Chapter 16 | An Interview | Blue Jackets

“Mr Herrick! Come to my cabin,” said the captain as he stepped on deck, and I followed him.

“You stupid fellow,” whispered Mr Brooke as I passed him, “why didn’t you keep the boat by the wharf?”

I gave him a comical look, and followed the captain; but I was kept waiting for a few moments at the door while the servant was summoned, and when I did go in my officer was lying back in his chair, with ice on the table, and a great glass of what seemed to be soda-water and brandy before him, but which proved by the decanter to be sherry.

“Oh,” he cried angrily, “there you are, sir! Why didn’t you come at once, sir?”

“I did, sir; but was kept waiting till you were ready.”

“Well, sir, don’t answer in that pert way. It sounds like insolence. That will not do, Mr Herrick, if you wish to get on in your profession. Now, sir, your orders were to stop by the landing-place, with the boat in charge, ready for my return, were they not?”

“Yes, sir; but—”

“Silence, sir! How dare you interrupt me? I go up through the broiling heat to have an interview with that wretched, stolid, obstinate mandarin, with his confounded button and peacock-feather; and when I do get back, perfectly exhausted by the heat, half-dead, I find no boat.”

“No, sir; but—”

“Silence, sir! Will you let me speak? The consequence is that, because you choose to disobey orders, and take the men off to indulge in some of the disgusting drinks of this wretched country—”

“I beg pardon, sir,” I cried; “I—”

“Mr Herrick! am I to place you under arrest? Be silent, sir. I say, I return with my escort from an important diplomatic visit, arranged so as to impress the people, and when I return, almost fainting with the heat, there is no boat, because you have allowed the men to impose upon you; and you are away drinking with them, I suppose?”

“No, sir; I—”

“Mr Herrick!” he roared, “I will not bear it. I say there was no boat; and not only am I forced to submit to the indignity of waiting, and listening to the gibes of the low-class Chinese, and to see their scowls, but our delay there—through you, sir—results, I say results, in the miserable wretches taking advantage thereof, and, thinking me helpless, working themselves up to an attack. When at last you do come crawling up with those four men, they are purple-faced from drinking, every one threatened by apoplexy—why, your own face is crimson, sir; and I could smell the men when I stepped on board.”

“No, sir—the dirty harbour, sir,” I said. “Smells horrid.”

“You are under arrest, sir. Go! No; stop and hear me out first, sir. I say that, through your delay, I am kept there on that wretched wharf; and when I do push off, I have—I, Her Majesty’s representative, in the sight of these Chinese scoundrels—I have, I say, to suffer from the insult and contumely of being pelted, stoned, of having filth thrown at me. Look at my nearly new uniform coat, sir. Do you see this spot on the sleeve? A mark that will never come out. That was a blow, sir, made by a disgusting rotten fish’s head, sir. Loathsome—loathsome! While the insult to Her Majesty’s flag called upon me to fire upon the mob. Do you know what that means, sir?”

“Yes, sir; a good lesson. They won’t be so saucy again.”

“You ignorant young puppy!” he cried; “it may mean a serious international trouble—a diplomatic breach, and all through you. There, I was hot and bad enough before, now you have made me worse.”

He stretched out his hand for the glass, but did not drink; and the sight of the cool liquid half-maddened me, for the heat and emotion had made my throat very dry.

“Now, sir,” he cried, “I am your commanding officer, and no one on board Her Majesty’s cruiser shall ever say that I am not just. Now then, speak out; what have you to say? How came you to let the men go away to drink?”

“I didn’t, sir,” I said huskily. “They wanted to go, for they were choking nearly, but I wouldn’t let them.”

“What? Don’t seek refuge in a lie, boy. That’s making your fault ten times worse. Didn’t I see you returning to the wharf?”

“Yes, sir,” I cried indignantly; “but the men had not been to drink.”

“Then how dared you disobey my orders, and go away?” he roared, furious at being proved wrong.

“I went, sir, because it was my duty.”

“What!”

“We stayed till the stone-throwing grew dangerous for us, and then I had the boat rowed out and anchored.”

“Oh!”

“But I kept watch till you came in sight, sir; and we were as quick as we could be.”

“The mob pelted you too, Mr Herrick?”

“Yes, sir,” I said; “and we couldn’t fire over their heads, nor yet row right away.”

He looked at me angrily, and then his countenance changed.

“Pert, Mr Herrick,” he said, “but very apt. You have me there on the hop. Dear me! I’ve made a great mistake, eh?”

“Yes, sir,” I said hoarsely.

“And you sat out there in the broiling sun, and the miserable savages pelted you as they did me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Tut, tut, tut! and the heat was maddening. Terribly irritating, too; I felt excessively angry. I really—dear me, Mr Herrick, I’m afraid I spoke very unjustly to you, and—I—ought a captain to apologise to a midshipman?”

“I really don’t know, sir,” I said, feeling quite mollified by his tone.

“Well, I think I do,” he said, smiling. “Decidedly not. As Mr Reardon would say, it would be totally subversive of discipline. It couldn’t be done. But one gentleman can of course apologise to another, and I do so most heartily. My dear Mr Herrick, I beg your pardon for being so unjust.”

“Pray don’t say any more about it, sir,” I cried.

“Well, no, I will not. But all the same I am very sorry—as a gentleman—that I—as your superior officer—spoke to you as I did.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“And, dear me, my lad, you look terribly hot and exhausted. Let me prescribe, as Mr Price would say.”

He quickly placed a lump of ice in a tumbler, and, after pouring in a little sherry, filled it up with soda-water.

I grasped the glass, and drank with avidity the cool, refreshing draught to the last drop.

“Humph! you were thirsty.”

“I was choking, sir,” I said, with a sigh, as I placed the glass upon the table.

“And now, Mr Herrick, perhaps it would be as well not to talk about this little interview,” he said quietly. “I rely upon you as a gentleman.”

“Of course, sir,” I replied; and feeling, in spite of the severe wigging I had had, that I never liked the captain half so well before, I backed out and hurried to my own cabin.