John C. Hutcheson

“ They were in the midst of all these mutual confidences, the Captain chattering away like an old hen clucking round a pair of new-found chicks, and Bob and Nellie full of glee and exuberant anticipations of all the coming fun they were going to have afloat and ashore; when, suddenly, the light of the further window of the railway-carriage, opposite that near to which the trio were grouped in close confab, was obscured by a dark body pressing against it from without, as if some one was trying to gain admittance. ”

“ At the first touch of Bob’s knife, the anemone shrunk in, showing nothing but a row of blue turquoise-like beads around its top or mouth; the rest of the animal appearing to be but a dull lump of jelly, all its vivid colours and iridescent hues having vanished on the instant of its being assailed by Bob with that formidable weapon of his.
“It’s wounded!” cried Nellie impulsively. “Don’t hurt it, Bob, poor thing!”
“It’s all right, missy,” said the Captain, consolingly. “It always shrinks like that when any one interferes with it. ”

“ Beyond the troops, the blue sea could be seen reflecting the hue of the cloudless sky overhead, its surface dotted here and there with the white sail of some yacht or other, passing between Cowes and Spithead, or beating out into the Channel in the distance; while, in the more immediate foreground, anchored abreast of one of the harbour forts, was a modern ironclad man-of-war.
“What is that?” inquired Bob, pointing in the direction where the vessel lay, looking like some marine monster asleep on the water. ”

“ We bean’t lost yet, ye knows!”
“I’m afraid we are, Dick! I’m afraid we are!” sobbed Bob, as the pair of unfortunates got gradually wetter and more miserable, if that were possible; the density of the atmosphere around them increasing so that it seemed as if they were enveloped in a drenching cloud, this mist of the sea being the offspring of the waters, and consequently taking after its humid parent. “Why, we’re miles and miles away from land, and drifting further and further off every moment! Oh, Dick, we’re lost—we’re lost!” ”

“ Won’t it bite?”
“Aye, by Jove, it will!” said the Captain ironically. “I’d swarm up to the masthead, if I were you, so as to be out of harm’s way. You needn’t mind your sister or any of us down here. We can take care of ourselves!”
This made Bob a bit ashamed, and he began to climb down again from the rigging, looking gingerly the while over the side, as if expecting every minute that the terrible monster of the deep which his imagination had pictured would spring up and seize him. ”

“ Bob thought, and he thought further, too, as he gazed round the deck of the ironclad, which was somewhat begrimed with coal-dust, and about the ugliest and most mis-shapen monster imaginable, “Can I really be on board a ship?”
He was, though; and, presently, the sound of the escape steam, that had previously been roaring up through the rattling funnels, ceased; while the fan-blades of the screw-propeller began to revolve, surging up the water of the open dock in which the vessel lay into a mass of foam, and creating, so to speak, a sort of “tempest in a teapot.” ”

“ Everything comes to an end in time, as did the old lady’s talk; and then, they were able to start home again, Rover coming in for much praise from his waiting so patiently for such a lengthy period outside Mrs Craddock’s cottage, without bark or whine betraying his presence there.
The dinner was not late, much to Bob’s joy; and, the Captain being also punctuality itself, they set out for the beach, just when the dim shadows of the fading twilight were mingling with those of night. ”

“ Mrs Gilmour walking by the side of the old sailor, while Bob and Nellie lingered behind with Dick.
On their way round the castle, Master Bob occasionally pitched in a piece of stick for Rover to fetch out of the sea, which the energetic dog did with the utmost gusto; barking with glee as he dashed into the water and coming out sedately with his coat all dripping, to deposit the stick at his master’s feet, with a shake that sent a shower of drops like rain all over them, making them laugh in glee as great as his. ”

“ Although touching the sea, the waters of which lapped its turf at high tide, when once within the park, it seemed to Bob and Nellie as if they were miles away already in the heart of the country; so that, accustomed as they had been only to town life, it may be imagined how great the change was to them in every way.
As for runaway Dick from Guildford, who had been familiarised to rustic scenes from his earliest infancy, he could see no beauty in the various objects that each instant delighted the little Londoners’ eyes and ears ”

“ In less than a minute there was another heavy bump that shook the deck fore and aft, making all the passengers tumble about like ninepins. Bob nearly took a dive through the hatchway of the engine-room, into which he was still peering, and Nellie fell on poor Rover, causing him to utter a plaintive howl; while, as for Mrs Gilmour, she lurched against the Captain as if she were going to embrace him with open arms, treading at the same time on his worst foot, whereon flourished a pet corn that gave the old sailor infinite trouble, which he ever guarded as the apple of his eye. ”

“ On one occasion the Captain took them out trawling between the Nab and Warner light-ships; where a bank of sand stretches out to sea, forming the favourite fishing-ground of the Portsmouth watermen hailing from Point and the Camber at the mouth of the harbour.
“What is trawling?” asked Master Bob, of course, when the matter was mooted by the owner of the cutter.
“What is trawling, eh?” repeated the old sailor, humming and cogitating for a minute or so. “Let me see; ah, yes, you let down a trawl and catch your fish in it, instead of using a line or drag-net.” ”

“ At night, however, it was Bob’s turn to sustain the drooping courage of Dick, who, like most country-bred lads, was intensely superstitious, fancying the darkness to swarm with ghosts and goblins, who were on the watch to devour him; the boy, while bearing up bravely against palpable privations and open dangers, staring them in the face, from which grown men would have quailed, was now affected by silly fears which a baby would have blushed to own! ”

“ A little later, when Bob had become more composed again, his idea of a battle was carried out, the boys making use of their solitary rope, the end of the broken forestay that was hanging from the bowsprit, to climb back into the boat after they had had a dip alongside.
They were not able to swim far, being incapable of much exertion; but the plunge alone and the immersion in the water while holding to the rope’s-end refreshed them greatly, making them feel stronger, in addition to allaying their burning thirst. ”

“ But, even the stranger lad, who had so unceremoniously intruded into the carriage, seemed to become aware as he confronted him that the Captain’s ‘bark was worse than his bite’; for, dropping his snivel and looking his questioner manfully in the face, he at once went on to tell who he was and explain the reasons for his unexpected appearance on the scene—his earnest accents and honest outspokenness testifying to the truth of his statement in the opinion, not only of Bob and Nellie, but of the whilom grumpy old Captain as well. ”

“ On the Beach.
“Oh, dear! Oh, dear!” cried Bob presently, stopping on their way homewards at a nice-looking pastry-cook’s shop hard by the dockyard-gates, whose wide green windows framed an appetising display of cakes and buns which appealed strangely to his gastronomic feelings; while a fragrant odour, as of hot mutton-pies, the speciality of the establishment, a renowned one in its way amongst middies and such like small fry who frequented the neighbourhood, oozed out from its hospitably-open door, perfuming lusciously the air around—“I am so hungry!” ”

“ Bob’s unlucky slip and cry of alarm as he fell into the sea, his aunt’s exclamation of terror, the Captain’s movement to the rescue, and the grateful Dick’s perilous jump, for it was almost a leap from the top of the castle wall, were all, as has been already pointed out, the work of a moment; the chain of incidents taking much longer to describe than to happen. ”

“ Quant aux enfants, ils ne sont pas plus morts que toi ou moi!” he sang out indignantly. “You fool! The boys are no more dead than you or me.”
But Jacques was a kind-hearted man as well as one possessed of common-sense.
So, under his directions, he and Antoine between them transshipped the apparently lifeless but still animate forms of Bob and Dick from the wrecked cutter into the fo’c’s’le of the lugger, where a charcoal, fire was smouldering in a small stove on which simmered a saucepan containing something savoury, judging by its smell. ”

“ Early next morning, after their usual matutinal swim, Bob and Dick accompanied the Captain for a stroll along the beach to the coastguard-station on the eastern side of the Castle, near to which the ill-fated Bembridge Belle had been run ashore.
Of course, Rover formed one of the party; carrying, equally as a matter of course, his young master’s towels in his mouth and wagging his fine bushy tail with even more energy than he generally evinced when performing that function, in order to express his proud exultation at the trust reposed in him. ”

“ Her brother, however, the barrister, comprehended it at once.
“I should think it was great fun,” he observed; “so I would like to come with you.”
“Do,” said the Captain, with much heartiness. “You’ll be amply repaid for the trouble. It is intensely exciting waiting and watching for what the trawl will bring up. It’s just like dipping your hands in the ‘lucky bag,’ Miss Nellie, at Christmas-time.”
“Do you ever find any very curious things, Captain?” she inquired on being thus appealed to. “I mean really curious things!”
“Oh yes, my dear,” replied the old sailor. ”

“ You may remember, Captain, I promised her some from my own fowls in place of those she lost. Don’t you recollect how anxious the poor creature was about them?”
“Yes, yes, I remember,” said the old sailor, his face beaming with good-humour. “You’re always kind and thoughtful.”
“Whish!” cried Mrs Gilmour playfully. “None of your blarney!”
“Oh, Bob!” exclaimed Nellie, interposing at this juncture, while they still all stood talking together in front of the house, neither Mrs Gilmour nor the ‘old commodore’ having yet given the signal for sailing, “she has got such a dear little place of her own.” ”

“ It was only then that the other perceived the slip he had made, as did his sister, and the two joined in the Captain’s mirth; while Master Bob also lent his help, although witless of what the general merriment was about, the deep ho-ho-ho! of his father being even more contagious than the catching laugh of his old friend the Captain.
“Sure, Dugald, you’re the same careless fellow still,” cried Mrs Gilmour, as soon as she was able to get out a word. “As me poor dear Ted used to say, you’re an Irishman to the backbone. Sure you never open your mouth but you put your foot in it!” ”

“ If you had seen Master Bob when he first emerged from the fore-peak of the Archimedes after his tumble through the fo’c’s’le and roll amongst the coal-sacks, you would have thought him, missy, more like Snuffles than ever. ”

“ Nellie was in despair at her failure and felt almost inclined to cry; but, Dick at the last moment, when the search was just about to be given up, raked out a perfect specimen from a hole in the rock-work beneath one of the buttresses that was nearly awash with the water—a darksome dungeon, isolated from the vulgar herd of barnacles, and common but kindred anemones with which the stuck-up sea cucumber was too proud to associate. ”

“ Bob and Nellie cried in concert. “You promised, you know you did!”
“But, that was if you were good,” he answered, enjoying their antics. “That was the proviso, young people.”
“We are good,” they shouted together. “Auntie says so.”
The Captain put his hands to his ears to shut out their voices.
“Are they good?” he asked Mrs Gilmour. “Eh, ma’am?”
“Well, yes, I think so,” said she, smiling. “Good enough as far as such children can be, I suppose! I suppose I must not tell tales out of school, sure, about what a little girl said the other day when somebody, whom I won’t name, went away?” ”

“ The Captain and Mrs Gilmour, with Bob and Nell, and Dick and Rover, too, watched this sad ending of the steamer’s career with almost as heavy hearts as if they were her owners. Rover, indeed, took such a very deep interest in her that he assisted Hellyer and the other coastguardsmen on duty at the spot by helping them bravely in dragging out of the clutches of the waves everything that floated near enough inshore for him to jump at and seize. ”

“ As for the skipper of the poor steamer, he seemed to have lost his head completely, for he was shouting out orders one moment from the bridge and contradicting them the next: while the crew were rushing about the decks aimlessly, one going here and another there, without apparent end or purpose, every one looking bewildered from the want of proper leadership.
“Keep calm, ladies!” the skipper sang out at intervals between his orders to the seamen and firemen, whom the incessant sounding of the engine-room gong had brought up from below. “Keep cool; there’s no danger, I tell you!” ”

“ This woke up Bob to argument.
“Only the offing, you say, Dick?” he replied, with some of his old dogmatism as they drifted on and on, the ebb-tide that was bearing them away on its bosom lapping against the sides of the boat with a melancholy sound, though almost deadened by the oppressiveness of the damp sea-fog. “Do you know how wide the Channel is ‘hereabouts,’ as you say?”
“No, Master Bob,” said the other lad humbly. “I doesn’t. I ain’t no scholard, as you knows.” ”

“ I should like to see you attempt it!”
“We can safely leave now, auntie,” said Nellie; whereupon she and Mrs Gilmour strayed off through the bracken, hunting here and there for flowers on their way.
Almost the first thing to catch their sight, before indeed they had left the little turfy dell where their paraphernalia was spread out with Rover in charge, was the pretty rose-coloured blossom of the “ragged Robin,” rising out of the grass. A little further off was a cluster of the lilac field madder, named after Sherard the eminent botanist, whose herbarium is still preserved at Oxford. ”

“ Indeed, it was all owing to poor Ted, your husband and my old shipmate, that I ever thought of reading at all. He said it would be something for me to fall back upon for occupation when the Admiralty shoved me on the shelf; and, by Jove, he was right!”
“Poor Ted!” sighed Mrs Gilmour somewhat sadly. “Poor old Ted!”
“Not ‘poor,’ ma’am,” said the Captain reverently, taking off his hat and looking upwards as he had done before when calling the children’s attention to Him who taught the insects. “He’s ‘rich’ Ted, now; and better off in his snug moorings aloft than you and I here below!” ”

“ Bob, who came in a little later, his curiosity being attracted by the sight of the open torpedo-room adjacent, with its stores of Whitehead tubes, gave the witty young surgeon, who was facing the door, an opportunity of cracking a joke at the expense of his smutty face, which he had been unable to wash since his tumble amongst the coals.
“Hullo, Pompey!” cried out this worthy, who by the way had been previously chaffed by his brother officers, such is the levity of sailors in imminent peril, about the gun accident not having provided him with any patients. ”