Chapter 1. On Board The "Startler"

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_ CHAPTER ONE. ON BOARD THE "STARTLER"

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. The dappled sky and the rippled sea were a blaze of colour; crimson, scarlet, burnished copper, orange chrome, dead, and flashing gold,--all were there, on cloud edge and wave slope, mingled with purples, and greens, and blues, as the sun slowly descended to his rest.

There had been a general disposition all day long to lie under awnings, and pant "like tired dogs," so Bob Roberts the midshipman said; but now officers and men, in the lightest of garments, were eagerly looking for the cool evening breeze, and leaning over the bulwarks, gazing at the wondrous sunset sky and gorgeous sea.

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.

The Resident was to be the help and adviser of the Mohammedan potentate, who had sought the protection of the British Government; and to fix him in his position, and save him from the assaults of the various inimical petty rajahs around, the corvette was to lie for some months in the river, and the residency was to be turned into a fort, garrisoned by the troops under Major Sandars.

Bob Roberts, a fair, good-looking, curly-headed lad of sixteen, was standing with his back leaned against the bulwarks, his cap thrust back, and his hands deep in his pockets, staring defiantly across the deck at a lad of about a year or so older, who, as he stood very stiff and upright by the cabin ladder, returned the stare with interest.

The latter had just buckled on his sword, and, in spite of the heat, buttoned up his undress coatee to the chin, ready for the short spell of drill which he knew would take place before the officers dined; and after giving the finishing-touch to his gloves, he rather ostentatiously raised his sword, then hanging to the full length of its slings, and hooked it on to his belt.

"What a jolly shame it is that we should only carry a beggarly little dirk," said Bob Roberts to himself, as he tried to look sneeringly at the young ensign before him; for the latter came across the deck with rather a swaggering stride, and stood before the midshipman.

"Well, young Jack tar," he said, with a touch of contempt in his tone.

"Well, young Pipeclay," retorted the middy. "I say, how tightly you've laced your stays to-day. Mind where you go, or you'll get some pitch on your lovely uniform. My word, how handsome you look!"

"I tell you what it is, Master Bob, or Robert Roberts," said the young ensign, flushing, "if I did not feel that I was stooping by so doing, I should tell you that you were an impudent puppy of a boy, and give you a good caning."

"No, no! please pray don't do that, Mr Ensign Long, or Tom Long, or Long Tom, or whatever you call yourself," retorted the middy, assuming an aspect of mock terror. "You frighten me into fits almost; and if you did try to cane me you'd split that coatee of yours all up the back, or break your staylace, or do yourself some mischief, and--"

Just then there was the sound of a bugle, followed by the tramp of feet; and the young officer, scowling fiercely, turned half-right, and as he did so let his sword down, so that the end of the scabbard might clatter against the white deck, as he marched off to where the men were assembling, while the middy burst into a hearty laugh.

"You two gents is allus a quarrelling," growled a wonderfully copper-faced old sailor, giving his lower jaw a twist. "You puts me in mind of the gamecocks as the Malay niggers we're going amongst keeps, to strut up and shake out their hackles afore they has a set-to."

"Well, he is so cocky, Dick," said the middy, "and struts about, and--"

"That's what I say, sir," said the old sailor, leaning his arms on the bulwark, "just like a gamecock."

"And assumes such an air of superiority," continued the middy.

"Just like you do, sir, to'rds us common sailors," said the man, chuckling.

"Don't you tell lies, Dick," said the lad sharply. "I always treat the sailors as an officer and a gentleman should."

"So you do, sir, so you do! and it was only my gammon. But you do wish you was a swaddy now, and wore a red coat instead of a blue."

"No I don't, Dick," said the lad colouring; "but I do think we naval officers ought to wear swords, the same as those boy-soldiers."

"So you ought, sir;" said the sailor, winking to himself; "but never you mind about that, sir. If so be as it comes to a brush with the niggers, I'll grind you up a cutlash, with a hedge so sharp as you might shave yourself with it. Perhaps you'd like me to do it now, sir, if your razor is feeling a bit dull?"

"Now, look here, old Dick Dunnage," said the middy; "that's cheek; and I won't have cheek from you, so I tell you."

"Cheek, sir," said the old sailor, with assumed innocence. "I didn't mean to shave only your cheek, sir, but your chin as well."

"Now that'll do, Dick. I'm not ashamed of having no beard, and I'm not ashamed of being a boy, so now then."

"Course you ain't, sir. There, I didn't mean nothing disrespectful. It was only my fun. This here 'bacca as you give me, sir, baint the best I ever had. Lor! how hot them poor fellows do look, buttoned and belted up as they is," he continued, as the soldiers fell into line. "It's a deal better to be a sailor, Master Bob."

"Ever so much, Dick," said the middy. "How long is it since you were out here, Dick?"

"How long, sir?" and the sailor thoughtfully, as he sprinkled the sea with a little tobacco juice; "six year."

"And have you been more than once, Dick?"

"Four times altogether, sir. Let's see: I was at Singapore, and at Penang, and Malacky, and up the country at a place they called Bang, or Clang, or something or another."

"And what sort of a country is it, Dick?" said the boy eagerly.

"Wonderful country; all palm-trees and jungles, and full of rivers and creeks, where the long row-boats, as they call prahus, runs up."

"Those are the pirates' boats, Dick?"

"That's right, sir; and precious awkward things they are to catch, Lord love you! I've been after 'em in cutter and pinnace, firing our bow gun among them, and the men pulling like mad to get up alongside; but they generally dodged in and out of some of these mangrove creeks till they give us the slip, and we had to pull back."

"Shouldn't I like to be in chase of one of the scoundrelly prahus!" cried the lad, with his eyes flashing.

"That you would, sir, I'll lay," said the old sailor; "and wouldn't you lay into 'em with that very sharp-edged cutlash I touches up for you!"

"Now look here, Dick, you're chaffing," said the lad; "now just drop it."

"All right, sir," said the man, with a laugh twinkling at the corner of his lips.

"It is a very fine country though, isn't it, Dick?"

"Wonderful, sir. There's gold, and tin, and copper, and precious stones."

"Did you ever find any, Dick?"

"Well no, sir; but I've known them as has found gold in the rivers. The Chinees gets most on it."

"There now you're chaffing again, Dick," cried the lad. "Chinese indeed! Why we're not going to China."

"'Course we aint, sir, but the Chinees swarm in the place we're going to. I ant chaffing now; this here's all true--as true as that the chaps all wears a dagger sort of a thing with a crooked handle, and calls it a crease."

"Yes, I know they all wear the kris," said the lad.

"Yes, sir, and a plaid kilt, just like a Scotchman."

"What?"

"A plaid kilt, like a Scotchman, sir, and they calls it a say rong; and the big swell princes has it made of silk, and the common folks of cotton."

"Is this gammon, Dick?"

"Not a bit on it, sir. They wears that crease stuck in it; and they carries spears--limbings they calls 'em--and they can throw 'em a wonderful way."

"They poison the kris, don't they, Dick?"

"No, sir, I don't think they do," said the sailor. "I asked one man out there if they didn't; and he pulls his'n out of its sheath, and it was all dingy like, and as sharp as a razor, and he says in his barbarous lingo, as a man put into English for me, as his knife would kill a man without poison."

"What sort of wild beasts are there, Dick?"

"Tigers, sir."

"Honour bright, Dick?"

"Honour bright, sir; lots on 'em. They feeds 'em on Chinees."

"Feed them on Chinese, Dick?"

"Well sir, the tigers help theirselves to the coolies when they're at work."

"Anything else, Dick?"

"Lor, bless you! yes, sir; there's elephants."

"Are you sure?"

"Sure, sir. I've seen 'em, heaps o' times; and rhinosseress, and hippypotimies, and foreign birds, and snakes."

"Are there snakes, Dick?"

"Are there snakes! He says, are there snakes?" said Dick, apostrophising the sea. "Why the last time as ever I was there, they caught a boa-constrictor as was--"

"Don't make him too long, Dick," said the boy laughing.

"I won't make him too long," said the sailor solemnly. "Let's see, sir; this here ship's 'bout hundred and fifty foot long."

"Yes, Dick, but the boa-constrictor was longer than that," said the lad, laughing.

"I won't go to deceive you, Mister Roberts," said Dick, "no more than I did when I was learning you how to knot and splice. That there boa-constrictor was quite a hundred foot long."

"Get out!"

"Well, say fifty, sir."

"No, nor yet fifty, Dick."

"Well, sir, not to zaggerate about such things, if that there sarpent as I see with my own eyes--"

"Why you couldn't see it with anybody else's, Dick."

"No, sir, but I might have seen it wi' a spy glass. This there sarpent as I see it lying down stretched out straight was a good twenty-five foot."

"Perhaps that may have been, Dick," said Bob Roberts, thoughtfully.

"Yes, sir, it were all that; and when it was alive it must have been fifty foot at least."

"Why, Dick?"

"Cause they stretches out so, sir, just like worms in the garden at home do."

"Gammon, Dick. Serpents don't stretch."

"Don't stretch, sir! Just you wait till you get a thirty-footer twissen and twining round you, and see if they don't stretch."

"All right, Dick; and when he does, you come and pinch his tail, and make him open his mouth; and when he does that you pop in a bit of your nasty tobacco, and he'll leave off, and go like a shot."

The old sailor chuckled, and said something about Mister Bob Roberts being a nice boy, while the party in question walked aft to see the company of soldiers on deck put through half-an-hour's drill, making a point of staring hard and derisively at the young ensign, who saw the lad's looks, grew angry, from growing angry became confused, and incurred the captain's anger by giving the wrong order to the men, some of whom went right, knowing what he ought to have said, while others went wrong, and got the company hopelessly confused.

The result was that Ensign Long, of her Majesty's somethingth foot, was severely snubbed, just as Mr Linton the resident, and his daughter Rachel Linton, were looking on.

"I wouldn't have cared if they had not been there," said Ensign Long to himself; "but if I don't serve that little wretch of a middy out for this, my name is not Long." _

Read next: Chapter 2. Introduces More Friends...


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