“You young slip of a pump-handle, what d’ye mean?”
“The king’s orders,” said Dan, pointing to Adams, while the rest of the Pitcairners seemed awestruck by his presumption.
The frown slowly left the visage of Jack Brace. He shut his eyes, smiled benignly, and delivered a series of heavy puffs from the starboard side of his mouth.
Then a little squeak that had been bottled up in the nose of Otaheitan Sally forced a vent, and the whole party burst into hilarious laughter.
“Just so,” resumed Brace, when they had recovered, “that is exactly what we did in the mizzen-top o’ the Victory when we made out the signal, only we stuck a cheer on to the end o’ the laugh. After that came another signal, just as we were about to go into action, ‘England expects that every man will this day do his duty.’ The effect of that signal was just treemendious, I tell you.
“I noticed at this time that some of Nelson’s officers were botherin’ him,—tryin’ to persuade him, so to speak, to do somethin’ he didn’t want to. I afterwards found out that they were tryin’ to persuade him not to wear his orders, but he wouldn’t listen to ’em. Then they tried to convince him it would be wise for him to keep out of action as long as possible. He seemed to give in to this, for he immediately signalled the Temeraire and Leviathan, which were abreast of us, to pass ahead; but in my opinion this was nothin’ more than a sly joke of the Admiral, for he kept carrying on all sail on the Victory, so that it wasn’t possible for these ships to obey the order.
“We made the attack in two lines. The Victory led the weather-line of fourteen ships, and Collingwood, in the Royal Sovereign, led the lee-line of thirteen ships.
“As we bore down, the enemy opened the ball. We held our breath, for, as no doubt you know, messmate, just before the beginnin’ of a fight, when a man is standin’ still an’ doin’ nothin’, he’s got time to think; an’ he does think, too, in a way, mayhap, that he’s not much used to think.”
“That’s true, Jack Brace,” responded Adams, with a grave nod; “an’, d’ye know, it strikes me that it would be better for all of us if we’d think oftener in that fashion when we’ve got time to do it.”
“You’re right, John Adams; you’re right. Hows’ever, we hadn’t much time to think that morning, for the shot soon began to tell. One round shot came, as it seemed, straight for my head, but it missed me by a shave, an’ only took off the hat of a man beside me that was about a fut shorter than myself.