them so much," said Reginald politely. " No, no ! " he cried, as Arthur made an attempt to assault him. " It's pax now ; and, besides, I want to finish dressing." The threatened contest was thus averted, and, after some light chaff had been exchanged, the lads resumed their conversation. " I wonder how things are at home," mused Arthur. 4 o VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER " The dear mother was very unwilling to let us go, though the step-pater did hot seem to care ! Poor, dear mother ! I think she spoke to the captain about us, Reggie." " I am sure she induced Mr. Halbrake to come with us instead of the other man from the firm. Halbrake, being a doctor (surgeon, I mean), is in the right place, particularly as the captain is a bit ' touchy ' and obstinate. The mate is simply a beast." " Yes ; he and the master had a nice row over that paper which was found in the chart-room, or in the cabin above. The old skipper declared it was a warning. Didn't he get riled, too ? and he nearly blew himself up as well as the mate." " Next time he'll have a fit. It strikes me the mate aggravates him purposely. The captain can't stand any kind of interference. Well, I'm going on deck. Hurry up now," said Reginald. This conversation took place in the lads' berth on board the Bertha, a sturdy barque in which they were voyaging. She was fitted as a "whaler," and belonged to the firm of Boscombe & Halbrake chiefly Boscombe. The senior partner was the step-father of the Rushtons, for their mother, a rich widow, had married Mr. Bos- combe, a gentleman whom the lads most cordially disliked. Shortly after the marriage he, at first gently, and later very firmly, had suggested a voyage for Arthur, who seemed delicate. Then he decided upon sending the Bertha to seal in the Antarctic, and to search for a missing vessel, the Gladiator. When this was arranged, Reginald volun- teered to accompany his brother. Mr. Boscombe made no objection. Mr. Halbrake, a young surgeon, usually called " Doctor," also embarked under the old and experi- enced master, Blake, an eccentric, touchy man, obstinate to a degree, and always easily " drawn " when his attain- ments were questioned. He and his mate, Esau Cor- dell, were always at loggerheads. It seemed, as Reginald VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER 41 Rushton had said, that Esau had aggravated the old man on purpose. Several days had already passed since the Bertha quitted Plymouth. She had plunged and rolled in Biscay's Bay, and flung waves over her head aft to the waist. The lads and the Doctor lay close, sometimes venturing on deck, but more frequently keeping below till the weather moderated. The auxiliary screw was now hushed, and the barque plunged on under sail with a fine breeze on the quarter. On the day on which our tale opens, Reginald again went on deck, and the master asked him and Arthur to break- fast with him in his own cabin. " Glad to see you up again," said the captain. " Began to think you intended to stay below until we reached the tropics. Got your sea-legs, eh ? and a good appetite, I hope ? " The boys replied cheerfully in the affirmative, and the meal proceeded until, about ten minutes later, Mr. Cordell intruded his red head into the cabin and said " Excuse me, sir, but the weather is looking ugly. I think you had better shorten sail." " I shall shorten sail when I please," replied the master. " You may take a reef in your jaw-tackle, Mr. Cordell, meantime." " Best get up steam," continued the mate, without taking any notice of the suggestion. " Get out, sir," roared the captain. " I am master of this ship ! Say, what do you know of the paper about traitors aboard ? Mind your own business, sir. I'll mind mine." "There are obstinate old fools aboard, I suspect," muttered the mate. " The ship will be struck by a squall presently. You had better shorten sail, as I tell you." " I shall not. Go forward, or I'll put you in irons. What impudence ! " puffed the captain as the mate dis- appeared. "He thinks he commands the ship. Hum!" 42 VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER he muttered after a pause, during which he had consulted the barometer, " it's falling fast, but he doesn't know the ropes," continued the obstinate skipper. " Now, lads, fire away ; there's no trouble ; eat hearty." " We have finished, thank you, captain. The sky is getting very dark, sir." " Eh ! eh ! a bit dusky. Seems the sea is rising ; wind's changing too ; must go and look at it," said the old fellow, as he sauntered out of the cabin. But hardly had he emerged on deck when the mate's voice rung out loudly " All hands take in sail ; look alive there ! " The master swore, and rushed out to confront his deputy. " Let her go as she is, Jackson," he cried to the steersman. " Go below forward," he shouted to the mate furiously. " I shall have you in limbo. Stevens " (he hailed the second mate), " stand by the watch and reduce sail. Heavens ! here's the squall ahead ! Let the sheets fly smart. Up with the helm hard up ! Haul up the mainsail, down flying jib there ! " The men, fortunately, were prepared, and the mate, ignoring the threat of arrest, assisted, gave orders, and generally behaved well. The barque, taken aback, plunged, shook herself, and then fell off, careening to the blast, almost dipping her yard-arms into the sea. The captain raved ; the mate shouted ; the men laboured ; and when the barque was brought before the gale under a furled topsail and furled foresail, the angry captain called the mate, and standing in the waist, addressed him as follows : " You are a mutineer, sir ; you shall leave this ship. 1 will put into port as soon as possible and try you. Go below, sir ! " " You'll do nothing of the kind," retorted the mate ; " perhaps I can break you. You had better knock under." " Mutiny, by heavens ! Mr. Stevens, send the watch aft to seize this fellow." VENTURE OE THE "BERTHA" WHALER 43 The captain seized the mate as he spoke. The latter resisted. A struggle ensued, in the quick course of which the older man was pinned against the bulwarks, while the vessel rolled deeply. A tremendous wave washed into the waist furiously, and then, no one knew how, the captain, overbalanced, dropped overboard, and disappeared in the raging sea. The mate had hardly saved himself, as the "The captain, overbalanced, dropped overboard, and disappeared in the raging sea." wave, which had nearly swamped the Bertha, rushed in cascades along the decks, and finally escaped impetuously by the scuppers. " Man overboard ! " was the cry, as the mate fell back on the deck. " Down helm ; make ready the quarter boat ! " In a moment all was confusion. The hands were almost paralysed by the occurrence. Mr. Halbrake, who 44 VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER had been below with the two youthful passengers, came hurriedly upon deck, and for a moment the Bertha was left to herself. She plunged and rolled deeply ; the waves dashed wildly over her, as the high cross seas invaded the decks fore and aft. For half a minute she appeared settling down, but her stability asserted itself, and she rolled back again, when the men steadied her by the helm on her course. All thought of saving the unfortunate master was by this time abandoned ; he must have sunk immediately. The men went about their avocations in silence. The doctor assisted the mate, who had fallen and cut his head rather badly, and interrogated him closely. But Mr. Halbrake found himself powerless in the matter of discipline. Though so closely connected with one of the owners, he found he had no authority. The mate had had his orders from Mr. Boscombe apparently, and the three passengers were impotent in the matter. They subsequently discussed the case, for the surgeon had had his suspicions ever since the mysterious paper had been found in the captain's room, but the author of it, and the accomplice who placed it there, were unknown. The mate himself had been as furious as the captain on the subject, possibly for different reasons, but the ill- feeling then engendered had caused the tragedy which all hands regretted. The mate took command of the barque with the tacit approval of all, though evidently against the wishes of some on board. The squall abated almost as suddenly as it had arisen. Steam was raised, and the Bertha then resumed her course in a calmer sea. The lads took the opportunity to examine the ship, and inspected the oil- tanks, the harpoon-chests, the store-cabins, and penetrated to the forecastle. They made friends with the men, and learned many things about sealing and whaling. They VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER 45 were much surprised at the strength of the ship her strong hull, thick bulwarks, and clamped bows ; the arm- chest and the stores, ammunition, food, were also inspected, and sampled later. The voyage proceeded without any marked incidents. Then another, and yet another, storm attacked them. The Bertha put into no port ; she proceeded southward with ever-varying weather, and novel experiences for her passengers. So the parallels were traversed to the Trades, and the Line was approached. II DAY after day passed. The last storm from the north- west had at length subsided. The weather was becoming very warm ; the sailors donned straw hats, or other light head-gear, and thin garments. The decks were scorching. The wind fell entirely; and one day late in October, when in a sailing barque people would have been whistling for wind, the Bertha fell in with the north-east Trades, sail- shifting ceased, and the engine was at rest. All this time there was much dissatisfaction in the minds of the three passengers. Esau Cordell's manner was not in his favour. The boys disliked him heartily, and even the young surgeon was prejudiced against the new commander. The three friends kept together, and fre- quently compared notes on their experiences and feelings. " I cannot understand why your step-father sent you fellows aboard this ship," remarked the doctor. They were lying on the hot deck, beneath the shade of the quarter boat suspended in-board. " Why couldn't he have sent Arthur to the Mediterranean if he is delicate, though I don't admit that ? " " For money reasons," replied Reginald. " The ' boss ' is as stingy as a tom-cat, and he gets the jaunt gratis." 46 VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER " Stingy ! I believe you," said Arthur. " He declares he is as poor as a church-mouse ; and mice would he poor indeed if they depended upon his offertory." "Ah, then perhaps he had some other motive," mur- mured the doctor. " However," he continued aloud, " you will both go home well and fit. Reggie may still go to Cambridge, and you, Arthur, may go as you please ; perhaps try the Bar, as you have private means." " We shall see," said Arthur quietly. " But I say, doctor, somehow I can't forget that letter about the ' traitors on board.' What was it all about, I wonder ? The poor old captain was enraged, but he had something to go upon, I think." "What became of the paper ?" asked Reginald. " Has the mate got it ? " " Don't know. I suspect it has been picked up some- where," replied the doctor. " There is nothing suspicious now, at any rate." " Isn't there ?" said Arthur, nodding significantly at the last speaker. " The mate came into our berth last night very quietly, and when he saw I was awake, he mumbled something and went out." " Why didn't you tell me ? " asked Reginald. " I thought we had fastened the door." " Perhaps you heard some one in the passage close by," said Mr. Halbrake, "or perhaps you dreamt it all." " No, I saw the man plainly in the dim light it must have been early in the morning, I expect and that beast Esau " Meaning me, young sir ? Go on ! Don't mind my feelings," continued the mate sarcastically ; " I am only a beast, you know ! " The three chums were perfectly dumfounded, the man had come upon them so silently and so cautiously. What had he heard ? " We are sorry that you happened to hear my young VENTURE OF THE BERTHA" WHALER 47 friend's opinion," said Mr. Halbrake after a pause. " He seems, however, to have some objection to you. Of course I do not understand it, but " But / understand that the accredited surgeon of this vessel, and a partner, I believe, of the owners, is inciting my passengers to insult the commander. The late skipper found out what that meant when he attacked me, and if " Hullo, my young spitfir you want a lesson, do you ?" you and these cubs are not careful, you may all find yourselves in limbo." " Cubs ! " exclaimed Reginald. " What do you mean by such insolence ? You are a mean cad ! I think you drove the old captain overboard." " Hullo, hullo, my young spitfire ! so you want a lesson, do you ? Well, then, take my advice ; hold your tongue in future, else both of you will be put in irons below. I'll 48 VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER have no mutiny here ; and you, doctor, had best just keep yourself to yourself, else you will find things raspy for you ! " With this hint, and a significant nod to the three seated in the shade of the boat, the commander walked away. His advent had struck the party dumb ; his departure had a similar effect upon them. At length, after a cautious look around, Reginald re- marked " He must have been listening. After all, he took the matter fairly well. To be called a beast, and to be spoken of as a possible murderer, is a fair test of temper." " So is * cubs,' " said Arthur. " And he is a beast, anyway ! I would like to find that paper ; then we should know what to believe." " I am afraid he will find means to ' pay us out,' " said the surgeon, reflectively. " Let us keep quiet. Perhaps we have been too hard on him, though I cannot under- stand what object he had in setting the captain against him. That he did so is evident." "What object had our 'dear papa' in sending Arthur in this ship ? Yet he did, knowing I would go also. You yourself were surprised, doctor. Could it be a planned thing, do you think ? " " Oh, impossible ! " exclaimed the surgeon, rising from the desk. " We must be careful, that's all." The lads acted on this advice. Nothing occurred to alarm them. The Bertha approached the Line, and one day, after the heart-breaking " Doldrums " had been passed under steam, the Equinoctial was reached about the end of October. " One must draw the line somewhere, I suppose," re- marked Arthur to Jackson; "here it is! Can you see it ? " he asked, with a great assumption of innocence. "Certainly," replied the man, calmly, "it's just ahead. If you ascend to the cross-trees, you may see it dipping VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER 49 like a gold and silver rope in the waves. Take the glass and have a squint." "Thanks!" replied Arthur, somewhat abashed; "I'll see presently." He was uncertain what pranks might be played upon him when high jinks were the rule of the road at sea near the Line ; so he waited the approach of Neptune patiently. The sea-king came over the bows in due course, ac- companied by his spouse and secretary ; he was attended by a number of " policemen " and followers, who seized and questioned the intended victims. These were shaved with a hoop, compelled to swallow grease pills, and then soused in the water-sail, while queerly-dressed animals, seals, and such like assisted in the ducking. The " doctor " did not escape, and, owing to what some people thought was no accident, the young man having been roughly shaved, soused, and jumped upon in the bath, was hunted down the companion-way. Here he came into violent collision with the commander, who was at that moment ascending. The surgeon was thrown down backwards and rendered insensible by the fall. Mr. Halbrake was carried below, attended by his young friends and the mate. The festivity of the occa- sion was not greatly interrupted, but Arthur sat with Reginald in the doctor's berth, conversing in whispers, and with grave faces. " Artie," said the latter, " we are getting into a fix ! It seems to me that we are doomed somehow. The Bertha is under a ban ! " " I'm afraid there is something bad here, Reggie. Cordell is at the bottom of it. I wish he was at the bottom of the sea." " Yes, he seems inclined to remove us one by one Who's turn next, I wonder ! " " Do you think that he is a pirate ? " exclaimed Arthur. D 5 o VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER " Surely our dear step-father would not have put us in such a situation. He couldn't ! " " Perhaps he might have had reasons," whispered a strange voice. The boys started and looked fearfully around. Who had spoken ? They were alone with the sleeping man. What could he know, or how could he talk thus in his sleep, wounded as he was ? Reginald looked at the invalid, and then whispered " The vessel is haunted ! I wish we had never come on board. Let us tell Esau." " No, certainly not," said Arthur. " He will only make things worse. Let us try to beat him at his own game ! " " Right ! " whispered the strange voice. " Lie low ! " "That is mysterious," said Reginald, as he went quickly to the door and threw it open. There was no one near ; the cabins were silent and darkened. "Rum!" he remarked as he returned to the doctor's bunk. " Did you speak, doctor ? " " No," was the unexpected reply in a faint tone. " But I heard you and the strange voice. I suspect it was Jackson. He seems a good man." The lads looked and nodded at each other, and the doctor proceeded in a whisper " Listen ! That mate intended to seriously cripple me to-day, I'm certain, and to put the injury down to the ' larking on the Line ! ' Some one had guessed your step- father's plans and warned the late captain. Now Esau thinks I am disabled. Jackson, I suspect, is on our side, and has given us a hint. See ? " "Then you think that Mr. Boscombe intended us to die ! " exclaimed Reginald. " Is it possible ? Oh no ; he couldn't be so wicked ! " " The mate has some instructions, I believe," whispered Mr. Halbrake. " Be careful. I think we may trust VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER 51 Jackson, and the engineers are honest. Keep quiet now till I am well again, and wait with your eyes wide open. Later on we shall certainly see something ! " The surgeon then lay silent. During the night the lads sat up with him, watching in turn. Esau came down to make inquiry, and Jackson also looked in. The Rushtons attended to their friend under his own direc- tions, and decided to " play possum " until they fell in with a ship or landed somewhere. In this way three weeks passed, and southern climes were reached. By that time the doctor had perfectly recovered. He assisted in the fishing for the albatross with a hook and bait, and finally secured one of these fine birds by these means. He and all the rest on board enjoyed the novel sights of whales and porpoises, the various birds, and the unusual appearances of the southern climate. A gale drove the Bertha past the Ealklands, greatly to the disgust of many on board who had anticipated a run ashore ; and then, when the weather moderated, the passengers came on deck again muffled up to meet the Antarctic cold. Christmas was already looming on the horizon of the almanac, and festivity was indulged in in anticipation. The doctor stuffed birds (mollymauks and Cape pigeons) ; Reginald arid Arthur fished, shot, and thoroughly enjoyed the voyage, while still on their guard respecting the com- mander. In fact, to all appearance, the ill-feeling which had arisen on board had by this time passed away. One afternoon the thermometer fell decidedly, and a report of ice was promulgated. The air became very chilly, and bergs were anticipated. Ice for Christmas ! "What a lark!" cried Arthur. "This will be fun! May we land upon an iceberg ? " The commander, who was searching the ocean through his glass, looked steadily and with much interest at the lad. He did not reply at once, but resumed his survey. " Can we, Mr. Cordell ? " asked Arthur again. 52 VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER " Perhaps," was the reply. " Would you both like it ? " " Rather ! eh, Reggie ! Wouldn't it be splendid to land on a real iceberg ? " " There are no sham ones here," said Mr. Cordell. " None ' made in Germany ' ! We shall find you one, I daresay," he concluded as he walked across to port. " You shouldn't run risks, gentlemen," remarked Jackson, who was again at the wheel. " If ye get on, ye may never get off ! " The speaker never looked at the lads ; he kept his eyes upon the ocean far ahead, and seemed as if he had been talking to himself in a low tone. " Look," he cried suddenly, " there's a Christmas-box for you ! That's a berg ! See, yonder, to starboard bow." " That ! " exclaimed Reginald. " Why, it's flat, not pointed, as we have seen in pictures ! " " They is always flat in the Antarctic," replied the sailor. " They are square-looking, not peaky, down here." By this time the hands had assembled forward to see the first berg of summer in the Antarctic. As the Bertha approached the drifting mass, it seemed to emerge from the light mist as a plateau of ice, at least a mile long and quite two hundred and fifty feet high ; its breadth could not be at once estimated, but it seemed square. The summit was white and sparkling with snow, which was reflected sharply by the sunbeams, even painfully. The sides of the berg were caverned like cliffs ; blue, and even green in places, against which the waves dashed with great force, leaping high up the ice, half way, at times, to the summit. The sea was roaring in the ice-caves, and pre- sented a most magnificent appearance as it retreated, foam- ing and angry, only to attack the white walls anew. It ivas magnificent ! Splendid ! Glorious ! All the spectators were silent as the Bertha approached the berg. "What are those black things, Mr. Stevens?" VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER 55 III EVEN Arthur Rushton was silent. His idea of a " lark " appeared entirely out of place vis-a-vis with the berg. The Bertha was sailing with a south-east wind, hut the herg appeared to be drifting towards the barque. At one time some fears were entertained that the vessel would collide with the mass, but the berg passed on with merely a cold recognition of the stranger. The mist seemed increasing, the weather colder, the sea lumpy, as the island of ice passed by in dignified silence. A man was sent up to the "crow's-nest," a barrel which had been hoisted up to the main-topmast, to scan the horizon for seals, whalers, and any floes. The look- out was seated in the cask upon a board fixed within it, and he entered it by a trap-door (cut in the bottom of the barrel) from the rigging. When the apparatus had been tested, Arthur, of course, was anxious to ascend and see what he could. " May we go up ? " asked Reginald of the second mate. "Aye," replied Stevens. " I'll see you safe up. Take care, youngster ; the ship's rollin' a tidy bit up there ! " The lads had ascended the rigging before, and with a little assistance one managed to enter the crow's-nest. Arthur went first, as he had suggested the expedition. "This is splendid," exclaimed the lad. "There are several bergs, and lumps of ice in the sea like little islands. What are those black things, Mr. Stevens ?" He indicated some distant objects which seemed to be floating between the barque and the ice-floe. " Whales," replied Stevens. " Not right whales, though. Those are ' finners,' as we call them." " Wrong whales, I suppose ! Are ' finners,' then, ' sinners,' " asked Arthur in his most innocent tone. " Not particularly, so far as I know," replied the mate, 56 VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER laughing, "but they are no use to whalers, and so we only catch ' right whales,' d'ye see ? " " Then, is that a spout ? " asked the lad, as a thin and steam-like vapour arose from the neighbourhood of the whales. " Yes, that's a spout," was the reply, as the misty vapour vanished. " It looks different in books, don't it ? " " It does," said Arthur. " I think I'll go down now. The rolling is rather trying. Besides, Reginald is waiting." " And Tom is expecting you to pay your ' footing,' " said the mate Stevens. " Got to fork out, sir, please." So Arthur " forked out " as desired, and descended with a light head and a lighter pocket to warn his brother. Reginald, however, ascended boldly, and entered the barrel, which the top-man had vacated. Reginald looked around him, and could hardly realise the position. The cold and mist he did not mind ; the solitude appeared fearful ! There he was, swaying about high above the deck, feeling as if he must fall into the sea when the barque rolled, or upon one of the tiny creatures which, foreshortened below him, moved on the deck. It was a giddy perch ! He looked away over the sea, in which the ice masses, in detachments or skirmishing order, were keeping the advance line of the distant, unknown shore. Farther away the ice-clad ocean was rocking undulating in the swell, which was confined by the "pack." The white reflection troubled the lad, the desolation appeared com- plete ; and shutting his ears to exclude the sounds of the slapping ropes, the noise of the sails, the cries of men and birds, Reginald could almost believe that all the prospect was unreal, as in a dream that he would awake again in his bunk below and recover his senses ! Then he took his fingers from his ears. Even then he fancied the whole incident was unreal, even as he turned to speak to the sailor beside him. I VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER 57 But the look-out man always on the look-out for " footing " assured him that all was true and distinct and real. When he had carefully pocketed the " tip," he per- mitted himself a long look across the ice, muttering some- thing, looking and again muttering. " Ship ahoy ! " he cried suddenly, hailing the deck. " W T here away ! " came the response. " Broad on the starboard beam : lying low on the ice, under the lee of a berg. Looks dismantled." " Can you make it out? " asked Arthur, when his brother had found him on deck some minutes later. " No ; not likely from here. We are heading for it now, and expect we shall pick her up. Did you like the ' crow's nest ' ? " " Not much," replied Arthur. " I didn't like playing ' Cherub aloft.' Felt as if I had a body, and that my wings were making my head giddy ! " "I say, Artie," suggested Reginald, "when we reach the vessel yonder shall we go aboard ? " " Rather ! " was the reply. " Listen ! what does Esau say? Derelict? that means stranded or abandoned, doesn't it?" " Chucked up, I think. But the beast won't let us go, never fear ! We and the doctor are his pet foes." " We can try, any way. Come and see Mr. Halbrake." The surgeon was in his cabin reading and smoking. He heard the report, and guessed the anxiety of the boys. They were most desirous to go. " W T ait until we hear the order to lower the boat," he said after a while. " Then wrap up well, and let us all go and ask the commander. Be ready, mind ! " The lads went out, dressed and made all necessary preparations for the trip, then they came into the doctor's berth again and waited, chatting at intervals, and proposing all kinds of future expeditions. At last the anticipated order came. The three friends 58 VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER went on deck, and beheld four men with Jackson ready to embark in one of the boats. " Let us go too, please, Mr. Cordell," cried Arthur. "We want to see the stranded ship. Please let us all go." " Oh, you all wish to go, do you ? Well, perhaps it will be all the better ! Go then. Look sharp, now." None of the three noticed the tone of Cordell's reply, nor the sneer which had accompanied the permission, nor the savage light in the eyes of the commander-mate. But Jackson intervened when Mr. Cordell had spoken to him. " Haven't you got any grub ? " he asked. " Best get a snack, as in case we're delayed you won't be hungry or thirsty. Where's the guns, sir ? " " They are there," replied the chief. " Mind that rifle ; put it down there ! I have no fancy to be shot like a jackdaw. There's some tins for you, and a keg. You may make grog if you like. Now, steady ! Lower The boat, well supplied by the steward, and armed, pushed off, and under the influence of the four men rushed through the chopping sea. The eyes of the pas- sengers were fixed upon the derelict, the eyes of the cock- swain were fixed on both alternately, with suspicious glances at the lads. But Jackson made no remark. He was thinking of the message which Esau had given him, and it puzzled him ; but he held his course. The m^a in the " crow's-nest " gave him the direction ; the barque was kept alongside the floe, clear of the bergs, too, which, agitated by currents of their fellows' making, often swerved )out of their course, and compelled the Bertha to " yaw," or to come up in the wind, to avoid a collision. The men rowed well, and the hull of the stranded vessel became more distinct through the gathering mist. The Bertha kept a signal flying at the fore, but the bunting VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER 59 was already indistinct ; and though Arthur and others noticed the gradual disappearance of the barque, no one remarked upon the fact. The men knew their bearings and felt no alarm. " There she is," cried some one. " My stars ! " ex- claimed the cockswain, " she is a derelict for sure, and one of our whalers like. Give way, lads ! " Bumping, straining, and with many a shock, the boat was impelled in the direction of the derelict, which the occupants of the pinnace succeeded in reaching safely. She was half afloat, under the lee of the berg, upon a long mass of ice attached to the cliffs in front of her. Her stern was free, released by the breaking floe. She was a barque, but smaller than the Bertha, and covered by snow and frost above the water-line, below with barnacles. Truly a derelict vessel ; no living thing, save a few birds, was near her until the " Berthas " ap- proached. " It jolly well strikes me," remarked Jackson, " that this is the missing Gladiator, which I am told our old skipper expected to fall in with. Poor chaps ! They have all died, I expect, unless mayhap they took boat and escaped. I suppose you gents won't want to go aboard ? " " Certainly we do," said Arthur. " That is why we came. Of course we shall go ; shan't we, doctor ? " " I should like to look round her," answered the doctor. "What do you think, Jackson ?" "Well, sir, there's no harm, as far as I knows. But I think / wouldn't, somehow ! " " Why ? " asked Reginald. " What's the matter ? " " There ain't nothin' the matter," replied the cockswain, looking at the men. "Still, if you're determined, and as I have orders not to stay by the wreck, suppose I report, and come back for you later ? There's grub and guns, a rifle, and plenty of daylight for weeks yet, so " All right ! " cried Arthur ; " hand us up." 6o VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER The three adventurers climbed up the side of the vessel, and then the beef in tins, the keg, the guns, rifle, and ammunition followed. " I suppose it is all right ? " asked the doctor, as the men prepared to go back. " You will return ? " "Oh, we'll come back," laughed the stroke oarsman, an ugly-looking customer. " you re all right ! " " I'd rather you'd pull in with us," said Jackson, " I would indeed. I can't wait. Here take this, sir." " Nonsense ! " cried Arthur. " This is real right down Robinson Crusoe business ! Don't hurry back. Ta, ta ! What did he give you, doctor ? " The cockswain waved his hand in farewell. The men gave way, and the boat quickly left the derelict and gradually was hidden in the still gathering mist, for the breeze was " northing." Mr. Halbrake made no answer to Arthur's question. He was watching the boat. Then perceiving that the man had handed him some tobacco, he put it in his pocket, having already sufficient for present use. The lads had meantime left him, and he went aft to join them, but he suddenly became conscious of the insecurity of their position and future ! What if this was a planned trick ? Had the com- mander taken this opportunity to rid himself of the passengers ? Jackson could not say much before the men, but, as the doctor now recalled with a fast-beating heart, he had given them broad hints suggested food ; the guns had been the commander's idea. What for ? Why had he given them fire-arms ? With a mind far from easy, Mr. Halbrake rejoined the lads, who were about to descend into the cabin, or " saloon" as they pleased to call it. It was at best a wretched place to sleep in, but, under the circumstances, almost repulsive to the surgeon. Arthur was in high spirits when he descended. Reginald VENTURE OF THE " BERTHA" WHALER 61 liked the adventure also. The long-promised " lark " had appeared, had descended on the snow-clad berg, and had taken up its abode upon the derelict for the time being ! Therefore the lads were delighted, and skipped down cheerfully. But when they had penetrated into the so- called cabin they paused and listened. " Didn't you hear a noise, doctor ? " asked Reggie. "No; what kind of noise?" said Halbrake, coming up. " I think I heard a grunt, or something like it," said Arthur, " a yawn, or like that." " Perhaps some men are in the bunks there," sug- gested Reginald. " Oh, no ! the place seems to me too bad. Let us return ; the look of the place is enough for me. We need not search far ; the cabin would be quite unbearable in a warmer climate." " I think I saw something," said Reginald. " Look ! what are those ? Cubs ! Run, Arthur ; get the guns. Here come the animals. Run, doctor ! " In the dim light two curious objects appeared, and though Halbrake did not think any bears could be there, he retreated on deck before the two animals, which walked upright and had come to meet him. They seemed to be a pair of fine bear-cubs, ragged and dirty. As the animals advanced up the ladder, the adventurers all retreated astern to pick up the guns. But the creatures took no notice of them, and in their turn retreated forward into the forecastle. " Let's shoot them," suggested Reginald. " Wait a while," said Mr. Halbrake. " I do not think they are bears at all. Suppose you and I go for- ward, Reginald, and investigate the matter. Arthur can remain here on watch, and if anything alarm him, he can fire his gun. That will suit you, Arthur ; you will then be ' monarch of all you survey.' " 62 VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER " Very well ; only look slippy, please, because I am not up to a big bear-fight. However, I do not see any- thing very alarming. Make haste and settle the business, because I am getting hungry." The doctor and Reginald loaded their guns carefully, and went forward. They disappeared down the fore- hatch. Arthur walked the after-deck and went to peep down the cabin-stairs ; he even inspected the main hatch, and wondered what was within amidships. The vessel was deserted, apparently, by every one except the two bears, which walked on their hind - legs, and did not speak, as they would have done, he concluded, had they been " only foreigners," not beasts. Arthur listened for the discharge of the guns, but no sound reached him. The fog had increased, and more icebergs appeared, very close too. They were, in his opinion, closing in towards the derelict, and they might crush it. The north-west wind was rising, and in that case snow and mist were sure to envelop the ocean ; and on the whole he decided that Crusoe-life, unless upon a fine and well-supplied island, with complaisant animals for companions, and plenty of shooting and books, was a mistake. The doctor and his companion had disappeared, and at length Arthur became restless. He called out, then listened, but no reply came to him. He did not wish to fire his gun unless on an emergency, but he felt anxious, and the more so as the fog was encroaching ; the bergs looked more terrible, the silence became more distressing. He would have welcomed a bear cub as a relief, but the stern cold silence of Nature and the awful solitude of the derelict preyed upon his nerves. At length, unable to sustain the strain any longer, Arthur lifted up his voice and sent a coo-ee through the fog which must have alarmed and distressed the " King " penguins birds which take a good deal of alarming too. VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER 65 But even that only aroused in echo a chilling reply from the sheltering berg in front. His late companions made no response at all, and Arthur Rushton made up his mind to desert his post to seek them. IV THE idea of playing "Crusoe" did not then appeal forcibly to the lad, but just when he was thinking very seriously about himself and his companions, he caught sight of them on the forecastle. They were accompanied by the two small " bears " which had attacked them previ- ously. Arthur shouted with joy when he perceived them. " Oh, I am so glad to see you," he exclaimed. " I thought you were dead ! How did you tame those animals ? What queer beasts ! " " They are not beasts ; they are men savages if you like, but no beasts," replied the surgeon. " I don't like them at all," replied Arthur. " But what are they then ? " " Fuegians. They have come from Tierra del Fuego. There is a Norwegian in the forecastle very ill ! He has been wrecked on the voyage round the Horn, and it seems he and his friends picked these fellows up. The Norwegians boarded the derelict weeks ago." " Well, supposing they did, how did they get into the Gladiator?" asked Arthur. "That is what we have been learning. Their ship was disabled, and drifted in this direction before a nor'- wester. It was entirely wrecked on these islands, but fortunately the clfew sighted the derelict. They boarded her, starved here, and died here, all but this Northman and his two companions. A terrible fate ! " " Perhaps we had better examine the vessel farther," E 66 VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER suggested Reginald. "There may be some other un- fortunate fellows on board. Let us. go." This suggestion was acted upon, but not until the doctor's advice as regarded a meal had been taken. "We shall require some food," he said ; " so let us brace our- selves up before we encounter what may prove unpleasant incidents." So the tinned beef, biscuits, and the grog were partly disposed of, the savages also assisting in the feast. Then the exploration began. It was not altogether pleasant to begin with, and amidships and 'tween-decks the revelations were extremely nasty. The dead, frozen bodies, the aspects of the remains of the seals, the blubber, and the . con- gealed blood, were too horrible, and combined to cause the adventurers to beat a hasty retreat. They all shuddered at the future prospect. If fate had an intention of keeping them on the derelict, the result would be fatal to them. Fortunately they came upon a store of food in the captain's cabin, and thus were at ease for the present. Even if they were compelled to remain a few days longer, they need not be hungry. Then, not till then, came the idea of their situation and prospects. The mist had increased, and even Arthur began to tire of Crusoe ex- periences in the derelict. " I wonder where we are," said Reginald, after a long, silent survey of the surroundings. "Never mind where we are," replied Arthur snap- pishly ; " let us get out of it, wherever it is. What do you think, Mr. Halbrake ? " "Well, suppose you and Reginald take the guns and try and shoot some penguins yonder. Meantime I will find fuel, and light a fire in the galley; so, even supposing the boat cannot reach us this evening, %e shall be com- fortable." " Jolly ! " was the reply, as the lads accoutred them- selves for the expedition on the snow. They descended VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER 67 carefully, and passed over the ice to the deep snowy surface beyond it, sinking deeply at each step, and leaving a trail unmistakable. The adventurers advanced cautiously, and perceived that the derelict had been driven upon the ice forward, while the stern still floated. However, she appeared firm ; and, after staring at the great massive berg so close to them, so beautiful in its purity, so terrible in its calmness even in inaction, the lads"advanced from the starboard -side of the vessel, towards some seals, near which many penguins were resting themselves. Some of the latter actually leaped out of the "ice pools" upon the snow- field as the lads proceeded. " Let's get close and blaze away," said Reginald. " Those birds will make soup, the doctor said." " Look at those seals ! they appear quite tame. That one," indicating a great, white-faced animal, " winked at me, Reggie ; he really did. Now, look out ! " The lads had approached the penguins, and fired together. A brace fell, and the remainder of the birds scurried away, flapping, and pushing themselves along the snow like queer animated canoes. They made a curious " quacking " noise as they paddled away like aldermanic waiters, in black coats and white waistcoats, seen through the small end of an opera-glass. Their movements were very funny, and the lads laughed heartily at the evolutions of the penguins. Several birds were secured, amongst them being a few " Cape pigeons," which, as Arthur remarked, had no "good hope" of returning thither. He would have been severely snubbed by his brother for this remark had not Reginald's attention been directed to the derelict, which appeared to bdlfcnoving ! " Hullo ! " he exclaimed ; " the vessel is off the ice. Hurry up, Arthur, else we shall be left behind. Lucky we didn't go far ! " 68 VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER This was alarming news. The lads plunged into the snow deep in their tracks; the penguins danced and signalled with their flippers, as if in sympathy, or pleasure, at the occurrence. The lads sank deeply in the white carpet, shouting at times to the doctor. The stillness of the air enabled him to hear their cries, and by them he was made aware of the state of the case, which he had hitherto not suspected. But he had evidently gained the confidence of the two " Bears," for they plunged, waded, or swam to the assistance of the lads, and rescued them, dripping, freezing, numbed, from the grasp of the ice-king ; they were all assisted on board the derelict by the surgeon. He had lighted a fire ; and when the half-frozen and wholly saturated lads and the " Bears " had been rescued, the former were put into bunks in the cabin and fed with hot broth. The savages did not mind the wetting ; they dried by the fire, and were also fed. But when, late next day, the lads dressed, their clothes were ruined. They looked as if they had purchased the wardrobe of a " scare- crow " from a rag-and-bone merchant who had become insolvent. The sun was setting in the southward as they came up. One can hardly say " setting," though, because it only dipped into the horizon a little way, and came up again on the rim of the ice-field. The silence was peculiar, the air sparkling and bracing, by no means very cold. The sea, where visible, was like a mirror ; the mist had receded to the north, the south was clear. The floes were inter- sected by canals of sea-water, and the distant ice-fields looked like a series of snow-clad water-meadows in which the channels had been half frozen. Farther away the " canals " closed up, and apparently composed a level ice-continent to the sky-line. The effect^was beautiful, charming, and altogether delightful ; the colours of sky, ice, and water being immensely varied and most artistically combined on Nature's pallet. VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER 69 The derelict drifted and the sick men died. The weather became uncertain, alternating mist and thin snow with gales and fierce winds, which caused the adventurers much alarm. The tossings and the crashes and bumpings of the ice caused the little barque to leak seriously, and to threaten dissolution. The end appeared near, and even the stolid " Bears " seemed upset ; but release came to them all at last. ' The end appeared near." " A ship ! The barque ! There, lying beside that sheltering berg. Shout fire guns yell loud ! " Reginald had spied the vessel lying snugly under the lee of the berg, and the three friends at once preceded to shout and fire shots as suggested. Five days had been passed by the party in the derelict, and the adventurers were satisfied with the experience. After some delay, and while they were speculating 70 VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER upon whether the mate had heard the shots, a boat was lowered from the Bertha and put out for the derelict. But the channels were so winding that it was quite an hour before the boat reached the sinking ship, and fears of ultimate rescue were expressed by the lads. Jackson was steering the boat, which came alongside. He climbed up, and stood staring at the whole party in silence, his eyes passing from one to another in turn. "Well, I am busted!" he exclaimed at last. "Who expected to see you and them funny devils ? Good job the mate's shot. Who did it, eh ? " " Shot ! " exclaimed the three friends. " What do you mean ? " " Why, this. One of your bullets came along and hit him full in the chest. It settled him, you may depend. 'Spect you ain't so sorry, eh ? " " I really do not understand you," said the surgeon. " Did you not expect to see us again ? Do you mean that we were sent away to die ? " " Well, sir, not you especial. But, sir, I could tell you a secret," he added, as his ruddy face became redder than his hearers', which were already well " burnt " by the snow and wind. " Have you been smoking tobacco ? " " Yes," replied the surgeon. " But what has that to do with the question ? " " Have you smoked what I gave you ? No ! Then look at the paper. There it is ! " Mr. Halbrake unrolled the stained wrapper which enclosed the " twist," and discovered a written communi- cation " To the Captain ! " He read as follows : " There are traitors on board, captain ! Oh, be careful of my boys. I cannot tell you anything. I know nothing, but I fear the worst. Be on your guard. May God keep you ! I pray for my sons and you ! " "What's this," gasped Halbrake. "The disputed letter ! The warning ! Look here, boys ! " VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER 71 " Mother's writing ! " they exclaimed. " Dearest mother ! She did suspect, then ! Oh that mate ! " "Who are the traitors, Jackson?" asked Mr. Halbrake. " I must and shall know, if I ruin myself to find out." " Then you'll never do that either way. They are cowed now, whoever they are. The game is up, and what I suspects I sha'n't tell. Let them be, sir." "And who was so infamous as to desire to suggest our . . . disappearance ? " asked the surgeon, savagely. " Ah ! there I can't help you. I don't know. That's a fact. Now, gentlemen, you're waited for. Come away ! What about these two ' Guy Foxes ' here ? what's to be done about them ? Best take 'em and drop them some- where." No reply was made to this remark. The boys were thinking of their mother, and of the terrible crime into which their step-father had plunged : the death of the mate his accomplice, and the narrow escape they had had ! The captain had already been sacrificed. Alas ! no reparation could be made to him ! The mate had paid the penalty of his ill-doings by accident by chance ! Who could say it was " by chance " ? When the rifle was placed in the boat, he had joked about it, and it had caused his death ! Was not then the finger of Providence evident ? Otherwise, he might have escaped, till, even if he had been convicted in England, the disclosure of the plot would have been disastrous to the family at home. Yes, the best had happened ! There is no " chance " in life. The surgeon and his party returned to the Bertha, leaving the derelict and her cargo to the sea to give up her dead. The mate's body was buried in the cold Antarctic Ocean, and the barque sailed for England. Jack- son informed the lads of the manner in which Esau met his death. " He was in the ' crow's nest/ " said the sailor, " looking out ; whether he expected to see you or not, we 72 VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER needn't say. May-be he didn't want to ! But when you fired the rifle first time, the bullet aimed high, mind you hit him full, and he fell dead in the barrel aloft. Awful sudden it was ! Then Stevens told us to go for you ; and I 'spect we'd a' done that anyway. I was lookin' out for ye myself ! There was friends aboard." " I hope not many of you were concerned with the mate, Jackson," asked the surgeon. "Oh, well, some was. But no one is now. Of course, if any was really in it all, they'd give in, and tack off the shoal pretty quick ! Esau was the prop, d'ye see ! I was keepin' a look-out for you." "Thank you, Jackson. I am sure we are greatly indebted to you ; and when we reach England again you shall all receive your deserts in full." This decision did not appear very promising to Jack- son, who touched his cap and went forward amid his mates. But nothing untoward occurred during the pas- sage home ; there was nothing to complain of all the while. The Bertha returned after a three months' struggle against tempests and opposing winds. The Fuegians died on the voyage home, but the barque, her crew, and pas- sengers, reached Plymouth in safety, and anchored in the Cattwater. Mr. Halbrake immediately went ashore with the Rush- tons to telegraph the arrival and to report. When he returned to the Bertha, he learned that the crew, with the exception of Stevens, the two engineers, Jackson, and twelve hands, had taken French leave and decamped ! This was an eloquent testimony to the intentions of Mr. Cordell and his associates. So soon as Mr. Halbrake had placed the barque in the hands of his uncle's agent, he hastened to Mr. Bos- combe's residence in the neighbourhood of Exmouth. There a sinister rumour met him. He learned from the VENTURE OF THE "BERTHA" WHALER 73 hotel manager in the town that the young gentlemen had unexpectedly returned from abroad ; that Mr. Boscombe had suddenly left home on important business the next day, and was reported dead ! This rumour was based upon the testimony of an old fisherman, whose boat had been hired that night by a gentleman whose appearance tallied with that of Mr. Boscombe. When Mr. Halbrake learned this, he returned to Ply- mouth and wrote to Reginald, who replied that his step- father had certainly left home, after a most unpleasant discussion ; that he himself, his mother, and Arthur in- tended to sell the house and leave the neighbourhood, because no doubt of his step-father's fate remained. The boat Mr. Boscombe had hired had been found by a crew of " lobstermen," empty, on the morning after his depart- ure, out at sea. This was the last link in the terrible chain of crime which the insatiable love of money engendered in the merchant's soul. Let us close the sad chapter here. Reginald, Arthur, and their loving mother came up to London, where in due time the young men appeared. Reginald went into the Church, Arthur became a barrister, and Mr. Halbrake still practises his profession. Indeed, it is from him that the writer of this tale obtained the information which has resulted in this narrative of the "Venture of the Bertha" which so nearly ended in the deaths of the young men themselves. "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE;" OR, THE DISASTER OF EL HAMET BY LIEUT.-COL. PERCY GROVES, ROYAL GUERNSEY ARTILLERY (LATE 2;TH INNISKILLINGS) Author of " From Cadet to Captain" " Reefer and Rifleman" "A Soldier Born," " On Service" " With the Green Jackets" " Scotland for Ever" &c. &c. CHAPTER I A BIRTHDAY PRESENT OFF TO THE WARS AN ADVENTURE AT MESSINA " r "OM, my dear boy," said my father, Colonel Sir John Cotton, K.B., as he entered the breakfast room on the morning of the i8th September 1806, " I wish you many happy returns of to-day. There's a present which will give you genuine pleasure," he went on, handing me a formidable-looking letter ; " it is your appointment to an ensigncy in my old regiment, the gallant 35th." I had that day attained my seventeenth year, and was at home on a short exeat from Eton ; but now Eton would know me no more at least, not as a fifth-form boy for had I not suddenly blossomed into a subaltern in his Majesty's service ? It was a proud moment, and I cannot recall any event in my life that has caused me greater satisfaction. I received the congratulations of my parents and sisters "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 75 I had no brother with becoming modesty ; but the congratulations of the ladies were turned into lamentations when Sir John informed us that I was to embark, to join headquarters in Sicily, in a fortnight's time. " John ! " exclaimed my mother, the tears welling up into her eyes, " are we really to lose the dear boy so soon ? " " What a shame ! " chorused my three sisters. " Nonsense ! Tom has not entered the army to dangle about drawing-rooms and exhibit himself in a red coat to all the young ladies of his acquaintance," retorted my father. "The 35th lost a good many men at Maida egad ! I wish I had been there and a draft is going out to fill up the gaps. Tom will sail with the draft, which is under command of our friend Charles Holroyd, who Halloa! where has Kate gone?" For my eldest sister had hurriedly left the room. "How thoughtless of you, John!" said my mother reproachfully. " Yes, father," chimed in Miss Laura ; " have you for- gotten that Kate and Captain Holroyd are engaged ? " "And she had no idea that he was going abroad again so soon," added Annie ; " he only came home early in August ! " " Tut ! tut ! I am always putting my foot in it," ex- claimed Sir John, looking very guilty. " Poor Katie ! she will lose her lover and her brother at the same time." This unfortunate remark called forth a flood of tears from the ladies, and muttering something about being " a blundering old idiot," my father beat a hasty retreat. Captain Charles Holroyd the mention of whose name caused our family circle to break up " i' the most admir'd disorder" had served in the 35th with my father, with whom he was a great favourite. Holroyd now com- manded the light company of the 35th, and was home on sick leave, in consequence of a wound received at the 76 "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" battle of Maida. He had not long been engaged to my sister, who, until Sir John spoke, knew nothing of his approaching departure. Hinc ilia lachrymce ! The next two weeks were busy ones uniforms and necessaries had to be ordered, farewell visits to relatives and friends paid, &c. and they passed all too quickly. It was a wrench to leave the dear ones at home, and both Charles Holroyd and I were in very subdued spirits when we jumped into the post-chaise which was to take us to Gravesend, there to embark on board the Lord Bacon, a battered, wall-sided old collier, whose owners found it more profitable to carry troops to the Mediterranean than coals from Newcastle. Adverse winds kept us bobbing about in the Downs for several days. Then we met with heavy weather in the Bay of Biscay. Thus it was not until the middle of November that we disembarked at Messina, where the headquarters and flank companies of the 35th were stationed. I received a cordial welcome from my brother officers, and quickly became quite at home amongst them. They all appeared pleased to have the son of their old colonel in the regiment. At the request of Charles Holroyd, I was posted to the light company ; a great honour for a newly-fledged ensign, though one I owed rather to Holroyd's influence, and the respect felt for my father, than to my own merits. The adjutant and drill-sergeant soon initiated me into the mysteries of drill, guards, &c., and at the end of six weeks I was reported fit for duty. I have no intention of giving any account of my life during the time I remained at Messina, but will pass at once to an adventure which befell me a few weeks before the departure of the regiment from Sicily. At that time there were in Messina several French officers on parole ; amongst them a certain Lieutenant Eugene de Vignes. De Vignes was a gentlemanly, well- A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 77 bred man of six or seven and twenty, and as he spoke a little English, and seemed to wish to be friendly, Holroyd and I struck up an acquaintance with him. He used to ride and walk with us, and often passed an evening at our quarters ; when he would relate his experiences of service, under " Le Petit Caporal" in Italy and Egypt. After a while we began to see less of De Vignes, and his evening * " I immediately ran forward to the scene of action.' visits almost entirely ceased ; though, when we did meet, he was as pleasant and companionable as ever. One night, towards the end of January 1807, I was returning to my quarters, after visiting a brother subaltern at the other side of the town. Part of my way lay along a lonely road, skirting the garden walls of a convent, in which many young Sicilian ladies of noble family were domiciled. I had nearly reached the end of this wall, when I heard a 78 "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" shrill scream, followed by angry shouts and other sounds of strife. I immediately ran forward to the scene of action, and, though it was very dark, could just discern four men assailing a fifth, who, with his back to the wall, was making a stout defence. Naturally I espoused the weaker cause, and in another minute three of the cowardly assailants had fled, while the fourth lay on the ground with a sword- thrust through his body. " A thousand thanks, m'sieur ! " exclaimed the man to whom I had rendered such timely aid ; " you have saved my life ! That charge of yours was splendid ! it " De Vignes ! " I cried, recognising his voice. " Ha ! it is you, then, mon ami," he said, wiping the blade of his sword. " I shall never forget this service. Are you alone ? " " Yes. Why did the ruffians attack you ? " " Hope of plunder, I suppose," replied De Vignes, shrugging his shoulders. And stooping down he pro- ceeded to examine his fallen foe. " Have you killed him ? " I asked. " He still breathes, and might be saved if we could get assistance." " I am afraid there will be trouble over this business," I remarked, wishing that my friend had not been quite so handy with his sword. " Bah ! these little affairs are common enough in Sicily," De Vignes rejoined. " However, we may as well try to save his life. Will you go for help ? There is a house some fifty yards down the road, and I shall want water, rags for bandages, and a little cognac or other spirit." " Suppose the other ruffians return ? " I objected. " They will not return," he answered impatiently. " Come, mon ami ! be quick, I pray you, or this unhappy wretch will bleed to death." Thus exhorted, I started off "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 79 down the road ; but not a sign of any sort of habitation could I discover. I retraced my steps, and on reaching the spot where the encounter took place, found, to my astonishment, that both De Vignes and the wounded robber had disappeared not a trace of them was to be seen ! I waited about a few minutes, and then hastened to my quarters. Charles Holroyd had not gone to bed when I returned, and to him I related my adventure. " It is a queer business," he remarked ; " seems to me that our French friend sent you on a fool's errand, with the express intention of getting rid of you." " I believe he did," I answered. " Shall I make an official report of the affair ? " "We will see what the colonel says, Tom," was his reply. On the following morning there was a terrible hue and cry, for the daughter of Prince T was missing from the convent, and one of his Highness's servants had been found dead in a ditch hard by the convent walls, with a sword-thrust through his heart. " There can be no doubt the young woman has gone off with De Vignes," said my captain when we heard the news. "They were probably watched and surprised by the prince's servants. You say you heard a woman scream ? " " I am certain of that." " Just so," continued Holroyd ; " I see the whole thing ! She got away, and her lover covered her retreat ; then you came to the rescue, and his assailants having fled, De Vignes wanted to rejoin the girl without your knowledge ; so he sent you off on pretence of seeking aid for the wounded man, and, as soon as he had got rid of you, bolted himself. Tom, we will hold our tongues about this affair." That Holroyd was right in his conjectures was pretty 80 "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" evident, for we saw no more of Eugene de Vignes in Messina ; though we were destined to meet him again elsewhere. CHAPTER II DEPARTURE FROM MESSINA LANDING IN EGYPT FIRST SUCCESSES REVERSE AT ROSETTA OCCUPATION OF EL HAMET SIEGE OF ROSETTA COMMENCED " ' I THOUGHT I heard the general say, Strike your tents at break of day ; Strike your tents and march away, March, march away ! ' " sang, or rather shouted, Lieutenant Patrick Cantillon of the light company, as he burst into our quarters one hot afternoon, a few weeks subsequent to my adventure on the convent road. " Tom, ye lazy divil ! is it sleepin' ye are ? " And he caught me a whack on the shoulder that nearly knocked me out of my chair. " Don't make such a confounded row, Paddy ! " I exclaimed irritably ; for I had been indulging in a siesta, and this " rude awakening " startled me not a little. " Why the deuce can't you come in quietly ? " "Come in quietly, bedad! hark to him!" cried my brother sub, capering round the room. " Sure, man, am I not ready to jump out of me skin ! " "Then I wish you'd jump out of it somewhere else," I retorted. " What's the matter with you ? " " Listen while I tell ye, alannah," said Paddy, coming to an anchor on my camp-bed. " May-be ye know that some six years ago we kicked the French out of Egypt, and put the Turks in possession of Alexandria and other towns on the Egyptian coast. Now Boney has hum- bugged the Sultan to enter into an alliance with France ; "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 81 so our Government more power to its elbow ! has decided to send an expedition to turn the Turks out of the very places we turned them into ; in short, we're goin' to punish the haythins for havin' the impudence to hob- nob and make friends with the French." " And are we to join this expedition, Paddy ? " I asked. " We are, me son," was the reply. Paddy Cantillon's news proved to be true. Orders had already been issued for an expedition to be fitted out in Sicily, for the purpose of making a descent on the coast of Egypt, and occupying Alexandria and Rosetta, and the same evening it was officially notified that the 35th would be one of the regiments employed on this service. The expedition sailed from Sicily on the 6th March. The military force was under Major-General Mackenzie Eraser, and consisted of the 2oth Light Dragoons, 1 a de- tachment of artillery, the 3ist, 35th, 7 8th, and De Rolle's regiments, and the Chasseurs Britanniques. 2 We encoun- tered very bad weather shortly after putting to sea ; nine- teen sail parted company on the night of the Jth, and it was not until the i5th that we sighted the Arabs' Tower. Before allowing the transports to approach within sight of the coast, our commodore (Captain Hallowell of the Apollo, 74) ran in-shore to obtain some information. Major Misset, the British resident at Alexandria, advised an immediate landing, assuring the commodore that the inhabitants were favourably disposed towards us, and inimical to the French ; accordingly the transports were signalled to stand close in, as soon as the squadron anchored in the western harbour. A summons to sur- render was then sent to the Turkish governor, which he promptly declined. 1 The aoth Light Dragoons raised as the Jamaica Light Horse in 1791, styled the aoth Light Dragoons in 1794, and disbanded in 1817. 2 De Rolle's Regiment and the Chasseurs Britanniques foreign corps in British pay. Both were disbanded or absorbed in 1814-15. F 82 "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" The weather was still very heavy, and a nasty sea was running ; nevertheless our leaders decided to land an advanced party at once. This party, which included the light company of the 35th, numbered a thousand men, under command of Colonel John Oswald of the 35th. We effected a landing without serious opposition, and next morning carried the western lines and forts, driving out the Turks and taking several guns. Meanwhile the castle of Aboukir having surrendered, the remainder of the transports stood in and anchored in the bay. Seeing that we meant business, the Governor of Alexandria capitu- lated on the 2ist March, and we took possession of the city, harbour, and fortresses. Thus far success had attended our arms ; but we were now to meet with the first of those reverses which culmi- nated in the disaster of El Hamet. Our naval force having been augmented by the arrival of Sir John Duckworth's squadron from the Dardanelles, it was decided to attack Rosetta. On the 26th March, Major-General Wauchope, with the 3ist and Chasseurs Britanniques, marched against Rosetta, and occupied the heights of Abourmandour, which command that town. Rosetta is situated some five miles from a branch of the Nile, in a beautiful district covered with date, pome- granate, banana, and other trees. The town is surrounded by a low wall, and its streets are very narrow in fact, mere lanes and alleys. On the 28th, Wauchope entered Rosetta at the head of the 3ist Regiment. Not a soul was astir, not a sound was heard, as our troops wended their way through the streets towards the market-place in the centre of the town ; but they had barely got half-way when the death-like silence was broken by a furious fusillade. From the windows and roof of every house a deadly fire was poured upon them. Cooped up in the narrow streets, unable to return the hidden enemy's fire, our gallant fellows fell fast. "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 83 Wauchope was shot dead, his second-in-command seriously wounded, and in a short time nearly three hundred officers and men were placed hors de combat. There was no alternative but a retreat, and so the remnants of Wauchope's force returned to Alexandria. Though not a little disconcerted by this serious and unexpected reverse, Eraser determined to make another attempt on Rosetta ; indeed the reduction of that town was necessary to the safe possession of Alexandria, now threatened with famine. The execution of this second attack was entrusted to Brigadier-General the Hon. William Stewart, with a force consisting of detachments of the 2oth Light Dragoons and Royal Artillery, the 35th, 7 8th Highlanders, De Rolle's Regiment, and two hundred sailors from the fleet. We quitted Alexandria, in the highest spirits, on the 5th April, and advanced towards Rosetta by way of the village and lake of Edko, where a depot was established. Before advancing to Abourmandour, Stewart considered it advisable to drive the enemy away from El Hamet a village up the Nile, some two leagues above Rosetta and take possession of the place, in order to secure his rear, and an uninterrupted communication with the depot on Lake Edko. This service was successfully accomplished on the 6th, and El Hamet was occupied by a strong detachment of De Rolle's, under Major Vogelsang. On the following day the heights and fort of Abour- mandour were reoccupied without opposition. A sum- mons to surrender being contemptuously ignored by the Turkish commandant of Rosetta (who had been reinforced by a corps of Albanians), Stewart advanced to the sand- hills encircling the town, which he at once proceeded to invest. From the great extent of Rosetta, our brigadier saw it would be impossible, with the slender force at his disposal, to invest more than half of the place ; so he took up a 84 "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" line from the Nile to the front of the Alexandrian gate, thence retiring towards the plain, where he posted his light dragoons. Rosetta being thus only partially invested, its garrison had a free communication across the Nile to the Delta. At this time Stewart confidently expected to be rein- forced by the Mamelukes, from Upper Egypt, who were known to be inimical to the French, and at loggerheads with Mohammed Ali, but day after day passed without any appearance of these redoubtable warriors. The siege, however, was carried on with great vigour ; our gunners hammered away at Rosetta, without doing any great harm to the Turks (whose numbers daily increased), while we of the infantry were constantly employed on piquet and other harassing duties. Our piquets and advanced posts were several times attacked, and on the I9th April a company of De Rolle's was surrounded and cut to pieces by the Turkish horsemen. CHAPTER III EL HAMET AN UNWELCOME DUTY CHARLES HOLROYD SPEAKS HIS MIND THE BEGINNING OF THE END BEFORE continuing my narrative, I will briefly state the position of El Hamet. From Lake Edko to the Nile is an isthmus about two and a half miles in extent, varying according to the depth of water in the lake. The remains of a deep dry canal with high banks extend from the river nearly two-thirds across the isthmus, the banks command- ing the plain on either side ; and on the south side of the canal, about half-way across the isthmus, is the village of El Hamet. On the banks of the Nile and at El Hamet are the only regular passes through the banks of the canal. News of the disaster to the company of De Rolle's " Our gunners hammered away at Rosetta "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 87 Regiment reached General Stewart early on the 2oth April, and he immediately despatched a force, under Lieutenant- Colonel Patrick Macleod (commanding the 2nd Battalion 7 8th 1 ), to reinforce Vogelsang. Macleod's force was com- posed of a piquet of the 2oth Light Dragoons, two guns, two companies of the 35th, and five of the 78th. On the afternoon of the 2oth April our company was on duty in one of the batteries. Charles Holroyd, Paddy Cantillon, and I were with the company, none of us feeling particularly amiable. Our artillery had been blazing away all day at Rosetta, while we had little or nothing to do except to listen to the eternal " bang, bang " of the guns ; a sort of music that gets monotonous, especially when one wishes to indulge in " forty winks." " I'm sick of this business ! " exclaimed Paddy, as we sat with our backs against the parapet. " Sorra a bit of divarsion do I see in squattin' on me hams in a damp ditch ! " "Take things as they come, Paddy," rejoined Holroyd, who was discussing a piece of salt junk and a ship's bis- cuit. " Now, I should much prefer to dine off a spatch- cock or a devilled kidney, but as I can't get such luxuries, I Halloa, Harris ! what ill wind blows you here ?" "An order for you, Holroyd," replied Harris, our worthy adjutant, who came hurrying up at this moment. "The light company has been detailed as an escort for an ammunition column about to start for El Hamet, and the general desires you to deliver this despatch to Colonel Macleod." " But we're on piquet, my dear fellow," expostulated Holroyd, not relishing the idea of a long tramp across the desert. " Besides, it is not our turn, you know ; we only 1 This 2nd Battalion of the 78th (Ross-shire Buffs) Highlanders was raised in 1804. Patrick Macleod was its first commanding officer. The battalion distin- guished itself at the battle of Maida, and subsequently in the Netherlands. It was reduced in 1816-17. 88 "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" returned from escort duty last night. Where is James's company ? " "Turning out to relieve you; he'll be here in five minutes," was the reply. "Then why not send him to El Hamet?" asked Holroyd. " Because the general's orders are for the light company to go," answered the adjutant; "so I have no choice in the matter." "Very considerate of the general," growled my captain ; " however, ' needs must, when a certain old gentleman drives ' ! " Guided by the adjutant, we marched to the spot where the ammunition column was awaiting us, and in half- an-hour we were on our way across the desert to El Hamet. Every march comes to an end, and it was with a deep sigh of relief that we at length reached El Hamet. Holroyd at once went off to report his arrival and deliver the despatch to Colonel Macleod, while we waited his return, fondly hoping that we should be dismissed to a well-earned rest. We were, however, doomed to dis- appointment. Our captain soon rejoined us, and I knew at once, by the expression of his face, that he was thoroughly put out. " Light company," said he, in short, sharp tones, "there'll be no rest for any of us to-night. Colonel Macleod has desired me to take up a position among the sand-hills in front of El Hamet, and remain there until further orders. You can fall out for a few minutes, and make the best meal you can on what you've got in your haversacks. A ration of cooked beef, biscuit, and rum will be issued to each man shortly after daybreak." " Faith, this is a pleasant state of affairs ! " grumbled Cantillon, as we moved away from the company. "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 89 " Does Colonel Macleod expect an attack before day- break ? " I asked. " I suppose he does," Holroyd replied, " for he said a great deal about the necessity for vigilance ; though he neither gave me any idea from what quarter danger is to be chiefly apprehended, nor of his plans in the event of a sudden attack in overwhelming force. I feel sure," he went on, "that Colonel Macleod is wrong in posting us so far in advance of El Hamet, as it will be impossible to keep up communication, except by occasional patrols ; thus the company will stand a serious risk of being cut off, and the village, which, I understand, we are supposed to protect, will be placed in jeopardy." Rather surprised at these critical remarks, I ventured to remind my captain that Generals Fraser and Stewart thought very highly of Colonel Macleod, and that the 7 8th Highlanders swore by him. "True, Tom," rejoined Holroyd. " Macleod's char- acter as a regimental commander most deservedly stands high, and a braver man there is not in the British army ; nevertheless, judging by what I have heard and observed, I don't think he is the right sort of officer to hold a separate command at an important post. He lacks firmness and promptness of decision, and should an emergency arise, I much doubt if he will be properly prepared to meet it. Anyhow, I intend to use my own judgment in taking up the position assigned to us, and instead of moving the whole company up to the sand- hills, I shall leave Cantillon, with the left subdivision, half-way between them and the village. We shall then have a support to fall back on if hard pressed." " What of the Mamelukes ? have they turned up ? " asked Paddy. " Not that I know of," was the reply. " The ammu- nition we escorted is intended for them ; but my own impression is that Mohammed Ali will make up his differ- 9 o "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" ences with their beys, and if we see them at all it will be as enemies, not allies. Let us rejoin the men ; it is time we were moving." Leaving Cantillon, with half the company, under a clump of date-trees, Holroyd led the way to the sand- hills, where he posted our men to the best advantage a sergeant, corporal, and four files being stationed as an outpost on a slight eminence a little to our right front. Having taken up our position, we anxiously waited events, keeping a very sharp look-out. CHAPTER IV AN ALARM NOT FRIENDS, BUT FOES AN UNHEEDED REPORT AN ANXIOUS NIGHT SHORTLY after midnight the corporal hurried in from the outpost to report that a djerm (large boat), crowded with men, had been observed dropping down the river. " Did you see this djerm yourself, Corporal Jones ? " asked Holroyd, jumping to his feet. " Plain as I sees your honour," was the corporal's reply. " We all see it, sir ; for the moon's so bright that it's just as clear as day. Sergeant Finnigan says as how he thinks it's them Mammyluks as there's been such talk about." "The deuce he does!" exclaimed Holroyd. " Where- abouts is this djerm ? On our side of the river ? " " Yes, your honour ; 'twas nigh that chapel-looking place on the river bank." " Chapel-looking place ! You mean the mosque, I suppose," said Holroyd, smiling. " Come, Tom, we'll go and see for ourselves. Take charge until I return, Sergeant Bullen, and be well on the alert." We hastened to the outpost, where we found Sergeant A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 9 1 Finnigan with his men ready for any emergency. Close to the river bank, within four hundred paces of the out- post, stood a small mosque, its slender crescent-crowned minaret shooting up gracefully from amid the dark foliage by which it was surrounded. " There's a jham yonder, sorr," said Sergeant Finnigan, a fine old fellow, who had put Charlie Holroyd through his facings when he first joined the 35th, and had been "Very cautiously we made our way down the sand-hills." my father's orderly in days of yore. " A jham, your honour, full of Mammyluks, I'm afther thinkin'." " I don't see her, Finnigan," rejoined Holroyd, looking in the direction pointed out. " Where is she ? " "The clump of trees hides her, sorr," answered the sergeant ; " but she's there shure enough. Does your honour think they're the Mammyluks ? " " We'll hope so, Finnigan, but I have my doubts," said Holroyd. " Tom," he added, after a moment's hesita- tion, " let you and I creep down nearer the river, and 92 "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" have a look at this mysterious craft. We must discover whether she's a friend or foe." Very cautiously we made our way down the sand- hills, moving directly towards the mosque for the first hundred yards, then edging away to the left until we had a full view of the river. This is what we saw. Just below the mosque were some fishermen's huts, and a small wooden pier, or wharf, projecting into the Nile. Within a couple of oars' length of the wharf lay, not one, but two large djerms, both filled with armed men. By the bright light of the moon we could discern them as clearly as in daytime. My companion had with him a small field-glass, through which he carefully examined the djerms or rather their occupants. " Well, are they the Mamelukes ? " I whispered im- patiently. " Egad ! they're not," was the reply. " They are Albanians, without doubt, and therefore enemies. Look for yourself, and you will see their kilts, or petticoats." I took the glass, and saw at once that Holroyd was right ; there was no mistaking the Albanian costume. " There are between two and three hundred of them," said Holroyd, as I returned the telescope. " I must report this at once, Tom." We hurried back to the piquet, and Corporal Jones was sent off to warn Colonel Macleod of the proximity of a large body of the enemy ; while another man took a message to Cantillon to advance nearer to the sand-hills, and be on the qui vive in case of a sudden attack. "Not that I think they'll trouble us yet awhile," ob- served Holroyd ; " so, with the exception of advancing our support, I shall keep to our present position until I receive further orders." Corporal Jones made good use of his legs, for scarcely half-an-hour elapsed before he returned to the outpost. "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 93 " Please, your honour," said he, saluting his captain, " the answer is ' All right.' " " All right ! " exclaimed Holroyd, his face darkening ; " is that all Colonel Macleod said to you ? " "That is all, sir," was the reply. "I gave the colonel your message, just as your honour gave it to me, neither more nor less. ' Tell Capt'n Holroyd it's all right,' says he. I saluted, and waited a moment, thinkin' as how he'd say something more, or may-be ask me some questions ; but the colonel just waves me away, and says, ' D'ye hear me, corp'ril ? tell your orficer it's all right.' So I comes back as quick as I could, sir." Holroyd and I stared at one another in astonishment. That Corporal Jones had delivered the report and brought back the reply correctly we did not for a moment doubt ; for Jones was a steady, intelligent man, and thoroughly trustworthy, or he would not have been a light company corporal. " What shall you do, Charlie ? " I asked in an under- tone. " There must be some mistake." " A very serious mistake, I should say," he rejoined. Then turning to the corporal, he inquired if Colonel Macleod was in the village. " No, sir," answered Jones ; " the colonel's over yonder away to our right rear. There's a young orficer with a few men of Rolle's in the village," he added. Holroyd thought for a few minutes, and then taking me aside, said, " I must let them know in El Hamet the state of affairs, so that they may be prepared in the event of a sudden attack. Do you, Tom, hurry back to the village and warn the senior officer. Tell him that the enemy evidently mean mischief, and that I advise him to look out for squalls. On your way you can inform Can- tillon of the situation, and say that he must be ready to support us the moment he hears a shot fired." I started off on my errand, and warned both Paddy 9 4 "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE Cantillon and the officer at El Hamet a young ensign of De Rolle's, Schmidt by name that they must be prepared for any emergency. On regaining the piquet, I found that several more djerms had dropped down the Nile, and were lying off the little wharf. Holroyd had therefore sent a written report to Colonel Macleod, calling his attention to the gravity of the situation and requesting instructions. Corporal Jones was again the messenger, and his face was a study when he returned, and reported that the only answer vouchsafed by the colonel was " Very well." " You told him that I awaited instructions ? " said Holroyd, looking very incensed. " I did, sir ; but the colonel only said ' Very well ' ; not another word, good, bad, or indifferent, your honour." "Tom, this is too grave a contingency to be trifled with," said my captain, taking me aside ; " and as Macleod has sent me no orders, I must act on my own responsi- bility. I fear that our force is so scattered that it would be a dangerous matter to bring it together again ; knowing this, Macleod is probably unwilling to try the experiment, and so has contented himself with sending a report to General Stewart of the enemy's proximity. But," he con- tinued, " I am not going to run the risk of being cut off in such an exposed position as this, and therefore I shall warn the officer at El Hamet to put the village into as good a state of defence as time will allow, and we will cover him while so employed. We shall then have some- thing like a post to fall back on, if driven in ; for we ought to be able to make a very fair fight of it in the village. Give me a leaf out of your note-book, Tom I suppose that young fellow understands English ? " " He speaks it fairly well," I answered, handing him a pencil and a piece of paper. Holroyd wrote his note and despatched it to the village ; then we once more took our station with the "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 95 advanced outpost, in order to observe the first hostile movement that might be made. Towards morning a thick fog came on, completely hiding the mosque and river from our view ; indeed we could not see anything fifty yards before us, and had to trust entirely to our ears. I need hardly add that not one of us closed his eyes that night. CHAPTER V AN UNDESERVED REPROOF COLONEL MACLEOD CON- VINCED THE ATTACK EL HAMET EVACUATED THE night passed without any attack being attempted ; though once, towards daybreak, we fancied that we heard the sound of marching men approaching our post from the direction of the mosque, but the sound if it existed save in our heated imaginations died away, and all again was silent as the grave. Towards seven o'clock in the morning the river fog being then as dense as ever Colonel Macleod, accom- panied by a staff officer and an orderly dragoon, visited the piquet. The colonel looked pale and weary, as well he might, and his face wore a peculiar irritable expression ; in fact, he had the appearance of a man worn out with anxiety and fatigue. " You sent me two reports during the night, Captain Holroyd," he began, in querulous tones, barely acknow- ledging our salute ; " pray what do they mean, sir ? " " Mean, colonel ! " exclaimed Holroyd, his face flush- ing with anger. " Exactly what they stated namely, that since midnight the enemy have been gathering in considerable force within gunshot of this spot. When I sent you my second report, sir a written report no less than fifteen large djerms, crowded with men, were moored 96 "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" in the river yonder. The thick fog now hides them from your view, but there they were, and there, I doubt not, they are at this moment." " I don't think so," retorted Colonel Macleod ; " were the enemy so close at hand, in such numbers, we should at least hear them. Now, sir, since the fog came on, have you heard any sound that would indicate the proximity of a large body of troops ? " " I cannot say that I have, sir," Holroyd admitted ; " though we fancied " Fancied ! " interrupted Colonel Macleod. " Just so ! It is my firm belief that your own fancies have deceived you, and I must beg that, when on outpost duty, you will take the trouble to make yourself better acquainted with what is near you, and not send in reports of an enemy's advance until you are absolutely certain there is really an enemy within a couple of miles. In this case you have evidently mistaken a few fishermen's boats for a hostile flotilla. " I had intended to relieve you," continued Macleod ; " but now He stopped short, and uttered an ex- clamation of astonishment, for at that moment a strange though perfectly natural thing happened. The morning sun as if anxious to prove the truth of Charles Holroyd's statements, and confound the incredu- lous Highlander suddenly appeared struggling through the mist, and rapidly dispelling it. Away rolled the fog, disclosing to our gaze a group of horsemen ; conspicuous among whom was a little man, pointing with a javelin to the right of our position. Then arose upon the morning air a confused noise beating of drums and clashing of cymbals and as the fog cleared off, there appeared before us the Turkish army, numbering at least 6000 combatants, of whom perhaps one-third were horsemen. As soon as he recovered from his amazement, Colonel "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 97 Macleod, like the true Highland gentleman he was, turned to my companion, and extending his hand, said " Captain Holroyd, I have done you an injustice ! Allow me to recall the remarks I made just now, and to offer an apology to you and the light company of the 35th." " Say no more, sir, I beg you," rejoined Holroyd, warmly shaking the colonel's hand. " Your remarks are already forgotten." " As the fog cleared off, there appeared before us the Turkish army." We afterwards were thankful that we had not parted with the gallant Macleod in anger ; for, alas ! destiny had willed that ere another sun rose he should be a thing O'er which the raven flaps his funeral wing." That my account of what followed may be better understood, I will here state the order in which Colonel Macleod's force was disposed. G 98 "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" The range of low sand-hills stretching from Lake Edko to the Nile a distance of at least two miles was every- where accessible to infantry ; but, owing to the steepness of the slope and inequality of the surface, cavalry could only operate against us at two points namely, along a road passing through El Hamet, and by fording the lake a few hundred yards beyond the southern extremity of the ridge, where the water was extremely shallow. Now, as Macleod's rear was covered by the dry, steep-banked canal, and the road through El Hamet commanded by two six-pounders, his position might have been accounted an excellent one had it been properly manned (two thousand British troops, with a fair proportion of artillery and an ample supply of ammunition, could have held it till doomsday against ten times their number of Turks) ; but unfortunately Macleod's entire force did not muster eight hundred men, and he had only four six-pounder field- pieces. This slender corps had to occupy and defend the entire line of sand-hills from one extremity to the other, and it was distributed along that line as follows : The force was divided into three bodies : one, number- ing some three hundred men, being posted beside the river ; a second, of about the same strength, in the centre of the position ; while the third, of which we formed part, had to defend El Hamet, watch the road passing through the village, and support the two guns enfilading that road. Thus there was an interval of about three-quarters of a mile between the several divisions ; and in order that communications might be kept up, each division had to throw out, right and left, small detachments, which took post, here and there, along the ridge. It is plain that a position thus held was practically at the mercy of a greatly superior enemy ; a couple of hundred resolute men would have been sufficient to break through the scattered line at any point, save at the prin- cipal defences, and a breach in the line at any point must "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 99 necessarily render the whole untenable. That the position must be forced if a determined and well-sustained attack were made, was almost a foregone conclusion ; but I do not think any one anticipated the terrible disaster which befell us on that fatal day. To return to my narrative. We stood for some minutes gazing at the Turkish force. Their infantry was drawn up in detached bodies, each under its own banner ; the horsemen, in a solid mass, formed a second line. " Look, sir," suddenly exclaimed the staff officer ; " their cavalry has separated ! " "I see, Vincent," rejoined Macleod. "The column moving off is evidently ordered to cross the lake and turn our flank." " While those who remain will no doubt support the infantry in an attack on the village," observed Holroyd. " Shall I defend El Hamet, colonel ? " " Yes," cried Macleod, vaulting into his saddle ; " to the last man ! " and putting spurs to his charger, he galloped to the rear. Having re-formed the company, we marched back to El Hamet at a quick step, and on the way were joined by two or three small parties which had been ordered to retire from the sand-hills. On reaching the village, we found that the officer and men of De Rolle's Regiment had made good use of their time : the houses had been loop-holed, windows and doors barricaded ; in short, El Hamet was in a fairly defensible state. " Come, we shall be able to hold out a long time ! " exclaimed Holroyd cheerfully. Then pointing to a build- ing of considerable size and height, he said, " Take the right section, Tom, and occupy the roof of that house. Let the men make a parapet of their knapsacks, and open fire the moment the enemy are within range. Don't throw a shot away, my lads." ioo "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" I hastened to obey this order, and followed by Ser- geant Finnigan and the right section, ascended to the flat roof of the house. The men took off their packs, and placed them against the low parapet, so as to afford extra protection. From this elevated position we could see the Turkish horsemen as they advanced towards the village, brandishing their javelins and scimitars, and uttering loud cries of defiance. "They're about within range, Misther Cotton," pre- sently observed Sergeant Finnigan. " Won't your honour open fire ? " And I was about to answer in the affirma- tive when I heard Holroyd calling to me. "Tom!" he shouted, "we're to evacuate El Hamet. The guns are limbered up, so come down at once." There was nothing for it but to obey ; so we quitted the roof, and joined our comrades, who, with the detach- ment of De Rolle's, were forming up in the narrow street, where the two six-pounders were waiting to start. We soon cleared the village, and went away at a long trot, into the heart of the sandy plain. " Who ordered the evacuation ? " I asked, as I found myself alongside of my captain. " Macleod," was the reply ; " and I fear he has made a fatal mistake. But the pace is too good for talking, Tom. We shall want all our breath before we've done." CHAPTER VI THE RETREAT AT BAY HARDLY were we clear of the village when the Turkish horsemen came sweeping down into the plain, howling ferociously as they galloped here and there. From time to time they made demonstrations of an immediate attack, whereupon Holroyd would call a halt, and order the guns "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 101 to unlimber ; but the moment the enemy saw the six- pounders at " action rear," he retired out of range. Then the gunners limbered up, and we resumed our march. This happened, I think, three or four times. We had not got very far into the plain when we were joined by a detachment of De Rolle's Regiment, under Major Vogelsang. The major, who as senior officer assumed command, told us that Macleod had ordered him to retire from his position, leaving a strong piquet to cover his retreat, and move obliquely across the plain until he fell in with us. We were then to join forces and wait for further orders. " Colonel Macleod has ridden off to withdraw the re- mainder of the force," explained Vogelsang, in his broken English. " The colonel's intention is to concentrate his force and stand on the defensive until Stewart comes to our aid ; but I fear the detachments are so scattered that they will be cut off in detail." " I agree with you, major," said Holroyd. " However, we must await Macleod's arrival, and if attacked, make the best defence we can." We then formed square with Vogelsang's men, the two iield-pieces being placed in the centre, and calmly awaited the arrival of Macleod with the other divisions, or the onslaught of the enemy, whichever should come first. Our combined force numbered about two hundred and fifty bayonets, besides officers and artillerymen. Although the enemy kept up his threatening attitude, we were not seriously attacked ; but it was evident, from the sound of heavy firing on both our flanks, that Macleod, and Vogelsang's party which he had left to cover his retreat, were having a very warm time of it. We became terribly anxious about them, and would have given worlds to know how they fared. Unfortunately we could only hear, not see the fighting ; for the country around us was like a sandy sea, broken up, so to speak, into waves, or 102 "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" undulating mounds, not one of which was so sufficiently elevated as to afford a commanding view from its summit over the rest. In a short time the firing in the direction of the spot where we knew Vogelsang's covering party was battling against terrible odds, began to slacken, then it suddenly ceased. We looked at one another in horror, for no one could doubt that our gallant comrades of De Rolle's must have been overwhelmed. " My poor fellows ! " groaned Major Vogelsang, the tears streaming down his rugged cheeks ; " they must have perished to a man. Would that the Highland colonel had permitted me to remain with them ! " Our attention was now attracted by a triumphant shout, and another body of the enemy appeared in sight, racing to join their comrades, " as if Ould Nick were at their heels," as Paddy Cantillon observed. " Steady, flankers of the 35th!" cried Holroyd ; " it's our turn now ! Meet them firmly, and, if needs must, let us die like British soldiers for the honour of the old regiment ! " " Faith, an' we're ready to do that, your honour ! " an- swered Sergeant Finnigan. " Shure, divil a one of thim howlin' haythins shall The gallant old fellow never finished the sentence, for at that moment a score of the bolder horsemen charged up to within pistol-shot of the square, and discharged their carbines at us. They, I have no doubt, fired at random, but chance shots often do most harm one " bullet found its billet," and lodged in the brain of poor Michael Finnigan. A cry of rage burst from our men, for the sergeant was a general favourite in the light company, and several of the younger hands returned the fire without orders, emptying half - a - dozen saddles, and sending the bold Turks scampering back. " Steady, light company ! " cried Holroyd angrily. " What are those men thinking about ? Our chance is a "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 103 poor one if you're going to lose your heads like this ! Reload, lads, and don't fire again without orders." " Good, Captain Holroyd ! " said Major Vogelsang. " Steadiness is everything ! Ha ! they are advancing again down the front ranks ! " Instantly the order was obeyed : down on the knee dropped the front ranks ; while the rear ranks came to the " recover," and stood as motionless as if on an inspection parade. We now beheld three separate columns of horsemen, each equal, in point of numbers, to our little force, moving rapidly towards us, one column leading, the others in rear. As they drew nearer, the rear columns edged off to their right and left, sweeping round so as to threaten the right and left faces of our square. Major Vogelsang now ordered the artillery to unlimber, and bring their two guns into action, right and left ; the centre sections of the right and left faces being warned to fall back, so as to leave an opening for the guns, as soon as the word was given. On came the enemy until they were within about three hundred yards of the square, when all three columns drew rein, as if to breathe their horses. " Now is your time, lieutenant ! " said Vogelsang to the artillery officer. " Fall back the centre sections ! " Quick as lightning our gunners ran up and laid their pieces. " Fire ! " shouted their officer, and plump went the six-pound shells into the columns on our right and left, bursting well in the centre, and killing or disabling several men and horses. We gave a ringing cheer as the gunners coolly sponged out and reloaded the guns, for our foes were thrown into great confusion, and we all thought they would beat a precipitate retreat. " The guns are loaded, sir," said the artillery sub- altern ; " shall I give them another dose before they're out of range ? " 104 " A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" But the words had hardly been spoken, when the Turkish horsemen wheeled round and charged down upon us, with shrill cries of " La la ha il Allah! Vras ! Vras! 1 Again the six-pounders were fired ; then the centre sections closed up, and the moment the Turks got within musket-range, our standing ranks gave them a rattling volley, which knocked over several of them, including one of their boldest leaders. This warm reception damped their ardour, and once more they retired in confusion. We young hands thought the day was our own, and rent the air with cheers ; some of the men even sprang forward as if to start in pursuit of the retreating horse- men ; but the stern voice of the veteran major quickly recalled us to our senses. Vogelsang now ordered the gunners to load, " to the muzzle," with grape and canister, and the infantry to drop a running ball into their muskets. " We will give them a still warmer welcome, my children ! " he exclaimed, with a laugh like the croak of a raven ; " but you must be steady, and not break your ranks." Once again the turbaned warriors advanced to the attack, yelling like a pack of fiends. A well-directed volley of double-shotted musketry greeted them, yet they paused not in their wild career. Then the six-pounders opened on the columns attacking our right and left faces, and their salutation no mortal Turk could have withstood. The havoc produced as the grape and canister tore through the serried ranks was fearful, and with a cry of dismay the assailants of the right and left sides of our square galloped off venire a terre. The third body of the enemy, however, undismayed by the repulse of their comrades, held on their course, and charged right up to the rear face of the square, where we were posted ; almost up to our bayonets' points they 1 "There is no god but God ! Kill ! Kill ! " ; Our standing ranks gave them a rattling volley." "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 107 rode, and discharged their pistols, and launched their javelins at us, killing and wounding several of our men. For a moment I feared the square would be broken ; but our rear rank had reloaded, and a second volley sent the enemy to the right-about. Then we glanced around, and saw that seven or eight of our men had been killed or wounded. CHAPTER VII DEATH OF COLONEL MACLEOD APPEARANCE OF THE MAMELUKES THE LAST STAND WOUNDED AND A PRISONER A FRIEND IN NEED "ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL" WHILE watching the movements and repelling the attacks of the Turkish horsemen, we had, I fear, given little thought to Macleod's division ; but now we had a moment's breath- ing time, we remembered our comrades, and became doubly anxious as to their fate. Heavy firing was still to be heard to the right, and as we strained our ears it became evident that the sound was drawing nearer. " Be the powers ! they're righting their way towards us," exclaimed Cantillon. "There's no doubt of it," said Holroyd, after listening intently for a moment. " I wish we could get a look at them," Major Vogel- sang added. "See yonder mound, major?" said Paddy; "'tis a thrifle higher than the rest. I'm the tallest man among ye, and maybe, if ye'll let me slip out, I could get a peep at them. Sorra a bit of danger, major dear. I'll take Corporal Jones with me;" and without waiting for per- mission, he called to the corporal to follow him, and slipped out of the square. The mound was less than a hundred yards distant. io8 "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" On reaching the summit, Cantillon sprang on the cor- poral's shoulders Jones was a very powerful, athletic man and stood upright. From this coign of vantage he gazed intently in the direction of the firing ; while we watched him anxiously, fearing lest he should be shot by some lurking foe. Presently Cantillon gave a shout, and jumping down, ran back at full speed, followed by Corporal Jones. " They're close at hand," he cried as he came up to the square, " fighting like divils. We must go to their assistance, major, and join forces, if possible." " Are they broken ? " asked Vogelsang. " Divil a bit, sir," was the reply ; " but they're attacked on all sides by ten times their number, and the haythins who have been hammering at us are now having "That's enough," interrupted the major; "it is plain there is no time to lose. Put the wounded on the limbers and waggons, and we will move at once." We hastened to carry out the major's orders ; but closer and closer drew the tide of battle, and ere we could put the square in motion, Macleod's little band of heroes appeared in sight. Alas ! a fatal change had occurred. The division was no longer in solid order, as when seen by Cantillon, but broken up into small parties and groups, each fighting desperately against overwhelm- ing numbers of Turkish cavalry and Albanian infantry. To rush to their rescue was our first impulse ; but Vogelsang restrained us, pointing out that we could not possibly render our brave comrades any effectual aid, and that once we broke our formation we should infallibly be cut to pieces. We did what little lay in our power, firing at the enemy whenever we could do so without injury to our own people ; and a section of our company sallying out, at a critical moment, under Holroyd and Cantillon, succeeded in bringing Captain Mackay and a few of the 7 8th into the square. "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 109 With the exception of this slender party, Macleod's division was destroyed, not a man escaping. The gallant Macleod fell, as became him, claymore in hand, in the midst of his Highlanders, who, with the devotion of clans- men for their chief, threw themselves in the way of certain destruction in their vain attempts to save him. While this terrible scene was taking place we were not molested by the enemy ; but, the other divisions destroyed, they now combined their forces against us. The Albanian infantry commenced the attack by lining the sand ridges and pouring a furious fusillade upon the square, the horse- men keeping out of range, ready to sweep down upon us when the right moment arrived. The Albanians were expert marksmen, and their fire proved very disastrous to us. Vogelsang, Holroyd, and Cantillon were amongst the first wounded, the latter severely, and many of our men fell to rise no more. We replied with the six-pounders, as well as with musketry ; but the Albanians being scattered and well covered, our fire was not very effective. To add to our misfortunes, the sun was now beating down upon us with full force, and we had little water to quench our burning thirst ; officers and men were pretty nigh worn out, and we all felt that, unless General Stewart came to our aid, the end must come quickly. At length, when more than one-third of our number were killed or wounded, there was a cessation of the firing, followed by great commotion amongst the enemy's cavalry. We jumped to the conclusion that, at last, Stewart must have arrived, and our drooping spirits revived. Alas ! we were speedily undeceived ; for as the smoke cleared away, there appeared in sight a large body of Arab horsemen, advancing in loose, but not disorderly array. That the new-comers were foes, not friends, we could not doubt, for as they advanced across the plain the Turkish host welcomed them with a mighty shout and waving of flags. Though faint from loss of blood, Major Vogelsang still no "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" retained command, and he now mounted a limber-box and examined the advancing troops through his glass. "They are the Mamelukes!" he exclaimed, " and Mohammed AH himself is at their head. My men, we have now nothing to do but to sell our lives dearly." " Possibly they have come to our aid," I suggested, hoping against hope. " Are you sure the Vizier is with them ? " Vogelsang shook his head sadly, and replied that he recognised Mohammed Ali, having seen him before ; his presence with the Mamelukes was sufficient to prove that they had come, not as allies, but as our most formidable enemies. We rapidly made preparations for the struggle before us. The wounded at least those who were totally dis- abled from taking part in the defence were placed in a trench hastily made in the sand ; the six-pounders were loaded with grape and with musket-balls to the very muzzle ; and each soldier dropped over his cartridge, not only a running ball, but three or four slugs. The attack was not long delayed, and opened with a renewal of the musketry fire by the Albanians. This lasted for the best part of an hour, and wrought us great mischief. Suddenly it ceased, and the Albanians leisurely retired. Then, with lightning speed, the Mamelukes bore down on our sadly-diminished square. " Keep steady, men," cried Vogelsang, " and reserve your fire until your foes are within forty yards. Then give them a volley, and load again." The Mamelukes came on in somewhat loose order, their line extending to, perhaps, twice the width of the square. We let them approach to within thirty yards ; then both guns and muskets opened on them with terrible effect. The charge was arrested ; and before they could retire out of range, we gave them a second volley only less destructive than the first. Then they galloped away "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" in in confusion. Before we had time to congratulate our- selves, the Albanians again came to the front, and annoyed us with their fire. After a while the Mamelukes made a second attempt to break our square, only to retire discomfited. Three times did our slender band repulse these magnificent horsemen, inflicting heavy punishment on each occasion ; but after each repulse the Albanians renewed their galling " I dropped senseless to the ground." fire, doing us, in proportion, more harm than we did to the Mamelukes. After the third attack, and while the Albanians were firing at us, the artillery officer reported that only one charge per gun was left. "We must break up a cask of small-arm ammunition, and make the best use we can of that," replied Major Vogelsang. " You, sir," he added, turning to me, " take ii2 "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" a couple of men, and collect the rounds from the cartouch- boxes of the slain." I was about to execute this gruesome order, when a bullet, glancing from one of the guns, struck me on the head, and I dropped senseless to the ground. When consciousness returned I found myself lying in the arms of Corporal Jones, who was bathing my head with muddy water. All sound of strife had ceased, and our men were sitting or standing around, disarmed. Several Mamelukes were stalking about with a triumphant air, and in the distance was assembled the Vizier's army. I asked the corporal what had happened. " We're prisoners, Mr. Cotton, the few of us that's left," he replied. " We hadn't a blessed cartridge left, when a Turkish officer came up with a flag of truce, and told the captain as how our lives should be spared if we surrendered." " Do you mean Captain Holroyd ? " " Yes, sir. The furrin major was knocked over just after you was, and, though badly hurt, our captain took command. There he is yonder, talking to the officer to whom we surrendered. The rum thing is," continued Corporal Jones, " that the Turkish orficer aint a Turk at all, but a Frenchman. D'you remember, sir, the French leftenant as used to come so often to; your quarters when we lay at Messina ? " " Not M'sieur de Vignes ? " I exclaimed. "That's the name, sir. Well, he's the orficer I'm tellin' you about and here he comes !" I looked up and saw a Mameluke approaching, whose rich attire bespoke him an officer of rank. Leaning on his arm was Charlie Holroyd, his head and shoulder bandaged. "Tom," said Holroyd, in a faint voice, "here is an "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" 113 old friend one who has indeed proved a friend in need. It is to M'sieur de Vignes we owe our lives." " Pouf! " cried the Mameluke, whom I at once recog- nised as my former acquaintance ; " I have but repaid the debt I owed you, mon ami. When last we met I played you a scurvy trick, and happy am I to be able to make some reparation." And with that he embraced me, much to the horror of Corporal Jones. Holroyd then told me how, struck with admiration at our heroic defence, M. Drovetti, the French consul-general at Cairo (who had accompanied the Turkish army), had induced the Vizier to offer us quarter. De Vignes was selected to bear the flag of truce, and recognising Holroyd, persuaded him to surrender. In spite of our surrender, the Mamelukes, furious at the losses they had sustained, attempted to massacre the survivors of our force, and were only prevented by the exertions of Eugene de Vignes, who saved our lives at the risk of his own. As it was, several of our wounded were butchered ; amongst others, poor Paddy Cantillon. Naturally I was curious to learn how the French lieutenant had been transformed into an officer of Mame- lukes, and that evening I asked him to tell me his story. " Mais certainement, mon cher," he replied. " At Messina I met, and fell in love with, the lady who is now my wife. Her father, Prince T , objecting to my attentions, sent his daughter to the convent. By bribing one of the lay- sisters, I obtained an interview, and persuaded Beatrice to elope with me. To return to France would have been difficult, if not impossible, so I determined to fly to Egypt, where my mother's brother, M'sieur Drovetti, was consul- general. I hired a small coasting-vessel, and made all arrangements for our flight. On the appointed night I repaired to the convent. With the assistance of the lay- sister, Beatrice effected her escape from the building, and joined me outside the walls. But somehow her father had H 1 1 4 "A FRENCHMAN'S GRATITUDE" got wind of the affair I believe the lay-sister betrayed us and while making off, we were attacked by four of his servants. I had just time to tell Beatrice to fly up the road, conceal herself, and await events, whilst I covered her retreat. Happily my assailants probably acting on their master's orders were so intent upon killing me, that they did not attempt to follow her. You, mon amij came to my aid, and the fellows ran off, leaving one of their number with my sword through his heart. To get rid of you, I pretended the rascal was only wounded, and sent you off for assistance. The moment you had gone, I picked the dead body up, carried it a few yards, and threw it in a ditch. Then I rejoined Beatrice, and we hastened to the boat which was awaiting us. In the end we got safely to Cairo, and were married by my good uncle's chap- lain. Through my uncle's influence, I was appointed an officer in the Vizier's service, and am now in high favour. Voilii tout ! " My story is finished. We were carried prisoners to Cairo, but, thanks to the influence of M. Drovetti, were allowed to take up our quarters with Eugene de Vignes and his charming wife ; thus escaping the hardships and indignities which, as we afterwards learned, many of our fellow-prisoners suffered. In due course we were exchanged, and rejoined our regiment. Many years have passed since then. My brother-in-law, Charles Holroyd, is a general and a K.C.B. ; I have long ago left the army, and settled down to a country life ; but we still retain a vivid recollection of the " Disaster of El Hamet," and tell our children the story of " a Frenchman's Gratitude." THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT BY ROBERT LEIGHTON I WHAT a night ! What a wild, wild night ! " Old Donald Leslie lifted his grizzled head, closed his book on his gnarled forefinger, and listened to the low deep soughing of the wind. As he spoke, a gust of smoke blew out into the room from the wide throat of the chimney ; the flames of the burning logs on the open hearth leapt and crackled anew ; the lights of the hanging cruse lamps flickered, and the grimy arras hangings over the doors and windows swung heavily to and fro and swelled out like the sails of a ship. " Ay ; it's from the north," muttered Elspeth Macdonald, as she crossed to one of the deep embayed windows and drew aside the curtain to peer out into the night. " It will be bringing snow with it. The clouds were banked up like great mountains in the north when I looked out in the forenoon, and the shepherd was telling me that he saw a white bonnet on Ben Bhuidhe as he came west over Culloden braes yestreen." " Listen ! " cried young Colin Leslie, releasing the cat from his knee and rising to his feet. " Did you not hear something, grandfather ? " "Well did I hear something," returned the old man. " I've heard it these two hours past. It's the wind howling in the vent." " Nay, but it wasna the wind," pursued the boy. " It was "5 n6 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT " Just hold your tongue, laddie, and let me get reading my book," interrupted the grandfather petulantly. " You're aye putting in your word. A body can do no reading with such chatter for ever dinging in his ears." " There it is again ! " cried Colin, not heeding the old man's complaint. " It was some one hammering at the castle door." " Hoots, bairn. Who would be out travelling and knocking at folk's doors on a night like this ? " Colin approached the hearth and leaned his arm against the cheek of the chimney, staring into the glowing fire. " It was some one on horseback," said he ; "I heard the horse's hoofs on the stones just before you said ' What a night it is ! ' " Sir Donald Leslie continued reading under the dim light of the lamp that hung above his head. Presently Elspeth Macdonald left the room on tiptoe, closing the door behind her. Colin applied himself to casting a new log upon the fire. Regardless of his grandfather, he began to whistle the lightsome air of a certain Jacobite song. Soon his whistling changed into the song itself and he chanted, half under his breath, the words " Oh, Charlie is my darling, My darling, my darling, Charlie is my darling, The young Chevalier/' Suddenly a fluttering book flew past his curly head. " How dare you ? How dare you sing that accursed Jacobite song in my hearing?" cried his grandfather, red with rage. " Have I not told you a hundred times that I'll have none of your rebel rantings in my house ? " " I meant no harm, grandfather," said Colin, picking up the book and placing it on the corner of the table near the old man's elbow, " I was not thinking of the meaning of the words." THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 117 " May-be not, may-be not," returned Sir Donald, as he idly took up his book. Then, calming himself, he added more softly, shaking his head the while : " Colin, you are just the very reflection of my brother Neil. My father 1 Suddenly a fluttering book flew past his curly head." had exactly the same trouble with him in the Forty-Five that I have with you in these more peaceful days. You try to persuade me that you have no real sympathy with the wild adventurer you were now singing about. But n8 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT I'll be bound that if there were another rising (which Heaven forfend !) you'd on with the kilt and be off with another Stuart, just as Neil Leslie went off with the young Pretender luckless loon that he was. But I'll not have it, look you. I'll have none of your Jacobite thoughts here ; no, not even so much as the whistling of their inflammatory tunes ! " Colin raised his eyes and glanced furtively at the old claymore that was suspended over the door, crossed by a rusty Lochaber axe. One might have seen by the sudden gleam in his blue eyes that the lad had some lingering sympathy with the romantic adventurer of whose lost cause his grandfather had spoken so contemptuously. " One rebel in the family has been quite enough, and more than enough," went on Sir Donald. " But for Neil Leslie we might now be living in comfort and luxury instead of in poverty. We now feed upon porridge and oaten bannocks instead of good wholesome beef and venison ; we drink weak milk instead of wine. Our dwelling is a poor broken-down ruin instead of, as it once was, a lordly castle fit for a king. Look at our lands ; they are wide, but they bear no harvest, for we cannot afford to cultivate them. Our stables are empty ; our flocks have been reduced to a few skinny sheep that find no food upon the barren ground. Even the grouse and the plovers have deserted us. And it is all the work of Neil Leslie. My very blood simmers when I think of him, the rebel rascal ! the scoundrel ! the thief ! " "Thief?" echoed Colin quickly. "Thief, grand- father ? " " Ay, thief," growled the old man in an angrier tone. " He robbed his own father my father. All the hard- earned and hard-saved money that my father had put aside for his descendants for me as his eldest son, and for you in your turn, although that was long, long before you were born was stolen by Neil Leslie, and by him THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 119 appropriated to the accursed cause of the man whom he called his prince. Prince ? A prince of rascals, a prince of gallows-birds ; that is what I call the frog-eating repro- bate that presumed to lay claim to the British throne. What did he do this Charles Edward Stuart ? He rilled the silly heads of our men and women with his romantic tomfoolery ; he turned all Scotland topsy-turvy and left it a miserable wreck of its former and better self Don't look like that at me, Colin. I'm telling you nothing but the simple truth. And when you are a little older and get the hayseed out of your hair, you will know the wisdom of being loyal to your rightful king. There, I've lost my place in the book, now. Let me see ; what page was I at ? " The door opened while the old man peevishly turned over the pages, and Elspeth Macdonald entered. There was an expression of anxious concern in her wrinkled face. She approached the master of Castle Leslie and mysteriously whispered into his ear. Sir Donald gripped the wooden arm of his high- backed chair. " Ossington ? " he said questioningly, repeating the name that the housekeeper had announced. " Colonel Ossington ? I know no such name. Who can the man be, think you, Elspeth ? " Elspeth shook her head. " That's mair than I can tell," said she. " He just asked for the master as he stamped his snowy boots on the step. Then he took off his cloak and handed it to Geordie, as bold as you please, and bade me give you his name Colonel Ossington." " Has he left his horse standing there ? " questioned Sir Donald. Elspeth crossed her hands in front of her, and holding up her head in high dignity, answered " No. The beast has been taken round to the stables." 120 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT " H'm," muttered Sir Donald. " He evidently intends to stay the night, then. Well, it matters little who he may be. We couldna send a body away from the very door on a night of storm like this, even if he were but a mere gaberlunzie. Let him come ben here. And see that some supper is sent in. Wait," he added, as Elspeth was moving away ; " see that Andrew gets some food for the horse. There should be a handful of oats left in the corners of the bags up in the old loft ; and if not, he'll may-be find some dry hay in the byre." " Toots ! " objected Elspeth, as she swept towards the door, " there's no need to fash yourself about the horse. Andrew will see to the beast. Trust him to that." Young Colin Leslie stood before the fire with his face fronting to the room. His grandfather's knotted fingers nervously turned the faded brown leaves of his book, while the wind groaned in the chimney and the fitful flames of the fire cast strange moving shadows about the gloomy room. The man who presently entered crossed the oaken floor with a somewhat halting gait. His spurs jangled at each step. His clean-shaven face was thin and pinched, but ruddy in contrast with his silvery hair. As he approached into the light of the fire, Colin noticed that his active grey eyes were conspicuously clear and bright beneath his furrowed brow. He wore a snuff-coloured riding-coat, with breeches of the same colour, and long military boots. A diamond glistened amid the pure white- ness of his lace-edged cravat. Sir Donald Leslie rose from his chair and advanced a step to meet him. The two men bowed to each other as strangers. "You are welcome, sir," said Sir Donald, standing upright with his right hand on the tall back of his chair. " Pray take this seat near the fire. The night is cold, and it may be you have travelled far." THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 121 The soldier bent his head courteously. " Not farther than Inverness," was his response. He spoke in a distinctly English tone of voice, which Sir Donald at once detected. " You are from the South ? " he questioned. And then, before before the stranger had time to answer, he added, "Colonel Ottington, I think my housekeeper told me, is your name ? " " Ossington," corrected the stranger, seating himself and holding his long, delicate hands in front of the fire. " Colonel Ossington, late of the King's iyth Light Dragoons. I am newly returned from Canada." He glanced at his host as he spoke, and after a slight pause continued, wrinkling his face into a half smile, " You do not appear to know me, sir ? Am I not addressing Mr. Alan Leslie Alan Leslie, once of the 2oth Foot ?" There was a moment or two of silence, broken only by the deep-throated growling of the wind in the chimney- vent. Colin Leslie, who had retired to a shadowed corner of the ingle-nook, looked at his grandfather, wondering at his hesitation. " My name is Donald Leslie," came at last the gloomy reply. " I am a brother of Alan Leslie, and the eldest son of Sir John Leslie, who died fifty years ago fifty years almost to the very day." Colonel Ossington meditatively nodded his head. " That would be in the year of Culloden, I think," said he. " He was for the young " He checked himself. " No," broke in Sir Donald vehemently. " He was certainly not for the young Pretender." The colonel raised his eyebrows in apparent surprise, dropped his open hands upon his knees, and slowly rose to his feet. " I had almost expected to hear you say the young Chevalier," he said, with a fuller frankness than he had 122 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT hitherto shown. " I had understood that your brother Alan was the only member of your family who was not heart and soul for the Stuarts." " On the contrary," corrected Sir Donald, " I and my brother Alan and our father were always staunch for King George. Ah," he added, seeing the door open, " here is some supper. I am afraid it will prove a poor meal ; but pray make yourself free with such as there is. Pardon me if I leave you for a little while. My grandson Colin, here, will entertain you in the meantime." He poured a few drops of whisky into a glass, and dealt similarly but more generously with a glass which he passed to his guest. " To the King ! " he said, moistening his lips. " To the King ! " responded Colonel Ossington, bowing politely to Sir Donald as he left the room. The supper which had been set before the stranger was, as his host had expressed it, but a poor meal ; but Colonel Ossington partook of it with as much enjoy- ment as if it had been a banquet. Presently Colin Leslie emerged from his corner by the ingle and slowly approached the table, standing opposite to the colonel as he ate. The boy's ringers played idly with the ragged fringe of the table-cloth ; but now and again he stole a furtive glance at the silver-haired officer at the other side. Once or twice he attempted to speak, but his shy- ness overcame him. It was not often that he encountered a stranger such as the man before him. At last he mustered courage enough to say " Are you a soldier a real soldier ? " The colonel smiled at him. " Yes," said he, " I am a soldier. Is that something strange to you ? " " We don't see many soldiers in these parts," said the boy. "There are some at Inverness, of course, and at Fort George, but I've never been to either of those places. Once when I went to Edinburgh with my father, I saw THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 123 some soldiers at the Castle. But I never spoke to one before." " Is your father at home here in Castle Leslie ? " asked Colonel Ossington. " No," answered Colin ; " he's dead. So is my mother. Grandfather and I are quite alone in the world." He hesi- tated, almost ashamed of having said so much. Presently he looked up once more and added, " Where is your red coat and your sword ? I thought soldiers always wore red coats and swords." " Mine are at home in England," explained the soldier. " I don't wear them now. I have not worn them at all since I came back from America. I am too old." Colin reflected for some moments, leaning his elbows on the table and his chin in his supporting hands. " Did you ever kill a man ? " he asked abruptly. "Yes ; many men. That is what soldiers are meant to do. But one doesn't like to think of them as men. Some- how it seems different when one calls them simply the enemy." " Then you've been in a real battle ? " The soldier nodded. " That must have been very exciting," remarked Colin, with boyish enthusiasm. " I should like to be in a real battle that is, if it were against Frenchmen, or Spaniards, or blackamoors, or people of that sort. I don't think I'd like it so much if they were Britons." " I suppose not," agreed Colonel Ossington, with a sigh. " Somehow it does seem to make a difference." " Once," went on Colin, growing more communicative now that he had discovered a soldier to be very little different in human nature from any other man " once, there was a battle near here near this castle, I mean over on Culloden Moor, where our sheep pastures are. And last spring, when Peter Reid of the Mains of Kilravock was ploughing, he turned up a rusty old claymore. He 124 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT gave it to me, and I polished it. There it is, hanging up with that Lochaber axe upon the wall. Colonel Ossington moved his chair to look round at the old sword. His glance travelled to other parts of " Turned up a rusty old claymore.' the dimly lighted room, surveying the few family portraits in their tarnished frames, the dusty antlered heads of stags, the old Highland targets, crossbows, and battle-axes that decorated the dark oak panels of the walls. "There used to be a rack of muskets in that farther THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 125 corner," he remarked. " And where is the portrait of the beautiful Lady Leslie Bonnie Belinda, they called her that used to hang up there above that carved settle ? " " Oh, that has been put away," explained Colin, " because because Lady Belinda was a Jacobite, you know. But how did you know that the picture and the guns and things were ever there ? You have never been in this room before, have you ? " The colonel raised his glass to his lips. " Yes," he said. " When ? " demanded Colin. "Oh, when I was a youth, a little older than you are now. It must be fifty years ago." At this moment Sir Donald Leslie re-entered the room. " Grandfather ! " cried Colin, " Colonel Ossington has been here before ! He was here fifty years ago." Sir Donald turned sharply to his guest. " Is this true ? " he asked. " Quite true," responded the old campaigner. " I was here in the year 1746. You, I think, were at that time abroad." " Yes," acquiesced Sir Donald. " I was in Ley den. I am sorry you did not inform me at once that this was not your first visit. I should have given you a warmer welcome if I had known. As it is, I have treated you as a stranger, and have not even offered you my hand." " It is hardly too late to repair the omission," said Colonel Ossington, and he thrust forth his hand, which his host grasped. " Ossington ? " muttered Sir Donald, trying to recall the name. " Ossington ? Dear me, I'm afraid I must seem very stupid. But for the life of me I cannot re- member to have heard of you. If I may be so inquisitive, what was the occasion of your former visit, colonel ? " " I will tell you," returned the soldier frankly. " In- 126 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT deed, my present appearance here is wholly on account of what occurred at that long distant time." He put his hand to his breast pocket. " May 1 smoke ? " he asked. " Certainly/' said Sir Donald. " I am afraid, how- ever, that I cannot offer you any tobacco. We can ill afford such a luxury in these hard times." " Thank you. I have some very fine American tobacco with me," rejoined the colonel. " Ah, I forgot," he added. " I find I have left it in my saddle-bag." " Colin will fetch it," urged Sir Donald, anticipating the promised pleasure of renewing a habit which economy alone had compelled him to abandon. " Oh, don't trouble," said his guest, " I will go myself. I think I remember where the stable is situated. Although perhaps the lad might, after all, accompany me." Colin was already at the door, prepared for the guest. He conducted the colonel out into the hall, where they got their hats and a lantern, and then through the house and out by one of the back doors, and into the spacious, wind-swept garden, along by a high blank wall and across to the stable. By the aid of Colin's lamp, the colonel soon found his tobacco and, giving a caressing pat to his horse's flanks, he followed the boy back into the garden. A wild gust of wind met them as they came out from the stable door, extinguishing their light. The snow had ceased to fall, and the sky was clear, saving only for a few fleecy white clouds that drifted southward across the moon. The ruined and ivy-covered walls of the older parts of the castle stood out black against the steel-blue brightness of the sky. An owl flew with silent wings from out the ruins and disappeared among the tall bare trees that creaked and groaned in the wind at the rear of the keep. Colin walked in advance over the crisp white snow. THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 127 Suddenly he drew back with a half-smothered cry, gripped his companion's arm, and pointed with agitated finger into the dark shadows of the ruined walls. " Look ! " he ejaculated, trembling in every limb. " Do you see it ? Do you see it ? See ! there it goes there, in at the old postern gate ! Come ! come quickly back to the house. I'm afraid ! " Colonel Ossington held the lad's arm, supporting him. " Afraid of what, boy ? " he demanded. " There is nothing." " Did you not see it ? " gasped Colin, in a mysterious, scarcely audible whisper. " It went in at the postern, there." " I saw nothing to alarm you to this degree, my boy," returned the soldier. ''What was it? Tell me what it was!" Colin's fingers crept down the colonel's right arm until they grasped his hand. The lad had implored his companion to return with him to the house, but he himself now stood still as if rooted to the spot. " What was it ? " repeated Colonel Ossington. Colin answered in the same low, mysterious whisper. " It was the ghost the ghost of Neil Leslie. It is often seen here. Elspeth has seen it. So has grandfather. I have seen it before, too ; but never so plainly as now. It glided along there by the wall, with its plaid wrapped round it. I saw the yellow stone glistening in the hilt of its dirk. Its sword flashed in the moonlight. When it got to the gate it stopped a moment and put out its hand, holding something something that looked like a little bag. It turned its face this way and then dis- appeared." " Come," said the colonel, putting his arm about the lad and drawing him onward towards the house. " Your imagination has been playing you some trick. It was the moonlight and the moving bushes, perhaps. You will forget all about it when we get indoors." 128 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT As they passed by the postern gate, Colin craned round and peered within. Seeing nothing but black darkness, he heaved a deep sigh of relief and walked boldly on, saying nothing until he had closed and barred the door behind him. Then, touching Colonel Ossington's arm, he said calmly " Please say nothing to grandfather about Neil's ghost, Colonel Ossington. It would only disturb him." II SIR DONALD LESLIE was engaged in preparing a bowl of hot whisky toddy, when his grandson and his guest rejoined him. He did not observe Colin's blanched face and wild, staring eyes. The boy strode to the fireplace and flung himself into his favourite seat in the corner, staring into the glowing red mass upon the hearth. When the two men had filled and lighted their pipes, and were comfortably seated before the fire, each with a steaming glass of toddy within reach of him, Colonel Ossington abruptly resumed the conversation at the point where it had been broken off some fifteen minutes earlier. " My present appearance here," he said, crossing his legs, " is connected with certain mysterious events which occurred at the time of my first visit to Castle Leslie on the fifteenth day of April 1746 that is to say, on the eve of the battle of Culloden." He paused an instant as if to arrange his thoughts. Then, leaning forward and fixing his keen grey eyes upon his host, he said in a tone of sharp inquiry : " Will you tell me what became of your brother, Neil Leslie ? " Sir Donald received the question with a lowering of the brows. " Ah," said he, as he pressed his finger into the bowl of his tobacco-pipe, " I had guessed that it was of him THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 129 you came to speak. I had even gone so far as to expect that you were about to pester me by telling me you had met him out there in America. I don't want to know anything concerning him, Colonel Ossington. He dis- graced and ruined his family, and whether he be dead, as I hope, or alive, as I sometimes fear, he is no more to me than the most utter stranger." " If I had met him in America," observed Colonel Ossington, " I should have no need to ask you what had become of him. I know nothing of him nothing of what happened to him subsequent to the evening before Culloden fight." " I assume that you were yourself in that fight," re- marked Sir Donald. " Yes," returned the colonel, " I was then a young ensign. I served under Major James Wolfe in repelling the first attack of the Highlanders." "Ah," mused Sir Donald; "then you would not come into conflict with Neil Leslie. He, I believe, remained studiously in the rear." " Pardon me," corrected the colonel, " he was not on the field." A blank yet somewhat haughty stare was the re- sponse to this unexpected contradiction. Sir Donald was evidently perplexed. " I do not go so far as to declare that he was actually in the fight," said he. " But that he was somewhere on the fringe of the battle I am well assured. After the fight he fled with the defeated Highlanders, first to the Western Islands, and afterwards to France. Such at least is what my father believed concerning him not that he went out of his way to make inquiries. You may be sure that he was in nowise anxious for the graceless scoundrel's safety. Indeed, if the truth must needs be told, Sir John was rejoiced to be rid of Neil at any cost." i 130 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT "Rejoiced to be rid of him?" echoed the colonel, in surprise. " I do not understand. Neil Leslie was his father's especial favourite. And very naturally so, as it seems to me, since they both were Jacobites." Sir Donald laid his pipe upon the table. " Jacobites ? " he repeated, in a tone half of surprise and half of disbelief. " Who were Jacobites ? " " Why, Sir John Leslie and his son Neil." " No, no," returned Sir Donald emphatically. " You mistake the facts, colonel ; you are dreaming. My brother Neil was a Jacobite, curse him. But my father, I thank Heaven, was as firmly for the House of Hanover as you or I." " If either of us is dreaming," declared the soldier, " I am afraid it is yourself, Sir Donald. Surely you do not pretend that you never knew your father to be a bitter enemy of King George ! Surely you, his own son, cannot be ignorant of the fact that for months ay, for years before Culloden, Sir John Leslie was secretly one of the most active friends and personal supporters of the young Pretender ? " Sir Donald had risen to his feet, and now he strode thoughtfully to the end of the room and back. " If you are speaking the truth, I have been ignorant indeed," he said, with a frown. He turned and continued moodily to pace the room. To and fro he strode with his twitching hands linked together behind his back. Colonel Ossington quietly puffed at his pipe, while young Colin Leslie, in his seat at the ingle, leaned forward staring at the two men in fixed attention. No word was spoken for many minutes, and all was silent saving only for the wild, boisterous rumbling of the wind in the chimney, and the regular shuffling tramp of Sir Donald Leslie's slippered feet upon the bare oak floor. Presently this latter sound ceased, and Sir Donald stood still, ruminating. " I cannot believe it," he said at length, confronting THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 131 Colonel Ossington. " On what grounds do you base your conviction ? " " On the surest of all grounds," returned the soldier, " his own admission, and also my certain knowledge that when Charles Edward Stuart and his army of Highlanders were encamped on the moor near here, Sir John Leslie supplied them not only with the food which they so sorely needed, but also with money, with arms, and with ammunition." A fierce light leapt into the old man's eyes. " It is false ! " he cried, in a quivering voice ; " it is false ! " He stamped his foot. " I do not doubt that you yourself believe what you are saying. Some knave or liar must have deceived you. But, all the same, it is not true. My father was as fervent a Hanoverian as I was and still am. It was Neil alone who was the skulking Jacobite. Ay, and to him I owe it that I am now so poor that I cannot even offer a chance visitor the hospi- tality that is his due. Had my father been in sound health at the time of the Rebellion, he would have joined the King's troops and fought as boldly as did my dear brother Alan, who fell fighting bravely and loyally for King George on Culloden Moor." " In that last particular you are again strangely in error," interrupted Colonel Ossington. " Alan Leslie took no part whatsoever in the battle of Culloden. I, who was his comrade and friend, can testify also that he did not die a soldier's death at least not upon the field." " What ! " cried the astonished Sir Donald. " Are you certain of this ? " " I am," reiterated the colonel, " absolutely certain." " Then where in Heaven's name was he ? " " Here in this house," returned Ossington, knocking the ash out of his pipe and slowly reopening his tobacco- bag. " It was of him more particularly that I came here to speak with you. I wanted to learn something of his 1 32 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT fate, whatever it may have been. But it seems you know as little of it as I do myself. We were companions in arms, he and I. It was while I was stationed in Edin- burgh that he joined Major James Wolfe's battalion of the Fourth Foot. I was then a young ensign. Alan and I were quartered together, and we soon became fast friends. We sat at the same mess-table, we shared the same bottle of wine, we smoked the same pipe. When it was a question of fighting, as at Prestonpans, we fought side by side." Sir Donald filled his guest's glass anew. Colin Leslie continued silently to listen, believing that the old soldier was now coming to something more definite. " In the spring of '46, you remember," went on the colonel, " the Duke of Cumberland's forces marched northward to Aberdeen, in search of the rebels. From Aberdeen we advanced to the town of Nairn, and while there we heard that the Pretender was concentrating his army of Highlanders at a spot not many miles away from our encampment. Alan Leslie and I were sent out to reconnoitre. We made our way westward and discovered the enemy on Culloden Moor. Believing that we might learn something further as to their intentions, Alan in- duced me to accompany him to Castle Leslie, in the hope of hearing news from the lad's father, who was supposed, although erroneously, to be friendly to the King. We arrived here at dusk and were admitted into this same room." The colonel's eyes wandered about the apartment as if in the endeavour to picture it as it had been at that earlier time. " For some two hours," he continued, " we were left here alone. During that interval of waiting, Alan told me the romantic story of Bonnie Belinda, the story being suggested by her portrait, which hung over yonder above the settle." THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 133 Sir Donald nodded and glanced across at the vacant place on the panelled wall. " But at last," went on the speaker, " Sir John Leslie entered, with his plaid about his shoulders, as if he had newly returned from a journey. He regarded his soldier son with stony indifference." " ' Well ? ' he demanded ; ' what do you want here ? ' " 1 1 have come, sir,' stammered Alan, surprised at this cold welcome. ' I have come " His father bent forward with his hand resting on the table at his side, and almost touching Alan's regimental cap with its bright brass badge. " ' You have come as a spy ! ' he cried bitterly, follow- ing up the accusation with a volley of virulent taunts. ' You ingrate ! ' he cried ; ' you w r eak-kneed renegade ! Where is your patriotism ? How dare you come here, wearing the uniform of the hateful foreign usurper whom you serve ? ' " "He said that?" questioned Sir Donald agitatedly. " He my father said that ? " Colonel Ossington took up the fire-tongs and caught at a fragment of burning wood with which to light his pipe. " Those were his own words," said he ; " and they were not less surprising to me than they were to Alan Leslie. I do not exactly remember what Alan said in retaliation, but he taunted his father with being a Jacobite, and, as he said, ' the follower of an upstart Pretender ' ; and at these words Sir John drew himself proudly to- gether and stood at his full height, which I am sure must have been a good six feet. ' I will not have His Royal Highness so named in my presence,' he declared with a frown, and pointing to the door in all the dignity of his old age, he added : ' You are no son of mine, and I do not wish ever to see you again.' " But even as he spoke, the door was opened from 134 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT without, and a tall, singularly noble-looking young man entered with the majestic stride of a monarch. He was followed by a yet younger man. At sight of our red coats both new-comers started back in amazement. Before either could speak, however, Sir John had hurried the elder of them out of the room. The younger man, whom I rightly guessed to be Neil Leslie, stepped back and, looking into Alan's face, smiled in recognition, and held out his hand. Alan refused to accept this; offer of friend- ship." " Ay, and quite right," interposed Sir Donald. Colonel Ossington did not heed the interruption, but proceeded with his narrative. " As the two brothers stood there, facing each other," he said, " I thought them the two handsomest youths I had ever beheld. Alan, with his smart military bearing, his finely featured face and his glistening dark eyes ; Neil, somewhat taller, although younger, with fairer hair and more lithe figure, dressed in the picturesque Highland costume, with his dark tartan kilt and his long flowing plaid, that was caught at the shoulder by a large silver brooch, set with a sparkling yellow stone." On hearing this description of his great-uncle, young Colin Leslie moved from his seat at the fire to a vacant chair opposite to Colonel Ossington. It was evident that Neil was in his eyes a hero. " Alan, I say, refused to accept his brother's proffered friendship. ' Who was the young man that came to the door with you just now?' he demanded. And Neil answered proudly, as he turned to leave the room : ' It was the prince whom I have the honour to serve Prince Charles Edward Stuart.' " " And he was once here here in this very room ? " murmured Colin, with reverent enthusiasm. In his boyish imagination the room had been sanctified by the presence of the romantic adventurer. Alan refused to'accept this offer of friendship. THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 137 " Continue," urged Sir Donald, with a black cloud in his face. " What happened next ? " " When Neil had gone out of the room," said the old campaigner, " Alan gave a mocking laugh. ' What do you think of them, Jack?' said he. 'It seems to me we've dropped into a hornet's nest. It will be war to the knife with my father and me after this. Which reminds me/ he added, crossing the room to the wall opposite the window there, ' this pretty dirk is mine. I may as well take possession of it.' And he took dow r n a long-bladed, jewel-hafted dagger that was hung there under the picture of Bonnie Belinda. ' Wait outside for me, Jack,' said he ; ' wait at the stable door. There's something else I want to do before we go back to Nairn.' So I went out and waited at the stable. I waited for fully an hour. When Alan joined me at last, he was a different man. He was strangely agitated almost mad with passion and fierce vindictive rage against his father. " ' Look here, Jack/ said he, ' you'd better ride back to Nairn at once without me. I shall come on later perhaps not until to-morrow morning. Ride back as quickly as you can, and see the Duke of Cumberland. If you can't see him, go to Major Wolfe. Tell him tell either of them that the rebel army is only some four thousand strong, but that the Pretender has determined to attack the King's troops to-morrow. I have just heard this by accident. The three of them Charles Stuart, my father, and that young scamp Neil have been closeted together. But I overheard them talking and unfolding their plans. There was only a thin curtain between us, and I heard every \vord. I heard my father saying that he had a store of arms and ammunition here in the castle for the use of the Highlanders. Two hundred muskets and as many swords, as well as ten thousand pounds in gold. These he offered to Stuart, bidding him send for them at eleven o'clock to-night. The arms and the money 138 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT are to be delivered to the messengers by my brother Neil at the postern gate in the castle garden. They will be delivered, Jack, if if I don't prevent it, as I mean to do.' " Colonel Ossington paused in his narrative. His gaze was fixed upon the earnestly attentive eyes and the white face of Colin Leslie. The boy seemed mentally to be associating this fact of the delivery of arms at the postern gate with the recently seen apparition of Neil Leslie. As for Sir Donald, he had now ceased to doubt Colonel Ossington's affirmations, and was as deeply interested in the narrative as was his grandson, although the sym- pathies of the two were directly at variance. "Ten thousand pounds in gold!" ejaculated Sir Donald in astonishment. "Where on earth did it all come from ? " " I do not know," returned Ossington. " Probably it represented the contributions of the wealthy Jacobites of the immediate neighbourhood." " And did the Highlanders get those guns and things in time to use them in the next day's battle ? " Colin ven- tured to ask. He breathed a sigh of disappointment when Colonel Ossington answered, with more conviction than the mere words implied " I believe not. Alan Leslie remained behind with the purpose of frustrating their delivery." " Ay, and did frustrate it, I'll be bound," interposed the grandfather. " Alan was brave, he was strong and deter- mined. He would stick at nothing ! When did you next see him, colonel ?" " I never saw him again," replied Ossington. " Since that night when I left him his fate has been to me a com- plete mystery. On the next day, at Nairn, when the muster-roll was called, he was absent. We advanced to Culloden, and the battle was fought if battle it may be called which was a mere rout. But Alan Leslie was nowhere on the field. When the Highlanders had re- THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 139 treated, vanquished, and the Duke of Cumberland was pursuing his too terrible vengeance upon the innocent and the guilty alike, I searched among the wounded and the dead for my missing comrade, but nowhere could I find him. Afterwards, I came here. Your castle had been attacked and partly demolished by Hawley's dra- goons. Sir John Leslie, I heard, had gone the night before with Charles Stuart to the house of Lord Lovat, to be present at a council of war. He afterwards escaped with the fugitives probably in company with his son Neil. " Ay ! " added Sir Donald ; " and Neil, I'll be bound, did not neglect to carry off the gold with him, and use it for his own selfish purposes ; for the Pretender never got the money. I'm thankful for that at least. That he should have it were worse even than that Neil should squander it." The old man began again to stride to and fro across the floor. " Neil was a villain ! " he cried ; " an ingrain villain and scoundrel. He ought to have been hanged with the rest of them ! I could almost be content at the loss of the family fortunes if I might only know that the rascal had died an outlaw's death on the gallows. It was doubtless he who prevented Alan from getting back to his regiment that night." Colonel Ossington meditated a few moments in silence. "Yes," he said at length, "no doubt you are right. But in what way did he prevent him, Sir Donald ? That is what I want most particularly to know." " To my mind there is but one answer to that question," returned Sir Donald decisively. " My brother Alan was not in the battle, you say. If he had been alive I am certain he would not have shirked his duty. But I believe he was not alive, colonel ; I believe that he was murdered, and murdered by his own brother, Neil Leslie. That also would tally with the fact that since that fatal night, Neil has never dared to show himself at his home." 1 40 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT Colin Leslie here ventured to break in with a remark. " You have no right to say such a thing, grandfather," he said emphatically. " Why should Neil ever think of murdering Alan ? He had nothing to fear from him." " You know nothing about the matter, boy," growled Sir Donald. " It is no business of an ignorant lad to discuss such a thing as this with his elders." But Colonel Ossington did not so despise the boy's opinions. " By the way, Master Colin," said he, " your ghost of this evening should have some bearing on this mystery. Did you not say that the apparition was dressed in the Highland kilt?" " Ghost ! " echoed Sir Donald in astonishment. " What ghost ? What apparition ? " " The ghost that I saw to-night when I went out with Colonel Ossington to the stables," returned Colin ; " the ghost of Neil Leslie. It went in at the postern gate ; the. gate where the arms and the money were to have been delivered." " Ah ! " the old man drew his breath in sharply, " I have heard of that ghost before. Old Elspeth has seen it. Once, also," he hesitated, listening to the angry blast of the wind ; " once, also, on a wild, blustering night just such as this, I saw it myself. That was many years ago ; but, I remember, it was at that same place near the postern gate. Probably the rascal's guilty conscience troubles him, even in his grave if, indeed, he be in his grave." There was a long pause, during which the wind howled even more piteously than before. Colonel Ossing- ton emptied his glass and set it down with deliberate slowness upon the table at his elbow. " I am persuaded that there was some foul play on that night," said he, in a low, clear voice. " But of course there can now be no proof. How could there be, after THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 141 all these years ? " He leaned forward with his open hands clasping his knees, and with his eyes fixed upon the fire. Then he went on, as if speaking to himself : " Some years ago, just after the taking of Quebec, I chanced to make the acquaintance of an aged Highlander, who had a bullet in his chest and was dying in the hospital. I learned that the man's name was David Duncan. We got talking of the Jacobite rebellion, and I discovered that he had been present at Culloden. Further conversation elicited the information that this same old Highlander had been one of the Pretender's messengers sent to Castle Leslie to convey the arms and money to the rebel encampment. Duncan and his companions waited that night near the postern gate. They were at their post at eleven. They waited until three o'clock. But no one ever came to them and the arms were never delivered. While they waited, Duncan heard a strange, weird cry, like a cry for help. Whence it came he could not tell ; neither did he know whether it was the cry of a man or of a woman. Human it certainly was. It seemed, he said, to come out of the ground at his feet. It was then midnight." The old clock in the outer hall struck eleven. Sir Donald Leslie signed to Colin, indicating that it was high time the boy was in bed. Colin bade the two men good- night, but still lingered in the room for a few moments, hoping to hear more of this family mystery. " I infer from what you have said," remarked Colonel Ossington, addressing his host, " that you have no know- ledge of the secret place in which the military stores and the gold of which we have been speaking were hidden ? " "There is no such secret place in all the castle," returned Sir Donald. " Of that I am quite certain. Whether the rebels received the stores or not, the things \vere assuredly removed long before I returned to Scot- land." These were the last arguments that Colin Leslie heard i 4 2 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT before he retired to bed. As he lay wakeful on his pillow, he reflected upon the story that had been revealed to him. The men had come to the conclusion that Neil Leslie, the Jacobite, had murdered his own brother. " Could this really be so ? " thought Colin. The boy wondered where and in what exact circumstances the tragedy had taken place. He wondered in which room the guns and swords and all those thousands of golden guineas had been hidden. Colonel Ossington had suggested a secret chamber as the probable receptacle ; but Colin knew every nook and cranny about the building, and he was forced to acknowledge to himself that his grandfather's words were true when he said, " There is no such secret place in all the castle." BUT on the following morning, when Colin accompanied Colonel Ossington in a walk round the garden, a new light seemed to come to him. They were passing the little postern of which so much had been said the postern through which, as the boy declared, he had himself seen the apparition of Neil Leslie disappear on the previous night. Here Colin now stood. He stamped his feet upon the ground. " Listen ! " he said. " Do you hear anything ? " He stamped once again. " I've often thought, as I have passed this spot, that the ground seems to give back a hollow sound." " And if it does, what of it ? " asked Colonel Ossington. " Well," said Colin, with a curious lift of his eyebrows, " I was thinking that it is just possible there may be some cave, or passage, or cellar under here ; and that perhaps it was down there that the guns and things you were telling us of last night were stored." "You may be right," smiled the colonel, "but I THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 143 don't see that it matters very much now. It's so long ago, you know." " Yes," went on Colin, " but I should like to find out, all the same. I have often thought of it before of the underground passage, I mean. Most castles in Scotland have underground passages somewhere, and Castle Leslie can scarcely be an exception. At one time I thought I had found a way into this one." He pointed up to the top of the ivy-covered wall. " You see the place where that buttress ends ? " he asked. The colonel nodded. " Well, last spring a jenny wren built her nest up there. I wanted to get it. I climbed up from the inside of the ruin, and crept along the top of the wall. I had got as far as where the nest was when, leaning over to reach it, I felt one of the big stones give way beneath me. I held on by the ivy ; but the loosened stone fell with a crash to the ground. I didn't look where it fell. I was only thinking of how I should get down with the nest. But a day or two afterwards I was coming through the place that used to be the guard-room in the old days, before Hawley's dragoons burnt this part of the castle down, and I saw the stone lying there. It wasn't smashed ; but it had smashed the flagstone that it had fallen upon. Some parts of the flagstone had dropped through, right down into a sort of black well. I did not try to open the well ; although I should have done if any other boys had been here to help me. But this morning I thought of it again in connection with your story " I understand," interrupted the colonel. " You think it may have been down there that old Sir John Leslie hid the arms for the rebels, eh ? Well, let me see this fancied entrance to the subterranean passage. Where is it ? " " It's through here," said Colin. And he led his com- panion through the postern gate into a large roofless room. In one of the corners there was a heap of garden refuse, covered by a thin layer of melting snow. Colin i 4 4 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT took an old spade and industriously cleared the rubbish away. Presently he revealed a large cracked flagstone. He went down on his knees and busily endeavoured to dislodge one of the broken fragments. He scraped and tore and pulled at it to no purpose. Then he stood up and stamped upon it. The rattling of loose earth under- neath encouraged him to continue. " Can you find such a thing as a pickaxe ? " ques- tioned Colonel Ossington. Colin shook his head, but ran, nevertheless, in search of some such instrument, returning some minutes after- wards with a heavy sledge-hammer. With this he opened an assault upon the flagstone, and soon succeeded in loosening one small fragment. A small brown rat darted out from the excavation and scampered across the uneven floor. " Wait ! " cried the colonel ; " lend me the hammer. Let us try first to remove this smaller stone, then we can better get at the larger one." He took the sledge-hammer, raised it over his shoulder, and brought it down with a well-directed blow upon the smaller stone, splitting it. A second blow broke it into splinters. These he removed. Beneath them he dis- covered the end of a rusty bar of iron that was shot like a bolt through an iron ring. The bar seemed to extend under the larger flagstone, supporting it through its centre of gravity. For many minutes he hammered at the rusty iron, and with each blow the flagstone trembled on its axle and a shower of loosened stones and gravel fell into the depths below. With each development the old soldier's energy increased, while Colin looked on absorbed in boyish expectation. At last the corroded bar broke. The flagstone collapsed and slipped a few inches into the void, where it was arrested by some obstacle. Its removal revealed an irregular open- ing, some two feet in diameter. THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 145 " You were right, boy," remarked the colonel ; " there is indeed a secret chamber here, and this is, or once was, its entrance. See ! the flagstone has formed a sort of trap- door. It may have been opened by a spring set under the smaller stone at the side. Look down there ; you can see the edge of cne of the stone stairs." " Can we get down ? " asked Colin. " It is possible, I think," returned the old soldier. " But we should require a lighted lantern. Could you fetch one ? " Colin ran off. He was absent some ten minutes. During that interval Colonel Ossington contrived so to force back the broken flagstone that it left an opening sufficiently wide to admit his body. He went upon his knees and thrust his feet into the cavity, descending step by step until his eyes were on a level with the paved floor. There he waited, resting with his hands on the second step. The fingers of his right hand touched something that was softer than the cold stone. He gripped it and drew it forth into the fuller light. It was a fragment of mouldy cloth or felt. Attached to it was a disc of tarnished metal upon which the figure " 4 " was embossed. " God ! " he exclaimed, " it's the badge of the Fourth Foot." He tore off the badge and thrust it into his pocket. At this moment Colin Leslie appeared with the lighted lantern, and accompanied by his grandfather. " I am glad you have come too, Sir Donald," said the colonel somewhat absently. " What boy's adventure are you contriving now, colonel?" demanded Sir Donald. "One would think that you had gone back to your childhood." " Not quite so far back as that," returned the old soldier grimly, " but my mind has indeed gone back to my young manhood. Give me the light, Colin," he added, turning to the lad. " I had better, perhaps, go down in advance." K 146 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT Colin handed him the lantern and stood at the top of 1 Colin handed him the lantern." the steps watching him slowly and cautiously descend. The light flickered upon the damp moss-grown stones of THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 147 the walls that formed the sides of the narrow stairway. It went down and down, growing gradually dimmer and dimmer, until at last it died away. The old grandfather and Colin waited, listening. They faintly heard the tread of the colonel's spurred boots echoing hollowly in the darkness. Once they heard him cough, and then all was silent. The minutes slowly passed. Sir Donald grew a trifle nervous, his nervousness being indicated by the im- patient tapping of his foot. " Listen ! " cried Colin. " I heard something fall something that rattled." He knelt dow r n and peered into the opening. " I hear him walking," he whispered. " He's coming nearer now. Now he has stopped. Now he is coming on again. He's on the stairs. He's carrying something that knocks against each step. I can see the reflection of the light now. And now here's the lantern." The boy drew back. " Mind your head, colonel, or you'll knock it," he cried. Colonel Ossington did not require the caution. Bend- ding his head, he crept upward, holding the lantern in his extended hand. Presently his face appeared in the aperture. It was ghastly white, and his eyes stared wildly. He drew a deep breath of the fresher air. " You had better come down," he said, glancing up at Sir Donald Leslie ; and drawing his left hand upward, he cast an old and rusty broadsword at the old man's feet. Sir Donald glanced at the weapon and kicked it aside. " Come ! " reiterated the colonel in a voice of authority, and the grandfather slowly obeyed. Colin followed him down the steps, although he was aware that he had not been included in the command. Perhaps he would have been wiser to remain where he was, but his boyish curiosity and love of adventure overcame his caution. Step by step they descended into the gloom. The air about them was damp and cold and stifling. The walls dripped with moisture. The stone stairs were slimy. Darkness hemmed 148 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT them in, saving only for a fitful glimmer of the lantern light that was below them. " Three steps more," Sir Donald," said the colonel, standing aside on the firm floor of what appeared to be an arched vault. He held the light aloft. " Now, follow me closely," he added ; " the passage turns sharply to the left. Be careful of the corner. I knocked my elbow against it just now. Is that the boy behind you ? " " Yes." " He ought not to have come. Never mind now ; let him follow close at your heels. Now halt and look down upon the floor while I hold the light." The colonel held out his free hand and gripped the older man's arm, directing his gaze into a narrow archway. "Those are the muskets," he said. "There are two hundred there. I have counted them." Colin crept up to his grandfather's side, holding him by the skirts of his coat. Looking into the archway he saw the neatly stacked-up guns, with their rusty barrels and locks and rotting stocks. The colonel drew his companions onward some three or four steps. " And here are the claymores," said he. " You see the rebels did not get them, after all." " No, Alan was true," murmured Sir Donald. " I felt sure he would frustrate their delivery. But " He gripped the soldier's arm and asked in a suppressed but eagerly acquisitive tone : " But where was the gold, colonel ? Did Neil take it all every guinea of it ? " The colonel held his lantern full in front of Sir Donald's face, which he regarded with an expression of undisguised contempt. " The gold,"" he answered, " was stored in the next vault. And," he added loftily, as he signed to Sir Donald to go past him, " I think you will find it all there still." THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 149 " The light ! the light ! " demanded Sir Donald. " Hold it nearer, that I may see." By the help of the lantern he made his way a few steps farther into the chamber. The yellow rays of light were cast into the low vault. On the floor of hewn rock were many little canvas bags, that were so rotten and mouldy that their sides had fallen away under the pressure of the golden guineas that they had contained. The gold glistened in the lantern light. With greedy outstretched hands, and with eyes staring wide with covetousness, Sir Donald leapt at the treasure. He plunged his fingers into the midst of the coins, lifting his filled hands, and letting the gold fall from them in a jingling shower. " Wonderful ! " he cried. " Ah ! now I am rich rich rich ! " He glanced behind him with shrinking, miserly fear. " It's mine all mine ! " he frenziedly ex- claimed, and proceeded eagerly to fill his pockets. Colonel Ossington lightly touched him on the shoulder. " Remember, my friend, that the money is Jacobite money," said he. " It was meant for the Pretender, you know." Sir Donald's coat-pockets were already full to over- flowing. " Meant for the Pretender ? " he repeated. Ah, but look ! look ! " he added, holding up one of the coins to the light, " every one of them bears the head of the King ! No ; do not go yet ! Let me have the lantern." "The money will not run away," remarked Colonel Ossington, passing on with the lantern. " You have found it, and may return when you will. And now, since we have solved the material part of the mystery, let us go further that you may understand its more human side." He led the way, with Colin at his side, and the grand- father was perforce obliged to follow. " There is something here that you must see," said the colonel, as, having turned a sharp angle in the passage, 150 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT he stood still, with his hat under his arm and holding the light in front of him so that its rays shot along the slimy floor. Wondering, Sir Donald and his grandson bent forward, searching into the gloom. Colin drew back as his eyes rested for a moment on something white. But he advanced again and timidly looked once more. His trembling ringer pointed down upon the floor at the gaunt, fleshless face and the tall form of a man that was partly hidden under mouldy folds of a Highland plaid and kilt. At the left shoulder there was a tarnished silver brooch, set in the centre with a dim yellow stone. The man lay flat on his back. His sword was in its scabbard at his side ; the blanched bones of his right hand still held the remains of one of the canvas money-bags. The gold guineas lay in a little pile beneath the long fingers. " He was carrying that bag of gold to give to the Prince's messenger," cried the boy Colin, aghast. " It is Neil Neil Leslie ! " "Yes," nodded Colonel Ossington. "And he must have been met just here by his murderer." "Neil?" echoed Sir Donald, reeling back; "my brother Neil ? Then he did not escape to France ? And he has been dead all this time ! " The old man shuddered. " Murdered, did you say ? But who could have murdered him down here ? Perhaps he died natu- rally. Perhaps he could not find his way out up those stairs and through the stone trap-door ! " " The trap-door could certainly be opened only from the outside," remarked the colonel. "This place was evidently built as a dungeon a prison from which it was not meant that any one should escape. But," he added solemnly, " Neil Leslie was not a prisoner. He probably left the door open, not expecting to be interrupted by the villain who drove that dagger into his honest heart. Do you see the dagger, Donald Leslie ? " He pointed to the dead man's breast, and brought the lantern nearer until Neil ? my brother Neil ? " 1 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT 153 its gleam fell upon the jewelled hilt of a Highland dirk. "You should recognise the weapon as I do. It used to hang under the painted portrait of the Lady Belinda. It is the same weapon that Alan Leslie carried away with him on the eve of Culloden fight." " I do not believe it ! " cried Sir Donald excitedly. " My brother Alan never was down here. He did not know of the existence of such a place, any more than I did until this hour. For all that you say I do not believe but that my brother Alan died like a brave man on Culloden Moor, fighting, I thank God, for the King ! " Colonel Ossington silently shook his head and turned away, carrying the lantern with him to the foot of the stairs by which the three had entered the dungeon. Here he stood, holding the lantern so that its light shone only directly in front of him. He confronted Sir Donald and Colin, the while he put his hand into his breast pocket, and drew something forth which he held out for the old man's inspection. " I found this on one of the upper stairs when I first entered," he said, holding the thing under the light. " It came off a soldier's regimental cap. It is the badge of the Fourth Foot. The man who wore it and who left it lying up there was a man whom I once called my friend ; but whom I now" know to have been a dis- honourable spy, an unscrupulous traitor, an assassin and a fratricide. When Neil Leslie came down here faith- fully to fulfil his father's instructions, he was dogged and followed by his brother. It was Alan Leslie who murdered him." " Then where is Alan now ? " interrupted Sir Donald. " Why did he never come home ? " " Because," answered the colonel, " when he came down here to kill his brother, he made the mistake of closing the trap-door behind him. He could not open it, he could not escape. He was imprisoned here with 154 THE BADGE OF THE FOURTH FOOT his dead victim. He may have starved ; he may have been suffocated by the smoke from the burning building above him that night when Hawley's dragoons set fire to the castle. However it was, he never left this place." The colonel moved aside, allowing the light to shine upon the dull red, mildewed cloth of a soldier's coat that covered the crouching figure of a man long dead. " That is what remains of Alan Leslie," he added grimly. He handed the lantern to Colin, bidding the lad hold it aloft. He knelt down. " When a soldier disgraces his regiment," he continued, " we usually remove the facings from his uniform. This man was not worthy to wear the uniform of so honoured a regiment as the Fourth Foot." " I think," remarked Colin, " that, rebel though he was, Neil Leslie was by far the better man." " I am sure of it, my boy," returned Colonel Ossington. A DANGEROUS GAME BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN Antlior of " Frank and Saxon" &c. &-c. CHAPTER I OH, bother the old books ! " And as if to bother them, though more likely to break their backs, Lance Penwith closed two with a sharp clap, rose from his seat at the table, and then, holding one flat in each hand, he walked round behind his cousin, who was bent over another, with his elbows on the study-table, a ringer in each ear, and his eyes shut as if to keep in the passage he was committing to memory. But the next moment he had started up, hurting his knees, and stood glaring angrily at Lance, who was roaring with laughter. For the hearty-looking sunburned boy had passed behind his fellow-student's chair with the intention of putting his books on one of the shelves, but seeing his opportunity, a grin of enjoyment lit up his face, and taking a step back, he stood just at his cousin's back, and brought the two books he carried together, cymbal fashion, but with all his might, and so close to the reader's head that the air was stirred and the sharp crack made him spring up in alarm. " What did you do that for ? " "To wake you up, Alfy. There, put 'em away now, and let's go down to the cliff." " And leave my lessons half done ? Don't you do 156 A DANGEROUS GAME that again. You won't be happy till I've given you a sound thrashing." " Shouldn't be happy then," said Lance, with a laugh ; " and besides, you couldn't do it, Alfy, my lad, without I lay down to let you." "What! I couldn't?" " Not you. Haven't got strength enough. Jolly old molly-coddle, why don't you come out and bathe and climb and fish ? " " And hang about the dirty old pilchard houses and among the drying hake, and mix with the rough old smugglers and wreckers." " How do you know they're smugglers and w r reckers ? " " Everybody says they are, and uncle would be terribly angry if I told him all I know about your goings on." " Tell him, then : I don't care. Father doesn't want me to spend all my time with my nose in a book, my eyes shut, and my ears corked up with fingers." " Uncle wants you to know what Mr. Grimston teaches us." " Course he does. Well, I know my bits." " You don't : you can't. You haven't been at work an hour." "Yes, I have; we sat down at ten, and it's a quarter past eleven, and I know everything by heart. Now, then, you listen." " Go on, then," cried the other. " Not likely. I've done. Come on and let's do some- thing. The rain's all gone off and it's lovely out." " There, I knew you didn't," cried the other. " You can't have learned it all. And look here, if you do that again I shall certainly report it to uncle." "Very well, report away, sneaky. Now then, will you come ? We'll get Old Poltree's boat and make Hezz come and row." A DANGEROUS GAME 157 The student reseated himself, frowning, and bent over his book again. " Look here," cried his cousin, " I'll give you one more chance. Will you come ? " No answer. " One more chance. Will you come ? " " Will you leave off interrupting me ? ' cried the other furiously. " Certainly, sir. Very sorry, sir. Hope you will enjoy yourself, sir. Poor old Alf ! He'll want specs soon." Then pretending great alarm, the speaker darted out into the hall, and thrust his head through a door on the right, which he half opened, and stood looking in at a slightly grey-haired lady who was bending over her work. " Going out, mother," he said. The lady looked up and smiled pleasantly. " Don't be late for dinner, my dear. Two o'clock punctually, mind." " Oh, I shall be back," said the boy, laughing. " And don't do anything risky by the cliff." " Oh no, I'll mind." The boy closed the door and crossed the hall, just as a shadow darkened the porch, and a tall, bluff-looking man entered. "Hullo, you, sir!" he cried; "how is it you are not at your studies ? Going out ? " " Yes, father ; down to the shore a bit. Done lessons." " Why don't you take your cousin with you ? " " Won't come, father. I did try." It was only about half a mile to the cliff, where a few fishermen's cottages stood on shelves of the mighty granite walls which looked as if they had been built up of blocks by the old Cornish ogres, weeded out by the celebrated Jack the Giant-killer ; and here Lance made his way to where 158 A DANGEROUS GAME in front of one long whitewashed granite cot, perched a hundred feet above the shore, there was a long protecting rail formed of old spars planted close to the edge of the cliff, just where a tiny river discharged itself into the sea. This opened sufficiently to form a little harbour for half-a-dozen fishing luggers, the rocks running out suffi- ciently to act as a breakwater and keep off the huge billows which at times came rolling in from the south-west, so that on one side of the cliffs lay piled up a slope of wave- washed and rounded boulders, many as big as great Cheshire cheeses, while on the other, where the luggers lay, there were pebbles and sand. Upon this rail four men were leaning with folded arms, apparently doing nothing but stare out at the bright, clear sea ; but every eye was keenly on the look-out for one of those dark-cloud, shadow-like appearances on the surface which to them meant money and provisions. But there was no sign of fish breaking the surface of the water, and as Lance approached he had a good view of four immense pairs of very thick flannel trousers, whose bottoms were tucked into as many huge boots, which, instead of being drawn well up their owners' thighs, hung in folds about their ankles, and glittered in the sunshine, where they were well specked with bright fish scales. Higher up Lance looked upon four pairs of very short braces, hitched over big bone buttons, and holding the aforesaid trousers close up under their wearers' armpits. The rest of the costume consisted of caps, home-made, and of fur formerly worn by unfortunate seals which had come too near a boat instead of seeking safety in one of the wave-washed caves round the point. " Hi ! Old Poltree !" shouted Lance, as he drew near, " where's Hezz ? " The broadest man present raised his head a little, screwed it round, and unfolding his arms, set one at liberty to give three thrusts downward of a hand which was of the same A DANGEROUS GAME 159 colour as all that could be seen of a very hairy face mahogany. "Thankye," shouted Lance, turning off to the left, and the big man folded his arms again and looked seaward, the others not having stirred. Lance's turn to the left led him to a steep descent all zigzag a way to the shore that a stranger would have attacked like a bear and gone down backwards ; but Lance was no stranger, and the precipitous nature of the way did not deter him, for he descended in a series of jumps from stone to stone, till he finished with a drop of about ten or a dozen feet into a bed of sand lying at the mouth of a wave-scooped hollow, from which came strange moans and squeaks, the latter painfully shrill, the former deepen- ing at times into a roar. The said stranger would have imagined that a person had fallen from the cliff and was lying somewhere below, badly broken and wanting help ; but there was nothing the matter. It was only Hezz, or more commonly " Hez- zerer," in three syllables, and he had been busy at work putting a patch on the bottom of a clumsy upturned boat which, as he put it, " lived in the cave," and he was now daubing his new patch with hot tar from a little three- legged iron kettle held in his left hand. But this does not account for the groans and squeaks. These were produced from the youth's throat. In fact, Hezz was singing over his work, though it did not sound very musical at the time, for something was broken ; but it was only Hezz's voice, and it was only the previous night that Old Poltree, his father, had said to Billy Poltree, another of the big fisherman's offspring, " Yo' never know wheer to have him now, my son : one minute he's hoarse as squire's Devon bull, and next he's letting go like the pig at feeding time." At the sound of the dull thuds made by Lance's feet in the sand, Hezz Poltree whisked himself round and 160 A DANGEROUS GAME held his tar-kettle and brush out like a pair of balances to make him turn, and showed a good-looking young mahogany face that is to say, it was paler than his father's, and not so ruddy and polished. " Hullo, Master Lance," he said, widening his mouth and showing his white teeth, joining in the laughter as the visitor threw himself down on the sand and roared. " Whisked himself round and held his tar-kettle and brush out like a pair of balances. 7 ' " I can't help it, Master Lance." " Try again," cried the new-comer, wiping the tears from his eyes. " I do try," growled the boy, beginning once more in a deep bass, and then ending in a treble squeak. " There's somethin' got loose in my voice. 'Tarn't my fault. S'pose it's a sort o' cold." " Never mind, gruff un. But I didn't know the boat A DANGEROUS GAME 161 was being mended. I wanted to go out fishing, and the pitch isn't dry." "That don't matter," growled Hezz, setting down his kettle and brush, and catching up a couple of handfuls of dry sand, which he dashed over the shiny tar. Come on." Lance came on in the way of helping to turn the clumsy boat over on its keel ; then it was spun round so as to present its bows to the sea ; a block was placed underneath, another a little way off, and the two boys skilfully ran it down the steep sandy slope till it was half afloat, when they left it while they went back to the natural boat-house for the oars, hitcher, and tackle. " Got any bait ? " said Lance. " Heaps," came in a growl. Then in a squeak " Thought you'd come down, so I got some wums lugs and rags, and there's four broken pilchards in the maund, and a couple o' dozen sand-eels in the coorge out yonder by the buoy." " Are there any bass off the point ? " " Few. Billy saw some playing there 'smorning, but p'raps they won't take." " Never mind ; let's try," said Lance eagerly. " Look sharp ; I must be back in time for dinner." " Lots o' time," growled Hezz, as he loaded himself up with the big basket, into which he had tumbled the coarse brown lines and receptacles of bait, including a scaly piece of board with four damaged pilchards laid upon it and a sharp knife stuck in the middle. " You carry the oars and boat-hook," came in a squeak. They hurried down to the boat, and were brought back to the knowledge that four pairs of eyes were watch- ing them from a hundred feet overhead, by Old Poltree roaring out as if addressing some one a mile at sea " You stopped that gashly leak proper, my son ? " " Iss, father," cried Hezz, in a shrill squeak, as he dumped down his load. L 162 A DANGEROUS GAME Lance thrust in the oars and hitcher and sprang in, after giving the boat a thrust ; and as a little wave came in and floated her, Hezz ran her out a bit farther and sprang in too, thrust an oar over the stern, and sculled the craft out, fish-tail fashion, to where a black keg did duty for a buoy. Here he kept the boat's head while Lance leaned over the side to unhitch a piece of line and draw a spindle-shaped wicker basket along the side to the stern, where he made it fast to a ring bolt, the movement sending a score or so of eely-looking silvery fish gliding over one another and flashing by the thin osiers of which the basket was formed. Then each seized an oar and pulled right away to get round the rocky buttress which was continued outward in a few detached rocks, that stood up boldly, to grow smaller farther out, and farther, till only showing as sub- merged reefs over which the sea just creamed and foamed. It was out here that the tide ran swiftly, a favourite spot for the bass to play, and as they approached the familiar spot Lance handed his oar to his sturdy com- panion, while he took one of the lines, laid the hook and lead ready, and then drew the coorge in, opened a wicker trap-door in the top, inserted his hand, closed the lid again, and with deft fingers hooked the silvery writhing fish, popped it overboard, and let the line run out with the tide, while Hezz kept the boat carefully, as nearly as he could, in one place. " There they are, Master Lance," he cried. " Be on the look-out ; they'll take that bait pretty sharp perhaps." The lad was quite right, for hardly five minutes had elapsed before there was a snatch at the line, and some- thing was hooked. " Got him ! " cried Lance, whose face was glowing with excitement. " Oh, why didn't Alfy come ? I say, Hezz, he's a whopper. He does pull. Shall I let him run ? " A DANGEROUS GAME 163 " Gahn ! no. Haul him in fast as you can, 'fore he gets off." The tackle was coarse and strong, and there was no scientific playing attempted. It was plain, straightforward pully-hauly work, and in a very short time the trans- parent water astern seemed to be cut into flashing streaks by something silvery which was drawn in hand over hand, till, just as Lance was leaning over to get his fingers close to the end of the snood where the hook was tied, the water was splashed up into his face, and he sat up with a cry of disappointment, seeing only a streak of silver flashing in the sunshine, for the fish had gone. " Never mind : bait again," squeaked Hezz. " Bait again," cried Lance, imitating him. " What ! with that hook ? Look at it. Nearly straightened out. I wish you wouldn't have such nasty soft-roed things. Why, that was a fifteen pounder." " Take another hook, Master Lance. Look sharp ; look at 'em playing." Lance put on a fresh hook, baited again, and sent the sand-eel gliding off along the rushing tide, which played among the rocks like a mill-stream, and waited excitedly for another snatch, but waited in, vain. " Don't pull," he said at last ; " let the boat run out a bit." Hezz obeyed, cleverly managing so that the boat glided slowly after the bait in the direction of the broken water where the shoal of bass could be seen feeding ; but they got no nearer, for so sure as the boat went farther from land, so did the fish, and in spite of fresh and tempt- ing baits being tried there was no seizure made. " That there one as got away has told all the others to look out," said Hezz, with a chuckle. " You won't get another bite." " Stuff and nonsense ! Just as if fish could talk ! Let's go out farther." 164 A DANGEROUS GAME The boat glided on, with the current growing less swift, and at last Lance drew in his line, sat down, and between them they rowed slowly in against the sharp current. " It's no good now," said Hezz. " Let's go along yonder by the mouth of the caves, and try for a pollack among the rocks. If we don't get one we may ketch a rock-fish or two." " Or a conger in one of the deep holes." "Nay, you won't ketch none o' them till it's getting dark." " Dark enough in the holes," said Lance. " Very well ; you try." So the boat was rowed out of the sharp current, and then away towards the west under the cliffs, and about a hundred yards from the shore, where the tide ran slowly. Here Lance gave up his oar and began to fish again, try- ing first one and then another kind of bait, but with no greater result than catching a grey gurnard "tub" Hezz called it and soon after a couple of gaily-coloured wrasse, not worth having. " Oh, this is miserable work ! " cried the boy, drawing in his line and covering 4 large hook with half a pilchard. " Pull a little farther along, and I'll throw out in that dark quiet part. There'll be a conger there, I know." Hezz uttered a croak, and his eyes said plainly, "No conger there " ; but he rowed to the spot, which was where a rock rose up out of the water like a little island, on which a dusky cormorant which had been fishing sat drying its wet wings, paying no heed to the approaching boat till it was some twenty yards away, when the bird took flight and went off close to the surface. " Now put her just in yonder," said Lance, " and be as gentle as you can, so as to keep her there without splashing." Hezz obeyed cleverly enough ; and his companion, after A DANGEROUS GAME 167 seeing that the line lay in rings free from obstruction, sent the heavy sinker and bait right away to where the water looked blackest, making Hezz chuckle loudly. " What are you laughing at ? " " You : telling me to be- so quiet, and sending the lead in with a splash like that." " Don't matter ; it's only at the top. The fish deep down won't notice it. Look ! it is deep too," for the line went on running out as the lead descended, and Lance seated himself to wait, with a self-satisfied look upon his countenance. " I like fishing in the still water," he said. " You see if I don't soon get hold of something big." " P'raps," said Hezz ; " but I never caught anything here." "Ah, you don't know everything. I say, what's that vessel out yonder ? " " Chasse-mare'e," said Hezz, shading his eyes to look at the long three-masted lugger with a display of interest. " No, no ; the one with all the white sails set." " Rev'nue cutter," said Hezz shortly ; and proof of his words was given the next minute, for there was a white puff of smoke seen to dart out from her bows, and a dull thud echoed from the cliff. " Why, she's after that long lugger. She's a smuggler," cried Lance excitedly. " Is there going to be a fight ? " " Na-a-a-a-y ! " growled Hezz. " She's only fishing." " How do you know ? She's a smuggler, and there'll be a fight. Let's row out and see." But in obedience to the summons the long low vessel glided slowly round till her brown sails began to shiver and flap, and as the boys watched they saw the cutter run pretty close up, and a small boat was lowered and rowed across. " They're French, and cowards," cried Lance, who was deeply interested. " They've surrendered without striking a blow." 1 68 A DANGEROUS GAME "Arn't got nothing to strike blows with," croaked Hezz sulkily. " Didn't I tell you she was a fishing- boat ? " " Oh, yes ; but I know what fishing-boats catch some- times, Master Hezz," said Lance, laughing, his companion looking at him curiously the while "brandy snappers, 'bacco biters, and lace-fins, Hezz. But they're French cowards, or they'd have made a run of it. I say, they'll make her a prize, and take her into port. Where will they take her -Plymouth or Falmouth ? " " Nowheres. They'll let her go." The lads sat watching till all at once in the distance they saw the little boat row back, and the sails of the chasse-tnaree began to fill. " Who's right now ? " said Hezz, laughing. " I am. They've put a prize crew on board." " What ! out of that little boat ? " squeaked Hezz. " That they haven't. There was five in her when she put put off, and there's five in her now." " You can't see at this distance." " Can't I ? That I can, quite plain." " That's upset all my fishing," said Lance, " and it's getting on for dinner-time. Oh, what bad luck I do have ! " " You ketch lots sometimes, and you did nearly get a fine bass to-day. That was a good twelve-pounder." " Twelve ? Fifteen," said Lance, preparing to haul in his line. " P'raps," said Hezz. " Going to try any more ? " " No ; I mustn't be late for Oh, look here ! I've got one on." For the line was tight, and as Lance began to haul, it was against a heavy persistent drag. " Lead caught in the rocks," croaked Hezz contemp- tuously. " Oh, is it ! Look here ! It's coming up." A DANGEROUS GAME 169 " Weed, then," squeaked Hezz. " "Tisn't," cried Lance ; " I know by the heavy, steady pull. It's a big conger." " No congers there." " How do you know ? " "And if there were they wouldn't bite at this time of day." " You mind your own business," cried Lance excitedly. " It's a thumping big one, and he isn't awake yet to his being hooked. He's coming, and he'll begin to make a rush directly to get in his hole. You begin rowing, and get him right out away from the rocks." Hezz did as he was told, but only made two or three strokes and then stopped, for his companion had to give line. " Slower," said Lance, panting, as he held on again. " Wait till he makes a rush. I say, did you bring the big gaff hook ? " " No ; but that line '11 hold any conger you can catch, and I've got the little chopper in the locker when he comes on board. But that isn't a conger." " Tis, I tell you. I can feel him trying to get back. What is it, then ? " " Weed," croaked Hezz in his deep bass. " You're a weed ! It's a big conger, and he has got his tail round a rock or in a hole." " Let him go, then." " What ? Why he'd shuffle back into his hole, and I should lose him. Wait till he gets a bit tired and gives way a bit." " Let go, and if it's a conger he'll slack the line and come swimming up to see what's the matter. But you've only hooked a weed." " Ha ! ha ! " laughed Lance. " You're a clever one, Hezz. Look, he's coming up quite steady ; " and the boy drew in a couple of yards of line. 1 7 o A DANGEROUS GAME " It arn't a conger, or he'd begin to cut about now and shake his head to get riddy of the hook." "Then it's some other big fish. Think it's a shark." " No. What would a shark be doing there ? " " I dunno ; but he's coming up. I say, put down the oars." Hezz nodded, laid in his oars, and stood close behind his companion, gradually growing as excited for a minute or so, and then grinning. " It arn't no fish," he said. " It is, I tell you," cried Lance, as he kept up a steady haul, the boat having yielded till it was exactly over the line. " I never see a fish take it so quiet as that," continued Hezz. " It's only till he sees us, and then he'll make a desperate rush to get away." " I'll be ready for him," said Hezz, laughing softly, as he gently rested the handle of the boat-hook on the side, thrusting it out towards the tightened line, which still came slowly in, though the strain threatened to make it part. " Hope it will be good to eat, Master Lance." " I know what it is," cried the boy, in a low hoarse voice. " It's one of those great cuttles, the same as were washed on shore after last year's storm. It will come up all of a lump, with its feelers and suckers twisted round the line." A sudden change came over Hezz. Instead of grin- ning, his face turned preternaturally solemn, and taking his right hand from the boat-hook he thrust it into his pocket, drew out a big jack-knife, to open it by seizing the blade in his teeth. " That's right," whispered Lance, husky now with the excitement ; " but don't use the knife if you can get a good hold with the hook. Look, look, here it comes ! Oh, it is a monster ! " A DANGEROUS GAME 171 A vigorous cut divided the fishing-line." The boy had been steadily hauling till he had brought his capture nearly to the surface, and he now 1 72 A DANGEROUS GAME caught sight of what seemed to be its curved and rounded body. " Now, Hezz quick ! down with the hook. Get a good hold at once. Snatch, lad, snatch ! " But at the crucial moment, when the dark back of the monster slowly rolled up to the surface, Hezz dropped the boat-hook, leaned over the side, hindering his com- panion's view, and plunged his knife-armed hand down under water. The next moment there was a slight jar which ran from Lance's fingers right up his arms, the tension ceased, and a yard or two of the stout fishing-line flew up in the holder's face. For, as if to save his companion from some danger, Hezz had reached down as low as he could, and with a vigorous cut divided the fishing-line, so that the dark round body sank down again like a shadow, leaving the two lads gazing fiercely at each other. " Oh, I say ! " cried Lance. " Only to think of that ! Why, Hezz, it's " " Never you mind what it is," said the boy roughly. " And you knew it was, then ? " "Swears I didn't," said the boy fiercely. "Think I should have let you fish there if I had knowed ? " " Why, there must have been a whole string of 'em tied together on a line and sunk there." " You don't know nothing of the sort," growled Hezz. " You didn't see." " I saw one ; and another coming like a shadow." " No, you didn't." " Yes, I did brandy kegs smuggled. Here, I'll hail the cutter." " No, you don't," said Hezz fiercely ; and as he stood with the knife in his hand he looked threatening. "They couldn't hear you if you did." " Then I'll make signals." A DANGEROUS GAME 173 " No, you won't. I shan't let you, and you wouldn't be such a sneak, Master Lance." " It isn't the act of a sneak." " Yes, it is. Your cousin would, but you wouldn't get poor men into trouble." That hit hard, and Lance hesitated. "Why, it must be your father's and your brother's doing. And just under our noses too ! Oh, what a dis- graceful shame ! There, Hezz, I've done with you." " 1 didn't know about it, Master Lance." " You must have known." " Wish I may die if I did. There ! " " Take the oars, Hezz," said Lance coldly. " But, Master Lance " Take the oars," said Lance sternly. " I want to go home." " To tell Squire Penwith what you've seen ? O Master Lance ! you don't know what you're going to do." " No," said Lance sternly, as the lad took the oars and began to row back, " I don't." " You make me feel as if I'd sooner kill you than you should do this. It means having my poor father took up and sent out of the country, and p'raps he didn't know the kegs was hid like that." " Go on rowing, I tell you," cried Lance sharply, " make haste. Pull ! do you hear ? Pull ! " Hezz uttered a low sound something like a gulp, and dragged away at the oars with all his might till he ran the boat on to the sands, where Lance was perfectly aware, though he would not look up, that the four big fishermen were still leaning over the rail and looking out to sea, and he expected to hear a cheery question as to sport as he hurried up over the sands and began to climb the zigzag. But no hail came, for the men's eyes were bent upon the revenue cutter, a mile away, watching every movement of that and the chasse-mare'e. i 7 4 A DANGEROUS GAME At least so thought Lance Penwith as he hurried home, pondering upon his cousin's words, and asking himself whether he was not doing wrong by associating with these fisher-folk on the cliff. " I must tell father," he said to himself. " I ought to tell him," he said ; and then he began thinking of what it meant, the severe punishment of pretty well every man in the cluster of cottages, some being sent to prison, the younger men to serve in King George's men-of-war ; and ever since he could remember, they had all been to him the kindest friends. CHAPTER II " I CAN'T help it," said Lance to himself, after a weary sleepless night ; " I don't feel as if I could go and tell tales. I'm not sure ; and if I was wrong, and these men were punished for what they did not do, I should never be happy again." Lance had made up his mind that he would have no more to do with the people down by the cliff, for he felt now that they were not honest. But there was a bitter feeling of disappointment in coming to this resolve ; for it had been so pleasant to get away from the refinements of home with its choice cookery, plate, glass, and fine linen, to the boisterous welcome he always had at Old Poltree's neat cottage. How delicious the baked hake was, and how luscious the conger pie ! though they were as nothing to the split and grilled fish he caught him- self ; and Hezz's mother was always ready to cook for the two boys. And now it was all over ; but still he might go and climb to the steep edge, from whence he could look down on the whitewashed cottages, the busy harbour, and the boats. A DANGEROUS GAME 175 This he did, and grew quite excited as he saw that the revenue cutter was lying off the point, a couple of miles out, as if watching the place. " Poor old Hezz ! " he said to himself bitterly, " I hope they will not take him." Then incongruously enough he smiled as he thought of the boy's breaking voice. "They'd laugh at him if they heard him croak and squeak as he does now, and perhaps let him off because he's only a boy. But it would be horrible for the other men. " Why, father's a magistrate too," said the lad suddenly, " and he'd be with the others who punished them for smuggling if it was found out. Oh, I can't go and tell what I know ! It would be horrid." Lance lay there upon the warm cliff for some time thinking, and then he started and looked down, wondering at what was to him quite a marvel. For there, moving slowly, about a hundred feet below him, was his cousin, threading his way amongst the masses of granite tangled with brambles, in a part where there was no path, nothing more than a faint track or two made by the grazing sheep, and it seemed unaccountable. " What's he doing there ? " muttered Lance. " He must be looking for me. Well, let him look. I don't want him. If I shout to him he'll only come and begin to preach at me in his pompous way. When I'm in a good temper it only makes me laugh ; but I'm in a bad temper now, and if he begins I shall feel as if I must punch his head." So Lance lay and watched, making unpleasant re- marks the while, all of a derisive nature. He watched till Alfred had disappeared beyond the chaos of rocks which had fallen from above, and at last he strolled back home, forgetting all about his cousin till he took his place at the luncheon-table, and felt surprised to see him there, 176 A DANGEROUS GAME looking quite cool and as if he had passed the morning reading in the shade. There was another surprise for Lance before he left the table, the squire letting fall the announcement that Cap- tain Barry was going to dine there at six o'clock that evening. " So you boys will have to put on your best manners." " Who's Captain Barry, father ? " "To speak correctly, he is Lieutenant Barry, my boy, and is in command of the revenue cutter lying on and off. They are giving us all a good hunt up, for he tells me that there has been a great deal of smuggling carried on along this coast ; but I told him the only smuggling about here is the smuggling of fish." Lance felt that the tips of his ears turned hot, and thought that they must be red. He knew that this was the opportunity for telling all he had found out, but some- how the words would not come. The officer was rowed ashore from the cutter that evening, and the squire had walked down to the tiny harbour, with the two boys, to meet him, and find him a frank, pleasant, middle-aged man, who, for some reason, had never been promoted. He shook hands, and Lance turned scarlet, and then glanced shoreward, to see that Hezz was busy turning the clumsy boat half inside the cavern, and that the big trousers and boots were up on the shelf, while the men inside them seemed to be gazing out to sea in search of a coming shoal. The officer was very pleasant and frank during his stay. He chatted with the boys and asked them if they would like to go to sea ; but somehow he found Lance dull and glum, and the boy's father bantered him that night after the visitor had gone back to the cutter. A DANGEROUS GAME 177 CHAPTER III A WEEK had glided by, and fishing was in full progress below the cliff. Hezz and his people had enclosed a small shoal of mackerel in their seine, and at another time Lance would have been in the thick of the business, revelling in seeing the line of corks drawn in closer and closer till the shoal was dashing about seeking for a way of escape, before the tuck net was brought to bear, and the arrowy wave and ripple -marked fish were ladled out in baskets. Lance had watched the movements of the cutter anxiously while she stayed off the point ; but one fine day she had glided away west with all sail set to the light breeze, and the boy breathed more freely. Then the days passed and nothing seemed to happen, except that when Lance went along the high cliffs, climb- ing from place to place till he settled himself down in some snug rift where he could scan the sea and note what was going on in the cove below, to see if there was any sign of smuggling, he found that his cousin came cautiously along no less than three times, and the boy laughed to himself from his hiding-place. " He's watching me to see if I go down and join Hezz. How can any one be such a sneak ? " Lance often mused after this fashion as the days slipped by ; but he kept away from the people down by the cliff, in spite of a wistful look or two he caught from Hezz, who came up to the house several times to sell fish. " No," Lance said firmly, " I haven't told tales ; but ! won't have anything to do with smugglers." One fine afternoon soon after dinner Lance saw his cousin go into the study and take down a book, rest his head on his hands, and begin to read. Lance had followed him to propose that they should M 178 A DANGEROUS GAME go inland and have a ramble in the woods, but his cousin's action checked him. " It's of no use," he said ; " he wouldn't come." So the lad went off till he reached one of his favourite look-outs, just by a rift overgrown with brambles, where, when the tide was up, the whispering and washing of water could be heard, showing that one of the many caverns and cracks along the bold coast ran in a great way. " Wish I knew which of them belonged to this," he had more than once said ; and upon this particular occa- sion as he seated himself he began listening to the strange whispering sounds. " I meant to have tried to find this out," he said, " along with Hezz. Why, I did say something about it once, and he only laughed and said it was a land-spring. Well, I can't get the boat now." Somehow the place had a strange fascination for him that day, and after looking about a bit he picked up a piece of mossy granite as big as his head and pitched it among the bramble growth and ferns just where the whispering washing sound could be faintly heard. To his surprise there was the fluttering of wings, and a jackdaw flew out and away. " Nest there," he muttered ; but his thoughts were divided by hearing the stone he had pitched down strike heavily, sending up a hollow sound ; and directly after it struck again more loudly, and all was still. He was in the act of rising to examine the spot, but he sank down directly, ducking his head behind a great tuft of ragwort. " Well, he is a sneak," he muttered. He sat close, and Alfred passed about twenty yards below, going on cautiously away to the right, and passing out of sight. Lance sighed, rose, and looked away to the west ; A DANGEROUS GAME 179 but there was no sign of his cousin, so he walked back home. The night came on soft and calm, and after sitting reading a hit, and going over some translation ready for the vicar next day, Lance looked up, to see that he was alone, so putting away his books he strolled out on to the big sloping lawn to where he could see the sea ; but it looked quite dark and forbidding, and the stars were half hidden by a haze. Still it was very pleasant out there, and after a time he turned to look back at the house with its light or two in the windows of the ground-floor, while everything else looked black, till all at once a little window high up in the centre gable of the old Elizabethan place shone out brightly with a keen steady bluish light which lasted while he could have counted twenty, and then all was blacker than ever. "Why, it's a firework," said Lance to himself. "It must be Alf." He had hardly thought this when the light shone out again, burned brightly for a time, and once more went out, leaving the boy wondering, till it once again blazed out sharply, and left all blacker than ever. Lance's mind was just as black and dark, for he could make nothing of it. Alfred was not likely to be letting off fireworks. What could it mean ? Coming to the conclusion that his cousin had been amusing himself in some way or another connected with chemistry, he stood thinking for a minute and then went in, to find the object of his thoughts sitting by his aunt's side talking quietly, while the squire seemed engrossed in a book. " Well, perhaps you had better," said Mrs. Penwith. " There's nothing like bed for a bad sick headache." The boy sighed, said good-night, and went up to his room. " He had too long a walk to-day," said Mrs. Penwith, 180 A DANGEROUS GAME " and the sun upset him. By the way, Lance, your cousin complains about your being given to avoiding him. Do, pray, put aside all sulkiness and be more brotherly." "Why, it is Alf, mother, who never will come out with me." " There, there, say no more about it," said Mrs. Pen- with gently. " You know I wish you to be brotherly, so do try." Lance felt too much aggrieved to say anything, and sat in moody silence till it was bed-time, when he said "good-night" and went to his own room, thinking the while about those lights. There he lay, thinking and listening for above an hour, during which he heard the various sounds in the house of the servants shutting up and going to bed, and soon after his father and mother's room door closed, and he settled down to go to sleep. He might as well have settled down to keep awake, for he turned and twisted, and got out of bed to drink water, and got in again. Then he turned the pillow and tried that. Next he threw off the quilt because he was too hot. And so on, and so on, till he sat up to try and face the question which haunted his brain : What did those lights in the little upper window mean ? " It's of no use," said the boy at last. " I shall never go to sleep till I know." He sprang out of bed and dressed himself, and then stood thinking. Did he dare go up in the dark to that little room in the roof and see whether he could find out anything ? Yes ; and while the exaltation of brain was upon him, he softly opened his door, went out into the broad passage, and along it to the end where the little oak staircase led up to the three attic-like places in the three gables, rooms that were only used for lumber and stores. The boy's heart beat heavily as he went up in his stockings, and twice over when a board cracked he was " A signal ! came the next moment in answer.' A DANGEROUS GAME 183 ready to rush back to his room ; but he forced himsel into going on, and stood at last at the centre door of the three, feeling that if he hesitated now he should never do it. So pushing the door it yielded, and he nearly darted back, for there was a peculiar sulphury smell in the dark room. But Lance had made fireworks in his time, especially blue lights, and the smell was just the same as that, and he no longer felt scared, for the thought flashed across his brain that some one had burned some pieces of blue light there, and if such were the case there would be something on the window-sill on which they had been burned. He stepped boldly in, and there, sure enough, he found what he expected a little piece of sheet-iron about half the size of a slate. But what for ? A signal ! came the next moment in answer ; and wildly excited now, he stepped back across the room, descended the stairs and went to the door of his cousin's chamber, tried the door softly, found it yield, and entered. The bed was empty, and quite cold. CHAPTER IV A FEW moments elapsed, and then it was Lance who had turned quite cold. For his brain was wonderfully active now, as he seemed to grasp as facts that his cousin had not been watching him on the cliff, but had found out something about the smugglers and was watching them. Then, too, he recalled how friendly he had been with the captain of the revenue cutter, and how they had talked together. This, then, was the meaning of the signal : Alf had found out something of course ; a long low chassc-niare'e 184 A DANGEROUS GAME had been lying off that day, he recalled, and the signal lights had been meant for the cutter, which must have crept in at dusk, and for aught he knew the King's men might be landing, in answer to the signals, to catch the fishermen and smugglers in the very act of landing a cargo. Right or wrong, Lance paused to think no more. It was a time to act and try and warn his old friends. How could Alf be such a sneak ? Quickly and silently he stepped out and back to his own room, put on his boots, opened the window and lowered himself down the heavy trellis, reached the lawn, and ran to get to the zigzag and reach Old Poltree's cottage on the ledge. "I'll tell Hezz," he said to himself "just say the King's men are out, and then get back." It is easier to make plans than to carry them out. When Lance reached the long whitewashed cottage, meaning to knock till Hezz came to his window, he was caught by a strong hand, wrenched round, and a hoarse voice said in a whisper " Who's this ? " " I Lance, Mother Poltree. I came to tell you I'm afraid the King's men are coming to-night." " Whish ! " she said, as she clapped another great hand over his mouth. " Who told tales you ? " " No, no, I wouldn't." "Whish! they're coming," she cried, as she stood listening. " They came after you." " I I didn't know," whispered Lance, as he made out steps descending the zigzag, showing that he was only just in time, for whoever it was had been close behind. "This way," said the old woman sternly, and all thought of retreat was cut off, for she held the boy's arm firmly and hurried him to the end of the cottage and across the patch of garden. " For there below him, lit up by a few lanterns, he could make out the hull of a great lugger." A DANGEROUS GAME 187 The way was new to Lance, and thoroughly excited now, he allowed the sturdy old woman to half guide, half thrust him along, till the way was so narrow along the steep cliff slope that at her bidding he went on first, with the consequence that more than once he lost his footing, and would have fallen from the narrow track but for the help he received. At one time they were ascending as if to climb to the cliff top, then down, and up again, till at the end of a few hundred yards a rift was reached, down which the old woman hurried the lad, uttering a peculiar hissing sound the while, which quite changed the aspect of the scene which had unfolded itself to Lance's astonished gaze. For there below him, lit up by a few lanterns, he could make out the hull of a great lugger, lying in the jaws of the rift down which they were hurrying, while men were wading waist-deep to and fro those going out to the lugger's side empty-handed, these coming bearing bales and kegs, which they carried to a low rocky archway, so low that it must have been covered when the tide was up, while now they stooped and passed in their loads to other hands, which seized them and bore them away. At the warning hiss uttered by the old fisherwoman the work ceased, and as a man, evidently the captain, swung himself down into the water, Old Poltree, his sons, and another man crept out from beneath the rugged archway. Few words were spoken. The captain of the lugger gave an order or two, splashed through the water with his men, and climbed on board, where the lanterns were extinguished, hitchers and sweeps thrust forth on either side, and the English fishermen waded out to put their shoulders to the stern of the boat and help to thrust her out into the open water. Their help did not last, for the water deepened rapidly and the great lugger was well on the move, and unless 1 88 A DANGEROUS GAME the boats of the revenue cutter were waiting for them her safety was assured. The danger was from the shore for those who had been breaking the laws. " This your doing, young gen'leman ? " growled Old Poltree fiercely, approaching Lance. " No ! " cried the boy eagerly. " Nay, no lies, my lad. The French skipper saw three lights, and he thought it was our doing. You did it to bring 'em on." " Indeed, no ! " cried Lance. " I saw them too, and as soon as I guessed what it meant I ran down to warn you ; didn't I, Mother Poltree ? " " Iss, my son. You're wrong, old man, it was t'other youngster. I told you he was after no good." " Then it warn't you, Master Lance ? " squeaked a voice. " Hooroar ! " " You hold your row, Hezzerer," growled his father ; and then quickly, " Look, they've found the way down. Someun's showing 'em with a light." His gruff voice was evidently heard, for from where the dull yellow light of a horn lantern shone at the top of the gash in the massive cliff a stern voice shouted " Surrender, in the King's name, or we fire." " Fire away, then," muttered Old Poltree. " Tide'll be up soon. In with you, my lads. In with you, missus, for you can't get back now." " Come along, Master Lance," whispered Hezz, who had crept close to his old companion. " No, no ! " cried Lance, aghast. " I'm not coming with you ; I must go back." " Nay, my son ; you can't now," growled Old Poltree. "In with you ; " and he dragged the boy down into the water and gave him a thrust, while as Lance indignantly raised his head again to rush back, he saw by the light of a single lantern held by one of the men that he was in a spacious water-floored cavern which evidently extended A DANGEROUS GAME 189 for some distance ; but what interested him most in his awkward position was the sight of the big old man on one side of the exit, his eldest son on the other, each armed with a piece of broken oar, ready to defend the natural door against all comers. "Right away with that light," growled the old man, and its bearer splashed through the water farther and farther away. " Come on, Master Lance," whispered Hezz, catching him by the arm. " Let go," cried the boy angrily. " I will not be taken with you." " Nay, you shan't be, young Master Lance," whispered the old woman. " My Hezz'll show you the way out, while my old man keeps the sailors back till the tide's up and they can't get in." " Yes, that's right, Master Lance," whispered Hezz, and the boy unwillingly followed the lantern-bearer till at the end of a hundred yards the water had ceased and they were walking over the dry rocky bottom of the rapidly-contracting cave, where Lance noticed that a heap of casks and bales had been hurriedly piled up. And now from behind him there came the shouts of men and the noise of heavy blows and splashing ; but neither of those with him seemed in the least disturbed, Hezz even chuckling and saying " It's all right, old mother ; father won't let no one pass. I say, we shall have to haul you up." "'Fraid so, my son," said the old woman. "I'm too heavy to clamber now." A wild feeling of excitement pervaded Lance all this time, mingled with indignation at what he mentally called his cousin's treachery. But he felt better at the thought that he was to escape, for the idea of being captured with the smugglers was horrible. And now his attention was taken up by the move- i 9 o A DANGEROUS GAME ments of Hezz, who, while the man held the lantern up, took a coil of rope from where it rested on a big stone, thrust his head and one arm through it, and began to climb up a rugged narrow crack at the end of the cavern' climbing as if he had been up there before, and soon disappearing from their view. But they could hear him plainly enough, his boots grating on the rock, and his heavy breathing coming whispering down for some minutes before all was still, but only for the silence to be broken by a curious rustling sound, and Lance caught sight of the rope uncoiling as it fell. " Up with you," said the man with the lantern, and Old Poltree's second son seized the rope, and by its help climbed up in much less time than his brother ; while Lance longed for his turn to come that he might hurry away, but felt an unwillingness to go before the woman with them was saved. " Come on," was whispered, and the other man gave the lantern to Mother Poltree, while the shouting and splashing at the cavern entrance grew fainter. In a very short time there was another summons from above, but at this moment they were joined by big Billy Poltree. " All right, mother," he said. " Mouth's pretty well covered. I'll go next, so as to help pull you up. They can't get in now." The man seized the rope, and as he disappeared in the dark crack Lance thought of the consequences if the King's men came now and seized them, so that he started round guiltily when he heard a sound behind him ; but it was only the old fisherman. " Hullo, young squire," he said ; " not gone ? Well, I'll go next, and then I can help with you both." With a display of agility that was wonderful in so old and heavy a man, he directly after seized the rope and A DANGEROUS GAME 191 climbed up, leaving Lance with the old woman, who stood silently holding the lantern and gazing back. " Tide's right over the mouth now," she said. "Is it?" replied Lance; and anxiously, "Pray tell them all, Mother Poltree, that I didn't betray them. I wouldn't do such a thing." " Needn't tell 'em, my son," said the old woman. " No one would believe it of you. But it's a bad job for us if they catch my folk. It means sending 'em across the seas. Now, then, up with you, quick ; and then I'll dowse the light." " No, you first," said Lance. " Nay, my son, you. Don't waste time. They ought to be making for the moors by now." Lance seized the rope and climbed actively, finding plenty of foothold, and soon after reaching the open air in the spot which he felt sure was where he had heard the splashing and thrown down the stone. " Now quick, boys," whispered Old Poltree. " She's got the rope fast round her I can feel. Haul steady ; give her time ; and then we must make for the hills. They won't hurt the women." " Quick ! this way ; I can hear them," cried a familiar voice out of the darkness, and from two ways there was a rush of footsteps and a scrambling sound. Lance made a dart to dash away, but some one flung his arms about him, lifted him from the ground, and rolled with him over and over amongst the furze and brambles. " Keep still," whispered a voice in his ear ; and he lay quiet, for it was Hezz listening to the sounds of struggling and pursuit till they died away, and then he rose. " Don't say naught to me, Master Lance I'm too bad ; but you keep close to me and I'll show you how to get back to the big house without the King's men ketching of you. Quick ! here's one of 'em." 192 A DANGEROUS GAME This on hearing a hoarse panting, but a voice whispered " Hezz ! " " You, mother ! Got up ? " " Yes, my son, with all the skin off my hands. Have they got away ? " " I think so, mother. What are you going to do ?" " Get home to tell the girls. And you ? " " See Master Lance safe, and then get hid somewheres till they're all gone. I shall be all right, and they won't hurt you. Come on, Master Lance." No more was said, Lance having his work to do in climbing after his companion, who led him by what by daylight he would have considered to be an impossible path ; but it ended at the stone wall which bordered the cliff part of the home grounds, and when he began to thank his companion he was gone, only a faint rustling as of a rabbit telling of which way. Ten minutes later Lance had climbed back to his bed- room window, closed it, and after regaining his breath he stole out into the passage to make his way to his cousin's room. But all was silent there. Alf had not returned. Lance crept back to his own bedroom, undressed, and lay down to listen for his cousin's return, undecided as to what he should do. Nature decided it for him, sending him off fast asleep, wearied out by his exertions ; but before dawn his door was opened and a light step crossed the floor and paused by his bedside, a low ejaculation as of astonishment being heard, and then the steps were directed to the door, which was softly closed. A DANGEROUS GAME 193 CHAPTER V LANCE made his appearance at breakfast the next morning rather late, and as he entered the room, wondering whether his father knew of the events of the night, he saw at a glance that everything had come out, for the squire was speaking angrily to Alfred, who stood before him with his Oh," he cried, " there you are, sir !" face cut and scratched, and a great piece of sticking-plaister across one hand. " You may have considered it your duty, sir, still I think it was very dishonourable of Captain Barry to make use of you as his spy without a word to me ; but of course he would know that I should not countenance such a thing. It is quite time you went away from home, sir ; so prepare yourself, and you will go to one of the big N 194 A DANGEROUS GAME grammar schools as soon as you can make arrangements. That will do, sir : I do not want to hear another word. I am a magistrate, and I want to uphold the law, but all this business seems to me cowardly and bad. Oh," he cried, " there you are, sir ! " " Yes, father," said Lance, drawing a deep breath. " You know, I suppose, that the King's men have found a nest of smugglers here, under my very nose ? " " Yes, father." " And you were in bed all night, of course ? " " No, father. I found out by accident that Alf was going to betray them." " Betray, eh ? And pray how ? " "He burnt blue lights at the top window as a signal to bring the French lugger ashore." " Indeed ! Worse and worse," cried the squire angrily. " And you, sir pray what did you do ? " " Went and told Old Poltree and his lads to look out." " You did, eh ? " " Yes, father." " And pray why ? " " Because, father," said the boy boldly, " I thought it was such a shame." " You hear this, my dear ? " said the squire, turning to Mrs. Penwith. " Yes, love," said that lady, looking at her son with tearful eyes. " And I am a magistrate, and my son behaves like this ! 'Pon my word, this is supporting the law with a vengeance. But here's breakfast. I'll think about it, and see what I ought to do." But the squire was so taken up with a visit from the commander of the cutter, which had made its appearance off the point that morning, and going down and seeing the clearing out of the cave, in which there was a grand haul for the sailors, that he apparently forgot to speak to A DANGEROUS GAME 195 his son. He had no prisoners brought before him, for the smugglers had all escaped ; and when Mrs. Penwith told him with a troubled face that their two boys had' met at the bottom of the garden, quarrelled, and fought terribly, he only said " Which whipped ? " " Lance, my dear. Alfred is terribly knocked about." " Oh," said the squire, and that was all. A month passed away before Hezz was seen back at the cottage, and oddly enough that was the very day on which Alfred said good-bye to the place and was driven off with his box, his cousin going with him to the cross roads six miles away, where he w r as to meet the Plymouth waggon ; and it was on Lance's return that he strolled to the cliff to look down at the cottage, and saw Hezz below on the sands once more tarring his boat. CHAPTER VI THE cliff and the little harbour beneath looked as beautiful as ever ; but there was an element of sadness about the place whenever Lance went down to see Hezz, for he was pretty sure to encounter one or other of the sad-faced women busy in some way or another. There was no playtime for Hezz, whose big, open, boyish face had grown old and anxious-looking ; but he always had a smile and a look of welcome for Lance whenever he went down, and rushed off to get the boat ready for a fishing trip somewhere or another. But these were not pleasure excursions, for as soon as the boat was pushed off the two lads tugged at the oars or set the sail to run off to some well-known fishing ground, where they worked away in a grim earnest way to get together a good maund of fish, a part of which was 196 A DANGEROUS GAME always sold up at the "big house," and at a good price too. As for the women, they worked hard in their patches of garden, or went out in couples to bait and lay the lobster pots, or set the trammel nets, sometimes success- fully, more often to come back empty ; but somehow they managed to live and toil on patiently with a kind of hopeful feeling that one day things would mend. " Ever see any of the French smugglers now, Hezz ? " said Lance to him one day. The boy's eyes flashed, and he knit his brows. " No," he said, in a deep growl, for there had been no squeak in his voice since the night of the fight ; the last boyish sound broke right away in that struggle, and he seemed to have suddenly developed into a man. " No," he said, " nor don't want to. If it hadn't been for them the old man and Billy and t'others would ha' been at home, 'stead o' wandering the wide world over." " Have you any idea where they are, Hezz ? " The lad looked at him fiercely. " Want to get 'em took ? " he growled. " Of course," said Lance, smiling. " Just the sort of thing I should do." "Well, I didn't know," said Hezz. " Yes, you did," cried Lance. " Want me to kick you for telling a lie ? " " Well, you're a young gent, and young gents do such things. Look at your cousin." " Now, just you apologise for what you said, or I'll pitch into you, Hezz," cried Lance. " Now then : is that the sort of thing I should do if I knew where the old man and the rest were ? " " No," said Hezz, grinning, " not you." "Then just you apologise at once." " Beg your pardon, grant your grace, wish I may die if I do so any more. That do ? " A DANGEROUS GAME 197 " Yes, that'll do. Now tell me where they are, just to show me you do trust me." "Tell you in a minute, Master Lance," cried the lad earnestly, " but I don't know a bit. We did hear from a Falmouth boat as some un' had sin 'em up Middlesbro' way after the herrin' ; but that's all, and p'raps they're all drownded. I say, I'll tell you something, though. What d'yer think my old woman said about your mother ? " " I don't know. What did she say ? " " Said she was just a hangel, and she didn't know what she should ha' done all through the stormy time if it hadn't been for her." " Oh, bother ! I didn't want to hear about that," said Lance hurriedly. " But you ought to'hear, and so I telled you. I say, what's gone of your cousin ? " " Never you mind. What is it to you ? " said Lance roughly. " You don't want to see him again." " Nay, I don't want to see him, Master Lance, 'cause I might feel tempted like ; and I don't want to run again' him, it might make me feel mad." "Ah, well, you won't feel mad, Hezz, for he is never likely to come back here again. He's at a big school place, and going to college soon." " Well, I'm glad he isn't likely to come ; not as I should fly out at him, but Billy's wife right down hates him, and there's the other women do too, for getting their lads sent away. You see they've the little uns to keep ; and Billy's wife says to me, on'y las' Sunday as we come back along the cliffs from church with the little gal, ' Hezz,' she says, and she burst out crying, ' it's like being a lone widow with her man drowned in a storm, and it's cruel, cruel hard to bear.' " " And what did you say, Hezz ? " " Nothin', Master Lance. Couldn't say nothing. Made me feel choky and as if my voice was goin' to 198 A DANGEROUS GAME break agen ; so I give her luttle gal a pigaback home, and that seemed to do Billy's wife good. Hah, I should like to see our old man home agen, for it's hard work to comfort mother sometimes when I come back without my fish, and she shakes her head at me and says, * Ah, if your father had been here ! ' " " Poor old lady ! " said Lance. " You see, it's when she's hungry, Master Lance. She don't mean it, 'cause she knows well enough there was times and times when the old man come back with an empty maund ; but then you see she'd got him, and now it's no fish and no him nayther. No, I won't, Master Lance. I didn't say all that for you to be givin' me money agen." "Well, I know that, stupid. It's my money, and I shall spend it how I like. It isn't to buy anything for you, but for you to give to the old woman." "Nay, I won't take it. If you want to give it her, give it yourself. I arn't a beggar. Yes, I am, Master Lance about the hungriest beggar I ever see." " You take that half-crown and give it to Mother Poltree, or I'll never speak to you again." " No, I won't. You give it her." " I can't, Hezz ; she makes so much fuss about it, and kisses me, and then cries. Seems to do more harm than good." " I won't take it," growled Hezz, " but you may shove the gashly thing in my pocket if you like. Thankye for her, Master Lance ; it arn't for me. And look here, mind, I've got it all chalked down in strokes behind my bedroom door, and me and Billy and the old man'll pay it all back agen some day." " All right, Hezz," said Lance merrily. " You shall ; so it's all so much saved up, and when you do pay it we'll buy a new boat, regular clinker - built, copper- fastened, and sail and mast." A DANGEROUS GAME 199