Where The Flag Floats Read Online Free Page B

not know what to say and besides, I was fighting rising nausea and if I opened my mouth the bile would come out.
    “It matters little,” the commodore continued. “It shall remain with me.” He dropped it back into the drawer, closed it and then stood and, with his back to me, looked out of the rear windows. Australia was just a distant smudge on the horizon – I would have done anything to get back on solid land again.
    The commodore faced us. “I’ll not turn back. We’ll lose a day and we’re late enough already. Governor Grey is expecting me. You’ll have your wish, boy. You’ll stay with us for the duration of the voyage and I’ll put you ashore in Auckland. What you do after that is none of my concern.”
    The commodore sat down again at the desk. “Add him to the muster roll, Lieutenant. Put him with Butler for the time being. I’m sure you’ll find work for both of them eventually. Dismissed.”
    The men on either side of me saluted and the seaman jerked me back towards the door.
    “Wait,” the commodore said. “Who was officer of the watch yesterday?”
    “Lieutenant Jekyll, with Private Gardner on the marines’ walk.”
    “Have both men report to me,” the commodore ordered.
    The two men led me down the ladder up which I had ascended earlier and towards the back of the ship, close to the slops locker where I had been found. Lieutenant Amphlett took a set of keys from his pocket and unlocked one of the doors. I had a brief glimpse of Fred’s startled face before I was pushed inside and the door closed and locked behind me. Once again I was in miserable darkness.
    “Sam!” I felt Fred’s hand on my head. “What are you doing here? How did you get on board?”
    “I came aboard in the night. I wanted my watch.”
    “I don’t have it any more.”
    “I know, the captain has it in his desk. He thinks you made me steal it.”
    “The commodore does?”
    “The captain.”
    “The captain on board this ship is the commodore, Commodore Burnett.”
    “He’s not a captain?”
    “There’s Commander Burton as well. He’s captain when the commodore’s not on board.”
    “I don’t …” I started to say but the ship slewed sideways and I wedged myself against the wall of the cabin as I clutched my stomach and retched.
    “Have you ever been to sea before, Sam?” Fred asked.
    “No,” I said.
    “You’ll get used to it in a couple of days.”
    I thought that in a couple of days I would be dead. I retched again before curling up into a corner and hoping fervently that I would die instantly.
     
     
     

1 February 1863
Morning
     
    We spent the whole night confined below. Above me I could hear a bell clanging at regular intervals and Fred explained to me that the bell was struck to mark the passage of the hours and the watches. Each watch was four hours long and the bell was rung every half hour, beginning with one bell after the first half hour of each watch, to eight bells at the end of the watch. So we marked the time together all through the night with each half hour feeling as though it was my last, and yet I made it through the night.
    It was two bells into the morning watch when the door to the cabin unlocked and light flooded in. I closed my eyes against the light.
    A seaman peered in. “All men are to report to deck and that includes you, Butler.”
    “What about the boy?” Fred asked.
    “Especially the boy.”
    I was so weak that Fred had to lift me up from the floor and carry me to the ladder. He cajoled me up the rungs and then up the next one onto the open deck where I stood swaying in the early morning light. The men lined up on the deck and I had only a brief impression of faces, grim and creased as I was thrust into line with them. I had no idea of how many men were on board at that time but I later discovered that there were over 250 seamen, officers, and marines making up the crew.
    Beside me Fred grunted – a sound of shock.
    “What is it?” I whispered.
    “A