***




Produced by Al Haines.




[Illustration: Cover art]




[Illustration: HE WILDLY TORE AT EVERYTHING AND HURLED IT DOWN
ON HIS PURSUERS  _Page_ 86 _Frontispiece_]




                      Mr. Midshipman Glover, R.N.

                   A Tale of the Royal Navy of To-day


                                   BY

                          SURGEON REAR-ADMIRAL
                       T. T. JEANS, C.M.G., R.N.

             Author of "John Graham, Sub-Lieutenant, R.N."
                         "A Naval Venture" &c.



                   _Illustrated by Edward S. Hodgson_



                         BLACKIE & SON LIMITED
                           LONDON AND GLASGOW
                                  1908




                                   By
                          Surgeon Rear-Admiral
                              T. T. Jeans


                            The Gun-runners.
                   John Graham, Sub-Lieutenant, R.N.
                            A Naval Venture.
                        Gunboat and Gun-runner.
                       Ford of H.M.S. "Vigilant".
                          On Foreign Service.
                      Mr. Midshipman Glover, R.N.



       _Printed in Great Britain by Blackie & Son, Ltd., Glasgow_




                               *Preface*


In this story of the modern Royal Navy I have endeavoured, whilst
narrating many adventures both ashore and afloat, to portray the habits
of thought and speech of various types of officers and men of the Senior
Service who live and serve under the White Ensign to-day.

To do this the more graphically I have made some of the leading
characters take up, from each other, the threads of the story and
continue the description of incidents from their own points of view; the
remainder of the tale is written in the third person as by an outside
narrator.

I hope that this method will be found to lend additional interest to the
book.

I have had great assistance from several Gunnery, Torpedo, and Engineer
Lieutenants, who have read the manuscripts as they were written,
corrected many errors of detail, and made many useful suggestions.

The story may therefore claim to be technically correct.

T. T. JEANS,

SURGEON REAR-ADMIRAL, ROYAL NAVY




                               *Contents*

CHAP.

      I. The Luck of Midshipman Glover
     II. Helston receives a Strange Letter
    III. The Fitting Out of a Squadron
     IV. The Pirates are not Idle
      V. The Squadron leaves hurriedly
     VI. The Voyage East
    VII. The Pursuit of the Patagonian
   VIII. Mr. Ping Sang is Outwitted
     IX. Captain Helston Wounded
      X. Destroyer "No. 1" Meets her Fate
     XI. The Action off Sin Ling
    XII. A Council of War
   XIII. The Avenging of Destroyer "No. 1"
    XIV. Night Operations
     XV. Mr. Midshipman Glover Tells how he was Wounded
    XVI. Captain Helston's Indecision
   XVII. Spying Out the Pirates
  XVIII. The Escape from the Island
    XIX. Cummins Captures One Gun Hill
     XX. The Fight for One Gun Hill
    XXI. On One Gun Hill
   XXII. The Final Attack on the Hill
  XXIII. The Attack on the Forts
   XXIV. The Capture of the Island
    XXV. The Fruits of Victory
   XXVI. Home Again




                            *Illustrations*

He wildly tore at everything and hurled it down on his pursuers...
_Frontispiece_

I struck at him with my heavy malacca stick

The sinking of the Pirate Torpedo-Boat

The Commander and Jones overpower the Two Sentries


Map Illustrating the Operations Against the Pirates




[Illustration: MAP ILLUSTRATING THE OPERATIONS AGAINST THE PIRATES]




                              *CHAPTER I*

                    *The Luck of Midshipman Glover*


    Ordered Abroad.  Hurrah!


           _Midshipman Glover explains how Luck came to him_


It all started absolutely unexpectedly whilst we were on leave and
staying with Mellins in the country.

When I say "we", I mean Tommy Toddles and myself. His real name was
Foote, but nobody ever called him anything but "Toddles", and I do
believe that he would almost have forgotten what his real name actually
was if it had not been engraved on the brass plate on the lid of his sea
chest, and if he had not been obliged to have it marked very plainly on
his washing.

We had passed out of the _Britannia_ a fortnight before--passed out as
full-blown midshipmen, too, which was all due to luck--and were both
staying with Christie at his pater's place in Somerset.

It was Christie whom we called Mellins, because he was so tremendously
fat; and though he did not mind us doing so in the least, it was rather
awkward whilst we were staying in his house, for we could hardly help
calling his pater "Colonel Mellins".

You see, he was even fatter than Mellins himself, and the very first
night we were there--we were both just a little nervous--Toddles did
call him Colonel Mellins when we wished him "Good-night", and he glared
at us so fiercely, that we slunk up to our room and really thought we