The War of the Axe; Or, Adventures in South Africa. J. Percy Groves
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at Rugby with my father! Flinders is his name—Major—”
“Not dear old Matthew Flinders surely?” interrupted the other, “who afterwards went into the Cape Rifles?”
“The same,” answered Tom, nodding his head. “Did you know him?”
“Know Mat Flinders! Why, my dear boy, your father was the best and truest friend I ever had! But it is many, many years since we met. You must tell me all about him.”
Tom was delighted at this discovery, and he there and then proceeded to give Weston a full account of his father’s doings, and of their farm near Cape Town; in the midst of which he was interrupted by the steward announcing that “tiffin was on the table.”
“Well,” said the boy as they entered the saloon together, “they say the world is very small, and that one tumbles against friends and connections in all manner of queer places; but I should never have dreamed of meeting an old school-house man, a chum of the pater’s, on a desolate island in the South Atlantic Ocean.”
The Westons soon became favourites with both the officers and cabin passengers of the Surat Castle. Mr. Weston himself was a well-bred, well-informed man of pleasing address and manners; in person tall and powerfully built (old Weatherhelm was the only one on board who approached him in height), with a handsome but rather sad countenance, and dark curly hair just slightly grizzled.
George Weston, though he had not had the advantage of a public-school education, was as nice a lad as anyone could wish to meet; well-behaved and intelligent, quiet and studiously inclined. He was in his sixteenth year, had a pleasant bright look about his face, and was slight of figure, but active and sinewy withal.
As for Miss Gracie, when she recovered her spirits and got over her shyness, she became the life and soul of the ship; and must inevitably have been spoiled had she not been blessed with a sweet unspoilable disposition. As Tom had prophesied, the lady passengers made a great deal of Gracie and her brother, for their tender womanly hearts overflowed with compassion when they heard of the misfortunes and sufferings of the family.
It was not until he had been on board nearly a week that Mr. Weston gave a full account of the loss of the Sea-mew, and of his previous adventures; but one Saturday, when the cabin party were seated round the dinner-table chatting over their wine and walnuts, Captain Ladds suggested that he should spin them a yarn.
“Willingly,” replied Mr. Weston, pushing away his plate; “and as we are all friends here I will also give you a brief sketch of my career before I became skipper of a South Sea whaler. My life has been a chequered one, and not devoid of adventure, so I trust my story will interest you; anyhow, I feel assured that I am secure of your sympathy.”
And without further preamble Weston commenced his yarn, to which we will devote the next chapter.
Chapter Four.
Mr. Weston’s Story.
“I have already stated,” began Mr. Weston, “that I was educated at Rugby, where I first became acquainted with our young friend’s father. Mat Flinders and I were both school-house boys, and we shared the same study, fagged for the same sixth-form boy, belonged to the same form, and no doubt—if the truth is to be told—were often flogged with the same birch; so we were, as a matter of course, firm allies.
“Shortly before my fourteenth birthday I was offered a midshipman’s rating on board the Thétis, a fine 36-gun frigate which had been taken from the French and purchased into the navy in 1808; and as my father—a retired rear-admiral who had served with distinction under Keppel and Rodney—was determined that I should follow in his footsteps and serve King George afloat, I bade farewell to the old school and all my chums and journeyed down to Chatham, where the frigate was ‘fitting foreign.’
“Those were stirring times in the navy, I can tell you, my friends! and our captain was no niggard of shot and shell; indeed a more dashing officer never trod his majesty’s quarter-deck!
“His invariable rule was to engage every Frenchman under a ‘74’ that he fell in with, and he certainly managed to fall in with a good many; so that during the four years I remained in the Thétis I saw my share of fighting, and was twice wounded—once when engaged in a ‘cutting-out’ affair, and again in action with a 50-gun ship, which I’m proud to say we took.
“Having powerful interest at the Admiralty it was not long before I received my commission, and when barely twenty years of age I was appointed second lieutenant of the Dido, a corvette on the West Indian station.
“My messmates regarded me as one of fortune’s special favourites, but the ‘fickle goddess’ treated me scurvily enough in the end; and if my promotion had been rapid, at any rate I was not destined to enjoy it for any length of time.
“Whilst at Jamaica I stumbled up against my old school-fellow, Mat Flinders, then a lieutenant in the—th Foot. Mat was quartered at Kingston, and as the Dido had been docked to undergo certain repairs we saw a good deal of each other, and renewed our friendship.
“But now it was that Dame Fortuna began to frown upon me, or perhaps it would be more honest to say that I incurred her displeasure by my rash conduct. It so happened that I had the ill-luck to offend my captain, a man of imperious overbearing temper; high words ensued between us, and in a moment of ungovernable passion I knocked him down. Of course my prospects in the navy were for ever blighted; no provocation could be urged as an excuse for such a gross act of insubordination; no interest with the ‘powers that be’ could shield me from the consequences of my rash act.
“A court-martial assembled, and I was tried, found guilty of the charges preferred against me, and sentenced to be dismissed his majesty’s service.
“My fair-weather friends gave me the cold shoulder, for Captain B—was a near relation of the Governor and a man of considerable influence; so everybody took his part, and abused me roundly. No, not everybody! I had one true friend—Matthew Flinders. If I were to tell all that Tom’s father did for me during that miserable time I might keep you round this table until we reach Table Bay. Suffice it to say, that never did poor unfortunate meet with a kinder or stauncher comrade.
“I returned to England under arrest, and the sentence of the court having been approved and confirmed I was broken and turned adrift. My father closed his doors against me, with a curt intimation that he would have nothing more to say to a son who had disgraced himself and his family as I had done; he would listen to no explanation, and returned my letters unopened.
“I had a few pounds in my pocket, and they represented all my means; but I was a good sailor, and had no fear but that I could earn my own living. Through the kind offices of Matthew Flinders, who had given me a letter to a relative of his connected with the mercantile marine, I obtained a berth as second mate on board a merchant brig, and in her I made three voyages to the Cape.
“An offer was then made to me to ship on board a South Sea whaler as second mate, with the understanding that I should be promoted chief mate after my first trip; this offer I closed with. My captain was a gentleman, and a right good fellow, and I made two voyages with him; he then retired. I succeeded him in command of the ship, and shortly afterwards married his youngest daughter.
“Several years passed happily enough, and two children—George and Gracie—blessed our union; but my happiness was short-lived, for when Gracie was nine years of age my wife died of a fever.
“Two years after this sad event I received news of my father’s death, and that I was entitled to a few thousand pounds, which it was not in his power to will away from me, for, implacable to the last, he had left the bulk of his fortune to a distant relative, who had already more money than he knew what to do with.
“I now purchased and fitted