A Middy in Command

A Middy in Command
A Tale of the Slave Squadron
By Harry Collingwood
CHAPTER ONE.
OUR FIRST PRIZE.
The first faint pallor of the coming dawn was insidiously extending
along the horizon ahead as H.M. gun-brig Shark--the latest addition to
the slave-squadron--slowly surged ahead over the almost oil-smooth
sea, under the influence of a languid air breathing out from the
south-east. She was heading in for the mouth of the Congo, which was
about forty miles distant, according to the master's reckoning.
The night had been somewhat squally, and the royals and
topgallant-sails were stowed; but the weather was now clearing, and as
"three bells" chimed out musically upon the clammy morning air, Mr
Seaton, the first lieutenant, who was the officer of the watch, having
first scanned the heavens attentively, gave orders to loose and set again
the light upper canvas.
By the time that the men aloft had cast off the gaskets that confined the
topgallant-sails to the yards, the dawn--which comes with startling
rapidity in those latitudes--had risen high into the sky ahead, and spread
well along the horizon to north and south, causing the stars to fade and
disappear, one after another, until only a few of the brightest remained
twinkling low down in the west.
As I wheeled at the stern-grating in my monotonous promenade of the
lee side of the quarter-deck, a hail came down from aloft--
"Sail ho! two of 'em, sir, broad on the lee beam. Look as if they were

standin' out from the land."
"What are they like? Can you make out their rig?" demanded the first
luff, as he halted and directed his gaze aloft at the man on the main-
royal-yard, who, half-way out to the yard-arm, was balancing himself
upon the foot-rope, and steadying himself with one hand upon the yard
as he gazed away to leeward under the shade of the other.
"I can't make out very much, sir," replied the man. "They're too far off;
but one looks like a schooner, and t'other like a brig."
"And they are heading out from the land, you say?" demanded the
lieutenant.
"Looks like it, sir," answered the man; "but, as I was sayin', they're a
long way off; and it's a bit thick down to leeward there, so--"
"All right, never mind; cast off those gaskets and come down,"
interrupted Mr Seaton impatiently. Then, turning to me, he said:
"Mr Grenvile, take the glass and lay aloft, if you please, and see what
you can make of those strangers. Mr Keene"--to the other midshipman
of the watch--"slip down below and call the captain, if you please. Tell
him that two strange sail have been sighted from aloft, apparently
coming out from the Congo."
By the time he had finished speaking I had snatched the glass from its
beckets, and was half-way up the weather main rigging, while the
watch was sheeting home and hoisting away the topgallant-sails and
royals. When Keene reappeared on deck, after calling the skipper, I was
comfortably astride the royal-yard, with my left arm round the spindle
of the vane--the yard hoisting close up under the truck. With my right
hand I manipulated the slide of the telescope and adjusted the focus of
the instrument to suit my sight.
By this time the dawn had entirely overspread the firmament, and the
sky had lost its pallor and was all aglow with richest amber, through
which a long shaft of pale golden light, soaring straight up toward the

zenith, heralded the rising of the sun. The thickness to leeward had by
this time cleared away, and the two strange sail down there were now
clearly visible, the one as a topsail schooner, and the other as a brig.
They were a long way off, the topsails of the brig--which was leading--
being just clear of the horizon from my elevated point of observation,
while the head of the schooner's topsail just showed clear of the sea.
The brig I took to be a craft of about our own size, say some three
hundred tons, while the schooner appeared to be about two hundred
tons.
I had just ascertained these particulars when the voice of the skipper
came pealing up to me from the stern-grating, near which he stood,
with Mr Seaton alongside of him.
"Well, Mr Grenvile, what do you make of them?"
I replied, giving such information as I had been able to gather; and
added: "They appear to be sailing in company, sir."
"Thank you, that will do; you may come down," answered the skipper.
Then, as I swung myself off the yard, I heard the lieutenant give the
order to bear up in chase, to rig out the port studding-sail booms, and to
see all clear for setting the port studding-sails--or stu'n'sails, as