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Updated: August 2, 2024
There were cries and groans enough now, and not merely from the enemy, for while the foremost of them was attempting to board, others beyond fired at us, and I knew from the bosun's bellow of rage that he for one had been hit. We snatched up a second musket each, but before we could turn to fire them, three of the Frenchmen had gained a footing on our deck.
"You will afore long. Well, I'll tell you; bosun's mate's a gentleman kep' aboard ship to scratch the crew's backs." "You are laughing at me," cried Don angrily. "Not a bit of it, my lad. If I was to do what you want, I should be tied up to-morrow, and have my back scratched." "Flogged?" "That's it." "For doing a kind act? For saving my poor mother from trouble and anxiety?"
I don't know what exact nature of sail you'd call 'em pyjama-stun'sles with a touch of Sarah's shimmy, per'aps but the riggin' of 'em an' all the supernumerary details, as you might say, bein' carried on through an' over an' between the cutter an' the forge an' the pork an' cleanin' guns, an' the Maxim class an' the Bosun's calaboose and the paintwork, was sublime. There's no other word for it.
It was impossible to so effectually enwrap her as had been the case with the child, but I did the best I could with a strip of the tarpaulin over her head and shoulders, well secured round her body with a length of the main-topgallant brace, and then, lashing her firmly to my own body, I took my place in the bosun's chair, wrapping my arms tightly round my quaking companion, and then taking a firm grip upon the lanyards of the chair.
Dacre then took charge of the ship in person, conning her from the weather mizen rigging, and sending Murgatroyd for'ard with instructions to clear away the towing-hawser, and to fit it with a traveller, bosun's chair, and hauling-lines, blocks, etcetera, all ready for sending the end aboard the barque when communication should have been established with her.
"The evening's closing in, too," said the "first luff," screwing his eyeglass more tightly into the corner of his eye and bending his lanky body over the poop-rail to see if everything was all right on the deck below, after taking a hurried squint aloft. "I shall shorten sail at once. Bosun's mate!" You should have heard him roar out this hail.
Ere's a kid ain't eard where we been. Been!" the sudden thunder in his voice. "Why, in Boulong Arbour among Boney's craft. H'in and h'out, under Nap's nose. Stormed the Arbour Battery; set the gun-vessels afire; and came out under their guns, colours at the truck, and the bosun's boy in the mizzenchains singin O it's a snug little island, A right little tight little island."
One grim fist was frozen to the shattered wheel; the other, grimmer still, clutched the scent-bottle. A bosun's whistle sounded. On hands and knees the lad crept along the tilted deck past the old Commander. "That you, Mr. Caryll?" came a husky voice. "I canna see over plain." The old man had not moved, but one eye had opened and was glaring up from under the eaves of his cocked hat. "Yes, sir."
"I don't know about that, imagination sometimes goes a great way in these matters," observed Commander Nesbitt, after carefully inspecting the battered hulk with the glass Mr Jellaby handed him; "but, at all events, we'll send a boat aboard and see. Bosun's mate, pipe the watch to stand by to heave the ship to! Clew up the courses. Square the main yard!"
You'd better give them a call in the bosun's place, as you go." "i, i, Sir," I sung out, and hurried off. As I went, I heard him tell Tammy to go down and call the Mate. Reaching the fo'cas'le, I put my head in through the starboard doorway, and found some of the men beginning to turn-in. "It's all hands on deck, shorten sail," I sung out. I stepped inside.
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