Where The Flag Floats Read Online Free Page A

through the swells. The ship rose again, slid down, rose again and veered about before hurtling downwards. I was convinced the ship was heading for the depths of the ocean and my stomach responded by cramping up, forcing me to dry retch. If I had food in my stomach, I am sure I would have dumped it all onto the clothes around me.
    After that I lost the will to live. I convulsed again and again and it felt like my insides had been ripped out. I curled up with my arms clutching my midriff and wished that the ship would sink and take me with it.

31 January 1863

Mid-afternoon
     
    I heard faint voices. The engines had stopped and the ship was tilted to one side as it see-sawed up and down while I, in turn, heaved and groaned.
    “Did you hear that?” It was a man’s voice.
    “What?”
    “Coming from the slops locker. I’m sure of it …”
    The door opened and light streamed in. Two men stood there, one of them the officer that had drawn his sword on me back in Sydney.
    “You!” he cried when he saw me. “What the hell are you doing here?”
    I was too miserable to answer. He wrinkled up his nose as he reached in and pulled me out by my collar, setting me down on the swaying floor on which I could barely stand.
    None too gently, he half dragged, half carried me towards the ladder that led to the deck above where I climbed clumsily with the two men close behind me. The few men about stared at me as I emerged from below but the officer was soon beside me and pushed me towards the back of the ship, towards a cabin where the door was guarded by a marine sentry.
    “Lieutenant Amphlett to see the commodore,” said the officer with his hand still heavy on my shoulder.
    The sentry nodded and knocked on the door.
    “Enter,” said a deep voice from the other side.
    I stumbled as I walked into the commodore’s cabin. I could not get used to the lurching of the ship. My stomach heaved again but there was nothing in there to come out so I doubled over in agony but was pulled upright by the lieutenant.
    “Stand straight before the commodore,” he ordered.
    I tried to stand as straight as I could but it was hopeless.
    “Stowaway, sir,” Lieutenant Amphlett said after he had saluted. “Found him in the slops locker.”
    The commodore looked up from his chart. He was a tall man with eyebrows set low over his eyes, giving him a stern, unforgiving look. He had long sideburns on each side of his face and he pursed his lips as he examined me.
    “What was he doing in the slops locker?” he asked.
    “Being sick,” said the other seaman beside me with a grin.
    The commodore frowned at him but then switched his attention back to me.
    “What’s your name?”
    “Sam, sir; Sam Galloway.”
    “How did you get on board?”
    “Across the gangplank,” I said, holding onto my stomach and hoping I would not retch again.
    “The marine sentry would have seen you.”
    “I distracted the guard.”
    “Why do that? What business do you have aboard this ship?”
    “I want to go to Auckland,” I answered. The seaman beside me snorted in derision and the commodore glared at him.
    “If I may, sir,” Lieutenant Amphlett said as he stepped forward. “I think he was looking for Butler, the deserter we arrested yesterday.”
    “Why so?”
    “He was with Butler when we caught him. I reckon the boy was trying to get him out.”
    “Is that true?” The question was directed at me.
    I hesitated and the commodore rapped his hand sharply on the desktop, so I blurted out, “He has something of mine.”
    “And what would that be?”
    “A watch, my father’s watch.”
    “This one?” He opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out the watch. I stepped forward to take it but the seaman pulled me back.
    “If it is your watch, you’d be able to tell me what is written on the back,” the commodore said.
    I looked at my feet and said nothing.
    “I thought so,” the commodore said. “Did Butler force you to steal it?”
    I was silent. I did