Plucky Fellows; being reminiscences from the Note-Book of Captain Fred. A book for boys

Front matter

PLUCKY FELLOWS JUVENILE BOOKS. BRAVE MEN'S FOOTSTEPS. A Book of Example and Anecdote for Young People. By the Editor of ' Men who have Risen.' With Four Illustrations by C. Doyle. Crown 8vo. 3s. Qd. THE LITTLE WONDER-HORN. By Jean Ingelotv. A Second Series of ' Stories told to a Child.' Fifteen Illustrations. Cloth, gilt, \)s. 6rf. GUTTA-PERCHA WILLIE, THE WORKING GENIUS. By George MacDonald. With Illustrations by Arthur Hughes. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. GOOD WORDS FOR THE YOUNG FOR 1872. Gilt cloth and gilt edges, Is. 6d. THE DESERTED SHIP. A Real Story of the Atlantic. By Cupples Howe, Master Mariner. Illustrated by Townley Green. Crown 8vo. 3s. Gd. • THE TRAVELLING MENAGERIE. By Charles Camden, Author of ' Hoity Toity.' Illustrated by J. Mahoney. Crown Svo. 3s. Gd. . HOITY TOITY, THE GOOD LITTLE FELLOW.

By Charles Camden. Illustrated. Crown 8vo. Zs. 6d. STORIES OF PRECIOUS STONES. By Helen Zimmern. Illustrated. Crown 8vo. 5s. JEAN JAROUSSEAU, THE PASTOR OF THE DESERT. From the French of Eugene Pelletan. Translated by Colonel E. P. de l'Hoste. In fcp. 8vo. with an Engraved Frontispiece, a.. Henry S. King & Co. 65 Cornhill, and 12 Paternoster Bow, London. A GALLANT LEAP. A Chequered Eoyhood.J [Front. PLUCKY FELLOWS: BEING REMINISCENCES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF CAPTAIN FRED. A BOOK FOR BOYS. By S. J. Mac Kenna. Henry S. King & Co., 65 Cornhill, London AND 12 Paternoster Row. i873- (All rights reserv ed.) CONTENTS. JACK HAWKINS'S FATAL BARGAIN. CHAP. PAGE I. Stunning News . . . . . . . i II. Sam Muller at Home . ... . . .12 III. In the Saddle ....... 26 IV. The Jungle-Camp . . . . . 35 V. The Death-struggle 47 THE BUGLER'S FATE.

I. Going Down Channel. . . .' . .61 II. Martial Glory v. Martial Misery ... 71 III. Hunger Knows no Law . . . . .82 IV. The Bitter End ■ . -94 Contents. VI NOBODY'S CHILD. CHAP. PAGE I. Sunset 113 II. Twilight 130 III. Night 142 IV. Daybreak 155 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'STORM WAVE.' I An Adventurous Change — for the Worse . 169 II. Black Sam 183 III. Murder v. Mutiny - 198 IV. A Strange Trial 212 A CHEQUERED BOYHOOD. I. On Lough Mask 221 II. The Outcome of Early Error .... 237 III. What will Become of Him? .... 249 IV The Cruise of the ' Lulu,' and What Came of It . . . . . . . . . Contetits. VII HARRY MONSON. CHAP. PAGE I. Where There's Smoke There's Fire . - ; 277 II. A Day of Sudden Sorrow 292 III. Desolation ' . . . 307 IV. Dawn after Night 31 S LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. A Gallant Leap Frontispiece. PAGE Preparing for the Tiger Hunt .... 24 The Cigarette Signal 105 ' Won't You, Paul?' 12S Arty in Peril 202 The Desperate Chance ......

Introduction

. captain fred's camphor-wood chest. ' Maxima debetur pueris reverentia.' — Juv. Now, my lads, clear the decks for action ! Stay, I don't mean that exactly ; I am at peace now — quiet enough too — just come home from long foreign service, rather the worse for wear and tear, with an uncommon bad liver, and a complication of maladies that have very nearly finished me, to spend a year or two's long leave, and thus recruit my health. ' Well, but we must clear the decks for* action all the same,' you will say, ' or we cannot get at the meaning of the fellow, and make him run up his true colours.' Right enough ; so I had better waste no more words, but just tell you plainly how I, Captain Fred, come before you. While the process of ' recruiting ' is going on, and Introduction. X my enfeebled constitution 'undergoing (I hope) thorough repairs,' I am down at Ryde in a pleasant house that looks away over the bright waters of the Solent to Portsmouth and Spithead ; and often, as I lounge on my sofa wheeled up to open windows, or recline in my great Indian chair in the shade of the verandah, or perchance lie on 'my back in the sun on the sands that front the Esplanade, I think, as I watch the troops practising on Southsea Common, or admire the great men-of-war swinging stately and solemn to their anchors at Spithead, of old times and old stories, and I jot down in my lazy way a lot of old patchy anecdotes and reminiscences of people I have known and honoured.

But you are not to imagine that I am really lazy, for I am not ; only there is a time for work, a time for play, and a time for rest ; and it is just now my Ditty to my country, mind you, to take rest, and plenty of it, so that I may be the more fit for my work when the time for that comes round again. Then, when the humour seizes me, I take from a great camphor-wood chest, where they usually repose safe from Introduction. XI moths or insects, sundry manuscript books that I would not part with for the world. I turn them over and caress and fondle them — for they are my own children — picking out bits here and there, to freshen my recollection of events by land and waterthat I have taken part in myself, or else been intimate with the* actors of; gathering up the threads of half-forgotten stories, as I wander through the note-books ; and here and there in serting facts that I have heard, after the time of making the memoranda, which clear up or sustain points that were then dark or weak from want of evidence.

Seeing a party of jolly young naval cadets ashore from a training-brig (H. M.S. ' Racer,' I think she was) one day, while engaged in the above congenial occupation, and thoroughly appreciating the high animal spirits the lads displayed as they larked along the sands, I thought of the dangers and troubles that must lie waiting in the future lives of most of them. From that my ideas went back to fellows of similar ages, and character perhaps, that I had tumbled across in the course of a Introduction, XII wandering and chequered career, and I took up some of my old note-books that lay on the sands beside me, and, referring to them, was quite sur prised to find that a number, out of all the ' Plucky Fellows ' I have known, were boys. Without very much trouble I picked out some half-dozen lads from my collection, made the rough notes of what they had done in various instances take some sort of order and form, and pleased myself no little over my new-found occupation. ' Well, Fred,' said a worthy old soul, a retired colonial judge, who had been dining with me ; ' you really should do something with those things ! ' ' What things ? ' I asked innocently, looking into the lighted room we had left (we were just then sitting in the verandah discussing our claret over a cigar), and thinking perhaps the judge meant the nut-crackers, the gas-lamps, or the rifles, which, with a tulwar or two, and a couple of boar-spears, with a lot of foreign rubbish, stood littering about the corners of the room. ' Why, those papers,' he answered, pointing to a Introduction.

XIII camp table, on which he had thrown my precious notes when the daylight had faded away. 'Oh,' said I, trying to blush, as thoughts of literary fame came thickening o'er my , brain (though, to speak the truth,, I had before then entertained some such idea myself) ; ' Oh, do you think there's anything in them ? ' ' I think they'd amuse my lads ; and perhaps give them a right wrinkle or two. They'retired of the humdrum books I get for them — say they are all so " goody-goody," or else so outrageously im probable, when not low and mean, that they can't enjoy them ; and as they will all have to fight their own way in The Battle of Life, I should be glad to show them that duty, pluck, and energy, are absolutely essential for success in the struggle, while it is not necessary to be either a Fiji Missionary, a Poundtext, or a Jack Sheppard, to meet with plenty of excitement in their careers.' ' Well ? ' I said, as he paused. ' Well,' he went on ; ' I think there's some good stuff in those experiences of yours ; you've seen plenty of the world, Fred, and plenty of trouble Introduction. with young fellows ; and if you strung the lot into a decent book, you might give the youngsters a pleasant hint, or fillip, as it were, to stir them up to follow good example.' 'Hm — hm,' I mused; 'but some experiences of mine with boys were not quite so — good — right, perhaps.

The fellows sometimes were not up to the mark.' ' Well, but then they failed to succeed, I pre sume ? ' said he, in a little pet at my slowness. ' Generally they did ; certainly,' I answered, after I had thought for a second or two. ' Well, all you have got to do is to tell the truth, man. Boys can see just as soon, or perhaps sooner than you or I can, what is good and what is bad. Trust them to pick out the kernels and leave the shells — but there's evening gun-fire' (the old judge had been so long abroad that he kept the most primitive hours), ' and I must be off home. Think of it, and publish if you can.' He shook my hand and trotted off to his adjacent quarters, leaving me ruminating far into the night over his sug gestion. Introduction. XV I set to work the next day, picked out the stories of half-a-dozen plucky boys I had known, extracts from whose lives I thought would probably illus trate the qualities the judge had spoken of, handed them over to a friend of mine to overhaul and lick into shape ; and here they are for you to read, and Captain Fred may perhaps hope, enjoy.

Energy, pluck, and duty, are the mainsprings of success ; while sluggishness, faintheartedness, and want of honesty in appointed work, are pretty certain to lead to failure. Now a word more before I lock the camphor-chest, and say good-bye for the present. You will probably find a good many things in the incidents I lay before you that will require explanation — names of out-of-the-way places, arms, terms not used in English home-life, naval expressions, phrases you may never before have met with — all sorts of ' odd notions,' as the Yankees would say — that you will have to enquire about. For I tell you honestly and at once, that I, Captain Fred, am not going to turn schoolmaster for anyone in the world ; I quite intend that you should find out for yourhitroduction. XVI selves any little things that may appear obscure ; and I feel pretty sure that the old friend who is editing these experiences for me will adopt the same view.

Hunt up people to tell you about them, read of them, ask other fellows who may have more experience than yourself — in fact, think of them ; and then when you do come to under stand, you will never forget them ; that is one way of forging ahead in knowledge. When you read a book, exercise your brains until you thoroughly know all about it, and do not leave off (though you may have to read a dozen other books to help you) until you do so comprehend it all. Au Revoir. Captain Fred.

Chapter I. Stunning News

' STUNNING news ! Here's some village people in the compound with kubburx of tiger ! ' shouted Jack Hawkins, dashing through the green chik into the room where his father and mother sat at breakfast in their bungalow at Neemuch in Rajpootana. The countenance of Major Hawkins — who was just then in temporary command of the ' Royal Ver derers,' a Queen's regiment of infantry — fell when he heard the news ; and Mrs. Hawkins, a fair, delicate lady, on whom the climate had told heavily, turned deadly pale, as the excited boy went on, in eager tones, to say that the country people had marked down a tiger near their village called Raj • 1 Kubbur means sure information of the whereabouts* of large game, as regards hunting affairs ; literally,- it simply signifies news of any sort. \ B peepla, some twenty miles or more out in the jungle, and wanted the ' Major burra sahib ' to go out and rid their neighbourhood of the very dan gerous visitor.

Perhaps it may seem odd that Major Hawkins — a renowned sportsman, and a fine hearty soldier, whose bronzed face and slightly grizzled hair told tales of many a tussle with men, wild-beasts, and wind and weather, while a deep scar on the right cheek and a slight limp were proofs that the mutinous Sepoys in 1857 had left their marks on the ' fighting major,' as he was called by the 'Verderers' — well, perhaps it was odd that his countenance should fall on the .receipt of what he had ahvays hitherto regarded as excellent news ; and his son Jack could not at all understand it. He could partially make out why his mother turned pale, rose from her seat in agitation, and kissed his forehead while she seemed to make an effort not to look miserable ; for he knew that a mother who dearly loved her only son, as Mrs. Hawkins loved him, was sure to be fancying all sorts of horrors when sport was in the wind ; but with his father it was very different — he was a soldier and a shikarhee, and should have, by rights, been in the same fever of delight that Jack was himself at the glorious news he brought in from the compound.

Yet there was very good reason for his parents' anxious demeanour ; and though Master Jack, aged fifteen, failed to comprehend it just then in his excitement, perhaps you, my friend, whose blood is cool and your pulse calm as you read this in your own special snug corner at home, or private nook of the playground along with your particular ' chum,' will see the state of affairs in much the same light as did Major and Mrs. Hawkins, when I tell you why they were troubled, and why Jack was bubbling over with eager expectation. It was thus : 'Jack had only been out in India a few months, and joined his parents at Neemuch, after a long absence in England necessary both for health and for educational purposes, full of life and spirits, and the brave energy he had picked up in the cricket-field and on the foot-ball ground at Rugby, where he had been under a head master who was, in every sense of the word, a ' muscular Christian ' of the ablest type.

A short time before the gaumwallahs had come in to say there was a tiger near their village, had been Christmas Day, and — bitter disappointment ! — Jack's long-expected and hoped-for Christmas-box — a beautiful Arab galloway, coming up-country from Bombay — had been lost while crossing the river Nerbudda, through the carelessness of^a native ghorawallah or keeper, and devoured by the huge muggers, as the alligators that infest Indian waters are called. This was, of course, a terrible blow to poor Jack, and many and bitter were the tears he B shed over it — secret tears, mind you ; for he would not for worlds have had it known that a growing manly lad, as he was, gave way to such weakness. He had as great a contempt for a ' blubberer ' as any of you could have ; but still, you know, tears will sometimes come in private moments when there is a great weight at the heart and a great lump in the throat, and for my part, I, Captain Fred, do most solemnly avow, and am thoroughly in earnest when I say it, that I would not give ' tuppence ' for a lad who is so hard by nature that he never cries to himself when there is legitimate cause for him to do so.

I have seen bearded men cry ! ay, and brave ones too, on whose breasts dangled medals that had been fiercely won, so I think we may well excuse Jack Hawkins for his silent sorrow. His father and mother, too, were greatly grieved for his disappointment, pitying the poor fellow all the more for the manly way in which he sought to, and nearly succeeded in con cealing his sorrow ; and they also especially felt for him in this particular loss because the only other boy in the cantonment at all near his own age — one Sam Muller, of whom I shall have more to tell by-and-by — took a pleasure in flaunting up and down past their bungalow at least a dozen times in the course of his morning and evening rides on a fine Deccanee pony — or small horse, rather — that Captain Muller had recently bought for him.

But what could Major and Mrs. Hawkins do ? It would take two or three months before another suitable animal could be bought out of the stables in Bombay and sent up to Nee much ; and in the meanwhile Jack was dismounted and crowed over no little by his intimate, Sam Muller, on the Deccanee. ' Tell you what it is, my boy,' said Major Hawkins, coming in to breakfast after parade on New Year's Day, and unbuckling his heavy brass scabbarded sword, ' I tell you what it is. You shall ask me for something, in the way the captive princess asks the jolly old fairy in the Christmas pantomimes now going on at home, and if I can, you shall have your wish ; there ! ' Jack had been sitting in the verandah trying to read, as down in the mouth as was ever any lad who had been left at school in vacation-time a day after the other fellows had gone off home.

He brightened up at his father's words a bit, but still was not so eager as you would have been, my fine fellow, at a similar offer from your governor — for there are but few things to be had all of a sudden in an up-country station in India. Mrs. Hawkins smiled as she came out in the cool verandah ; she knew there was not much to be bought in the bazaar, and thought her husband was having a joke with Jack — making a great cry, when there was very little wool to be got. ' Hullo ! bo-hoy ! ' shouted the major all across the compound to a servant, ' Cha lao ! ' The major was thirsty, and wanted his cup of tea after his morning's work, and before he had his bath and dressed for breakfast. Jack began to cheer up wonderfully as. he thought and thought while his father drank the tea. He remembered now a lot of things he would like, and began to feel very like the ass among, not two, but many bundles of hay.

His mother, without appearing to watch him, looked on with an amused smile at the rapid changes in her son's face, pre tending all the time to be examining some light fancy work her ayah had brought her. ' Well, what is it to be ? Out with it, man ! ' half-said, half-laughed his father, as he gave his tea-cup to his dressing-boy. ' And you really will promise me, papa ? ' questioned Jack, earnestly. ' Of course I will,' was the answer, as the major sat down and lit a cheroot from a smouldering charcoal brought him in a silver agdan by one of the servants ; ' and when I promise, I never break my word, my boy, not if it was to kill me ; and I know you will make the same rule for yourself, if you are my true son.' ' There, Jack ! you have him bound fast, now,' said Mrs. Hawkins, laughing softly at the com pletion of the bargain.

Jack again pondered a little, and at last he said, 1 Well, it's no use my trying ! ' ' Trying what ? ' I can't quite make up my mind. I must think a little. It's so hard to tell in this place, there's so many things ; and then I seem to think there's after all only a very few ! And some seem worth having, and some don't/ ' There's a tangle he's got into ! ' Major Hawkins laughed out his jolly, brave laugh to his wife, until some of his cigar smoke got down the wrong way, and he choked and laughed together till he recovered again. ' Never mind now, my boy,' he went on when he recovered ; ' I'm for a consultation with the Brigadier at mid-day gun-fire, and shan't be back to tiffin until nearly three. I'll give you till then to con sider.' ' Come, Jack, that's fair, I'm sure,' said Mrs. Hawkins ; and just then the butler, as the head native servant is always called in the Bombay Presidency, came out in the verandah, made his salaam, and announced ' Nashtah julde tyar hoga' ;' so they all went into the bungalow to dress for breakfast. ' He'll want the best thing in Hormusjee's shop, Henry,' said Mrs. Hawkins, as her son, after a 1 ' Breakfast will soon be ready.' plentiful repast — mental pre-occupation does not, Captain Fred has remarked, interfere with a chap's appetite at the age of fifteen — put on his topi or sun-helmet, and left the compound to have a ' jaw ' ov.er the matter with his friend (for want of a better) Sam Muller, on the resources of the canton ment for carrying out his father's words. ' Not he,' answered the major, stretching himself full length in his great Chinese bamboo chair, and opening the last number of ' The Times of India ' as he puffed at a fresh manilla ; ' not he ; he'll ask me for a dinner at mess.

I know he is dying for that dignity.' ' And will you let him ? ' Of course I will ! A bargain's a bargain all the world over ; and I'll stick to my word to him, as I know he will to me if I set him the example. That boy will be no milk-sop, Helen ; he's full of life and pluck, and if we can only keep him hon ourable and sensitive of duty, as he is now, by our example, we shall make a man of him. Luckily there's not much to ask for in this place, or I should have thought twice before I made him that promise ; ' and the major went on with his paper. Mrs. Hawkins sighed, though she did not know why. She did not like young Muller much, though he was generally considered a nice gentlemanly youth, and she would rather that her Jack had other companions to choose an intimate from. But they were the only two boys in the cantonment, or, for that matter, within a month's march of Neemuch ; and though Sam Muller was rather more than two years older than her son, they came together as boys will do, and Mrs. Hawkins was far too kind and considerate a lady to seek to keep them asunder.

Jack did not return to his father's bungalow until the latter had come in to tiffin, when he appeared with a flushed face and eager eyes, but at the same time with an expression of doubt or hesi tation, as if he feared — not exactly feared, perhaps, but felt dubious as to the result of the request that was on the tip of his tongue. ' Well, my child ? ' questioned his mother, as she fondly kissed his heated sorehead. Jack did not like one bit being called ' my child,' even by his mother ; but he accepted the caress as any grown boy of proper feeling would from' such an affectionate parent. ' Well, my child, the pick of all Hormusjee's shop ? ' ' Or a tiffin at mess, eh, Jack ? ' ' No,' he said, in a somewhat shrinking tone ; ' something much better than either ; but you are sure you promised me ? ' ' I promised once, Jack,' said his father, gravely ; ' and I never in all my life did, and I never will, break my word once it has been passed.' ' Well, then,' Jack plumped out with determina tion, the red blood flushing all his face and neck, and tingling even at his ears as he spoke, ' what I ask is to be taken out with you next time there is kubbur of big game — of tiger ! ' Isa shell had burst in the room the major would probably never have started ; but he started vio lently now, and looked absolutely terrified.

He had never dreamed for a moment of such a request, and it came on him in all its full horror, like a thun derbolt. To take his only son — a mere child, as he regarded him — out to the jungles, to, perhaps, certain death ! That fine soldier actually trembled like a frightened school-girl when all the conse quences of his foolish promise broke thus suddenly over his mind. Mrs. Hawkins's face lost all trace of colour for a moment, but in an instant the emotion caused by the shock passed away, and she laughed outright as she said, ' You silly Jack ! what a fright you gave me for a second ! You must not joke so with me though.' She went on in a voice of sweet tenderness, ' I am not very strong, and I really thought you meant it.' Jack was quite dumb-foundered by the effect his words had produced.

He had fully intended what he had said ; the hesitation he had displayed was only an instinctive one, and he could not see exactly what there was in his request to cause such dismay. ' But I did mean it, ma,' he said ; while the major broke in with : ' Really and truly meant me to keep my promise in that ? ' ' I really and truly did,' was the answer ; and his open, candid manner left no doubt that he was speaking the truth. ' Oh nonsense, Jack ; nonsense, Henry,' put in Mrs. Hawkins, not crediting her ears, but yet alarmed at the gravity of her husband as much as at the evident honesty of intention in her son's face ; ' nonsense,' she repeated ; ' your father of course meant nothing dangerous like that ! ' Jack looked downcast ; but there were no signs in his face of withdrawing his request, or claim indeed, on his father's rash promise. ' There's no harm in it, papa,' he said ; ' and you will keep your word ? ' Major Hawkins looked down very gloomily and solemnly for a brief moment ; then he raised his head again, and said quietly : ' I'll keep my word, my boy ; though I'd sooner you had asked me to cut off my right arm.

Jack's right, Helen ; I gave him my word very foolishly, I know now, but I must keep it.' Mrs. Hawkins was horrified beyond measure. At first she could hardly realise the request her darling son had been granted, and when she did, a sort of nervous trembling seemed to seize her ; and, with dry and aching eyeballs, she went into her own room, and suffered a sharp agony in silence and alone — an agony that only a true mother could know. Sam Muller, after long and deep consultation, had prompted the request (in hopes of joining the sport himself), and, after many utterly useless ap peals from Mrs. Hawkins to her husband to with draw his word, the matter became as a settled affair, and no further allusion to it was made. And now you understand why Major Hawkins's face fell when Jack came in with his ' stunning news,' and why the fond mother turned deadly pale at the same time.

And the reason why their son was not fully alive to the causes of his parents' emotion was that, since his request had been acceded to, they had so concealed their real feelings as to lead him to believe that all serious anxiety had passed away from them.

Chapter II. Sam Muller At Home

' Oh, but that is jolly ! ' said Sam, when Jack went over to Captain Muller's bungalow to tell the ' stunning news ' of the tiger having been marked down, and of his exaction of his father's pro mise. ' Yes,' was the half-hesitating reply, ' but I hardly thought it would come so soon.' 'Well, you are a pretty fellow ! what, " funking " already ? ' ' Funking ! not likely ; I don't funk it one bit,' was Jack's answer, as he reddened at the taunt the other had thrown out. ' Well, what did you say you didn't think it would come so soon for ? ' ' Not from funk, any way ; but I did not think it would, and of course I don't like seeing my mother — and my father, too — so upset' ' Fiddle-de-dee ! You are not going to turn " babby," and hang on to your mammy's apron strings all your life, are you ? ' Sam Muller laughed outright ; he pretended to have a great contempt for childishness, and perhaps thought he was too manly for such feelings. ' Look here, Sam,' answered Jack, ' I'm not going to be chaffed by you that way.