“Ay, you may well laugh, youngster,” said he, looking very fierce with his knitted eyebrows, though speaking to me good-naturedly enough. “The whole business would make a cat laugh were it not so humiliating, by George! But, avast there! let us drop it; for we’ve had enough of it by now and to spare. Things, though, were very different, Vernon, when you and I sailed together. I tell you what it is, my lad, the service is going to the devil, that’s what it is!”
“By Jove! you’re right, sir, I quite agree with you there,” chorused Dad with much effusion, speaking evidently from the bottom of his heart. “Everything is changed, Admiral, to what we were accustomed to in the good old times when I had the luck to serve under you; and, I’m afraid, sir, we’ll never see such times again. There’s no chance for a poor fellow like me nowadays at the Admiralty as I know to my cost! No one has an opening given him unless he’s acquainted with some bigwig with a handle to his name, or knows the Secretary’s niece, or the chief messenger’s aunt. Otherwise, he may as well whistle for the moon as ask for a ship!”
“That’s true enough, Vernon, by George!” said the Admiral, with equal heat. “Interest with the Board is everything in these times, and personal merit nothing! You may be the smartest sailor that ever trod a quarter-deck and they will look askance at you at Whitehall; but, only get some Lord Tom Noddy to back up your claims on an ungrateful country or show those Admiralty chaps that you know a Member of Parliament or two, and can control a division in the House of Commons, then, by George! it is wonderful, Vernon, how suddenly the great Mister Secretary of the Board will recognise your previously unknown abilities and other good qualities to which he has hitherto been blind, and how anxious the First Lord will be to promote you—eh, Vernon, you rascal? Ho! ho! ho!”
Dad joined in the hearty roar of laughter, with which the Admiral ended his sarcastic comments, the recital of which had apparently eased his mind and banished the last lingering recollections of the ill-treatment he had received at the hands of the government; for the old sailor now dismissed the subject, going on to talk about old shipmates and other matters as they sauntered onwards along Pall Mall, the Admiral hobbling on one side of Dad and I on the other, holding his hand, listening eagerly all the while to their animated conversation and taking in every word of it. I confess, however, I could not understand all their allusions to old times and byegone events afloat and ashore, many of the names and incidents mentioned in their talk being altogether unfamiliar to my ears.
“Where are you off to now, Vernon?” inquired Admiral Napier, stopping to take snuff again when we arrived at the last lamp-post at the corner abutting on Waterloo Place. “If you’re not otherwise engaged, come back with me and have lunch at the club, you and the youngster.”
“Thank you very much, Admiral,” returned Dad, “I would be only to glad, but, to tell the truth, I’m bound for the Admiralty.”
“Ah! you want to see Mister Secretary just after he has finished his lunch!” said the knowing old fellow, giving Dad a dig in the ribs. “Sly dog! I suppose you think you’ll have a better chance of working to win’ard of him then?”
“That’s it, Admiral,” said my father, laughing. “There’s no good in a fellow trying to bamboozle you, sir.”
“No, by George!” chuckled the old fellow, mightily pleased at this tribute to his “cuteness,” “you’d have to get up precious early in the morning to take me in as you know from old experience of me, Vernon! But, what the deuce are you going to Whitehall to kick your heels there for? They’ll only keep you waiting an hour in that infernal waiting-room, and then tell you the Secretary’s gone for the day, or some other bouncer, just to get rid of you. I know their dirty tricks—hang ’em! What d’you want, eh?”
“Well, sir, I thought I might get something in one of the dockyards,” answered Dad, frankly. “I heard last night of there being an appointment vacant at Devonport, and I was going to apply for it.”