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The Claverhouse had nearly completed loading, and the kindly emissaries of her captain had reported nothing of a disturbing character, until one morning a steamer came in and was moored alongside the Claverhouse. Yaunie was the pilot, and after completing his work he went aboard the Claverhouse and asked to see the captain. "He is not astir yet," said the steward.
The rage of them Russians, and the way they blazed away their shot, and it never going within miles of where you were! Miles, mind you!" Yaunie and his friend looked at each other in savage despair, as he persisted in reeling off quantities of disconnected incoherencies. But relief to his perturbed friends came when the steward placed the breakfast on the table.
He say that he was aboard the gunboat asking for a torpedo channel-pilot, and that he could not get one because they were firing at you all the time. They asked him the name of the steamer, but he told some other. I say to him he was wrong, but he say no; and he will jabb, as you call it." "Well, Yaunie, what's to be done? What is the remedy?"
Yaunie wasn't sure, but I was on C 's side, for, I said, why did they mention the gunboat to me, if they didn't mean anything?" "Whatever their intentions were," rejoined Captain S , "the precautions you took to checkmate were successful, and I am much obliged for the trouble you took after you realized the danger.
But the mate said, 'No; he's taken them unawares. 'Unawares be d d! said I; 'he's not taken these gunboat chaps unawares, for I couldn't get them to stop firing." "He's off again!" interjected Yaunie. "All right, all right!" replied the impatient captain to his voluble compatriot. "Come to breakfast as quick as you can, there's a good fellow."
His steamer was loaded and ready for sea. At the quay, close to the stern of the vessel, Mrs. C , with her daughter, was seated in a drosky. She explained that they had come to say good-bye, and to convey a message from Patrovish that he, Yaunie, and some officers were aboard Captain Farquarson's vessel.
Farquarson explained that he would have to go to the Custom-house, and then to see his agents. Yaunie, with a significant look and gesture, warned him not to speak too much to port officers, bade him good-morning, said he would call back again in the afternoon, jumped on to the stage and went ashore. It was late in the afternoon before Captain S got down to the docks.
Farquarson got to the companion-way i.e. the entrance to the cabin and was about to make some further remarks when the captain of the Claverhouse said to Yaunie, "Let's go below, for God's sake! As long as he sees us he'll keep on." When they got into the cabin, the burly pilot was almost inarticulate. All he could say was "My goodness, what a tong! He must be dangerous to his owners.
I thought to myself, 'What's going to be the upshot of this? when the man called out again, sharply this time, 'A red light on the port bow! The miner quite excitedly shouted at the top of his voice, 'Blaw the b y thing oot, then, and let's hear ne mair aboot it!" At this conclusion the two captains laughed heartily, and so did Yaunie.
"If it suits their purpose, and those in authority learn what took place, there will be no scruples about doing anything. My advice is to keep quiet and cool-headed, and I feel almost certain you won't be interfered with. But there comes Yaunie. Hear what he says." This gentleman was a Greek pilot, who had previously been a boatswain aboard a Greek sailing-vessel.
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