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So much thought; so much band-o-bast; so much dove-tailing and welding together of naval and military methods, signals, technical words, etc., and the worst punishment should any link in the composite chain give way. And then taking success for granted on the top of all this comes the Turk; "unspeakable" he used to be, "unknowable" now. But we shall give him a startler too.
When I was a young 'un, my old mother used to lather the yaller soap over my young head till it looked like a yeast tub in a baker's cellar. Lor' a mussy! the way she used to shove the soap in my eyes and ears and work her fingers round in 'em, was a startler. She'd wash, and scrub, and rasp away, and then swab me dry with a rough towel and it was a rough 'un, mind yer till I shone again.
"Well, come, I like that, sir," he said, with a laugh; "there have you got the little signal-gun loaded and primed, and the poker all red-hot and waiting, and i'stead o' having it run to the gangway, set open ready to give 'em their startler, you says you don't know what to do?" "Would you do that, Bob?" I said anxiously.
"I'll swear she doesn't," said Richard, positively. "It'll be a bit of a startler for the old girl." "No doubt you've heard," said Eva, haltingly, "that Mr Loggerheads has cast eyes on Mary." "And do you think there's anything in that?" Richard questioned sharply. "Well," she said, "I really don't know."
The close of a hot day on board Her Majesty's ship "Startler," whose engines kept up a regular pulsation as the screw-propeller churned the water astern into golden and orange foam.
There was this to consider too if Lieutenant Johnson could get the "Startler" off the mud, and round to the other side by Dullah's hut and the landing-place, if they were very hard pressed the fort could be abandoned, and, with the women, they could take refuge on board.
The message had been faithfully borne, and the little gunboat sent to help to keep the enemy at bay, till the steamer could come from Penang with a detachment of infantry on board. The heavy guns were too much for the Malays; and just as it had been decided that the gunboat should ascend the river in quest of the "Startler," the latter came slowly down the river with her rescued freight.
"No," said Bob sharply; "but I think if one of us was to go it ought to have been this young person." "Well, but you are going, aren't you?" said Tom Long. "Not I," said Bob. "I'm second officer on board HMS `Startler' till they come back, that's all." "But, my dear Bob, I thought you were going. Old Dick, who was ashore an hour ago, told me you were." "Then old Dick told you a cram," said Bob.
The deck of the clean, smart-looking vessel had a very picturesque aspect, dotted as it was with groups of officers and men; for in addition to the crew, the "Startler" carried four companies of Her Majesty's somethingth foot, the escort of the British Resident and his suite, bound for Campong Allee, the chief town of Rajah Hamet, on the Parang River, west coast of the Malay peninsula.
"It wouldn't be very hard work to carry all the game they shoot," he said, chuckling; "and one might get a good nap under a shady tree." But Dick's hopes were blighted, and instead of shade under trees, he had to row back to where the "Startler" was blistering in the hot sunshine, and take his part in the regular duties of the day.
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