With Moore at Corunna | Page 9

"but give her plenty of
wind and you will see how she can walk along."
There was a laugh all round the table; O'Grady's absolute confidence in
anything in which he was interested was known to them all. His horse
had been notoriously the most worthless animal in the regiment, but
although continually last in the hunting field, O'Grady's opinion of her
speed was never shaken. There was always an excuse ready; the horse
had been badly shod, or it was out of sorts and had not had its feed
before starting, or the going was heavy and it did not like heavy ground,
or the country was too hilly or too flat for it. It was the same with his
company, with his non-commissioned officers, with his soldier servant,
a notoriously drunken rascal, and with his quarters.

O'Grady looked round in mild expostulation at the laugh.
"You will see," he said, confidently, "there can be no mistake about it."
Two days later a ship-of-war entered the harbour, the usual salutes
were exchanged, then a signal was run up to one of her mast-heads, and
again the guns of the forts pealed out a salute, and word ran through the
transports that Sir Arthur Wellesley was on board. On the following
day the fleet got under way, the transports being escorted by a
line-of-battle ship and four frigates, which were to join Lord
Collingwood's squadron as soon as they had seen their charge safe into
the Tagus.
Before evening the Sea-horse was a mile astern of the rearmost ship of
the convoy, and one of the frigates sailing back fired a gun as a signal
to her to close up.
"Well, O'Grady, we have left the fleet, you see, though not in the way
you predicted."
"Whist, man! don't you see that the captain is out of temper because
they have all got to keep together, instead of letting him go ahead?"
Every rag of sail was now piled on to the ship, and as many of the
others were showing nothing above their topgallant sails she rejoined
the rest just as darkness fell.
"There, you see!" O'Grady said, triumphantly, "look what she can do
when she likes."
"We do see, O'Grady. With twice as much sail up as anything else, she
has in three hours picked up the mile she had lost."
"Wait until we get some wind."
"I hope we sha'n't get anything of the sort--at least no strong winds; the
old tub would open every seam if we did, and we might think ourselves
lucky if we got through it at all."

O'Grady smiled pleasantly, and said it was useless to argue with so
obstinate a man.
"I am afraid O'Grady is wrong as usual," Dick Ryan said to Terence,
who was sitting next to him. "When once he has taken an idea into his
head nothing will persuade him that he is wrong; there is no doubt the
Sea-horse is as slow as she can be. I suppose her owners have some
interest with the government, or they would surely never have taken up
such an old tub as a troop-ship."
CHAPTER II
TWO DANGERS
The next day, in spite of the sail she carried, the Sea-horse lagged
behind, and one of the frigates sailed back to her, and the captain
shouted angry orders to the master to keep his place in the convoy.
"If we get any wind," O'Grady said, as the frigate bore up on her course
again, "it will take all your time to keep up with her, my fine fellow.
You see," he explained to Terence, "no vessel is perfect in all points;
some like a good deal of wind, some are best in a calm. Now this ship
wants wind."
"I think she does, Captain O'Grady," Terence replied, gravely. "At any
rate her strong point is not sailing in a light wind."
"No," O'Grady admitted, regretfully; "but it is not the ship's fault. I
have no doubt at all that her bottom is foul, and that she has a lot of
barnacles and weeds twice as long as your body. That is the reason why
she is a little sluggish."
"That may be it," Terence agreed; "but I should have thought that they
would have seen to that before they sent her to Cork."
"It is like enough that her owners are well-wishers of Napoleon,
Terence, and that it is out of spite that they have done it. There is no
doubt that she is a wonderful craft."

"I am quite inclined to agree with you, Captain O'Grady, for as I have
never seen a ship except when the regiment came back from India ten
years ago, I am no judge of one."
"It is the eye, Terence. I can't say that I have