The blare of bugle and beat of drum rang through the ship, mingled with the hiss and roar of the steam rushing up the funnels; the captain, as he sang out his orders to those on deck, mechanically, from force of habit, putting his hand on the engine-room telegraph to prepare the "greasers" in the flat below, and rapidly shouting down the voice-tube, as soon as the electric bell on the bridge gave a responsive tinkle, that they were to "get up steam" as quickly as possible.
But, there was no fear of our alarming the enemy with the noise of our preparations, not even when the boatswain"s mates added their quota to the din after the bugle was sounded. They were too far off, and, besides, we were to leeward, and twice the row we made could not have reached their ears.
All of our fellows below belonging to the port watch came tumbling up the hatchways in a jiffy on hearing the "a.s.sembly," clutching up their rifles and sword-bayonets from the arm-racks on the lower deck; while we of the starboard, who were already up from having the middle watch, proceeded at a break-neck pace to fetch ours.
Then the gunner took his keys from their appointed place outside the door of the captain"s cabin and went below to open the magazines in the flat appropriated to their combustible contents, in company with a working party to attend to the ammunition hoists; while the marine artillerymen and crews of the main-deck battery and upper-deck machine- guns hurried to their stations under charge of "Gunnery Jack," the lieutenant whose special function was to see to our little barkers.
A minute later, when those whose duties did not take them elsewhere were ranged along the upper deck, Captain Hankey, who had gone down to his cabin in the meantime and buckled on his sword to be in proper fighting rig, came back on the bridge, where he remained in conversation with Mr Gresham until the "orderly" midshipman--I don"t mean to say that the others were disorderly, but only just wish to specify those who were told off to carry messages from the various parts of the ship, when at "quarters," to the captain, they acting, so to speak, as his aides-de- camp on board--returned to say all was as it should be.
"Now then, Gresham," said "old Hankey Pankey," drawing himself up to his full height, and looking every inch what he was, an officer and a gentleman--ay, and a sailor too, as plucky as they make them--"I think we"d better begin, or those beggars will get too far ahead, and a stern chase, you know, is a long chase. Bugler, sound "man and arm boats"!"
The boy, a young marine, who did this part of our musical business, puffed out his cheeks, inflating his lungs the while, and blew a blast that seemed to make the air shake; the boatswain"s mates, who always act on such occasions like the chorus at the opera, screeching with their whistles fore and aft up and down the hatchways, repeating with an exasperating repet.i.tion the same order little Joey the bugler had already given; while, all the officers who had charge of the respective boats stood up at the gangways to inspect the crews of these as they went down the side to take their places on the thwarts, so as to see they were all properly equipped.
"Mr Gresham," said Captain Hankey to the first lieutenant, "I should like you to go in the steam pinnace and work away to win"ard towards Ras Hafim--you know the place we marked on the chart last night above Binna?"
"Very good, sir," replied Mr Gresham, taking up a revolver and box of cartridges he had brought on deck with him, and going towards the after gangway, abreast of which the steam pinnace was lying, buzzing away like a little wasp alongside; the intimation on the part of our captain that he would "like" a thing being done being quite equivalent to a command to do it! "You mean, sir, that queer-shaped headland some twenty miles down the coast?"
"Yes, we pa.s.sed it when we came back from the wreck," replied "old Hankey Pankey," pointing with his hand away to windward. "You will then cut off the retreat of the dhows, while we head them off farther up the coast."
"Very good, sir," said Mr Gresham, accepting this as a final dismissal.
"I will attend to your orders, sir. By George, those Arabs will have to be precious sharp if they manage to steal back past us to their haunts!"
So saying, Mr Gresham went down the side, without any further palaver; and, when he was seated in the sternsheets, the pinnace went off in a bee-line to the sou"-west in the teeth of the monsoon, which was beginning to blow now pretty briskly.
The first cutter was then piped away, Larrikins and I being the two first to jump aboard her when the bowman laid hold of her painter and drew her up alongside.
Lieutenant Dabchick came with us in command, as soon as she was fully manned and armed, an ammunition-chest being lowered down with a supply of "pills and pepper" for the little nine-pounder boat-gun we carried in our bows; when, we sheered away from the ship"s side and lay on our oars, and the second cutter hauled up alongside to receive her crew and equipment like ourselves.
This did not take long in doing--the whaler being also manned and the senior midshipman sent in charge of her, with the boatswain to check his rashness; and then, the three of us, first cutter, second cutter and whaler, were all taken in tow by the _Mermaid_, which went off full speed ahead after the Arab dhows that were now only some five miles off us, the cruiser shaping a slanting course so as to prevent them from making for the wide stretch of open water that lay to the north"ard, should they try to escape in that way.
Their retreat to the port whence they had sailed was cut off by the pinnace; and, as their only refuge now when we overhauled them would be the rock-bound coast lying between Binna and Ras Hafim, they were, as I heard Mr Dabchick say to the c.o.xswain, "between the devil and the deep sea!"
The reckless beggars, too, were so busy looking out in the direction of the stranded steamer for which they were making, that somehow or other they did not catch sight of us until they were nearly within easy range of our six-inch breechloaders; the leading dhow, which was what the Arabs call a "batilla," and carried two large lugs or lateen sails on wide yards, besides a sort of square jib forwards, rigged out on a bowsprit like a spritsail boom, caught sight of us as we luffed up to let fly at her.
For a second or two they seemed all of a heap, like a covey of frightened partridges; and then, getting their tacks aboard as smartly as if they were English seamen and not rascally Somali Arabs, they hauled their wind and made in for the sh.o.r.e, thinking, no doubt, "Old Nick" was after them.
They were not far out in this surmise, if such should have crossed their minds, as they very quickly found out.
The _Mermaid_ yawed off her course, swirling us round in her wake as our tow-rope slackened and then grew taut again, all in an instant; and, then, bang belched out one of our big hundred-pounder quick-firing guns that we carried on the upper deck fore and aft, pitching a sh.e.l.l that burst right over the rearmost dhow.
This made them quicken their movements if possible; while "old Hankey Pankey," seeing we were a trifle short in our range, steamed on after them so that they might have the full benefit of all our battery--the water now churning up over the gunwale of the cutter as she dragged us on astern of her, the bow of the boat high in air, while we were all the more depressed aft from having the other boats behind us.
On flew the dhows, on raced the _Mermaid_, flopping her tail as represented by the boats in tow, for we did wag about pretty considerably, as one of our men who was half a Yankee said; until, presently, on the water showing signs of shoaling, the _Mermaid_ brought up broadside on and began pitching shot and sh.e.l.l as fast as the men could work her batteries at the dhows, which were now well insh.o.r.e and almost on the rocks--which latter seemed to jut out from this coast in the most shapeless, uncanny fashion, like the solitary tusk or two still possessed by some nearly toothless old hag.
"Bang, smash, boom!" went our guns, the fire bursting forth from the ship"s side in the centre of puff-b.a.l.l.s of smoke, accompanied by the hurtling sound of the shot through the air, and the dull intonation the sh.e.l.l gave out after the first report, when these missiles discharged their contents around their target. "Bang, smash, boom!"
It must have been pretty lively for the Arabs: too warm after a bit to be pleasant!
So "old Hankey Pankey" appeared to think; and, when our guns had fired about a couple of rounds each all round, the bugle sounded the "cease fire," and he came aft and hailed us.
"Mr Dabchick," he called out, "I"m going to cast you off, and you will pull straight for the sh.o.r.e and capture those dhows as best you can, while I will cover your advance with the guns of the ship. Recollect, you are in command of the expedition and that Mr Doyle in the cutter, and Mr Chisholm in the whaler, are under your orders; so, you can do as you think best when you get alongside them. I would divide my forces, Dabchick, if I were you; but, you must exercise your own judgment when the time comes!"
"Aye, aye, sir," replied the lieutenant, as heartily as if he had just been told he was made "first luff" of the flagship--for, though sleepy sometimes when on watch of a night, he was a plucky little chap, with a lot of go in him; and then, as our painter was sent adrift and the slack hauled in by the bowmen, he sang out to us, "Oars! Off we go, my lads!"
This was the signal for a ringing cheer from all hands in our boat, as well as from those in the second cutter and whaler, which had been likewise cast off from the tow-rope; while "old Hankey Pankey" himself jumped up into the rigging of the _Mermaid_ as we started away, and led a return cheer from the ship as the three of us raced in line abreast towards the dhows insh.o.r.e.
The sun was now well up in the sky, and it was blazing hot over our heads, but I don"t think a man of us minded this, as we pulled away, like Britons, and as lightheartedly as some of us used to do in the old days when we belonged to the _Saint Vincent_, and were struggling our best to be the first boat at our summer breaking-up sports so as to win the Admiralty medal!
But, there was something more than a medal at stake now, aye, or a money prize either; for we were battling, as we all well knew, mere lads though most of us were, for our Queen--G.o.d bless her!--and that country whose flag waves over every sea, and on whose dominions, stretching from east to west all round the globe, the sun never sets!
Nearer and nearer we got into the coast, all hands pulling with a will; Larrikins, who was stroke, giving the fellows a touch of his old style when he rowed in the captain"s gig of the training-ship; the whaler, with the middy in command, running us hard, though, and the second cutter labouring up astern.
As we approached the dhows, however, Mr Dabchick ordered us to pull easy, singing out to the other boats to spread out to leeward and make for the batilla, which had remained behind like a watchdog guarding the smaller craft, while we attacked her in the bows.
The breeze was now dying away, the wind blowing off sh.o.r.e; and the Somalis, seeing this, triced up their lateen sails, turning round like rats driven up into a corner and facing us, at bay.
Captain Hankey, who had been pitching shot and sh.e.l.l into them from the moment of our casting off from the _Mermaid_, some of the missiles describing beautiful curves over our heads as we pulled in, now ceased firing, for fear of hitting us as well as the foe; and so, the Arabs were able to concentrate all their energies towards resisting us, the batilla sending some round shot in our direction from an old bra.s.s carronade she had mounted on her high forecastle, one of which, skipping along the water as if it were playing ducks and drakes, shaved off three of our oar-blades on the starboard side.
This did not stop us, though.
"Shift over, bow and the next man," shouted out Mr Dabchick. "Now, all together, pull away, my lads, and let us go for them!"
The cheer that we gave on starting away from the _Mermaid_ was nothing to what our chaps roared out now from their l.u.s.ty throats; as, making the water boil with the blades of our oars, we rowed hand over fist right at the batilla"s bows, the second cutter making for her stern while the whaler, by Mr Dabchick"s directions, pulled athwart the hawse of a smaller dhow that had stayed her flight landwards and was coming back, apparently, to the a.s.sistance of her big consort.
"Crash!" came the stem of our boat against the side of the batilla at the same time that her old carronade, which had been loaded this time with bullets and sc.r.a.p iron like a sh.e.l.l, and having its muzzle depressed, went off, right in our faces, with a "Bang!"
One of the fellows forward, the bowman on the port side of the cutter, poor chap, tumbled backward overboard, uttering a wild shriek as he fell; but otherwise the discharge did not do us much damage, and in another second we seemed all scrambling up into the dhow and were at it hammer and tongs.
It was my first fight and I can"t forget it.
Every single incident that occurred stands out as clearly before me now as if I were going over it all again!
We had, of course, all loaded up with ball-cartridge and fixed the sword-bayonets to our rifles before we got up to the Arabs; and, by the orders of our commander, we gave them a volley at close quarters as we boarded.
But, after this, I don"t think any one thought of loading or firing again, save one or two of the fellows astern and the c.o.xswain of the boat, being too busy guarding the slashes the Somalis made at us with their long scimitar-like swords that were curved like reaping-hooks, and the blows they dealt us with their unwieldy matchlocks, which they used in club fashion.
It was a terrible struggle trying to climb the high overhanging sides of the batilla in the face of such tooth and nail opposition, the beggars fighting, as Mr Gresham had said, like veritable wild cats!
We were beaten back into the cutter twice, after some half a dozen of us had been wounded, some desperately; and then the second cutter, which could not manage to board her astern, coming up to our help and sheering in alongside us, our gallant leader Mr Dabchick determined on one grand final rush.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
WE NEARLY LOSE THE CUTTER!
"Larrikins," said I, whispering in his ear, as we stood up together just in the rear of Mr Dabchick, balancing myself on one of the thwarts forward, being about to make another spring for the side of the big dhow, while Larry shoved a cartridge hastily into the breech of his rifle, and was in the act of taking a pot shot at a chap who seemed to be the skipper of the batilla and had a nose on him like the beak of a Brazilian parrot, "little Dabby means business!" He did.
Hardly had I said this to my chum, making him miss his aim, I am sorry to say, at the Arab beggar, who made a cut at me the next minute and would have sliced off my starboard fin if I had not drawn back rather hurriedly, ere our lieutenant sprang on to the back of Jones, the other bowman, and then jumped right clean amongst the ma.s.s of Arabs in the bows of the dhow.