The Gentleman | Page 6

dilapidated splendour about the fellow as about an historic ruin. The boy felt it through his disgust.
"I thought Nelson did a bit," he said.
"Nelson did much; I did more; e did most," with a wave forward. "Why!" shouting now. "Who was it led the line inside the shoal--creepin it, leadsman in the chains, soundin all the way?--We _Thunderers_, the Goliath treadin mighty jealous on our heels. And who commanded the _Thunderer_?--Old Ding-dong. And what did he get for it?"
He smacked a hand down on the boy's shoulder.
"Broke him, sir!--broke him back to a sloop o war!--old Ding-dong, the damdest, darndest, don't-care-a-cursest old sea-dog as ever set his teeth in a French line o battle ship, and wouldn't let go, though they fired double-shotted broadsides down his throat."
"But why did they break him?" gasped the boy. "It doesn't sound like Nelson."
The other smacked his long nose with a finger mysteriously.
"I don't know what you mean," said the boy, short and sharp.
"Ah, and just as well you don't," replied the other loftily. "Some day, Sonny, you'll know all there is to know and a leetle bit more--same as me. Plenty time first though. If you've done suckin it's more'n you look."
He began to march again.
"Yes, sir: he'd ha hoisted his broad pendant afore this, would old Ding-dong, pit-boy and powder-monkey and all, only for that. And as I'd ha gone h'up with him as he went h'up, so I goes down with him when he goes down. I know'd old Ding-dong. He was the man for me. Talk o fightin!--Dicky Keats, Ned Berry, the Honourayble Blackwood: good men all and gluttons at it!--but for the real old style stuff, ammer-and-tongs, fight to a finish, takin punishment and givin it, there ain't a seaman afloat as'll touch our old man."
He spat over the side.
"Yes, sir, when he went, I went along, and never regretted it--never. We've seen more sport aboard this blame little packet than the rest of the Fleet together. Clear'd the Channel, be God, we ave!--prowlin up and down, snow and blow, fog and shine, like a rampin champin lion. Why, sir, we've fought a first-rate from Portland Bill to Dead Man's Bay--this blame little boat you could sail in a babby's bath! _Took her too!_ and towed her into Falmouth Roads, all standin, like a kid leadin its mother by the and. Talk o Cochrane and the _Speedy_!--Gor blime!--what's he alongside us?"
He steadied suddenly.
"Ush! ere comes the old man."
The boy could hear the stump of a stick on the deck.
"What's he wearin?" whispered the other, peering. "You can most always tell the lay he's on by that. Pea-jacket means boat-work, cuttins out, fire-ships, landin parties, and the like. If it's old blue frock and yaller waistcoat, then it's lay em aboard and say your prayers. And if it's cocked hat and chewin a quid, then it's elp you God: for your time's come."
"You're a disgrace to the Service, Mr. Lanyon," came a curt voice.
"And you're a credit to it, sir," was the hearty retort.
"Go below."
"And just sposin I won't," answered the drunkard--"only sposin, mind!--just for the sake of argyment, d'ye see?--what then?"
"Irons."
The drunkard folded his arms.
"And might I make so bold, Commander Ardin," he began elaborately, "to ask who'll fight your guns, your Actin Fust in irons; and besides yourself ne'er another officer on the quar'er-deck--only this ere squab."
"I'll fight em myself if needs be. Go below, d'ye hear?"
The Gunner stumbled away, roaring laughter.
"Sail the blurry ship; fight the blurry ship; sink the blurry ship; and go to ell in the blurry ship. That's old Ding-dong."

CHAPTER IV
OLD DING-DONG
"They call you Kit?"
The boy started.
His name, his pet name that he had not heard for days, on the lips of this block-of-granite little man, who had only spoken so far to snub him.
"Mother does, sir--and Gwen."
There was silence; only the water talking beneath the ship's bows, as she took the open sea and began to swing to it.
"Your father was my friend," continued the voice, less harsh now. "I was a pit-boy; he was a gentleman: we was friends."
The voice was gruff again.
"Ran away to sea same night--he from the Hall; me from the pit-mouth. Met under the old oak on the green.
"'Ready, Bill?' says he.
"'Right, sir,' says I.
"'Then forge ahead.'
"And forge ahead it was, and never parted, till the Lord saw good to come atween us for the time bein at St. Vincent."
The voice in the darkness ceased and began again.
"Quiberon Bay was our first. Fifty-nine that were. I was powder-monkey on the _Royal George_; he was Hawke's orderly midshipman. St. Vincent our last. And a God's plenty in between. One time Dutchmen; one time Dons; and most all the time the French. Yes, sir," with quiet gusto, "reck'n we saw all the best that was goin in our time, and