Now, of our party of ten who had been received on board the Indian Queen, six of us were wounded, and of those six three were so severely hurt as to be quite unfit for duty, and the other three, of whom I was one, were able to do such deck duty as keeping a look-out, taking a trick at the wheel, and so on, but, excepting myself, were scarcely fit to go aloft just yet. But I did not think it right or desirable that those of us who were in a fit state to work should eat the bread of idleness. I had therefore seized the opportunity afforded by my talk with the skipper that morning to suggest that my four unwounded and two slightly-wounded men should assist in the working of the ship; as for myself, I said that I should be very pleased to take charge of one of the watches, if such an arrangement would be of any assistance to him. This, of course, was quite the right and proper thing for me to do, and although the ship carried a complement of thirty hands, all told, I was not in the least surprised that Williams should accept, quite as a matter of course, my offer of the men, three of whom he placed in the port watch, and three in the starboard, the latter being under the boatswain, a big, bullying, brow-beating fellow named Tonkin. But he declined the offer of my personal services, saying that he could do quite well without them. This arrangement having been come to, I made it my business to speak to the boatswain, into whose watch the two slightly-wounded men had been put, informing him of what had passed between the skipper and myself, and requesting him not to send the wounded men aloft, as I did not consider that they could safely venture into the rigging in their partially disabled condition. And I also cautioned the men not to attempt to go aloft, should the boatswain happen to forget what I had told him, and order them to do so, taking care to give them this caution in Tonkin’s presence and hearing in order that there might be no mistake or misunderstanding.
I was therefore very much surprised, and considerably annoyed, when, as we were all gathered together on the poop that same evening, during the first dogwatch, I heard the sounds of a violent altercation proceeding on the fore-deck, and, on looking round, discovered that the disputants were one of my own men and the boatswain, the latter of whom was threatening the other with a rope’s-end. Without waiting to hear or see more I instantly dashed down the poop-ladder and ran forward, pushing my way through a little crowd who had gathered round the chief actors of the scene; and as I did so I became suddenly conscious of the fact that the men among whom I was forcing my way were a distinctly ruffianly, ill-conditioned lot, who seemed more than half disposed to resent actively my sudden appearance among them.
“Now then, Martin,” I said sharply, “what is all this disturbance about, and why is the boatswain threatening you with that rope’s-end?”
“Why, sir,” answered Martin, who was suffering from a grape-shot wound in the leg, “I understood you to say this morning as none of us as is wounded is to go aloft; yet here’s this here bo’s’un swears as he’ll make me go up and take the turn out o’ that fore-to’gallan’ clew, instead of sendin’ one of his own people up to do it. I couldn’t climb the riggin’ without bustin’ this here wound of mine open again—”
“Of course not,” I answered. “I thought I had made it clear to you, Tonkin,” turning to the boatswain, “that I do not wish any of my wounded men to be sent aloft. That man is in no fit condition to go up on to the topsail-yard.”
“Ain’t he?” retorted the boatswain in a very offensive manner. “While he’s in my watch I’m goin’ to be the judge of what he’s fit to do, and what he’s not fit to do; and I say he’s quite fit to do the job that I’ve ordered him to do. And he’s goin’ to do it too, or I’ll know the reason why. And, what’s more, I won’t have no brass-bound young whipper-snappers comin’ for’ard here to interfere with me and tell me what I’m to do and what I’m not to do; and I hope that’s speakin’ plain enough for to be understood, Mr Midshipman What’s-your-name. Now then,” he continued, turning to Martin again, “will you obey my orders, or must I make yer?” And he took
a fresh grip upon the rope’s-end with which he was threatening the man.
“Drop that rope’s-end at once, you scoundrel!” I exclaimed angrily; for I saw by the man’s manner, and by the approving sniggers of the men who surrounded us, that he had been deliberately and intentionally insulting to me, and that unless I took a firm stand at once the ship would speedily become untenable to my men and myself. “You must surely be drunk, Tonkin, or you would never dream of—”
“Drunk am I?” he exclaimed savagely, wheeling suddenly round upon me. “I’ll soon show you whether I’m drunk or not,” and he raised the rope’s-end with the manifest intention of striking me across the face with it. But before the blow could fall there was a sudden rush of feet; the sniggering loafers who hemmed us in were knocked right and left like so many ninepins, and, with a cry of “Take that, you dirty blackguard, as a lesson not to lift your filthy paws again against a king’s officer,” Simpson, our carpenter’s mate, an immensely strong fellow, dashed in and caught the boatswain a terrific blow square on the chin, felling him to the deck, where he lay senseless, and bleeding profusely at the mouth.