The Three Admirals | Page 2

him come on deck again, although he
may not be fit for duty for a day or two more."
Mr Mildmay, the first lieutenant, who was officer of the watch, paced
the deck, spyglass in hand, now and then going on to the bridge and
sweeping the horizon with his glass, while he frequently called to the
look-outs on the forecastle and fore-yardarm to keep their eyes open.
Jos Green, the master, was also continually there, or else consulting the
chart in his cabin, for that part of the ocean was comparatively little
known, and cruel reefs might exist, not marked down.
"The first lieutenant and the master seem very fidgety," remarked Tom.
"So would we be, I suspect, if the responsibility of navigating the ship
rested with us," answered Archie. "After all, no one suffers by being
sufficiently careful; that's the rule my cousin gave me when I first came
to sea."

"And a very good rule it is, too, no doubt about that," observed Tom.
"My brother Jack is as careful of his ship, and everything connected
with her, as an old lady is of her best silk gown on a Sunday morning,
though any one, to hear him talk, would suppose that he was the most
harum-scarum fellow alive, always excepting his old shipmate, Captain
Adair. He is, however, staid and steady enough in reality. I was very
glad to hear that he got his post rank at the same time as my brother
Jack did; and now the three old messmates, as they delight to call
themselves, are post-captains, and will some day, I hope, be admirals. I
wish, however, that they had not to wait so long. Your grave cousin
Murray is as fit to be an admiral now as he will be twenty years hence,
and, unless not a few fine fellows die off, it will take the best part of
that time for any of them to get their flag."
"It is encouragement for us, though," observed Archie; "for if they have
all been posted without any great amount of interest, we may hope to
get promoted in consequence of our good conduct."
"Yes, but then remember that they have seen a great deal of service,
and should the piping times of peace return, we may find it a hard
matter to get employed and be able to exhibit our good conduct."
"Weel, mon, we'll hope for the best, and may be some other nation will
kindly think fit to come to fisticuffs with old England, and give us
something to do," said Archie.
"There's every chance of that, I should think," said Tom. Just then
seven bells struck in the afternoon watch. "I'll go and see how Gerald is
getting on, before I have to come on deck again; it's dull work for him
lying all by himself."
Tom found his old messmate, whose cot was slung a little way outside
the berth, so that he might have the advantage of the air coming down
the after-hatchway, sucking lustily at an orange which he grasped in
one hand, while he held a book in the other. He was so absorbed in its
perusal that he did not notice Tom. Suddenly he burst into a loud fit of
laughter.

"Capital fun; I should have liked to have seen it!" he exclaimed;
"soused over head and ears a second time. Ah, ah, ah!"
"What's the joke?" asked Tom.
"I've just got to where old Peregrine Wiffle tumbles into the water a
second time, when he is showing how he saw the small fish playing
under the wharf, and was picked up with a boat-hook." Tom and Gerald
had a good laugh together.
"You don't seem very bad," observed Tom.
"No; the fever, or whatever it was, that had got hold of me, has cut its
stick, though I don't feel quite as nimble as I ought to be," answered
Gerald. "I believe that the disappointment of not going to China, and
the thinking over what my uncle Terence can want me home for, had
more to do with it than the climate, the hot sun, or anything else, and I
intend to ask the doctor to let me go on deck to-morrow, by which time
I shall have finished my book, and I want to have a look at any of the
islands we may happen to pass. There are some curious shaped ones, I
am told."
"Yes; we have sighted some. One seemed to rise three or four hundred
feet in a pointed peak, right out of the water, and it was not, I should
say, an eighth of a mile in circumference. It is marked on the chart as
Lot's wife. A solitary existence she must lead all by herself."
"Whereabouts are we?" asked