The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands, Robert Michael Ballantyne [ebook pc reader txt] 📗

native element. In fact, he said that he believed himself to be a hamphiberous hanimal by nature, and was of the opinion that he should have been born a merman.

"Hooray! shower-baths free, gratis, for nothink!" he yelled, as soon as he had re-caught his breath. "Any more o' that sort comin'?" he cried, as he pulled off his shirt and wrung it.

"Plenty more wery like it," said Dick, chuckling, "and to be had wery much on the same terms."

"Ah, if you'd only jine me--it would make it so much more pleasant," retorted the boy; "but it would take a deal more water to kiver yer huge carcase."

"That boy will either make a first-rate man, or an out-and-out villain," observed the captain to Stanley, as they stood listening to his chaffing remarks.

"He'll require a deal of taming," said Jim Welton, who was standing by; "but he's a smart, well-disposed little fellow as far as I know him."

Morley Jones, who was seated on the starboard bulwarks not far off; confided his opinion to no one, but he was observed to indulge in a sardonic grin, and to heave his shoulders as if he were agitated with suppressed laughter when this last remark was made.

The steamer meanwhile had been making towards another of the floating lights, alongside of which some time was spent in transferring the full water-casks, receiving the "empties," etcetera, and in changing the men. The same process was gone through with the other vessels, and then, in the afternoon, they returned towards Ramsgate harbour. On the way they stopped at one of the large buoys which required to be painted. The weather being suitable for that purpose, a boat was lowered, black and white paint-pots and brushes were put into her, and Jack Shales, Dick Moy, and Jerry MacGowl were told off to perform the duty. Stanley Hall also went for pastime, and Billy Towler slid into the boat like an eel, without leave, just as it pushed off.

"Get out, ye small varmint!" shouted Jerry; but the boy did not obey; the boat was already a few feet off from the vessel, and as the captain either did not see or did not care, Billy was allowed to go.

"You'll only be in the way, an' git tired of yer life before we're half done," said Dick Moy.

"Never mind, he shall keep me company," said Stanley, laughing. "We will sit in judgment on the work as it proceeds--won't we, Billy?"

"Well, sir," replied the boy, with intense gravity, "that depends on whether yer fine-hart edication has bin sufficiently attended to; but I've no objection to give you the benefit o' my adwice if you gits into difficulties."

A loud laugh greeted this remark, and Billy, smiling with condescension, said he was gratified by their approval.

A few minutes sufficed to bring them alongside the buoy, which was one of the largest size, shaped like a cone, and painted in alternate stripes of white and black. It rose high above the heads of the men when they stood up beside it in the boat. It was made of timber, had a wooden ring round it near the water, and bore evidence of having received many a rude buffet from ships passing in the dark.

"A nice little buoy this," said Billy, looking at it with the eye and air of a connoisseur; "wot's its name?"

"The North Goodwin; can't 'ee read? don't 'ee see its name up there on its side, in letters as long as yerself?" said Jack Shales, as he stirred up the paint in one of the pots.

"Ah, to be sure; well, it might have bin named the Uncommon Good-win," said Billy, "for it seems to have seen rough service, and to have stood it well. Come, boys, look alive, mix yer colours an' go to work; England expecks every man, you know, for to do his dooty."

"Wot a bag of impudence it is!" said Dick Moy, catching the ring-bolt on the top of the buoy with the boat-hook, and holding the boat as close to it as possible, while his mates dipped their brushes in the black and white paint respectively, and began to work with the energy of men who know that their opportunity may be cut short at any moment by a sudden squall or increasing swell.

Indeed, calm though the water was, there was enough of undulation to render the process of painting one of some difficulty, for, besides the impossibility of keeping the boat steady, Dick Moy found that all his strength could not avail to prevent the artists being drawn suddenly away beyond reach of their object, and as suddenly thrown against it, so that their hands and faces came frequently into contact with the wet paint, and gave them a piebald appearance.

For some time Billy contented himself with looking on and chaffing the men, diversifying the amusement by an occasional skirmish with Stanley, who had armed himself with a brush, and was busy helping.

"It's raither heavy work, sir, to do all the judgment business by myself;" he said. "There's that feller Shales, as don't know how a straight line should be draw'd. Couldn't ye lend me your brush, Jack? or p'raps Dick Moy will lend me his beard, as he don't seem to be usin' it just now."

"Here, Dick," cried Stanley, giving up his brush, "you've had enough of the holding-on business; come, I'll relieve you."

"Ay, that's your sort," said Billy; "muscle to the boat-'ook, an' brains to the brush."

"Hold on tight, sir," cried Shales, as the boat gave a heavy lurch away from the buoy, while the three painters stood leaning as far over the gunwale as was consistent with safety, and stretching their arms and brushes towards the object of their solicitude.

Stanley exerted himself powerfully; a reactionary swell helped him too much, and next moment the three men went, heads, hands, and brushes, plunging against the buoy!

"Och! morther!" cried Jerry, one of whose black hands had been forced against a white stripe, and left its imprint there. "Look at that, now!"

"All right," cried Shales, dashing a streak of white over the spot.

"There's no preventing it," said Stanley, apologetically, yet laughing in spite of himself.

"I say, Jack, this is 'igh art, this is," observed Moy, as he drew back to take another dip, "but I'm free to confess that I'd raither go courtin' the girls than painting the buoys."

"Oh! Dick, you borrowed that from me," cried Billy; "for shame, sir!"

"Well, well," observed Jerry, "it's many a time I've held on to a painter, but I niver thought to become wan. What would ye call this now--a landscape or a portrait?"

"I would call it a marine piece," said Stanley.

"How much, sir?" asked Dick Moy, who had got upon the wooden ring of the buoy, and was standing thereon attempting, but not very successfully, to paint in that position.

"A mareeny-piece, you noodle," cried Billy; "don't ye onderstand the genel'm'n wot's a sittin' on judgment on 'ee? A mareeny-piece is a piece o' mareeny or striped kaliko, w'ich is all the same, and wery poor stuff it is too. Come, I'll stand it no longer. I hold ye in sich contempt that I _must_ look down on 'ee."

So saying, the active little fellow seized the boat-hook, and swung himself lightly on the buoy, the top of which he gained after a severe scramble, amid the indignant shouts of the men.

"Well, since you have gone up there, we'll keep you there till we are done."

"All right, my hearties," retorted Billy, in great delight and excitement, as the men went on with their work.

Just then another heave of the swell drew the boat away, obliging the painters to lean far over the side as before, pointing towards their "pictur," as Jerry called it, but unable to touch it, though expecting every moment to swing within reach again. Suddenly Billy Towler--while engaged, no doubt, in some refined piece of mischief--slipped and fell backwards with a loud cry. His head struck the side of the boat in passing, as he plunged into the sea.

"Ah, the poor craitur!" cried Jerry MacGowl, immediately plunging after him.

Now, it happened that Jerry could not swim a stroke, but his liking for the boy, and the suddenness of the accident, combined with his reckless disposition, rendered him either forgetful of or oblivious to that fact. Instead of doing any good, therefore, to Billy, he rendered it necessary for the men to give their undivided attention to hauling his unwieldy carcase into the boat.

The tide was running strong at the time. Billy rose to the surface, but showed no sign of life. He was sinking again, when Stanley Hall plunged into the water like an arrow, and caught him by the hair.

Stanley was a powerful swimmer, but he could make no headway against the tide that was running to the southward at the time, and before the men had succeeded in dragging their enthusiastic but reckless comrade into the boat, Billy and his friend had been swept to a considerable distance. As soon as the oars were shipped, however, they were quickly overtaken and rescued.

Stanley was none the worse for his ducking, but poor Billy was unconscious, and had a large cut in his head, which looked serious. When he was taken on board the tender, and restored to consciousness, he was incapable of talking coherently. In this state he was taken back to Ramsgate and conveyed to the hospital.

There, in a small bed, the small boy lay for many weeks, with ample leisure to reflect upon the impropriety of coupling fun--which is right--with mischief--which is emphatically wrong, and generally leads to disaster. But Billy could not reflect, because he had received a slight injury to the brain, it was supposed, which confused him much, and induced him, as his attentive nurse said, to talk "nothing but nonsense."

The poor boy's recently-made friends paid him all the attention they could, but most of them had duties to attend to which called them away, so that, ere long, with the exception of an occasional visit from Mr Welton of the Gull light, he was left entirely to the care of the nurses and house-surgeons, who were extremely kind to him.

Mr Morley Jones, who might have been expected to take an interest in his _protege_, left him to his fate, after having ascertained that he was in a somewhat critical condition, and, in any case, not likely to be abroad again for many weeks.

There was one person, however, who found out and took an apparently deep interest in the boy. This was a stout, hale gentleman, of middle age, with a bald head, a stern countenance, and keen grey eyes. He came to the hospital, apparently as a philanthropic visitor, inquired for the boy, introduced himself as Mr Larks, and, sitting down at his bedside, sought to ingratiate himself with the patient. At first he found the boy in a condition which induced him to indulge chiefly in talking nonsense, but Mr Larks appeared to be peculiarly interested in this nonsense, especially when it had reference, as it frequently had, to a man named Jones! After a time, when Billy became sane again, Mr Larks pressed him to converse more freely about this Mr Jones, but with returning health came Billy's sharp wit