I never saw him angry except when hard pressed by an ill-judging friend to step into a public-house.
"Would you like to see Jack Trawl"s son in a ragged shirt, without shoes to his feet, and his daughter a beggar-girl, or something worse? Then don"t be asking me, mate, to take a drop of the poisonous stuff. I know what I used to be, and I know what I should be again if I was to listen to you!" he exclaimed. "Stand out of my way, now! Stand out of my way!
Come along, Peter," and, grasping my hand with a grip which made my fingers crack, he stumped along the Hard as fast as he could move his timber toe.
It was a pleasure on getting home to find Mary looking bright and cheerful, with her work or books before her, and Nancy busy preparing supper. The old man and I always took our dinner with us--generally a loaf of bread, with a piece of cheese or bacon or fried fish, and sometimes Irish stew in a basin, done up in a cloth, and a stone bottle of water. I remember saying that I was born with a wooden spoon in my mouth, but when I come to reflect what excellent parents I had, and what true friends I found in Tom Swatridge and Nancy, I may say that, after all, it must have been of silver, though perhaps not quite so polished as those found in the mouths of some infants.
Another change in my life was about to occur. We had taken off a gentleman from Gosport. From his way of speaking, we found that he was a foreigner, and he told us that he wanted to be put on board a foreign ship lying at Spithead.
"Is dere any danger?" he asked, looking out across the Channel, and thinking what a long distance he had to go.
"Not a bit, sir," answered Tom, for the water was as smooth as a mill-pond. There was a light air from the southward, and there was not a cloud in the sky. "We might cross the Channel to France for that matter, with weather like this."
"Oh no, no! I only want to get to dat sheep out dere!" cried the foreigner, fancying that we might carry him across against his will.
"Certainly, mounseer; we"ll put you aboard in a jiffy as soon as we gets a breeze to help us along," said Tom.
We pulled round Blockhouse Point, along sh.o.r.e, till we came off Fort Monkton, when opening Stokes Bay, the wind hauling a little to the westward, we made sail and stood for Spithead. A number of vessels were brought up there, and at the Mother-bank, off Ryde, among them a few men-of-war, but mostly merchantmen, outward bound, or lately come in waiting for orders. It was difficult as yet to distinguish the craft the foreigner wanted to be put aboard.
"It won"t matter if we have to dodge about a little to find her, mounseer, for one thing"s certain: we couldn"t have a finer day for a sail," observed old Tom, as we glided smoothly over the blue water, shining brightly in the rays of the unclouded sun.
He gave me the helm while he looked out for the foreign ship.
"That"s her, I"ve a notion," he said at length, pointing to a deep-waisted craft with a raised p.o.o.p and forecastle, and with much greater beam than our own wall-sided merchantmen. "Keep her away a bit, Peter. Steady! That will do."
The tide was running to the westward, so that we were some time getting up to the ship.
"You"ll be aboard presently, if that is your ship, as I suppose, mounseer," said Tom.
"Yes, yes; dat is my sheep," answered the foreigner, fumbling in his pockets, I fancied, for his purse.
He uttered an exclamation of annoyance. "Ma monie gone! Some villain take it, no doubte. You come aboard de sheep, and I vill give it you, my friend," he said. "One half guinea is de charge, eh? I have also letter to write; you take it and I vill give two shillings more."
"All right, mounseer, I will wait your pleasure, and promise to post your letter," answered Tom.
As there were several boats alongside, he told me to keep under weigh till he should hail me to come for him, and as he was as active as any man, in spite of his wooden leg, taking the foreigner by the hand, he helped him up on deck. I then hauled the tacks aboard and stood off to a little distance. I waited and waited, watching the ship, and wondering why Tom was so long on board.
The wind at last began to drop, and afraid of being carried to leeward, I was on the point of running up alongside when I heard a fearful roaring thundering sound. A cloud of black smoke rose above the ship, followed by lurid names, which burst out at all her ports; her tall masts were shot into the air, her deck was cast upwards, her sides were rent asunder; and shattered fragments of planks, and of timbers and spars, and blocks, and all sorts of articles from the hold, came flying round me. I instinctively steered away from the danger, and though huge pieces of burning wreck fell hissing into the water on either side, and far beyond where I was, none of any size touched the wherry. For a minute or more I was so confounded by the awful occurrence that I did not think of my old friend. I scarcely knew where I was or what I was doing. The moment I recovered my presence of mind I put the boat about, getting out an oar to help her along, and stood back towards the burning wreck, which appeared for a moment like a vast pyramid of flame rising above the surface, and then suddenly disappeared as the waters closed over the shattered hull.
I stood up, eagerly gazing towards the spot to ascertain if any human beings had survived the dreadful catastrophe, though it seemed to me impossible that a single person could have escaped. One boat alone was afloat with some people in her, but they were sitting on the thwarts or lying at the bottom, not attempting to exert themselves, all more or less injured. The other boats had been dragged down, as the ship sank.
All about were shattered spars and pieces of the deck, and some way off the masts with the yards still fast to them. Here and there was a body floating with the head or a limb torn off. One man was swimming, and I saw another in the distance clinging to a spar, but the former before I could get up to him sank without a cry, and I then steered for the man on the spar, hoping against hope that he might be old Tom. I shouted to him that he might know help was coming, but he did not answer. Meantime boats from the various ships lying around were approaching. I plied my oar with all my might, fearing that the man I have spoken of might let go his hold and be lost like the other before I could reach him. The nearer I got the more I feared that he was not Tom. His face was blackened, his clothes burnt and torn. Then I saw that he had two legs, and knew for certain that he was not my old friend. Still, of course, I continued on till I got up to the spar, when I tried to help the poor man into my boat, for he was too much hurt to get on board by himself.
But my strength was insufficient for the purpose, and I was afraid of letting go lest he should sink and be lost. There was no small risk also of my being dragged overboard. Still, I did my best, but could get him no higher than the gunwale.
"Well done, youngster! Hold fast, and we"ll help you," I heard a voice sing out, and presently a man-of-war"s boat dashing up, two of her crew springing into the wherry quickly hauled the man on board.
"We must take him to our ship, lads, to let the surgeon attend to him,"
said the officer, a master"s mate in charge of the man-of-war"s boat.
The man was accordingly lifted into her. It appeared to me, from his sad condition, that the surgeon would be unable to do him any good.
"What, did you come out here all by yourself, youngster?" asked the officer.
"No, sir, I came out with old Tom Swatridge, who went on board the ship which blew up," I answered.
"Then I fear he must have been blown up with her, my lad," said the officer.
"I hope not, sir, I hope not," I cried out, my heart ready to break as I began to realise that such might be the case.
CHAPTER FIVE.
A FRIEND LOST AND A FRIEND GAINED.
It seemed but a moment since the ship blew up. I could not believe that old Tom had perished.
"Some people have been picked up out there, sir, I think," observed the c.o.xswain to the officer, pointing as he spoke to several boats surrounding the one I had before remarked with the injured men in her.
"Maybe the old man the lad speaks of is among them."
"Make the wherry fast astern, and we"ll pull on and ascertain," said the officer.
"If he is not found, or if found is badly hurt, I"ll get leave for a couple of hands to help you back with your boat to Portsmouth."
"I can take her back easily enough by myself if the wind holds as it does now; thank you all the same, sir," I answered.
I felt, indeed, that if my faithful friend really was lost, which I could scarcely yet believe, I would rather be alone; and I had no fear about managing the wherry single-handed.
As may be supposed, my anxiety became intense as we approached the boat.
"Is old Tom Swatridge saved?" I shouted out.
No answer came.
"Tom! Tell me, Tom, if you are there!" I again shouted.
"Step aboard the boat and see if your friend is among the injured men,"
said the good-natured officer, a.s.sisting me to get alongside.
I eagerly scanned the blackened faces of the men sitting up, all of whom had been more or less scorched or burnt. A surgeon who had come off from one of the ships was attending to them. They were strangers to me.
Two others lay dead in the bottom of the boat, but neither of them was old Tom. He was gone, of that I could no longer have a doubt.
With a sad heart I returned to the wherry. The other boats had not succeeded in saving any of the hapless crew. The ship had been loaded with arms and gunpowder, bound for South America, I heard some one say.
"Cheer up, my lad!" said the officer; "you must come aboard the _Lapwing_, and we"ll then send you into Portsmouth, as we must have this poor fellow looked to by our surgeon before he is taken to the hospital."
The name of the _Lapwing_ aroused me; she was the brig in which my brother Jack had gone to sea. For a moment I forgot my heavy loss with the thoughts that I might presently see dear Jack again. But it was only for a moment. As I sat steering the wherry towed by the man-of-war"s boat my eyes filled with tears. What sad news I had to give to Jack! What would become of Mary and Nancy? For myself I did not care, as I knew that I could obtain employment at home, or could go to sea; but then I could not hope for a long time to come to make enough to support them. My chief feeling, however, was grief at the loss of my true-hearted old friend.
Soon after we got alongside the brig of war the master"s mate told me to come up on deck, while one of the men took charge of the wherry. He at once led me aft to the commander, who questioned me as to how I came to be in the wherry by myself. I described to him all that had happened.
"You acted a brave part in trying to save the man from the ship which blew up. Indeed, had you not held on to him he would have been lost,"
he observed. "I must see that you are rewarded. What is your name?"