“But you never mentioned him?”
“London is so far away.”
With a little sigh, she returned to her embroidery.
CHAPTER V
TWO WORLDS
A few days after John had rejoined his ship at Portsmouth, Mr. Baring, who was keeping the first dog watch, turned his telescope on to a shore-boat of shabby appearance which seemed to be approaching the King Arthur. Reedham, who was midshipman of the watch, likewise inspected the craft, which seemed to have the impudent intention of boarding the ship, not by the port gangway, which was, as it were, a back-door for the use of all and sundry, but by the starboard gangway, which, with its elaborate handrail of mahogany and brass, was the front-door of the exalted.
Though an officer less reserved might have said, “Who the devil is this?” Mr. Baring contented himself with looking from Reedham to the shore-boat and from the shore-boat to Reedham, for all the world as if Reedham were responsible for the incursion and for the unseamanlike appearance of the boat itself. And Reedham looked at the Quartermaster as if to say, “Well, what are you going to do about it?” And the Quartermaster did nothing but finger his boatswain’s pipe.
There was, in truth, nothing to be done. It is possible to shout at a Service boat that is committing a breach of etiquette, but a shore-boat, though it lack varnish and leave lanyards and fenders hanging over the stern, cannot be so readily reproved. If it is known to contain a tradesman or some other dependent of the ship, then the megaphone may be called into use, but where a doubt exists caution is advisable. Who knows that it is not an admiral’s guest who approaches? Admirals have queer guests.
This boat, as it drew near, was seen to contain, in addition to the oarsman, a small person wearing a bowler hat and a grey overcoat. There was no attempt at smartness. The hat was old and the coat older, though both were neat and respectable—so neat and so respectable, in fact, that Mr. Baring dismissed the idea that this might be an eccentric, and yet worthy, visitor.
“You had better lie off for the time being,” said the small person to his boatman, when the craft had reached the gangway, and he, with a small bag in his hand, had disembarked. “I may need you to take me back. More probably I shall return in a ship’s boat. If so, I will call you alongside and pay you.”