Blue Jackets; or, The Adventures of J. Thompson, A.B., Among "the Heathen Chinee": A Nautical NovelGreey, Edward
General
Blue Jackets; or, The Adventures of J. Thompson, A.B., Among "the Heathen Chinee": A Nautical Novel
Greey, Edward
Great Britain. Royal Navy -- Fiction; Seafaring life -- Fiction
There was no help for it. Puffeigh could "brave the raging of the sea,
but not an angry father." Soon he heard the guttural voice of old
Pferdscreptern, who loudly demanded of his daughter "vere vos dat tam
sailor who vos schust gome into der store?" The commander trembled, not
from fear, of course, so it must have been from the effects of the
flour.
The old German was upon the rampage for some time, until at last, being
assured by his "kind" "dat the man vos not dere," he quieted down, and
calling for his pipe, was soon lost to view in a cloud of smoke.
About a quarter of an hour elapsed, when the lovely fraulein, finding
her father asleep, proceeded to mount up into the loft, where, with the
ready help of Jerry, who had been there all the time, she raised the
board which usually covered the shoot, and having untied a sack of
flour, she shot the contents down upon the imprisoned captain.
Half-choked, blinded, and mad, he burst the latch and staggered into the
store. Up jumped the parent Pferdscreptern, seized a cowhide, and laid
it right vigorously across the whitened figure. The flour flew all over
the place, and the captain darted about like a man playing blind-man's
buff, his assailant holding on to his coat-tails during the last part of
the exercise, and occasionally varying the programme with a
well-directed kick. At length, becoming somewhat exhausted, he let his
victim go, upon which Puffeigh gasped out, "Wa! what the deuce is all
this outrage for, sir? Do you know who I am?"
"You--schust--kit--out, and tousent--gifs--no--more--scheek!" panted the
irate Teuton. "Let me catch you mit my kind agin and I vill make it much
hotter dan it vas not dis time, mine friend. I tousant care ein heller
who you ist. Shust you kit out, dat's all; I'm capden of dis schanty."
Puffeigh left the store a wiser and more subdued man. As he passed the
cause of his trouble he imagined she was crying, her apron being thrown
over her head and her shoulders heaving as if with grief. But Wallburg
did not cry. The strong convulsion moving her frame was not that of woe;
and when her father came to her and spoke kindly, she threw off the
covering, and fairly roared--with laughter.
When the commander reached his quarters he found no one about, so
slipped up to his bed-room, where Jerry was sitting on a chair as if
fast asleep.
"Lord bless us!" said the valet, "has it been a snowin'?"
Muttering something about "being attacked and nearly killed," Puffeigh
directed his man to get a change of clothes. When he was comfortably
arranged he turned to his coxswain and asked him "if he could keep a
secret?"
"Any amount of 'em, sir," replied the sailor.
"Then forget you have ever seen me in such a pickle, my man. The day you
remember it will be a bad one for you. There's a shilling for you."
"You're too generous, sir," said the amused valet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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