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From Powder Monkey to Admiral: A Story of Naval Adventure, a novel by William H. G. Kingston |
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Chapter 14. Again Shut Up |
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_ CHAPTER FOURTEEN. AGAIN SHUT UP "I say, Bill, I wonder what the mounseers are going to do with us," whispered Jack, as they marched along. "Will they put handcuffs on our wrists and throw us into a dungeon, do you think?" Bill acknowledged that he feared such might be the fate prepared for them. They were not, however, ill-treated during their walk. Naturally they felt very much disappointed at being recaptured, but they tried as before to put as bold a face as they could on the matter, and talked away to each other in an apparently unconcerned manner. They found from the remarks of the soldiers that they had a march of a couple of miles or more inland to the place where the troops were encamped, and that they were not to be carried to the old tower. On one account they were sorry for this, as, having made their escape once, they thought that they might make it again, though, of course, they would be more strictly guarded if it was discovered who they were. From a height they reached they saw the camp spread out on a wide level space a short distance off. As they got nearer to it they observed a party of officers on horseback riding towards them, one of whom, from the waving plume in his hat, and from his taking the lead, they supposed was the general. They were right in their conjecture. As he approached with his staff, the officer who had charge of them ordered his men to halt and draw on one side. The general reined in his horse and inquired who they were. The captain explained that two foreign lads, supposed to be English, had been discovered, endeavouring to leave the shore on a small raft of curious construction, such as no sane people would have wished to go to sea on; that there was something very suspicious about their movements, as they had persisted in trying to escape, although fired at by the soldiers, and that he had considered it his duty to bring them up for examination, as he could not understand them or make them understand him. "You acted rightly, Captain Dupont," said the general. "Let them be brought to my quarters, and I'll send for Colonel O'Toole to cross-question them." Bill and Jack understood every word that was said. "We are in for it," said Bill; "but we must put a bold face on the matter, and speak the truth. We can say that we were living in the cavern for some time, and that when the brig was wrecked, we resolved at once to build a raft, and get back to our own country." "It would save a great deal of trouble if we were to say that we were wrecked in the brig, and then it would be but natural that we should try to escape from her," replied Jack. "It would not be the truth, and we should not be believed," answered Bill. "I would say just what happened--that our ship caught fire and blew up, that we were saved by the fishermen, that some French soldiers got hold of us and carried us off prisoners, and that we made our escape from them. We need not mention the names of our friends, and perhaps the interpreter won't be very particular in making inquiries." Bill finally persuaded Jack to agree that they should give a true account of themselves, leaving out only such particulars as were not necessary to mention, such as their visit to the Turgots, and their discovery of the smugglers' stores. The general, who was making a survey of the country around the camp, rode on with his staff, while Captain Dupont and his men conducted their two young prisoners to head quarters, there to await his return. The general was residing in an old chateau, with a high-peaked roof, and towers at each of the angles of the building. The party passed through the gateway, and proceeded to a room near the chief entrance, which served as a guard-room. The soldiers remained outside, while the captain, with two men to guard the prisoners, entered. Jack and Bill had to wait for some time, during which they were allowed to sit on a bench by themselves. Jack began to make observations on the people around them. "Hush!" whispered Bill, "some one here may understand English better than we suppose, and we shall be foolish to let our tongues get us into a worse scrape than we are in already." Jack took Bill's advice, and when he made any remark it was in a whisper. They saw several of the officers who entered looking at them, and they were evidently the subject of their conversation. Jack and Bill had reason to consider themselves for a time persons of some importance, though they had no wish to be so. At last an officer in a handsome uniform entered. He was a red-haired man, with queer twinkling eyes, and a cock-up nose, anything but of a Roman type. Captain Dupont spoke to him, when the lads saw him eyeing them, and presently he came up and said, "Hurroo! now me boys, just be afther telling me what part of the world you come from!" Bill, as agreed on, began his narrative in a very circumstantial manner. "All moighty foine, if thrue," observed Colonel O'Toole, for he was the officer who had just arrived, having been sent for to act as interpreter. "It's true, sir, every word of it," said Bill. "Well! we shall see, afther you repeat it all over again to the gineral, and moind you thin don't made any changes," said the colonel. Bill wisely did not reply. Presently the general with his staff appeared, he and a few officers passing on into an inner room. A few minutes afterwards Jack and Bill were sent for. They found the general with Colonel O'Toole and several other persons seated at a table. The general spoke a few words, when the colonel again told the prisoners to give an account of themselves. Bill did so exactly in the words he had before used, Colonel O'Toole interpreting sentence by sentence. "Good!" said the general. "And what could induce you, when you were once safe on shore, to venture out to sea on so dangerous a machine?" The colonel interpreting, turned to Jack. "I wanted to get home and see my mother, for she must fancy I am lost," answered Jack. "Well, and a very right motive too," said the colonel; and he explained to the general what Jack had said. "And what induced you to attempt the voyage?" asked the colonel, turning to Bill. "Did you want to get back to see your mother?" "No, sir; I have no mother to see," answered Bill. "I wanted to get back to do my duty, and fight the enemies of my country." The general laughed when this was interpreted to him; and observed to the officers around him, "If such is the spirit which animates the boys of England, what must we expect from the men? I must, however, consider whether we shall allow these boys to return home. They are young now, but in a short time they will grow into sturdy fellows." "They've got tongues in their young heads," remarked the colonel. "I'm not altogether certain that they are quite as innocent as they look. Maybe they were sent on shore as spies, and perhaps are midshipmen disguised as common seamen." "Let them be searched, then, and ascertain whether they have any papers about them which may show their real character," said the general. Jack and Bill clearly understood these remarks, and began to feel very uncomfortable. Bill remembered that Jack had got his pockets filled with gold, and Jack remembered it too, and wished that he had left it behind in the cavern as Bill had advised. The colonel, who was in no wise particular as to what work he performed, at once took hold of Bill. "Come, young gintleman," he said, "let me see what you have got in your pockets, and next your skin; or, if you will save me the throuble, just hand out your orders or any papers you may have about you." "I have got none, sir," answered Bill. "I told you the truth, that we are mere ship-boys, and as to being spies as you seem to think, we had nothing to spy out that I know of." "Well, we will soon see all about that," said the colonel, beginning to search Bill; but, greatly to his surprise, he found nothing whatever about him, except his knife, the whole of Bill's worldly wealth, "I told you so, sir," said Bill, when he had finished. "I spoke only the truth about myself and my companion." Bill said this, hoping that Jack would escape the search; but the colonel was far too knowing, and presently he seized upon Jack, who, in spite of his efforts to appear unconcerned, began to quake. The first plunge the colonel made with his hand into one of Jack's pockets brought forth a number of gold pieces. "Hurroo! now, this is your innocence is it, young gintlemen?" he exclaimed, exhibiting a handful of gold to the general. "Let me be afther seeing what your other pocket contains;" and as he spoke he quickly drew forth another handful of gold, some of which, observing that the general and the other officers were examining the first which he had produced, he slipped into his own pocket. "Troth! you're an arrant young rogue," he exclaimed. "You either stole these, or they were given you to bribe the people to betray their country." "They were not given me to bribe any one, and I didn't steal them," answered Jack, boldly; "I took them out of the chest which was on our raft, and there was no harm in doing that, I should think." Bill was somewhat surprised to hear Jack say this. It was the truth, and the idea must have at that moment occurred to him. He was thus saved from having to betray the existence of the boxes of gold in the cavern, which the colonel would not have long allowed to remain unvisited, he suspected, from the little incident which has just been described. The colonel translated fairly enough to the general what Jack had just said. "It is probably the truth," he remarked; "however, let the boys be detained till we can ascertain more about them. I don't wish to have them ill-treated. There is a room in the western turret where they can be shut up securely till to-morrow. Colonel O'Toole, see that my orders are carried out; but you can first let them have a view of the army, that they may tell their friends, if they get home, of the mighty force prepared for the conquest of England, and impress on the minds of their countrymen how hopeless is their attempt to resist the armies of France." Bill understood every word of these remarks, and they raised his hopes that they might be set at liberty and allowed to return home; still, the Irish colonel did not look very amiably at them; perhaps he did not quite like Bill's observations. "Come along," he said, turning to them; and, bowing to the general and to the other officers, he conducted them from the room, when the two soldiers, who stood ready outside, again took charge of them. They were led along to a terrace, from whence a view extended over the surrounding country. Here they saw an almost countless number of white tents pitched, with soldiers in various uniforms moving among them. "Can you count those tents?" asked the colonel. "Each tent contains eleven or thirteen men, and one spirit animates the whole--that is, the conquest of perfidious Albion." "They'll have a tough job, sir, let me tell them," observed Bill. "I haven't seen much of English sojers except the Guards in London, and our Marines on board ship, but I know that one of our Guardsmen would lick a whole tentful of the little chaps I see about here; and I would advise the general to stay quietly at home, and not attempt to take our tight little island." "The French have wrongs to revenge, as have my gallant people, and bitterly will they revenge them some day, when your king and his nobles are brought in chains to France." "That won't be just yet, and may be never," answered Bill, who was growing bold, and inclined to speak his mind. "I'll not bandy words with you, boy. Take care what you are about!" exclaimed the colonel, who did not like Bill's boldness, especially when he saw a broad grin on Jack's countenance. "If you ever get back to England--and I don't say you ever will get back--remember what you have seen to-day, and tell those wretched slaves your countrymen what they are to expect." "We'll not forget it, sir," answered Bill, thinking it wiser to be civil; "and I hope the general won't think it necessary to keep in prison two poor sailor boys who never did any harm to the French, and never wished to do any harm, except to thrash them well in a fair stand-up fight; and you will allow, sir, that that's all right and fair play." "Or receive a thrashing from them," answered the colonel; "however, come along. I must see you stowed safely in the tower, where the general has ordered you to be placed, and moind you kape quiet and don't kick up a row, as you midshipmen are apt to do." "We are not midshipmen, sir," said Bill, who had not forgotten what the colonel had before said. "We are humble boys serving before the mast. Jack, there, is a fisherman's son, and I am a poor boy out of the London streets. I am only telling you the truth, sir." "You are a very sharp boy, then," responded the colonel, looking at Bill. "Yes, sir," said Bill, "the school I went to is a place where boys are apt to get their wits sharpened. They have little else to depend on." The colonel still seemed to doubt whether Bill was speaking the truth, and, perhaps fortunately for them, was fully impressed with the idea that he had charge of a couple of midshipmen. Possibly Bill was a lord's son; and though he railed against English lords, yet, when brought into contact with them, he was inclined to pay them the deepest respect. Owing to the colonel's idea, Bill and Jack were treated with far more attention than they otherwise would have received. The room into which they were put, though small, had a table and chairs in it, and a bed in one corner. "You will remain here for the present," said the colonel, as he saw them into the room; "probably before long the general may wish to examine you again, and I would advise you to take care that you tell him only the truth, and confess your object in coming to the country." Bill made no answer; and the colonel, after again surveying the room, took his departure, locking the door behind him. _ |
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