Читать книгу Hurricane Jack of The Vital Spark - Hugh Foulis - Страница 5

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"THE first time the Vital Spark and us took up the line o' mystery shippin'," said Para Handy, settling down to his yarn, "she wasna cammyflaged at aal, but in her naitural colour. I wass thinkin' to spruce her up a bit for the occasion wi' a yellow bead aboot her, and the least wee touch o' red aboot her funnel, but Hurricane Jeck, wi' the Admirality's orders, made us sail the way we were.

"'This boat, my sunny boys,' says he, "iss to look like any ordinar' packet that would be carryin' coals, or wud, or gravel,' and he wouldna let Dougie even wash his face for fear the enemy would have suspeecions she wass some vessel oot o' the usual. Indeed, I wass black affronted the way she took to sea--aal rust and tar, the deck reel-rail wi' buckets and boxes, a washin' o' clothes on the riggin', and everywhere Irish pennants. Am I right or am I wrong, Dougie?"

"Ye have it exact, Captain," promptly agreed the mate; "I have seen a bonnier boat on a valentine."

"'The thing is to look naitural,' says Jeck, and his notion aboot lookin' naitural wass to have us like a boat in a pantomime, and a crew like a wheen o' showmen. He wouldna even let me put on my jecket! And, oh, but Macphail wass the angry man! Jeck's orders wass that we were to keep her at four or five knots, but make her funnel smoke like bleezes. Macphail had to burn up all his novelettes; if he wass here himsel' he would tell ye."

"Where did ye start frae?" asked one of the Glasgow men.

"I'll tell ye that withoot wan word o' devagation," said Para Handy. "We started from Bowling, under sealed orders that Jeck had at his finger-ends, and a lot o' impudent brats o' boys on the quay cryin' 'Three cheers for the Aquitania!'"

"Oor lives in oor hands!" remarked Dougie solemnly. "We didna know but every minute would be oor next."

"There wass a lot o' talk at the time aboot submarines roond Arran, and we made oor course first for Loch Ranza," continued the Captain. "We never came on nothing--not a thing! Jeck and me and Dougie put oot the punt at Loch Ranza, and went ashore to see the polisman. We took Jenkins wi' us--he wass the English chentleman in cherge of the guns, and he would aye be scoorin' them wi' soft soap--fair made pets o' them! The polisman assured us Kilbrannan Sound wass hotchin' wi' submarines the week before, and he wass of opeenion they were shifted up Loch Fyne, for a whale wass seen at Tarbert on the Friday.

"We carried on to Tarbert, and by good luck it wass Tarbert Fair. Jeck threw open the boat for visitors, considerin' the occasion. They came on board in droves to see a mystery ship, and Jeck put roond a hat in the aid of Brutain's hardy sons. He gaithered seventeen shillin's, and we stayed three days."

"Seventeen and ninepence ha'penny," said Dougie, apparently determined on absolute accuracy.

"I stand corrected, Dougald; it wass seventeen and ninepence ha'penny," admitted the Captain, on reflection.

"It wass a chentleman's life under Jeck; ye never saw a better hand for navigaation! Duvvle the place did we go into but there was sport--a displenishin' sale at Skipness that lasted a couple o' days; a marriage at Carradale wi' fifteen hens on the table, and everybody hearty--"

"Kind, kind people in Carradale!" enthusiastically testified the mate. "That homely! Ye had just to stretch your hand, and somebody would put something in it. It wass wi' us bein' in the Navy."

"But did ye no' see ony submarines?" impatiently inquired one of the Glasgow men.

The narrator refused to be hurried. "Jeck jaloosed," he proceeded, "that the Blackwaterfoot wass the kind of a place where the Chermans might be lurkin'; we went ashore and scoured aal roond the inn, ootside and in, and up as far as Shisken, lookin' at night for signals. We followed a light for an oor, and tracked it to Shisken Inn; it wass only a man wi' a lantern."

"My goodness! aren't they cunnin'?" said Jeck at the end of the week, when there wassna ony sign o' the Chermans. "We'll have to go roond the Mull and see if they're no' in Islay.' Ye'll mind o' him lookin' the book, Dougie?"

"Fine!" said the mate, without a moment's hesitation, but with a questioning look in his eye for Para Handy.

"It wass an almanac, and Jeck wass studyin' it like a book o' Gaelic songs.

"'What are ye studyin', Jeck?' I asked him. 'Iss it the tides ye're lookin'?"

"'The tides iss aal right,' says Jeck; 'I'm lookin' to see what day the wool market's on in Port Ellen.' Man! ye couldna keep step to Jeck; he wass chokeful o' naitural agility. We got into Port Ellen chust when the market started, and they couldna trate us better than they did. The English chentleman in charge o' oor guns said he had traivelled the world, and never seen the like o't. For a couple o' days his cannons got little scourin', I'll assure you!

"Jeck looked the map on Monday, and gave a start. 'Holy sailors!' says he, 'we forgot to caal on Campbeltown, and I have fifteen cousins there!'

"We were chust goin' roond by Sanda, and it wass desperate dark, when a boat pops up and hails us. We couldna mak' oot wan word they were sayin'!"

"'Now we're into the midst of it!' said Jeck, quite cool, puttin' oot the light and takin' off his slippers. 'Heave oot the punt and start the panic party!'"

"Whit was the panic party?" asked one of the Glasgow men.

"Chust me and Dougie and Macphail. I assure you we were well put through oor drills at Bowling! Whenever a U-boat hailed ye, ye understand, we were to get in the punt in a desperate confusion, and leave the English chentleman and Jeck on the vessel, below the crate where the guns wass.

"Macphail wass first in the punt, wi' his clock and a canister he kept his clothes in; Dougie fell into the water, and wass nearly drooned, and I wass chust goin' to jump in when I minded and went back to get my papers--"

"'John Bull' and the 'Oban Times,' "explained the mate with unnecessary and misunderstanding minuteness.

"When we put off in the punt, the gallant Jeck, wi' his gunner below the crate, was usin' terrible language, bawlin' oot to the Chermans to egg them to come on. A stiff bit breeze wass blowin' from the south'ard. We waited to hear the battle and pick up Jeck and the English chentleman when it wass feenished--"

"Ye mind we were driftin', Captain," remarked the mate.

"As dark ass the inside o' a coo," pursued Para Handy, "and, as Dougie tells ye, we were driftin'. Believe it or no', but in oor hurry wi' the panic, we clean forgot the oars!"

"Oor lives in oor hands!" said Dougie lugubriously. "And me at the bailin' dish. The chentlemen's gettin' tired listenin', Peter."

"Aal night we drifted in the punt, and it wass desperate dark, but a trawler towed us in to Campbeltown in the mornin'. There wass a demonstration when we landed, us bein' in the Navy, but it wass kind o' spoiled at first for me and Dougie, wonderin' aboot the vessel. And there she wass, lyin' at the quay!"

"Criftens!" said a Glasgow man, with an air of frank disappointment; "I thocht she would be sunk by that time!"

"Not under Hurricane Jeck!" said Para Handy. "Ye'll mind o' Jeck's agility. He had sunk the other fellow, him and Jenkins, and that's the way he got the Victoria Cross. And it wassna fifteen cousins he had in Campbeltown, when the story went aboot; the half o' aal the folk in Kintyre wass cousins to him."

"I have a bit here o' the Cherman boat," said Dougie, taking a fragment of a herring-box from below his guernsey. "Jeck picked it up for a sample. Any of you chentlemen that would like a souveneer--"