“Don’t you know where you are hurt?”
“I believe it’s my side—somewhere about the body, I know; but I’m so stiff all over, that I can’t tell exactly where. Something hit me, and I fell right down the hatchway; that’s all I know about it until I found myself in my hammock.”
“Well, at all events, you won’t be punished now for dropping the quid into Mr Culpepper’s mouth.”
“No,” replied Tommy, with a smile, in spite of his pain; “but I would have played him a better trick than that if I had had any idea that we should have been so soon in action. I wish I could turn round, Keene—I think I should be easier.”
I turned poor Tommy in his hammock, and then left him. I looked at the son of the Dutch captain—he was slumbering; he was a very slight youth, with very beautiful, but very feminine features. I felt a kindness towards him, poor fellow; for he had lost his father, and he was about to pass his best years in prison. But the boatswain’s mates piped to breakfast, and I hastened down into the berth to get my share of the cocoa.
As soon as the men had finished their breakfast, the hands were again turned up, the lower deck cleared and washed, new sails bent and the guns properly secured; screens were put up round the half-deck where the wounded were in their beds. The dead were brought up and sewed up in their hammocks, laid out on gratings, and covered with the ensign and union jack, preparatory to their being committed to the deep. Another party was sent to assist on board of the prize, and the prisoners were brought on board, and put down in the fore-hold, which had been cleared for their reception.
By noon everything was so far ready that we were enabled to take the prize in tow, and make sail on the Calliope, after which the men, who were exhausted, went to dinner, and were permitted to sleep during the remainder of the day until the evening, when the ship’s company was ordered up, and the dead were committed to the deep blue sea with the usual ceremonies.
The breeze was steady but the water was smooth during the night, and glad I was to throw myself on one of the lockers in the midshipmen’s berth, after so many hours of excitement. I slept till four in the morning, and finding the planks not quite so soft as they might be, I then turned into the hammock of the midshipman of the morning watch, and remained till six hells, when Bob Cross came down and told me that the captain would soon be on deck.
“Well, Cross,” said I, as I came on deck and went aft to look at the prize in tow, “this is a nice business, and our captain will gain a great deal of credit.”
“And he deserves it, Master Keene,” replied Cross: “as I said before, I never had an idea that he could handle his ship so well—no, nor none of the ship’s company. We all thought Mr Hippesley the best officer of the two, but we have found out our mistake. The fact is, Mr Keene, Captain Delmar wraps himself an in his dignity like a cloak, and there’s no making him out, till circumstances oblige him to take it off.”