A Young Hero.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 285, 17 July 1873, Page 7

A Young Hero.

(" Clumber's Journal I .') " Ay, ay, sir ; they're smart seamen enough, no doubt, them Dalmatians, and reason good, too, seeiu' they man half the Austrian army ; but they nin't got the seasonin' of an Englishman, put it how yer will ! " I am standing on the upper deck of the Austrian Lloyd steamer, looking my last upon pyramidal Jaffa, as it rises up in terrace after terrace of stern gray masonry against the lustrous evening sky, with the foam-tipped breakers at its feet. Beside me, with his elbow on the handrail, and his short pipe between his teeth, lounges the stalwart chief-engineer, as thorough an Englishman as if he had not spent two-thirds of his life abroad, and delighted to get hold of a listener who (as be phrases it) " has been about a it." 1 "No ; they ain't got an Englishman's seasonin'," he continues, pursuing his criticism of the Dalmantian seaman : " and what's more, they ain't got an Englishman's pluck neither, not when it comes to a real scrape." "Can no one but an Englisman have any pluck, then ? " ask I, laughing. ""Well, T won't just go for to say that ; o' course a man is a man 'ull have pluck in him all the world over. I've seed a Frencher tackle a shark to save his messmate, and I've seed a Kooshnn stand to his gun arter every man in the battery, barrin' himself, had been blowed to smash. But, if yer come to that, the pluckiest feller a3 ever I seed warn't a man at all ! " " What was he, then ? — a woman ?" "No, nor that neither; though, mark ye, I (Jon't go for to say as how women ain't'got pluck enough too — some on V m at least. 3£g old 'ooman. now, saved me once from a lubber of a Portigee, as was just a-goin' to stick a knife into me, when she cracked hie nut with a handspike. (You can hear her spin the yarn yourself, if you likps to pay us a visit when we get to Constantinople.) But this un as I'm a-talkin' on was a little lad not much bigger 'n Tom Thumb, only with a sperrit of his own as 'ud ha' blowed up a mano'-war a'most. "Would yer like to hear about it? " I eagerly assent ; and the narrator, knocking the ashes out of his pipe, folds his brawny arms upon the top of the rail, and commences as follows :—: — " 'Bout three yoars ago, afore I got this berth as I'm in now, I was second engineer aboard a Liverpool steamer bound for New York. Tlicre'd been a lot of exlrn car^o sent down just at the last minute, and we'd had no end of a job stowin' it away, and that run us late o' startin' ; so that, altogether, as you may think, the cap'n warn't altogether in the sweetest temper in the world, nor the mate neither ; so for the chief engineer, he was an easygoin' sort o' chap as nothin' on earth could put out. But on the mornin' of the third day out from Liverpool, he cum down to me in a precious hurry, lookin' as if somethiri had put him out pretty considerably. " 'Tom,' " says he, "what d'ye you think ? Blest if rye ain't found a stowaway.' " (That's the name, you know, sir, as we give to chaps as bides theirselves aboard outward bound vessels, and gets carried out unbeknown to everybody.) " ' The dickens you have ! " says I. " ' Who is he, and where did yer find him ? " « < "Well, we found him stowed away among the casks for'ard ; and ten to one w'd never ha' twigged him at all. if the skipper's dog hadn't sniffed him out and begun barkin'. Sich a little mite as he is too ! I could a'most put him in my baccy-pouch, poor little beggar ! but he looks to be a good plucked un for all that.' " " I didn't wait to hear no more, but up on deck like a sky-rocket ; and there I did sea a sight, and no mistake. Every man-Jack o' the crew, and and what few passengers we had aboard, was all in a rinsr on the fo'c'stle, and in the middle stood the fust-mate, lookin' as black as thunder. Hight in front of him, lookin' a reg'lar mite among all them big fellers, was a little o' a lad not ten years old — ragged as a scarecrow, but witli bright curly hair, and a bonnie little face o' his owr, if it hadn't been so woful thin and pale. But, bless yer soul !to see the way that little chap held bis head up, and looked about him, you'd ha' thought the whole ship belonged to him. The mate was a great, hulkin' black-bearded feller, with a look that 'ud ha' frightened a horse, and a voice fit to mike one jump through a keyhole ; but the young un warn't a bit afeard — he stood straight up, and looked him full in the face with thorn bright, clear eyes o' hisn, for all the world as if he was Prince Halfred himself. Folk did say arterwanls, (lowering his voice to a whisper) as how he coined o' better blood nor what he ought ; and, for mv part, I'm rayther o'that way o' fhinkin' myself ; for I never yet seed a common street Haran (as they calls 'em now) carry it off like him. You might ha' heerd a pin drop, as the mate spoke. "'Well, mv ynnne whplp," says he in his grimest voice, " ' what's brought you here ?' " " '' It w.is my step father as done it,' " says the boy in a weak liAle voice, but as steady as could be. " Father's dead, and mother's married j again, and my new father says, as. how

he won't have no brats about eatin' up his wages ; and he stowed me away when nobody warn't lookin', and guv me some grub to keep me goin' for a day or two till I got to son. He says I'lii to go to Aunt Jane :it Halifax ; and here's her address.' " "And with that, ho slips his hand into the breast of his shirt, and out with a scrap o' paper, awful dirty and crumpled up, and with the address on it, right enough." " Wo all believed every word on 't, even without the paper ; for his look, and his voice, and the way he spoke, was enough to show that there warn't a ha'porth o' lyin' in his whole skin. But the mate didn't seem to swaller the yarn at all ; he only shrugged his shoulders with a kind o' grin, as much as to say : " ' I'm too old a bird to be caught with tint kind o' chaff;'" and then he says to him : " ' Look here, my lad ; that's all very fine, but it won't do hern — some p' these men o' mine are in the secret, and I mean to have it out of 'em. Now, you ju3t point out the man as stowed you away and fed you, this very minute ; if you don't, it'll be the worse for you ! ' " " The boy looked up in his bright fearless way (it did my heart good to look at him, the brave little chap !), and says, quito quietly: "'l've told you the truth ; I ain't got no more to say.'" " The mate says nothin', but looks at him for a minute as if he'd see clean through him ; and then he faced round to the men, lookin' blacker than ever. " ' Eeeve a rope to the yard ! " he sings out, loud enough to raise the dead ; " smart now ! ' '! " The men all looked at each other, as much as to say : " ' "What on earth's a comin' now?" But aboard Rhip. o' course, when you're told to do a thing, you got to do it ; so the rope was rove in a jiffy. " : Now, my lads," says the mate, in a hard square kind o' voice, that made every word seem like fittin' a stone into a wall, " you see that 'ere rope ? Well, I'll <iive you ten minutes to confess ' " (he took out his watch and hold it in his hand) ; " and if you don't tell the truth afore I^e time's up, I'll hang you like a do^ ! ' " " The crew started at ono another aa if they couldn't believe their own ears (I didn't believe mine, I can tell ye 1 ), an I then a low growl went among 'em, like a wild beast a-wakin' out of a nap." " ' Silence there! ' " shouts the mate, in a voice like the roar of a nor'easter. " ' Stand by to run for'ard ! ' " and with his own hands he put t;.e noose round the boy's neck. The little feller never flinched a bit ; but there was some among the sailor* (big strong chaps as could ha 1 felled a ox) as shook like leaves in the wind. As for me, I bethought myself o' mi/ little curly-haired lad at home, and how it 'ud be if any one was to go for to hang him ; and at the very thought on't I tingled -all over, and my fingers clinched theirselves as if they was afjrippin' somebody's throat. I clutched hold o' a handspike, and held it behind my back, all ready." " ' Tom,' " whispers the chiefengineer to me, " ' d'ye think he really means to do it ? ' " "' I don't know, 1 " says I through my teeth ; " but if he does, he shall go first, if I swings for it ! " " I've been in many an ugly scrape in my time ; but I never felt 'arf as bad as I did then. Every minute seemed as long as a dozen ; and the tick o' the mate's watch reg'lar pricked my ears like a pin. The men were quiet, but there was a precious ugly look on some o' their faces ; and I noticed that three or four o' 'em kep' edgin' for'ard to where the mate was standin', in a way that meant mischief. As for me, I'd made up my mind that if he did go for to hang the poor little chap, I'd kill him on the spot, and take my chance." " ' Eight minutes ! ' " says the matp, his great deep voice breakin' in upon the silence like the toll o' a funeral bell. "' If you've got anything to confess, my lad, you'd best out with it, for yer time's nearly up.'" "'' I 'ye told you the truth,' " answers the boy very pale, but as firm as ever. " ' May I say mv prayers, please ? " " The mate nodded ; and down goes the poor little chap on his knees (with that infernal rope about his neck all the time), and puts his poor little hands up to pray. I couldn't make out what he said (fact, my head was in sitch a whirl that I'd hardly ha' knowed my own name), but I'll be bound God heard it, every word. Then he- ups on his feet again, and puts his hands behind him, and says to the mate, quite quietly : " ' I'm ready ! ' " "And then, sir, the mate's hard grim face broke up all to once, like I've seed the ice in the Baltic. He snatched up the boy in his arms, and kissed him, and bust a cryin' like a child ; and I think there warn't one of us as didn't do the same. I know I did, for one." " ' God bless you, my boy ! ' " says he, smoothm' the child's hair with his great hard hand. " ' You're a true Englishman every inch of you : you wouldn't tell a lie to save your life ! "Well, if so be as yer father's cast ye off, I'll be yer father from this day forth ; and if I ever forget you, then may God forget mo ! ' " " And he kep' his words too. When we got to Halifax, he found out the Uttje un'e aunt, and giv' her a lump o'

money to make him comfortable ; and now he goes to see the youngster every voyage, as reg'laras can bo; and to see the pair on 'em togethoi — the little chap so fond o' him, and not bearin' him a bit o' grudge — it's 'bout as pretty a sight as ever I scod. And now, sir, axin' yor pardin', it's time for me to be goin' below ; so I'll just wish yer good-night."