I was at the station at almost every train. One day a young
OUT ON THE OCEAN.
35
gentleman and a lady, beautifully dressed, came down, and
took the express. As I was on the lookout for every one, I
did not like to let the lady with a veil over her face go past
me. I hurried to the guard-room, and borrowed a hat and
coat of one of the officers of the train, while another went to
the compartment where the gentleman and lady were sitting,
and called the gentleman away to look to some baggage.
Then I went up to the window, and suddenly spoke to the
lady. She started ; but, though her reply was very simple, I
was sure, in an instant, that I had the man for whom I had
come from India. I hurried back, and reported to the detec-
tives. The train was held for fifteen minutes, till they could
learn who the two were. Very soon word was brought by an
officer that they were a couple who had just been married,
and were starting upon a wedding-trip. The detectives laughed
at me well, I tell you ; and I had nothing left me but to give
up. The train went on ; but a half-hour before it should have
reached London we found out, for a certainty, that the man
had not only left the country town that afternoon, but that
he must have left upon that very express train for London.
The officers telegraphed forward, and had the station carefully
guarded. It was about nine o'clock at night ; and we all waited,
sure of hearing of the arrest. But, when the train was about
entering the suburbs of the city, the bell rang violently in the
guard-van, and the train was stopped. Some one had pulled
the cord, you know, that runs along just outside the windows
there. The guard hurried down the line to see what was the
matter, and at last came upon a compartment where an old
woman sat all alone, with any amount of bandboxes and
bundles about her. The old woman was deaf as a post, and
the guard shouted a dozen times before he could make her
36
OUR BOYS IN INDIA.
understand that he wanted to know what was the matter.
Then she looked up in surprise, and rephed, ' I want some
dinner. What did you suppose ? ' There was no use in swear-
ing at her, for she could not hear a thing. She only pointed
up to that notice there, and said, ' Don't that say when meals
hare required, notify the guard ? hand don't hit say to notify
the guard pull the cord houtside the window? I 'ope you
didn't stop the train hon my haccount.' There was a delay of
fifteen minutes, so that it was three-quarters of an hour before
the train reached the depot. Then there were the policemen
all ready for it ; and of course they went at once to the com-
partment where the young couple were. To their surprise,
they found it empty. A bit of wet leather had been stretched
over the lantern, so that no one could see when the door was
opened ; and, while the train stood still for the old woman,
the two had escaped, and had had three-quarters of an hour
to put themselves beyond the reach of the police."
" But the old woman ! " said Scott.
"You are right, Scott," replied Richard. "And if the Lon-
don police had only been as bright, and said so as quickly
as you have, they might have accomplished something, at
least, though it might have been hard to prove that she really
had any thing to do with it intentionally. But, while they
were vexing themselves over the fellow himself, the assistant,
as the old woman doubtless was, left the train and the station
without being suspected ; and, before their attention was turned
that way, she, too, was buried up somewhere in the great
city,
" But that was not the end of it all, was it ? " asked
Scott anxiously.
" It was not really the end of it," replied Mr. Raymond,
OUT ON THE OCEAN.
37
*' though the man escaped me, and I went back to India alone.
But I expect to meet him again some day, and you may see
him too. But here we are at last. Now we will go to a
hotel, and have a bath and breakfast, and rest for two or three
hours, before the offices are opened."
There was no confusion or turmoil ; and Scott could hardly
believe that they had reached the famous Euston station, when
the door was quietly opened, and, following Richard, he went
across a stone platform, and entered a curious sort of a gig.
The driver sat behind it, and almost as high as the top of
the carriage ; and, having seated themselves where there was
just room for two, they shut two little doors in front of their
feet, boxing themselves in above the knees.
" I don't believe the driver more than half wanted us to
ride," said Scott : " he never even spoke, till after you was
close up to him."
" They would not be allowed to shout, and push them-
selves into one's face, as they do in America. But I fancy
they have just as many passengers as if they were more noisy :
for, if one wants to ride, he will ride ; and, if he don't, I should
not think the bullying fellows would tempt him to," replied
Mr. Raymond. " I love America even more, perhaps, because
I have not been there for so long ; but there are some things
that must yet be improved."
They were now rattling through dim, noisy streets, that
were crowded, even at that early hour. Scott found, that, after
all, it was not quite like what he had seen his life long, and
began to feel as though he were one of the characters of
some of Dickens's stories. The idea was very thoroughly taken
out of him, however, when, a few hours later, he and Mr.
Raymond left the hotel to find the steamer-office, and one
38
OUR BOYS IN INDIA.
of the first objects they met was a ragged little newsboy, who
hurried up to them, crying, —
"All the latest news from New York! Only a penny!"
" How does he know that we are Americans ? " asked
Scott, chagrined, he could ha«rdly tell why, to be so easily
discovered.
"They all know it," replied Mr. Raymond, smiling, "Would
you rather not ? " Scott hesitated ; and Richard continued,
"You were ashamed of it, I
fancy."
" A little," said Scott, blush-
" And so are hosts of Ameri-
cans," added Mr. Raymond. " I
have seen gentlemen and ladies
try in every possible way to
hide the fact. They will buy
English clothes the moment
they land, and talk like English-
men, and try to act like them,
and then be very angry when
they see how they fail after all.
It is very strange to me ; for America, of every land, is one
to be proud of, I would rather be an American than any
jthing else on earth ; and so would they, I think, if they really
♦thought of it."
"I am not going to be ashamed of it again ! " exclaimed
I.
Scott proudly ; " and you shall see. The first time that any
'one thinks I am not an American, I will show him he is
mistaken very quickly."
They hailed a bus. There was a winding flight of iron
THE RAGGED NEWSBOY.
40 OUR BOYS IN INDIA.
steps leading to the top ; and, wishing to see all they could
of London, they mounted, and seated themselves on the roof.
A young Englishman was sitting there alone. He looked up
as Scott took a place beside him, and pleasantly remarked,
" A fine morning this."
" It might be more uncomfortable, sir," replied Scott ;
though he could not help looking a little incredulously toward
the sky, for he thought it one of the most disagreeable, damp,
and gloomy mornings he had found for months. It looked
as though it would certainly rain in an hour ; and evidently
the Englishman thought so too, for he had an umbrella.
Noticing Scott's uncertainty, he added, " You've not lived
long in town ? "
"In town! What town?" asked Scott,
" Hereabout. You don't seem quite used to London
weather," replied the Englishman.
" No, sir: I am an American," said Scott; and he blushed
a little as he felt Mr. Raymond's hand touch his shoulder
approvingly; "and I do not know much about London weather,
if this is a fine morning."
The Englishman laughed. " You'll think it one of the best
of the year, if you stop the year out."
" Then, I should hate to see a really bad morning in Lon-
don," observed Scott, rubbing his hand over his pants, that
were already quite damp with the fog.
"Ay, that you would!" replied the Englishman. " Some-
tim.es they light the street-gas at noon, the fog is so thick ;
and I've seen more than one time when, in broad daylight,
the driving was stopped in the streets."
" It must be interesting," said Scott, meaning precisely the
opposite. But the Englishman thought him in earnest, and
OUT ON THE OCEAN.
41
replied, " Right you are ! " with an enthusiasm that almost
made him laugh, in spite of his endeavors to keep a sober
face.
They reached the up-town office of the P. and O. S. S.
Company only to be disappointed. Every seat was taken ;
and there was no way in which they could reach Brindisi, in
Italy, in time for the steamer.
" Let us walk over to No. 18 Cockspur Street," said Mr.
Raymond. "It is only a little way, and there is a shipper
there who has the agency for several Bombay steamers. It
may be that one of them is leaving at once ; and, if so,
going by water will only delay us three or four days more
than waiting for the next mail overland, and we should then
be able to stop at all the ports where the Mediterranean
steamer from New York stopped, and make sure that we are
not following a wrong track, and that the passengers went
right on to India."
" How should we go by water?" asked Scott, as they walked
over to Na. 18 Cockspur Street.
" We should leave either from Southampton or Liverpool,
and go right across the Bay of Biscay, to Gibraltar ; and from
there we should stop at Algiers, Malta, and Alexandria, or
Port Said ; then through the canal to Suez, to Aden, and
Bombay."
" I should think that would be better," said Scott.
" At any rate, we will make a virtue of a necessity, and
profit by it," replied Richard, as they reached the office.
42
OUR BOYS IN INDIA.
CHAPTER V.
OLD JOB, THE QUARTERMASTER.
IWENTY-FOUR hours later, the two were well es-
tablished on a snug little steamer of the Clann line,
and steaming away from England. They were the
only passengers on board, and were consequently
given the full range of the steamer, without restrictions.
" Two days ago we hardly expected to be here," said Scott,
as they sat together on the deck.
" Hardly," answered Richard : " but life is full of sudden
changes ; and the more readily one adapts himself to them as
they come, the more likely he is to make the best of them,
and come out well at the end."
" You mean that for me, Mr. Raymond," said Scott ; " and
I begin to realize all that it implies. I have had a very wrong
idea of what it was to be a hero, from reading about them
in books. If all of this comes out right in the end, I think
I shall know better how to be a man."
"All must come out right, Scott," replied Richard: "we
will make it. We will begin by making the best of our posi-
tion now ; for, if we do not have a good time on this voyage,
it is certainly our own fault. We shall have no one else to
blame."
" You are very kind, Mr. Raymond. I was wondering
last night how in the world it could have happened that you
could have been in Beverly at just that time, and in the
OLD yOE, THE QUARTERMASTER. 43
woods at just that moment, and then why you should ever
have been so good as to do what you are doing."
Scott was going on to say more, but Richard interrupted
him. "That is quite enough, my boy. In the first place,
God does every thing in this world, and does it right. In
the second place, you will learn, by and by, that men do very
little that is not in some way for their own advantage. I
am very anxious to find Roderick Dennett, and am only for-
tunate, if I can do so much more than find him for myself,
in rescuing your brother Paul at the same time."
" You don't think he would hurt him, do you ? " asked
Scott for the hundredth time.
" Not a bit, Scott," replied Richard. " He is quite too great
a coward to lay himself open to the charge of murder. He
would do any thing in the world that was mean. He would
do almost any thing for money, but he would do very little
for revenge. I do not think that he would have gone to
India, only that he was too great a coward to stay in America ;
and before long I believe he will of himself begin to see what
ransom he can get from your father. He will be very careful
of Paul ; for it will be a prospect of money to him, if he keeps
him safely. You may be sure, that, wherever Paul is, he is
having just as good a time as is possible under the circum-
stances." And Richard believed this ; though perhaps he said
it a little more strongly than he really felt, in order to give
Scott the courage that he lacked. " We are nearing the
Spanish coast," he continued. "To-morrow night, or early the
next morning, we shall be abreast the Cape. We must look
out for ourselves that we don't bribe the wrong fortune here,
and go on with what the sailors call the ' porter's portion.' "
"What is that?" asked Scott.
44 OUR BOYS IN INDIA.
"Oh! it is only one of the thousand fancies that sailors
have connected with every point of land that is often sighted
by ships. I was thinking how a sailor told me the story when
I went by here almost twenty years ago. I was a sailor-boy
up in the fo'cas'le then. I had to do a little of every thing,
all day long, and then spend my spare time in polishing up
the brass about the ship, just as that little urchin is doing."
And Richard pointed to where a little stowaway was busy
rubbing up a brass knob. He had hidden himself away under
a bunk before the steamer left Liverpool, and did not come
out till they were too far away to send him back.
" You were not a stowaway, were you ? " asked Scott.
"No; but I was the 'boy;' and a boy's lot, under any
circumstances, is not an easy one at sea. I was very anxious
to see all that I could of the strange countries ; but there
was little chance of my being able to go ashore anywhere.
There were some of the sailors, and one of them was a par-
ticular hero of mine, who cared very little about going on
shore, but were ready to give any thing to get a little rum.
We had passed the Cape, and were looking forward and cal-
culating the time that we should probably land at Gibraltar.
We should be there during the night. This suited my sea-
man friend ; and he made a proposition to me, that he should
help me to escape from the steamer, and get ashore, so that
I could go about and see every thing, if, in return, I would
bring him back a bottle of rum." Richard laughed. " I was
thinking of old times, and wandered away from the ' porter's
portion.' It was the bargain he made with me that brought
out the story. A young fisherman on the coast over there
had made a haul of two of the finest fish he ever saw. He
determined to present them to the king ; .and, just as he was,
THE PORTER'S PORTION.
46
OUR BOYS IN INDIA.
he made his way to the court. The palace porter who was
on guard objected at first to letting him in, but at last made a
compromise with him, that he should go in and sell his fish
to the prince, but that, in exchange, he must give the porter
just one-half of what he received, his regular commission.
The prince, passing through the court, and seeing the two
splendid fish, at once ordered his butler to take them, and
pay the fisherman whatever he asked for them. ' If it please
your Highness,' said the fisherman, ' I should like to receive
one hundred lashes.' This was the most severe punishment
ever bestowed with the whip. It often cost the criminal
his life. The prince turned in surprise, and demanded his
reason for asking such a reward. ' Because, your Highness,'
said he, 'the porter at the gate is in the habit of demanding
one-half, of what we receive from your Highness, before he
will let any of us enter ; and I know of no compensation that
I would rather share with him than one hundred lashes.' "
" It was good enough for him," said Scott decidedly.
" Yes : it was good enough for him, and does very well
for a story," replied Richard ; " and it gives the sailors some-
thing to say whenever they hear any one making a bargain
while they are in the neighborhood of the Cape. You must
make the acquaintance of the quartermasters on board ; for,
when they are off duty, you'll find them full of interesting
stories."
" They're a sorry-looking set of fellows," said Scott, as one
of the quartermasters of the ship approached that part of the
deck where they were sitting. He was a tall, gaunt, awkward
fellow, with a wrinkled face, and sharp eyes, and hard, brown
hands. And Scott added, " I should hate to have any thing
to do with him."
OLD yOE, THE QUARTERMASTER. 47
" Sailors are always rough to look at ; but they may have
kind hearts, after all. You'll find the flowers growing wild
in India are more beautiful than the best hothouse blossoms
in America ; but you'll hardly find a flower in Hindoostan so
sweet as the yellow daisies and pink roses that grow by the
side of the road in Beverly."
The old sailor came up, and began to work on one of
the steamer's boats, close to them, stretching a canvas over
it, and binding it on with a strong cord.
"What's up. Jack? Will she catch a blow In Biscay?"
asked Richard.
" Bit of a brush, maybe," replied the sailor.
" The barometer has held low ever since we started," added
Richard.
" Why, I heard the captain say, an hour ago, that it was
going up fast ! " said Scott, who had begun to study the
prospects with a nautical eye.
" Sudden rise after low indicates a harder blow," muttered
the sailor in a sort of singsong as he worked.
He was quite correct in his prediction ; for before night
it began to blow, and the waves not only ran high, but
seemed to run in every direction. It is a peculiarity, in that
Bay of Biscay, that every one who ever crossed It knows.
They did not see the coast of Spain and Cape Finisterre at
all, and were down where the Tagus River flows by Lisbon
(the capital of Portugal), and empties Into the sea, before they
again ventured into sight of land. It was a wild and fascinating
coast, with its ragged ridges of rock extending to the very
water's edge, its white cliffs gleaming here and there, and now
and then a green gorge, where a little stream wandered down
from the mountains. The villages along the coast were all of
48
OUR BOYS IN INDIA.
white, and looked like drifts of snow along the sand, till Scott
went up on to the bridge with the captain, and, taking his tele-
scope, brought the shore under the very bows of the steamer.
"That town is Peanno, over there," said the captain. " Do
you see the little steamer just making into the harbor?"
"Are those towers all along the coast, lighthouses?" asked
Scott.
The captain laughed. " They are Moorish watch-towers,"
he said. " It was only a few years ago that the Moors ruled
all the south of Spain and Portugal ; and they had their strong-
holds all along the coasts, even after the entire interiors were
given up. Those towers, and the castles about them, are im-
pregnable, even now, to any mode of warfare but that of our
heaviest cannon."
" I should like to visit them," said Scott, fixing the tele-
scope on one of them with fascinated interest.
" So you would," replied the captain, giving an order to
slightly change the direction of the steamer, that she might
run a little nearer in, and give a better view. "There is
many a wild romance connected with those Moorish towers,
of battles and sieges, and tyrants, and lovers, and misers, and
all kinds of every thing that went on there years and years
ago. Now raise your glass a bit, and on the highest hill, to
the right of Peanno, do you see a great castle, all towers
and every thing, and a hundred times bigger than the Moorish
towers down below ? "
" Oh, yes, I see it ! " exclaimed Scott. " What an enormous
thing it is ! What is it ? "
" It's the summer palace of the king of Portugal. And
just down at the foot of that hill, on the other side, is the
capital, Lisbon. You cannot see it now ; but in half an hour
OLD JOE, THE QUARTERMASTER. 49
we shall be below the mouth of the river, and you can look
back, and see the shipping, at least, just below the city."
"The king" of Portugal must like to read novels," said
Scott with a sigh of envy. " Living in such a romantic place
would make them all seem real, I should think. I never
liked to read stories, because they never seemed true, except
Dickens's works, and I have read all of those. I felt as if
they were true when I read them ; and when I reached England,
and saw it for myself, — just a little of it, I mean, — I was sure
of it."
" He does like to read novels better than he likes to
fight," said the captain, laughing; "and he's got the waxiest
little doll for a wife, and she likes to read novels too.
They're a pretty little couple ; but they're too small for that
castle, and they spend most of their time in a beautiful palace
in the city, at the foot of the hills."
" And is that all the vacation they have? It must be very
tiresome."
" It's hard work being a king," replied the captain. *' I'd
rather be the captain of a good steamer than that king of
Portugal, this minute ; and I fancy he's got the best berth
of any of the crowned heads of Europe, so far as taking
comfort is concerned."
"Why is that?" asked Scott.
" Oh ! he's plenty of money to live upon, and he's nothing
in the way of a throne that any one wants bad enough to try
and get it away from him."
Just then the first officer came up, and spoke to the
captain ; and he turned away, saying, " You must excuse me
for a few minutes, for I want to see if my chronometers are
keeping good time."
^O OUR BOYS IN INDIA.
Scott watched the operation without understanding much
of it; but when the captain returned, he explained, "You
see, we have three or four ways of taking reckonings now ; so
that, if we make a mistake in one, we correct it in another.
One of them is to carry two chronometers with us, giving
the time at Greenwich. Then we know just how much the
time at Lisbon, for instance, differs from Greenwich time ; and
we take an observation when we are just off the point yonder,
and find out the exact minute, and the distance we are away,
and compare the result with the time. But there goes dinner.
You'll lose nothing, for we shall not see land again till we
sight Cape St. Vincent, and that'll be in the night. Then
the next thing is the Straits and Gibraltar."
Taking Mr. Raymond's advice, Scott followed the old
quartermaster down into the little sailor's room, in the very
prow of the steamer, when he knew that he was off duty.
"Can I come in and call on you, sir?" he asked, bowing
a little timidly.
The old sailor looked around, leaned back against a beam ;
and, resting his hand on the mess-table, he smiled pleasantly,
though it wrinkled his face into all manner of criss-crosses,
as he replied, " Drop anchor where you will, my lad. It's a
free harbor, this voyage ; but it don't do to ' sir ' a craft like
â– >â– >
me.
"You're older than I am, and I should say 'sir' to every
one who is older," replied Scott.
" Thet's by American reckonin', an' here ye stand on
British plank," said the sailor.
" But I am an American, and I am not ashamed of it ! "
exclaimed Scott.
" Steady as ye go ! " cried the old quartermaster in a firm,
^2 â– OUR BOYS IN INDIA.
enthusiastic voice, giving the call of the wheel-house, when
the steamer is headed right. " But there's a difference in
the water, that'll git ye out o' your bearings, if you keep
that tack. You say 'sir' to an Englishman, an' he don't
know no better than to think you mean to say that he's a
bigger craft than you. That's what the word means in his
signal-book. You Americans, who don't drop your ensign to
nobody but in courtesy, can afford to go sirrin' round as ye
will, in your own waters. But put it in your log, my lad, if
you're an American, an' proud o' it, ye are as good as God
save the Queen ! And don't go drop your ensign to any
Englishman that lives."
"Thank you, sir — I mean, thank you," said Scott with a
laugh. " I'll put it in my log, and remember who told me ;
but I shall have to read it over every 'day or two for some
time, I think. Now, I came down to ask you if you had
time to tell me a story about the sea."
" Spin a yarn ? " asked the old quartermaster, pushing
back his heavy hat.
"Well, I suppose it's the same as spinning a yarn," said
Scott. " But, for mercy's sake, don't spin it in sailor-talk, for
I cannot understand. If you haven't time now, I'll come again."