"I saw by the London Gazette, and other papers, that Her Majesty had, at the request of Lord Oakhampton, given you the Albert Medal for saving his girl's life! Long may you live to wear it, Derval; but now you must, like me, join the Reserve; you'll just be able to manage your training before we sail."
This was exactly suited to the young man's tastes and ambition; so Derval was duly commissioned as a midshipman on board H.M. training ship President, appeared in his uniform as such, with the Albert Medal on his right breast, and performed twenty-eight days drill, under the Gunnery Lieutenant, messing with the officers in the ward room.
This brief sojourn on board Her Majesty's ship, while so much active and even dirty work (which Derval luckily escaped) was being done in the Amethyst, roused the ready wrath and jealousy of Mr. Reeve Rudderhead to boiling heat against him; and consequently, when Derval again appeared on her deck, he was greeted by that personage in this manner:—
"Now, then, Mister Derval Hampton, as you have done us the honour of coming aboard again, you'll perhaps take off that dandy gold ring of yours, with the three crows—or are they three mudlarks?—on it; and go aloft and see to greasing down the foretop-mast, and setting up the maintopmast backstay."
"Very good, sir," said Derval, passing on.
"A gold ring!" muttered the bully, aside; "I'll warrant him as perfect a cock-pit beau as ever foundered in the lee-scuppers."
"What is the difference between foundering and going down?" asked Derval, as a Parthian shot, remembering how curiously the word had stung his enemy before, and a terrible scowl darkened the face of the latter, as he turned away grumbling one of his deep maledictions.
The cargo was complete now, and the ship was ready for sea; all the running rigging had been examined, and that which was unfit for service removed, and new rigging rove in its place, together with the studding gear, and "the chaffing gear," which consists of roundings or mats, battens, put upon the rigging and spars to prevent their being frayed, was all arranged under the eyes of Joe Grummet, as the ship dropped down the river, and was again taken into the Channel by old Toggle the Deal pilot.
After the two lights on the Lizard Point—the last they saw of England—melted out in distance and the obscurity of a February night, and the Amethyst was altogether clear of the English Channel, the weather became delightful, the water smooth, the skies clear, and as the wind was fair, she ran before it merrily, without tack or sheet being lifted, till the latitudes of balmy breezes and sunny days in long succession were reached.
Every other day vessels were passed, but after a time the seas became more lonely, and for many a day no sail would be in sight; and then a succession of foul winds took the Amethyst considerably out of her course, and to the westward.