The Congo Rovers

The Congo Rovers.

by Harry Collingwood.

CHAPTER ONE.

MY FIRST APPEARANCE IN UNIFORM.

"Um!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed my father as he thoughtfully removed his double eye- gla.s.s from his nose with one hand, and with the other pa.s.sed a letter to me across the breakfast-table--"Um! this letter will interest you, d.i.c.k.

It is from Captain Vernon."

My heart leapt with sudden excitement, and my hand trembled as I stretched it out for the proffered epistle. The mention of Captain Vernon"s name, together with the announcement that the subject-matter of the letter was of interest to me, prepared me in a great measure for the intelligence it conveyed; which was to the effect that the writer, having been appointed to the command of the sloop-of-war _Daphne_, now found himself in a position to fulfil a promise of some standing to his dear and honoured friend Dr Hawkesley (my father) by receiving his son (myself) on board the sloop, with the rating of midshipman. The sloop, the letter went on to say, was commissioned for service on the west coast of Africa; and if I decided to join her no time should be lost in procuring my outfit, as the _Daphne_ was under orders to sail on the --; just four days from the date of the receipt of the letter.

"Well, d.i.c.k, what do you think of Captain Vernon"s proposal?" inquired my father somewhat sadly, as I concluded my perusal of the letter and raised my eyes to his.

"Oh, father!" I exclaimed eagerly, "I _hope_ you will consent to let me go. Perhaps I may never have another such an opportunity; and I am _quite sure_ I shall never care to be anything but a sailor."

"Ah! yes--the old, old story," murmured my father, shaking his head dubiously. "Thousands of lads have told their fathers exactly the same thing, and have lived to bitterly regret their choice of a profession.

Look at my life. I have to run about in all weathers; to take my meals when and how I can; there is not a single hour in the twenty-four that I can call my own; it is a rare thing for me to get a night of undisturbed rest; it is a hard, anxious, hara.s.sing life that I lead--you have often said so yourself, and urged it as one of the reasons why you object to follow in my footsteps. But I tell you, d.i.c.k, that my life--ay, or the life even of the poorest country pract.i.tioner, for that matter--is one of ease and luxury compared with that of a sailor. But I have said all this to you over and over again, without convincing you; and I hardly dare hope that I shall be more successful now; so, if you are really quite resolved to go to sea, I will offer no further objections. It is true that you will be going to an unhealthy climate; but G.o.d is just as well able to preserve you there as He is here; and then, again, you have a strong healthy const.i.tution, which, fortified with such preservative medicines as I can supply, will, I hope, enable you to withstand the malaria and to return to us in safety. Now, what do you say--are you still resolved to go?"

"Quite," I replied emphatically. "Now that you have given your consent the last obstacle is removed, and I can follow with a light heart the bent of my own inclinations."

"Very well, then," said my father, rising from the table and pushing back his chair. "That question being settled, we had better call upon Mr Shears forthwith and give the order for your uniform and outfit.

There is no time to lose; and since go you _will_, I would very much rather you went with Vernon than with anyone else."

The above conversation took place, as already stated, in the breakfast- room of my father"s house. My father was at that time--as he continued to be until the day of his death--the leading physician in Portsmouth; and his house--a substantial four-storey building--stood near the top of the High Street. The establishment of Mr Shears, "Army and Navy Tailor, Clothier, and Outfitter," was situated near the bottom of the same street. A walk, therefore, of some ten minutes" duration took us to our destination; and at the end of a further half-hour"s anxious consultation I had been measured for my uniform--one suit of which was faithfully promised for the next day--had chosen my sea-chest, and had selected a complete outfit of such clothing as was to be obtained ready- made. This important business concluded, my father departed upon his daily round of visits, and I had the remainder of the day at my own disposal.

My first act on emerging from the door of Mr Shears" establishment was to hasten off to the dockyard at top speed to take another look at the _Daphne_. I had often seen the craft before; had taken an interest in her, indeed, I may say, from the moment that her keel was laid--she was built in Portsmouth dockyard--and had watched her progress to completion and her recent launch with an admiration which had steadily increased until it grew into positive _love_. And now I was actually to have the happiness, the _bliss_, of going to sea in her as an officer on her first cruise. Ecstatic thought! I felt as though I was walking on air!

But my rapture received a pretty effectual damper when I reflected--as I soon did--that my obstinate determination to go to sea must certainly prove a deep disappointment, if not a source of constant and cruel anxiety, to my father. Dear old dad! his most cherished wish, as I knew full well, had long been that I, his only son, might qualify myself to take over and carry on the exceedingly snug practice he had built up, when the pressure of increasing years should render his retirement desirable. But the idea was so utterly distasteful to me that I had persistently turned a deaf ear to all his arguments, persuasions, ay, and even his entreaties. Unfortunately, perhaps, for the fulfilment of his desires, I was born and brought up at Portsmouth; and all my earliest recollections of amus.e.m.e.nt are, in some way or other, connected with salt water. Swimming and boating early became absolute pa.s.sions with me; I was never quite happy unless I happened to be either in or on the water; _then_, indeed, all other pleasures were less than nothing to me. As a natural consequence, I soon became the intimate companion of every boatman in the harbour; I acquired, to a considerable extent, their tastes and prejudices, and soon mastered all the nautical lore which it was in their power to teach me. I could sail a boat before I could read; and by the time that I had learned to write, was able to hand, reef, and steer with the best of them. My conversation--except when it was addressed to my father--was copiously interlarded with nautical phrases; and by the time I had attained the age of fourteen--at which period this history begins--I was not only acquainted with the name, place, and use of every rope and spar in a ship, but I had also an accurate knowledge of the various rigs, and a distinct opinion as to what const.i.tuted a good model. The astute reader will have gathered from this confession that I was, from my earliest childhood, left pretty much my own master; and such was in fact the case. My mother died in giving birth to my only sister Eva (two years my junior); a misfortune which, in consequence of my father"s absorption in the duties of his practice, left me entirely to the care of the servants, by whom I was shamefully neglected. But for this I should doubtless have been trained to obedience and a respectful deference to my father"s wishes. The mischief, however, was done; I had acquired a love of the sea, and my highest ambition was to become a naval officer. This fact my father at length reluctantly recognised, and by persistent entreaty I finally prevailed upon him to take the necessary steps to gratify my heart"s desire--with the result already known to the reader.

The sombre reflections induced by the thought of my father"s disappointment did not, I confess with shame, last long. They vanished as a morning mist is dissipated before the rising sun, when I recalled to mind that I was not only going to sea, but that I was actually going to sail in the _Daphne_. This particular craft was my _beau-ideal_ of what a ship ought to be; and in this opinion I was by no means alone-- all my cronies hailing from the Hard agreeing, without exception, that she was far and away the handsomest and most perfect model they had ever seen. My admiration of her was unbounded; and on the day of her launch--upon which occasion I cheered myself hoa.r.s.e--I felt, as I saw her gliding swiftly and gracefully down the ways, that it would be a priceless privilege to sail in her, even in the capacity of the meanest ship-boy. And now I was to be a midshipman on board her! I hurried onward with swift and impatient steps, and soon pa.s.sed through the dockyard gates--having long ago, by dint of persistent coaxing, gained the _entree_ to the sacred precincts--when a walk of some four or five hundred yards further took me to the berth alongside the wharf where she was lying.

Well as I knew every curve and line of her beautiful hull, my glances now dwelt upon her with tenfold loving interest. She was a ship-sloop of 28 guns--long 18-pounders--with a flush deck fore and aft. She was very long in proportion to her beam; low in the water, and her lines were as fine as it had been possible to make them. She had a very light, elegant-looking stern, adorned with a great deal of carved scroll-work about the cabin windows; and her gracefully-curved cut-water was surmounted by an exquisitely-carved full-length figure of Peneus"

lovely daughter, with both arms outstretched, as in the act of flight, and with twigs and leaves of laurel just springing from her dainty finger-tips. There was a great deal of bra.s.s-work about the deck fittings, which gleamed and flashed brilliantly in the sun; and, the paint being new and fresh, she looked altogether superlatively neat, in spite of the fact that the operations of rigging and of shipping stores were both going on simultaneously.

Having satisfied for the time being my curiosity with regard to the hull of my future home, I next cast a glance aloft at her spars. She was rigged only as far as her topmast-heads, her topgallant-masts being then on deck in process of preparation for sending aloft. When I had last seen her she was under the masting-shears getting her lower-masts stepped; and it then struck me that they were fitting her with rather heavy spars. But now, as I looked aloft, I was fairly startled at the length and girth of her masts and yards. To my eye--by no means an unaccustomed one--her spars seemed taunt enough for a ship of nearly double her size; and the rigging was heavy in the same proportion. I stood there on the wharf watching with the keenest interest the scene of bustle and animation on board until the bell rang the hour of noon, and all hands knocked off work and went to dinner; by which time the three topgallant-masts were aloft with the rigging all ready for setting up when the men turned-to again. The addition of these spars to the length of her already lofty masts gave the _Daphne_, in my opinion, more than ever the appearance of being over-sparred; an opinion in which, as it soon appeared, I was not alone.

Most of the men left the dockyard and went home (as I suppose) to their dinner; but half a dozen or so of riggers, instead of following the example of the others, routed out from some obscure spot certain small bundles tied up in coloured handkerchiefs, and, bringing these on sh.o.r.e, seated themselves upon some of the boxes and casks with which the wharf was lumbered, and, opening the bundles, produced therefrom their dinners, which they proceeded to discuss with quite an enviable appet.i.te.

For a few minutes the meal proceeded in dead silence; but presently one of them, glancing aloft at the _Daphne"s_ spars, remarked in a tone of voice which reached me distinctly--I was standing within a few feet of the party:

"Well, Tom, bo"; what d"ye think of the hooker _now_?"

The man addressed shook his head disapprovingly. "The more I looks at her the less I likes her," was his reply.

"I"m precious glad _I_ ain"t goin" to sea in her," observed another.

"Same here," said the first speaker. "Why, look at the _Siren_ over there! She"s a 38-gun frigate, and her mainmast is only two feet longer than the _Daphne"s_--as I happen to know, for I had a hand in the buildin" of both the spars. The sloop"s over-masted, that"s what _she_ is."

I turned away and bent my steps homeward. The short s.n.a.t.c.h of conversation which I had just heard, confirming as it did my own convictions, had a curiously depressing effect upon me, which was increased when, a few minutes afterwards, I caught a glimpse of the distant buoy which marked the position of the sunken _Royal George_.

For the moment my enthusiasm was all gone; a foreboding of disaster took possession of me, and but for very shame I felt more than half-inclined to tell my father I had altered my mind, and would rather not go to sea.

I had occasion afterwards to devoutly wish I had acted on this impulse.

When, however, I was awakened next morning by the sun shining brilliantly in at my bed-room window, my apprehensions had vanished, my enthusiasm was again at fever-heat, and I panted for the moment--not to be very long deferred--when I should don my uniform and strut forth to sport my glories before an admiring world.

Punctual almost to a moment--for once at least in his life--Mr Shears sent home the uniform whilst we were sitting down to luncheon; and the moment that I decently could I hastened away to try it on.

The breeches were certainly rather wrinkly above the knees, and the jacket was somewhat uncomfortably tight across the chest when b.u.t.toned over; it also pinched me a good deal under the arm-pits, whilst the sleeves exhibited a trifle too much--some six inches or so--of my wristbands and shirt-sleeves; and when I looked at myself in the gla.s.s I found that there was a well-defined ridge of loose cloth running across the back from shoulder to shoulder. With these trifling exceptions, however, I thought the suit fitted me fairly well, and I hastened down- stairs to exhibit myself to my sister Eva. To my intense surprise and indignation she no sooner saw me than she burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, and was heartless enough to declare that I looked "a perfect fright." Thoroughly disgusted with such unsisterly conduct I mustered all my dignity, and without condescending to ask for an explanation walked in contemptuous silence out of the room and the house.

A regimental band was to play that afternoon on Southsea Common, and thither I accordingly decided to direct my steps. There were a good many people about the streets, and I had not gone very far before I made the discovery that everybody was in high good-humour about something or other. The people I met wore, almost without exception, genial smiling countenances, and many a peal of hearty laughter rang out from hilarious groups who had already pa.s.sed me. I felt anxious to know what it was that thus set all Portsmouth laughing, and glanced round to see if I could discover an acquaintance of whom I might inquire; but, as usual in such cases, was unsuccessful. When I reached the Common I found, as I expected I should, a large and fashionably dressed crowd, with a good sprinkling of naval and military uniforms, listening to the strains of the band. Here, for the first five minutes or so, I failed to notice anything unusual in the behaviour of the people; but the humorous item of news must have reached them almost simultaneously with my own arrival upon the scene, for very soon I detected on the faces of those who pa.s.sed me the same amused smile which I had before encountered in the streets. I stood well back out of the thick of the crowd; both because I could hear the music better, and also to afford any friend of mine who might chance to be present an opportunity to see me in my imposing new uniform.

It was whilst I was standing thus in the most easy and nonchalant att.i.tude I could a.s.sume that a horrible discovery forced itself upon me.

I happened to be regarding with a certain amount of languid interest a couple of promenaders, consisting of a very lovely girl and a somewhat foppish ensign, when I suddenly caught the eye of the latter fixed upon me. He raised his eye-gla.s.s to his eye, and, in the coolest manner in the world, deliberately surveyed me through it, when, in an instant, a broad smile of amus.e.m.e.nt--the smile which I by this time knew so well-- overspread his otherwise inanimate features. I glanced hurriedly behind me to see if I could discover the cause of his risibility, and, failing to do so, turned round again, just in time to see him, with his eye- gla.s.s still bearing straight in my direction, bend his head and speak a few words to his fair companion. Thereupon she, too, glanced in my direction, looked steadfastly at me for a moment, and then burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter which she vainly strove to stifle in her pocket-handkerchief. For a second or two I was utterly lost in astonishment at this unaccountable behaviour, and then all the hideous truth thrust itself upon me. They were laughing at _me_. Having at length fully realised this I turned haughtily away and at once left the ground.

I hurried homeward in a most unenviable state of mind, with the conviction every moment forcing itself more obtrusively upon me, that for some inconceivable reason I was the laughing-stock of everybody I met, when, just as I turned once more into the High Street I observed two midshipmen approaching on my own side of the way, and some half a dozen yards or so behind them a certain Miss Smith, a parlour boarder in the ladies" seminary opposite my father"s house--a damsel not more than six or seven years my senior, with whom I was slightly acquainted, and for whom I had long cherished a secret but ardent pa.s.sion.

With that sensitiveness which is so promptly evoked by even the bare suspicion of ridicule I furtively watched the two "young gentlemen" as they approached; but they had been talking and laughing loudly when I first caught sight of them, and although I saw that they were aware of my presence I failed to detect the sudden change of manner which I had dreaded to observe. Whether they were speaking of me or not I could not, of course, feel certain; but I rather fancied from the glances they cast in my direction that they were.

As they drew nearer I observed that the eyes of one of them were intently and inquiringly gazing into mine, and they continued so to do until the pair had fairly pa.s.sed me. Being by this time in a decidedly aggressive frame of mind I returned this pertinacious gaze with a haughty and contemptuous stare, which, however, I must confess, did not appear to very greatly intimidate the individual at whom it was levelled, for, unless I was greatly mistaken, there was a twitching about the corners of his mouth which suggested a strong, indeed an almost uncontrollable disposition to laughter, whilst his eyes fairly beamed with merriment.

As they pa.s.sed me this individual half halted for an instant, pa.s.sed on again a step or two, and then turning abruptly to the right-about, dashed after me and seized me by the hand, which he shook effusively, exclaiming as he did so:

"It _is_--I"m _sure_ it is! My _dear_ Lord Henry, how are you? This is indeed an unexpected pleasure!"

At this moment Miss Smith pa.s.sed, giving me as she did so a little start of recognition, followed by a bow and a beaming smile, which I returned in my most fascinating manner.

I was once more happy. This little incident, trifling though it was in itself, sufficed to banish in an instant the unpleasant reflections which a moment before had been rankling in my breast, for had not my fair divinity seen me in the uniform of the gallant defenders of our country? And had she not also heard and seen me mistaken for a lord?

If this had no power to soften and subdue that proud heart and bring it in sweet humility to my feet, then--well I should like to know what would, that"s all.

I allowed my fair enslaver to pa.s.s out of ear-shot, and then said to the midshipman who had so unexpectedly addressed me:

"Excuse me, sir, but I think you are mistaking me for someone else."

"Oh, no, I"m not," he retorted. "I know you well enough--though I must say you are greatly altered for the better since I saw you last a year ago. You"re Lord Henry de Vere Montmorenci. Ah, you sly dog! you thought to play a trick upon your old friend Fitz-Jones, did you? But what brings you down here, Montmorenci? Have you come down to join?"

This was a most remarkable, and at the same time gratifying occurrence, for I could not keep feeling elated at being thus mistaken for a n.o.ble, and greeted with such enthusiasm by a most agreeable and intelligent brother officer, and--evidently--a scion of some n.o.ble house to boot.

For a single instant an almost invincible temptation seized me to personate the character with which I was accredited, but it was as promptly overcome; my respect for the truth (temporarily) conquered my vanity, and I answered:

"I a.s.sure you, my dear sir, you are mistaken. I am _not_ Lord Henry de Vere Montmorenci, but plain Richard Hawkesley, just nominated to the _Daphne_."

"Well, if you persist in saying so, I suppose I must believe you,"

answered Fitz-Jones. "But, really, the resemblance is most extraordinary--truly remarkable indeed. There is the same lofty intellectual forehead, the same proud eagle-glance, the same haughty carriage; the same--now, tell me, Tomnoddy, upon your honour as an officer and a gentleman, did you ever in your life before see such an extraordinary resemblance?"

"I never did; it is really most remarkable," answered the other midshipman in a strangely quivering voice which, but for his solemn countenance, I should have considered decidedly indicative of suppressed laughter.

"It really is most singular, positively _marvellous_," resumed Fitz- Jones. Then he added hurriedly: