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If 'e so much as wets 'is tongue, there's no 'olding 'im." Johnny was a lean, pimply-faced youth, with cold, flabby hands. Little Polly had to stay behind. Mahony would have liked to give her the trip and show her the sights of the capital; but the law-courts were no place for a woman; neither could he leave her sitting alone in a hotel.
"Seventeen 'ours we were in the trench, under fire all the time, with water up to our middles and nothing to eat. We were 'olding the center and when the Frenchies fell back they didn't give our chaps no warning, and pretty soon the Dutchmen they 'ad us flanked both sides and we 'ad to quit. But we didn't quit until we'd lost all but one of our officers and a good 'alf of our men."
"No doubt about it, sir," said Mr Tarwig. "Foley, you will be saved a voyage in the boat. We must board her without delay, or she may be getting under way, although it seems strange that she should not have noticed our flag," said Commander Olding. "Can she have beaten off the pirate?" "It looks like it, sir," answered the first lieutenant.
They turned the room upside down pretty near, and then Ginger Dick struck a match and looked up the chimney, but all 'e found was that it 'adn't been swept for about twenty years, and wot with temper and soot 'e looked so frightful that Peter was arf afraid of 'im. "I've 'ad enough of this," ses Ginger, running up to the bed and 'olding his sooty fist under old Isaac's nose.
The lieutenant sprang below, just at the moment that Captain Olding ordered the crew of the corvette to return on board and the grappling-irons to be cast loose. "We must chase the pirate and punish him for his audacity," he exclaimed. It was some time, however, before the order could be obeyed and the corvette got clear of the merchantman. Gerald had remained on board.
He stood there for a moment smiling at us foolish-like, and then 'e let go o' the beer-injin, wot 'e was 'olding in 'is left hand, and sat down heavy on the bar floor. We both put our 'eads over the counter to see wot had 'appened to 'im, and 'e started making the most 'orrible noise I 'ave ever heard in my life. I wonder it didn't bring the fire-injins.
Them as was standing round laughed, and even Policeman White couldn't 'elp giving a little smile. "There's nothing to laugh at," ses Bob, 'olding his 'ead up. "It's a fine thing when a working man a 'ardworking man can't take home a little game for 'is family without being stopped and robbed." "I s'pose they flew into your pocket?" ses Police-man White. "No, they didn't," ses Bob.
Commander Olding intended, on entering the harbour, to run up alongside the Ouzel Galley and capture her, and then to turn his guns on the people on shore should any resistance be offered. Dillon assured him that no forts existed on shore for the defence of the harbour, the pirates trusting entirely to the intricacy of its navigation.
She apparently was satisfied that they were enemies, and too large to attack with any hope of success. "Captain Olding is doing his duty, as he always does," observed Norman Foley to Owen; "in spite of the great disparity of force, he will do his best to defend the convoy. See, he is signalling; what does he say, captain?" Owen examined the signal-book.
After a short consultation with his lieutenants, Commander Olding despatched all his own boats, and two of the Research's which had escaped injury, to bring off the remainder of the officers and crew, with provisions, ammunition, and stores, and four guns to increase the armament of the Research. These would make her more than a match for the Ouzel Galley.
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