The Tiger of Mysore | Page 9

taken pains to seat Mrs. Holland, at table, next to a
person who would be a pleasant companion for her; and the lady she
was now talking to was the wife of a chaplain in the army. She had, a
year before, returned from India in the Madras, and he knew her to be a
kind and pleasant woman.
Dick did not care for his cabin mates. They were young fellows of
about eighteen years of age. One was a nephew of a Director of the
Company, the other the son of a high Indian official. They paid but
little attention to him, generally ignoring him altogether, and
conversing about things and people in India, in the tone of men to
whom such matters were quite familiar.

In three or four days, Dick became on good terms with the six
midshipmen the Madras carried. Two of them were younger than
himself, two somewhat older, while the others were nearly out of their
time, and hoped that this would be their last trip in the midshipmen's
berth. The four younger lads studied, two hours every morning, under
the second officer's instruction; and Dick took his place at the table
regularly with them.
Mathematics had been the only subject in which he had at all
distinguished himself at school, and he found himself able to give
satisfaction to Mr. Rawlinson, in his studies of navigation. After this
work was over, they had an hour's practical instruction by the
boatswain's mate, in knotting and splicing ropes, and in other similar
matters.
In a fortnight, he had learned the names and uses of what had, at first,
seemed to him the innumerable ropes; and long before that, had
accompanied one of the midshipmen aloft. On the first occasion that he
did so, two of the topmen followed him, with the intention of carrying
out the usual custom of lashing him to the ratlines, until he paid his
footing. Seeing them coming up, the midshipman laughed, and told
Dick what was in store for him.
The boy had been as awkward as most beginners in climbing the
shrouds, the looseness and give of the ratlines puzzling him; but he had,
for years, practised climbing ropes in the gymnasium at Shadwell, and
was confident in his power to do anything in that way. The
consequence was that, as soon as the sailors gained the top, where he
and the midshipman were standing, Dick seized one of the halliards and,
with a merry laugh, came down hand over hand. A minute later, he
stood on the deck.
"Well done, youngster," said the boatswain's mate, who happened to be
standing by, as Dick's feet touched the deck. "This may be the first time
you have been on board a ship, but it is easy to see that it isn't the first,
by a long way, that you have been on a rope. Could you go up again?"
"Yes, I should think so," Dick said. "I have never climbed so high as

that, because I have never had the chance; but it ought to be easy
enough."
The man laughed.
"There are not many sailors who can do it," he said. "Well, let us see
how high you will get."
As Dick was accustomed to go up a rope thirty feet high, hand over
hand, without using his legs, he was confident that, with their
assistance, he could get up to the main top, lofty as it was, and he at
once threw off his jacket and started. He found the task harder than he
had anticipated, but he did it without a pause. He was glad, however,
when the two sailors above grasped him by the arms, and placed him
beside them on the main top.
"Well, sir," one said, admiringly, "we thought you was a Johnny
Newcome, by the way you went up the ratlines, but you came up that
rope like a monkey.
"Well, sir, you are free up here, and if you weren't it would not make
much odds to you, for it would take half the ship's company to capture
you."
"I don't want to get off paying my footing," Dick said, pulling five
shillings from his pocket and handing them to the sailors; for his
mother had told him that it was the custom, on first going aloft, to make
a present to them, and had given him the money for the purpose. "I can
climb, but I don't know anything about ropes, and I shall be very much
obliged if you will teach me all you can."
Chapter 2
: A Brush With Privateers.
Dick was surprised when, on descending to the deck, he found that
what seemed to him a by no means very difficult feat had attracted
general attention. Not only did