“My word, no, sir!” cried Joe, laughing. “We none of us felt afraid then; it only made us feel wild and want to sarve the other side out. No, sir,” continued the bluff fallow, in a quiet matter-of-fact way, and his voice utterly free of vaunt, “whether it’s a sea-fight or things are going wrong in a storm, we sailor fellows are always too busy to feel afraid. You see, I think, sir, it has something to do with the drill and discipline, as they calls it, training the lads all to work together. You see, it makes them feel so strong.”
“I can’t say I do see,” said Rodd.
“No, sir, because you haven’t been drilled; but it’s like this ’ere. One man’s one man, and a hundred men’s a hundred men—no, stop; that aren’t quite what I mean. It aren’t in my way, Mr Rodd, sir; I never was a beggar to argue. The fat Bun can easily beat me at that. This ’ere’s what I mean. One man’s one man, and a hundred men’s a hundred one men. That’s if they aren’t drilled and trained like sailors or soldiers; but if they are trained, you see each one man feels as if he has got a hundred men with him all working together, and con-se-quently, sir, every chap aboard feels as if he’s as strong as a hundred men. Now don’t you see, sir?”
“Well, yes,” said Rodd quietly; “I think I begin to see what you mean.”
“Why, of course you do, sir. Say it’s heaving a boat aboard, and it takes twenty men to do it. Why, if they go and try one at a time, where are you? But if you all go and take hold together, and your officer says to you, ‘Now, my lads, with a will, all together! Heave ho!’ why then, up she comes. Well now, I do call that rum! Look at that, sir. If here aren’t the old man, just as if he had heard what we was talking about, passing the word for gun drill, or else a bit of knicketty knock with the cutlasses and pikes!”
Chapter Eighteen.
A Strange Visitor.
Upon hearing Joe Cross’s announcement Rodd eagerly turned, to find his uncle just coming on deck to take his evening walk after a busy day with his specimens that he had dragged and trawled from the calm sea.