The Adventures of Don Lavington Part 104

"Hor--hor--hor! Here's a game! Prisoners! Cat-o'-nine tails, or hanging."

"Silence, you scoundrel!" roared the officer. "Forward with these prisoners."

Mike and his companions were marched on out of hearing, and then, after a turn or two, the officer spoke.

"It is true then, my lads, you deserted your s.h.i.+p?"

"I was forced to serve, sir, and I left the s.h.i.+p," said Don firmly.

"Well, sir, I have but one course to pursue."

"Surely you will not take them as prisoners, sir?" cried Gordon warmly--"as brave, true fellows as ever stepped."

"I can believe that," said the officer; "but discipline must be maintained. Look here, my lads: I will serve you if I can. You made a great mistake in deserting. I detest pressing men; but it is done, and it is not my duty to oppose the proceeding. Now, will you take my advice?"

"What is it, sir?"

"Throw yourself on our captain's mercy. Your s.h.i.+p has sailed for China; we are going home short-handed. Volunteer to serve the king till the s.h.i.+p is paid off, and perhaps you will never hear of having deserted.

What do you say?"

"The same as Jem Wimble does, sir. I can volunteer, and fight, if you like; but I can't bear to be forced."

"Well said!" cried the officer, smiling at Don's bit of grandiloquence; and, an hour later, after an affectionate parting from Ngati, who elected to stay with Gordon, Don and Jem were Jacks once more, marching cheerily with the main body, half a mile behind the guard in charge of the convicts.

CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR.

HOME.

It was a non-adventurous voyage home, after the convicts had been placed in the hands of the authorities at Port Jackson; and one soft summer evening, after a run by coach from Plymouth, two st.u.r.dy-looking brown young sailors leaped down in front of the old coaching hotel, and almost ran along the busy Bristol streets to reach the familiar spots where so much of their lives had been pa.s.sed.

Don was panting to get back into his mother's arms, but they had to pa.s.s the warehouse, and as they reached the gates Jem began to tremble.

"No, no; don't go by, Mas' Don. I dursen't go alone."

"What, not to meet your own wife?"

"No, Mas' Don; 'tarn't that. I'm feared she's gone no one knows where.

Stand by me while I ask, Mas' Don."

"No, no, Jem. I must get home."

"We've stood by one another, Mas' Don, in many a fight and at sea, and on sh.o.r.e. Don't forsake your mate now."

"I'll stay, Jem," said Don.

"Mas' Don, you are a good one!" cried Jem. "Would you mind pulling the bell--werry gently? My hand shakes so, I shall make a noise."

Don gave the bell a tremendous peal, when Jem looked at him reproachfully, and seemed ready to run away, as the lesser gate was s.n.a.t.c.hed angrily open, and a shrill voice began,--

"What d'you mean by ringing like--"

"Sally!"

"Jem!"

Don gave Jem a push in the back, which sent him forward into the yard, pulled the gate to, and ran on as hard as he could to his uncle's house.

He had laughed at Jem when he said his hand trembled, but his own shook as he took hold of the knocker, and gave the most comical double rap ever thumped upon a big front door.

There was a click; the door was thrown open by one who had seen the brown young sailor pa.s.s the window, and Don Lavington was tightly held in his mother's arms, while two little hands held his, and Kitty jumped up to get a kiss placed upon his cheek.

The explanations were in full swing as, unheard by those in the parlour, the front door was opened by a latch-key, and that of the parlour followed suit, for Uncle Josiah to stand looking smilingly at the group before him.

When at last he was seen, Don started up and gazed dubiously in the grave, stern face before him, recalling in those brief moments scene after scene in the past, when he and his uncle had been, as Jem expressed it, "at loggerheads again," and his life had seemed to him a time of misery and care. His first coherent thoughts were as to what he should say--how he should enter into full explanations of his movements since that eventful night when he encountered the press-gang. It was better to attack, he thought, than to await the coming on of his adversary, and he had just made up his mind to the former course of action, when all his plans and words were blown to the wind, and there was no need for either attack or defence, for the old man advanced with extended hand.

"Don, my lad," he said quietly, "I've felt the want of you badly at the office. Glad to see you back."

"I ought to tell you, sir--"

"Ah, well explain all by-and-by, my boy," said the old man. "I know that you can't have been to blame; and, look here, time back you were as stubborn as could be, and thought you were ill-used, and that I was your enemy. You've been round the world since then, and you are bigger, and broader, and wiser now than you were."

"I hope so, uncle."

"And you don't believe that I ever was your enemy?"

"I believe, uncle, that I was very foolish, and--and--"

"That's enough. P'r'aps I was a bit too hard, but not so hard as they are at sea. You haven't got to go again?"

"No, uncle."

"Then G.o.d bless you, my boy! I'm glad to have you back."

Don could not speak, only hold his weeping mother to his breast.

It was some time before Don was able to begin his explanations, and the account of what had pa.s.sed; and when he did it was with his mother sitting on his right, holding his hand in both of hers, and with his cousin seated upon his left, following her aunt's suit, while the old Bristol merchant lay back in his chair smoking his evening pipe, a grim smile upon his lips, but a look of pride in his eyes as if he did not at all disapprove of Don's conduct when he was at sea.

"But I ought not to have deserted uncle?" said Don, interrogatively.

"Well, my boy," said the old merchant thoughtfully, taking his pipe out of his mouth, and rubbing his stubbly cheek with the waxy end, "I hardly know what to say about that, so we'll let it rest."

"Confound all press-gangs!" said Uncle Josiah that night, as they were parting for bed. "But I don't know, Don, perhaps this one was a blessing in disguise."

"Then I hope, uncle, that the next blessing will come without any disguise at all. But, mother, you found my bundle?"

"Your bundle, my dear?"