The Tiger of Mysore | Page 8

Fellows.
Half an hour after the arrival of the Hollands on board, the passengers
began to pour in rapidly, and the deck of the Madras was soon crowded
with them, their friends, and their luggage. Below, all was bustle and
confusion. Men shouted angrily to stewards; women, laden with parcels,
blocked the gangway, and appealed helplessly to every one for
information and aid; sailors carried down trunks and portmanteaus; and
Mrs. Holland, when she emerged from her cabin, having stowed away
her belongings and made things tidy, congratulated herself on having
been the first on board, and so had not only avoided all this confusion,
but obtained a separate cabin, which she might not otherwise have been
able to do, as the captain would have been too busy to devote any
special attention to her.
After having handed her over to the care of the purser, Captain Barstow
had spoken to the second officer, who happened to be passing.
"Mr. Rawlinson," he said, "this is the son of my old friend, Captain
Holland. He is going out with his mother. I wish you would keep your
eye upon him, and let him join the midshipmen in their studies with
you, in the morning. Possibly he may enter the Service, and it will be a

great advantage to him to have got up navigation, a bit, before he does
so. At any rate, it will occupy his mind and keep him out of mischief. A
lad of his age would be like a fish out of water, among the passengers
on the quarterdeck."
"Ay, ay, sir. I will do what I can for him."
And he hurried away.
Dick saw that, for the present, there was nothing to be done but to look
on, and it was not until the next morning, when the Madras was making
her way south, outside the Goodwins, that the second officer spoke to
him.
"Ah, there you are, lad! I have been too busy to think of you, and it will
be another day or two before we settle down to regular work. However,
I will introduce you to one or two of the midshipmen, and they will
make you free of the ship."
Dick was, indeed, already beginning to feel at home. The long table,
full from end to end, had presented such a contrast to his quiet dinner
with his mother, that, as he sat down beside her and looked round, he
thought he should never get to speak to anyone throughout the voyage.
However, he had scarcely settled himself when a gentleman in a naval
uniform, next to him, made the remark:
"Well, youngster, what do you think of all this? I suppose it is all new
to you?"
"It is, sir. It seems very strange, at first, but I suppose I shall get
accustomed to it."
"Oh, yes. You will find it pleasant enough, by and bye. I am the ship's
doctor. The purser has been telling me about you and your mother.
"I made one voyage with your father. It was my first, and a kinder
captain I never sailed with. I heard, from the purser, that there seems to
be a chance of his being still alive, and that your mother is going out to

try and find out something about him. I hope, most sincerely, that she
may succeed in doing so; but he has been missing a long time now.
Still, that is no reason why she should not find him. There have been
instances where men have been kept for years by some of these rascally
natives--why, goodness only knows, except, I suppose, because they
fear and hate us; and think that, some time or other, an English prisoner
may be useful to them.
"Your mother looks far from strong," he went on, as he glanced across
Dick to Mrs. Holland, who was talking to a lady on the other side of
her. "Has she been ill?"
"No, sir. I have never known her ill, yet. She has been worrying herself
a great deal. She has waited so long, because she did not like to go out
until she could take me with her. She has no friends in England with
whom she could leave me. She looks a good deal better, now, than she
did a month ago. I think, directly she settled to come out, and had
something to do, she became better."
"That is quite natural," the doctor said. "There is nothing so trying as
inactivity. I have no doubt that the sea air will quite set her up again. It
performs almost miracles on the homeward-bound passengers. They
come on board looking pale, and listless, and washed out; at the end of
a month at sea, they are different creatures altogether."
The purser had