*CHAPTER III*
*The Vigilant under Orders*
"Seven Bell" Tea Time--Sally Hobbs is Entertained--Mr. Rashleigh--The Pirates Raid a Monastery--A Fire on Shore--"A" Company Lands--"A" Company Doubles--A Fierce Tussle--Mr. Travers is Missing--The Return
_Written by Midshipman Ford_
Jim Rawlings and I managed to hold our end "up" all right in thegunroom, and hadn't been aboard a week before the Sub begun to leave usalone. We had hoped that that wretched telegram had been lostsomewhere, but it turned out that it had only been "hung up" atShanghai, and when the _Ringdove_ came down with the Admiral's answer tothe Captain's letters, she brought it with her. Dicky was on watch,heard Mr. Rashleigh tell someone that he had a telegram a fortnight oldfor the Captain, guessed it was ours, and rushed down to the gunroomflat to tell us. He looked as frightened as we felt. Jim suggestedasking Willum to try and steal it from the Captain's table, and we did,but Willum didn't like midshipmen, and told us that the Captain had hishand on top of it too, so we could do nothing but huddle up on ourchests and wait.
Presently someone shouted down that we'd been ordered to recapture theyacht and go for the pirates, and everyone began yelling and shoutingand cheering; you could hear the cheers as the news passed along fromone mess to the other. It was so exciting, that Jim and I forgot allabout that wretched telegram, and we all made a fearful row in thegunroom, and Mr. Hamilton, the big Engineer Lieutenant, hammered out"Rule, _Britannia_" and "We won't go home till morning" on the piano.It was simply grand.
It was just about "seven bell" tea time when we heard the news, and whenwe'd let off steam Mr. Langham banged on the table for silence."Gentlemen," he shouted, "on this great occasion, before you commence tostuff yourselves with bread and jam, we will perform the time-honouredceremony of 'over the main top', the last midshipman down to have no'seven bell' tea. Stand by!" and we all tried to get a good positionnear the door. "One! Two! Five! Go!" and we all scrambled out,helter-skelter up on deck, flattening out the sentry on the Captain'scabin, who did not get out of the way in time, up to the boat deck, intothe starboard main rigging, clambered up it, into the fighting top,jumped across in a mob, down the port main rigging, half sliding andgetting our hands trodden on, and dashed back to the gunroom, where theSub-lieutenant and the A.P. were sitting with their watches in theirhands, to see whether any records had been beaten.
I was amongst the first few, because I had got a good start, but Jim wasnearly last--I'd seen him helping Dicky to haul himself into thefighting top. Dicky and Ponsonby--he was called Pongo for short--a fatlittle cadet, were actually the last, coming in together and bothclaiming not to be last. Dicky, like an ass, squeaked out, "He trod onmy thumb," and held it up to show the blood, "going up the ratlines,"and Pongo gasped, horribly out of breath, "I couldn't climb into thetop, I couldn't really; I nearly fell," and we all yelled with delight."You climb into you hammock fast enough, you fat little beast," said Mr.Langham. "The first three are Mr. Webster, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Johnson.Mr. Pongo and Mr. 'Dear Little Dicky' are last--a dead heat; neither ofthem will have any seven bell tea. Fall out! Dismiss'"
It had just struck seven bells too, and Ah Man, the Chinese messman, andHong Cho, his steward, had covered the table with cups and plates,loaves of bread, tins of salt butter, and pots of jam. We all scrambledfor places--there wasn't room for us all to sit down together--andgrabbed at Ah Man's long white coat as the fat old chap came along, withhis big teapot, and tried to get an early whack of tea. "No can do,Gen'l'men! Makee too muchee bobberee; no can do, all same one time,"the old chap shrieked in his funny voice, as he pushed his way betweenthe table and the bulkhead.
Poor Dicky and Pongo had to wait on the Sub, cut him slices of bread,spread them with butter, pile them up with jam, and then stand toattention, whilst he very slowly ate them, and made funny remarks withhis mouth full--we had to laugh at them, whether we thought them funnyor not.
"The great thing in life, Mr. Pongo," he said, stuffing a huge piece ofbread and jam into his mouth, "is to be moderate in everything," andwhen he could speak again, "You, Mr. Dear Little Dicky, may suck yourbleeding thumb if you're thirsty, and don't take it out again until Itell you."
So there Dicky had to stand, with his thumb in his mouth, looking anass, and awfully miserable.
"There is still a chance of your getting some tea, my pet lambs," hewent on. "Jones and Withers will be here in five minutes" (they werethe midshipman of the watch and signal midshipman, and came off watch at4 o'clock), "and they'll have to go over the 'main top' before I canmake my final decision."
It wasn't much of a chance, and when they did come down and were orderedover the "main top", they were back again in a very much shorter timethan Pongo or Dicky had taken.
"I am so very sorry," said the Sub, chaffing them, "but for my sake, dotry and keep alive till dinner-time!"
"Now do, just for our sakes!" shouted nearly everyone--except Jim, whowas angry, and I rather fancy I didn't, because I was angry too, for itreally wasn't fair sport to make fun of such an ass as Dicky.
The buglers sounded off "evening quarters" just then, so Pongo and Dickyescaped any more "rotting", though they dare not have any tea or cake,even when the Sub's back was turned, because that was against the rules.
Directly after the "dismiss" was sounded, Jim and I were sent for by theCaptain. All our excitement simply fell out of us, and we werefearfully frightened--Jim was as pale as a sheet. We went in togetherand stood to attention in front of him, quaking all over.
"Umph!" he growled. "What's the meaning of this?" and he held out thehateful telegram; but we hadn't the pluck to say anything--wordswouldn't come. "Infernal cheek, that's what it was, and must have costyou a pretty penny," and he glared at us over his cigar smoke. "Apretty penny, eh?"
Jim managed to tell him "One pound fifteen, sir."
"Umph! silly young fools," and then he hunted through drawer afterdrawer in his knee-hole table, we didn't know in the least what wasgoing to happen--Jim told me afterwards that he thought he was huntingfor a cane--found a couple of sovereigns and gave us each one--I nearlydropped mine, I was so surprised--and growled out, "Off you go; don't doit again."
We just had the presence of mind to say, "Thank you, sir," and streakedout like lightning, feeling happier than I can tell you, for now wehadn't a worry in the world--well, hardly, for the Sub didn't reallycount, nor Dicky either--and we had nothing to spoil our thinking aboutthe pirates.
That very afternoon Mr. Hobbs and Miss Hobbs came on board to tea withthe Commander, and he presently sent down to tell the Sub to have theplace "tidied up", as she wanted to come down and see the gunroom. Shecame, too, in a few minutes, and those of us who could not escape wereintroduced to her, and then she sat down at our old "jingly" piano andsang nigger songs to us, and we got over being shy, and the othersgradually came in, and we crowded round her, standing on the benches andtable, and joined in the choruses.
She was so absolutely "ripping", that when she went away we all sang"For she's a jolly good fellow", and did the hip! hip! hooray! partjolly well--because we meant it. She got quite white, I don't know why,some tears actually ran all down her face, she put her hand on Mr.Langham's arm--he looked jolly uncomfortable, but couldn't move awaybecause he kicked up against the gunroom stove--and said, "Guess you'reall too sweet for words," and slipped away back to the Commander'scabin, where her father was. That made us quiet again--the tear part, Imean--and she looked such a regular "brick", that we all would have doneanything for her, and it made it still more exciting to know that it washer yacht which we were going to try and get back. Jim swore that he'd"scupper" the brute who'd cut off her hair, if he could find him, andI'm certain that we all wanted to have a jolly good try too.
Well, at last we did get away, one exciting morning, the _Ringdove_,_Goldfinch_, and _Sparrow_ coming along with us, and the _Huan Min_simply maki
ng the whole sky behind us as black as your hat. The smokeshe made was so thick, that it looked as if it didn't like coming out ofher funnel.
For a week we wandered backwards and forwards to leeward of one of thegroups of islands, all of us in double watches at night, so as to keep abetter look-out, but nothing happened, and after that we chose anothergroup and waited outside while the gunboats searched it. Still nothinghappened, and I don't mind telling you that this wasn't our idea ofexcitement and pirate chasing. A third week had nearly gone by when ourfirst news of the pirates came.
Very early one morning the _Ringdove_ was sighted coming towards us veryfast, and presently her Captain, Mr. Rashleigh, bounced on board. Hewas quite purple in the face with excitement, and looked fatter thanever. "The Skipper hasn't turned out yet," the Commander told him, ashe took him down below. "You'd better be careful. He's a bit 'livery'in the morning." He hadn't been below three minutes before he bouncedup on deck again, looking "down in the mouth", went back to his gunboatwithout saying a word to anybody, and the _Ringdove_ steamed away.
The Commander had to go to the Captain immediately, and through the openskylight I heard the Captain bellow, "that fat little blockhead has let'em slip through his fingers. He drives the crew of a junk ashore, andnever stops to see what becomes of 'em. I've sent him back, and we'dbetter follow him." Then I heard him give a terrific "Umph!"
Dicky found out all that had happened from the coxswain of the whalerwhich had brought Mr. Rashleigh across. He had slipped down the ladderdirectly, which was rather a smart thing to do. The coxswain had toldhim that yesterday evening, just as it was getting dark, they hadsighted a junk becalmed under an island. Her crew could be seen gettingout their sweeps and working at them frantically to try and escape, butMr. Rashleigh had turned on the _Ringdove's_ searchlight, and, so thecoxswain said, thrown a drum of oil on the fires. At any rate, he jollysoon began to overhaul her rapidly, and as she came up, the junk's crewjumped overboard and swam for the shore. Mr. Rashleigh immediately senta cutter's crew away to board her. Fortunately there had been somelittle delay in shoving off, and before they could pull halfway the junkblew up, which proves that she must have been a pirate. The cutter wasso close that pieces of burning wood actually fell into the boat, and itwas jolly lucky that they weren't actually alongside.
Mr. Rashleigh had only waited to pick up the cutter, and had thensteamed back to us.
The _Vigilant_ didn't wait long after the _Ringdove_ had gone backagain, and followed her to the island, but by the time we'd got there,there wasn't a trace of the junk. Then came more excitement, for "A"small-arm company--that was my company, the left half of it at anyrate--was "piped" to fall in. I had to get my gaiters on, and arevolver and a cutlass, and then superintend the serving out ofammunition. Mr. Travers, a tall, very aristocratic Lieutenant, was incharge, and the Commander came too--more excited than anyone--and wewere all sent ashore. The Commander sprang into the soft mud with awhoop, and more or less waded ashore, and we all followed him. I gotcovered with mud up to my knees, and that pair of trousers was never ofany use afterwards except for dirty work. It was only a bit of anisland, with a small village on the opposite side, so we spread out inskirmishing order and crept down on it, expecting to have shots fired atus every second. There seemed to be a lot of smoke about, and there wasa burning smell in the air, and when we'd got within three hundred yardsthe Commander gave another whoop and sang out, "Rush 'em, boys!" and weall raced down as hard as we could, but the only living things, there,were some pigs and dogs, which ran away squealing and yapping. Therewas only one hut which hadn't been burnt to the ground--some were stillsmouldering---and down on the beach were two dead corpses--ugh! Theywere the first I had ever seen, and though I didn't really want to doso, I couldn't help going down to look at them closely. Some of my menturned them over with their feet, to see how they'd been killed, andthen I had to go away.
Presently some of the villagers began to creep back, and then we learntfrom them what had happened, through a Chinaman whom we had brought withus as an interpreter. In the middle of last night a band of men hadswooped through the village and set fire to the huts. Whilst thefrightened people were trying to escape or put out the fires, they'd cutthe mooring ropes of a junk lying close inshore, and had sailed away.It was their only junk, too, and the poor brutes were absolutely ruined.Before we left the village they'd all come back, and were moaning andwringing their hands, but doing nothing to help themselves. I shallnever forget one poor old woman, just a wrinkled bag of bones she was,sitting on a stone in front of one of the half-burnt huts. They hadbrought one of the corpses to her, and she was swaying from side toside, making a funny noise, and looking past everything, as though shewas mad. One of the bluejackets gave her some tobacco as we went by."Here, mother!" he said, "here's a bit of navy prick,"[#] and shesnatched it from him, stuffed some of it into her mouth, and went onswaying and moaning.
[#] Navy Prick--Navy tobacco is served out in the raw leaf, and afterbeing rolled and squeezed together by the men, is known as Navy Prick.
When we got aboard again--I'd never been so dirty in my life--theCaptain was simply furious. I heard him say, "If that little fool hadonly stayed where he was, he'd have caught 'em," and we steamed back toour cruising ground.
That didn't end the day's excitement--not by a long chalk--for presentlywe sighted a solitary junk, thought it might be the one in which thepirates had escaped, and chased her. However, it turned out to be oneof the Tinghai war junks looking for us, and bringing letters from theTaotai and Mr. Hobbs.
The news must have been very serious, for the Commander and theNavigator and the Engineer Commander were all sent for, and we couldhear the Captain's bellowing voice talking very fast.
We soon knew why; Willum and the sentry told us. The pirates had raidedthe monastery of Tu Pu, cleared out all the monks' hoards, and left themhardly anything except what they stood up in. The Taotai had writtenimploring us to go back to Tinghai.
We didn't understand how important this was till the A.P. (Moore, theAssistant Paymaster) heard of it, and then he whistled, "My aunt! youchaps, it's the richest monastery in North China, and you can see itfrom the top of Joss House Hill--it's not twenty miles away."
Well, that made it exciting enough for anyone, and showed how daringthese pirates were becoming; and we all expected to go back at once, butsomeone heard the Captain growl, "I've made my plans, and I'm not goingto fly this way and that way, every other second, for all the bloomingTaotais and pirates in the world." So we didn't go back till theSaturday afternoon--as we had arranged. No sooner had we anchored underJoss House Hill, than the Taotai and Mr. Hobbs came on board, the oldChinaman in a great state of funk. They brought two other Chinamen withthem, and they turned out to be two of the servants at the monastery.Six days ago the monks had given shelter to some seamen, who had knockedat the great gates and told a yarn of having been shipwrecked. At nightthese chaps had knocked the doorkeepers on the head, opened the gates,and let in a whole crowd of Chinamen, and while some of them kept themonks in their quarters, the others had looted the treasury and cartedaway everything of value. One of these two men had been too frightenedto notice anything, but the other said that he had managed to escape,had hidden in a swamp down by the sea, and had seen two steamers, onelarge and the other small, close inshore, and that the robbers all wentaway in them.
"That's Hobbs's yacht and the tramp steamer, I'll bet you anything," theSub said.
The Captain came up to see the Taotai and Mr. Hobbs over the side, andwe heard him ask Mr. Hobbs: "What's become of that great German chapHoffman, eh?"
"He streaked across to squint at that collection of old monks rightaway. Says he'll get information from them at first hand, and means tofind that yacht of his before he's much older, I guess."
"Where's Darter Sally?" asked the Captain.
"Staying up at the Mission House. Guess she's gotten a shy fit andwouldn't come on board," and the litt
le man smiled, whilst the Captainsnorted, as if that was the last thing in the world he could believe.
We had been away from Tinghai for nearly three weeks, and of course wehad run out of fresh grub down in the gunroom, so you can bet your bootsthe very first thing that Mr. Langham did was to send Ah Man ashore tobuy some; and he came back with a sampan loaded down with things, muttonand fowls and ducks and eggs, and any amount of green stuff. We had agrand "blow out" at dinner that night, and afterwards the band played onthe quarterdeck, and the ward room officers sent down to ask us to joinforces in two double sets of "lancers".
Several officers from the gunboats, and that ripping Chinese friend ofMr. Lawrence, had come on board too, and we had a great time. JimRawlings was on watch, so he turned Dicky over to me as my partner, witha handkerchief tied round his leg, below the knee, to show that he was alady; and though he spoilt the dance, because he didn't much care forthe free fight part of it, that did not matter much, as we neverfinished it. Just when we were in the middle of the "grand chain", downcame a signalman to report that there was a fire on shore, and everyonestopped to look at it. Then another started some distance from thefirst, and then a third, till soon flames were shooting up from severalparts of Tinghai, close down by the water's edge, and we could hear agreat row going on. Somebody suddenly sang out, "There's a rifle shot",and we all listened, and in a moment or two could distinctly hear riflesgoing off; and then tom-toms banged furiously all over the town, and oneof the junks fired three guns and burnt a red light.
We all stopped dancing and watched the flames. We could see them eatingtheir way along the water front, bending and curling as the breeze sweptthem in front of it, and spreading up the sides of Joss Hill. Seenthrough our telescopes, it was a very grand sight, for the native housesburnt fiercely, and soon the whole of the harbour between us and thetown was glowing with the fire. We could see the trading junkshurriedly trying to cast off from the shore before the flames reachedthem, drifting across the reddened water, and disappearing like blackghosts. We could also presently hear the actual crackle and splutter ofthe fire, and even the shouts of the Chinese. The Commander had beenall this time fidgeting round the Captain, evidently wanting to suggestsomething, but not quite liking to do so, and I heard him whisper to theGunnery Lieutenant to get everything ready to land the fire engines.Mr. Whitmore went away with a grin on his face to do this, very quietly,and we all watched the Captain to see if he was going to give the order,and almost shivered with excitement at the prospect of being sentashore--at any rate, I know that I myself shivered. The Commander stillfidgeted round the Captain, when suddenly there was such a furious burstof flames, that he plucked up courage, and we--we were all listening andlonging for him to speak--heard him say: "It's getting pretty bad, sir.It seems to be working its way uphill towards the Mission House, andthere seems to be a good deal of rioting going on, sir."
"Umph!" the Captain growled, sticking his cigar into the corner of hismouth, so that he could use his night-glasses better. The Commanderknew that it was very inadvisable to actually suggest landing the fireengines, because the Captain hated anything being suggested to him; butwe saw that he was getting more and more nervous, and at last he brokeout again: "It's not more than half a mile from the Mission House now,sir, and a native crowd is very apt to get out of hand. I hope themission people and those Americans can clear out in time."
"I suppose you want to land and put it out, do you?" grunted theCaptain. "All right, do what you like, umph! Teaching your grandmotherto---- Umph!"
You may be pretty certain that we all heard every word, and were offthat quarterdeck in a twinkling, rushing down below to change into ouroldest uniform, even before the bo'sn's mate, who was standing by topipe it, yelled out: "Away fire engines for landing," and then "'A' and'B' small-arm companies fall in," whilst the bugler sounded off themarines' call.
Dicky came down to help me find my things--he was not to land--and thestrange little beggar excitedly strapped on my gaiters, to save time.As you know, I was one of the Mids of "A" company, and was on deck againin a brace of shakes to see my half company of twenty-five men fall in,my heart simply thumping with delight when I saw one of the gunner'smates passing round ball cartridge. I don't know anything which givesyou more of a thrill than the feel of a handful of loose cartridges,when you know that you may have to use them, in a few minutes, for thereal thing.
In twenty minutes we were halfway ashore, towed by the steam pinnace.Looking back, we could see the sides of the _Vigilant_ and the gunboats,simply looking as if they'd been painted red and glowing; and as we drewnearer the shore, it seemed to us that the whole town was on fire, theflames roaring and crackling in the most terrifying manner. Right upabove the flames and the smoke we saw the Joss House on top of the hillall lighted up too, and perhaps what was the weirdest thing of all, wasthat funny strange sound that a frightened mob always makes.
Mr. Travers, the lieutenant of "A" company, formed up directly welanded, about fifty yards from the edge of the water, and we had to keepback an excited crowd which began to gather, while "B" company and themarines scrambled ashore and dragged the fire engines and hoses out ofthe boats.
I don't think that I had ever been so excited in my life. It was rathernervous work too, for the Chinese began pressing against us--anevil-looking crowd they were, come from the old town, we learntafterwards--but Mr. Travers was simply splendid. He is a tall, thin,frightfully lackadaisical and aristocratic-looking man, and he stoodthere, in front of "A" company, and never stirred a muscle, though thenatives thronged around him and hustled him. You would have thoughtthat he did not even see them. Presently some stones began flyingamongst us from somewhere at the back of the mob, and my men began toget impatient--you could feel that, even without watching them shufflingfrom one foot to the other, or jamming their caps down on their heads,or pulling their chin stays down, as if they were getting ready for ascrap. The crowd got bolder then, and began to press still moreclosely. I was nearly separated from my half company, and was reallyrather nervous, when Mr. Travers sang out: "'A' company, at 'shun! Fixswords!"[#] I repeated: "Left half company! Fix swords!" and was veryrelieved to do so, I need hardly tell you, and drew my dirk. The menall bent down to the left, and it was very comforting to hear the rattleof their bayonets being snapped on the rifles. "'A' company! Stand atease!" sang out Mr. Travers, and you could see the two lines ofbayonets, like streaks of light, looking jolly sharp and pointed.
[#] Bluejackets' bayonets are always spoken of as "swords" in the navy,and the order is always, "Fix swords". The Royal Marines give the order,"Fix bayonets".
The Chinese didn't stay too close after that, especially as theremainder of the men had landed by this time, and we began to advance upthe beach and into the town. It was very unpleasant at first, becausethe flames seemed so close and almost scorched us, roaring in places soloudly that we could not hear any orders. We had to move aside, too,every now and then, to avoid burning pieces of wood that fell, but wegradually worked round in front of the fire, to make our way uphilltowards the Mission House, and pressed along through the streets whichhad not yet been attacked. A Chinese street is bad enough in thedaytime, but it was perfectly horrid now, and we had to force our wayalong, pressing a yelling "smelling" mob in front of us. These streetswere almost dark, too, which made it all the worse, and I don't know howwe managed to get along as well as we did, stumbling at every otherstep, and lurching into each other. I tried to keep as close to Mr.Travers as possible, but it was almost like a free fight, and we shovedand pushed for all we were worth, sometimes having even to use our fiststo clear a way. More often than not, I was simply carried forward by thepressure of my men behind me, and all the time we could hear the fireroaring and crackling only two or three streets off. We had first tomake a wide sweep round to the right, then go uphill to get round thefire and above it, and then back again to the left in order to getbetween it and the Mission, where, of course, we knew that themis
sionary, his wife, Mr. Hobbs, and his daughter must be in greatdanger. We fought our way along as fast as we could, and presently gotinto a broader street, where the crowd did not bother us so much, andwhere we made much better progress, but were right to leeward of theburning town, and were smothered with smoke and sparks. Just then JimRawlings rushed up--he was acting as "doggy" to the Commander--bringingwith him a native, covered with blood. "The Commander wants you tohurry on as fast as you can," he told Mr. Travers; "they're looting theMission. This man will show you the way; he's one of the Missionservants."
"My God, that's what I feared!" groaned Mr. Travers, and shouted to themen to "double". "Double, men! double!" and 'A' company, spitting andchoking and coughing, because of the smoke, commenced running. Fromsomewhere in the rear the Commander joined us, Jim panting behind him.He had his sword drawn, and looked terrible. "I've brought ten moremen, Travers," he gasped, and had enough breath to shout: "Keep it up!Keep it up, men! There are women to be saved!" The men yelled, andwent even faster than before, panting and sweating. We'd got above thetown, well clear of the fire, but we could still feel its heat, and werewet through with sweat. The Chinese servant couldn't keep up with us,but that did not matter, for we suddenly turned a corner and saw, threehundred yards ahead of us, the white walls of the Mission House, and sawthat it was surrounded by a howling mob of natives.
I heard the Commander give a groan, a funny kind of sob it was, and heand Mr. Travers and Jim and I simply tore along. We hadn't more thanfour men with us, because the others, with their rifles in their hands,were not able to run so fast; but I don't think anybody would havestopped, even if he had been alone, and the mob had been twice as big.You thought of nothing but pretty little Sally Hobbs with her great eyesand her cropped hair. Suddenly, from a street on our left, darted atall figure, brandishing a sword and followed by twenty or thirty more.They rushed out from the dark shadows of the houses, and we thought theywere going to attack us--at any rate, I did--and I don't mind confessingthat I felt frightened, though chiefly, I think, because a scrap withthem would hinder us from rescuing Sally Hobbs. One of our men firedhis rifle, we heard a yell of pain, and then, before we could doanything more, the leader came out into the firelight, and we saw thatit was Lieutenant Ching, of the _Huan Min_. "Come on, sir!" he shouted,and we all mixed together in a crowd, and ran as fast as we could. Twohuge Tartar bluejackets panted beside me, their felt boots hardly makingthe least noise, and I don't think that I shall ever forget them, ortheir white faces, or the sound of their breathing as they ran alongsideme, making not the least noise with their feet.
The mob was so busy, trying to fight a way for itself into the Mission,that they didn't see us till we were right among them. Mr. Ching gotthere first, then the Commander and Mr. Travers, and I and the twoTartars plunged in after them, and fought our way towards the littlegate. Just as we plunged in, the mob gave a great howl of delight, andI saw flames shoot out from the downstairs windows. This took theirattention away from us, but it was awful, and we hit all the harder.They didn't oppose us much till we got to the gateway, and there we meta stream of them coming back from the house, loaded with chairs andclothes and all sorts of things. We had a fierce tussle for a minute ortwo, knocked them over or brushed them aside, and rushed up the path toa verandah. It was then that I missed Mr. Travers. I had simply beenfollowing close behind, squeezing into the gap he made in front, butnow, all of a sudden, I missed him.
A FIERCE TUSSLE]
The remainder of "A" company had arrived by this time, and we could hearthem at the back of the mob, fighting their way through to us. Some ofthem began shooting, so the Commander sent me back to steady them--ajolly difficult job, too, and I didn't like going through the crowd bymyself; but they seemed to clear aside, and I managed to get hold of oneor two of the petty officers, and gradually got the men into somethinglike order. There wasn't any need to shoot, because the crowd had nowfallen back in alarm, and were only booing and yelling and throwingstones.
Then I saw a commotion in the crowd, and suddenly that big German, whohad come on board once with Mr. Hobbs, and beaten the Captain atweight-lifting, burst through and rushed past me, his face all drawn andhaggard. "She's lost, mein Gott! She's lost! Too late!" and he dashedinto the burning house, and I heard him roaring, "Sally!"
Jim Rawlings came up panting and asking for ten men, and disappearedwith them among the sparks and smoke, into the darkness behind thehouse, which was now a mass of flames from top to bottom, with bigflames licking out from every window. The heat was intense. It wasreally a most awful time, with the burning house behind me and that mobof wild people below, all longing to cut our throats, only not daring torush us, because they had no one to lead them. I could still hear theCommander's voice bellowing inside the house and calling the missionaryand Mrs. Macpherson, and Mr. Hobbs and Sally, by name--but no oneanswered, and there was no sign of any of them. For one moment Mr.Ching appeared at an upper window, then the roof began to fall in, butthey both crawled out on to the verandah before it collapsed altogetherwith a crash.
They would have been buried and burnt alive if they had stayed anothersecond.
"That German man has just gone in, sir."
"He's dead by now," the Commander answered grimly, and my blood seemedto go quite cold, as the flames rushed up into the sky, hundreds of feetup, and I knew that Mr. Hoffman was being burnt to ashes.
The rest of our people--the marines and "B" company, with the fireengines--came up now, and the crowd split in two to let them pass, and Ihad an insane hope that even then they might be able to save thatGerman; but by the time they had dragged the hand pumps up the path, andgot their hoses led to a little stream at the back of the house, theymight just as well have tried to put the fire out by spitting at it.
Seeing that there was no chance of looting any more, the crowd seemed tomelt away. Probably they went off to loot elsewhere. They were more ofthe old town mob, and weren't going to waste time, I expect.
The Commander ordered the pumps to stop heaving--it was really silly togo on with them--and then we scattered in little parties to search thehill behind the house. The Commander was fearfully angry because Mr.Travers was not there to take charge of his men. "He's never where he'swanted," he said, and took most of "A" company away with him.
"Where can Mr. Travers have gone?" I kept on wondering, but hadn't muchtime for thinking, as I only had been left a very few men to guard theburning house, and there were still a good many prowling Chinesesneaking round, and I had to make my men keep them away. It seemed anawfully long time before suddenly we heard a shout and a cheer fromsomewhere up the hill. "Thank God, sir, they've found that prettylittle American lady!" one of my petty officers said. "It's worthspoiling our clothes for that;" and in a minute or two Mr. Ching cameout from the darkness into the glare, bearing in his arms a woman. Itwasn't Sally Hobbs, however, but Mrs. Macpherson--I could see her blackhair. As he came into the light I saw him look down at her face with astrange expression, and then he gave a groan--I was near enough tohear--laid her on the ground somewhat roughly, and disappeared again.Her husband came too--he was a "rotter".
"Where's Sally Hobbs?" I asked, jumping across.
He shook his head, as he supported his wife. "Don't know. She and herfather went out to see the fire directly it started, and we've not seenthem since."
That sent the blood to my feet again and I felt terrible, and almostthought of taking my men down into the town to try and find her, though,of course, that would have been idiotic; and, too, I had to stop where Iwas till the Commander came back. However, I sent an able seaman tofind the Commander, and presently I heard the bugles sounding the"retire" and the "fall in", and gradually the men came scrambling out ofthe dark and formed up in the road in front of the ruins of the house.Lieutenant Ching and his men came back too.
"What's to be done now," the Commander asked, when he had heard themissionary's story. Mr. Ching turned a haggard face tow
ards the town,where the fire had nearly burnt itself out, and the greatest noise wasthe noise of the mob, and I saw him shake his head in a terribly sadway, "You no good there. I take my men down and try and find news." Hehad no sword--he must have dropped it--but in his hand was a greytam-o'-shanter hat, and I recognized it as the one Sally Hobbs waswearing that day she came down into the gunroom. He was clutching itvery tightly, and suddenly fell on the ground. Our Surgeon, Dr.Barclay, was over him in a moment. He had only fainted, but then itturned out that he had been struck by that bullet, which one of our menhad fired, just as he and his men had joined us on the road. It hadgone clean through his left shoulder, and he had lost a tremendous lotof blood. How he had managed to keep "going" all this time, Dr. Barclaycouldn't understand, and I wondered how he had managed to carry Mrs.Macpherson, and then remembered that he had put her down ratherclumsily, and understood why. He called to one of his men, gave himsome hurried orders, and then they all disappeared towards the town."Sent them to try and find news," he told the Commander. It waspractically dark now because the fires had gone out, but presently the_Vigilant's_ searchlights were turned on to us and made it less horrid.Some Chinese soldiers also came running up, followed a little later bythe Taotai himself from the old city, in his sedan chair, and surroundedby more soldiers.
He was in a terrible fright when he found that he was too late, and thatMr. Hobbs and his daughter had not been found. He did not stay long,and took his men down to the town to keep order and find news of them.
As there was nothing more to do till daybreak, the Commander sent mostof the men back to the ship with the fire engines, and I had to go backwith "A" company, as Mr. Travers had not appeared. It was horrid workfinding our way back to the sea, but I hardly remember it, for I wasvery sleepy and awfully miserable, and simply stumbled back, halfasleep, thinking of Sally and her father and that German, and of whatcould have happened to Mr. Travers.
We got aboard about half-past three in the morning, and I turned into myhammock, tired and miserable, and pretended that I was asleep when Dickytried to ask for news, although I wasn't able to sleep for thinking, andfor being so miserable.