Held Fast For England: A Tale of the Siege of Gibraltar (1779-83) by G. A. Henty (reading a book .TXT) 📗

"Yes, a bad job for him, a very bad job; but it won't be so bad, in his case, as in some. He has been talking, for the last two or three voyages, of retiring. An old uncle of his died, and left him a few acres of land down in Essex; and he has saved a bit of money out of his pay, and his share of the prizes we have made; and he talked about giving up the sea, and settling down on shore. So now, he will do it. He said as much as that, the night he was wounded.

"'Well,' he said, 'there won't be any more trouble about making up my mind, Joe. If I do get over this job, I have got to lay up as a dismantled hulk, for the rest of my life. I have been talking of it to you, but I doubt whether I should ever have brought myself to it, if it had not been for them Frenchmen's shot.'

"Well, will you come into the cabin, and take something?"

"No, thank you, Joe."

"Have they got the news about the declaration of war yet, Mister Repton?"

"No, it hasn't arrived yet."

"I expect we shall get some good pickings along the coast, directly it comes. We have been trading regularly, this last year; and we all of us want the chance of earning a bit of prize money. So I can tell you, we were very glad when we heard that we were going to take to that again, for a bit."

"Yes, the captain was telling me about it, and he has asked me to go for a trip with you."

"Well, I hope that you will be able to come, Mister Repton."

"I hope so, Joe. But there is one thing--if I do come, you must call me Bob. I hate being called Mister Repton."

"Well, it would be different if you come with us like that," the young mate said. "You see, you were a passenger, before; but if you came like this, you will be here as a friend, like. So it will come natural to call you Bob.

"And how do you like the place?"

"Oh, I like it well enough! I have been working very hard--at least, pretty hard--so I haven't had time to feel it dull; and of course I know all the officers in my brother-in-law's regiment. But I shall be very glad, indeed, of a cruise; especially as we are likely presently, by all they say, to be cut off here--some say for months, some say for years."

"But still, I expect there will be some lively work," the mate said, "if the Spaniards really mean to try and take this place."

"They will never take it," Bob said, "unless they are able to starve us out; and they ought not to be able to do that. Ships ought to be able to run in from the east, at any time; for the Spaniards dare not come across within range of the guns and, if the wind was strong, they could not get out from their side of the bay."

"That is true enough, and I expect you will find fast-sailing craft--privateers, and such like--will dodge in and out; but a merchantman won't like to venture over this side of the Straits, but will keep along the Moorish coasts. You see, they can't keep along the Spanish side without the risk of being picked up, by the gunboats and galleys with the blockading fleet. There are a dozen small craft lying over there, now, with the men-of-war.

"Still, I don't say none of them will make their way in here, because I daresay they will. They well know they will get big prices for their goods, if they can manage to run the blockade. We are safe to pick up some of the native craft, and bring them in; and so will the other privateers. I expect there will be a good many down here, before long. The worst of it is, there won't be any sale for the craft we capture."

"Except for firewood, Joe. That is one of the things I have heard we are sure to run very short of, if there is a long siege."

"Well, that will be something and, of course, any prizes we take laden with things likely to be useful, and sell here, we shall bring in; but the rest we shall have to send over to the other side, so as to be out of sight of their fleet, and then take them straight back to England.

"You see, we have shipped twice as many hands as we had on the voyage when you were with us. We had only a trader's crew, then; now we have a privateer's.

"Look there! There is a craft making in from the south. It is like enough she has got the despatches on board. There are two or three of those small Spanish craft getting under sail, to cut her off; but they won't do it. They could not head her, without getting under the fire of the guns of those batteries, on the point."

"Well, I will go ashore now, Joe, if you will let me have the boat. The captain is going to have supper with us, tonight. I wanted you to come too, but he said you could not both come on shore, together. I hope we shall see you tomorrow."

On landing, Bob made his way to the barrack, so as to intercept Gerald when he came off duty.

"Look here, Gerald," he said, when Captain O'Halloran came out of the orderly room, "I want you to back me up."

"Oh, you do? Then I am quite sure that you are up to some mischief or other, Bob, or you wouldn't want me to help you with Carrie."

"It is not mischief at all, Gerald. The Antelope came in last night, and I saw Captain Lockett this morning, and I have asked him to come to supper."

"Well, that is all right, Bob. We have plenty of food, at present."

"Yes, but that is not it, Gerald. He has invited me to go for a cruise with him. He is going to pick up some prizes, along the Spanish coast."

"Oh, that is it, is it? Well, you know very well Carrie won't let you go."

"Well, why shouldn't I, Gerald? You know that I have been working very well, here; and I am sure I have learnt as much Spanish, in six months, as uncle expected me to learn in two years--besides lots of Latin, and other things, from the doctor. Now, I do think that I have earned a holiday. A fellow at school always has a holiday. I am sure I have worked as hard as I did at school. I think it only fair that I should have a holiday. Besides, you see, I am past sixteen now and, being out here, I think I ought to have the chance of any fun there is; especially as we may be shut up here for ever so long."

"Well, there may be something in that, Bob. You certainly have stuck at it well; and you have not got into a single scrape since you came out, which is a deal more than I expected of you."

"Besides, you see, Gerald, if I had not made up my mind to stick to uncle's business, I might have been on board the Brilliant now, with Jim Sankey; and I think, after my giving up that chance, it would be only fair that I should be allowed to have a cruise, now that there is such a splendid opportunity."

"Well, Bob, I will do my best to persuade Carrie to let you go; but as far as you are concerned, you know, she is commanding officer."

Bob laughed, for he knew well enough that, not only in that but in all other matters, his sister generally had her own way.

"Well, I am very much obliged to you, Gerald. I am sure I should enjoy it, awfully."

"Don't thank me too soon, Bob. You have your sister to manage yet."

"Oh, we ought to be able to manage her, between us!" Bob said, confidently. "Look how you managed to have Dr. Burke for me, and you know how well that turned out."

"Yes, that was a triumph, Bob. Well, we will do our best."

"Why, Bob, where have you been all the morning?" his sister said. "The professor came at ten o'clock. He said he had arranged with you that he should be an hour later than usual, as he had another engagement, early."

"I forgot all about him, Carrie. He never came into my mind once, since breakfast. I met Captain Lockett down in the town, as soon as I went out, and I wanted him to come here to dinner. I knew you would be glad to see him, for you said you liked him very much; but he said he should be too busy, but he is coming up to supper, at seven. Then I went on board the Antelope and had a chat with his cousin Joe, who is first mate now."

When dinner was finished, Bob said:

"Don't you think, Carrie, I am looking pale? What with the heat, and what with my sticking in and working so many hours a day, I begin to feel that it is too much for me."

His sister looked anxiously at him.

"Well, Bob, you are looking a little pale, but so is everybody else; and no wonder, with this heat. But I have not been noticing you, particularly. What do you feel, Bob?"

"I think Bob feels as if he wants a holiday," Captain O'Halloran put in.

"Well, then, we must tell the professor that we don't want him to come, for a bit. Of course, Teddy Burke has given up coming, already.

"But if you have a holiday, Bob, what will you do with yourself?"

"I don't think I shall get any better here, Carrie. I think I want change of air."

"Nonsense, Bob! You can't be as bad as all that; and you never said anything about it, before.

"If he is not well, you must ask Teddy Burke to come up to see him, Gerald. Besides, how can he have change of air? The only place he could go to would be Tetuan, and it would be hotter there than it is here."

"I think, Carrie," Captain O'Halloran said, "I can prescribe for him without calling Teddy Burke in. I fancy the very thing that would get Bob set up would be a sea voyage."

"A sea voyage!" his wife repeated. "Do you mean that he should go back to England? I don't see anything serious the matter with him. Surely there cannot be anything serious enough for that."

"No, not so serious as that, Carrie. Just a cruise for a bit--on board the Antelope, for example."

Mrs. O'Halloran looked from one to the other; and then, catching a twinkle in Bob's eye, the truth flashed across her.

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Gerald," she said, laughing in spite of herself. "You have quite frightened me. I see now. Captain Locket has invited Bob to go for a cruise with him, and all this about his being ill is nonsense, from beginning to end. You don't mean to say that you have been encouraging Bob in this ridiculous idea!"

"I don't know about encouraging, Carrie; but when he put it to me that he had been working very steadily, for the last six months; and that he had got into no scrapes; and that he had really earned a holiday, and that this would be a very jolly one; I did not see any particular reason why he shouldn't have it."

"No particular reason! Why, the Antelope is a privateer; and if she is going to cruise about, that means that she is going to fight, and he may get shot."

"So he may here, Carrie, if a ball happens to come the right way.

"I think Bob certainly deserves a reward for the way he has stuck to his lessons. You know you never expected he would do as he has done; and I am sure his uncle would be delighted, if he heard how well he speaks Spanish.

"As to his health, the boy is well enough; but there is no denying that this hot weather we are having takes it out of us all, and that it would be a mighty good thing if every soul on the Rock had the chance of a month's cruise at sea, to set him up.

"But seriously, Carrie, I don't see any reason, whatever, why he should not go. We didn't bring the boy out here to make a mollycoddle of him. He has got to settle down, some day, in a musty old office; and it seems to me that he ought to have his share in any fun and