Our ensign was thereupon raised and lowered from the peak three times in succession, according to the usual nautical etiquette observed on such occasions, the other ship returning the compliment in like fashion; and we were just pa.s.sing each other, she crossing our bows and sailing away right before the wind on our starboard beam, when, all of a sudden, she brought up, backing her maintopsail and firing a gun at the same time to attract our attention.

"By Jove, she wants to speak us; something must be up!" said the commander who had come on deck in the meanwhile. "Go below, Vernon, and tell the cap'en at once."

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

"MAN OVERBOARD!"

"Confound those mounseers," I heard Mr Stormc.o.c.k say to the master as I came out from Captain Farmer's cabin. "I wonder what they want to stop us for now, just as we were getting clear of Ushant? It's sure to bring us bad luck!"

"By jingo, it is a nuisance bringing us up like this," chorused Mr Quadrant, a fellow-grumbler of the same kidney. "We might have carried on as we were standing, if those blessed Parlyvoos, had only let us alone; while now, when we do make a start again, the wind will most probably have headed us, and we'll then have to go about and bear away to the nor'ard on the port tack, losing all the southing we've made since yesterday!"

In spite of both their growls, however, we could not well avoid the interview, albeit it was none of our seeking; and while I went down to summons the captain, Commander Nesbitt ordered the courses to be clewed up and the mainyard squared, so as to heave the ship to.

When I came up again the Frenchman and ourselves had both our heads to windward and were bobbing about abreast of each other, though still some distance apart; dipping deeply in the rough seaway and occasionally rolling broadside on, with the salt spray and spindrift coming in over our hammock nettings in sprinkles of foam.

"Hullo!" cried Larkyns, who was signal midshipman and was looking at the stranger with a diminutive telescope screwed-up to his starboard eye.

"She's hoisted the answering pen'ant under her ensign."

"That means she's going to use the International Code," said the commander, overhearing him. "Signalman, keep a sharp lookout on her, and have your book handy to read her signal as soon as it goes up!"

"Ay, ay, sir," replied the man, who was, like Larkyns, squinting his best at the other ship, although with a much bigger gla.s.s. "Something's going up now, sir."

"Yes, I see," said Commander Nesbitt, as a string of flags were run up to the French ship's main. "Have our answering pen'ant ready to hoist as soon as you can make it out. Look sharp, signalman! What does she say?"

"It's 'B D N,' sir," stammered out the man, who was rapidly turning over the pages of the signal book, seeking the meaning of the flags in that dictionary of the sign language of the sea, and missing what he sought to find in his hurry. "I--I--can't find it, sir."

"Can't find your grandmother!" cried the Commander, impatiently, vexed at the delay. "Here, give me the signal book!"

"The hoist means 'I want to communicate,' I think," observed Captain Farmer, who had come up quietly on the p.o.o.p meanwhile, and stood behind the commander. "But the Frenchman might have saved himself the trouble of sending such a signal aloft; for, the mere fact of his already coming up to the wind and firing a gun, told us as much beforehand!"

"I should think so, sir; but it's just like those Johnny c.r.a.pauds-- always gabbling a lot about nothing!" rejoined the commander, who, at last, had now found the right page of the signal book. "Yes, sir, you're quite right, as usual! I wish I had your memory for signals! He 'wants to communicate.' Signalman, hoist our answering pen'ant!"

At this order, the red-and-white barred pennant, which had long since been bent ready to the signal halliards, was run up to our main truck.

From this point of vantage, it flew out fair above all our sails and tophamper, visible all round the compa.s.s and telling the French corvette, still curvetting and prancing abreast of us and showing her bright copper sheathing as she rolled, that we had at last made out her signal and were waiting to learn what she had to say.

"I hope it's really important," said Captain Farmer to the commander; while Larkyns and the head signalman kept their gla.s.ses fixed on the opposite ship, ready to take in her next signal. "International courtesies are all very well in their way, but I don't like being stopped for a mere exchange of bunting and that sort of balderdash, Nesbitt."

"Nor I, sir," agreed the commander. "Ha, they're sending up another hoist now, and we'll soon know all about it. What's that now, signalman?"

"'B L K,' sir," replied the yeoman of signals and Larkyns in one breath; and the former, running his fingers over the pages of the signal book, which Commander Nesbitt had returned to his custody, soon found that the interpretation of the flags thus cl.u.s.tered was, "We have pa.s.sed a wreck, but were unable to stand by to see if any survivors were aboard her."

"Oh!" exclaimed the captain on this being read out aloud, as the signalman put it down on the slate for entry into the ship's log, according to the usual custom. "This is getting interesting. Hoist 'Q R S' after the answering pen'ant."

"I say, Larkyns," I asked, in an undertone of my friend the senior mid, as a string of square flags went up on our side--a yellow on top, a red square with a yellow cross in the middle, and a white flag with a blue centre the lowermost--"what does our signal mean, eh?"

"It means," he whispered back, keeping his starboard eye still glued to his telescope, "'whereabouts is that wreck you're speaking of?'"

Some considerable delay now occurred on board the corvette; the Frenchies, in spite of their taking the initiative in the matter, being not as handy as our man in the manipulation of their flags.

At last, however, they sent up two hoists in rather a slovenly fashion, one going up after the other.

"Ha, that's the lat.i.tude," said Captain Farmer. "'F K S' and 'G I V'

Signalman, what does that make, eh?"

"Forty-seven degrees, and fifteen minutes north lat.i.tude, sir."

"Good, my man," returned the captain, approvingly. "You've read that pretty smartly! Now, hoist the answering pennant; though, I suppose we'll have to wait another month of Sundays for their longitude. No, by Jove! Messieurs les Francais are a trifle quicker this time. 'F N J'

and 'G V L.' How do you make them out, signalman? See if you can be as smart again as you were just now."

"Ay, ay, sir," returned the yeoman, all on his mettle and his eye the quicker to scan the alphabetical pages of his flag lexicon where the signals were catalogued in groups according to their subjects, this one being a numeral and, therefore, all the easier to read. "It's longitude 9 degrees 15 minutes west, sir."

"All right, put it down correctly, signalman," said Captain Farmer; and, turning to the commander, he added, "Why, Nesbitt, it's nearly in our direct course across the Bay, only we shall have a tighter squeeze, perhaps, in weathering Finisterre."

"But, we can go a couple of points more free, sir," observed Mr Quadrant, who had busied himself shaping a course on a chart by the binnacle as soon as he heard the lat.i.tude and longitude given. "That'll be better than going about on the port tack, as I thought we should have to do, sir."

"Yes--ha--humph! But I don't like going too near Finisterre, though, Mr Quadrant, with a westerly gale threatening," said the captain. "We cannot help ourselves, however, at present, for we must go after this wreck and see if there're any unfortunate people aboard; though, I think those Frenchmen might have overhauled her themselves, instead of leaving it for us to do! Hoist 'H V L,' signalman! That will serve, Nesbitt, to tell them we'll attend to the wreck. Let us fill and bear away again. We can't afford to waste any more time palavering with our friend over yonder, who keeps us bowing and sc.r.a.ping like a veritable Frenchman as he is! Run up the signal now, signalman; and, Nesbitt, give him a parting dip of the ensign, and then brace round the yards and bear up!"

"Very good, sir," replied the commander; and, as soon as the Frenchmen had hoisted their answering pennant to show that our signal had been taken in and understood, he turned to the p.o.o.p-rail and sang out, "Bosun's mate, pipe the watch to trim sails!"

The braces were then manned and the main yard swung, while our helm put hard a-starboard; when, the upper sails now filling and drawing again, our courses were dropped and the tacks hauled aboard, the clew garnets rattling as they were brought aft, and the ship put on her course.

We bore away, though, a couple of points more to the southward than before, steering sou'-sou'-west, towards the position of the wreck, as pointed out to us by our communicative friends, the strange ship.

"By Jove, sir," exclaimed the commander as we bade farewell to the Frenchman, who also filled at the same time and went about on his way, both of us dipping our ensigns once more in salute, "we never thought of asking his name!"

"No more we did, Nesbitt," said Captain Farmer; and the two stared at each other for a moment in silence, the captain ultimately breaking into a laugh. "But, that need not trouble you; for, I should know that corvette anywhere, I think, from the way she tumbles home from her water line abaft the beam. She's the old _Serieuse_ for a thousand!"

"Indeed, sir?"

"Yes. She was one of the French fleet in the Black Sea when I was out there with old Dundas. I've been alongside her too often to forget her queer build!"

"But, I thought most of those French corvettes were wall-sided, sir?"

"Ay, true enough," replied Captain Farmer, with a chuckle, as he came down the p.o.o.p-ladder and turned to go into his cabin. "But, not all of them, Nesbitt, not all of them, my boy. I tell you, I would know the old _Serieuse_ anywhere, for they haven't got another tub like her afloat."

"The 'old man's' right," I heard the master say to Mr Stormc.o.c.k when the captain had disappeared. "The corvette was on the right of our line when we bombarded Odessa; and I recollect she missed stays when tacking, and pretty nearly came aboard us."

"By jingo," replied Mr Stormc.o.c.k, enthusiastically, "what an eye the old man has for a ship, and what a memory for signals! I never came across his equal."

So thought I too; however, each day disclosed some fresh trait in our captain's character, which surprised us all the more from his being such a very reserved man.

He was in the habit of keeping himself to himself until occasion arose to bring out his latent qualities.

Time, and a longer acquaintance with him, only taught us this pregnant fact, amongst other things!