"Hah! Yes, I think I did give some such orders, sir, but how was I to know that it would turn out so dark, eh, sir? How was I to know it would turn out so dark?"

"It was very dark, sir, certainly," said Hilary.

"Yes, atrociously dark. And I distinctly told you to keep a sharp lookout."

"Yes, sir, and we did."

"It looks like it, Mr Leigh," said the lieutenant, pointing forward.

"Bowsprit gone, and all the forward bulwarks, leaving us helpless on the water, and you say you kept a good lookout. Mr Leigh, sir, you will be turned out of the service."

"I hope not, sir. I think I saved the ship."

"Saved? saved? Good gracious me, Mr Leigh," said the lieutenant, bursting out laughing; "what madness! Here, Waters--Tully--do you hear this?"

"Ay, ay, your honour."

"And what do you think of it?"

"As we'd all have gone to the bottom, sir, if it hadn't been for Mr Leigh here," said Waters, pulling his forelock.

"Oh!" said the lieutenant sharply; "and pray what do you think, Tully; and you, bo'sun?"

"Think just the same as Billy Waters, your honour," said the boatswain.

"And that 'ere's just the same with me," growled Tom Tully, kicking out a leg behind. "He's a won'ful smart orsifer Muster Leigh is, your honour; and that's so."

"Silence, sir! How dare you speak like that?" cried the lieutenant furiously. "Now, Mr Leigh," he added sarcastically, "if you will condescend to a.s.sist, there is a good deal to see to, for the forepart of His Majesty's ship _Kestrel_ is a complete wreck from your neglect.

I am going below to finish dressing, but I shall be back directly."

Hilary returned his officer's sarcastic bow, and then gave a stamp on the deck.

"Which I don't wonder at it, your honour," said Tom Tully, in his low deep growl: "I ain't said not nowt to my messmates, but I'll answer for it as they'll all be willing."

"Willing? willing for what?" cried Hilary.

"Shove the skipper into the dinghy with two days' provision and water, sir, and let him make the sh.o.r.e, if you'll take command of the little _Kestrel_."

"Why, you mutinous rascal," cried Hilary. "How dare you make such a proposal to me? Hold your tongue, and go forward, Tom Tully. Duty on board is to obey your superiors, and if they happen to be just a little bit unreasonable, you must not complain."

"All right, your honour," said Tom Tully, giving his loose breeches a hitch; "but if the skipper was to talk to me like he do to you--"

"Well, sir, what?"

"I'd--I'd--I'd--"

Tom Tully had taken out his tobacco-box, and opened his jack-knife, with which he viciously cut off a bit of twist, exclaiming:

"That I would!"

He said no more, but it seemed probable that he meant cut off his commander's head; and he then rolled forward to help the carpenter, and the whole strength of the crew, whom the first rays of a dull grey morning found still at work hauling in the tangle of spar and rope; and soon after, a stay having been secured to the wreck of the cut.w.a.ter, a staysail was hoisted, and the cutter pretty well answered her helm.

Hilary felt less disposed to take the lieutenant's words to heart, for he knew that if he were charged with neglect of duty the evidence of the men would be quite sufficient to clear him; so, after turning the matter over and over in his mind, he had cheerily set to work to try and get the cutter in decent trim, and, as the morning broke, crippled as she was in her fair proportions, she sailed well enough to have warranted the lieutenant in making an attack, should the schooner have come in sight.

But there was no such good fortune. Both the lieutenant and he swept the horizon and the cliff-bound coast with their gla.s.ses, and the _Kestrel_ was sailed along close insh.o.r.e in the hope that the enemy might be seen sheltered in some cove, or the mouth of one of the little rivers; but there was no result, and at last, very unwillingly, the cutter's head was laid for Portsmouth, and the lieutenant went below to prepare his despatch.

"How long shall we be refitting, carpenter?" asked Hilary, after a long examination of the damages they had received, and a thorough awakening to the fact that if it had not been for that turn of the helm they must have been struck amidships, and sent to the bottom.

"All a month, sir," said the carpenter. "There'll be a deal to do, and if we get out of the shipwright's hands and to sea in five weeks I'll say we've done well."

It was galling, for it meant four or five weeks of inaction, just at a time when Hilary was getting intensely interested in the political question of the day, and eagerly looking forward for a chance of distinguishing himself in some way.

"Who knows," he said to himself, "but that schooner may have borne the Young Pretender and his officers to the English coast. If it did I just lost a chance of taking him."

Ah! he thought, if he could have taken the young prince with his own hand. It would have been glorious, and he could have shown Sir Henry that he was on the way to honour and distinction without turning traitor to his king.

And so he went on hour after hour building castles in the air, but with little chance of raising up one that would prove solid, till they pa.s.sed by the eastern end of the Isle of Wight, went right up the harbour, and the lieutenant had a boat manned and went ash.o.r.e to make his report to the admiral.

To Hilary's great disgust he found that he was not to go ash.o.r.e, but to remain in charge of the cutter during the repairs, for the lieutenant announced his intention of himself remaining in the town.

But Hilary had one satisfaction--that of finding that the lieutenant had made no report concerning his conduct on the night of the collision. In fact, the lieutenant had forgotten his mad words almost as soon as he had spoken them, for they were only the outcomings of his petty malicious spirit for the time being.

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.

OFF HIS GUARD.

The carpenter's four weeks extended to five, then to six, and seven had glided away before the cutter was pretty well ready for sea. Urgent orders had been given that her repairs were to be hastened, and the crew was kept in readiness to proceed to sea at once, but still the dockyard artificers clung to their job in the most affectionate manner. There was always a bit more caulking to do, a little more paint to put on, new ropes to reeve; and when at last she seemed quite ready, an overlooker declared that she would not be fit to go to sea until there had been a thorough examination of the keel.

It was during these last few days that Hilary found a chance of going ash.o.r.e, and gladly availed himself of his liberty, having a good run round Portsmouth, a look at the fortifications; and finally, the weather being crisp, sunshiny, and the ground hard with frost, he determined to have a sharp walk inland for a change.

"I declare," he cried, as he had a good run in the brisk wintry air, "it does one good after being prisoned in that bit of a cutter."

He had been so much on board of late that he experienced a hearty pleasure in being out and away from the town in the free country air.

The frost was keen, and it seemed to make his blood tingle in his veins.

He set off running again and again, just pausing to take breath, and it was only when he was some miles away from the port and the evening was closing in that he began to think it was time to turn back.

As he did so he saw that three sailors who had been for some time past going the same way were still a short distance off, and as he pa.s.sed them it seemed to him that they had been indulging themselves, as sailors will when ash.o.r.e for a holiday.

"What cheer, messmate!" said one of them in his bluff, frank way. "Is this the way to London?"

"No, my lad; you're on the wrong road. You must go back three miles or so, and then turn off to the right."

"I told you so, Joe," the man exclaimed in an injured tone. "What's the good o' trusting to a chap like you? Here, come along and let's get back."

"I sha'n't go back," said the one addressed; "shall you, Jemmy?"

"Not I," said the other. "Can't us get to London this way, captain?"