"I wonder," he added, "if dear old Captain Talbot would have me?"
"Oh," cried Duncan, "I had entirely forgotten. I have a letter from Talbot. He has given up the coasting trade, and is now in the Mediterranean, sailing betwixt London and Italy, a merchant ship, and I"m sure he will be glad to take you. He"ll be back at the port of London in September. Why, Frank, old man, you"re in luck.
"And as for Conal and I, we shall go before the mast."
"I"m sorry for you, boys."
"But you needn"t be. Not the slightest wee bit. Many an officer in the merchant service, ay, and in the Royal Navy as well, has entered through the hawsehole."
"That means risen from the ranks, doesn"t it?"
"Something very like it."
"Well," said Conal, "is it all arranged?"
"I think so," replied Duncan. "And the sooner we set about putting our resolves into force the better, I think."
Then he sighed as he bent down and gave poor Vike"s honest head a good hug, and I"m not sure there wasn"t a tear in his eye as he said:
"Poor Vike! your master is going away where he can"t take you. But you"ll be good, won"t you, till we come back again, and look well after your little mistress, Flora. I know you will, doggie."
If ever grief was depicted in a dog"s looks, and we know it often is, you might have seen it in Viking"s now. I do not mean to say that he knew all his master said. He was too young for that, but he could tell from the mere intonation of Duncan"s voice that grief was in store for all.
Chief M"Vayne was much averse at first to his sons becoming mere boys before the mast, but Duncan and Conal were determined, and so he came round at last and gave his consent.
I am going to say just as little as I can about the parting. Partings are painful to write about.
Not only the boys but M"Vayne himself were heroic. It does not do for clansmen to show weakness, but the mother"s tears fell thick and fast, and poor Flora was to be pitied.
It was the first cloud of sorrow that had fallen upon her young life, and she felt desolate in the extreme. She believed she would never survive it. She would have no pleasure or joy now in wandering over the hills and through the forests dark and wild.
"I will pray for you both." These were about the last words she said.
"And for me too, Florie," said Frank sadly.
"Oh, yes, and for you."
Then he kissed her.
For the first time--wondering to himself, if it would be the last.
He had gotten a pretty little ring for her, with blue stones and an anchor on it. And of this she was very proud.
"Mind," he said, "you"re a sailor"s sweetheart now."
Then they mounted the trap that was to drive them to the nearest station, and away they went, waving hands and handkerchiefs, of course, until a bend in the road and a few pine-trees shut the dear old home from their view.
BOOK II.
THE CRUISE OF THE _FLORA M"VAYNE._
CHAPTER I.--THE TERRORS OF THE OCEAN.
Long months have pa.s.sed away since that sad parting at Glenvoie; a parting that seemed to raise our young heroes at once from the careless happiness of boyhood to the serious earnestness of man"s estate.
They had stayed in town until Captain Talbot arrived. He was just the same brave and jolly sailor that Duncan had first known.
Would he take Frank as his apprentice?
Why, he would be glad to have the whole three. They were so bold and bright, there was not the least fear of their not getting on.
Wouldn"t they come? His present ship was not so large as he would like it to be, but he would make shift somehow.
But Duncan, while he thanked him, was firm.
"Well," said Talbot, "I"ll tell you what I"ll do for you, for somehow I have acquired a liking for you all Frank here, then, shall come with me, not as an apprentice belonging to the owners, but as a friend who wishes to get well up in seamanship and eventually pa.s.s even for master-mariner. You see, Frank, you will be rated as apprentice to me, and not to the company, else they would hold you to the same ship for years. And my reason is this: in about a year or a little over, I shall, please G.o.d, have a ship of my own. It is to be a great project, but I am promised a.s.sistance, and many of the savants in London say the project is well worthy of the greatest success. I shall voyage first to the Antarctic regions, and come home with a paying voyage of oil and skins of the sea-elephants, and this shall smooth my way to exploring further south than any ship has yet reached.
"So you see, Duncan, as you and your brother will not be bound to any tie as regards apprenticeship, you can both sail with me to the South Pole, and who knows but you may yet become the Nansens of the Antarctic."
"Too good to be true," said Duncan laughing; "but I"m just determined to do my best, and no one can do more."
"Bravo, lad!" cried the colonel, laying his hand on Duncan"s shoulder.
"And you remember what the poet says:
""T is not in mortals to command success, But we"ll do more...; we"ll deserve it""
"Brave words, Colonel Trelawney," cried Talbot. "Why, sir, sc.r.a.ps of heroic verse have helped me along all through life. I"m a ship-master now, with a bit in bank. But my first voyage was to the Arctic and I had hardly clothes enough to keep out the terrible weather. My mother was a poor widow in Dundee, and I--being determined to go to sea--became a stowaway. I hid in a coal-bunker, and it came on to blow, so that I was very nearly killed with the shifting coals that cannonaded against my ribs.
"Luckily the storm did not last long, but when they hauled me out at last I was as black as a chimney-sweep and covered with blood.
"I was too ill to be lifted and landed at Lerwick. The doctor said I was dying. The first mate, who was never sober, said, "Serve the young beggar right!" But, boys, I knew better. Dundee boys don"t die worth shucks, and so I was on deck in ten days" time. There were two dogs on board, and my duty was to feed and look after them, and also to a.s.sist the cook.
"I roughed it, I can tell you, lads; but, Lord bless you, it did me a power of good. We were out for six months, and by that time I was as strong as a young mule. How old was I? Oh, not more than sixteen. But I felt a man. And I could reef and steer now, and splice a rope, and do all sorts of things. For the bo"s"n had taken me in hand, and right kind he was.
"Ah! but that rascally mate! A long black, red-cheeked chap he was, and not a bit like a sailor, but he kept up his spite against me, and, when half-seas over--which he always was when not completely drunk--he would let fly at me with a belaying-pin, a marling-spike, or anything else he could lay his hands on.
""Why don"t you land him one," said the bo"s"n one day, "right from the shoulder?"
""That would be mutiny, wouldn"t it?" said I.
""Nonsense, lad, the skipper likes you, and he wouldn"t log you for it."