Blue Jackets Part 39

"Here, sir," I shouted; and I could not help giving my companions a look full of triumph as I dashed aft.

"Oh, there you are, sir. Now look here, I'm going to mast-head you.

Got your gla.s.s?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then up with you, right to the main-topgallant cross-trees. Notice everything you can."

My heart began to beat before I reached the main shrouds, and it beat more heavily as I toiled up the rattlins, reached the top, and then went on again, too much excited to think of there being any danger of falling, my mind being partly occupied with thoughts of what Barkins and Smith were saying about my being favoured in this way.

"Just as if they could have come up," I said half-laughing; "one with a game leg, the other with a game arm."

My thoughts ran, too, as much upon what I was about to see, so that beyond taking a tight hold, and keeping my spygla.s.s b.u.t.toned up in my jacket, I paid little heed to the height I was getting, I reached the head of the topmast, and then began to mount the rattlins of the main-topgallant mast, whose cross-trees seemed to be a tremendous height above my head.

But I was soon there, and settled myself as comfortably as I could, sitting with an arm well round a stay, and one leg twisted in another for safety; but the wood did not feel at all soft, and there was a peculiar rap, rap, rap against the tapering spar which ran up above my head to the round big wooden bun on the top of all, which we knew as the truck.

For a moment or two I couldn't make out what the sound was. Then I saw it was caused by the halyards, the thin line which ran up through the truck and down again to the deck, for hoisting our colours. This doubled line, swayed by the breeze, was beating against the tall pole, but I checked the noise by putting my arm round it and holding the thin halyard tight.

I looked down for a moment or two at the deck which lay beneath, giving me a bird's-eye view through the rigging of the white decks dotted with officers and men, and the guns glistening in the suns.h.i.+ne. There were several faces staring up at me, and I made out Barkins and Smith, and waved my hand. But these were only momentary glances; I had too much to see of far more importance. For there, spread out round me, was a grand view of the low, flat, marshy country, through which the river wound like a silver snake. Far away in the distance I could see villages, and what seemed to be a tower of some size. Beyond it, cultivated land and patches of forest; behind me, and to right and left, the s.h.i.+mmering sea, and straight in front the two junks; while almost at my feet, in spite of their hard rowing, there were our four boats, with the oars dipping with glorious regularity, and making the water flash and glitter, but not so brightly as did the bayonets of the few marines in each, as they sat in the stern-sheets with their rifles upright between their legs, and the keen triangular blades at the tops of the barrels twinkling at every movement of the boats.

It was a sight to make any one's heart throb, and in spite of my splendid position for seeing everything I could not help wis.h.i.+ng I was there to help make a part of the picture I saw, with the men in their white ducks and straw hats, the marines glowing like so many patches of poppies, and the officers with their dark blue coats faintly showing a lace or two of gold.

How I longed to be with them bound upon such an exciting trip, and all the time how glad I was to be up there in so commanding a position, as, after watching the progress of the boats for a few moments, I opened and focussed my gla.s.s, rested it against a rope, and fixed it upon the junks.

The first thing I noticed was that one of them lay a little over to port, as if from being too heavily laden on one side; while, as I gazed, the other was evidently settling in the other direction.

I wondered what they were doing to them, and whether it meant changing heavy guns over to one side, when I grasped the fact,--they had gone as high up-stream as they could, and then run aground, and were fixed in the sticky mud of which the bottom of the river was composed.

"Ahoy! there aloft," shouted Mr Reardon. "What do you make out?"

I did not take the gla.s.s from my eye, but shouted down to him--

"Both junks fast aground, sir. Chinese crews running backwards and forwards, trying to work them off, sir."

An eager conversation ensued between Mr Reardon and the captain, during which I carefully scanned the two Chinese vessels, and could see the men swarming here and there, as if in an intense state of agitation, but they soon ceased trying to rock the junks, and, as I judged, they were waiting for the tide to rise higher and float them off.

There was nothing between to hinder my having a thoroughly good view of where they lay, just round a slight bend, but I felt certain that they could not see our boats, and I had proof that this was the case, on noticing that a group of men had landed, and were running towards a clump of tall trees, where they disappeared amongst the growth.

"Cowards!" I said to myself, for I felt that they were deserters, and, after watching for their reappearance, I was about to turn the gla.s.s upon the junks again, when I noticed a peculiar agitation of the branches of one tree, which stood up far above the others.

"Well, Mr Herrick, I am waiting for your reports," cried the first lieutenant.

"Yes, sir," I shouted. "Half-a-dozen men landed from one of the junks, and ran across to a patch of wood."

"Deserters? Any more leaving the s.h.i.+p?"

"No, sir."

"Ah, they saw the boats coming, I suppose?"

"No, sir, but they soon will. One of them is climbing a big tree, much higher than the junk's masts."

"For a look-out, eh?"

"Yes, sir, I think so," I shouted; and then to myself, "Oh, bother!

It's hard work talking from up here. There he is, sir, right up at the top. You could see him from the deck."

"No, I can see nothing from here. Well, what is he doing?"

"Making signals with his hands, sir, and now he's coming down again."

"Then you think he has seen the boats?"

"No, sir; they are following one another close in under the bank."

"Then they can't see them," cried Mr Reardon, "and Mr Brooke will take them by surprise."

He did not shout this, but said it to the captain. Still the words rose to where I sat watching, till the Chinamen ran out from among the bushes at the foot of the trees, and I saw them making for the junks again.

I could not see them climb on board, but I felt that they must have jumped into a boat and rowed off to their friends, and, fixing my gla.s.s upon the deck of first one and then the other, I began to make out more and more clearly the actions of the crews, and, judging from the glittering, I saw some kind of arms were being distributed.

I announced this at first as a supposition, telling Mr Reardon what I thought it was.

"Yes, very likely," he replied; and a few minutes after I saw something else, and hailed.

"Yes," he said, "what now?" and I saw that, though he did not speak, the captain was listening attentively.

"They're burning something, sir."

"Confound them! Not setting fire to the junks?"

"I don't know, sir; I think so," I replied, still watching intently; and, as I gazed through my gla.s.s, I saw black smoke rising in little coils from both junks, at first very thick and spreading, then growing smaller.

"I think, sir, they've set fire to the junks in several places," I said.

He asked me why, and I told him.

"Watch attentively for a few minutes."

I did so, and felt puzzled, for it seemed so strange that the fire should grow smaller.

"Well," he said, "are the junks burning?"

"The little curls of smoke are rising still, sir."

"Have the men left the decks?"

"Oh no, sir! They're running here and there, and seem very busy still."