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Updated: May 10, 2025
We sprang into the boat, which was lowered down; the falls were unhooked; and as Tom Jecks, who was coxswain, gave us a shove off, the tide, which was running up, bore us right aft; then the oars dropped with a splash, the rudder lines were seized, and away we went up-stream on as glorious a day as ever made a dirty Chinese city look lovely.
"Yes, all on 'em," said Jecks; "and I don't want to use strong language afore one's orficer, who's a young gent as is allers thoughtful about his men, and who's beginning to think now, that with the sun so precious hot he'll be obliged to order us ashore soon for a drop o' suthin' to drink." I laughed, and Tom Jecks chuckled.
"Well done, Teaser!" shouted Tom Jecks. It was a diversion which, I believe, saved us, for the enemy fled for some distance, and gave us time to go on lightening the foremost boat.
It would not take long, I thought, and a curious exaltation came over me as I began to think of home, and at the same time my lips uttered the word "Good-bye," which was followed by a prayer. I did not cease muttering those words as I felt myself forced into a kneeling position, and saw that Tom Jecks was being treated in the same way.
And somehow, as I prayed, the thought would come to me that the poor fellow would not feel or know anything about what was going to happen. Just then, as the man with the big sword approached Tom Jecks, and I was watching, I did not see but I knew that the other was close behind me and a little on my left.
It literally struck my head just as if a great furnace door had been opened, and the glow had shot out on to our necks. "Here she comes," growled Tom Jecks; "and good luck to us."
"'Cause he'll order the jollies to fix bayonets and feel some o' their backs with the p'ints." The conversation interested me, and I forgot my dignity as an officer, and joined in. "Bayonets make bad wounds, Jecks," I said. "Yes, sir, they do; nasty three-side wounds, as is bad to get healed up again. They aren't half such a nice honest weapon as a cutlash.
Just about that time Smith and I passed Tom Jecks, who gave me a peculiar look. "What is it?" I said, stopping to speak. "Can't you put in a word to the skipper, sir, and get him to stir up the engyneers?" "What for, Tom?" "To go faster, sir. It's horrid, this here. Why, I could go and ketch 'em in the dinghy." "Do you want the Teaser stuck in the mud?" I said.
Certainly, though, the wind had risen a little, and I noticed that Tom Jecks kept on glowering about him in a very keen way.
"Yes; soon findee place." "Here, what is it, Jecks?" I cried, catching our companion's arm; for he suddenly gave a lurch as we struggled through the loose sand, and nearly fell. "Bit done up, sir," he said, with a piteous smile. "Wound in my leg makes me feel sick, and the sun's hot. Is there a drop o' water to be got at anywhere?"
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