CHAPTER XV.
A THREATENING SKY.
AT the end of July so large a number of troops had arrived that theservices of the sailors on shore were no longer required, and with theexception of those serving with the iron-clad train they returned onboard, the marines, however, still remaining in the town. On the 4th ofAugust the lads heard that a reconnaissance would take place next day,and that there would probably be a fight. Accordingly in the eveningthey walked up to Ramleh, and slept for the night in one of thedeserted houses. The trains soon began to arrive loaded with troops, andthe boys took up their position near one of the batteries on thesand-hills, where they could obtain an excellent view over the isthmusbetween the lakes Mareotis and Aboukir.
The advance soon began; it was composed of six companies of the 60thRifles, four companies of the 38th, and four of the 46th. These were tomarch by the canal, while seven companies of the marines moved along therailway embankment in company with the iron-clad train. The two partieswere to join at the point where the canal and the railway approachclosely to each other. The ground between the two embankments consistedof fields and marshy swamps.
The boys watched the 60th Rifles extending in skirmishing order, and assoon as they began to advance a movement was visible in the enemy'slines, and the Egyptians took up their position in a deep ditch acrossthe line of advance and opened a heavy fire upon the Rifles.
The Egyptians were altogether invisible, their position being onlymarked by a light line of smoke rising in front of a thick jungle.Fortunately they fired high, and the boys could see that the Riflescontinued advancing without much loss. When they neared the Egyptianposition the supports came up to the skirmishing line, and the wholewent forward at a rush. The instant they did so the Egyptians sprangfrom their ditch and rushed into the jungle behind.
The column was intended to advance to a white house on the canal, atthe point where the railway came close to it; but its commandermisunderstanding his orders stopped at a white house before he came toit. Thus the marines advancing along the embankment were leftunsupported. They had been met with a hot fire from the enemy, who wereposted in a large house surrounded by entrenchments, on which some gunshad been mounted. The guns on the train kept up a steady fire on thisposition, and the marines pushing forward were soon hotly engaged by theenemy's infantry, who were massing in great numbers on both of theirflanks.
As the marines were now far in advance of the other column, the orderwas given them to fall back. To cover this movement, Major Donald withfifty men advanced boldly close to the Egyptian position, and kept up sohot a fire that the enemy's advance was checked, while the main bodiesof the marines retired steadily across the fields to the embankment,keeping perfect order in spite of the tremendous fire that was pouredinto them, and bringing off every wounded man as he fell. Major Donald'sparty then fell back rapidly and joined them.
The enemy had now brought up several batteries of artillery, whichopened upon the marines, while the infantry pressed forward in heavymasses. The marines, however, aided by the musketry fire of the sailorsin the train, as well as by their machine-guns and heavy pieces ofartillery, kept them at bay as they fell back along the embankment, andas soon as the Egyptians came within range, the guns at Ramleh openedupon them, and they fell back to their camps, while the British columnsreturned to Ramleh.
The object of the reconnaissance had been served by the discovery of thestrength and position of the enemy's batteries, and it was evident thatit would need a large force to carry the formidable positions whichguarded the isthmus.
A week later the lads, on paying their usual morning visit to theconsulate, heard to their delight that the _Wild Wave_ had just beensignalled approaching the harbour, which was now crowded with shipping,as steamers laden with troops were arriving every day from England. Thelads hurried down to the port, and as soon as the _Wild Wave_ droppedher anchor they were alongside of her. They were very warmly greeted bythe captain and officers as they came on board ship.
"Well, you young scamps," Captain Murchison said after the firstgreetings were over, "you have given us a nice fright. What has it allbeen about? for at present we have heard nothing whatever beyond thefact that you were safe; and we are prepared to put you in irons fordesertion unless you can give us a completely satisfactory explanationof your absence. Mr. Timmins and myself are strongly of opinion that yousimply hid yourselves till the vessel sailed, so as to be able to have arun on shore and see all that was going on."
"We are very glad we have seen it, sir," Jim said; "but I don't think itwas at all our fault that we were left behind." And he then proceeded torelate to the captain the story of what had befallen them since theylast met.
"Well, lads, I congratulate you on your escape, which was certainly avery narrow one. You have, I hope, all written to your friends at hometo tell them everything that has taken place. It was most fortunate thatyour telegram from here arrived the day after we got to England, so thatyour friends practically received the news that you were missing andthat you were safe at the same time. We had delayed sending off letterstelling them that you were lost until we could receive an answer to ourtelegram to the consul. I went over and saw your mother and sister thesame evening, Jack. Of course your mother was in some alarm at thethought of the danger she pictured to herself that you must have gonethrough. I told her I expected that when the row began you had hid upsomewhere, and that not knowing that matters had quieted down again youhad remained there until after we sailed."
The boys had all written home on the day after they had rejoined theirfriends in Alexandria, and had, a week before the arrival of the _WildWave_, received answers to their letters. An hour later an officer cameoff with orders that the coal was not to be discharged on shore, butthat the transports would come alongside and fill up from her. For aweek all hands were engaged in the unpleasant duty of discharging thecoal. Steamer after steamer came alongside and took from one to threehundred tons on board, to supply the place of the coal consumed on theoutward voyage. All on board were heartily glad when the work was over,the decks scrubbed and washed down, and the hose at work upon thebulwarks and rigging.
"We shall not be clean again till we have had twelve hour's rain onher," Captain Murchison said. "It is the first time so far as I knowthat the _Wild Wave_ has carried coal, and I hope it will be the last,so long as I command her."
"Yes, I have been feeling a good deal like a chimney-sweep for the lastweek, sir," Mr. Timmins remarked; "and shall not feel clean again tillall my togs have been ashore and had a regular wash."
"I shall be glad to be out of this harbour," the captain said. "Thesetideless harbours soon get very unpleasant when there is much shippingin them. And yet I own I should like to wait to see the attack on theEgyptian position. I believe the last transports came in to-day, and asLord Wolseley arrived two days ago, I suppose they will be at it in aday or two. However, as I sent off a telegram this morning saying thatwe were empty, I suppose we shall get orders this afternoon or to-morrowmorning to go somewhere."
Late in the afternoon they were surprised by seeing the boats of thefleet and transports occupied in re-embarking large numbers of troops.
"Something is evidently up," Mr. Hoare said, as he stood with the ladswatching the busy scene. "I suppose Lord Wolseley thinks it will costtoo many lives to attack the Egyptian position in front, and that he isgoing to make a fresh landing somewhere along the coast so as to marchround and take them in the rear. Or it may be he is going to sail up thecanal and land at Ismailia; in that way, if he is sharp, he may getbetween Arabi and Cairo, and cut the enemy off altogether from thecapital."
The next morning at daybreak the great fleet of men-of-war andtransports steamed away for the East on their way to Ismailia, and the_Wild Wave_, which had got her orders late the evening before, sailedfor Genoa, where she was to take on board a cargo for England. Six weekslater she entered St. Katharine's Docks, and the three midshipmen wereat once released from duty. Jack had already packed
up his small kit,and, taking the train to Fenchurch St. and then a bus to Dulwich, wassoon home. As the ship had been signalled when she passed the Downs, hewas expected, and received a joyous welcome. Great was the interest ofhis mother and sister in the adventures he had passed through, and theywere delighted with the gold watch and the inscription, stating that ithad been presented to him by merchants of Alexandria whose property hehad been the means of rescuing from its plunderers.
The next morning Mrs. Robson received a note asking her to come up withJack and Lily to dine with the Godstones. Jack learned that while he hadbeen away Lily had been often there spending the day with Mildred, whowas nearly her own age. On their arrival Mildred took her off to her ownroom to have tea, while Jack dined with Mr. Godstone and his wife, andafter dinner had again to repeat the full story of his adventures. Hisstay in England was a short one, for the _Wild Wave_, as soon as she hadunloaded her cargo from Italy, was chartered for Calcutta, via the Cape,and a fortnight after his arrival at home Jack was again summoned torejoin his ship.
The _Wild Wave_ was again fortunate in her weather during the early partof her voyage, but when off the Cape encountered a heavy gale. Jack hadnever before seen a storm at sea, and, accustomed as he was to the shortchoppy waves at the mouth of the Thames, he was astonished at the sizeof those he now beheld. They seemed to him as large in comparison to thesize of the barque as those he had before seen were to that of thesmack. For three days the vessel lay to. Fortunately the glass had givennotice of the approach of the storm, and all the upper spars had beensent down and the vessel got under snug canvas before it struck her, andshe therefore rode out the gale with no farther damage than the carryingaway of part of her bulwarks, and the loss of some hen-coops and variousother of her deck gear. As soon as the gale abated sail was made, andthey continued on their course.
"Glad it is over, eh, Master Robson?" the sailmaker, Joe Culver, said toJack as he was leaning against the bulwark on the evening after thestorm had subsided, looking at the reflection of the setting sun on theglassy slopes of the long swell that was still heaving. Joe Culver, or,as he was always called on board, Old Joe, was a character; he hadsailed as man and boy over fifty-five years on board ships belonging tothe firm; and now, although sixty-seven years old, was still active andhearty. It was a legend among the sailors that Old Joe had not changedin the slightest degree from the time he was entered in the ship's booksas a boy.
"Old Joe is like the figure-head of a ship," a sailor said one day. "Hegot carved out of wood when he was little; and though he has got dintedabout a bit, he ain't never changed nothing to speak of. If you couldbut paint him up a bit he would be as good as new."
Joe could have gone into quarters on shore with a pension years before,for his long service had made him a marked character; and while othersailors came and went in the service of the firm, the fact that his namehad been on their books for so long a period, with but two breaks, hadmade him a sort of historical character, and at the end of each longvoyage he was always expected to show himself at the office to have afew words with the head of the firm. He was still rated as an ableseamen, with extra pay as sailmaker, but he was never expected to goaloft. In every other respect he could still do his work, and could turnout a new sail or alter an old one as well as any sailmaker on board Mr.Godstone's fleet.
As Captain Murchison remarked to the owners when he saw that Joe wasthis voyage to form one of his crew: "The old fellow would be worth hispay if he never put his hand to work. He keeps a crew in good humourwith his yarns and stories; and if there is a grumbler on board healways manages to turn the laugh against him, and to show him to theothers in his true light as a skulker and a sneak. He looks after theboys and puts them up to their duty, and acts generally as a father tothem. A man like that, attached to the owners, always cheerful andgood-tempered, ready to make the best of everything, and to do his workto the best of his power, is a very valuable man on board a ship. Ialways feel that things will go on comfortably forward when I see JoeCulver's name down in the articles."
"It was grand, Joe," Jack replied in answer to his question, "though itwas very awful. I had no idea that a storm would be anything like that,or the waves so high. I have seen storms on our own East Coast, and theyseemed bad enough, but they were nothing to this."
"And this weren't nothing to some storms I have seen in these latitudes,Master Robson. I have doubled the Cape two score of times, I shouldsay--eh, more than that, coming and going--and I have seen storms hereto which that which has just blown over was but a capful of wind. Why,sir, I have seen a ship laid on her beam-ends when she was not showing arag of canvas, and even when we had cut all the masts away the pressureof wind on her hull kept her down until we thought that she would neverright again. Altogether I have been wrecked eight times, and three ofthem was down in these 'ere latitudes. They says as my name has been onthe books of the firm for fifty-five years; but that ain't quitecorrect, for twice it was written off with D.D. after it, but somehow orother I turned up again, just as you see. One of these 'ere businesseshappened hereabouts."
"I should like to hear about it awfully, Joe."
"Well, sir, seeing it was not what you may call an everyday sort ofaffair, and as perhaps the yarn might give you a hint as might be usefulto you if you ever gets into the same kind of fix, I don't mind if Itell you. Just at present I have not finished my work, but if you andthe other two young gents like to come forward here at six bells I willtell you about it."