Chapter 8. The Torpedo

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_ It was about two o'clock in the morning when the watch awoke the crew, with the news that they could hear the distant sound of oars coming along the shore. All took their places, in silence. After a time the rowing ceased, and all was quiet again. Half an hour passed, and then there was a slight sound close alongside and, in the channel, they could dimly make out a small boat--which was rapidly rowed away into the darkness again, several musket shots being fired after it.

"They have sent on ahead, to find if we were lying in the same berth," the captain said. "I expect they will be puzzled when they hear that we are outside, and that the entrance is guarded. I should not be surprised if they did not attack before morning. They had such a lesson, yesterday, that I don't think they will try to force the channel in our teeth again; but will play the waiting game, sure that they will secure us, sooner or later."

So it turned out. The hours passed slowly on, but no sound was heard. Then, in the dim morning light, a pirate fleet of eight prahus was seen, lying at a distance of half a mile within the reef.

As the day broke, the breeze sprang up, the sails were hoisted, and the captain prepared to slip his cables. A similar preparation could, through the glasses, be observed on board the Malay fleet.

"That will do very well," the captain said. "Those fellows will be along in about eight or ten minutes after we have started; and the fuse, according to the experiments we made as to its rate of burning, will last about seven.

"Now, quick, lads, into the boat.

"Tom, you take charge of the sinking."

In another minute the boat was rowed to the channel, and the cask lowered over the side. It was held there, for a minute, while the mate struck a light and applied it to the touch paper. Then he pressed the bung firmly into the top of the tube, the lashings of the cask were cut, and the boat rowed back to the ship. The anchors were already on board, and the brig was getting way on her as the boat rowed alongside. The men jumped on board, and the boat was suffered to tow behind, while all hands set the whole of the sails. The vessel was soon running briskly before the land breeze.

The pirate fleet was instantly in motion. Every eye in the ship was directed towards them.

"They will be there in less than ten minutes from the moment I lowered the cask," the mate said, looking at his watch.

"Not much," the captain said, "they are rowing fast, now; but the trees keep off the wind, and their sails do not help them. They were a minute or two behind us in starting."

It was just eight minutes, from the time when the cask had been lowered, that the first of the Malay boats rowed out through the channel.

"I hope nothing has gone wrong," the mate growled.

"I am not afraid of that; though we may be wrong, a minute or two, as to the length of the fuse."

Another boat followed the first. The third was in mid channel when, suddenly, she seemed to rise bodily in the air, and then to fall into pieces. A mighty column of water, a hundred feet high, rose into the air; mingled with fragments of wood, and human bodies. A deep, low report was heard; and the brig shook, as if she had come into collision with some floating body.

Although they were nearly a mile away, the yell of astonishment, and fright, of the Malays reached the ship. The prahus still inside the reef were seen to turn round, and row away along the coast at the top of their speed; while those which had passed the channel, after rowing wildly for some distance, lay on their oars--the crews apparently stupefied at what had taken place. The craft which had been injured the day before still lay seaward, on watch; but now turned her head, and rowed towards the shore to join her consorts.

The Sea Belle left the coast. The Malays attempted no pursuit but, so long as they could be seen, remained inactive near the scene of the sudden and--to them--inexplicable catastrophe which had befallen their consort.

Once fairly freed from all fear of pursuit, the captain invited the two lads into his cabin; and there heard from them an account of all the adventures through which they had passed. When they had finished, he questioned them as to their plans.

Hans said that he intended to take the first ship bound for Holland.

"And you?" he asked Will.

"I have no particular plan," Will said. "I am in no hurry to return to England, having no relatives there. After being so long absent--for it is now a year since I sailed from Yarmouth--I should not care to return and take up my apprenticeship as a fisherman."

"Will you ship regularly on board the Sea Belle?" the captain asked.

"Thank you, sir, I think I would rather not decide upon anything until we get to Calcutta. I have thirty pounds in money--fifteen pounds of which were given me on board the Dutch ship, and the rest I received as wages for the voyage from England to Java. I carried the money in a belt round my waist, and have kept it ever since. So I need not be in any great hurry to settle upon what I shall do; but certainly, after a regular sea life, I should not like to go back to being a fisherman. I am now past sixteen and, in another three years, shall be able to earn more wages.

"I should have taken you for at least two years older," the captain said; "you are as big and strong as many lads of eighteen."

"I have done a good lot of hard work, in the last two years," Will said; "for on board the Dutch ship--although, of course, I was only rated as a boy--I used to do man's work, aloft."

Other people would have been deceived, as well as the captain. Hard work and exposure to the air had done much to age the boy. He had been tall and slight for his age when he left the workhouse and, while he had not ceased growing in height, he had widened out considerably and, had he asserted himself to be eighteen years of age, few would have questioned the statement.

The Sea Belle for some time kept south, touching at some of the islands where a trade was done with the Papuans; then her head was turned north and, after an eventful voyage, she reached Calcutta, where the captain had been ordered to fill up with cotton, or grain, for England. The captain at once landed, and proceeded to the office of the agent of the firm who owned the Sea Belle. He was shown into that gentleman's private room where, at the time, two gentlemen were seated, chatting. The agent was personally acquainted with the captain, and asked him to sit down and smoke a cigar.

"This is Captain Mayhew, of the Sea Belle," he said to his friends. "He has been trading, for the last three months, down among the islands.

"These gentlemen, Captain Mayhew, are Major Harrison and Captain Edwards, who have just arrived from China, with their regiment, in the Euphrates.

"Has your voyage been a pleasant one, captain?"

"Pleasant enough, sir, on the whole; but we were attacked by the Malay pirates, and I should certainly not be here to tell the tale, at present, had it not been for the quickness and shrewdness of a lad, who had been shipwrecked on the coast."

"How is that, Mayhew? Tell us all about it."

Captain Mayhew related the whole story of the fight with the pirates; saying that, unquestionably, had it not been for Will's pointing out the passage through the reef, in the first place, and his idea of burying a submarine mine, in the second, the Sea Belle would have fallen into the hands of the pirates.

"But where did the boy spring from? How on earth came he to be there?"

Captain Mayhew then related the story of William Gale's adventures, as he had them from his own lips.

"He must be a cool and plucky young fellow, indeed," Major Harrison exclaimed. "I should like to see him.

"What style and type is he, captain? A rough sort of chap?"

"By no means," the captain answered. "He is surprisingly well mannered. Had I met him elsewhere, and in gentleman's clothes, I do not think that I should have suspected that he was not what he appeared. His features, too, somehow or other, strike one as being those of a gentleman; which is all the more singular when, as a fact, he told me he had been brought up in a workhouse.

"In a workhouse!" Major Harrison repeated. "Then I suppose his parents were farm laborers."

"No," the captain answered; "he was left at the door, on a stormy night, by a tramp who was found drowned, next morning, in a ditch near. He had, when found, a gold trinket of some kind round his neck; and he tells me that, from that and other circumstances, it was generally supposed by the workhouse authorities that he did not belong to the tramp, but that he had been stolen by her; and that he belonged, at least, to a respectable family."

"All this is very interesting," Captain Edwards said. "I should like much to see the boy. Will you come and dine with us this evening on board the Euphrates--Mr. Reynolds, here, is coming--and have the boy sent on board--say, at nine o'clock--when we can have him in, and have a chat with him?"

Captain Mayhew readily agreed. William was even then waiting outside for him, having landed with him; and the captain, when he entered the office, had told him to walk about for an hour and amuse himself with the sights of Calcutta, and then return and wait for him. He said nothing about his being close at hand, as he did not wish the officers to see him in the rough outfit which had been furnished him on board ship; intending to surprise them by his appearance in decent clothes. Accordingly, on leaving Mr. Reynolds' office he took him to one of the numerous shops, in the town, where clothes of any kind can be procured.

"Now, Will," he said, "I want you to get a suit of shore-going clothes. You can get your sea outfit tomorrow, at your leisure; but I want you to show up well at the mess, this evening, and a suit of good clothes will always be useful to you."

Captain Mayhew had intended to pay for the outfit, himself, but this Will would not hear of; and Captain Mayhew was the less reluctant to let the lad have his own way as he had, in the course of the interview with the agent, agreed that the lad's services deserved a handsome recognition from the firm; and that the sum of one hundred guineas should be given to him, at once. The agent felt, no doubt, that the firm would thoroughly approve of the payment. Twenty pounds were to be given to Hans, for his share of the services; but the two suggestions which had saved the Sea Belle had both originated with Will.

By Captain Mayhew's advice, Will purchased a suit of dark-colored tweed, a black tie, and some white shirts and collars. At other shops, he bought some boots and a Panama straw hat. Having completed their purchases, they walked for some hours about Calcutta; Will being delighted with the variety of the native costumes, and the newness and singularity of everything which met his eye.

On their return to the ghaut--as the landing stage is called--they found their various purchases already stowed in the Sea Belle's boat; which had, about an hour before, come to shore to fetch them off. At seven o'clock Captain Mayhew went off to the Euphrates, leaving orders that the boat was to bring Will over, at nine. At that hour the lad was dressed in his new clothes which, fortunately, fitted him well.

"By jingo, Will," the first mate said, as he entered the cabin, "you look a tip-topper, and no mistake."

The mate was right. The lad, with his sunburnt face, quiet manner, and easy carriage, looked thoroughly at home in his attire.

"I don't know who your parents were, but I would bet a month's pay that the old tramp you were telling us of had nothing to do with it; for you look every inch a gentleman, from head to foot."

Will found, on gaining the deck of the Euphrates, that orders had been left by the officer in command that he was to be shown into the saloon cabin upon his giving his name to the sergeant, who came up at the sentry's call. He was at once conducted below. For a moment he felt almost bewildered as he entered; the size of the cabin, the handsomeness of its fittings, the well-laid table decked with fragrant flowers, so far surpassed anything he had ever seen, or thought of.

He was conducted to the head of the table, where Major Harrison, with Mr. Reynolds on one hand and Captain Mayhew on the other, sat near the colonel commanding the regiment. Captain Mayhew, who had already told the outline of the story, smiled quietly to himself at the expression of surprise which crossed the faces of the major and Mr. Reynolds, as well as of the other officers sitting near, at the appearance of the lad he introduced to them. The colonel ordered a chair to be placed next to himself, and told the servant to fill a glass of wine for Will, and entered into conversation with him.

"I think, gentlemen," he said, after a minute or two, seeing that the lad did not touch the wine that was poured out for him, "it will be pleasanter on deck; for it is terribly hot here, and I see that most of you have finished your wine."

An adjournment was at once made, to the deck. Here cigars were lighted and, the colonel and senior officers taking their places in some of the easy chairs--which were still all out--the rest gathered round to hear the story, which Major Harrison had promised them would be an interesting one.

Captain Mayhew first gave his account of the fight between the Sea Belle and the pirates, beginning at the point when, as he was hotly chased and despairing of making a successful defense, the canoe with the two lads in it came out to him. Then Will was called upon to explain how he came to be there, at that moment. He told briefly how the fishing smack was sunk, how he had saved himself by clinging to the bob stay of the Dutch Indianan, and how he had sailed in this vessel to Java; and was on his way in her to China, when wrecked in the cyclone.

Here his audience insisted upon his giving them full details; and he accordingly told them the manner in which he and a few of the crew had escaped; how, when they were building a boat, they had been attacked by Malays, and all--except another lad and himself, who were hiding in a tree--were massacred by the pirates; how they had gone inland to a village where, having aided the natives when attacked by a hostile tribe, they had been most kindly received; how they had finally obtained a canoe, and spent their time in fishing, in hopes of seeing a passing sail; until the Sea Belle, chased by the Malay pirates, had appeared off the shore.

There was a genuine murmur of approval, from those thickly clustered round, as the lad finished his story; and the colonel warmly expressed his approval of his conduct, under such exciting circumstances.

"What are you going to do, now?" he asked.

"I have not made up my mind, sir," the lad said. "I expect that I shall ship in some vessel sailing for England, shortly."

"Major Harrison," the colonel said, "will you and Captain Mayhew come with me to my cabin?

"I should like to have a few minutes' private chat with you," he went on, putting his hand on Will's shoulder.

A minute or two later, the three gentlemen and Will were seated in the private cabin.

"Look here, my boy," the colonel said; "I have heard, from Major Harrison, what you had told Captain Mayhew concerning your birth and, certainly, your appearance and manner go far to sustain the belief that the tramp who left you was not your mother, and that your parents were of gentle birth. I do not say that a man's birth makes much difference to him; still, it does go for something and, in nine cases out of ten, the difference both in face and figure is unmistakable. Unless I am very wrong, your father was a gentleman.

"However, that is not to the point: it is your quickness and activity, your coolness in danger, and the adventures which you have gone through which interest us in you. Now I think it is a pity that a lad, who has shown that there is so much in him, should remain a sailor before the mast. You have not been so long at sea as to become wedded to it, and to be unable to turn your hands to anything else.

"Now, what do you say to enlisting? In the ranks are men of all sorts--gentlemen, honest men, and blackguards. The steady, respectable man is sure to rise. You can, the captain tells me, read and write well. There is a chance of active service, at present; and when there is active service, a man who distinguishes himself gets rapid promotion. The regiment land, tomorrow; and go straight through, by train, to the North. There is trouble in Afghanistan; and an ultimatum has just been sent, to the Ameer, that if he does not comply with our terms it will be war; and we hope to be there in time for the beginning of it. I can only say that, if you like to join, Major Harrison and myself will keep our eyes upon you and, if you deserve it, you may be sure of rapid promotion. You have greatly interested me in your story, and I should be very glad to give a helping hand to so deserving a young fellow.

"It is not usual, certainly, for a regiment to take recruits in India; but I don't suppose that there can be any objection to it."

"Thank you very much," Will said, when the colonel ceased. "I am greatly obliged to you for your kindness. I have never thought about the army, but I am sure that I cannot possibly do better than accept your kind offer.

"The only thing, sir, is about my age.

"Tut, tut!" the colonel interrupted, "I don't want to know anything about your age. When you go up for attestment, you will say that you are under nineteen, which will be strictly true. I will give a hint, and no further questions will be asked. Neither I nor anyone else know that you are not past eighteen and, in time of war, no one is particular as to the age of recruits, as long as they are fit to do their duty.

"You must work hard, to pick up enough knowledge of drill to enable you to take your place in the ranks. There is neither parade work, nor difficult maneuvering, in the face of an enemy; and you can finish up, afterwards.

"Are you quite agreed?"

"Quite, sir," Will said, joyously, "and am, indeed, obliged to you."

"Come on board, then, tomorrow at eight o'clock, and ask for Sergeant Ringwood."

William Gale left the cabin with a new prospect of life before him. He had, of late, rather shrunk from the thought of again taking his place as a ship boy; and the prospect of adventures--to say nothing of the advancement which might befall him, through the interest taken in him by the colonel--was delightful to him.

The last words the colonel had said when he left the cabin were:

"Say nothing about the workhouse, and as little as possible of anything which happened before you were wrecked on the island, in the barrack room."

When William and Captain Mayhew had left the cabin, Colonel Shepherd sent for Sergeant Ringwood.

"Sergeant," he said, "a young fellow will come on board, tomorrow at eight o'clock, to join the regiment as a recruit. Take him at once to the surgeon, and get him passed. I know we shall be able to give him but little drill, before we get to the frontier; but do all you can for him, and I will make it up to you. He is a smart young fellow, and I have a good deal of interest in him.

"He was on his way to China, and was wrecked among the Malays, and has gone through a good deal. Finding himself here with nothing to do, and with a prospect of active service on the frontier, he has decided to enlist and, as he is a gallant young fellow, I do not wish to balk his fancy."

The sergeant saluted and took his leave, impressed with the idea--although the colonel had not said so--that the new recruit was a young gentleman, who had joined the service simply for the sake of taking part in the war.

The next morning Will took leave of his friend Hans; who had, the previous day, shipped on board a Dutch ship, homeward bound; and who was, a few hours later, to shift his berth to her, after he had been on shore to fit himself out in clothes. Hans was much affected at saying goodbye to his companion, and the two promised to correspond with each other.

On bidding farewell to his friend the captain of the Sea Belle, the latter informed Will that Mr. Reynolds had, on behalf of the owners of the Sea Belle, paid 100 pounds to his account into the Bank of Hindustan; and that this, or any portion of it, would be paid to his order; as the captain had furnished the agent with a slip of paper upon which Will had, at his request, signed his name. This had, with the money, been deposited at the bank; so that his signature might be recognized, and honored.

On reaching the Euphrates, Will was at once taken charge of by Sergeant Ringwood; who took him before the doctor, to whom the colonel had already spoken. The medical examination was satisfactory, the doctor remarking:

"You are rather slight yet, but you will fill out, in time."

The age was asked, and given as under nineteen; and eighteen was inscribed against him, in the books. Then he was taken before the colonel, and attested; and was, from that moment, a member of the regiment. A uniform was served out to him, and the usual articles of kit. The sergeant saw that his belts were put on properly, and his knapsack packed; and half an hour afterwards he fell in, with his musket on his shoulder, among the troops paraded on the deck of the Euphrates, prior to embarkation.

So quickly had it all been managed that Will could hardly believe that he was awake as, feeling strangely hampered by his belts and accouterments, he descended the accommodation ladder, and took his place with his new comrades on board one of the great native boats, and rowed to the shore. The regiment was marched direct to the railway station, where the heavy baggage had been sent, on the previous day. The men took their places in the long train which stood in readiness and, half an hour later, steamed north from Calcutta.

Hitherto, none of his comrades had spoken to Will. In the bustle of landing, all had enough to do to look to themselves; and it was not until he found himself, with eight comrades and a corporal, in the railway carriage that he was addressed.

"Well, young 'un," one said, "what's yer name, and where do you come from? Calcutta isn't much of a place for recruiting."

"I was on my way to China," Will replied, "and got wrecked among the Malays; then I got picked up by a vessel, and we had some hot fighting. Then I was landed at Calcutta and, seeing nothing much to do, and hearing that there was a chance of a fight with the Afghans, I thought the best thing to do was to enlist.

"My name is William Gale."

"I wasn't quite sure that you were an Englishman. You are pretty nigh as dark as them copper-colored niggers here."

"So would you be," Will laughed, "if you had been living, as I have, for ten months among savages, without even a shirt to your back."

"Tell us all about it," the soldier said.

"This is a bit of luck, mates, our having someone who can tell us a tale, when we have got such a long journey before us."

Will made his story as full as he could, and it lasted a long time. When it was finished, the men expressed their opinion that he was a good sort and, Will having handed over to the corporal a sovereign--to be expended on drinks by the way, as his footing in the regiment--he became quite a popular character, and soon felt at home in his new position. _

Read next: Chapter 9. The Advance Into Afghanistan

Read previous: Chapter 7. The Fight With The Prahus

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