The White Squall, by John Conroy Hutcheson________________________________________________________________Tom is a thirteen year-old whose father is a Naval Officer onthe half-pay list. This dates the events, for Tom has read twoof Captain Marryatt's books, which were published in the 1830s, while his father would have been recalled to duty in time forthe Crimean War, so we'll put the date down as the 1840s. 

The action starts in the West Indies, where Tom's father hasbought a property. Tom has an accident on his way to meet hisfather on the way from a short visit to another island. Tom is tobe sent to an English school, and on his recovery he is takendown to the harbour, and put in charge of a ship's Captain. 

The journey back to England has every misadventure that can bethought of, including a White Squall, which we would probablytoday call a Line Squall. The vessel is capsized. How do theyrecover it?

Eventually they arrive in England. And that is the end of thestory, which really is an introduction to ships for youngpersons of about thirteen years of age. 

It isn't too long, and you'll enjoy it. ________________________________________________________________

THE WHITE SQUALL, BY JOHN CONROY HUTCHESON

CHAPTER ONE. 

MOUNT PLEASANT. 

"Jake!"

"Dat me, Mass' Tom. "

"Have you heard the gun fire yet?"

"Golly, no, Mass' Tom. "

"Then you must go up the hill at once and see whether the mail steamerhas been signalled or not. She ought to have been in sight by now; for, she's been expected since early this morning, and we're all anxiousabout the news from England. "

"All right, Mass' Tom, me go for see, suah. "

"Look alive then, Jake, and lose no more time in starting. Let me justsee how quickly you can get up to the Battery and back again; and mind, Jake, if the packet should be in, you can saddle my pony when you returnfor me to ride into town. "

"Berry well, Mass' Tom. I'se spec, railly for true, um go dere in braceof shakes, an' back 'gain hyar 'fore dat lazy ole niggah Pomp fetch himcutlash out o' stable an' go in bush to cut him guinea-grass for dehosses. Golly, dat so, Mass' Tom--see if um don't for suah, yah, yah!"

Jake broke off into a huge guffaw, as he shouted out these hurried wordsin high glee, laughing with all that hearty abandon which was such astrong characteristic of his genuine African nature. Such was theintensity of his merriment, indeed, that he opened his wide red-lippedmouth almost from ear to ear, disclosing a brilliant set of shiningteeth, whose ivory whiteness contrasted conspicuously with the jettyblackness of his sable skin. The willing fellow then went off on hismission at a slinging jog-trot, evidently determined to make his promisegood of outstripping his more lethargic rival Pompey, whom he wasabsurdly jealous of and ever eager to surpass in every way he could. 

I watched him on his onward way from the raised terrace, laid out as anornamental garden, in front of our square, one-storied, shingle-roofed, verandah-encircled West Indian home--which lay nestled in a gorgeouswealth of tropical foliage and was perched half-way up the side of amountain peak that protected it from hurricane blasts in the rear; and, I could see Jake spinning rapidly along the winding carriage drive, bordered with cocoa-nut trees and grou-grou palms in lieu of the oaksand elms of old England. In another second, ere the sound of his merrychuckle had ceased to re-echo in the distance, he had passed through theswing-gate that gave admittance to the grounds. 

The lawn sloped downwards from the house, following the curve of thehill, and was studded with orange-trees, whose golden fruit peepedthrough their shining green leaves, shaddocks, and mangosteen, with manya stately palmiste rearing its tall feathery head above the others;while, in addition, the wild locust, or iron-wood tree, the mammeeapple, the pomme-rose and the guava bush flourished between huge blocksof stone, with flat table surfaces and of probable volcanic origin, thatseemed to have been thrown at random upon the surface of the grassyexpanse, where they now rested, monoliths of the past. 

As the gate swung back upon its hinges with a clang, Jake's woolly head, surmounted by the veriest wisp of a ragged red handkerchief, disappearedbehind the thick and impenetrable hedge of thorny cactus and spike-guarded prickly-pear that inclosed the plantation, separating it fromthe main-road forming its boundary and leading, some four miles or sobeyond, over mountain and gully to Saint George's, the capital town ofGrenada, the most southern of the group of the Windward Islands--a spotwhere the earlier days of my rather adventurous life were passed andwhich is endeared to me by all the vivid associations of youth, the fondrecollections of memory. 

Our place was aptly named "Mount Pleasant, " and well do I remember everysalient feature of it--the forest of lofty silk-cotton trees, borderedon the left by a row of the curious _bois immortel_, with its blood-redbranches that had blossomed into flowers; the mountain slope coveredwith green waving guinea-grass at the back; and in front the park-likelawn already described. To the right was a long range of negro huts andstabling; and, beyond these again the kitchen-garden or "provisionground, " prolific of sweet-potatoes, yams, and tanias, with plantain andbanana trees laden with pendent bunches of their sausage-shaped fruitand hedged round with pine-apples. Stretching away still further in thedistance was the cocoa plantation, a sea of verdure, interspersed withthe darker green foliage of the nutmeg and wax-like clove-tree. Herereigned in all its majesty the bread-fruit tree, with broad serratedleaves, like a gigantic horse-chestnut, sheltering the more fragiletrees that grow only beneath its shadow, and acting as the "mother ofthe cocoa"--el madre del cacao--as the Spaniards call it. 

But, I wish to go back now to the memorable day when Jake set off sobriskly on his errand to see if the English mail steamer had arrived, leaving me on the terrace in front of our house wondering, as he speededon his way, whether the packet was in sight; and, if she had beensignalled, trying to surmise what news she would bring. 

I was really very anxious about the matter, and I will tell you thereason why. 

My father was an officer of the royal navy, who found it a hard thing, with an increasing family, to make both ends meet in the mother countryon his half-pay. At last, sick of waiting for active employment afloatduring the long stagnation in the service occasioned by the interregnumof peace that lasted almost from Waterloo up to the time of the Crimeanwar, he determined, like Cincinnatus, to "beat his sword into aploughshare. " In other words, he abandoned the fickle element on whichhe had passed the early days of his manhood and emigrated to the WestIndies, to see whether he might not improve his fortunes by investingwhat little capital he had in a coffee and cocoa plantation in theisland where my scene opens. A couple of months or so before, he hadtaken a trip across the Atlantic to arrange some money matters with hisLondon agent, and we were now expecting his return by every mail. Beyond this, my father had more than half-hinted that, as soon as he gotback to Grenada, he would send me over to England in my turn to go toschool, when, most likely, I would have to bid adieu to my West Indianhome for good and all; for, my fervent desire was to follow in dad'sfootsteps and enter the navy as soon as I was able to pass the admiraltyexamination--a desire to which dad, in spite of the scurvy way in whichhe had been treated by an ungrateful country, did not say nay, hisambition being that I should succeed where he failed if possible, for hewas a true sailor and hankered after the sea yet. 

It was not surprising, therefore, that I was so eager to learn whetherthe packet had come in, albeit her arrival would naturally bring to anend the little brief authority which I had been so proud to assumeduring dad's absence as the protector of my mother and sisters, besidesbeing regarded by all the negro hands as "um lilly massa of umplantashun. " Really, I esteemed myself at that period to be a mostimportant and highly dignified person, being only a boy of thirteenyears old then, and small-grown for my age at that!

Jake had scarcely been out of sight five minutes when I began to lookout for his return. My impatience, indeed, quite got the better of myreason, for I ought to have known well enough, if I had only considered, that he could not have yet half accomplished the journey to the signalstation on Richmond Hill, much less thought even of coming back, thewilling darkey being as unable as anyone else to annihilate distance orspace!

It was a terribly hot day, being close on to the noontide hour, thethermometer under the shade of the verandah where I stood marking over ahundred degrees; while, goodness only knew what it was out in the open, where the sun's blistering rays produced such intense heat that thepaintwork of the green jalousie shutters outside the windows of thehouse fairly frizzled up in liquid blotches!

The air, too, was oppressively close and warm, just as when the door ofan oven is opened in one's face, not a breath of wind stirring toagitate the still atmosphere; but, neither did this fact, nor did theblazing power of the glowing orb of day, which looked like a globe offire in the centre of the heavens, affect the wild luxuriance of natureat Mount Pleasant. 

As I gazed around, everything appeared to be invigorated instead ofprostrated by the high temperature. 

This seems to be the natural order of things in the tropics, that is, inrespect of everything and everyone accustomed to broiling weather, likehot-house flowers and coloured gentry of the kidney of Jake and hissable brethren, whose ancestors, having been born under the swelteringequator, handed down to their descendants constitutions of such a naturethat they seem fairly to revel in the heat, and appear to be all thehealthier and happier the hotter it is!

Ruby-throated humming-birds, with breasts of burnished gold, flutteredabout the garden on the terrace in front of me in dainty flight, or elsepoised themselves in mid-air opposite the sweet-smelling blossoms of thefrangipanni, their little wings moving so rapidly as to make them appearwithout motion; broad-backed butterflies, with black stripes acrosstheir yellow uniforms, floated lazily about, purposelessly, doingnothing, as if they could not make up their minds to anything; and thescent of heliotropes and of big cabbage roses, that blossomed inprofusion on trees larger than shrubs, almost intoxicated the senses. The eye, too, was charmed at the same time by the pinky prodigality ofthe "Queen of Flowers, " and the purple profusion of the convolvulus, their colours contrasting with the soft green foliage of the bay-tree;while great masses of scarlet geranium, and myriad hues of differentvarieties of the balsam and Bird of Paradise plant were harmonised bythe snowy chastity of the Cape jessamine and a hundred other sorts oflilies, of almost every tint, which encircled a warm-toned hibiscus, that seemed to lord it over them, the king of the floral world. 

I was watching a little procession of "umbrella ants, " as they arecalled, that were promenading across the marble flooring of theverandah, each of the tiny insects carrying above its head a tinierpiece of the green leaf of some plant, apparently for the purpose ofshielding itself from the sun, for they held up their shades just in thesame way as a lady carries her parasol; when, all at once, I heard aheavy step outside, advancing along the terrace from the direction ofthe stables. 

Without turning my head, or consulting watch or clock--or, even withoutlooking up at the scorching sun overhead, had my eyes been sufficientlyglare-proof to have stood the ordeal--I knew who the intruder was, andcould have also told you that it was exactly mid-day. 

Why?--you may ask perhaps. 

You will learn in a moment. 

The heavy footstep came a pace nearer, and then paused; when, lookinground, I beheld an old negro, with a withered monkey-like face, clad inthe ordinary conventional costume of an African labourer in the WestIndies. His dress consisted of a loose pair of trousers and shirt ofblue cotton check; and, on the top of his white woolly head was fixed onin some mysterious fashion a battered fragment of a straw hat, just ofthe sort that would be used by an English farmer as a scarecrow tofrighten off the birds from his fields. 

This was Pompey, Jake's rival; and, as he politely doffed his raggedhead-gear with one hand, in deference to my dignity as "the youngmassa, " he held out to me with his other paw a wine-glass whose foot, ifever it had one, had been broken-off at some remote period of time. 

I knew what Pompey wanted as well as he did himself, but for my ownamusement, and in order to hear him make his usual stereotypedannouncement, I asked him a leading question. 

"Well, what is it?" I said. 

"U'm come, rum!" was his laconic rejoinder--nothing more, but thesentence was sufficiently expressive. 

Every day of the week, with the exception of Sundays, it had been alwaysPompey's privilege to have a quartern of rum served out to him, as if hewere on board ship, at twelve o'clock, the ordinary grog-time; and, punctually at that hour every day, in the wet season or dry, he neverfailed to come up to the house for his allowance, bringing with him thefootless wine-glass to receive the grateful liquor. His appearance, consequently, was an unfailing token that the sun had crossed the zenithand that it was time to "make it eight bells. "

Unlike the majority of his dark-complexioned brethren, who are generallyloquacious in the extreme, Pompey was singularly reticent of speech, never varying this parrot-like formula of his when coming at twelveo'clock for his daily stimulant, without which he would never set abouthis afternoon work. 

"U'm come, rum!" was all he would say ever since he had been taken overby my father with the other belongings of the plantation; and, as he wasan old "hand, " the former proprietor related, and had always beensimilarly indulged with a quartern of rum at mid-day as far back as hecould recollect, old Pompey--and precious old he must have been by thisreckoning--had evidently grown into the habit, so that it was part ofhimself. 

Entering the house through one of the low window-less windows whichopened out on to the verandah, like the ports in the side of a ship--ventilation being everything in the tropics and closed doors and shut-uprooms unheard of, as everybody was free to walk in and out of thedifferent apartments just as they pleased--I soon brought out a case-bottle from the sideboard where it stood handy for the purpose. Then, filling the old darkey's footless wine-glass, which he held with aremarkably steady hand considering his age, he tossed off the contentswithout drawing breath, the fiery liquor disappearing down his throatwith a sort of gurgling "gluck, gluck, " as if it had been decanted intothe capacious orifice, Pompey not even winking once during theoperation. 

"Tank you, Mass' Tom, " said he, when he had sucked in the last drop;when, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he stalked off acrossthe terrace again towards the stable to fetch his cutlass to cut theguinea-grass for the horses, according to his usual habit at this timeof day. This Jake well knew, by the bye, when he said he thought hewould be able to return from his mission before the old fellow shouldhave started, Pompey being as regular as clockwork in his movements, carrying out his daily routine most systematically. 

I did not expect to see him again until later on in the afternoon on hisreturn from the mountain at the back of the house, laden with a bale ofprovender for the stable, which he had charge of; but, what was mysurprise a few minutes afterwards, to see him hurrying up again to thehouse, without his customary companion the cutlass and in a state ofgreat excitement most unaccountable in one generally so phlegmatic. 

"Hullo, Pompey! what's the matter now?" I called out as he began toascend the steps leading up to the terrace, his boots coming down with aheavy stamp on the marble surface. He was a most peculiar old fellow;for, unlike again most of the negroes, who only wear any foot coveringon Sundays, when they torture themselves horribly by squeezing theirspreading toes into patent leather pumps if they can get them by hook orby crook, the old darkey invariably stalked about in a tall pair ofWellington boots that made him walk as gingerly as a cat with its pawsin walnut shells. 

"Hey, Mass' Tom, look smart, " he sang out in response. "Um big 'guanadown by de stable; come quick an' bring 'tick an' we kill him togedder!"

An iguana? This was something to make one excited; for, harmless thoughthe reptile is, one does not come across one everyday. Besides, it iscapital eating, tasting just like a chicken, and that of the tenderest:you could not tell the difference between the two when well cooked. 

Catching up a thick stick, I was after Pompey in a minute, forgettingalike the heat of the sun's rays in the open--although but a shortperiod before I had been forced to retreat under the shade of theverandah--and my anxious watch for Jake with news of the mail steamer, about whose delay I had been so impatient. 

I soon overtook the darkey, who never could make much headway in hisboots. They were so big for him that I believe his feet used to have aquiet walk inside them on their own account!

"Where's the 'guana?" I said. 

"Just dere, Mass' Tom, " he replied, pointing with one of his lean, bony, mottled fingers, the black colour of which seemed to have been workedoff them by years of rough usage. 

"Where?" I repeated, for I could not see the animal as yet anywhere. 

"Dere, on manure heap--see?"

"Yes, I see now, " I replied, as, getting nearer to the stables, Inoticed something on the top of a mound of straw rubbish. It was acreature like a gigantic lizard, some five or six feet long and as broadabout the head as a decent-sized pig. 

"Yah, yah, dere he is, dere he is!" shouted out Pompey. "Golly, Mass'Tom, he am big 'guana, too! Give me de 'tick, and dis niggah will soon'top um runnin' 'way. "

The green-looking creature had been basking in the sun, enjoying itselfall the more, probably, from the warmth of the manure heap on which itlay; but now, on our nearer approach, it raised its serpent-like headand, puffing out its creamy throat, grew in an instant to double itsformer size, while the beautiful iridescent colouring of its skin becamemore conspicuous. 

Pompey raised the stick I had handed to him, and the iguana, as iflikewise springing to arms to resist attack, elevated a sort of spinyfringe, resembling a mane, that reached from the crest of its head tothe shoulders. At the same time, it slung round its tail, in crocodilefashion, as if to give a blow with it to its assailant. 

The old darkey, however, was not frightened at the motion. Stepping upto the animal's side, he gave it one smart stroke on the nose, whereuponthe iguana was incontinently settled, turning over on its back a secondafterwards. The brightness at once faded from its green and gold skin, while the rich cream-coloured throat changed to a dirty-white in thehues of death, in the same way that a dolphin alters its colour whentaken from its native element. 

"Guess um well kill' now, nohow, " said Pompey grimly, taking up theanimal by the tail; but it was such a big one that he couldn't lift it, so he had to drag it along the ground towards the quarters of himselfand the other negroes. Here it would, I knew, ere long be skinned anddressed in a very savoury way, known only to African cooks, when aportion of the banquet would be sent in anon to "the big house, " for thekindly acceptance of the white folks there--my mother, and sisters, andmyself--elegantly dished up in plantain leaves with red peppers fordressing. 

While I stood for a second watching old Pompey making off with his preyin high good-humour, looking in the distance, as he climbed the slope ofthe hill up to the huts, uncommonly like a lean monkey dragging away acentipede, the intense glare of the tropical noontide, of which I wasfor the moment oblivious, changed in an instant to a deep gloomresembling the blackness of night. It seemed as if some interposingbody had suddenly been placed between the sun and the earth. 

Then came a tremendous crash of thunder, like the sound of heaven's domebreaking in, it was so fearfully loud and awesome; and the reverberatingroar was accompanied by a vivid flash of forked lightning, whose zigzagstream struck a tall tamarind-tree standing in front of me, splinteringthe trunk from top to bottom with a scrunching noise like that made inrending timber!

I turned and ran back to the house for shelter as fast as I could, anticipating what was coming, such storms being of frequent occurrencein the tropics after exceptional heat and when there is no wind toagitate the pent-up air; but, ere I could ascend the half dozen stepsleading up to the terrace, the rain-cloud overhead burst and a sheet ofwater came down as if poured over the side of some giant reservoir inthe sky, wetting me to the skin by the time I had gained the shelter ofthe verandah. 

My mother was just coming out of the drawing-room to see where I was, when Jake came up racing behind me, shouting out at the pitch of hisvoice, above the sound of the sluicing rain, "De packet am in, Mass'Tom! De packet am in!"

CHAPTER TWO. 

"MORE HASTE, WORSE SPEED. "

"Hurrah!" I shouted out. 

I was so overjoyed at hearing Jake's announcement that the long-expectedmail steamer had at last arrived that I was utterly oblivious of mysoaking condition, although I had been so completely drenched in thebrief space of time that had elapsed before I could get under shelterfrom the shower, that the water was now trickling down my drippinggarments and running out of my boots. "Look alive, old fellow, " I addedto the willing darkey, who was in an equally moist state, his black skinglistening as if it had received a fresh coating of Japan varnish. "Saddle my pony at once, for I must go into town, as I told you!"

"But, Tom, " interposed my mother at this juncture, "you cannot start inall this rain. See how wet you are already, dear, and it is stillpouring down, worse than ever!"

"Oh, never mind that, mother, it will stop soon, " I rejoined hastily, mortally afraid of her putting an embargo on my contemplated expeditionto Saint George's. "I will go in and change my things, and long beforeI'm ready it'll be fine again, you'll see! Besides, you know, dad mayhave come by the steamer, and he'll be expecting me to meet him and wantDandy to ride home on. Jake can take him down along with me, so as tobe on the safe side, eh?"

"Well, well, my dear, I suppose you must have your way, " said my mother, whom this last argument of mine, in respect of my father's possiblearrival, seemed to convince against her will, for she made no furtherdemur to my setting out, in spite of the weather. 

This very material point being satisfactorily arranged in my favour, asJake could see with half an eye, he having waited to learn whether myorders were to be carried out or not, the darkey now hurried off to thestables to execute them with a cheerful grin on his ebony face, fearingthe rain as little as he did the burning rays of the mid-day sun; whileI scurried off to my room upstairs to shift my wringing clothes and puton another suit of white flannel, which is the ordinary wear of allsensible people in tropical countries--just as it is becoming thefashion over here in summer, especially for fellows who go in forcricket and other athletic games provocative of perspiration. 

I had judged well of the climate and been a true weather prophet; for, albeit I was pretty sharp in dressing, long ere I could get below againthe rain suddenly ceased falling, and, in another moment or so, the sunwas shining down as potently as it had done before the thunder-storm, from an absolutely cloudless sky, whose burnished blue arc was onlysuggestive of heat and glare as usual. 

When I stood under the verandah once more, awaiting Jake with thehorses, I noticed that the marble pavement of the terrace in front haddried up already, while the earth of the flower-beds scarcely lookeddamp. As previously, lots of humming-birds, displaying their rainbowplumage to the best advantage, were flitting here and there between theshrubs, in pursuit of the myriads of flies and other insects that hadcome out for an airing after the shower, some of the tiny featheredmites poising themselves before some opening bud or blossom, or elsepeering into its interior, with their little wings moving at the rate often thousand bird-power per minute and creating a little halo ofvariegated light around them. 

The industrious ants, too, had reformed their parasol procession, whichthe temporary deluge had seriously disorganised; and, but that severalsolemn-looking blackbirds, of a larger species than the yellow-billedvariety familiar to us in England, were now hopping about on the lawnunder the orange-trees, digging up worms, and that a stray drop or twoof crystal glittered on the petals of the roses like diamonds, orreflected the sunshine from the trumpet bells of the lilies, while therewas a greener tint on the vegetation around, one could hardly haveimagined that it had rained at all!

Still, there was a perceptible coolness in the air now noticeable thatwas most refreshing after the suffocating heat, which I had found sooppressive an hour agone; and, this tempered tone of the atmospherebrought out more vividly the fragrant scent of the frangipanni andlanguid perfume of the jessamine, the whole atmosphere without beingredolent of their mingled odours, harmoniously blended together in sweetunison, like a regular pot-pourri!

The showery avalanche, besides cooling and sweetening the air with thebalmy breath of the flowers which its influence extracted, left alsoother evidence of its effect behind. This was especially apparent inthe swelling torrent of muddy water, drained from the slopes of themountain-side above the house and now impetuously rushing down animpromptu gully which the flood had scooped out for itself across thegrounds, following the course of the carriage drive almost up to theentrance-gate, where the suddenly-created cataract, diverging into ahollow to the left, made another exit for itself through the cactushedge into the cocoa plantation beyond. 

Jake was much longer in getting the horses saddled than I had expected;and I had to shout out for him more than once before he came up to thesteps of the terrace with the especial animals he had chargeof--"Prince, " my pony, a skittish little bay from the Spanish main; and"Dandy, " a sturdy dapple-grey Canadian roadster, that in appearance wasquite the reverse of what his name would imply. The old horse, however, was as sound and steady as a veteran drum-major and thoroughly reliable;and my father prized him highly, always riding him from choice and notminding any chaff about his charger's looks. 

On advancing to mount Prince, our darkey groom seemed put out aboutsomething, I noticed; but, before I could put any question to him or askthe reason of his being so tardy in bringing out the horses, he burstout full of his grievance. 

"I tole um so, Mass' Tom, tole um so!" he exclaimed. 

"Why, what is the matter?" I inquired, rather surprised. 

"Golly, matter 'nuff for dis chile, " grumbled Jake. 

"You savvy I tell you, Mass' Tom, I'se come back from de hill 'fore Pompget him cutlash to cut um guinea-grass, hey?"

"Yes, so you did, Jake, " I said sympathisingly, remembering his boastwhen setting out. 

"I'se right den, massa!"

"Indeed?" I responded. 

"Iss, Mass' Tom. Belieb me, dat lazy ole niggah not cut guinea-grass, not do nuffin'!" said Jake indignantly, thinking and hoping that Pompeywould receive a rating. 

"Oh, he caught a 'guana before the rain came on, and that prevented himfrom going to cut the grass, " I explained. 

Jake looked astounded. 

"Hey, Pomp catch him 'guana?" he asked. 

"Yes, " said I. "He killed it in the stable-yard, and has gone to cookit. "

This immediately fired Jake's jealousy. It was, to him, just likeadding insult to injury on his rival's park. It seemed like poaching onhis special domain. 

"What, Mass' Tom, he catchee 'guana, for suah?"

"Yes, in the corner there, " I answered, pointing out the exact placewith the twisted rattan, or "supple Jack, " which I used for a riding-whip and held loosely in my hand. 

"Dat for true, right on de mush heap dar?" repeated Jake, apparentlyunable to realise the fact of the other's success in the chase. 

"He did, " I said briefly; and then, wishing to end the colloquy, Ijumped on Prince's back, whereupon my skittish pony, as I had trainedhim to do on my once mounting, immediately started off at a brisk canterdown the carriage drive. So Jake had perforce to bestride Dandy andfollow after me, without having the pleasure of calling Pompey toaccount for his misdeeds before we started--as he evidently expected andmost decidedly wished to have done I've no doubt. 

Jake was very angry. 

This was not so much because the other darkey had omitted cutting theguinea-grass, which, of course, the horses would not now require untilwe returned from town, as from the circumstance of Pompey having had thechance of exhibiting his prowess in respect of the iguana. Jake wasevidently much dissatisfied with the whole proceeding; and I could hearhim muttering anathemas against his rival as he trotted behind methrough the grounds, and out at the entrance-gate into the main-roadbeyond. 

"Golly, dat most mystiferous, nohow!" I heard him ejaculate after a bitas he got nearer up to me. "I'se spec dat 'guana one big fool let Pompgrab him. Nebber mine! Me catchee big manacou byme-bye; an' dat heapbetterer dan nasty fat-face 'guana. Say, Mass' Tom, um like manacou?"

"I can't tell you, Jake, " I replied. "I have never yet tasted one. "

"Den you jest wait an' see. Dey is splendiferous, Mass' Tom, an' beatcock-fightin'. Golly, I get you one, two, tree, five manacou to-morrer, dat ebber so nicer dan dat poor trash ob 'guana dat hangman tief Pompcatchee, you jest wait an' see!"

"All right, Jake, " I said kindly, to appease his jealous feelings; for, he was very fond of me and thought that his rival had eclipsed him in myestimation. "I will come with you to-morrow, if my father doesn't wantme, and then we'll hunt for manacous up the mountain. "

This promise delighted him, and very soon Jake regained his customarygood-humour, satisfied with having prospectively outshone Pompey; for, he presently broke out with one of his happy African laughs, which toldme as plainly as words the little unpleasantness of the past was nowdismissed from his thoughts. 

As we rode on, at first downwards and then up a steep hillside again, the path winding by the edge of a precipice most of the way, we cameacross further traces of the force of the recent storm. Large treeswere at one place stretched across the road, their massive trunks havingbeen rended by the lightning; while the sudden deluge of rain hadchannelled little streams through the red clay. These coursed alonglike so many independent rivulets, right under our horses' hoofs, rippling onward light-heartedly, until they came to one of the manybroad ditches or gullies, that intersected our track at intervals, thecontents of which they swelled to such an extent that we frequently hadgreat difficulty in fording them, the water reaching quite up toPrince's girths, and the current being so strong as to almost sweep himoff his legs. 

The scenery on either hand was grand. 

On the right, plantations of cocoa and nutmeg trees stretched up theslopes of hills, which all converged towards a central mountain peakthat overtopped all the rest by many hundred feet. This was crowned bythe extinct crater of a volcano, now filled with water and known as LeGrand Etang. On the left, were valleys and gorges of the richest green, with here and there a tall silk-cotton tree or graceful palm elevatingitself above the other wood-nymphs, the smoke of charcoal burnersdotting the landscape from amid the thickest part of the forest growthof green with curling wreaths of grey. 

We soon reached a wide plateau just above Government House, where thebest view in the whole island was to be obtained, above which toweredthe old battery on Richmond Hill, armed with obsolete and worm-eatenthirty-two pounders, once deemed sufficient protection for the Carenageor harbour below, which it commanded. Fort George, anotherfortification equally powerless nowadays either for attack or defence, lay on the right; and looking beyond, over a series of terraces ofvillas and gardens, and negro provision grounds, the open sea could beseen stretching away to the Boccas of the Gulf of Paria and the SerpentPassage which divides the island of Trinidad from the main coast ofBritish Guiana. 

I could see, on arriving at this point, the English mail steamer coalingat the jetty below, with gangs of negroes and negresses busily engagedgoing to and fro along the wharf, carrying baskets of fuel on theirheads; so, setting spurs to Master Prince, I made him race down the roadas if a drove of wild bulls were after him, heedless of every obstaclein my path and only intent on reaching the quay. 

"Top, Mass' Tom, 'top!" shouted out Jake behind me, putting Dandy into aheavy trot. "De road am berry slippy, an' you go one big fall soon!"

But, Jake's caution was all in vain, for the steamer was there, and thepassengers had probably already landed with my father amongst them, sothere was every reason for my hastening on quickly. 

I did not waste time, I can assure you!

Cantering past groups of coloured people of every hue, from the palestcopper tint up to the jettiest black, all returning to their huts in thehills after disposing of their market produce for the day and eachgiving me the customary patois greeting, "Bon j'u', massa, ken nou'?" asI raced by them; past cottage doors and overseers' houses I went on atfull speed, until I came to a long street that sloped down with agradient like that of one of those sharp-pointed, heavy-gabled roofs ofQueen Anne's time. 

Even this, however, did not arrest my headlong course. 

I was much too anxious to get below to the harbour side before thecoaling of the steamer should be completed and the vessel start offagain on her intercolonial trip amongst the islands to deliver her mailsfrom Europe; and so, deaf to all my darkey attendant's prayers andexpostulations, I hit poor Prince over the head with my supple jack andgalloped as if a drove of wild bulls was after me down the dangerousincline, which was paved with smooth slippery fixed boulders to make itall the more treacherous to a horse's hoofs unless rough-shod. 

"Golly, Mass' Tom, you break um neck for suah, " I heard the terrifiedJake call out far away in my rear; but I could not have stopped theneven had I wished, Prince having too much "way" on him. 

"Come on!" I cried. "Come on!"

These were the last words I remember uttering, for at that moment, thepony, with me clinging to his back with might and main, was tearing downthe slope at a terrific pace; and then, just as we were passing theschool-house at the corner of the market-place, some boys who wereoutside suddenly set up a loud yell at something or other. 

This frightened Prince so that he shied. 

The pony bounded up in the air first like a goat, lifting all his legsfrom the ground at once in true buck-jumper fashion, after which he cameto a dead halt as if he had been shot; and then, placing his fore-feetstraight out before him he sent me flying over his head right throughthe window of a little shop opposite with such force that I was pickedup insensible. 

CHAPTER THREE. 

CONVALESCENT. 

The first face I saw when I came to myself was that of my father. Hewas bending over me and looking very anxious. I think he had beencrying. 

"Better, Tom?" he said softly, as if afraid of making a noise andfrightening me back into unconsciousness--everything seeming to bestrangely still around me!

"Oh, I'm all right, " I answered joyfully, much pleased at seeing him. "Why, how did you come here?" and I tried to get up from the sofa onwhich I discovered that I Was lying. But it was only an attempt, for Ifell back again in a heap, feeling pain all over me. It seemed just asif I had been broken into little pieces and somebody was now separatingthe bits!

"Bress de Lor', him 'peak again!" I heard Jake ejaculate, and then Inoticed his black face behind dad's, while there was another gentlemanthere too. The latter now took hold of my hand and felt my pulse, Isuppose, although he didn't ask me to put out my tongue, as he generallydid when he came up to Mount Pleasant specially to prescribe for me!

"Hallo, Doctor Martin!" I exclaimed, recognising him. "What's thematter with me? I can't rise, or move my legs, or do anything. "

"You confounded young rascal!" he rejoined in his hearty voice, "a nicemess you have got yourself into, alarming us all in this way. What doyou mean by galloping down Constitution Hill as if you were after a packof foxhounds? It's a mercy you haven't broken every bone in your body. "

"Poor Prince isn't hurt, is he?" I asked abruptly, without answeringhim directly. 

"No, Mass' Tom, " eagerly cried out Jake, glad of saying something to mein order to show his sympathy; "he berry well, no scrape um knees ornuffin', he--"

"There, that will do, " said Doctor Martin, interrupting the flow of thegood-natured darkey's eloquence, "you mustn't agitate Master Tom now;he's in a very critical state, and any excitement is bad for him. You'dbetter go and see after the horses. "

"Me no want agg-agg-tate um, Mass' Doctor, " pitifully expostulated Jake, almost blubbering at the accusation of his possibly wanting to do meharm, "I'se only glad to hear him 'peak again, dat all;" and he went outof the room quite crest-fallen. 

"Oh, doctor!" I cried, but then, all at once, a sort of sick sensationcame over me. Dad and Doctor Martin seemed to be waltzing round me, with the furniture and everything else following suit, and I faintedaway again, I fancy; although I could hear their whispering voices, asof people who were far away in the distance. Then, there was a blank. 

When I next opened my eyes, strange to say, I was in my own little bedat home, with my mother sitting by my side. 

I felt very weak, and one of my arms was tied up in bandages, while myother limbs didn't seem to belong to me; but, at first, I had norecollection of what had happened. 

I could not imagine what was the reason for my being laid up like that;and, seeing my mother there, I fancied for the moment that I hadoverslept myself, as was frequently the case, and that she had come tocall me for breakfast. 

"Why, mother, " I said, "I'm sorry I'm so late. "

"You've been ill, Tom, " she replied soothingly, without referring to mylaziness as I expected; "I'm glad, though, you're recovering at last. "

"Hi!" I exclaimed, much astonished. 

"Yes, my dear, very ill, " she repeated. 

"Dear me! and for how long?" I asked, in wonder still. 

"Well, it is more than three weeks since you were brought here, dear;but take this now, Tom, " she added, before telling me anything further, putting her arm round me and lifting me up in a sitting position, so asto be better able to swallow something in a wine-glass which she held tomy lips. 

"Medicine, eh?" I said, making a wry face. 

"Yes, dear, but it doesn't taste badly, " she whispered coaxingly. "Besides, Tom, if you won't take it the doctor says you are not to beallowed to speak, and of course I shall not be able to answer yourquestions. "

This settled the point; so I at once tossed off the draught she handedme, which, although slightly bitter, was not nearly as nasty as Ithought it would have been, having a wholesome horror of doctor'smixtures. The draught, at all events, put fresh vigour into me. Itcertainly gave me strength to speak again as soon as I had gulped itdown, for I was fidgeting to know what had occurred. 

"Now, mother, " I said, "tell me all about it. I can't be quiet till youdo. Have I had the fever again, or what?"

I may mention in explanation of this question of mine that, the yearbefore, I had been confined to bed with a sharp attack of a sort oftertian ague, which is the scourge of most tropical countries. This wasthe only illness I had ever suffered from in my young life; so, Ithought now that my old enemy had paid me another visit. 

"No, dear, you have not had the fever, " she answered. "Do you forgetall about going to town to meet your father, and how your pony threw youover his head at the foot of Constitution Hill?"

Thereupon the whole thing flashed back upon my mind in an instant. 

"But how did I get here?" I inquired, puzzled at this part of theaffair. "I remember now about my tumble, and seeing dad and DoctorMartin at some place in Saint George's, with old Jake crying behindthem, but I don't recollect anything else. "

"My boy, " said my mother seriously, her lips trembling as she spoke, "you've had a very narrow escape from an awful death! Do you know thathad you fallen on your head in the street when Prince pitched you over, nothing could have saved your life? As it was, you got your left armbroken and face cut, besides which you have been suffering from a slightconcussion of the brain, Doctor Martin says. It is the latter which hasmade you insensible for so long a time. At one time, indeed, we alldespaired of you!"

"Really!" I exclaimed, drawing a long breath of dismay at thiscatalogue of my injuries. 

"Yes, really, Tom, " said she; "it is a wonder to me that you are nowlying here in your right senses again. "

"But how did I get home, mother?" I asked, pressing my inquiries so asto learn every incident of the accident. 

"Well, dear, being unconscious, and as moving you could not affect yourhead much, Doctor Martin thought you would recover sooner if removed tothe fresh country air of Mount Pleasant than if you were allowed toremain in the stifling atmosphere of the town. So you were brought uphere, borne on the very sofa on which you were placed when they pickedyou up after your fall, four negroes acting as your palanquin bearers. "

"Jake was one, I bet!" I here put in, interrupting her. "I am sure hewouldn't have let anyone else carry me if he could help it. "

"Oh, yes, Jake assisted, " she said; "and I gave him a fine scolding, too, afterwards, for allowing you to ride down that hill at such a pace. It was a mercy you were not killed outright!"

"It wasn't his fault, mother, " I interposed at this point. Really, Iwas not going to let poor Jake be blamed for my obstinacy! "I madePrince gallop into the town as hard as I could, in spite of all he couldsay, for I was anxious to get down to the wharf before the passengershad landed from the steamer. I wished to be the first to meet dad. "

"And you've found out now, Tom, the truth of the old proverb, `morehaste, worse speed, ' eh, my dear?"

"Yes, mother, " I said with a laugh, "I never got there at all. But, dadcame all right, for I saw him, you know. Where is he?"

"He'll be here presently, " she replied; "he has been very anxious aboutyou, and has sat up every night with you. "

"I'm very sorry, " I said; but then, feeling about my face and head withthe solitary hand I was now only able to move, I noticed somethingstrange. "Why, hullo, mother!" I cried out, "what is the matter withthe top of my head--where is my hair gone? All seems so smooth!"

She couldn't help laughing--I suppose it was at my comical look ofmingled astonishment and perplexity. 

"It had to be shaved off when you were delirious, Tom, " she said with asmile; "you feel funny without it, no doubt, but it will soon growagain, my boy. "

"Oh dear, oh dear!" I exclaimed lugubriously; "I suppose I will be baldand have to wear a wig, like old Mr Bunting! My arm, too, mother, hurts awfully! and I can't move it at all. "

"Never mind, Tom, it might have been worse, you know, " she said in herquiet soothing way. "You ought to thank God for sparing your life, instead of grumbling at what your own recklessness has produced. However, my dear boy, you'll soon pull round and be yourself again ifyou will only keep quiet and obey all the doctor's directions. "

"But, mother, it's a terrible task for me to keep quiet, " I cried insuch a serious manner that I made her laugh again. 

"No doubt it is, " she said, "but you must learn to do it if you wish toget well again; and, Tom, I can't help reminding you that your beinglaid up now has greatly interfered with our plans. Your father wishedto have sold the estate, and for us all to go home to England. Indeed, but for your accident we would have gone by the last packet. "

This was news with a vengeance! It almost made me jump out of bed, crippled as I was, and my mother had to put her hand on my shoulder torestrain me. 

"What! sell Mount Pleasant?" I ejaculated. 

"Yes, " she replied. 

"And all of us go home together, instead of my being sent to Englandalone to school?" I continued. 

"That was what your father thought of, " said my mother in answer to thisquestion of mine; "but your illness has made him alter his mindsomewhat, as you will learn when you are able to get up and move about. You must now, dear, remain quiet, and not excite yourself; otherwise, your recovery will be retarded and that will worry your father more. "

"All right, mother, I promise to be good, " I said resolutely, nestlingdown amongst the pillows which had been comfortably fixed around me, andtrying to be as still as a mouse. "I will do all that you and thedoctor tells me, if you'll only make me well again. "

"That's my brave boy, " she murmured softly, smoothing my poor hairlesshead with her gentle hand in such a caressing way that it made me feeldrowsy, and in another minute I had dropped off into a sound sleep. Idid not wake again until some hours afterwards, when I was so refreshedand hungry that I was able to demolish a large basin of jelly-likechicken broth with some thin toast, which did me much good. 

From that time I gradually got better; but my recovery was very slow, onaccount of the thorough shaking I had received from my fall, and it wasquite another fortnight before I was able to be moved downstairs andallowed to sit in the verandah, where the fresh breezes from the sea andthe scent of the flowers on the terrace completed my cure. 

For some days even after this, however, I had to keep perfectly quiet, in accordance with the orders of Doctor Martin, who feared that I hadsustained some injury to my spine in addition to my other contusions. This suspicion of his turned out, fortunately for me, to be groundless;but the rest he enjoined was very much out of keeping with my buoyantand excitable nature, which was fidgety in the extreme. 

Still, this period of convalescence was by no means irksome to me on thewhole, for I had plenty wherewith to occupy my attention and my sistersfor companions, little Totty, the youngest, never being so happy as whenwith me. 

In order the better to amuse me, and make me remain in a recumbentposition, dad rigged up an Indian grass hammock for me beneath the shadeof one of the large silk-cotton trees by the side of the house; and hereI used to swing at my ease for hour after hour, looking at the bright-coloured humming-birds flitting about and watching the busy "Jack-Spaniards, " as the wild bees or hornets of the tropics are locallystyled, building their clay nests under the eaves of the verandah, justin the same way as the sand-martens make their habitations at home. 

I also read a great deal, for a kind neighbour luckily lent me at thistime a couple of odd volumes of Captain Marryat's works, so that I hadnow the pleasure of gloating over the wonderful history of MrMidshipman Easy, besides enjoying the strange episodes of Peter Simple'seventful career. Both of these books were previously unknown to myboyish ken, and I need hardly say how entrancing I found them. Evennow, after the lapse of so many years, I cannot hear the titles ofeither mentioned, without my memory taking me back in a moment to thegarden of my old island home in the West Indies--the very perfume of thefrangipanni and jessamine being almost perceptible to my vividimagination, while my fancy pictures the scene around, and my listeningear catches the faint rustle of the wind through the tops of the cabbagepalms!

Once, I recollect, when lazily rocking to and fro in my hammock, I saw alarge armadillo crawl out from amidst the brushwood under the trees, hehaving probably come down from his cave somewhere up in the mountainsfor change of air. This animal is something like a tortoise, only everso much bigger; and as the negroes esteem them very good eating, sayingthey are better than turtle, I at once gave Jake a hail to let him knowof the arrival of the strange visitor, when my darkey hastened speedilyto the spot, securing the armadillo without much difficulty. Jake wasall the more delighted with his prize from the fact that my accident hadprevented me from going manacou hunting with him as I had promised. Heargued that the armadillo would serve as a set-off to Pompey's iguana, which had been constantly "thrown in his teeth, " as it were, ever sincehis rival had killed it in my presence, the one capture neutralising theother. 

It may be wondered that I introduce all these little details of myillness and subsequent recovery, but, "there's a reason in everything, even in the roasting of eggs, " says the proverb; and, when it isconsidered that, had it not been for my accident, dad and mother with mysisters and myself would all have gone to England in the mail steamertogether, instead of my essaying the voyage alone in a sailing ship, these incidents are naturally relevant, quite apart from the strongimpression they made upon me at the time, as but for what occurred Ishould have nothing of any importance to tell with reference to mysubsequent adventures when alone on the Atlantic. 

However, to make a long story short, I may briefly state that, after apretty long interval of lying still, Doctor Martin said one day that Imight get up and move about; when the change from inaction to action hadsuch an improving effect on me that, within a very short space, I wasmyself again--although, perhaps, a much paler and thinner sort of TomEastman than "the young rascal, " as the doctor persisted in naming me, "who tried to break his neck by galloping down Constitution Hill, butcouldn't because it was so tough!"

All this while, dad had said nothing to me either about selling theestate or of my going home to school; but one morning when I was ableagain to mount on the back of poor Prince, who had grown quite fatduring his long stay in the stable, he told me that I might accompanyhim, if I liked, to Grenville Bay, on the other side of the island. Dadsaid that there was a large merchant vessel lying off there, loadingsugar from one of the plantations, and he wished to consult the captainabout sending home some bags of cocoa in her. He added, that we wouldprobably have to go off to her in a boat. 

This was about a week after the doctor had released me from my hammock-prison; so, as I had not as yet had a canter on Prince since my unluckyescapade, it may be imagined with what delight I prepared for theexcursion, as, independently of the pleasure of a long country ride withdad, who was one of the jolliest companions anybody could be out with, Ihad never been on board a real ship before. I had frequently observedvessels at a distance from the shore, when anchored in the Carenage, asthe harbour of Saint George is called, or else sailing round the coastinwards or outwards bound, but had never inspected one closely. 

"Golly, Mass' Tom, dis sight am good for sore eyes!" cried Jake, laughing from ear to ear with joy at seeing me well again. "Me nebberfought you ebber lift leg ober Prince again!"

"Oh, I'm all right, " I said gleefully, jumping into the saddle in my oldstyle, the pony going off instanter at a canter in his customary way. 

"Take care, Tom, take care!" cried my mother after me anxiously; so, toease her alarm at my venturing too much for one who had so recently beenan invalid, I reined in Prince, and as soon as dad had mounted Dandy, westarted away at a steady jog-trot, Jake following up close behind theheels of the horses, with which he could at any time keep pace when putto it, even when we went at a gallop. 

Dear me! I shall never forget that ride. 

Part of our way was past a wide stretching extent of primeval forestthat clothed the mountain-side with green. Here were wonderfulspecimens of trees, some of which would rival the oaks of England--aye, even those in Windsor great park! There was the sandbox, whose seedsare contained in an oval pod about the size of a penny roll; which whendry bursts like a shell, scattering its missiles about in everydirection; the iron-wood tree, which turns the edge of any axe, and canonly be brought low by fire; the caoutchouc-tree with its broad leavesand milk-white sap, the original source from which all our waterproofgarments are made. Besides these were a host of others, such as theavocado pear, soursop, sapodilla, and sapota, all of which, in additionto their size and grand appearance, bear excellent fruit. But it wouldhave puzzled anyone to explore this almost impenetrable forest growthwithout the aid of a cutlass to clear the path; for, tall vines, likeship's cordage, hung from the limbs of the trees and knitted theirbranches together in the most inextricable fashion, the lianas rootingthemselves down into the earth and then springing up again for freshentanglements, in the same way as the banyan-tree of India spreadsitself. 

This was the outlook from one side only of our route. On the other wereto be seen patches of sugar-cane, planted with almost mathematicalregularity and looking like so many fields of some gigantic species ofwheat; green plantations of cocoa, with their ripe yellow fruit showingout between the leaves, similar to that of ours at Mount Pleasant; andseveral detached gardens, where the negro squatters were cultivatingtheir yams and tanias, or else preparing their farina for cassava fromthe root of the manioc plant. The process consisted in first squeezingout, by means of an old sack and a heavy stone for a press, the viscidjuice, which is a strong poison--the same, indeed, with which the Caribsused to tip their arrows in the old days of the aborigines--and thenbaking the flour on a griddle over a charcoal fire. 

Passing through this varied scenery on either hand, our road ledpresently downwards through a series of valleys, clothed with vegetationand smiling in flowers. We crossed now and again some little streamrippling along over its pebbly bed, wherein were crawfish and tinythings like whitebait playing amongst the water-cresses that grew overthe banks; until, at last, we reached a wide horse-shoe bay facing thewide blue sea, that stretched out to the distant horizon, laving itssilver sand with happy little waves that seemed to chuckle with a murmurof pleasure as they washed the shore in rhythmical cadence. 

There was but a single vessel here, and she was riding at anchor out inthe offing some two miles from land, looking quite lonesome by herselfin the distance. 

She was a barque of some four or five hundred tons, with a broad, bluff-bowed hull that rose well out of the water on account of her not havingcompleted loading her cargo. There was a long row of white ports alongher side; and, as she rolled with the motion of the ground-swell, nowsetting inshore with the wind, she showed her bright copper sheathingalmost to her keel. 

"Is that the ship, dad?" I asked my father, gazing at her with longingeyes and wondering how we were to reach her. 

"Yes, Tom, that's the vessel I told you of, and we must now see aboutgetting aboard if we can, " said he, preparing to dismount from hishorse, whose bridle Jake had already taken hold of. 

"And what's her name, dad?" I then inquired, jumping down from Prince'sback as I spoke and giving the reins also in charge of our darkey groom. 

"The _Josephine_ of London, " he replied in regular ship-shape fashion;"Captain Miles, master and part owner. "

CHAPTER FOUR. 

THE "JOSEPHINE. "

"What!" I exclaimed joyfully; "Captain Miles! That jolly old fellowwho came out to Mount Pleasant last year and showed me how to make akite?"

"The same, " replied dad. "But remember, Tom, he's not much over my age;and I do not by any means call myself an old man yet! Besides, he and Iare friends of long standing, and you should not speak of him sodisrespectfully. "

"Oh, dad, I didn't mean that, and I beg his pardon, I'm sure, " Iinterposed hastily at this. "What I wished to express was, that Ithought him so nice and pleasant, that I was very glad to have thechance of seeing him again!"

"My dear boy, I know what you meant, " said dad kindly, with his usualbright smile, the sight of which eased my mind in a minute. "However, Tom, " he added quizzingly, "we must now see about getting out to the oldfellow. "

But this was sooner said than done. 

There was the ship, it was true, and there were we on the shore lookingat her; but, there between us stretched an expanse of nearly two milesof blue water, which we certainly could not cross by swimming, althoughdad was a pretty good hand at that, and had made me, too, a fair adeptin the art for my years. 

How to reach the vessel, therefore, was the question. 

Dad tried waving his handkerchief to attract the attention of those onboard; but the crew of the _Josephine_ appeared to be all asleep, fornobody took any notice of the signal. Foiled in this hope, dad turnedround to me again with a puzzled expression on his face, as if wonderingwhat he should do next, though of course I could not suggest anything. 

Just then Jake, who had been looking at my father very attentively allthis while, as if "taking stock" of his movements, so to speak, suddenlyburst into one of his huge guffaws. 

"Yah, yah, massa, golly you no see for suah!" he cried out in an ecstasyof enjoyment at what he considered a rare joke. "You am look de wrongway. Look dere, look dere!"

"Look where?" asked dad, not quite making out what particular directionJake especially wished to draw his attention to, for the darkey waswhirling one of his arms round him like a windmill to each point of thecompass in turn; and, but that he had the bridles of the horses slungover his other arm, he would probably have gesticulated as franticallyalso with that. 

"Dere, dere--t'oder way, massa, " repeated Jake, nodding his woolly headas he laughed and showed his teeth, this time indicating the extremeleft of the bay, to which our backs had been turned; but where, on ournow looking, we noticed a little jetty running out into the sea, with aboat putting off from it towards the ship. 

"Oh!" ejaculated dad; "what a stupid I am, to be sure!"

Dad's exclamation made Jake break out afresh into a loud cachinnation. 

"Golly, dis chile can't 'tand dat, " he shouted. "Massa um 'tupid, massaum 'tupid, yah, yah!" and he almost doubled himself in two withmerriment, his hearty laughter being so contagious that both dad and Icould not help joining in. So there were we all chuckling away at afine rate at the idea of our not noticing either the jetty or the boatbefore. We had been so blindly anxious to reach the _Josephine_ that wehad looked in every direction but the right one for the means of gettingon board her!

After a bit, dad was the first to recover his composure. 

"Well, Tom, " said he, "the best thing we can do now will be to rideround the bay to the point where that boat has started out from. Ithink I can see another craft of some sort lying alongside the jetty;and, I daresay, we'll be able to get out to the vessel if we go there. "

As he spoke he mounted Dandy again, while I jumped up nimbly on Prince'sback; and, in another moment we were cantering along the sandy beachtowards the point in question, with Jake running behind holding on toDandy's tail, and still laughing to himself in high glee. 

On approaching the jetty, it looked much bigger than it had appeared tobe in the distance. It was a long wooden pier, indeed, that projectedsome hundred yards or so into the sea, and it had a crane at the end forhoisting and lowering the heavy hogs-heads of sugar. Dozens of thesewere ranged along its length awaiting shipment, and a gang of negroeswere busily engaged under a white overseer in stowing some of them intothe launch of the _Josephine_, which was moored right under the crane. The name of the vessel was painted in white letters on the stern of theboat, which was turned towards us as we rode up so that we could easilysee it. 

On dad's telling the overseer what he wanted, we learnt that CaptainMiles was on board his vessel, and that the launch would be going out toher as soon as she was loaded; so we had nothing to do now but to waituntil she had taken in as many casks of sugar as she could carry. 

To me, this delay was not very tedious; for, as the overseer made thenegroes "hurry up" with their task, I was much amused with the brisk wayin which they trundled the huge hogs-heads along, running them up to thepier-head, slinging them to the chains of the crane, and then loweringthem down into the launch. There was much creaking of cog-wheels andcheerful, "Yo-heave-hoing!" from the men in the boat below, as theystowed them away in the bottom of the craft as easily as if they wereonly so many tiny little kegs, the darkeys joining in the sailors'chorus with much good-humour. 

Bye and bye the job was finished, when, room having been reserved fordad and myself in the stern-sheets, the seaman in charge of the boattold us to jump in. 

Then, some of the negro gang coming on board also to help man the longoars, which, like sweeps, were ranged double-banked along the sides ofthe launch, she was pulled away slowly from the jetty out towards the_Josephine_ in the offing, Jake, who had been left ashore to mind thehorses, casting longing looks of regret after us. He, too, would havedearly liked to have gone off to the ship. 

It was heavy work, even with the aid of the sweeps, rowing such adistance under the broiling mid-day sun, for there was no breeze to aidthe boat's progress through the water, and the heavy ground-swell thatwas rolling in to the land of course greatly retarded the rowers. Everymoment the launch plunged almost bows under into the hollow of the sea, then rising again suddenly as the waves passed under her keel, her sternsinking down level with the surface at the same time and her prow beinghigh in the air. I thought it somewhat dangerous at first, but dad andthe other men took it so coolly that I was soon reassured and quiteenjoyed the motion. 

It seemed ever so much nicer than swinging to me; for the up and downmovement was as regular as clockwork, in rhythmical harmony with theundulations of the unbroken billows that swept in, one after another, inmeasured succession from seaward--pursuing their onward course untilthey broke on the curving shore of the bay, inside of us, with a dulllow roar, like that of some caged wild animal kept under restraint andunable to exert its full strength. 

After an hour's hard pulling, the boat got alongside the ship at last, but the vessel floated so high out of the water that I could not helpwondering how we should ever be able to climb on board; for the squareportholes, which were the only openings in her massive wall-like sidesthat I could see, were far above the level of the launch, even when theswelling surge lifted us up every now and then on the top of a heavingroller. 

Dad, however, quickly solved the difficulty. At once catching hold of acouple of side lines which hung down from above, he swung himselfdexterously on to a projecting piece of wood, like the bottom rung of aladder, fixed to the hull of the vessel, and stepping from this toanother cleat above he went up the side as easily as if he wereascending an ordinary staircase, soon gaining the deck overhead anddisappearing from my view. 

"My eye!" ejaculated the sailor beside me in the boat, surprised atdad's familiarity with such a nautical procedure. "I am blessed if thatthere gentleman ain't an old hand at it. "

"You're right, my man, " said I proudly, "my father was an officer in thenavy once. "

"Guessed so, " replied the sailor laconically. "I've been an old man-o'-war's man myself and thought I knew the cut of his jib!"

I could not imitate dad's example, though, for all that; so, they had tohoist me in like a cask of sugar, as I was not able to get up the side. I confess I was mightily pleased to find myself landed, presently, safeand sound on the poop of the _Josephine_ by the side of dad and CaptainMiles, both of whom seemed much amused at my rather ignominious entry onboard the vessel. Really, I must have looked very funny with my legsdangling in the air when run up at the end of the derrick!

"Well, youngster, how did you like being strung up at the yard-arm?"said Captain Miles, who had still a broad grin on his face. "Not manyfellows have been bowsed up in that fashion and cut down so speedily!"

"No, " observed dad. "I'm glad, though, that mode of execution to whichyou refer is now altogether abolished in the service; but I'm afraid, captain, Tom does not understand your allusion. "

"Oh, yes, I do, dad, " said I, fresh from the pages of Mr MidshipmanEasy, and knowing all about the summary system of punishment in vogue inthe old days on board ship. "Captain Miles meant hanging. "

"So I did, youngster, " replied that worthy cheerily; "but you seem nonethe worse for your experience of the operation. "

"I didn't like it, however, captain, " said I, a little bit put on mydignity by being laughed at. "The next time I come on board I intend tomount up the side-ladder the same as dad did. "

"That's right, my lad, so you shall, " rejoined the jolly old fellow. "But, come below now both of you and have some luncheon. It has goneeight bells, and as I feel a trifle peckish, I daresay you're prettymuch the same. "

While saying this Captain Miles descended the poop-ladder, and, beckoning dad and I to follow him, ushered us into the cabin below, where we found a very appetising meal laid out. It seemed just as if wehad been expected and that preparations had been made for ourentertainment. 

Dad passed a remark about this, but the captain laughed it off. 

"Oh, it's nothing, " he said. "Harry, my steward, thought he would makea spread, I suppose, because I told him I felt hungry just now. It isonly our ordinary fare, though; for, when we're in harbour like this nowand have the chance of getting fresh grub, we always keep a good table. At sea, after a spell, we've got to rough it on salt junk frequently. "

"Not like what we poor fellows had to put up with in the service, "observed dad, shrugging his shoulders with a grimace. 

"Ah, we in the mercantile marine know how to enjoy ourselves, " saidCaptain Miles with a satisfactory chuckle. "You naval chaps aresomething like what the niggers say of white folks that have come downin the world out here, and try to keep up appearances without means. You have `poor greatness, with dry rations, ' hey?"

"That's true enough, " replied dad; and then we all set to work with ourknives and forks, demolishing, in less than no time, a grilled fowl andsome delicious fried flying-fish, with the accompaniment of roastbuttered yams and fresh plantains. 

I don't know when I ever had such a jolly tuck out. The long ride aftermy forced quietness at home, and the sea air, combined with my novelsurroundings--I was so overjoyed at being on board a ship, and having ameal in a real cabin, the very height of my ambition and what I hadoften longed for--gave me a tremendous appetite. It was the firstreally hearty meal I had eaten since my illness. 

"Well, Eastman, " said Captain Miles presently to dad, "I suppose you'vecome about the youngster. Do you want me to take him home with me thisvoyage, eh?"

Of course I pricked up my ears on hearing this question; but dad did notsatisfy my curiosity, although he noticed that I almost jumped up in myseat and was all attention. 

"No, " replied he, evading the subject, "I wanted to see you aboutshipping some cocoa. I've got a good lot ready, and you may as welltake it as anybody else. "

"Oh, I see, " rejoined the captain, winking in a confidential way at dad, as if they had some secret between them. "We can talk over the bills oflading and so on, while the youngster has a run round to see what a shipis like, eh?"

"Yes, " said dad; and turning to me he added, "You would like to go overthe _Josephine_, would you not, Tom, now you are on board her?"

"Rather!" I replied, delighted at the idea, but still wondering whatthe captain had meant about "taking me home. "

There was evidently something on the tapis. 

"All right, my hearty, so you shall, " said Captain Miles. "Theboatswain will take you round and show you the ropes, while your fatherand I have a chat about business matters. "

He then called Harry the steward, and directed him to give me in chargeof Moggridge the boatswain, with instructions to show me everything thatwas to be seen alow and aloft in the vessel; whereupon the two of uswent out of the cabin together, leaving the captain and dad to have anuninterrupted chat over their cigars. 

Moggridge turned out to be the very sailor who had been in charge of thelaunch which had brought us off to the ship; so, from the fact of hisknowing that dad had formerly been in the navy, and that I wished toenter the same glorious service, we were soon on the most confidentialterms, the good-natured fellow going out of his way to make methoroughly acquainted with all the details of the _Josephine_. He firsttook me down to the hold, where I saw the hogs-heads of sugar beingstowed, the casks being packed as tightly as sardines in a tin box. Wethen went through the ship fore and aft between the decks, from theforecastle to the steward's pantry. After this the boatswain completedhis tour of instruction by showing me how to climb the rigging into themain-top, telling me the names and uses of all the ropes and spars; sothat, by the time he had ended, my head was in a state of bewilderedconfusion, with shrouds and sheets, halliards and stays, stun'-sailyards and cat-heads, bowsprits, and spanker booms, all so mixed uptogether that it would have puzzled me to discriminate between any ofthem and say off-hand which was which!

However, the boatswain and I parted very good friends when he took meback to the cabin on the termination of our inspection of the ship--hepromising to teach me how to make a reef-knot and a running-bowline thenext time I came on board, and I shaking hands with him as a right goodfellow whom I would only be too glad to meet again under anycircumstances. 

Dad and I stopped with Captain Miles until late in the afternoon; when, the glare of the sun having gone off, we were rowed ashore in thecaptain's gig. My friend Moggridge took charge of us, and a crew ofhardy sailors made the boat spin ashore at a very different rate ofspeed to that which the heavy old launch displayed on our trip out tothe vessel with the sugar hogs-heads. 

Jake met us at the jetty with the horses, which he had put up in thestables of the adjoining plantation during our absence; and as we rodealong the shore of the bay homeward, the sun was just setting, while anice cool wind came down from the mountains, making it much nicer thanit had been in the earlier part of the day. Skirting the bay, we couldsee the _Josephine_ in the distance gradually being shut in by a halo ofhaze, a thick mist generally rising up from the sea at nightfall in thetropics through the evaporation of the water or the difference oftemperature between it and the atmospheric air. 

If our ride out to Grenville Bay had been jolly in the morning, ourjourney back was simply splendid. 

Almost as soon as the solar orb sank down below the horizon, which itdid just before we turned away from the shore, the masts and spars ofthe _Josephine_, and each rope of her rigging, were all lit up by thesinking rays of light, their last despairing flash before theirextinguishment in the ocean. At the same time, the hull of the vesseland every projecting point in the coast-line of the bay stood out inrelief against the bright emerald-green tint of the sea. A momentafterwards, the darkness of night descended suddenly upon us like a vastcurtain let down from heaven. 

But it was not dark long. 

As we passed our way up the climbing mountain path that led back toMount Pleasant, our road--bordered on the one side by the densevegetation of the forest, which seemed as black as ink now, and hedgedin on the other by a precipice--was made clear by the light of thestars. These absolutely came out _en masse_ almost as we looked upwardsat them. I noticed, too, that the sky seemed to be of some gauzytransparent material like ethereal azure, and did not exhibit that solidappearance it has in England of a ceiling with gold nails stuck in ithere and there at random; for, the "lesser orbs of night" in the tropicslook as if they were floating in a sea of vapour. They appear a regulargalaxy of beauty and splendour, and so many glorious evidences of thegreat Creator's handiwork. 

Every now and then, also, the air around us was illuminated with sparksof green-coloured flame, while the woods seemed on fire from a thousandlittle jets that burst out every second from some new direction, lighting up the sombre gloom beneath the shade of the forest trees. 

One could almost imagine that there was a crowd of fairies going beforeus, each carrying a torch which he waved about, now above his head, andthen around lower down, finally dashing it to the ground with those ofhis comrades, as is the custom at the torchlight processions of thestudents in Germany on some festal night. As dad and I trotted alongtowards home, the sparks of flame appeared now rising, now falling, vanishing here, reappearing there, finally converging into a globe, or"set piece, " as at a pyrotechnic display, and then dispersing inspangles of coruscation like a fizzed-out firework. 

This beautiful effect, one of the wonders of a night in the West Indies, was caused by the fireflies. Of these insects there are two distinctspecies, one really a small fly which seems to be perpetually on thewing, flitting in and out in the air always, and never at rest; whilethe other is a species of beetle that is only seen in woody regions, where it takes up a more stationary position, like the glowworm overhere. This latter has two large eyes at the back of its head, insteadof in front in their more natural place; and these eyes, when the insectis touched, shoot forth two strong streams of greenish light, somethinglike that produced by an electric dynamo, while, at the same time, theentire body of the "firefly, " or beetle, becomes as incandescent as alive coal. 

The light which even one of these little creatures will give out is sogreat that I have often seen dad, just for the sake of the experiment, read a bit out of a newspaper on a dark evening with a firefly stuck ina wine-glass for a candle!

For some time we jogged along silently; but just when we were nearingMount Pleasant I could not help asking dad what Captain Miles had meantby that question he had asked him about taking me for a voyage. 

I had been dying to know what the remark referred to ever since I hadoverheard it, but waited, thinking that dad would tell me of his ownaccord; so now, as he didn't speak, I had to brave the ordeal of theinquiry. 

"He wanted to take you home to England to school, Tom, " replied dadbriefly in an absent sort of way, as if his thoughts were amongst thefireflies. 

"Really?" said I hesitatingly--"and--"

"And, I have not quite made up my mind in the matter yet, Tom. Besideswhich, there's your mother to be consulted, " interposed dad, answeringmy second question before I could put it. 

"And if mother does not mind, you will let me go, then, in the_Josephine_ with Captain Miles, eh, dad?" I asked anxiously. 

"I didn't say so, did I?" said dad quizzingly. 

"But you meant it, dad, you meant it, I know, " cried I exultantly. "Hurrah, I am so glad! I am so glad!"

CHAPTER FIVE. 

GOOD-BYE TO GRENADA!

"Are you really so glad to leave us all?" said dad somewhatreproachfully, as I could judge from his tone of voice; for, althoughthe stars and fireflies illumined the landscape sufficiently for us tosee our way, the light was too dim for me to observe the expression ofhis face. 

"Oh no, dad, not that, " I cried out almost with a sob at such aninsinuation. "You know, you said I was to go to England this year toschool; and, if I must, why I would rather sail in Captain Miles' vesselthan any other. "

"All right, Tom, I did not think you quite so heartless as yourexclamation implied, " replied dad, still speaking in a sad tone; "butit's only the way of the world, my boy. Young birds are always anxiousto leave the parent nest, and you are no exception, I suppose, to therule. "

I did not make any answer to this. I could not speak, for my heart wastoo full. 

Presently we arrived at the entrance to Mount Pleasant, when Jake rushedforward and opened the gate leading into the grounds, and we proceededup the carriage drive towards the house in silence, the moon, which wasjust rising over the tops of the mountains beyond, lighting up thegarden on the terrace in front and making it look like a dream offairyland. The flowers and foliage shone out in relief as if tippedwith silver against the dark background of the house; while the coolevening breeze was scented with the fragrance of the frangipanni andjessamine, now smelling more strongly than in the daytime, in additionto which I could distinguish the lusciously sweet perfume of the night-blooming cereus, a plant that only unfolds its luscious petals aftersunset. 

The whole scene lives in my memory now!

"Say, Mass' Tom, " whispered Jake to me as he took hold of Prince'sbridle on my dismounting to lead him away to the stables along withDandy. "I'se heard what you 'peak jus' now to Mass' Eastman. Um raillygoin' leabe de plantashun for true, hey?"

"Yes, " said I. "I am to go to England in the _Josephine_, that big shipwe saw to-day, if my mother consents. "

"Den, I go too!" replied Jake impressively. 

"Nonsense!" cried I, laughing at this determination of his. "CaptainMiles won't take you. "

"Won't him, dough--me 'peak to him byme-by, an' you see den!"

"You can speak if you like, " I replied in an off-hand way as he wentaway with the horses; while I ascended the terrace steps and proceededinto the house to hear what mother had to say on the subject of my goingaway. 

I found, however, when I got in, that dad had already told the news; andit came out presently that the matter had really all been arrangedbeforehand. 

My father, I heard now, had received an offer to sell his plantation, asmy mother told me, but my illness had prevented him from closing withit; and so the opportunity had slipped. Consequently, as he would stillhave to remain at Mount Pleasant for possibly an indefinite time, he hadmade up his mind to adhere to his original plan and send me home toschool without further delay. He and my mother had settled to arrange apassage for me with their old friend Captain Miles even before westarted on our ride to Grenville Bay, dad and the captain having seeneach other in the town and spoken about the matter previously, fixingthe very day of our visit, as the substantial luncheon we had on boardshowed. 

Now, therefore, that my inclinations chimed in with dad's views andarrangements, the thing was finally settled; and it may be imagined whata state of mind my mother and sisters were in about my going. Theyhugged and kissed me as if I were going to start that very minute!

Dad said that the _Josephine_ would complete loading her cargo atGrenville Bay in about a week or ten days. She would then call round atSaint George's for orders, and I should have to go on board at amoment's notice, as she might sail almost immediately. 

The next few days were all hurry and bustle, everybody being busy inpreparing my traps--my mother and sisters seeing to my outfit, and thenegro servants, with all of whom I was a great favourite, contributingall sorts of little presents, some of the most unwieldy and uselesscharacter, which they thought would either add to my comfort during thevoyage or were absolutely necessary for "de young massa agwine toEngland!"

But, at last, all my belongings, useful and useless alike, were packedup; and one fine morning in August--I remember well, it was the dayafter my birthday--a regular procession set out from Mount Pleasant, consisting of my mother and dad and my sisters, not omitting myself, thehero of the occasion. 

We were all mounted on horseback; for no wheeled vehicle could overcomethe engineering difficulties of the mountain road, rugged as it was andintersected by wild gullies and little brawling streamlets at intervals, the latter sometimes only bridged by a narrow plank, as I have mentionedbefore. 

To a stranger, our cavalcade would have presented quite an imposingappearance, as behind the mounted portion of the procession came astring of negroes, headed by old Pompey, carrying the three large trunksand odd boxes containing my paraphernalia, those whose services were notabsolutely required to carry anything volunteering to go with the restin order to see me off. 

I had been so excited all along with the idea of going to school, whichI was looking forward to as something awfully jolly from the descriptionI had read about other boys' doings in books--for I was utterly ignorantof what English life really was--that up to now I had scarcely given athought to anything else, never realising the terrible severance of allthe dear home ties which my departure would bring about. 

But, when I mounted Prince for the last time, as I suddenly recollectedall at once, and gazed round at my old home, which I was probably aboutto bid good-bye to for ever, my feelings overcame me. At that moment Iwould gladly have stopped behind, sacrificing even the pleasure Ianticipated from my voyage in the _Josephine_, and all that the futuremight have in store for me, rather than desert so summarily the scenesof my childhood and all the loved members of the home circle. 

Dad noticed my emotion and he recalled me to myself. 

"Come on, Tom, " he said kindly but firmly, "you must be a man now, myboy! Be brave; for if your poor mother sees you crying she will breakdown utterly, and I'm sure you would not like that. "

This speech of his made me stifle my sobs; and, although I couldn't getout any words to answer him, I swallowed something hard that wassticking in my throat. Then, putting Prince in a canter, I rode up tothe side of my mother, who was in front with Baby Tot. 

By that time I had regained my composure and was able to talk and makefun with my little sister, who, not knowing, of course, the purport ofour expedition, thought it was a party of pleasure got up especially forher gratification. She was in a state of supreme delight, crowing andchuckling away in the greatest possible glee, every now and then puttingup her little rosebud of a mouth to be kissed by mother and me. 

Jake, I observed, looked very serious as he ran along by the side ofPrince, resting one of his hands on my pony's flanks, as was his habitwhen he accompanied me out riding. The other negroes, who were carryingmy luggage down to town on their heads, in their customary fashion ofbearing all burdens whether light or heavy, were laughing and jabberingtogether like a parcel of black crows; but he never spoke a word eitherto his dark-complexioned brethren or to me, exhibiting such a strikingcontrast to his ordinary demeanour that even dad noticed it and askedhim the reason, wondering what was the matter with him. 

"Me not berry well, massa, " however, was all the answer he could get outof Jake; but the faithful fellow looked at me so wistfully whenever Icaught his eye that I recalled what he had said about wishing to go inthe ship with me, on the night when we returned from Grenville Bay. 

He had not alluded to the subject since, though, so I really thought hehad forgotten it; and now, as he did not appear inclined to talk, Ibelieved it best to let him alone, not wishing to hurt his feelings bydwelling on the impossible. 

I could see that he was much put out about something; so I came to theconclusion that his change of manner, so unlike his usual light-heartedmerry self, was due to his grief at parting with me, he having been myconstant companion ever since I had been able to toddle about, when myfather first settled down on the plantation, at which time I was only alittle five-year-old boy and he a darkey stripling. 

There was no racing down the road now at breakneck speed, like that timewhen in my hurry to meet dad I had come to grief some two monthspreviously. Our cavalcade went on at a sober respectable pace, reachingthe town in about an hour and a half from our start. 

As we were passing by the bend in the road, opposite Government House, whence there was such a good view of the harbour below, Jake spoke to mefor the first time during the journey. 

"Dar am de ship, Mass' Tom!" he said, pointing out the _Josephine_ lyingout in the anchorage under Fort Saint George. 

She was looking much smarter and trimmer, I thought, than when I hadfirst cast eyes on her in Grenville Bay; for her sails were partlyloosed, making her have the appearance of an ocean bird ready to be onthe wing. I noticed, too, that she floated lower in the water, havingevidently taken in a lot more cargo since I had been on board. 

When we reached the lower part of the town by the harbour side, afterdescending the perilously steep Constitution Hill, dad escorted us allto a famed establishment close by, known as "Jenny Gussett's Hotel, " andkept by a gigantic coloured woman nearly seven feet high, where all thepassengers by the mail steamers who had no friends in the island, usedinvariably to put up. Here, after ordering an early dinner, dad took meout with him to call on a shipping agent at whose place of business hehad agreed to meet Captain Miles, leaving my mother and sisters withtheir crowd of darky attendants at the hotel until we should come back. 

The captain was punctual to his appointment like most sailors. 

"Ha, Eastman, " he said when dad and I entered the agent's store, "you'rejust in the nick of time. I was only speaking of you a minute ago toour friend here. Got the youngster I see. "

"Yes, here he is, " replied dad. 

"That's all right then, " said Captain Miles. "How are you, Master Tom--glad to go to sea, eh?"

"Well--" I stammered hesitatingly, not liking to tell an untruth. 

"Oh, I know, " said he interrupting me. "Sorry to leave mother and thegirls, I suppose? Never mind, my boy, these partings must come sometime or other, and the sooner they are over the better. I shall start, Eastman, " he added, turning to dad, "late in the afternoon, as soon asthe wind sets off the land; so, you'd better send the boy aboard whenthe sun begins to sink. My boat is now waiting at the end of the wharfto take his traps. "

"Thanks, Miles, " replied my father; "but, won't you come round with usto Jenny Gussett's Hotel and have some lunch? My wife will be glad tosee you. "

"Oh, has she come in to town to see the youngster off?" asked thecaptain. 

"Yes, we all rode in, " answered dad. "The whole kit of us are here. "

"All right; I'll come then, as soon as I've finished arranging mattersand signing bills of lading with my agent here, " said Captain Milescordially, adding, with one of his knowing winks to dad, "I've no doubtyour missis wants to give me all sorts of directions about young MasterHopeful, eh?"

"You might be further out in your guess, " rejoined dad with a laugh; andpresently the three of us went back to the hotel together, it being nearthe hour at which dad had ordered our early dinner, or luncheon, to begot ready. 

The time soon slipped by at our meal, which none of us seemed to enjoyvery much save the captain, who, of course, was not affected by any sadthoughts of parting, the same as dad and mother and I and my sisterswere--that is excepting Baby Tot, for she looked still upon the wholething as a joke and continued in the best of spirits. 

When we rose from table, mother got hold of Captain Miles and beganwhispering earnestly to him, something about me, I was certain; so, inorder not to overhear their conversation, I went towards the open doorleading into a wide passage-way that terminated in the usual verandahcommon to all West Indian houses. The hotel, however, did not commandsuch a pretty prospect as ours at Mount Pleasant, for it looked on tothe street, which could be gained by descending a short flight of stepsat the end of the alcove. 

But, would you believe it, hardly had I reached the verandah, when, there on the top step I saw old Pompey standing in an attitude of greatexpectancy, with his footless wine-glass in hand, the same as was hishabit at home on the plantation, although it was more than two hourspast his usual grog-time!

No sooner had I appeared than out came his stereotyped formula:

"Hi, Mass' Tom! um come rum. "

I felt sad enough at the moment, but the sight of Pompey with his wine-glass, and his quaint well-known way of expressing himself, made meburst into a fit of laughter which brought out dad from the dining-room. 

"Hullo, Tom, what's the matter?" he cried. "Ah, I see! Why, Pompey, you old rascal, you're past your time, " he added, catching sight of theold negro at the end of the verandah. "What do you mean by coming foryour grog at four bells, eh? I suppose, though, as Master Tom's goingaway we must let you have it. "

So saying, dad went back into the dining-room, bringing out presently atumbler filled with something which he handed to Pompey, the old darkeyswallowing the contents with his usual gusto, and, needless to say, without any very great amount of exertion. 

"There, " said dad when Pompey returned the empty glass with a bow andscrape, "go and tell the others that Master Tom wants to say good-bye, as he will start in a minute or two, and that he wishes them to comeround and drink his health too. "

Pompey thereupon shuffled off awkwardly in his boots, returning soonwith two of the other negroes who had come down with us from theplantation. These now had each a glass of wine in honour of mydeparture, Pompey managing to come in for an extra one on the sly by theartful way in which he looked at me and showed his footless measure. 

"But where is Jake?" asked dad suddenly, after the darkeys had emptiedtheir glasses. 

"Me no see him, " replied Pompey, acting as spokesman for the rest. Indeed, on this occasion he seemed to abandon his customary taciturnity, for he wished me "um berry fine v'y'ge, Mass' Tom, " when drinking myhealth. 

"Not seen him!" repeated dad, much surprised. "Where can he be?"

"Dunno, massa. He put him Dandy an' Prince in 'table an' den him say umfeel berry bad, an' go way. "

"Poor fellow, he may be really ill! I must look after him, " said myfather putting on his hat and proceeding round to the stables; but as hecould see nothing of Jake he soon returned, for the afternoon wasgetting on and it was time to have my luggage carried down to the boatof the _Josephine_ as well as for me to see about going on board also. 

While my trunks were being taken to the wharf by Pompey and the othertwo darkeys, I had to pass through the painful ordeal of biddingfarewell to my mother and sisters. The less I say about this thebetter!

Baby Tot could not grasp the idea that I was really going away from heruntil the very last moment, when, seeing the others overcome withemotion, especially my mother, who was crying as if her heart wouldbreak, my little sister clung round my neck so tightly that dad had tounclasp her tiny fingers one by one before she would release her hold ofme. 

As for my mother's last kiss and her broken words, telling me always tofear God and be good, whatever might betide, I can never forget them. 

At length the parting was over, when dad calling me in a husky voice tocome along, I proceeded with him down to the wharf, where the_Josephine's_ boat was lying alongside the steamboat landing-stage, waiting for me to start. 

Here another farewell had to be taken of old Pompey and the negroservants who had brought my traps from the hotel; but, strange to say, Icould see nothing of Jake, so I had to commission one of the others tosay good-bye to him for me. 

At the last moment, too, Doctor Martin came up and gave me one of hishearty hand-shakes, bidding me "always tell the truth and shame thedevil, " pointing out at the same time that he had sent down a lot offresh cocoa-nuts for me that had been stowed in the ship's boat with myluggage. He thought they would "come in handy, " he said, for assuagingmy thirst during the hot weather I might expect before getting out ofthe tropics. Then came the final wrench of dear old dad's last embraceand sad God-speed, after which the boat shoved off from the shore, bearing me, almost heart-broken, with all my belongings out to the_Josephine_, which anchored at the mouth of the harbour with her bluepeter flying, her sails loosed, and every sign of departure. 

"Cheer up, my sonny!" said Moggridge, my old friend the boatswain, as Isat in the stern of the boat with my face buried in my hands, for I hadnot the courage to look back at those I was leaving; "I thought you werea reg'lar chip of the old block, and your father told you mind, sir, tobe a man. "

These words put me on my mettle, so I picked up a bit and waved myhandkerchief to dad, whom I could see standing still gazing after me;and, when the boat got alongside the vessel, I clambered up the side-ladder instead of allowing myself to be hoisted in as before. 

"That's your sort, " said Moggridge, who followed me up closely, in orderthat he might catch me should I tumble back. He also helped me into theentry port and on to the deck of the _Josephine_, where I found CaptainMiles waiting to receive me. 

"Ha, here you are at last, youngster!" he cried out in welcome. "Ithought you were never coming out, and that we would have to startwithout you. Wind and tide, you know, wait for neither man or boy!Hoist in his traps, boatswain, " he added to Moggridge, "and be as sharpas you can about it too, for the breeze is just beginning to come offthe land. "

I may here mention a meteorological fact that Captain Miles subsequentlyexplained to me. He said that this regular alternation of the sea andland breeze in warm latitudes, as in the tropics generally, when thewind blows for so many hours in the day on and off-shore, is owing tothe different powers for the radiation and absorption of heat possessedby land and water, so that when the day temperature is highest on theland the alternating breezes will be stronger, and _vice versa_. Duringthe day, to illustrate this fact, the radiation of the sun's heat on theland causes the air to expand and so rise from the surface, which, creating a vacuum, the air from the sea rushes in to fill the void. Atnight this process is reversed, for, while the surface of the soil willfrequently show in the West Indies during the daytime a temperature of ahundred and twenty degrees and more under the meridian sun, thethermometer will sink down in the evening to fifty or sixty degrees;whereas, the sea, being a bad radiator and its temperature rarelyexceeding eighty degrees, even at the hottest period of the day, it isalternately colder and warmer than the land, and the direction of thewind accordingly oscillates between the two. The minimum temperaturebeing at a little before sunrise in the early morning and the maximumsomewhere about two o'clock in the afternoon, the change of thesebreezes usually occurs at some little time after these hours, the onelulling and the other setting in in due rotation--that is, of course, near the coast, for out in the open sea their effect is not so apparent. 

In August, which is one of the "hurricane months" of the tropics, whenthe _Josephine_ left Grenada on her voyage to England, the winds aremore variable, blowing at odd and uncertain times; so, there was everyreason for Captain Miles' taking advantage of the first cat's-paw of airoff the land now, as otherwise, perhaps, he might not have been able tomake an offing before morning, when he would lose the advantage of thecurrent amongst the islands towards Saint Vincent, where he had to callin for some puncheons of rum and coffee to complete his cargo. 

Under the direction of Moggridge, the crew made short work of hoistingin my traps and innumerable boxes, including the cocoa-nuts DoctorMartin had sent down for me, all of which Captain Miles ordered to betaken into the cabin he allotted to me on the starboard side of the shipnear his own; and then, the boat itself was hauled on board by thederrick amidships which had been used for getting in the cargo, therebeing no davits at the side as in a man-of-war. 

After seeing this operation satisfactorily accomplished, I went up thepoop-ladder and walked aft to the side of Captain Miles, who was nowbusy about getting the vessel under weigh. 

"Hands up anchor!" he roared out with a stentorian shout, andimmediately there was a bustle forward of the men with much thumping oftheir feet on the planks and a clanking of the chain as the windlasswent round under their sturdy hands. Mr Marline, the first mate, Inoticed, had charge of the crew engaged in heaving, while Moggridge wenton the forecastle to see that everything was clear for catting andfishing the anchor as soon as it was run up out of the water and thestock showed itself above the bows. 

"Clink, clank! clink, clank!" came the measured rattle as the slack ofthe cable was wound round the windlass and carried along the deck to thechain locker; and then, after another spell of hard heaving, Moggridgesang out, "Swings clear, sir!"

"All right, " responded Captain Miles, jumping up on a hen-coop by thetaffrail so as to make his voice go further, as well as to command aclear view of all that was going on, "Hands, make sail!"

On hearing this order those of the crew who were not engaged at thewindlass swarmed up the rigging and threw off the gaskets of theforesail and mainsail, while a couple of hands ran out on the bowspritand unloosed the lashings of the jib, the topsails having been droppedbefore I came on board. 

"Man the topsail halliards!" then sang out the captain, and with acheery cry the yards were run up with a will and the halliards thenbelayed. 

"Sheet home!" was the next command, whereupon the sails were stretchedout to their full extent, swelling out before the off-shore wind; andone of the men, by the captain's orders, now going to the helm, a fewturns of the spokes brought the vessel's head round. 

"Now, look alive there forward and heave up the anchor!" shouted CaptainMiles. 

In another minute the stock of the kedge showed above the bows, when thecatfalls being stretched along the deck, and laid hold of by Moggridge, the rest of the crew tacking on after him, the flukes were run up to thecat-head to a rhythmical chorus in which all hands joined, the menpulling with a will as they yelled out the refrain--

"Yankee John, storm along! Hooray, hooray, my hearties! Pull away, heave away, Hooray, hooray, my hearties! Going to leave Grenada!"

The clew-garnet blocks now rattled as the main-sheet was hauled aft, when, the broad sail filling, the _Josephine_ paid off before the wind;and shortly afterwards she was making her way to leeward towards SaintVincent, passing almost within a stone's throw of Fort Saint George, asshe cleared the northern point of the harbour and got out to sea. 

The jib and flying-jib were now hoisted as well as the topgallant-sailsand spanker, to get as much of the breeze as we could while it lasted, so that the vessel began to make fair progress through the water; andthe hands under the superintendence of the two mates were then set towork coiling down ropes and getting in the slack of the sheets as wellas making things ship-shape amidships, where the deck was still litteredwith a good deal of cargo that had not yet been properly stowed. 

I was all this time standing by the side of Captain Miles on the poop, alternately looking at the men jumping about the rigging like monkeysand at the fast-receding shore, which, as soon as the sun set, becamedimmer and dimmer in the distance, until it was at length finally shutout from my gaze by a wall of mist. 

"Fo'c's'le ahoy, there!" sang out Captain Miles presently, when it beganto grow dusk. 

"Aye, aye, sir!" responded the voice of Moggridge, the boatswain, fromforward. 

"Keep a good look out, my man, ahead, or we may be running down some ofthose coasting craft inward bound. "

"Aye, aye, sir, I'm on the watch myself, " sang out Moggridge; but hardlyhad he given this answer than, all at once, he cried out suddenly in alouder tone, "Hard a-port, hard a-port! There's something standingacross our bows. "

The man at the wheel immediately put the helm up, letting the head ofthe vessel fall off from the wind; but, at the same instant, there camea sudden crash ahead, followed by a loud yell. 

"Gracious heavens!" cried out Captain Miles, rushing forwards to theforecastle, where several of the hands had also hurried on hearing thecry of the boatswain--I going after the captain in my turn to see whatwas the matter, dreading some fearful disaster. 

There were several short and quick exclamations, amidst which I saw, inthe dim light, Moggridge in the act of heaving a rope overboard towardssome dark object in the water. 

"Hooray, he's got it and has clutched hold!" I then heard somebody say. "The line has fallen just over his shoulders, and he has got the bightof it. "

"Haul him in gently!" cried the captain. "Pull easy--so!"

Next I saw a couple of the seamen bending over the side, and in anothermoment they helped a dripping figure to scramble on to the deck; when, as I pressed nearer to see who the rescued person was, I heard a well-known voice exclaim, in tones of earnest thankfulness and joy:

"Bress de Lor', I'se safe!"

It was Jake, the very last person in the world, most certainly, whom Icould have expected to meet on board the _Josephine_, if I had guessed ahundred times!

CHAPTER SIX. 

THE CAPTAIN'S COW. 

"Why, Jake!" I cried out. "How have you contrived to come here?"

"Am dat you, Mass' Tom?" he answered catching sight of me behind thecaptain. "Golly, I tole you so; I'se tole you I come 'board ship widyou somehow or nudder. Who 'peak de trute now, hey? golly, yah, yah, I'se so berry glad!" and the poor faithful fellow commencing with one ofhis hearty African laughs ended in his voice breaking into a sob of joythat evidently came from the bottom of his heart. 

From hearing his words Captain Miles immediately began to "smell a rat, "as the saying goes. 

"You impudent black rascal!" he said, half in joke, pretending to beangry, and yet partly in earnest. "What the dickens do you mean byshipping yourself aboard my vessel in this fashion without leave orlicense?"

"I'se come for to go wid Mass' Tom, " answered Jake meekly. 

"But how did you get off from the shore and overhaul the ship?"continued Captain Miles, pursuing his inquiries, the hands aroundmeanwhile commencing to nudge one another and exchange grins as thecolloquy waxed warm between the two principal performers. 

"I tell you for true, massa, beliebe me, " said Jake earnestly. "Disforenoon wen I see Mass' Tom agwine I'se go down to de warf an' dere Isee um lilly boat lyin' widout nobody a-mindin' it; so I'se jump in androw out ob de harbor an' git roun' by de ole fort till I see de shipmake sail. Den I'se pull, an' pull, an' pull, like de debbel, to comeup wid you, an' I tinks I nebber reach de bessel, wen, jus' as I'se git'longside an' cotch you up, de ship gib one big lurch an' squash in deboat, wen I'se trown in water an' you fish um out; dere, massa, dat's detrute, s'help me!"

"Lucky for you you didn't go squash, too, " observed the captain grimly. "But, was there no one else with you?"

"No, massa, only me, " replied Jake. 

"Thank God for that!" said Captain Miles fervently. "I was afraid I hadrun down one of those fishing sloops from Cariacou, and that all handswere drowned but you. Whose boat was it?"

"Dunno, massa, I'se tell you, " answered Jake with great nonchalance, apparently giving but little thought to the little craft whose brokentimbers were now floating away, far astern of us. 

"Well, you're a cool hand anyway!" exclaimed Mr Marline the first matedrily, whereat Moggridge and the rest of the crew burst into a generalshout of merriment. In this even the captain himself could not helpjoining, although he still tried to preserve a grave demeanour beforeJake, as if annoyed at his coming on board. 

Jake, however, was much hurt at being laughed at; and he went on now tojustify his conduct with such native dignity that those who had beenmaking fun of him before seemed almost ashamed of their ill-judgedridicule. 

"I'se know Mass' Tom ebber since he was lilly pickaninny, an' I lubhim, " he said, speaking with a feeling and earnestness which no onewould have thought of his possessing, and uttering the words in a thickchoked voice. "I took de boat 'cause de boat was dere; but if dere wasno boat, I'd hab swam off to de ship, for I'se boun' to go were Mass'Tom go, an' if he go in ship I'se go too!"

"But, my poor fellow, " put in Captain Miles kindly to him, "your youngmaster does not want a servant to wait on him on board the _Josephine_, and we haven't room for any idlers. I shall have to put you ashore atSaint Vincent, from whence you'll be easily able to get a passage backhome again. "

"For de Lor' sake don't do dat, Massa Cap'en!" implored Jake, utterlyoverwhelmed at such an unexpected downfall of his hopes, falling on hisknees on the deck and holding up his hands in the most supplicatingmanner. "Only let dis poah nigger go wid you an' Mass' Tom an' he doany ting you want. "

"But, what can you do?" said Captain Miles, who, I could see, wasrelenting. He really had no idea of carrying out the stern intentionwhich his words implied. "We've got no horses to groom here. "

"Ah, you dunno all I can do, Massa Cap'en, " replied the darkey eagerly, rising again to his feet now, all animation. "'Fore I go wid Mass'Eastman, I'se help my fadder in fishin'-boat, an' know how to make sailan' reef an' steer. You jus' try dis chile an' see!"

"Very good, we will try you, " said Captain Miles good-humouredly. "But, mind, my darkey friend, you'll have to work for your passage!"

"All right, Massa Cap'en, me work safe 'nuff. See now, I'se handy boyaboard ship!" So saying, Jake at once scrambled up the rigging and in aminute or two was away up in the foretop, waving his arms about andshouting with laughter in great glee. 

"Yah, yah!" he cried. "I'se go higher, if um like. "

"No, that will do now, " sang out Captain Miles, "you can come down andgo and warm yourself, after your wetting, by the galley fire, whereyou'll find another darkey to keep you company. You must enter his namein the list of the crew, Mr Marline, " added the captain, turning to thefirst mate; "and see, too, about messing him in the fo'c's'le. Idaresay we'll make something out of him during the voyage. "

During this little interlude, the _Josephine_ had been making away fromGrenada with the land breeze, aided by a current setting to the westwardat the rate of a couple of knots an hour; so that, by the time it gotdark, we had sunk the island to windward, Captain Miles having causedthe royals to be hoisted, in order to take every advantage of the lightair, for we had to make the best of a north-east course on the starboardtack. 

Towards nine o'clock, however, the wind freshened, and as the navigationwas rather ticklish, we being not yet in the open sea, the lightercanvas had to be taken in, the vessel proceeding during the remainder ofthe night under double-reefed topsails, courses, topgallant-sails, andher jib and spanker--for, these could be easily handed in case of anysudden shift of wind, which frequently veers round without warning underthe lee of the land. 

I, of course, only learnt all this afterwards, picking up my nauticalknowledge by degrees from my old friend Moggridge, who took me under histuition, promising to make a sailor of me ere the voyage was over, for Iwas told to turn in by Captain Miles at nine o'clock, when the lightswere put out in the cabin. 

In the morning, when I came on deck again, we were off Saint Vincent;but, as the current and wind were both against us, although our port waswell in sight we had to beat up to make the harbour, not dropping ouranchor until late in the afternoon. 

It was a beautiful spot, for we lay as it were in a circle of mountains, the tall Souffriere with its volcano peak overtopping them all. 

Although we arrived late, Captain Miles did not lose any time inshipping his cargo of rum, going on shore immediately in his gig, whichwas still hanging to the davits astern, not having been taken on boardwith the other boats before leaving "my island, " as I always callGrenada. Soon afterwards, a couple of heavy launches manned by negroesand each stored with several big puncheons came off to us, the rum beingat once hoisted in and lowered away into the hold--the operation beingachieved in less time nearly than I can describe it, for it wasnecessary for us to be off again by nightfall to take advantage of theland breeze; or else we might be detained at Saint Vincent another day. 

Besides the puncheons of rum another piece of cargo was brought onboard. This subsequently caused quite a little commotion as well asgiving us all a good deal of entertainment. 

Our new freight was a cow. 

Captain Miles, you must know, was a bit of a gourmand, liking to havegood eating and drinking when he could get them; and, as he wasparticularly fond of coffee with plenty of milk in it, he always carrieda cow with him in his different voyages. 

During his last trip from home, however, his old milk purveyor had died;and, as such animals are rather scarce in the West Indies, he was notable to procure one either for love or money at Grenada, and was at acomplete nonplus till we got to Saint Vincent. 

Here, fortunately, or unfortunately as it happened eventually for thepoor cow, the captain heard at the last moment of a fine Alderney whicha planter was anxious to dispose of, and had brought down to the town tosend off to Barbadoes, hoping to find a market there for her. CaptainMiles, therefore, at once closed with the planter, and the last of thelaunches conveying the rum puncheons to the _Josephine_ brought off inaddition this cow. 

But, taking an animal of this sort away from the shore, and out to aship lying some distance from the land is one thing, and getting it onboard is another! This the captain found presently, when, havingcompleted all his business ashore and cleared the last of his cargo, hewas rowed out in his gig to regain the vessel. He had intended makingsail the moment he stepped on the deck again; but, instead of findingeverything stowed and the anchor tripped ready for the _Josephine_ tostart on his arrival, he saw that her cable was still out, while thebarge containing the cow was yet alongside. 

Captain Miles was awfully angry. Everybody could see this; as heordered the men in the gig to row her astern, and in a very harsh toneof voice, as he scuttled up the side-ladder and turned into the main-deck port; hook on the falls ready for hoisting her up again to thedavits. 

"Mr Marline!" he cried out to the first mate when he reached the deck, "what is the meaning of this? I expected you'd have been all ready tosail, and here is that launch alongside yet and the cargo not aboard!"

"All the rum's in, sir, " replied Mr Marline quietly, for he was a dryold stick and seldom said a word more than necessary. 

"But the cow, man, the cow!" retorted the captain. "Why is she nothoisted inboard as well?"

"We couldn't manage her, sir, " replied Mr Marline with a sly grin. "The brute butts everybody that comes near her. "

"Why didn't you sling her?" inquired Captain Miles. 

"We tried to, but couldn't, " said the mate. "She kicks so that shetumbled back twice and nearly went into the sea. "

"Oh, you're all a parcel of nincompoops!" exclaimed the captain quiteroused at this. "I'll show you how a seaman can manage it!" With that, catching hold of the side lines, he went down the ladder again likewinking and into the launch alongside. 

Here, the cow, which looked even more enraged than Captain Miles, stoodin the centre of the boat, with the negroes who had pulled out the liveload from shore, standing up in the bows and on the gunwales, so as tobe out of the reach of the infuriated animal, which every now and thenmade a rush at some black leg or other, making the owner yell out andtry to avoid the butt. 

"Pass down a whip with a spare bit of canvas, " sang out the captain, sitting down in the stern-sheets; and on receiving these articles he setto work to make a sort of broad belt to pass under the cow's stomach, inthe same way as is done with horses about to be shipped on boardtransports when cavalry regiments are embarking. 

When he had made the sling to his satisfaction, satisfying himself thatit was strong enough by attaching it to his own person and then makingthe crew haul him up, his sixteen stone weight being some criterion togo by, he ordered those at the derrick to lower him down again; andthen, with a halter all ready, which he threw over the animal's head, headvanced bravely towards the cow to arrange the belt under her body, thinking he could do it easily enough. 

Mrs Brindle, however, was too quick for him. 

Tossing off the rope bridle like a piece of straw, she lowered her head, and catching the captain in the stomach sent him head over heelsbackwards into the bottom of the boat, where one of the thwarts onlyprevented her from pursuing him further, which she would mostundoubtedly have done judging by her vicious look. 

At that moment, Jake, who had been looking over the side of the ship, seeing what had happened and anxious to be of service, slid down thewhip-tackle into the boat. Arrived here his first task was to pick upCaptain Miles, after doing which he took hold of the canvas belt thecaptain had prepared and dropped in his confusion at the unexpectedassault. 

"You let dis niggah try, Massa Cap'en, " he said. "I'se able to ride anywild hoss, and tinks I can settle de rampagious animile. "

"All right, fire away, " replied Captain Miles, rather out of breath fromhis tumble as well as from the punch the cow had given him "right in thewind. "

Jake thereupon, shoving the other darkeys away, climbed on to thegunwale of the launch. Then, advancing gingerly until he was rightopposite the cow, and seizing a good opportunity, he jumped suddenly onher back. In a moment or so, he cleverly fixed the slings round her;while one of the other negroes, emboldened by his success, threw a nooseover her head, which kept her from plunging about any longer, or at allevents, from butting at everybody as she had done previously. 

"By Jingo, you're a smart fellow!" exclaimed Captain Miles with muchgusto. "You're worth all the rest of those stupid lubbers of mineboiled down together! Haul away now, Mr Marline, " he added, lookingup; "I think we've fixed the cow this time. "

He was right; for, as soon as the hands on board manned the derrick andturned the winch handle the poor animal was raised in the air, kickingout spasmodically all the while, and wondering, no doubt, how she losthold of her footing. When she had been hoisted high enough to clear thebulwarks, the derrick was then swung inboard and the cow lowered safelyon the deck. 

The empty launch with the negroes was now cast-off, and preparationsmade for raising the anchor again and making sail. 

However, this was not the end of the cow episode by any means; for, asluck would have it, all Captain Miles' hopes of milk with his coffeeduring the voyage home to England were soon summarily dispelled, thecareer of the animal which was to have supplied the lacteal fluid havingterminated most unexpectedly. 

All hands being busy getting the ship under weigh, the animal had beenleft standing for the time where she had been set down in the waist, thesling being unloosed from her and the end of the halter, which Jake hadput over her head when she had been secured, tied to the mainmastbitts--so as to prevent her moving until the long-boat amidships, whichwas to form her quarters, should be made ready for her reception. 

Then, when the canvas of the _Josephine_ was once more spread to thebreeze and the vessel was working out from Saint Vincent, Captain Milestold the steward to serve dinner in the cabin, it being now near sunsetand long past the usual hour for that meal, which was generally on thetable at "eight bells, " or four o'clock in the afternoon. 

I went into the cabin with the captain and second mate, Mr Marlinebeing left in charge of the poop; and, presently, I could see throughthe sliding-doors leading from the main-deck into the cuddy, which wereof course left wide open, as we were still in the tropics, the stewardHarry, a freckle-faced mulatto of the colour of pale ginger, bringing ina tureen of soup from the cook's galley forward. 

As he passed by close to where the cow was tethered, whether the smellof the savoury compound aroused the animal's hunger, or because Harry, coming too near, reminded her of the recent indignities to which she hadbeen subjected, the cow all at once made a plunge at him with her head. 

Harry sheered off, spilling a portion of the soup; and he was sofrightened that he ran full speed with the remainder into the cabin. 

He was not, however, quick enough for Mrs Brindle; for the sudden diveshe made, throwing her whole might on the halter, caused the rope tosnap like a piece of pack-thread. The next instant, the cow made aplunge after the mulatto steward, giving him a lift by the stern-post ashe was entering the cuddy door which pitched him right on to the cabintable, where he fell amidst all the plates and dishes. There was aterrible smash, all the dinner things coming to grief, as well as thesoup tureen, which he still held in his hands, the boiling contentspassing over the second mate's head, and scalding his face, besidesmaking him in a pretty pickle. 

"Oh Lord, oh Lord, I'm blinded!" screamed Davis, the thick pea-souphaving gone into his eyes; while the captain had scarcely time to usehis favourite ejaculation, "By Jingo!" before the cow, which hadfollowed up her successful attack on the steward by galloping after himinto the cabin, catching the arm-chair that Captain Miles was ensconcedin sideways, started the lashings that held it to the deck, hurling theterrified occupant in a heap in the corner--the captain being utterlyignorant of the cause of the whole catastrophe, for he was sitting withhis back to the door and so had not seen the steward's somersault northe approach of the animal like I did from the beginning of the affair. 

As for me, being on the other side of the table, I escaped any harm, although I immediately bolted into the steward's pantry near me, where, shutting the half-door, I looked out from this coign of vantagesurveying the scene of havoc which the cabin presently presented, forthe cow tossed about everything she could reach bellowing like one ofthe wild bulls of Bashan all the while. 

The steward had fainted away, from fright I believe; and he laystretched on the table as if he were practising swimming in DoctorJohnson's fashion. As for Davis, the second mate, he had his face bentdown in his hands, apparently unmindful of everything but his own pain, but Captain Miles speedily sprang to his feet and was starting to attackthe cause of the uproar with one of the broken legs of his chair whenjust at that moment Mr Marline poked his nose down the open skylightfrom the poop above. 

"What's the matter?" he asked suavely. "What is all the row about?"

"Come down and see, " said Captain Miles savagely. "Talk of a bull in achina-shop; why, that would be child's play to a cow in a cabin!"

Mr Marline burst out laughing at this, and so too did Captain Mileshimself as soon as he had spoken the words, while I couldn't helpjoining in, it was all so funny. Then the first mate came down with twoor three of the hands to remove the violent animal, which had now jammeditself under Captain Miles' own cot in his private sanctum beyond thecuddy. 

But, Mrs Brindle was not so easily dislodged, one of the sailors havingto get through the stern port in order to raise the cot while the othermen pulled at her legs. 

She was evidently determined not to be moved against her will; for, onbeing lugged out again into the main cabin, she quickly shook off thegrasp of her captors, cantering out of the sliding-doors, with her tailin the air, bellowing still furiously and butting at those in her way. 

Her course was soon arrested, however. As she bounded forwards alongthe deck she came to the open hatchway leading to the hold, wheretumbling down on top of the rum puncheons, before anyone couldinterpose, she broke her neck instanter. 

"It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good, " says the old proverb, thetruth of which was exemplified in this instance. If the captain losthis milk, the crew gained a plentiful supply of fresh meat by theaccident, faring sumptuously for many days afterwards on roast beef andall sorts of delicate dishes which Cuffee concocted out of the carcassof the unfortunate animal. 

"I wouldn't have lost her for twenty pounds!" said Captain Miles on thepoop later on, when he and the first mate were talking over the strangeway in which the thing all happened. 

"Humph!" observed Mr Marline slyly in his dry way; "I think she gaveyou one or two on account before she performed the happy despatch, eh?"

"Funny dog!" exclaimed Captain Miles, giving him a dig in the ribs byway of acknowledging the allusion to the thumps poor Brindle had treatedhim to, before she came on board and after; and, there, the matterended, as far as everybody was concerned, the steward recovering fromhis fainting fit, and the eyes of Davis the second mate being none theworse as it turned out for their deluge of hot pea-soup, while thedamages in the cabin were soon repaired. Only the poor cow came togrief!

CHAPTER SEVEN. 

AMONGST THE ISLANDS. 

In spite of all Captain Miles' endeavours to effect an early start fromSaint Vincent, we were not really able to weather the island thatevening until many hours after our anchor was tripped and all plain sailmade. 

This was not due, however, either to the delay caused in hoisting theobstreperous cow on board or to the embarrassing episode that occurredafter she was shipped. It was entirely owing to the failure of ourmoving spirit the wind; for we lay becalmed until morning under the leeof the giant Souffriere, whose dark shadow prevented the land breezefrom reaching the vessel, while the next day was far advanced before wecould gain an offing so as to take advantage of the light airs that thensprang up from seaward. But, then, the _Josephine_, bellying out hercanvas, bore away on her voyage. 

The wide gulf of sea which we were traversing--named after theaboriginal Caribs who ruled over its domain lang syne, and hedged infrom the Atlantic Ocean by the semicircular group of the LesserAntilles, or "Windward Islands" of the West Indies--presents greatdifficulties to the navigators of sailing ships; as, while the windthroughout its extent blows almost constantly in one direction, a seriesof cross currents set in another, making it a hard task for evenexperienced seamen to preserve a straight course towards any particularpoint when going to windward, the result of which is that "the longestway round, " as in other matters pertaining to shore life, is frequently"the shortest way home!"

Taking up the chart casually, a novice would imagine that our directroute from our port of departure to the English Channel would beindicated by a line drawn between the two points and passing through theAzores; but, a sailor accustomed to tropical latitudes would know that, however feasible this might appear in theory, we could not possibly haveadopted such a course. It would have presupposed, in the first case, our possessing the ability to sail straight in the teeth of the north-east trade wind, and, in the second case, that we took no account of theinfluence of the equatorial current, the stream of which settingwestwards into the Caribbean Sea, would have drifted as so far toleeward that at the end of the day's run we must have been pretty nearlywhere we started from, any progress we made ahead being neutralised bythe action of the stream carrying us in a lateral direction. 

For these reasons, all navigators up to their work, when making thepassage home from the West Indies and _vice versa_, instead of fightingagainst the forces of nature as some old seamen of the past used to do, now make both winds and tides run harmoniously in their favour bymeeting them half-way, so to speak. Captain Miles, in our instance, therefore, did not wear out his crew by trying to beat to windward inorder to get to the open Atlantic immediately. On the contrary, he kepthis vessel well away to leeward, shaping a course for SaintChristopher's, so as to pass afterwards through the Anegada Channel, between the Virgin Islands, and reach the ocean in that way. In otherwords, following the example of the ready-witted Irishman who drove anobstinate pig to market by pulling him back by the tail, he deliberatelysteered to the north-west while really wanting to go to the north-east. But, circuitous as such a route looked, the captain was in the end againer by it; for, not only did he keep the wind well abeam of the shipall the way on the starboard tack, but he had the additional advantageof having the strong north-westerly current in his favour in lieu oftrying to work against it. 

During this portion of our voyage the weather was beautifully fine, thesky being of a clear transparent opal tint without a cloud and the seaof the purest ultramarine blue, with little merry dancing waveletsoccasionally flecking its changing surface into foam. 

The air, too, was balmy, and not unpleasantly warm, a fine healthybreeze blowing, which filled our good ship's sails, so that theyexpanded to the furthest limits of the bolt-ropes, speeding her on herway at the rate of some eight knots an hour, as rising and falling shesurged through the sparkling water and left a foaming wake astern thatspread out in the shape of a fan behind her track, widening until it waslost in the distance. 

When I mentioned my going to visit the _Josephine_ as she lay at anchorwhile taking in cargo at Grenville Bay, I think I said that I had neverbefore been in a vessel. This, however, was not strictly accurate, forwhen dad came out to the West Indies from England with my mother andsisters some few years previously, I, of course, accompanied them; andas we had to cross the Atlantic in order to reach Grenada, and there wasno other mode of overcoming the three thousand odd miles of ocean thatlay between us and our destination except by our adventuring the passagein the ordinary way, I was then really for the first time taken on boarda ship. But it must be remembered that I was only at that period a tinybaby about the size of my little sister Tot; and, therefore, myrecollections of the time being rather hazy, my first real experiencesof the sea and all the incidents of the voyage came upon me with allthat novelty and interest which unfamiliarity alone can produce. It is, nevertheless, only right that I should make this correction of my formermis-statement, for I wish to give a true and impartial account of allthat happened to me from first to last. I am not "spinning a yarn"merely, as sailor's say, but telling a true story of my life with allits haps and mishaps. 

Now, therefore, as the _Josephine_ dashed along, all was new and strangeto me; the limitless expanse of blue water shimmering in the summer sun, with flocks of flying-fish rising in the air occasionally to seek refugefrom their enemies of the deep, only to fall back again below thesurface after a short curving flight, to avoid the grey pelicanshovering above to attack them there; the fresh bracing breeze, whichblew in my face so exhilaratingly; the swaying motion of the vessel thatgave a lurch now and then, heeling over when the wind took her suddenlyon the quarter as she rose on the swell; the whistling of the cordageand creaking of timbers and rattling of blocks, combined with the cheeryyo-ho-hoing of the sailors as they slacked a sheet here and tightened abrace there. Really, I was so pleased, excited, and delighted with thewhole scene and its surroundings that it seemed as if I were in the shipof a dream sailing on an enchanted sea!

Presently there arose out of the deep on our starboard bow the Pitons ofSaint Lucia, two twin conical rocks like the Needles, only ever so muchbigger, being over three thousand feet in height. They were festoonedfrom base to summit with beautiful evergreen foliage; and the entranceto the harbour of the island was to be seen within and beyond theseoutlying sentinels, stretching up inland towards a mass of purplemountains from a beach of yellow sand. 

Next, we passed to the leeward of Martinique; and, then, towards sunsetof the same day, as we approached Saint Kitts, islet after islet jumpedup out of the sea in front of us, to the right hand and to the left. They were all misty at first, but changed their colours from slaty greyto green as we approached them nearer, although their shape was allpretty much the same--tall sugar-loaf peaks surrounded by verduresloping down in graceful curves to the water's edge, the surf breakingagainst the shore of those to leeward in clouds of spray, while thewaves washed the rocky feet of those on the windward side without aripple. 

When the sun disappeared below the western horizon, Montserrat, Redonda, Nevis, Saint Christopher, and Saint Eustatius were all in sight aroundus; and, just at ten o'clock at night, when the moon was at the full, lighting up the scene with its silvery beams as brightly almost as if itwere day, we passed between Saint Eustatius and the island of Saba. Weapproached the latter within two miles, but when its north point borewest we steered for Dog Island, clearing the reefs somewhere about themiddle watch. 

Soon after sunrise next morning we weathered Sombrero, the last of theAntilles, and thus got fairly out into the Atlantic, leaving the WestIndies behind us as we hauled our wind and bore away for the Azores--although a long stretch of ocean had to be crossed ere we might hope toreach this half-way port on our voyage. 

But I have not yet described our ship and those on board. 

The _Josephine_ was an old-fashioned barque of about five hundred tonsburden, built with a high poop and a topgallant forecastle, "orfo'c's'le, " as seamen call it. 

She was a roomy vessel, possessing great breadth of beam, which made hera staunch sea-boat in rough weather, for she could tumble about as muchas she pleased without causing much damage to her timbers or risk of herstability; and this roominess, besides, allowed good accommodation aftfor a large number of passengers, although in this instance I was thesingle solitary "landsman" aboard--that is, if a young shaver ofthirteen can be dignified with such a high-sounding title!

Her officers and crew consisted of eighteen hands all told; and amongstthe former Captain Miles, her master, a sturdy old sea-dog of forty-fiveor thereabouts, is entitled to be the first described. He had a broadhonest face, with a pair of bushy, reddish-brown mutton-chop whiskers, for, unlike the sailors of to-day, the captain was always clean shavenas to his chin and upper lip, esteeming a moustache an abomination, "which only one of those French Johnny Crapaud lubbers ever think ofwearing. "

The next officer in rank after Captain Miles was Mr Marline, the firstmate, a thin wiry north countryman, with a lot of latent fun and dryhumour in him; and then came Davis, the second mate, a thick-set bull-necked dark-haired Welshman, not more than twenty-four or five years ofage. He had been promoted from the foremast on account of hispredecessor having died on the passage out. Davis was a very goodseaman and up to his work; otherwise, his education being sadlydeficient, as even I, a boy, could perceive, and his temper anddisposition being none of the best, he was certainly not very wellfitted to command those with whom he had formerly associated as anequal. 

My old friend Moggridge, the boatswain, and Adze, the carpenter, completed the list of those in authority; and, besides these, must beenumerated Cuffee, the king of the cook's galley; Jake, who had been puton the muster-roll as an ordinary hand; Harry, the captain's tawnymulatto steward; and ten able seamen--the finest and strongest of allthese being Jackson, a smart young Cornishman hailing from Plymouth, whostood some six feet two in his stockings and gloried in such a broadpair of shoulders that he was worth any three of the other hands puttogether. 

To complete the description of our ship, the lower portion of our cargo, stowed in the ground tier of the hold above the dunnage, was sugar andcoffee, with some odd bags of cocoa from my father's plantation to makeweight; but our chief freight, fortunately for us, as you will learnlater on, was rum. The puncheons containing this were packed as tightlyas possible fore and aft the ship above the heavy produce, reaching upamidships to the level of the main hatch, all the spaces between beingso compactly filled in with the lighter samples of cargo that not even acockroach could have squeezed itself in sideways. 

In the waist of the vessel on the upper deck, ranged along the inside ofthe bulwarks on either hand, from the entrance to the cabin under thebreak of the poop to right away forwards just abaft the foremast, was arow of water-casks. A couple of these had their tops sawn offlengthwise and contained several live turtle which Captain Miles washopeful of carrying home safely in time for the next ensuing banquet atthe Mansion House on lord mayor's day, an enterprising ship's chandlerin the Minories having given him an order to that effect before he leftEngland on his voyage out to the West Indies. In a similar way, againstthe sides of the poop were fixed what looked at first sight to bebenches for sitting down upon, but which on closer inspection Idiscovered to be hen-coops, --their occupants projecting their long necksand heads therefrom, in much perplexity evidently at their strange fatein being thus brought to sea; for, as was the case with myself, this wastheir first experience of what life on board ship was like, and theexigencies of the cabin table would most probably cause it to be theirlast!

It was not until the fourth day after we had set sail from Grenada thatI was able to note all these particulars. Up to that time I had beentoo much interested with the moving panorama around me to notice thingsinboard; and, besides, the motion of the _Josephine_, when she gotlively in the seaway amongst the islands, produced an uneasy feelingwhich led me ere long to retire below and bewail my old home and thosefrom whom I had been so ruthlessly severed with greater grief than I hadfelt before. I suffered from that fearful nausea which Father Neptuneimposes as a penance on the majority of his votaries, and it waswonderful how very melancholy the sensation made me. 

However, I struggled gallantly against the fell foe, and, one morning, Icrawled out of my bunk early, just as the men began to wash down thedecks, the first work of the day aboard ship. This was shortly after wehad cleared the island of Sombrero, and when the _Josephine_ was workingher way out to sea. 

At first I stopped in the waist, near the entrance to the cabin, butDavis, the second mate, who stood with his trousers tucked up showinghis bare feet and legs, superintending the hands sluicing the waterabout from the hose attached to the head pump out on the forecastle, told me politely to sheer off, as they wanted no idlers in the way; so, I ascended the poop-ladder, and was commiserating the poor fowls in thehen-coops along the rails, when Captain Miles, who was standing close tothe helmsman at the wheel, addressed me. 

"Hallo, Master Tom, " said he, "got your sea-legs again?"

"Yes, captain, " I replied, "I'm all right now, thank you. "

"Beginning to feel peckish, eh?"

"Not very, " said I, for I was qualmish still, although the fresh air hadconsiderably revived me even in the short time since I had come out ofthe close cabin. 

"Ah, but you must eat, though, my boy, " observed Captain Miles kindly, giving me a kindly pat on the back. "An empty stomach is the worstthing in the world to voyage on. Why, you haven't hardly eaten a bitesince the other evening when that poor cow knocked our dinner all intothe middle of next week! Never mind, though, breakfast will be ready ateight bells, and we'll see whether we can't get some lining upon yourribs, my little skillygalee. "

"I have already asked Jake to get me a cup of coffee, sir, " I said inreply to this; but, before the captain could answer me again, we bothhad our attention drawn to the deck below. There seemed to be some sortof commotion going on in the cook's galley away forward, for all the menhad their faces turned in that direction, and they were laughing as ifat some good joke. 

"Waist ahoy, there!" shouted out Captain Miles, going to the edge of thebreak of the poop and looking down. "What's the row forward?"

"Hanged if I know, sir, " answered Davis somewhat surlily, adding moregruffly still to the hands around him, "Here, you lazy lubbers, layalong to your work, or I'll give you something else to grin about!"

"You need not haze the men like that for nothing, " said the captainsharply, muttering something under his breath about "setting a beggar onhorseback, and he'll ride to the--"

However, his further words were cut short by a loud shout of laughterfrom the men all together, as if with one accord; and then the commotionin the cook's galley increased, for I could now distinguish the sound ofsome violent altercation, voices being raised in anger, mingled with thenoise of shuffling feet and the crash of crockery-ware. 

"By Jingo, they're going it!" exclaimed Moggridge, who stood in thewaist immediately below us. "They'll be like the Kilkenny cats, andleave only their tails behind!"

"What's the matter?" again asked Captain Miles. "Anybody fighting, eh?"

"Yes, sir, " said the boatswain, "the two niggers. They've been at it inthe caboose ever since we began to wash down decks. "

"Then it's high time to stop them, " cried the captain darting towardsthe poop-ladder with the intention of ending the fray, whatever it was. 

But, before he could descend two steps, the half-door of the galleyburst open outwards with a crash, when two dark figures, locked in atight embrace and pommelling one another with immense fury, came rollingout upon the deck. They then scrambled and tumbled into the leescuppers, where they continued to struggle still, unmindful of the footdeep or more of water, into which they were suddenly plunged, that wasswishing to and fro with the motion of the ship. 

"You take dat now, " I heard Jake's voice say excitedly. "I mash um facewell. "

"An' you take dat, you hangman tief, " cried the other with equalearnestness. "Golly, I gib you gosh!"

Then came the thud of blows, easily distinguishable above the splashingof the refuse water that had accumulated to leeward from the sluicing ofthe decks, with the convulsive movements of two pairs of arms and legsmingled together in a confused mass--one woolly head being occasionallyuplifted above the other and immediately as quickly dragged down again. The crew all the while screamed with laughter, enjoying the combat withthe utmost relish, and without attempting to interfere in any waybetween the angry antagonists. 

"Stop the rascals, stop them!" sang out Captain Miles, jumping down intothe waist and hurrying to the scene of action. "They'll either kill ordrown each other!"

CHAPTER EIGHT. 

POOR JACKSON. 

As soon as the seamen heard the captain's words, uttered as they were ina tone which they well knew from experience was meant to be obeyed, several of them at once rushed to where the two darkeys were stillstruggling in the lee scuppers; when Jackson, the tall young sailor whomI had already noticed for his smartness, stepping forward in advance ofthe others and stooping down at the same time, lifted up the combatantson to their feet, holding one in each hand as easily as if the two bignegroes had been only little dolls. 

"Be quiet, I tell 'ee, " he cried, giving Cuffee, the cook, who was themost obstreperous, a shake as he clutched him by the back of his woollyhead in the same way as a terrier holds a rat; "be quiet, I tell 'ee, orI'll pitch you overboard!"

So saying, and emphasising the threat by raising Cuffee at arm's length, to the level of the bulwarks, he dragged the irate pair along to whereCaptain Miles was standing by the mainmast bitts, there setting themdown before him for judgment. 

"Now, you quarrelsome black rascals!" exclaimed the captain confrontingthem, "what the dickens do you mean by kicking up all this bobbery? Idon't allow any fighting aboard my ship. "

"It ain't me, Mass' Cap'en, " said Jake eagerly, "it's dat nasty niggahdere dat make all de muss 'bout nuffin' at all!"

"Dat one big lie, " retorted the other scornfully. "He come 'teal decoffee out ob de coppers, an' w'en I 'peak to him like gen'leman he hitum in the eyeball, him. "

"Belieb me, Mass' Cap'en, I'se no tief, " said Jake indignantly, drawinghimself up and looking very much as if he were going to pitch intoCuffee again. "I'se only go in de galley to get um coffee for Mass'Tom, an' I'se ax dat poor trash dere to gib um cup in de most perlitefulway as um please; an' I no sooner done dis dan he catch um crack wid onebig ladle on de shin--golly, um hurt now! Den, ob course, I hit um backin brace ob shakes, an' we go down in rough an' tumble togedder. "

"My, what big 'tory!" exclaimed the cook in apparent amazement at Jake'smendacity. "Me go forrud to clean de fis' for breakfus, an' w'en umcome back in galley, dere I see dat hangman tief takin' de coffee, an'den--"

"Then you had a scuffle together, I suppose, " interposed Captain Miles, interrupting Cuffee's further harangue at this point. "Well, well, asfar as I can see you were both in the wrong. Jake, you had no businessto enter the cook's galley without his leave, or touch anything there, for remember he's as much captain of the caboose as I am on the poop. "

"Golly, Mass' Cap'en, me no go dere afore widout Cuffee ax me, " put inJake as Captain Miles made a pause in his lecture. 

"Well, don't you do it again, " continued the captain. "And as for you, Cuffee, I'd advise you not to be so handy with your soup-ladle again instriking your brother darkey, before ascertaining what he wants when hecomes to your galley, and who sent him. There, my fighting cocks, you'dbetter shake hands now and make friends, as the row's all over!"

This the two at once did, with much grinning and showing of their ivoryteeth; and they then went away forwards again together on the mostamicable terms, albeit arguing good-humouredly as to which of them hadgot the best of the fray. Jake believed that he had come off withflying colours, while Cuffee persisted that he was the conqueror, theupshot of the matter being that Jackson, to whom they referred theknotty question, decided that it was "six for one and half a dozen forthe other. " With this Solomon-like settlement of the difficulty bothwere quite satisfied and were sworn chums ever after. I, indeed, wasthe only loser by the little difference between the two, having to gowithout my coffee until the proper breakfast hour, "eight bells, " when, possibly, I enjoyed my meal all the more from not getting anythingbefore. 

Towards mid-day, we had sunk the land entirely to the westwards, theship being then on the wide-spreading ocean, with not a thing in sightbut water--"water everywhere!"

In front, in rear, to right, to left, all around was one expanse ofblue, like a rolling valley, as far as the eye could reach, while thesky above was cloudless and the wind blowing steadily, a little to thesouthward of east, right on our starboard beam as we steered north-eastwards. 

We were not altogether alone, however, for the ubiquitous flying-fishwere springing up every now and then from the azure deep, taking shortflights from one wave crest to another, or else entangling themselves inthe rigging of the ship, and then falling a gasping prey on the deck forCuffee bye and bye to operate upon in his galley, whence they wouldemerge again fried into a savoury dish for the cabin table at dinner-time. 

Bonitoes and albacore also played round our bows, and the many-hueddolphin could be seen disporting himself astern in our wake; while, atone time, a large grampus swam for some considerable period abreast ofthe vessel, as if showing how easily he could keep pace with us andoutstrip us too when he pleased, for, later on in the afternoon, hedarted away and was soon lost to sight. I had now got over all theeffects of sea-sickness, a hearty breakfast having restored myequilibrium, thus enabling me to enjoy all that was going on around. The captain especially claimed my attention when he "took the sun" atnoon, an operation which I watched with the most absorbed interest; andI found out afterwards the use of the sextant, and the way in which thedifference between the ship's mean time and that of the chronometerbelow in the cabin--which showed what the hour was at Greenwich--enabledCaptain Miles to tell almost to a mile on the chart what was ourposition with regard to our longitude, our latitude being "worked out"in a different fashion. 

Then, there was the heaving of the log at stated intervals to ascertainthe speed of the ship through the water, and the constant trimming ofthe sails; for more canvas was piled on as the breeze fell light duringthe afternoon, as we wanted everything spread that could draw in orderto catch the slightest breath of wind there was. 

Oh, yes, there was plenty to see for a novice like me! The _Josephine_was fresh out of port, and there were lots of things that had to be doneto make her ship-shape for the long voyage before her; and, besides, hadthere been nothing else for the hands to do beyond taking their trick atthe wheel and attending to the braces--the ordinary routine of theirduty with a fair wind such as we had--the captain and first mate wouldhave felt bound to find them something to keep their minds frommischief. Sailors are never allowed a minute to be idle on a vessel atsea save on Sundays, and then they find work for themselves, as a rule, in the way of mending their clothes and putting their chests in order. 

I noticed this device on Captain Miles's part to provide employment forthe men when he came on deck after luncheon; when, seeing some of theseamen lounging about in the waist, he immediately set them to pump outthe bilge. This, however, did not occupy them very long, the ship beingpretty dry; for, after a thick dirty stream of ill-smelling water, mixedwith a portion of molasses, leakage from the casks of sugar below, hadpoured into the scuppers for a few minutes, the pumps sucked, thusshowing that the hold was clear down to the well bottom. 

A second washing-down decks followed, to efface the traces of the nastybilge-water; and then, Captain Miles looked about for another task tokeep the hands busy. 

"How is she going?" he asked Mr Marline, who had just seen to theheaving of the log, the man assisting him having not quite yet reeled inthe line. 

"Six knots, sir, " answered the chief mate. 

"By Jingo! that'll never do with this breeze, " said the captain. "Wemust get the starboard stunsails on her. "

"All right, sir, " responded Mr Marline; and thereupon a couple of menwent aloft to reeve the studding-sail halliards through the jewel blocksat the end of the yard-arms, while others stood below preparing thetackle and getting the booms ready, with tacks rove for hoisting, sailafter sail being speedily packed on in addition to the canvas we werealready carrying. 

The log was then hove again, and a couple more knots of way somewhatpleased the captain; but, a moment afterwards, seeing that the handswere out of work once more, he thought of a fresh task for them. 

"Mr Marline, " he sang out presently, as he paced up and down the poop, eyeing the spars aloft and then casting his eyes forward. 

"Aye, aye, sir, " was the prompt answer from the chief mate, who wasstanding by the taffrail behind the man at the wheel, looking aloft tosee how the sails drew and then glancing round the ship occasionally, ina similar sailor-like way to the captain. 

"What say you to getting the anchors aboard and unshackling the cables, eh? I don't think we shall want to use them again now before we getinto soundings, and she seems a little down by the head. "

"All right, sir, " said the mate. "I'll go forwards and see to the jobat once. Here, you idlers, " he added as he descended the poop-ladder, "spring up there on the fo'c's'le and see about getting the anchorsinboard!"

This operation, I may explain, is generally undertaken soon after a shipleaves harbour and clears the channel when outwards bound across seas;for, not only do the anchors interfere with the vessel's sailing trimfrom their dead weight hanging over the bows, even when properly cattedand fished, but they are a great deal in the way. In addition to this, the ship is liable to take in water through the hawse-holes, which canbe plugged up, of course, when the cable chains are unshackled, althoughnot before. As we had been, however, up to this time navigating thenarrow passages between the clustering islands of the Caribbean Sea andthe dangerous reefs in their vicinity, where we might have had occasionpossibly to anchor at any moment should the wind fail us and the crosscurrents near the land peril the safety of the ship, the anchors hadbeen left still ready for instant service; but, now that we were in theopen sea, we would have no necessity for having recourse to their aiduntil we fetched our home port, so they might just as well be stowedaway till then. 

"May I go, too, and see what they are doing, Captain Miles?" I asked asMr Marline and the crew scampered forwards. 

"Yes, my boy, " he said kindly. "Only, mind you don't get into anydanger! I promised your father, you know, to look after you. "

"Oh, I'll take care, " I replied with a joyous laugh at getting thepermission; and, away I followed the others to the forecastle, where Ihad been longing to go ever since the early morning, when, it may beremembered, Davis ordered me back to the poop on my attempting to passforwards as I first came out of the cabin. 

If it was jolly watching the progress of the ship from aft, it was everso much more delightful from my new coign of vantage; for, as she divedher head and parted the waves with her bows, the water dashed up oneither side in a column of spray like a fountain. The sunlight fallingon this refracted the most beautiful prismatic colours, a perfectrainbow being formed to leeward which was ever being broken up and thenarching itself anew into a sort of emerald and orange halo in front ofthe vessel's prow. 

From where I stood on the knight heads, in the centre of the forecastle, just under the shadow of the bellying sails, the sea appeared muchnearer to me, swelling up to the lee-rail as the _Josephine_ tore alongthrough it in ploughing her course onward; and yet, the outlook conveyeda better idea of its vastness than when I was on the poop aft and moreelevated above the surface level, for the immense plain of water, inconstant surging motion--now flat as a meadow, now ridged with curlingwaves as far as the eye could reach, and then again scooped out into awide hollow valley covered over with yeasty foam, looking as if a giantcustard had been poured over it--extended to where the curving horizonmet the sky-line in the distance, our ship, in comparison with thelimitless expanse, being only as it were a tiny cork, floating on theocean of blue and blown along as lightly before the wind!

The fore-staysail, which had only recently been hoisted when thestudding-sails were set, being now found to be in the way of getting inthe anchors, as it prevented the hands from working freely, Mr Marlineordered the downhaul to be manned as soon as the halliards were cast-off. The sail was then loosely stowed for a while, and a double-purchase block and tackle rigged up in its place on the stay. 

Mr Marline then sang out to Moggridge to cast-off the shank paintersecuring the best bower to the starboard side of the ship, this beingthe easiest anchor of the two to handle, for it was to windward, clearof the sheets of the head-sails; whereupon, the lifting gear beingattached, the ponderous mass of metal was soon hoisted up above the cat-head and swayed inboard by means of a guy-line fastened to one of theflukes. 

The command was then given to lower away, when, the anchor beingdeposited on the deck of the forecastle, it was made snug close to theforemast bitts, so that it could not shift its new moorings as thevessel rolled. 

The chain-cable was next unshackled from the ring in the anchor-stockand rattled down into the locker in the fore-peak; after which, thestarboard hawse-hole was plugged up to prevent any water from findingits way below through the orifice. Thus, in a very little time, halfthe task the captain had set the men to do was accomplished, the seamenworking with a will and singing cheerily as they laid on to the falls ofthe tackle, "yo-ho-heaving" all together, and pulling with might andmain. 

The other anchor, however, being to leeward, was a little more difficultto manage, for it was submerged every now and then as the ship cantedover, pitching her bows into the sea and splashing the spray up over theyard-arm; but, sailors are not soon daunted when they have a job onhand, and soon the shank painter of this was also cast-off and thepurchase tackle made fast. 

"Hoist away, men!" cried Mr Marline. 

"Run away with the falls, you lubbers, " echoed Moggridge, who was asbusy about the matter as the first mate and doing two men's workhimself; but, although the usual chorus was raised, and the sailorstugged away with all their strength, the anchor would not budge from itsresting-place on the cat-head. 

"The tackle has fouled the jib-sheet, " said Jackson, who had beenpulling like a horse at the rope's end, and now looked over the side tosee what prevented them from lifting the port bower. "Shall I get overand clear it, sir?"

"Aye, do, " replied the mate; when Jackson got over the bows in a jiffey, holding on with one hand while he used the other to disentangle thepurchase tackle, and not minding a bit the water, which rose up as highas his neck when the ship dipped. 

"Haul away, it's all clear now!" he called out presently; and he wasjust stepping inboard again when, the _Josephine_ suddenly luffing up tothe wind, the jib flapped, and, the sheet knocking the poor fellow offhis balance, he tumbled backwards into the sea, without having time evento utter a cry. 

"Man overboard!" shouted Mr Marline at the top of his voice. 

For a moment, the wildest confusion seemed to reign throughout thevessel, the hands scurrying to the side; and looking over into the seabelow, where we could see Jackson's head bob up for an instant; but aswe gazed down he was drifted rapidly astern and quickly lost to sight inthe trough of the waves. 

The hubbub, however, only lasted an instant; for almost as soon as themate's shout had been heard aft, Captain Miles's voice rang through thevessel in brief words of command, sharp and to the point. 

"Stand by, men, " he cried. "Hands 'bout ship!"

The crew at once jumped toward the braces, singing out "Ready, aye, ready, " as they cast them off, some going to the lee-sheets to haul inthere. 

"Helm's a-lee!" then came from aft, followed by the orders "Tacks andsheets!" and "Mainsail haul!" when, the _Josephine's_ bows paying offunder the influence of the tacked head-sails, the yards were swung roundin a trice; and, within less than five minutes the vessel was retracingthe same track she had just gone over in quest of the missing man. 

A man was sent up in the foretop, while Captain Miles himself ran up theratlines of the mizzen shrouds to look out; and, at the same time, preparations were made for lowering the gig, which fortunately was stillslung from the davits astern, not having been yet housed inboard withthe other boats amidships--that being the next job the captain intendedseeing to after the anchors were got in. 

I, of course, was as much excited as anyone, and remained on theforecastle, looking out eagerly for any sign of Jackson, although Icould not see him anywhere. I believe I was so confused with the shiphaving gone round on the opposite tack, in order to go back on hercourse, that I hardly knew in which direction to look for theunfortunate man, for what had before been ahead of the ship was nownecessarily astern from her reversing her position. 

In another minute, however, the look out in the foretop discernedJackson, and he hailed the deck at once. 

"There he is! there he is!" he sang out. 

"Where?" cried Captain Miles impatiently. 

"About four cables' length off the weather bow. I can see his headquite clear above the wash of the sea; and he seems swimming towardsus. "

"All right then, keep your eye on him, so as to pilot us! Mr Marline, "continued Captain Miles, "lower the boat at once with four hands; wecan't go close enough without it to the poor fellow, for we are toleeward of him. "

"Aye, aye, sir, " replied the chief mate, who had gone aft and was seeingto the falls of the boat; which presently, with himself in the stern-sheets and four hands to pull the oars, was lowered down all standing, the helmsman "luffing up" at the proper moment, so that the way of theship might be arrested to prevent the gig being upset before getting onan even keel in the sea, it being a rather ticklish thing to launch aboat from a vessel under sail. 

Luckily, however, the manoeuvre was safely accomplished without anymishap, the fall tackles being unhitched the instant the gig touched thewater; and then, the boat's crew shipping their oars without delay, shewas pulled off to windward of us in the direction indicated by the lookout man in the foretop, who with his hand extended pointed the course tobe steered. 

The _Josephine_ meanwhile gathered way again slowly and followed asternof the boat, although somewhat more to leeward, the wind being almost inher teeth and the ship having to sail close-hauled. 

After a little time--for we had run nearly half a mile before goingabout and some minutes were consumed in getting the ship round on theopposite tack--we approached the spot where the accident had occurred;then, all of us could see Jackson plainly from the deck. 

He was swimming grandly; now rising up on the top of a rolling wave, andthen, as he surmounted this, sinking for a moment from sight in thehollow of the next, but making steady progress towards the ship all thewhile. Every now and again, too, he lifted one of his hands out of thewater on commencing his stroke, as if to tell us he was all right and ingood heart, noticing that we were coming to his rescue. The boat, thewhile rowed ahead of us as fast as the men in her could pull, puttingtheir backs into the oars with all their strength, although making forthe gallant swimmer in a slanting course to that of the _Josephine_. 

Nearer and nearer we sailed, but much more slowly than all hands onboard could wish, for the breeze was very light; nearer and nearer thegig approached Jackson, until we could see the very expression of hisface. 

He was actually grinning, and appeared from the movement of his mouthonce when on top of a roller, to shout out some chaffing exclamation tous, seeming to regard the whole thing as a huge joke; and, Captain Mileswas just about issuing some order about backing the main-topsail inorder to heave the ship to, so as to get him and the boat aboard again, when, all at once, our anticipated joy at welcoming the poor fellow wasturned into dismay by a startled cry from Jake, who was standing up inthe weather rigging near me. 

"Golly, Mass' Tom!" he yelled out, loud enough for all to hear him, hisblack face changing nearly to a sickly sea-green colour with horror andconsternation. "Dere's one big shark swimmin' right ahind de poorbuckra. O Lor', O Lor', he jus' up to him now!"

At this time the ship was not quite a cable's length from theunfortunate man, who was about a point off our port bow; while the gigcouldn't have been half that distance away from him; and, no sooner hadJake's startling announcement of the shark's proximity alarmed us all atthe new and terrible peril threatening the swimmer, than the crew, ledby Captain Miles, shouted out a concentrated cry of warning. "Ahoy!Look out! Shark!"

The words came out almost simultaneously, as it uttered by one voice, thrilling through the air with their fearful meaning, when, hardly hadthe sounds died away than we could see that Mr Marline and those in thegig with him heard us; for, recognising the urgency of the case, theyredoubled their exertions to reach Jackson in time, so as to frustratethe intentions of his terrible antagonist. They seemed to put freshsteam in their oars, pulling all they knew against the choppy sea andwind, both of which were against them, counteracting their efforts andpressing the boat back as they urged it forwards. 

From the fact, however, of our being to leeward of him and the windbearing our shout away, Jackson unfortunately did not appear to hear us. At all events, he made no sign in response whatever, still swimmingonwards in the direction of the ship, but leisurely, as if ignorant ofany new source of danger. 

Captain Miles grew intensely excited, as, indeed, we all were by thistime; so, jumping up on the poop bulwarks and holding on to the mizzenshrouds, he repeated the cry of warning, all hands taking it up asbefore in one hoarse shout. 

"Shark! shark! Look out, man alive! He's now close in upon you, andcoming up fast astern!"

This time Jackson caught our hail, but still, evidently mistook itsimport. He thought we only called to him by way of encouraging him tostrike out more vigourously for the ship, and he waved his hand inacknowledgment of the signal; then he breasted the waves anew in finestyle, although taking it quite easy as if thoroughly confident inhimself and not a bit alarmed. 

The reason he made for the _Josephine_ was that he did not perceive theboat, which he had not seen lowered; and, besides this, it was every nowand then hidden from view as it sank down between the ridges of therollers, while, in addition, his face was turned in the oppositedirection to that in which the little craft was approaching him. 

The captain was in a perfect agony. 

"Shark! shark!" he again screamed, more than cried, out. "For heaven'ssake, strike out, man, or you're lost!"

Then, all at once, Jackson appeared to grasp the meaning of the warning;and, looking behind him hurriedly, he caught sight of the cruel monsterthat was swimming after him, stroke by stroke and ready to sheer upalongside when it thought the proper opportunity had arrived for seizingits prey. 

It must have given the poor fellow an awful sensation!

He could not but have realised the fearful doom that possibly awaitedhim; for we could, in a moment, even at that distance, notice his facechange--a terror-stricken look coming over it in place of its previouslybuoyant expression. The brave fellow, however, uttered never a word, but only continued swimming on towards us in grim desperation. 

"Pull, Marline, for God's sake, pull!" shouted out Captain Miles to themate and those with him in the boat; but, although the men made thewater churn up over the bows of the gig in their mad haste to urge itforwards, the relentless shark was quicker in its movements and crept upcloser to poor Jackson. 

It was close in his rear, while the boat was yet thirty or forty yardsaway; and then, like a flash of lightning, we saw the monster's gleamingwhite stomach as it threw itself over on its back and opened its widemaw lined with rows of serrated teeth. 

"My God!" exclaimed Captain Miles, turning away his head, "they are toolate!"

A sympathetic groan of anguish ran through the ship, and I could nothelp bursting into tears as I jumped down from the gangway, not daringto watch the end of the tragedy; but I thought I heard one agonisedscream from the poor fellow, which must have escaped his lips just asthe cruel teeth of the shark gripped its unresisting victim, tellingthat all was over. 

After this, for one single moment, there was a still silence as of deatharound me, the men appearing to hold their very breaths in excess ofemotion. 

CHAPTER NINE. 

A WATER-SPOUT. 

Then, the next instant, a wild frenzied roar of joy echoed fore and aftthe ship, making the _Josephine_ quiver almost down to her bottomtimbers. 

"Hooray!"

I could scarcely believe my ears; but, as I looked up in surprise andwonder I caught sight of Jake's ebony face all aglow with delight, hiseyes rolling about like a vessel in a heavy seaway and his mouthexpanded from ear to ear. He was evidently about to indulge in one ofhis usual huge guffaws when especially highly pleased and unable tocontain himself, as he evidently was now. 

"Golly, dat splendiferous!" he cried out in ecstasy. "Um beat cock-fightin' nohow!"

"Bravo, well done!" I heard Captain Miles's voice exclaim also at thesame time, with a joyous heartiness utterly indescribable. 

"Why, what has happened, Jake?" I asked, quite puzzled. 

"Wat happen', eh, Mass' Tom? I tell um sharp! De sailor man lick deshark arter all! Him dibe under de fis; as um go to grab him; an' den, dey catch de nasty debbil one big crack wid um boat-hook, an' pull Mass'Jackson into der boat. Golly, I'se so berry glad, Mass' Tom! I'sea'most cry wid joy, for true. "

And then, not content with this expression of his feelings, thesympathetic darkey, sliding down from the rigging where he had beenperched, looking on at the terribly exciting scene taking place a momentbefore in the water, tumbled himself over on the deck in paroxysms ofmerriment, perfectly unable to restrain himself and keep still. 

When I now looked over the side of the ship, which by this time washove-to, the gig, with Jackson seated in the stern-sheets by MrMarline, was close under the port quarter, and the rescued swimmer withthose who had saved him in the nick of time were just preparing to comeon board. 

Presently, Jackson and the mate mounted the side-ladder amidst a perfectovation from the crew, all hands cheering like mad and pressing forwardsto shake the fist of him whom they had never expected to see again. After this the gig was veered astern and hoisted up once more to thedavits, and the _Josephine_, bearing round and filling her sails, againresumed her north-east course on the starboard tack. The job of makingthe port anchor snug inboard was completed later on, when the men hadsobered down somewhat from the excitement which had reigned through theship from the moment Jackson had first fallen overboard--it having beenan awfully anxious time throughout his peril by drowning, hishairbreadth escape from the shark, and his ultimate rescue. 

Later on, Moggridge told me how the poor fellow escaped from the veryjaws of death. 

Jackson, he said, when he became aware of being pursued by thebloodthirsty monster, instead of losing his presence of mind, as mostmen would have done under the circumstances, remained perfectly calm andcollected, having once before had an encounter with a shark in hisnative element. 

He swam on steadily towards the ship, apparently unmindful of his enemy;but, he carefully kept his weather eye opened, and when he saw the brutegoing to turn on his back in order to make a snatch at him, he at oncedived under the shark's body, thus circumventing his attack. Before themonster could recover itself and make a fresh onslaught, Moggridge said, the chief mate caught it a pretty tidy whack over the head with a boat-hook, while Jackson was hauled into the gig at the same time by theother men. 

It was a wonderful escape, however, and nothing else was talked of onboard for days after. 

Strange to say, too, the shark, as if determined not to be easily balkedof its prey, followed the ship steadily; and this fact, of course, keptthe incident fresh in our minds, even if we had been at all inclined toforget it, the hideous creature's bottle-like fin ever perceptible inour wake being a constant reminder!

"He's bound to hab somebody for suah, " said the captain's mulattosteward Harry, who by the way was the person who had given out thatagonised shriek which I had fancied to be poor Jackson's death knell. "Shark nebber follow ship for nuffin'!"

"No, " observed Captain Miles grimly; "this beggar sha'n't at all events, if I know it!" and he paced up and down the poop, as if revolving thematter in his mind. 

This was the third day after the affair had happened, and the captainwas quite incensed at the shark's pertinacity; for, morning, noon, andnight, whenever we logged over the side, there could be seen the sea-pirate's long sinewy body, floating under our stern and always keepingpace with the ship whether she was going fast or slow--although, as wehad little or no wind, the latter was generally the case. 

"I fancy, Mr Marline, " said the captain, soon after replying to Harry'srather frightened observation, the mulatto being very timid and of acowardly nature, as the fact of his fainting when the cow invaded thecabin would readily tell--"I say, Mr Marline, I think it's time for usto give that joker down there a lesson, eh?"

"Perhaps you'll find him too artful to take a hook, cap'en, " answeredthe mate. "He seems to me an `old sojer, ' from the look of him and theregularity of his movements. Just see him now looking up, as iflistening to what we were saying!"

"Well, we'll try him anyway, " said Captain Miles, telling Moggridge tobring the shark hook aft, as he wished to attempt the capture of ourunwelcome attendant. 

"Aye, aye, sir, " replied the boatswain, going forwards and presentlyreturning with a large steel hook, much about the same size as thosethey use in butchers' shops for hanging meat on. A piece of chain wasattached to this by a swivel instead of rope or a line, which, althoughgood enough for other fish, the saw-like teeth of the monster of thedeep would quickly have bitten through. 

"Is the tackle all sound?" asked the captain. 

"Aye, aye, sir; sound enough to catch a whale, " responded Moggridge, proceeding to bait the hook with a four-pound piece of salt pork whichcompletely concealed the barbs; and then, a stout half-inch rope havingbeen fastened on to the end of the chain, the whole apparatus was thrownoverboard close to where the shark was patrolling the water under ourstern. 

He sheered off a bit on hearing the splash; but afterwards soon swam upto where the baited hook was towing in our wake, smelling at itcautiously as if to see whether it was advisable for him to bolt thesavoury morsel or not. Then, with a disdainful swish of his screw-liketail, he turned round in the water and resumed his station furtherastern, as if he saw through our attempt to entrap him, and despised it. 

"I thought so, " said Mr Marline. "He's too old a bird to be caught bychaff. You won't hook him in a blue moon!"

"Don't you be too cocksure of that, " retorted Captain Miles. "Sharks, Ihave noticed, frequently resemble cats in the way they will nibble at abait, and pretend they don't care about it, when all the while they aredying to gobble it down--just in the same manner as you'll observepussy, if you offer her a nice bit of meat, will sniff and turn away herhead as if rejecting the morsel with disdain, affecting to make youbelieve it beneath her notice, only the next moment to abstract it slilyfrom your hand, glad enough to get it! You'll see presently, MrMarline, that our friend there will go at the pork again, I'll betanything. "

"All right, cap'en, " replied Mr Marline. "I only hope, I'm sure, thatyour anticipation will prove correct;" but, from the sly quizzical smileon his face and the dry way in which he spoke, I don't think the matebelieved in our hooking the ugly brute, all the same. 

After a little time, I noticed two small fishes coming up towards thebait and poking their pointed noses into it as if taking observations, and I called Captain Miles's attention to them. 

"Oh, that's a good sign, " said he. "Those are pilot-fish, which alwaysaccompany his majesty Mr Shark in the way of _aides-de-camp_, as youcall those smart gentlemen in gay uniforms who are usually seen prancingabout the general at a review of troops ashore. Whenever you see thelittle chaps, the shark himself is never far off, for they precede himas his scouts to warn him of danger as well as tell him if there'sanything worth grabbing in the offing. If it wasn't for them I believehe'd fare rather badly, as his own sight is bad--fortunately for poorfellows that fall in the water in the way Jackson did t'other day!"

"But, captain, " I remarked, "they must be very bad guides if they do nottell the shark about the hook. "

"Aye, " he replied; "something like `the blind leading the blind, ' eh?Still, you know Moggridge has taken care that the bait carefullyconceals the snare within, and the pilot-fish are none the wiser. Seethem now!"

As I watched, I noticed first one and then the other of the little fishsmell at the piece of pork, making their observations apparently, afterwhich they swam back to the side of the shark, where they remained for amoment on either side of his snout, as if they were making their reportupon the tempting object and giving their master all particulars. 

Then the shark, with a fluke of his tail, also advanced closer to thebait, which just then, by a twist of the rope attached to it, theboatswain jerked away. 

This was enough for Master Shark, who, thinking he was going to lose thecoveted morsel, at once sheered alongside of it, turning over on hisback and opening his terrible-looking cavern of a mouth in the same wayI had seen him do when he tried to catch poor Jackson. The recollectionof that made me shudder all over!

The next moment the monster had bolted both bait and hook, as well as acouple of feet of the chain; but when he turned to sheer off again hewas "brought up with a round turn, " as sailors say, by the ropetightening suddenly, the jerk almost making him turn a somersault in thewater. 

He was not altogether captured yet, however, and his struggles to getfree were tremendous. Really, his jaws must have been pretty tough tohave not given way under the furious flings and writhings he made torelease himself; for the strong half-inch manilla rope that held himtethered was stretched like a fiddle-string, its strands all quiveringwith the strain upon it. 

First to one side of the ship and then to the other the brute bounded inturns, making the sea boil around him like a whirlpool, until finally, after half an hour's fight of it, he gave in and lay quiet, although notdead yet by any means. 

As soon as the shark began to flounder about, I noticed that the pilot-fish went away, leaving him alone in his extremity; and on my mentioningthis to Mr Marline he took the opportunity of pointing a moral for myespecial benefit. 

"It's just the way in the world, Master Tom, " said he. "Foolishcompanions lead many a young fellow into a scrape; but as soon as theysee him in the mess into which they were the means of inveigling him, they scuttle off, abandoning him to his fate and probably laughing athis troubles too. "

"Aye, " put in Captain Miles, wishing also to improve the occasion; "andif that shark had not been so madly impetuous in rushing at the hook hewould never have been caught; in the same way as somebody told me of acertain young gentleman, who, not looking before he leaped, as theproverb says, and only thinking of the end he had in view, galloped downa hill and came to grief--getting a tumble which laid him up for weeks!"

"Oh, Captain Miles, " said I, "you don't think I'm a shark, do you?"

"Well, not quite so bad as that, youngster, " he replied with one of hischeery laughs; "but, quite as impetuous sometimes, eh, Master Tom?"

I made no answer to this thrust, knowing there was some truth in it, mymother having frequently to call me over the coals for doing things onthe spur of the moment, which, as she was aware, I always regrettedafterwards. 

This thoughtless impulse is a great fault, as I know to my cost; for, ithas led me into many a scrape--sometimes to the danger of my life!

While we were talking the shark was still struggling in the water; butwhen he grew tolerably composed, only an occasional splash of his tailshowing that he yet lived, the men began to make preparations forhauling him on board. 

The bight of a rope was made into a running knot and hove round the bodyof the animal; when, the men hauling away with a will at the other endof the line, which was passed through a snatch-block hung in therigging, the captive was soon bowsed up to the mizzen chains. 

No sooner, however, was he got out of the water than the hamperedmonster appeared to be imbued with fresh vitality, lashing his tailabout and splintering the wood-work of the bulwarks as if it had beenbrown paper; but when the slip-knot was drawn tighter this controlledhis frantic movements a bit, and Jackson, who was allowed precedence ofthe rest of the sailors from his previous acquaintance with the savagebrute, then advanced with a sharp butcher's knife, which he had borrowedfrom the cook, in order to give his old enemy his quietus. 

Taking care not to get within reach of either the jaws or ponderous tailof the shark, he leaned over the side of the ship and stabbed it in theneck; after which, with two long slashing cuts he severed the head, which quickly splashed down into the sea under the counter, sinking tothe bottom at once from the mere weight of the bone it contained. Jackson then proceeded, by the captain's orders, to rip open theanimal's stomach; but it was found to contain nothing digestible but thepiece of pork which had led to the brute's capture, the shark evidentlyhaving been lately on short allowance. 

When, however, Jackson extracted the hook from the bait, he started backsuddenly as if he had received a blow, clutching hold of the shrouds tosteady himself. 

I thought he was going to faint. 

"Hullo!" exclaimed Captain Miles; "what's the matter?"

"See here!" replied the young sailor, holding up in his hand somethingdark and soft looking, with a bit of ribbon fluttering from one end. 

"Well, what is it?" repeated the captain. 

"My cap, " said Jackson solemnly; "and, but for the mercy of God I alsomight have been in the same place!"

It gave us all a thrill, I can tell you, the sight of this old cap, which must have floated off Jackson's head when he dived to escape therush of the shark. The brute had swallowed it, no doubt, greedily, thinking it had got the owner. 

As for Jackson himself, when he clambered up over the side again andcame inboard, his face was as white as a table-cloth. I did not hearhim, either, joking about the deck all day afterwards in his usual way;although the young sailor, besides being the smartest of the hands athis work, had hitherto been the life of the crew, always laughing andchaffing the others, as well as being the first to lead a song on thefo'c's'le of an evening. The startling discovery of his cap in theshark's stomach, coupled with the reflection that, had not Providenceintervened in his behalf, he might have also been swallowed up, seemedto have completely sobered him for the time. 

The other hands, however, were not much affected by the incident; and, presently, when the bight of the rope round the shark was unloosed andthe body allowed to drop overboard, Moggridge sang out in a triumphantvoice: "Now we've got rid of Jonah, we'll have a shift of wind at last!"

"Why does the boatswain say that?" I asked Captain Miles. "What hadthe shark to do with the weather?"

"Well, you see, my boy, " he answered, "sailors are generallysuperstitious, and they always think that killing a shark brings goodluck of some sort. Now, the best sort of luck we can have would be agood stiff south-wester, or something of that sort, to drive us on ourway across the Atlantic, as we have experienced nothing but lightbreezes since we left the islands, barely making five hundred miles'distance from Sombrero. We'll never get to England at this rate in amonth of Sundays. "

Unlike most prophecies referring to the weather, which, as a rule, mustgenerally be made after the event to be correct, that of the oldboatswain, curiously enough, turned out a true one, for, although we hadbeen only favoured with light winds from the time of Jackson's escapefrom the shark and all the while the ill-fated brute followed in ourwake like a phantom of evil, not many hours elapsed after we hadcaptured the animal before a strong southerly breeze sprang up. This, shifting round later on more to the westwards, came right astern of thevessel--thus enabling her to spread studding-sails and sky-sails, exposing every rag of canvas she could carry from truck to deck. 

The wind, too, fortunately, was not a cat's-paw either, like theshifting airs we had previously had, for it lasted us ten days at onestretch, carrying us well to the south-east of Bermuda and almost morethan half-way to the Azores. 

During all this time, no very remarkable incident occurred on board, save that, whether owing to change of air or through some deficiency oftheir native diet, three out of the half a dozen turtle, which CaptainMiles was hoping to carry home for the lord mayor's banquet, died one byone. They were hove over the side in the same fashion; and, as Iwatched their shelly backs floating astern, I could see flocks of sea-birds settle down on them, evidently rejoicing in having such anunexpected feast. A pig, too, was killed one day, supplying us in thecabin with savoury roast pork, which was an agreeable change from thesalt beef and boiled fowls that were our ordinary fare--although, as thehen-coops were becoming rapidly untenanted, I should not have muchlonger to complain of any monotony of the latter item of our diet, Ithought. 

But, if there was nothing to chronicle of any stirring character Ienjoyed the voyage immensely, being as happy as the day was long. 

It seemed like paradise to me, sailing on and on before the genialwestern wind over the wide blue sea, with an azure sky above unfleckedby a cloud in the daytime and studded with a glorious galaxy of stars atnight that made the heavens look like a casket of jewels. 

Before long, I became quite a sailor too, being able to make my wayaloft to the cross-trees without help, and I was learning by familiarityevery rope whose name Moggridge had before taught me; for, when thecaptain saw that I was careful through his repeated cautions, and alsohad Jackson to look after me, he withdrew the embargo he had placed onmy mounting the rigging. Indeed, he was kind enough to let me do dutyas an "extra hand, " as I loved to consider myself, in Mr Marline'swatch, or when he himself was on deck. 

Another great delight I had consisted in going out on the bowsprit andfishing for bonitoes and dolphins with a bit of red or white cloth tiedto a hook, in the same way as one goes "reeling" for mackerel in theChannel; and many a savoury supper, cooked surreptitiously by Jake inhis friend the cook's caboose, had I on the sly at night in thefo'c's'le, when Captain Miles thought I had turned in and was snugasleep in my bunk!

Day after day passed alike, with the exception, of course, of Sundays, when the captain read prayers on the poop to the hands clustered round, all dressed out in their best shore clothes, and with the decksespecially holystoned in honour of the day--the ship the while makingsome couple of hundred miles every twenty-four hours on her onward way, while scarcely shifting a sail or altering a brace from week's end toweek's end. 

It was getting on towards the end of August, the wind having continuedfair from about the middle of the month and the weather being all thatcould be desired; when, one morning, that of our fifteenth day out fromGrenada, I recollect, I noticed that Captain Miles looked rather anxiousafter coming on deck, shortly before our breakfast hour, "eight bells, "according to his usual custom when everything was going on all right. 

He first glanced aloft, sailor-like, to see that everything was correctwith the rigging and the sails all drawing, and then he cast an eyeforward, noting the orderly arrangements there; finally, walking acrossto the binnacle in order to observe what course the ship was steering, and asking Mr Marline, who had charge of the morning watch, how she wasgoing. 

"Eight knots good, sir, last heave of the log, " promptly said the mate. 

"That's all right, " observed the captain; "but, I don't like the lookahead. It seems to me as if there's going to be a change. "

"Indeed?" replied Mr Marline; "I haven't noticed anything at allunusual. The wind has kept steady from the westwards ever since I cameon the poop at four bells, the same as we left it overnight. "

"But, the glass is going down, Marline, " rejoined Captain Miles; "anddon't you notice the sea is getting a bit cross off our port bow? Itstrikes me we'll have a shift of wind presently from the eastwards, ifnothing more. However, we oughtn't to grumble, for ten days of suchfine weather is rather unusual in these latitudes, you know, at thistime of year. "

"Yes, certainly, " replied the mate; "we've made good use of the time, too. "

"Aye, that we have, " replied the captain. "I fixed our position lastnight by a couple of lunars. "

"And I suppose it corroborates your observation of yesterday, eh?"

"Pretty nearly, " said Captain Miles; "calculating for the distance we'verun since, I should think we're somewhere about 30 degrees North and 52degrees West. "

"Well, that's strange!" exclaimed Mr Marline. "We've got to the limitof the north-east trade without having once the benefit of it from theday we started, the winds having been south-east and southerly till theyshifted round to the westwards!"

"So they have, " said the captain; "still, that has been all the morelively for us. But I don't like this change brewing up. Look at theclouds now!"

"Ha, they're getting up at last!" replied the other. "I see you wereright, the change will come from the eastwards. "

Up to now it had been a beautifully bright morning, the sky without ascrap of vapour to obscure its lucent expanse, and the sea lit up withgolden sunshine that made it appear bluer somehow or other; but, evenwhile Captain Miles and Mr Marline were speaking, a low bank of cloudarose along the eastern horizon, and this, spreading gradually uptowards the zenith, soon shut out the half-risen sun and his rays, casting a sombre tinge at the same time on the ocean below. 

"All hands shorten sail!" shouted the captain, and the studding-sailhalliards being let go by the run, the _Josephine_, which a momentbefore had looked like a bird with outspread wings, had these latterclipped off in a jiffey, the light sails bagging with the wind likeballoons as they were hauled down; and, soon afterwards, the boomsprojecting from the yard-arms on which they had been rigged out, weresent below and laid with the other spare spars along the bulwarks in thewaist. 

While the crew were busy at this task, the strong breeze, which but ashort time before had filled our canvas, gradually died away until theredid not seem to be a puff of air stirring, the larger sails now hangingloose or else flapping idly against the masts. 

Captain Miles, however, did not stop merely at taking in the studding-sails, for the royals were next furled as well as the topgallant-sails;and then, under reefed topsails and courses, in addition to her jib andspanker which were still set, he awaited what the weather might have instore for his vessel. An experienced seaman, such as he was, whenforewarned, as in the present instance, by a falling barometer, alwaysprepares for eventualities of the worst possible character, neverleaving anything to chance or neglecting to take proper precautions. Bynot doing so many a gallant ship with all hands on board is lost throughthe carelessness of bad navigators. 

The cloud in the east, meanwhile, rose higher in the heavens, showing abit of clear sky for a moment at its base, when it began to traveltowards the ship at great speed, but in a very eccentric fashion, whirling round and looking as if it were dancing on the surface of thewater. 

"I can't make it out, " said Mr Marline in a puzzled sort of way. "There must be a good deal of wind at the back of it; but, why doesn'tit keep a straight course towards us, eh sir?"

"It's a whirlwind, I fancy, " replied Captain Miles; "I've seen a goodmany in the South Atlantic, near the African coast, although never onebefore in these latitudes so far from land. "

"Are they dangerous at all, captain?" I asked, rather anxiously. 

"No, Tom, not unless you got in the vortex of one, when it might twistthe spars out of a ship perhaps, though I never saw any mischief done byone myself. Mind your helm, " added Captain Miles to the man at thewheel, whose office at present was a sinecure, for the ship was almostbecalmed and the rudder swaying to and fro from port to starboard as itlisted. "If the wind catches us suddenly we may be taken aback, and Iwant you to be ready when I give the word. "

This made the sailor who was "taking his trick" all alert, instead oflounging over the spokes as he had been doing previously, listening toour talk. 

Presently, a quick puff of air came from the west again, and the_Josephine_ began to gather way; but almost in an instant afterwards thewind shifted right ahead, coming down with the cloud, and the yards wereat once braced round, the vessel being headed towards the north. 

The cloud approached rapidly now on our weather bow; and, as it gotnearer, we could see that its bottom edge, which was attenuated to theproportions of a slender pillar of vapour, seemed to be united to thewater, the sea, where it joined the surface, being greatly agitated, foaming up in columns of spray that were circled round and round andthen drawn up in corkscrew fashion into the denser body above. 

"Why, it's a water-spout!" exclaimed Mr Marline in great surprise. 

"So it is, " said the captain, a bit startled and perplexed too. "Looksharp, Marline, and see to the hatches being battened down and thescuppers open; for, if the blessed thing bursts immediately overhead, itwill flood our decks with a deluge of water worse than if we had shippeda heavy sea. "

"Aye, aye, sir, " answered the other, scuttling down the poop-ladder toattend to these orders; but he had hardly left the captain's side ere aterrific gust of wind struck us, coming from the same direction as thewater-spout. 

The instant after, the wind shifted round to the opposite quarter, andthen a series of squalls, hot and strong, seemed to assail us fromalmost every point of the compass at once. 

"Hands shorten sail!" roared out Captain Miles again, using the palms ofhis two hands before his mouth for a speaking trumpet. "Be smart, men!Some of you brail up the spanker here and man the jib downhaul. Right!Now, away aloft the rest of you; we must have those topsails close-reefed. Cast-off the halliards--there--cheerily, men; that's the way todo it!"

No sooner were the hands down from the topsail-yards, however, than hehad them up again to take in the courses, which had already been clewedup and were now furled; the _Josephine_ lying-to under close-reefedtopsails, with the fore-topmast staysail set to keep her in command ofher helm. 

She did not look so gay as she had done earlier in the day, with all hersnowy plumage spread before the favouring breeze; but, she was all thebetter prepared to battle with the elements, and now steadily andsturdily awaited their onset. 

The struggle was not long delayed. 

Closer and closer came the whirling water-spout, surrounded by columnsof misty spray and accompanied by the fierce wind. The sea was agitatedwith violent eddies that rocked the ship to her centre every moment;and, above the shriek of the constant squalls tearing through therigging, and the splash of the boiling water at the foot of the terriblecloud column, we could distinguish a peculiar hoarse sucking noise, asif the whole herd of Neptune's horses were drinking their fill, andletting us know about it, too!

CHAPTER TEN. 

DISRATED. 

I can't say what the rest felt; but I know that I, for one, wasfrightened when I heard that strange gurgling noise and saw the greatblack thing, spinning round like a teetotum and swirling up the water, coming down on our ship as if to overwhelm her!

The squalls, which succeeded each other from different directions inrapid sequence, were even more dangerous than the water-spout; butCaptain Miles was too good a seaman to be easily beaten, even by themost adverse circumstances. 

Telling off some of the best hands to the fore and main-braces on eitherside, so that these could be let go or hauled taut in an instant as thewind shifted, thus necessitating the vessel changing her tack withsimilar rapidity, he went to the helm himself; and from this point, withthe assistance of Moggridge, he conned the ship as coolly as if he werein charge of a yacht trying to weather the mark-boat in a race so as toget to windward of her competitors!

The captain was trying to make as much northing as he could, as well asendeavouring to run out of reach of the water-spout, which latter, although it gyrated about in the water so queerly and seemed movingevery way at once, came up more from the eastwards, travelling to thesouth of west apparently; and, expert seaman that he was, in spite ofthe veering wind, which backed round every moment, he gallantlymanoeuvred so as to gain his object--sailing ahead between the squalls, as it were. 

"Ready about!" he would call out one minute, when the main-topsail wasbacked and the fore-yard swung round; and, almost as soon as this wasdone and the weather braces handed, the cry "'bout ship!" was againrepeated, when the _Josephine_ was brought once mere back to herprevious bearings. 

Such tackings and beatings about, surely, no ship ever underwent beforein so short a time!

"By Jingo, he's a sailor every inch of him!" I heard one of the oldhands of the crew murmur in admiration as he pulled in with a will theweather braces for about the sixth time in as many minutes; and, truthto say, I could not help sharing the feeling of respect all the crew hadfor our captain, who, easy-going as he was generally in fine weather, letting the first mate then attend to the working of the ship, he was"all there, " as they said, when the necessity for prompt action in anyemergency called for exertion and made him show himself in his truecolours. 

But, struggle to outstrip it as much as he might, the water-spout camenearer and nearer to us, bearing down still broadside-on upon the ship. As I stood close to the captain and Moggridge, who alone were on thepoop besides myself, Mr Marline and Davis the second mate being in thewaist, looking after the men at the braces amidships, I noticed that thepillar of cloud became more transparent in proportion as it decreased insize from the upper portion, until it seemed almost perfectly so at thelower extremity where it touched the sea. I observed, too, that a smallinner column of equal diameter, looking like a glass tube, went up themiddle. This, evidently, was the water which was being sucked up intothe mass of vapour above as if by a syphon. 

Fortunately, just as it seemed almost touching the ship, when thewhirling waves round its base made us oscillate from side to side, the_Josephine_, heeling over to her chain-plates from a sudden rush of windthat appeared to accompany it, the portentous column of vapour dartedoff almost at right angles to its former course; and then, the cloud, having taken up more of the sea-water than it could contain, burst witha loud hissing sort of report, the contents falling around us in theform of a heavy downpour of rain which sluiced our decks down, buthappily did no further damage. 

"Thank God!" exclaimed Captain Miles reverently, taking off his cap andlooking upwards in grateful recognition of the providential care thathad watched over and protected us from the fearful peril which hadthreatened us; and his thanksgiving was participated in by more than oneother, I knew, for I could see Moggridge's lips moving in silent prayer, while I felt inclined to fall on my knees, my heart was so full of joyand gladness at our narrow escape. 

I was overpowered with a feeling of wonder and awe. 

Strangely enough, there seemed some strong connection between the water-spout and the wind; for, no sooner had the column of vapour broken up, than the heavy clouds dispersed away to leeward. The sun then came outagain, and the squally weather calmed down to a gentle breeze from thesouth-east that enabled us to haul round again on our proper course, theship presently being covered anew with canvas and the reefs in thetopsails shaken out. 

When all danger was over, though, the whole thing puzzled me very much. 

"What is a water-spout?" I asked Captain Miles later on in the eveningafter dinner, as he was having a quiet cigar on the poop before turningin. I saw that he then looked inclined for a chat, and thought it agood opportunity to seek for information. 

He answered my question in the Irish way, by asking me another. 

"Did you ever see a whirlwind when you were at Grenada, Tom?" heinquired. 

"Yes, " I replied, "I recollect a long time ago noticing one at MountPleasant once, and wondering at the way in which all the loose straw inthe stable-yard was circled round and round, as if in a funnel, and thendrawn up into the sky. "

"Well, then, " said Captain Miles, "the celebrated Dr Franklin hasdemonstrated, if I recollect aright, that a whirlwind on land, and awater-spout at sea, arise from similar general causes, and may beconsidered one and the same thing. "

"But, what is the cause of them?" I asked now. 

"The action of opposing atmospheric currents, Tom, if you can understandwhat I mean. Two contrary winds meet: a vortex therefore ensues; and, any cloud that happens to be between these opposing currents of air atthe time is condensed into a conical form and turned round with greatcelerity. This whirling motion drives from the centre of the cloud allthe particles of vapour contained in it; consequently, a vacuum isthereby produced in the body of it; and, as nature abhors a vacuum inevery case, the water of the sea lying below the overhanging mass iscarried up, in centrifugal fashion, and in a sort of way by capillaryattraction, into the vacant centre of the cloud cylinder. "

"Why does it not stop there?" said I. "That one just now burst. "

"Ah, that fellow was like a greedy boy who has eaten too much, and hasto disgorge after he has filled his little stomach too full! But, somewater-spouts carry their contents on to the land, where, when the cloudshave been attracted by mountains or some lofty object, they may do greatdamage by wrecking houses and inundating the country for miles round. At sea, they are not half so dangerous, having plenty of room there toexpend themselves without effecting much injury, except a ship should beright beneath them when they fall to pieces. "

"Do you think, sir, " I then inquired, "that one would have sunk us, ifit had burst over the _Josephine_?"

"Well, I hardly know, Tom, " answered Captain Miles reflectively. "Although it looked terrific enough at one time, I am not inclined tobelieve now that it would have been attended with any very seriouscalamity to our ship, had even the whole quantity of water it containedfallen on our decks. If you recollect, I ordered beforehand the hatchesto be battened down and the scuppers in the waist cleared. Besides, thecylinder or spiral column of vapour, you observed, was very like a glasstube in the centre of the water-spout, and this coming in contact withour masts and rigging it would have been at once broken, when thesurrounding air rushing into the vacuum to restore the atmosphericequilibrium, the torrent of water would have been forced sidewaysinstead of descending perpendicularly, coming down merely as a heavytropical shower, similar to those you have been well acquainted with inGrenada. I have heard of some vessels being damaged by water-spouts, but I have never come across anyone who happened to be on board one ofthem at the time, so I rather fancy the tale was one of those generally`told to the marines. '"

So, laughing it off, the captain finished his little scientific lectureat this point, while I went below to my bunk, wishing to get undressedbefore Harry the steward came to douse the light in the cabin, which healways did sharp to time. 

If the water-spout did us no actual damage it certainly served as a verybad omen. It took away the favourable breezes, which, before its adventon the scene, had sped the _Josephine_ so gaily on her way home toEngland; and the weather for some days afterwards was not nearly sopleasant, tedious calms and contrary winds preventing our making therapid passage Captain Miles anticipated from our good running at thebeginning of the voyage. 

We were now in the region between the regular trade-winds and what aretermed "the anti-trades or passage winds, " above the tropic of Cancer. This is a particular portion of the ocean between the parallels known tosailors as the "Horse Latitudes, " where there is generally a lull metwith in the currents of air that elsewhere reign rampant over the sea;and, once arrived within the precincts of this blissful zone, the shiptossed about there for a week at a stretch, hardly making a mile towardsher wished-for goal--only rocking restlessly on the bosom of the deep. 

There is nothing so irksome as calm weather at sea, to those at allevents whose duty lies upon the waters and who do not go on shipboardfor mere pleasure. 

So long as the wind blows, whether favourably or not, there is somethingto do. If it be fair, there is the cheering prospect of counting thenumber of knots run when the log is hove, and knowing that one isgetting each hour so much nearer one's destination; while, if KingAeolus be unpropitious, there is all the excitement of fighting againsthis efforts to delay the vessel, and the proud satisfaction of makingway in spite of adverse breezes. 

But, in a calm, nothing can be done excepting to wait patiently, orimpatiently, for the wind to blow again; and, consequently, all isdreary stagnation and dead monotony--the captain ever pacing the poop innot the best of tempers, with the men idling about the decks, or elseoccupied in the unexciting task of unreeving rope yarn, to keep theirhands from mischief, and, perhaps, polishing up the ring-bolts as a lastresource!

Under such circumstances, it is not at all to be wondered that the crewof a vessel usually get discontented; and, should her officers be in theleast inclined to be tyrannical, an ill feeling is produced whichsometimes leads to an outbreak. 

Hardly a single mutiny ever occurred on a ship at sea save in calmweather; at other times the hands have too much to do even to grumble, in the way that sailors love to do ashore, comparing their nauticalexperience to "a dog's life"--albeit they never give up the sea all thesame!

On board the _Josephine_, however, all went along pleasantly enough, although we were becalmed and the seamen, had plenty of leisure time forairing their grievances. 

Captain Miles, it is true, did not come on deck looking jolly andbeaming with good-humour, as he used to do when we were bowling alongbefore a stiff breeze; but he was not a bit cantankerous, and if therewas no legitimate work to occupy the crew with, he did not go out of hisway unnecessarily to "haze" them by inventing new sorts of tasks, as agood many other masters of vessels are in the habit of doing in similarcases. As for Mr Marline, he was of a most even disposition, takingall things that came with his usual equanimity and never giving a roughword to anyone. 

Davis, the second mate, whom I have already mentioned as having beenpromoted from the fo'c's'le, was a very different sort of man; for, being without education and any good principle, he took advantage of hisposition, whenever the captain's eye was not upon him, to bully thosewith whom he had previously associated on an equality. He was "verymuch above them now, " he thought, and showed it as it was in the natureonly of a low-minded fellow to do. 

Like most "Jacks in office, " he was always trying to assert hisposition; and, as a natural result, he was not by any means in goodfavour with the men, who resented his overbearing way all the more fromthe fact of their having formerly been hail-fellow-well-met with him, which of course they could not readily forget, if he did. 

Still, things went on pretty smoothly on board while the calm lasted, despite the little roughnesses which the second mate's way of evincinghis authority produced--and which I could not avoid noticing, for I'msure he used to be "down" on me whenever he had a chance of calling meto account for going where I had no business to, as I confess Isometimes did, although I used to be encouraged by the men, and MrMarline would wink at my escapades. We all found it terribly dull, though; for, even the fish were too lazy to come to the surface to becaught, and so we were deprived therefore of our old pastime of anglingfor them from the bowsprit in the afternoons and evenings. 

Day after day, the _Josephine_ rolled her hull from port to starboardand then back again to port on the tumid sea, which, save throbbing witha dull heavy swell, had now lost all its life and action:--day after daywe looked in vain for a breeze from sunrise to sunset; day after day ourwatchful longing was all in vain; there, day after day, for over a week, we rolled and lay!

Captain Miles used to come up regularly on the poop at noon to take thesun, from a sense of duty; but it was almost a useless task, as wehardly varied a mile in our position from the commencement of the calm, the vessel remaining close in with the fiftieth parallel of longitudeand in latitude thirty-two North. 

Mr Marline liked to chaff the captain about this, telling him that hissextant wanted polishing up a bit and that the glasses were wrong. However, that all went for nothing with his chief, who well knew wherethe fault lay, fully understanding that the instrument was not to blame;but, as regularly as he brought out the sextant he used to laugh at MrMarline's stereotyped joke. 

As related in Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner":--

 "Day after day, day after day We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean!"

Had it not been for the two darkeys, Jake and Cuffee, I don't know whatwe should have done for fun. 

These comical fellows were a constant source of amusement to us; for, although they did not come to fisticuffs again, they were alwaysquarrelling and making friends afterwards in the oddest way possible. Their disputes usually arose from some little trifle concerning theirorder of precedence, each being highly jealous of his dignity, andresenting in a moment any fancied slight or want of proper respect onthe part of the other. 

When Jake came on board in the summary way in which he "took hispassage" at the beginning of our voyage, of course he had no wardrobe, or anything to wear save what he stood up in when he emerged drippingfrom the sea after the capsize of the boat in which he had come off tothe ship. Captain Miles, however, had given him some cast-off slops, and the hands forward had also rigged him out from their chests, so thatin a short time he made a very presentable appearance. This wasespecially the case on Sunday's, when his dress was most conspicuous, Master Jake being something of a dandy like most negroes, and anxious totake the shine out of his fellows. 

Somehow or other Cuffee the cook got jealous of this feature in hisbrother darkey's character. 

On week-days he did not mind submitting to any slight superiority Jakemight have over him in his sailor-like rig; but one Sunday the latterdonned an old blue coat that had been presented to him by Mr Marline. It was ornamented with brilliant brass buttons, and the effect wascompleted by a bright bandana handkerchief which he had begged from me, and this, contrasting with a white shirt and duck trousers, made histoilet so thoroughly effective that Cuffee was greatly aggrieved. 

"You tink youself one fine gen'leman now, I s'pose?" he said, with asnort of indignation, when Jake went down into the waist in all thisgrand array after prayers on the poop. "Fine fedders make fine birds, yah, yah!"

"Me tinks what I like, " replied Jake nonchalantly, proceeding forward tothe topgallant forecastle, where he sat down in such a lordly mannerthat Cuffee, unable to stand it any longer, hurriedly went into hiscaboose and bringing out a bucket of dirty water pitched it over Jakewith much heartiness, sousing him from head to foot. 

"Dere, you big fool of niggah, take dat!" he cried triumphantly. "Guessdat'll take de shine out ob your ole coat, wid yer grandy airs an'bumptiousness!"

The men on the fo'c's'le shouted with laughter, and Jake rushed toresent the affront; but they held him back until his temper evaporated, and then the two made it up somehow, for afterwards I saw that Jake wasenjoying a savoury mess of lobscouse which Cuffee had cooked for him inamends for the bucket of greasy water. 

Jake, however, paid out the cook for the indignity a little later on;for, when Cuffee came up on the forecastle while the hands were thereyarning in the evening, he gave him the cold shoulder. 

"Wat for you come hyar?" he asked the poor cook. "Dis is de place forsailor man, not for de idlers aboard. You go back inter yer olecaboose, cookee!"

There was another laugh at this, and Captain Miles hearing what had beensaid, every word being distinctly audible on the poop, began speaking toMr Marline about the imitative habits of negroes. 

"They are just like monkeys, " he said; "and, in dress and in languagewill copy anyone they think superior to them, no matter how ridiculoustheir imitation may be--a sort of burlesque of the original. "

"Yes, " replied Mr Marline. "Jake, I have noticed, has taken Jacksonfor his model on week-days. Have you observed how he copies him inevery particular?"

"Well, he couldn't have a better study for a thorough sailor, " said thecaptain, adding, to my great delight, for I was very proud of poor Jake, who was faithful to me to the death; "and the darkey, mind you, Marline, has studied Jackson to good effect, for he's already a smart seaman. He's as quick aloft as anyone on board when any sudden call comes. "

"He's all that, " answered Mr Marline heartily; "but I was going toobserve, that, while Jake copies Jackson for his week-day model, hetries to imitate you on Sundays. "

"Me!" exclaimed Captain Miles bursting into a loud laugh. "You, youmean, with that swell blue coat that you gave him, and which you used, no doubt, to win all the ladies' hearts with ashore, when it was in itsprime!"

"Oh, no, " retorted the mate, smiling too. "When Jake has got his Sundayrig on, he walks up the poop-ladder to prayers with all your dignity. Why, anyone would take him to be the skipper of the ship!"

"Talking of prayers and niggers, " said Captain Miles at this point, turning the conversation, as he thought the mate was having a sly pokeat him, "I heard one day a little time back a rather good yarn about twodarkeys, and, as it was told by a clergyman at a missionary meeting, Idon't suppose there can be any great harm in the story. "

"Well, heave ahead with it, " interposed Mr Marline. 

"You see, " began the captain, "these two niggers--we'll call them Joshand Quashee for shortness--happened to be in a boat which got driftedout to sea accidentally, from the tow-rope slipping or something else;and, they didn't know their danger till suddenly they found themselvesfar from land, with no oars in the boat and no means of getting to shoreagain. To make matters worse, too, the sea began to get up on accountof the wind rising. "

"I wish it would do so now, " said Mr Marline with much emphasis. 

"So do I, " returned Captain Miles with equal heartiness; "but, as thereisn't any chance of that as far as I can see, I may as well go on withmy story. "

"Do, sir, " said the other. 

"Well, then, " continued the captain, "as soon as Josh and Quasheerealised their peril, of course they got into a great funk; but, afterpuzzling their brains as to the best means of getting back, and shoutingthemselves hoarse in calling for help, they gave up the thing as a gonecase, sitting down on the thwarts and bewailing their fate. Josh, theyounger negro, however, had the most go in him, and presently he rousedup. 

"`Say, Quashee, ' he asked of the other, `can you pray, sonny?'

"`No, Josh, ' replied Quashee gloomily. `I nebber learnt, nohow. '

"`Can you sing hymn, den?' questioned his brother in misfortune again. 

"`No, Josh, ' answered the other still more gloomily. `Um can't pray, can't sing hymn, can't do nuffin'!'

"`Den, ' said Josh as if a brilliant idea had suddenly struck him, `wemust hab collection--must do sumfin' to git out ob dis hole, an' I knowwhen dey don't pray or sing in de chapel dey always hab collection; sowe'll hab one now!'"

"I wouldn't mind betting, " observed Mr Marline, when he had donelaughing at this anecdote, "that the clergyman who related the story didit as a sort of introduction for `passing round the hat' at the verymeeting where you heard it!"

"That's just precisely what he did!" replied Captain Miles, joining inthe other's laugh; "and, it was a very good introduction to acollection, too, I think!"

It was on a Sunday evening that the little fracas between Jake andCuffee occurred. This squabble terminated amicably enough; but the nextday, Monday, a bit of a real row happened on board, which did not endquite so agreeably to one of the persons concerned. 

It was a blazing hot day, with the sun like a ball of fire in theheavens above and the sea steaming below with the heat. The atmospherewas close and hazy, making it so stifling that one could hardly breathefreely--just exactly the sort of weather, in fact, that is met with onthe West Coast of Africa at the mouths of some of those pestilential andswampy rivers there that have been the death of so many gallant officersand seamen annually sent to the station for the purpose of putting downthe slave-trade and protecting greedy traders in their pursuit of palm-oil and gold dust!

During the afternoon of this day, when the sun was about its hottest, making the pitch melt and ooze out from the seams of the deck planking, Davis, who had charge of the starboard watch, came up from below torelieve Mr Marline. 

He was late in coming to his post, and I could see he had been drinking, a habit he had lately taken to indulging in, especially after the calmset in; and, as he mounted the poop-ladder, he certainly did not lookparticularly amiable, for his dark eyes were glaring and his tumbledhair gave him a most ferocious appearance. 

The men were mostly doing nothing, lying along the waist under whatshelter they could find from the fiery rays of the scorching sun; for, although there was an awning over the poop, there was nothing forwardsto shield them from the heat unless they crouched under the lee of thebulwarks and water-casks. 

Davis didn't like to see them taking it easy in this fashion, so, catching hold of a marlinespike which someone had left on top of thecabin skylight, he began rapping the rail at the break of the poop withit. 

"Come, rouse up there, you lubbers!" he cried. "I'm not going to allowany caulking in my watch, no matter what the first mate chooses to letyou do. Tumble up!"

The men stretched themselves and rose up grumbling, whereupon Davispitched upon Jackson, who had been asleep under the long-boat and wasthe last to show a leg, not hearing the second mate's call until amessmate awoke him. 

"Hi, you, Jackson!" he roared out. "I'll give you something to cureyour laziness! I'll haze you, I will, you hound! Get a bucket ofgrease from the cook's caboose and slush the mainmast down. "

"I'm no hound, sir!" retorted Jackson angrily, drawing himself up to hisfull height and flaring up angrily at Davis' uncalled-for abuse. "Themast doesn't need slushing; it was only done over the day beforeyesterday. "

"What, you dare to answer me, you mutinous dog!" roared out Davis, raised to a pitch of fury by the seaman not recognising, as he thought, his authority as second mate and officer of the watch. "I tell youwhat, you shall slush that mast down from the main-truck to the bitts;and look sharp about it, too, or I'll make you!"

"Make me!" repeated Jackson scornfully. "I'd like to see you lay afinger on me!"

Davis fairly foamed at the mouth with passion at this, the moreparticularly as the other men, grouped below in the waist, weresniggering and passing sly jokes from one to another about the affair. 

He started to go down the poop-ladder, brandishing the marlinespikesavagely, with the evident intention of attacking Jackson and trying tocompel him to obey his orders, utterly unnecessary and vindictive asthey were; but, what from having been drinking heavily of late and thefresh air and exposure to the sun having increased the intoxicatingeffect of the rum which he doubtless had just swallowed before coming ondeck to take charge of the watch, he reeled off the ladder as soon as hegot to the bottom--falling down all of a heap right in front of thecabin door at the very moment that Captain Miles, who had been roused upby the altercation, was coming out to see what all the noise was about. 

"Mr Davis!" cried the captain sternly. "What is the matter?"

The second mate scrambled to his feet, but he could not hold himselfsteady and he only muttered some utterly incomprehensible words, hispower of speech vanishing with his equilibrium. 

"I dunno, canshay, " he murmured helplessly. 

"Faugh!" exclaimed Captain Miles in accents of the deepest disgust. "The man is dead drunk. Take him away at once to the fo'c's'le some ofyou. He doesn't come into my cabin again if I know it!"

CHAPTER ELEVEN. 

BAD WEATHER. 

Later on in the afternoon, some couple of hours or so after he had beencarried into the forecastle, Davis, sobered down by his rest, came aftagain. He did not, however, enter the cabin or go up on the poop, butremained hanging about the waist, as if uncertain what to do, evidently"smelling a rat, " as the saying goes. 

Captain Miles was prepared for this, Moggridge, the boatswain, who hadmade many voyages with him, and in whom he placed implicit trust, havingrelated all that had occurred; so, although he saw Davis approach, hewaited a while till the watch was relieved, when, advancing to the breakof the poop, he hailed the whilom second mate below. 

"Davis!" he cried, "I have got something to say to you. "

The other had lost all his defiant air now and looked very sheepish andcrest-fallen--so much so, indeed, that he seemed unable at first toanswer the captain. 

"Yes, sir, " said he at last, looking up and then dropping his eyes againin an instant, unable to stand the captain's straightforward glance. 

"I'm sorry to have to say, " continued Captain Miles, speaking slowly anddistinctly, so that every word he uttered was heard fore and aft theship, "that you, a responsible officer of this vessel, came on dutythree hours ago in a state of intoxication. The fault would have beenbad enough in one of the ordinary hands, but is doubly so in a manhaving charge of the lives of those on board and the safety of the shipand cargo. Besides, it is not merely on a single occasion that you haveso grossly behaved, as I have noticed of late that you have been severaltimes under the influence of liquor. "

"But, Captain Miles, sir, " interrupted Davis at this point. However, the captain soon silenced him. 

"Hear me out, sir, " he cried, his voice getting sterner and moreenergetic. "Not only have you given way to that cursed habit of drink, but you have also, I have perceived--for I've had my eye upon you whenyou have little known it--exercised your authority over the crew in amost unmanly and tyrannical fashion. Now, I have always prided myselfon the fact of my ship being a comfortable one, and I have never found ahand who has sailed with me once objecting to ship for a second voyageif I wanted him. This I have achieved by treating the men as I wouldwish to be treated myself, and not by bullying and hazing themunnecessarily as you have done repeatedly, especially this afternoonwhen you relieved the port watch. "

The captain paused here a moment, and I declare I felt quite ashamed forDavis being thus spoken to before all the men; but he did not seem tomind it much, for he began to resume his old bumptious manner, shrugginghis shoulders in a careless way and glaring round at the listeners as ifhe would have liked to eat them. 

"I was drunk then, " was all he said, however, in extenuation of the lastoffence with which the captain had charged him. 

"That is no excuse for your conduct, " replied Captain Miles; "in myopinion it rather puts it in a worse light. I have nothing further toadd, save that I deeply regret ever having promoted you from yourstation forwards. You are a good sailor, I'll say that for you, but youhaven't got the sort of stuff in you that officers are made of! Theonly thing I can now do, to atone for my error of judgment in mistakingmy man, is to send you back again to your old place in the fo'c's'le, where I think you'll find yourself far more at home than you were on thepoop. Davis, you are no longer second mate of the _Josephine_! Idisrate you on account of your unfitness for the post, and you will nowreturn to your former rating, as I have restored your name to the listof the crew. You will be in Mr Marline's watch, and I hope you'll doyour duty as well as you used before I brought you aft. "

He did not say any more; and Davis, without answering a single word, slunk forwards towards the forecastle, anxious, apparently, to hidehimself from observation. Although he had tried to brave it out whenthe captain first began to speak to him, even his hardened nature had tosuccumb before the contemptuous looks of the men he had so long bullied, the more especially as they now openly displayed their joy at hisabasement. 

Thus ended the first act of the little drama; and I then noticed thatCaptain Miles turned to Mr Marline, with whom he exchanged a shortwhispered conversation. After this he advanced again to the break ofthe poop, and hailed for a second time the lower deck. 

"Jackson!" he called out. 

"Aye, aye, sir!" instantly responded the stalwart young Cornishman, coming out from amidst the others who had gathered in a cluster in thewaist to watch the progress of the row between the captain and Davis. 

Jackson quite overtopped the rest of the crew by a foot; and, as hewalked up to the foot of the poop-ladder, with his fine head thrown wellback on his broad shoulders, he seemed afraid of looking no man in theface--presenting a marked contrast to his late antagonist, whom hepassed on his way aft. 

"I have summoned you, Jackson, " began Captain Miles--speaking outdistinctly as before, so that all hands could hear--"to inform you thatMr Marline and myself think you are the best man on board to fill thevacant post of second mate just vacated by Davis. I have been told ofyour recent altercation with that person when he was in authority overyou; but, taking into consideration your previous good conduct andprompt obedience to the orders of myself and Mr Marline on alloccasions, as well as your general proficiency as an able seaman, wehave not allowed this little matter to affect our decision, and I haveno doubt you will in future discharge your duty as ably as an officer ofthe ship as you have hitherto done as a foremast hand. You had better, therefore, move your chest aft and take the second cabin next to thesteward's pantry, hitherto occupied by Davis, whom I have just disratedand sent to fill your place in the fo'c's'le. Men, " added the captain, raising his voice a little higher, "you will please consider _Mister_Jackson to be the second mate of the _Josephine_, and treat himrespectfully as such. "

No one seemed more surprised at the ending of the affair than the newly-promoted foremast hand. 

Twirling his cap in his two hands and fidgeting first on one leg andthen on the other, he looked the very picture of confusion. 

When he was told to come forwards, he expected no doubt to have beencalled to account for his insubordination, whereas here he was actuallyselected to fill Davis's billet!

He couldn't make it out at all, and stared open mouth upwards at thepoop unable to utter a word of thanks or anything. 

"Come up here, Mr Jackson, " said Captain Miles kindly, seeing howdumbfounded he looked; wherefore, the modest fellow, actually blushingat the unexpected honour bestowed on him, mounted the poop-ladder in amuch more gingerly fashion than he would have done if he had been toldto take his trick at the wheel or exercise some sailor's job aft. However, as soon as he got alongside the captain and Mr Marline, theyboth shook hands with him, in order to give him a proper welcome to hisnew station, and the steward singing out a few minutes afterwards thatdinner was ready, he was invited down into the cabin to "christen" hispromotion, as it were, by partaking of that meal, in token of his beingadmitted to a social equality with his superior officers. 

I may add, too, that if his sudden rise in rank was unexpected, Jacksondid not take long to settle down to his new duties, proving himself erelong a much better officer in every way than his predecessor. The men, too, were not in the least jealous of his being placed over them, butexecuted his orders with alacrity; for, he exercised his authorityjudiciously, remembering his former position--albeit he was ever a rigidand impartial disciplinarian. 

"After a storm comes a calm, " says the old adage, but the reverse ofthis axiom holds equally good at sea. 

It was so, at all events, in our instance; for, after our ten days ofstagnation on the rolling ocean, a change came almost as suddenly as thecalm had set in, the weather breaking towards the close of the very daythat had witnessed the downfall of Davis and Jackson's elevation to thedignity of the poop. 

Every evening during the continuance of the calm, as I think I havementioned, the sun went down below the horizon like a ball of fire, while a thick misty fog afterwards enveloped the sea; but this day whenwe came on deck after dinner, about the middle of the second dog watch, the sky, for a wonder, was quite clear, and the glorious orb sank torest with some of that old splendour of his which I had noticed when wewere threading our way amongst the islands. Long after he haddisappeared, too, from view the heavens were lit up with a ruby radiancewhich was reflected below in the water, making it look like a crimsonocean. 

"We're going to have a change at last, Marline, " said Captain Milesrubbing his hands together. "It is better late than never!"

"Aye, " responded the first mate who stood by the binnacle; "thequestion, though, is, what change?"

"Hang it, man, " exclaimed the captain testily, "anything is preferableto this confounded calm. "

"Well, I don't quite agree with you there, " said Mr Marline drily;"there is such a thing as changing for the worse. Have you looked atthe glass, eh?"

"'Pon my word, I have not once glanced at it this evening! Dear me, what on earth could I have been thinking of?" ejaculated the captain ina sort of apologetic way, darting down instantly below to consult hisunfailing guide, the barometer, which I suppose he had looked at sovainly for many days past that he had given up the instrument asincorrigible. 

In another moment, however, he was on deck again, rubbing his hands astriumphantly together as before. 

"Pooh, nonsense, Marline!" he cried, "you're an old croaker, saying thatthe change would possibly be for the worse! Why, the glass is rising, man, rising steadily; and, I've no doubt we'll have a splendid breezeere nightfall, and glorious weather. "

"All right, sir, we'll see, " was the mate's cautious answer. 

Meanwhile, the after-glow faded out of the sky and the stars began tocome out in batches, especially to the north-west, where they shone asbright as diamonds, blinking and twinkling with various colours as onelooked at them steadfastly, and seeming ever so much larger than usual. 

A faint stir in the air also became perceptible, and the idle sails, that had so long flapped against the yards lazily only with the roll ofthe ship as she lurched to port or starboard with the ocean swell, werecrumpled out a bit, as if they half felt inclined to expand their folds;but there was not wind enough for this, so they presently flattenedthemselves again, determined, apparently, to take it easy. 

The time then came to set the first watch, from eight to midnight, ofwhich Jackson, now, as second mate, took charge, when the captain wentbelow, saying he was going to turn in early, so as to be ready when thebreeze came, giving strict instructions to be called as soon as anychange was apparent. Mr Marline, however, did not go below; so Iremained on the poop with him and Jackson, the two walking up and downthe deck and talking together while I stood by. 

The sky was wonderfully clear now, the firmament being studded with thegreater constellations, and myriads of the lesser lights of the nightpowdering the heavens with their golden dust everywhere. 

But this was not for long. 

Shortly before nine o'clock a peculiar moaning noise came over the sea. It was like a sort of hushed sob of pain, resembling somewhat the soundof a number of voices wailing in chorus in the far distance. 

"What is that?" asked I of Mr Marline in alarm. 

"I'm sure I can't tell you, my boy, " he replied; "I don't think I everheard such a queer noise before. If we were off the banks ofNewfoundland, I should think it a fog-horn blowing somewhere about. But, we're several hundred miles to the southward of Cape Race and thenight is too clear for fogs. It is one of those mysterious voices ofthe sea that are for ever reminding the sailor that, no matter how wisehe may think himself, he does not know everything!"

"I imagine it's the wind coming, sir, " observed Jackson deferentially, after listening to what Mr Marline had said. "When I was once on avoyage in the China Seas I noticed just such a sound before we had athundering typhoon upon us, giving us hardly time to clew up. "

"Perhaps you're right, " said the first mate; but after giving a glanceup and around the sky, and noticing that the stars still shone out fromthe blue empyrean, he added, "there does not seem much chance of a galenow, though. "

"We'll see, sir, " laughed Jackson, paraphrasing Mr Marline'sobservation to the captain. "We'd just as clear a night off Hainan, when our blow came on there at a moment's notice!"

"All right, we'll see, " replied Mr Marline, using his stock phrase, andthe two continued to walk up and down chatting about other matters, while I went and sat down close to the taffrail, looking out over thesea and wondering what the moaning sound of the ocean meant. I let myimagination wander over the old stories I had heard of the mermaidsbelow, and how they sang their weird songs of lament whenever a stormwas coming, anticipating the shipwrecks that would follow and theinvasion of their coral caves by the bodies of drowned mortals, overwhom they are said to weep tears of pearl; and, in the flickering lightof the stars, that seemed to come from underneath the purple deep andnot be shining down from above, I almost fancied I could distinguish thesirens looking up at me from below the water with sad faces, as theycombed their long weed-like tresses and raised their wailing croon. 

Presently, however, I observed the star reflections suddenly disappearfrom view; and then, the water grew greyer and greyer, until I washardly able to see it at all under the stern of the vessel, a hazyobscurity enveloping all below and around. 

I roused myself with a start, thinking this effect was produced by thegloom of night, and that I had fallen asleep while weaving my quaintfancies anent the mermaidens; but a couple of sharp strokes of theship's bell sounding through the still air at that moment told me it wasonly nine o'clock. I then recognised the fact that I must seek someother reason for the sombre tone of the sea, as I knew well enough thatthe little beacons in the sky that had before lit it up, were not in thehabit of drawing on their hatches until it was pretty nearly time forthe sun to set about getting up for his day's work, unless something outof the common was going to happen. 

Looking up, therefore, I was surprised to see a dense black cloud nowcovering over the heavens like a pall. 

It must have crept up from somewhere almost instantaneously; for, twentyminutes before, the sky was clear and bright, while now it was totallyobscured from the horizon to the zenith, the angel of darkness seemingto be treading over the face of the deep. 

Just then, away ahead on the starboard bow to the eastwards, a windowappeared to be opened for an instant in the dense veil, from which avivid flash of lightning came forth, making the darkness even morevisible as the cloud closed up again. 

"Shall I go and hail Captain Miles now, sir?" I heard Jackson ask MrMarline near me, although I could not clearly make out either of them inthe thick gloom--indeed, I could not see to the other side of the deck, or perceive the mizzen-mast even. 

"No, I hardly think there's any need yet, " I distinguished Mr Marline'svoice say in reply. "It's only a flash of lightning--nothing to make afuss about, for there isn't a breath of wind stirring yet. "

"It's coming though, " the other rejoined. "I can smell it. "

"You've a better nose than I have then, " said Mr Marline with a laugh;but, he had hardly got out the words, when there came a terrific crashof thunder right overhead, sounding so fearfully near and grand andawful, that it seemed as if the roof of heaven had broken in!

I jumped up at once from my seat and went towards the binnacle, whereJackson and Mr Marline were standing; for, although I wasn't actuallyafraid of the thunder, still one likes to be by the side of some oneelse when it peals out so dreadfully, the sense of companionshiplessening the fear of danger, I suppose. 

"Hullo, Master Tom, not turned in yet?" cried Mr Marline, seeing me bythe light from the compass and appearing to be very much surprised at mynot having gone below to bed. 

"No, sir, " I said. "I stopped up to wait for the wind. "

"Ah, I'm afraid you'll have to wait longer, " he replied. "This'll benothing but a tropical thunder-storm, and probably we won't have theghost of a breeze after it has gone over. "

"I think differently, sir, begging your pardon, " said Jackson, interposing at this point; "and, if you don't mind, Mr Marline, I'dlike to have the lighter sails taken off her, in case it comes on toblow. "

"All right, please yourself, my dear sir; you're in charge of the deck, "answered the first mate drily. "Though, mind you, I think you're givingyourself trouble for nothing. I wouldn't, however, call the captaintill we really know whether we're going to have a squall or not. "

"Very well, sir, " said Jackson, "I won't call him; but I'll have theupper canvas in, for it's just as well to be on the safe side, especially as I do think we're in for something. "

"With all my heart, " replied Mr Marline cheerfully, seeing that Jacksonwas timid about exercising his new authority against his opinion, although he appeared to feel strongly in the matter. "Have in the ragsby all means. I daresay it will save some trouble bye-and-by. "

"Very well, I will, " said the other; and, calling the starboard watch, who were idling about and having a quiet caulk in the waist, he soonmade them set about reducing the _Josephine's_ canvas--there being nonecessity yet for summoning "all hands, " as there was not a breath ofair stirring, while the sea had hushed its monotonous roll, calming downto the quiet of a mill-pond. 

Previously to this, the ship had been under all plain sail, so as to beready for the wind when it chose to visit us again; but, in a very shorttime, under Jackson's supervision and sharp, rapid orders, the courseswere clewed up, the flying-jib hauled down, the topgallant-sails furled, and the spanker brailed up. In this half-dressed rig the vessel was nowprepared to meet any sudden squall; while, should a favourable breezecome, sail could readily be added on--a much easier job to accomplishthan that of taking in canvas in a gale!

In the interim, although no further thunder was heard, and we only sawthe one vivid flash of forked lightning that had accompanied the fearfulpeal which made me vacate my seat by the taffrail, the heavens grewblacker and blacker, the darkness settling down on the ship so that onecould hardly see one's hand even if held close to the face; but, after abit, a meteor-like globe of electric light danced about the spars andrigging, making the faces of all those aft look ghastly with its paleblue glare. They seemed just as if they were dead. 

A second or two later, some heavy warning drops of rain, as big assaucers, fell on the deck, with a dull splashing noise; and while wewere all waiting with some anxiety for what was to be the outcome of allthis atmospheric disturbance, Captain Miles ascended the poop-ladder, his face being distinctly illumined by the meteor, which was apparentlyat that moment hovering about the slings of the main-yard. 

The captain had been roused out by the sound of the men's feet busilytrampling about the decks and the hauling of the ropes, as the maintopgallant halliards and sheets were cast-off and the clew-lines andbunt-lines manned during the operation of taking in sail, so he came upexpecting to find that the long-wished-for breeze had overhauled us; buthe only saw, instead, the vessel as motionless on the water as when hewent below, albeit now almost denuded of her canvas. 

After glancing round the ship, whose every outline was brought out inrelief by the meteoric light, he warmly praised Jackson for hisprecaution in reducing sail. 

"You've done quite right, " he said, "only you haven't quite gone farenough, my boy. I think we'd better have the courses furled and thetopsails reefed. We're in hurricane latitudes and this is the verymonth for them. I don't like the sky at all. "

"Watch, ho!" thereupon shouted Jackson. "Up you go and furl themainsail. "

This was soon accomplished, after which there was a scurry up theratlines forward and the foresail followed suit, and thus, the topsailhalliards were let go and the yards dropped on the caps for the men tolay out and double reef the upper sails, when they were again hoisted uponly about a third of their former size, and looking like slabs of boardagainst the masts, everything being hauled taut. 

"We'll have it soon now, " said Captain Miles--"hark!"

As he spoke, there was a rumbling noise in the distance, approachingnearer and nearer every second, and then, there came another deafeningroar of thunder right over our heads, followed by a deadly zigzag sheetof lightning, not a flash, that lit up the whole sky. 

"Look sharp and batten down the hatches, the rain is close on the heelsof that, I know, " cried the captain; but the men had hardly time toexecute his order ere the heavens seemed to open and a deluge of waterfell on to the ship, as if some reservoir above had suddenly burst. Itliterally swept down like a cataract, and almost beat me down to thedeck with its force. 

It hardly lasted a minute, but in that brief spell it filled thescuppers just as if we had shipped a heavy sea, of course wetting us allto the skin. 

Next there was heard the same moaning noise along the surface of theocean that we had heard at first, and then, as the rain stopped, aterrific gust of wind from the south-east caught us just abaft the beam, the ship heeled over until her yard-arms dipped, and we thought she wasgoing to "turn turtle, " or capsize. 

"Hard up with the helm!" screamed out Captain Miles, Mr Marline jumpingto the spokes of the wheel at the same time to help the man steering, when, fortunately, the _Josephine_ payed off handsomely, righting againat the same moment, to our great relief. 

"Brace up the yards!" then shouted the captain; and, in another instant, the vessel was dashing along madly towards the north-west, scuddingbefore the rapidly risen gale, even with the little canvas she carried, at a greater rate of speed than she had ever attained with every sailset. She was going twelve knots, good, and increasing her velocityapparently each moment, the sea not yet having had time to get up andnothing interfering with her progress through the water, although thewind shrieked and howled destruction after her as it urged her along. 

CHAPTER TWELVE. 

THE TAIL-END OF A HURRICANE. 

Immediately the sudden blast of wind struck the ship, the meteor-likeball of fire, which had previously hovered about our rigging lighting upthe dense gloom of the atmosphere, suddenly disappeared, leaving us fora moment in darkness; but this was only for a brief spell, as the gale--at the same time that it forced us to cut and run before its tremendousimpulse, scudding away to the north-west at right angles to what shouldhave been our proper course, which was to the northwards and eastwards--dispelled in a very short time the overhanging mass of vapour thatshrouded the sky. The clouds cleared away, as if by magic, disclosingthe blue vault of heaven open above us for the stars to shine down attheir will; while the moon presently coming out, the ocean was displayedin all its vastness to the extreme limits of the horizon. 

But, what a different scene was now presented to our gaze to that whichwe had looked upon but an hour agone!

Then, the sea, with the exception of a faint throbbing swell as ifproceeding from the deep breathing of Neptune below the surface, seemingto rise and fall with rhythmical regularity, was calm and still, unbroken by even the tiniest ripple; now, as far as the eye could reach, it was all life and motion, the billows leaping up and tossing theirheads, crowned with wreaths of curling spray and growing larger andlarger each moment in volume as they dashed onward madly before thewind. 

The ocean coursers seemed, indeed, like a pack of hounds pursuing theship, gnashing their teeth in surf as they missed their prey, and thengathering themselves up again together to renew the chase, rollingagainst each other, boiling in eddies, clashing, dashing, swelling, breaking in sheets of foam, and presenting one seething mass of movingwaters. 

Nothing is so wonderful as this sudden getting up of the sea after aspell of calm weather. 

It is like the sudden uprising of a giant in his wrath--one moment it issleeping quietly, the next far and wide it is in a state of madcommotion, threatening destruction to those who brave the perils of thedeep. 

The _Josephine_ sped bravely before the gale, unmindful of the stormybillows blustering after her, her speed enabling her easily as yet tooutstrip the rollers, although she was only scudding under close-reefedtopsails. She was not too heavily laden; and, being a good sea-boat, she rose easily on the lift of the waves, almost skimming the surfacelike one of Mother Carey's chickens, and jumping, as it were, frombillow to billow as the wind urged her onward. 

"If we keep on long like this, " observed Mr Marline grimly to thecaptain, "we'll soon lose all our easting, and have to begin our voyageover again!"

"Never mind that, " cheerfully answered Captain Miles. "The gale willonly drive us into the Gulf Stream at the worst; and then, we'll havethe assistance of the easterly current there in making our way home, when we have the chance of bearing up on our course again. We won'tlose much in the end, you'll see. "

"All right, we'll see, " said Mr Marline. "But, don't you think, sir, we may be running into the worst part of the gale?"

"No, Marline, no; I don't believe that, " replied the other. "You'll seethat it will blow itself out presently and calm down to a steady breeze, when we'll be able to haul our wind, making that fair for us. "

"Don't you notice, though, captain, " urged the mate, "that those cloudsalso sheer off in a contrary direction, showing that the upper currentsof air are not affected by this wind at all--a proof that it is a sortof cyclone or hurricane?"

"And if so, " retorted Captain Miles, "it began in the south-east, whereit is still blowing from; so, when it veers, it will be to the south andwest, making a fair wind for us, as I said before. "

"Very good; you know best, sir, " said Mr Marline in a way that showedhe was still unconvinced. 

But the captain had not done with his reasons yet. 

"Just consider, Marline, " he continued, "we couldn't very well wear theship now with this thundering wind and following sea, or try and heaveher to--the only thing left for us to do if we don't scud. Indeed, Ithink we must get some more sail on her as it is; for those rollers aregetting too heavy and gaining on us, and, if we don't keep ahead ofthem, why, they'll poop us, that's all!"

"Do you think the masts will stand it, sir?" queried the first mate, glancing aloft, where the spars were bent like whips and the rigging astaut as fiddle-strings. 

"Stand it? Of course they will, " replied the captain. "I'll back themto stand anything, if the stays only hold. "

"And I'll guarantee that they will not carry away, " retorted MrMarline, who had specially seen to the setting up of the rigging and wasconfident of the job being well done, being rather proud of hishandiwork. 

"Well, then, we'll have the mainsail on her, " said the captain, to putan end to the discussion. "You'd better go and rouse up the otherwatch, Mr Jackson; it will be a rough bit of work, I fancy. "

The second mate then went forwards, shouting, "All hands, ahoy!" and, shortly afterwards, the men were clustering in the shrouds, making theirway as well as they could against the force of the wind, up the ratlinesto the main-yard, the whole watch being employed on the job so as to getit done quickly. 

As they lay out along the foot-rope they were almost blown away; but, holding on "by the skin of their teeth, " they managed to cast-off thegaskets, when, the clew-lines and bunt-lines being let fly, the hugesail at once bellied out in puckered folds, banging about as if it wouldsoon thump the mast out of the ship. 

"Now, tumble down smart, men!" cried the captain. "Look alive and bringthe sheets to the capstan. "

Then, in a few more minutes, foot by foot, the clew-garnet blocksrattling the while like a lot of tin kettles, the ends of the mainsailwere hove in nearer the deck, when it became fairly distended before thepowerful breeze, which, catching it now full, seemed to make the_Josephine_ leap out of the water as if she were going to fly--although, the next instant, she dived down with a heavy plunge forwards that senta great green sea right over her bows on to the forecastle, whence itpoured down like a cataract into the waist, flooding the main-deck andfloating aft everything movable into the cabin. 

We had already two men at the wheel, a vessel running before the windbeing always more unmanageable than when sailing close-hauled or on abowline; but this additional sail-power made the ship yaw and break offso continuously that two more hands had to come and help the others inthe steering. It was ticklish work; for, if she were once allowed tobroach to, one of the pursuing waves would soon leap over the taffrail, and then it would be a case for us!

The rest of the crew, too, were set to work rigging up relieving tackle, in case the tiller ropes should part; for, one moment the stern would belifted high out of the water and the next sunk in the trough of the sea, causing a great strain on the rudder, which banged from port tostarboard every instant, causing constant work in putting the helm upand down so as to preserve a straight course. 

Preventer stays were also set up to take away some of the leverage fromthe masts, everything being made as snug as possible under thecircumstances; and so, we drove on before the gale, going wheresoever itliked, until, as the captain said, it had time to blow itself out--although there did not seem any early prospect of this at present!

During all the bustle that was going on, I had managed to remain on deckunperceived; but now that matters had calmed down and nothing moreurgent called for attention, Captain Miles, looking round the poop, caught sight of me. 

"Hullo, Tom!" he cried, "what are you doing here? You ought to havebeen in your bunk hours ago. "

"I only stopped up to see the storm, " I said. "Mr Marline saw me ondeck some time since and said I might remain. "

"Did he? Well, then, it's all over now, and there'll be nothing freshtill morning; so you can go below like a brace of shakes. "

With these words, he hustled me off the poop, good-naturedly, not losingsight of me until he had seen me go down the ladder and into the cabin--much against my inclination, I must confess, as I wanted to see all thatwas going on. 

Of course, as I had to go down, there was no use in my not turning inwhen I got there; but I stayed awake for a long time, listening to thethumping of the sea against the sides of the ship and the creaking ofthe timbers; while my cot swayed to and fro, hoisting me up to the deckplanking one second, and then almost capsizing me on to the floor, untilI at last sank to rest, wearied out with the motion and longing for themorning to come. 

Harry, the steward, awakened me quite late. 

"Here, you sah, Mass' Tom, rouse up!" he sang out close to my ears, making me jump out of my bunk in a brace of shakes. "It am gone eightbells an' break-fuss ready long time. "

Captain Miles had already had his early meal, I found, when I haddressed and got out into the cabin saloon; so, after making a hurriedrepast, for I was anxious to see how the ship was getting on, I followedhim on deck. 

The sea looked awful!

Far and wide, it was covered with broken waves and sheets of foam, thehuge billows fighting and struggling together in mad turmoil; while thewind shrieked as it tore through the vessel's cordage and almost blew meback as I essayed to mount up the poop-ladder. 

The _Josephine_ was still plunging on before the gale, as I had lastseen her the night before, only that the mainsail had been torn away, although the tattered fragments were left clinging round the yard-arms, one or two longer pieces streaming out like pennants from the leech ateach end of the spar, and some other strips had clung to the fore-rigging as they were blown away. 

The foretop-sail had been furled, and the ship was driving on with onlyher close-reefed main-topsail set; but preparations were being made as Igot on deck for hoisting the mizzen staysail, so that we might moreeasily bring her head round to the wind in case of its showing any signof shifting. 

This, however, was but a last resource, which could only be adopted inthe extreme peril of being taken aback. There is no more ticklishoperation than that of wearing a ship in a heavy sea where there is astrong following wind; and Captain Miles, for one, I could see, intendedto let the vessel drive on as long as the gale lasted, unless it shouldtry to head us, when of course he would have no alternative left butthat of laying-to. 

He did not seem a bit uneasy as yet, though; for he greeted me quitecheerily when I at last managed to clamber up on the poop and make myway aft to where he was standing, holding on to everything I couldclutch to maintain my footing. The ship was rolling from side to sidelike a porpoise, and the wind nearly blew the hair off my head, my caphaving gone away to leeward the first step I took up the ladderway onemerging from the cabin after breakfast. 

"Well, Master Tom!" the captain shouted in my ear, the noise being sogreat that it almost required a speaking trumpet to make anyone hear ata great distance--"how do you like this weather, eh?"

"A jolly sight better than the calm, " I said joyously. The wind seemedto get in my head and make me excited in a similar way as it is supposedto affect cats; for I felt inclined to sing with glee as I braced myselfup against the blast and clung to the binnacle rail, surveying the wildscene around in a perfect frenzy of delight. Sea and sky were mingledtogether; and the ship presented a grand spectacle as she noblystruggled against and overcame the combined strength of the elementstrying to vanquish her efforts at escape!

"A good breeze is certainly better than a calm, Tom, " observed MrMarline in response to my jubilant remark; "but, it all depends whatsort of a wind it is, for, if it blows your vessel the wrong way, thequestion arises whether the former state of things be not preferable. "

"Belay that sea-lawyering, Marline, " interposed Captain Miles. "I neversaw such a fellow for taking a gloomy view of everything! Here we wererolling about in a calm for days upon days as if they would never end, while now we are bowling away before a brisk south-easter; and yet youare not happy!"

"But in what direction are we going, eh, captain?" slyly inquired MrMarline. 

"A point or two off our course, I admit, " replied the other; "but stillwe are going, and that is the great thing. We are not lying still likea log on the ocean. "

"How far have we run, sir, do you think, since last night?" I askedCaptain Miles when Mr Marline made no further attempt at conversation. 

"I shall take a sight of the sun presently, my boy, " he answered, withone of his odd winks, giving a quizzical glance at Mr Marline, as iftelling me he thought he had shut him up for the time; "then I shall bebetter able to tell you. However, as we've been running twelve knots anhour good since four bells in the first watch, we ought to have madeover a hundred miles or so from our last stopping place. "

"And where shall we get to if we continue running on the same as now?"I next inquired, thinking of what Mr Marline had said. 

"To the Banks of Newfoundland, I suppose, if the same wind holds; but, I'm of opinion that we'll have a change as soon as we fetch the GulfStream, when we shall be able to shape a straight course for theChannel. "

"And what is the Gulf Stream, captain?" I then asked. 

"Bless the boy!" he exclaimed, "I never saw such a chap for questions;why, you're almost as bad as Mr Marline! Well, if you must know, theGulf Stream, or `Florida Current' as it is frequently called, issomething very like a river of warm water, some eighty to three hundredmiles wide, flowing through the surrounding ocean from the Gulf ofMexico to Europe in a circular nor'-east by east direction. Startingfrom between the Dry Tortugas and Cuba, it skirts the eastern shores ofthe United States, then passing across the Atlantic to the south of theBanks of Newfoundland, where it branches off into two currents in midocean, near the Azores. One of these streams steers north, along theshores of Norway, while the other leg sweeps onward to the EnglishChannel, circling round the Bay of Biscay and then pursuing a southerlycourse along the Spanish coast until it meets the great equatorialcurrent coming up from the south Atlantic. Uniting now with this, thedouble current flows back westwards to the place of its birth, only torenew its onward course again from the Caribbean Sea. "

"But what causes it?" I said. 

"Well, that is a disputed point, " replied the captain. "One authoritysays that the Gulf Stream `is caused by the motion of the sun in theecliptic, ' and I think there is a good deal of reason in this. Anotherphilosopher puts it down to the influence of the anti-trade and passagewinds blowing from the west to the east along the zone in which thestream travels; and I think much might be said about that argument, especially as the westerly current south of the tropic of Cancer isundoubtedly caused by the trade-wind. A third scientific gentlemanascribes the stream to the fact, that the earth being a globe, the wateron the equator is higher than that of the tropics, and the lower stratumof fluid circles round constantly in its endeavour to reach into thebigger volume beyond its reach; but I can't say much for this theorymyself, Tom. "

"But how do you know the Gulf Stream from the rest of the ocean?" Ihere asked. 

"As easily as you can distinguish a marlinespike from a capstan-bar, "answered Captain Miles. "It is not only bluer than the surroundingwater, through which it flows, as I've told you, like a river, but it isalso several degrees warmer; for, when a ship is close to the stream andsailing in the same direction in which it is running, a bucket of waterdipped from the sea on one side of the vessel will show an appreciabledifference of temperature to that procured from the other. Besides, myboy, there's the Gulf-weed to tell you when you are within the limits ofthe current; however, you'll see lots of the weed by and by, no doubt, before we finish our voyage. "

"You said, captain, " I observed, "that the great currents of the oceanare produced by the trade-winds?"

"Undoubtedly, " he replied. "Blowing with regular force on the surfaceof the sea, they cause it to move in the same direction in which theyare travelling; and, this motion once acquired, the ocean stream keepsup its course far beyond where its original propelling power directlyacted upon it. The `Great Equatorial Current' is produced by the south-east trade, the Gulf Stream, as I've just explained to you, by thewestern or passage winds; and the branch of the latter current thatskirts the British Isles and Southern Europe, until it falls in againwith the northern portion of the Equatorial Current, by the north-easttrade-winds. Thus, the circle is completed, the water being ever inmotion round the centre of the tropic of Cancer, just in the same way asthe winds of this region are. "

"But what causes the trade-winds?" I next asked. 

"You young rascal!" said Captain Miles, shaking his fist at me in ajocular manner, "I'll have you keel-hauled if you utter anotherquestion! I will answer you this one, however--but it is the last time, though, mind that! The sun, my lad, is the source of the winds of theglobe, as it is the prime agent of heat and life. The atmospheric airbeing heated by the solar orb at the equator, where its force isnecessarily the greatest, ascends. This creates a vacuum, which thesurrounding air hastens to fill, causing thus a constant indraught fromboth the north and south towards the equator; and the fact of theopposing winds meeting at this point produces those very calms which vexus poor mariners. There, Master Tom, that's all I can tell you; for, Imust see about my sextant now to consult the great luminary we have beentalking of, so as to see where our scudding has taken us to. "

Captain Miles's mission after his sextant, however, was a vain quest to-day, for a mass of fleeting clouds were continually passing to and froacross the zenith, obscuring the heavens so much that not a single peepof the sun could be had either at noon or later on. 

The wind now, too, began to come in violent gusts, striking the shipevery now and then with a force that seemed to bury her in the water;while the sea got rougher and rougher, looking as angry as it waspossible to conceive. 

Presently, with a loud report, the main-topsail split in half, and thenthe pieces blew away bit by bit ahead of the ship like paper kites, theuseful foretop-sail which had been again set in the afternoon being nowthe only sail left on her; but, still, on she plunged through the wasteof waters as madly as ever, the sky getting more and more overcast asthe day wore on, and a heavy bank of blue-black clouds gathered togetherright in front, to the north-west, whither we were trending. 

"Don't you think, captain, " said Mr Marline, who had returned to thepoop after having a short rest below--he having remained on deck whilethe captain had turned in during the early part of the morning watch--"Isay, don't you think we're running into the very jaws of the galeagain?"

"It certainly looks like it, " replied Captain Miles shaking his head. "We must try and lay her to, if we can, though I dread the job! See tothe hands being ready to set that mizzen staysail; it will help her headround when we ease off the yards. "

This sail had been bent all ready the night before, and now with greatdifficulty was hoisted; but then came a greater difficulty, that ofgetting the ship about--for, what with the gusty wind and the heavy seait was a very perilous proceeding, the vessel running the risk of beingpooped as well as broaching-to. 

"We'll have to wear her!" said the captain, after thinking over thematter a bit. "Send a hand or two forwards to see to the fore-staysail, so as to be ready for hoisting it when I give the word!"

Jackson, to whom this latter order was addressed, immediately wentforwards on the forecastle, accompanied by a couple of other men;although the three found it a serious matter to escape the thick greenseas the vessel took in over her bows as she dived into the trough ofthe waves, washing the decks fore and aft. After a struggle, however, they managed to climb out to their station, getting the fore-staysailready to haul up as the captain had commanded, although he only meant touse it in case the topsail carried away as we wore ship, which was verypossible. 

Then, watching our opportunity when the _Josephine_ was rising on thecrest of a gigantic wave that had rolled up astern to poop her, but hadfortunately instead passed underneath her keel, the helm was put up andthe fore-yards easied round. 

She answered the rudder; but one sea came in over her quarter just whenshe was fully exposed to the side force of the wind. Luckily, however, everything held; and, as the foretop-sail got gradually taken aback themizzen staysail drew, casting her stern round, so that her head at lastfaced the wind and sea. The vessel plunged fearfully, but held her owngrandly, not falling off again as we all expected. 

"By Jingo, she's a beauty!" exclaimed the captain in high delight at thesuccess of the manoeuvre. "I never saw a ship behave better in my life!I was frightened of her at one time, I confess. "

"So was I, " said Mr Marline, much relieved by our now being hove-to andbetter prepared to meet any change of wind. "She's all right now, though!"

He had spoken too quickly, however, "counting his chickens before theywere hatched, " according to the old proverb; for, no sooner had he gotout the words than for one single instant the gale lulled, coming to adead stand-still, and the very next moment it began to blow from theexactly opposite direction--the storm proceeding now from the north-westquadrant instead of the south-east, and the headquarters of our freshassailant being the thick bank of black clouds we had noticed in frontof our previous position before wearing ship low down on the horizon. 

We had evidently only got round in the very nick of time. 

Otherwise, there is little doubt that the _Josephine_, meeting the windfrom this new quarter full butt, would have been taken aback. Now, fromher change of position it struck her aft, making her scud again beforeit as she had previously done--strangely enough causing her to retracethe very same course she had just passed over, in almost a straightline!

"Square away the yards!" shouted out Captain Miles, while the men at thewheel shifted the helm to prevent the vessel from broaching-to; and, inanother moment we were pitching and tossing through the choppy head-seawhich we had now to meet, the ship rolling from side to side, andtumbling about like a whale in its death flurry, as she raced on aheadagain before the stiff north-western blast. 

"Well!" exclaimed Captain Miles presently, "of all the sudden changes ofwind I ever encountered on the ocean, this beats everything! It hasliterally jumped round the compass. "

"I fancy it is the tail-end of the hurricane, " said Mr Marline. "It isa very lucky thing we wore ship in time. "

"Lucky, you call it?" rejoined Captain Miles gravely, eyeing theforemast anxiously the while, fearful of anything being carried away, when we would be left to the mercy of the cruel waves. "Man alive, itis only through the mercy of Providence that we are not now sunk fathomsdeep below the sea!"

CHAPTER THIRTEEN. 

ON OUR BEAM-ENDS. 

Up to now, although we had experienced bad weather for two days and thespecial gale before which we were driving had lasted some eighteen hoursat a stretch, no serious accident had happened on board, the _Josephine_being as sound and staunch in every way as when she left port, with theexception of losing her mainsail and having her rigging, perhaps, rathertautly stretched. 

The galley fire had been put out once or twice by the heavy seas whichwe took in over the bows, but Cuffee, with the cordial co-operation ofhis brother darkey, Jake, was easily able to light this again; and themen, having their rations regularly and little or no work to do--savetaking their trick at the wheel, when four would have to go on dutytogether at once--had nothing to grumble at. Everything, indeed, proceeded comfortably enough while the ship was scudding first one wayand then the other--"doing diagonals, " as it were, across her latitudes!

Down below in the cabin all had been what sailor's term "a hurrah'snest" ever since the gale began, the loose water knocking about thedecks having washed all sorts of odds and ends together and kept usalways wet; while the rolling of the vessel from side to side, like apendulum, as she ran before the wind had smashed most of the crockery-ware and glasses in the steward's pantry, besides causing the benchesround the saloon table and the chairs to fetch away from their lashings. 

For days past, our meals had resembled amateur picnics more thananything else--whenever we were able to get them, that is, the oldregularity of breakfast and lunch and dinner being completely abolished;for the captain and Mr Marline and myself had to take odd snacks andstray bites at various hours whenever opportunity and appetite allowedtheir indulgence. 

Harry, the steward, was at his wit's end to get things in properkeeping. 

No sooner had he cleared up one batch of breakages and made mattersship-shape than over would sway the _Josephine_ hard to port; when, bangwould go something else, undoing in one instant the work of hours oflabour in putting the place below in order. 

"Lor' a mussy, me nebber get tings right nohow!" he would exclaim, setting to work again; and then, a sea would come floating in over thecombings of the cabin bulkhead, tumbling him over and washing him aftamidst the debris, almost drowning the man before he could fish himselfup again and set to his task anew. His toil, like that of Sisyphus, wasever being renewed when on the verge of completion. 

To me, however, all these little disagreeables seemed immensely jolly;so, whenever the captain or Mr Marline or Harry happened to getcapsized in this way down in the cabin during the day, it sent me atonce into fits of merriment, the fact of my being washed off my feet aswell only adding to the enjoyment of the joke, for I could grin quite asmuch with my own head in the scuppers and my mouth full of water as Iwould when the others were similarly situated. 

"Bless the boy!" Captain Miles said. "He's a regular sailor. Helaughs at everything. "

And so I did; especially one afternoon, when a sea coming in suddenly sojammed Mr Marline inside an arm-chair, whose seat had given way, thatthe watch had to be called below to extricate him. The mate took thematter with great good-humour, I may add, only saying to me, "Ah, nevermind, Master Tom, we'll see who'll laugh best bye and bye. "

Jake used to sneak down on the sly to put my bunk in order so that Imight be more comfortable, having, like most pure negroes, a thoroughcontempt for the mulatto steward. He believed him quite incapable oflooking after me properly. 

"Him only poor trash, Mass' Tom, " he would say to me; "he can't donuffin', I'se like to come an' look after um cabin for young massa, whenI'se in watch below. "

Then, the good-natured fellow would scrub away energetically at thefloor, deluged with water, and fix up things straight for me; making theplace far more neat and tidy in five minutes than Harry the mulattocould have done if he had been all day over the job. He eclipsed thesteward in his own line, while proving himself as good as any seaman inthe ship. 

Jake was a handy chap, indeed, all round, for he was of veryconsiderable assistance to Cuffee in the galley when the stormy weatherinterfered with the cooking; so, Captain Miles did not object to hiscoming to look after me in this way. He "winked at it, " as he said. 

During the evening of the day on which the wind shifted round to thenorth-west, the sky somewhat cleared and the night was fine andstarlight; but the gale seemed to blow with all the greater vehemence asthe clouds dispersed. It increased to the strength of a hurricanetowards one o'clock in the morning, when, the fore-topsail and mizzenstaysail blowing away, the ship had to content herself with runningunder bare poles, careering through the water faster than ever. She hadcertainly never realised such speed since she had been launched. 

I was awake when Captain Miles came down at this time to consult thebarometer, and I could hear what he said to Jackson, who had accompaniedhim below for something or other, the two talking together just outsidemy bunk. 

"I'm sure I can't make it out at all, " the captain said in rather ahopeless way. "Here's the glass keeping as high as possible, and yetthe gale shows no token of lessening. What can it mean?"

"These cyclones are queer things, sir, " responded Jackson. "I was intwo while in a China trader, and sha'n't forget them in a hurry. "

"I could understand it, " continued Captain Miles as if reasoning withhimself, "keeping on like this if we were in the Gulf of Mexico now, forit looks like what they call a norther there; but I've never heard ofone of those winds being met in the Atlantic. "

"It's something out of the common, sir, " observed Jackson. "It's acyclone, or hurricane, if I ever was in one, and I don't see as how wecan do better than we are doing, sir. "

"Well, we simply can't, " said the captain. "We are running before it ashard as we can with only our bare sticks showing, for the vessel won'tstand a rag of sail; so, it is utterly impossible to lay to and brave itout. "

"Quite so, sir, " responded the other. "All we can do is to carry on andtrust to running out of it into calm weather. We ought to have made along stretch to the southwards by now. "

"So we have, Jackson, " said Captain Miles. "We're now, I fancy, prettywell back where we lay so long in the calm, although perhaps a triflemore to the eastwards; but, if we run on much further, I'm sure I don'tknow where we'll bring up!"

There the conversation ended and I went off to sleep soon afterwards, although the creaking of the timbers and roar of the sea soundedterrific, making noise enough to drown the sound of everything else. Icouldn't hear a footstep on the deck above me--all was hushed but theterrible turmoil of the elements. 

I got up about six o'clock. I knew the hour by striking a match andlooking at a little watch my father had given me just before I lefthome; for, it was all dark in the cabin, the ports and scuttles beingclosed and the dead-lights in the stern being up, while the doors in thebulkheads were drawn to, so as to keep out the sea from rushing in whena wave came over the forecastle. 

Opening one of the sliding panels with some difficulty and pushing itback far enough for my body to get through, I emerged on the main-deck, thence managed to scramble on the poop, where the captain and MrMarline were standing as well as Jackson, all holding on to the rigging. None of the officers had turned in all night, but I noticed that noneof the hands were visible except the men at the helm, the captainallowing the rest to keep snug in the forecastle until they were wanted, for heavy seas were washing over the rails every now and then or comingin from the bows and sweeping the ship fore and aft, so there was no usein exposing the men unnecessarily when there was nothing really for themto do, as was the case now--no sail being set and only the wheel havingto be attended to. 

Ahead, astern, to the right hand and to the left, the sea was nothingbut a mass of foam, while the air was thick with flying scud that waschopped off the heads of the great rolling waves every instant andwhirled to leeward by the wind. This seemed sometimes actually to beatdown the water and make it level with its tremendous strength, thebillows springing up, after each gust, like india-rubber balls that hadbeen pressed flat and then suddenly released, for they spirted up intothe air, flinging their crests aloft one brief moment only to bedecapitated the next by the sweeping scythe-like blast. 

Far and wide, the ocean presented a magnificent picture of awfulgrandeur and howling desolation. 

Above, the sky was of a dull leadenish hue, and there was nothinganywhere to be seen beyond sky and water save the poor _Josephine_tearing along through the chaotic maelstrom, labouring and groaningheavily as she rolled from side to side, dipping her yard-arms from timeto time with each lurch, with the wind shrieking and whistling the mostwonderful harp music through the rigging--nothing to be seen but therestless, roaring, heaving sea stretching away, like a boiling cauldronof soap-suds, to where the gloomy heavens met the angry horizon. 

At mid-day, more from curiosity than anything else, as we had lost alltrack of our dead reckoning, Captain Miles had the log hove, when it wasfound that the vessel under her bare poles was going close on fourteenknots an hour. The force of the wind on her hull and spars was quitesufficient alone to achieve this speed, for the yards were braced squareand the helm kept as steady amidships as the send of the waves wouldallow and the four men in charge of the spokes could manage. 

And so, we continued all that day and night, the gale still keeping upto the same pitch when the fourth morning broke, with never a sign ofcessation, while the sea was, if possible, rougher than before, causingus to ship the water over our bows continually. 

Captain Miles was fairly cornered. 

"I tell you what, Marline, " he said towards the afternoon, "I don'tthink there is now any possible chance of the wind backing again; so, asshe's taking in such a lot over the bows, we must try and get some sailon her, to rise out of the trough of the sea. "

"I don't believe the mast will stand a rag, should we be able to hoistwithout its being blown to pieces, " replied the first mate despondingly. 

He seemed to have lost all heart, unlike the captain and Jackson, whowere both still brave and cheerful, keeping up the spirits of the men. These latter, I could see, were beginning to lose their courage too, going about their duties with a sort of dogged stubbornness unlike theirold ready way. 

"Well, we'll try it at any rate. But, first, we must see to securingthe masts. Get up a spare hawser and we'll rig a fresh stay round thehead of the foremast, and then we'll set the foresail. That will lifther bows out of the water, if it only holds. "

So saying, Captain Miles yelled out for the watch below, and the menpresently came out from the forecastle, Davis, the whilom second mate, along with them, the lot shambling unwillingly along the deck to thegalley, where they clustered in a body. 

"Now, men, " said the captain, "we must try and get some sail on theship, or else we'll have all our timbers crushed in forwards by theseseas; who'll volunteer to go aloft and help stay the foremast? It'srisky work, and I don't like to order anyone to go. "

Not a soul spoke in answer for a minute or so, and then Davis steppedout a pace in front of the others. 

For a moment I was lost in admiration of what I conceived to be hispluck; but, the next instant, I perceived I had been too hasty injumping at this conclusion. 

"What do you take us for, Cap'en Miles?" Davis sang out sullenly. "Doyou think that men are dogs to waste their lives for nothing? Why don'tyou go aloft yourself, if you are so anxious about the job?"

Captain Miles turned quite white, as he always did when his temper wasup. He was then ready to dare anything, like most men of a deep nature. 

"So I will, you mutinous scoundrel!" he cried; and he was just makinghis way down the poop-ladder to go forwards, when Jackson, almostjumping over his head, outstripped him, being down in the waist and upto the loiterers in a jiffey. 

"Come on, you cowards!" the brave fellow exclaimed, clambering up intothe fore-rigging and making for the top. "Who's man enough to followme?"

There was no lack of volunteers now. 

First one, and then another, scrambled likewise into the shrouds andclimbed up after Jackson, only Davis being left below in his glory outof the whole watch. 

Even he too was following; but, on Jackson shouting out something abouthis "not wanting any lubbers to help him, " Davis sneaked back into theforecastle. 

The others then set to work vigorously, rousing up the end of a sparehawser, which had been coiled round the mainmast bitts, and securing itround the foremast head. The ends of this stout rope were then hauledaft and made fast to the main-chains on either side, when, a purchasebeing rigged up and brought to the capstan, the hawser was hove taut--thus serving as a double preventer stay, to support the great strainthere would be on the foremast when the fore course should be set, themast even now bending before the gale although no sail was as yet on it. 

"Now, men, loose the foresail!" shouted Captain Miles, much pleased withthe sharp way in which the task had been accomplished through the men'spromptitude. "Mind, though, and come down as soon as you've done it, for one doesn't know what may happen!"

"Aye, aye, sir, all right, " sang out Jackson in reply; and under hisorders the gaskets were quickly cast-off and the bunt dropped, when themen shinned down the rigging and ran the sheet aft, the sail blowing outlike a big white cloud over the forecastle before the tacks could bebelayed. 

Fortunately, while taking in sail on the night of the thunder-storm, Jackson had caused the foresail to be reefed before being clewed up, andthis precaution now stood us in good stead, as, instead of its beingspread to its full extent, only a portion of the sail was exposed to thewind. This, however, was quite sufficient; for, small as it was, ittugged at the restraining ropes like a giant endeavouring to freehimself from his bonds, flying out from the yards with spasmodic jerksand pulling at the mast in a way that showed that, if the spar had nothad additional support, it would probably have been torn bodily away outof the ship. 

The _Josephine_, though, soon felt the difference of having the sail onher; for, instead of now bowing to the seas and taking them in over herhead, she rose buoyantly, dashing along, of course, with greater speedthan before. 

Captain Miles was quite triumphant over it. 

"There, Marline, what do you think of that?" he said, rubbing his handswith much gusto. "Didn't I tell you so?"

"Yes, sir, so you did, " answered the other; "but we'll wait and see howlong it lasts. "

"Bah! it will last our turn, " said the captain, with a laugh at MrMarline's obstinate retention of his own opinion. "Anyhow, it has easedthe ship already. "

"It hasn't eased the steering, though, " retorted the mate. "We'll wantsix men at the helm if she goes on jumping like this. She's worse thana kangaroo now. "

"Better leap over the waves than under them, having a ton of green watercome over our bows every minute. Steady, there!"

"Steady it is, sir, " replied Moggridge, who was acting as quartermaster. 

"Keep her so, and mind to let her off when she seems inclined to broachto. I think we've seen the worst of it now, and can pipe down todinner. "

"I'm sure I sha'n't be sorry to have a fair mouthful to-day, " said MrMarline with a melancholy smile. "I haven't known what a good squaremeal was since the gale began, and think I could do justice to one now. "

"So could I, " replied the captain; and he went below to give Harry thesteward some especial orders on the subject, the result being that thelast pair of fowls occupying the nearly tenantless hen-coops wereremoved screaming to the cook's galley, to reappear an hour afterwardson the cabin table at the first regular dinner we were able to sit downto together for four days. The ship, although racing on still beforethe gale, was now riding more easily and rolling less, while no heavyseas came dashing aft from the forecastle to wash us all up in a heappell-mell into the stern-sheets, as had hitherto been the case at meal-times--a moving mass of legs and arms, crockery-ware, savoury dishes, and table furniture in general!

When I again went on deck, the ship was going beautifully, tearingthrough the water like a racehorse and parting the waves on either sideof her bows as if she were veritably ploughing the deep, the crests ofthe sea rising in foam over the fore-yard and floating in the air in theshape of spindrift and spray far astern. 

The sky, too, had somewhat lost its leaden hue, clearing towards thezenith, where one or two odd stars could be seen occasionally peepingdown at us through the storm rack that flew overhead like scraps offleecy wool. This cheery prospect told us to be of good courage, leading us to hope that if we only waited patiently we might expect fineweather bye and bye. 

At nine o'clock, the greater portion of the heavens was quiteunobscured, the moon shining out, although looking pale and watery andwith a big burr round her that showed the still unsettled condition ofthe atmosphere; the wind, strange to say, continuing to blow with almostas great force from the north-west as when it began, nearly forty-eighthours before. 

"I'm afraid we're going to have a nasty night of it, " said CaptainMiles, who had just then come up from below with his sextant. "Still, I'm glad to see our old friend the moon again, however greasy she maylook. I haven't been able to take an observation since Monday; so we'llsee what a lunar may do in the way of fixing our position. "

Just then, there was a break in the haze that had caused the wateryappearance of the fair orb of night; and Captain Miles, taking advantageof the opportunity, took his angles, a sight of two of theconstellations also helping his calculations, and giving him data towork upon. He then went down to his cabin again to work out thereckoning. 

"Guess where we are, Marline?" he said when he came up for the secondtime. "I don't think you'll be able to tell within a degree!"

"Somewhere between the forties, I should think, with all this scuddingabout north and south, " replied the other. 

"Well, I make it that we're just about 33 degrees 10 minutes North, and41 degrees West longitude. What do you think of that, eh?"

"Never!" exclaimed the first mate. 

"But, it's true enough, " returned Captain Miles. "I assure you I'vetested my reckoning in every way, those star altitudes enabling me tocorrect my lunars. Yes, Marline, you see we did not lose so much bycarrying on to the north as you fancied we would; and this blusteringnorth-wester has now taken us almost eight hundred miles in the verydirection we wanted to go. If we had lain to, as you wanted at first, we should now have been considerably to the southward of our position, and would probably have had to beat up northwards again; whereas now, assoon as the gale is blown out, we'll be right in the trades for home. "

"And won't we touch the Gulf Stream, then?" I asked. 

"No, my boy, thank goodness, we're a long way from that; but if you'reanxious to see the Gulf-weed I told you about, we're now in its nativehome, a region called the Sargasso Sea. "

"The Sargasso Sea!" I repeated. "I never heard of that before. "

"No, I don't suppose you have, " replied Captain Miles in answer to myimplied question. "It is a name applied to a calm expanse of the oceanbetween the Gulf Stream and the Equatorial Current, and is called sofrom the _Sargassum_, or Gulf-weed, which is continually found floatingthere--that is, when the wind is not too strong, as now, to blow itelsewhere. You'll see plenty of the stuff as soon as the gale lulls, which it must do now, I think, in a very few hours. "

"Are you going to carry on still before it, sir?" asked Mr Marline. 

"Of course, " answered the captain. "The ship is sailing easily and notstraining herself, as she would do if lying-to; and we can't run intoany harm following the same course till morning. I intend to work thegale in the same way as a friend of mine once treated a runaway horse. It first started off to please itself, and then he made it keep up itspace to please him; so, as the wind has chosen to blow us along at itsown sweet will all this time, it shall now drive the ship at mypleasure. What do you say, Master Tom, eh?"

"I say it's a very good plan, captain, " I replied laughing. 

"Well, my boy, I'll tell you of another good plan, and that is to gobelow and turn in, as I purpose doing. Mr Marline, " added the captainto the first mate, "please take the first watch. I'll relieve you atmidnight; I don't think there'll be any change before then. "

With these words, Captain Miles, who had been on deck almostcontinuously now for two days and nights, went down to the cabin to havea couple of hours of much-needed repose; and taking his hint as anorder, good-humouredly as it was spoken, I followed him at once. 

Nor was I anything loth either to go to my bunk; for I had eaten ahearty dinner which made me feel drowsy. After I had turned in, too, there being no excitement to keep me awake, and the ship being quitesafe, there being now every prospect of the gale coming soon to an end, I slept like a top--Harry the steward having to wake me again nextmorning to tell me that breakfast was ready, and coming twice to shakemy bunk before I would turn out. 

When I subsequently went on deck, I could soon see that the weather hadaltered for the better. 

Although the sea was still rough, the clouds had cleared away from thesky entirely, not a speck of hazy vapour being discernible anywhere, while the sun was shining down brightly and warmly, enlivening the wholescene around and making the ocean, in spite of its still roughcondition, almost look pleasant; the white wreaths of spray, broken-offby the wind from the tops of the waves, glistening with the prismatichues of the rainbow as they were tossed up in the air on clashing billowmeeting billow. 

On board the ship, also, matters had considerably improved, only two menbeing required at the helm in place of four, for the vessel was ever somuch more easy to steer; and, I could see preparations being made in thewaist for bending a new main-topsail and mizzen staysail in place ofthose that had been blown away when we were in the vortex of thehurricane. 

It was a difficult job getting the remains of the old main-topsail offthe yard, the wind blowing still with great force and the men having tohold on with all their might. But, after an hour's labour, the task wasaccomplished, and then the new piece of canvas was sent up into the topby the halliards, where, after being bent and close-reefed, it wassheeted home and the yard hoisted up again, spreading the sail. 

The mizzen staysail followed suit; and then, seeing that the ship borethe pressure pretty well, Captain Miles ordered the fore-topmaststaysail to be hoisted. This brought the _Josephine_ more up to thewind, the vessel now sailing with it about a couple of points abaft thebeam. 

She heeled over tremendously, burying all the lee bulwarks under water, with the sea rushing along her channels like a mill-race; but, she heldto it bravely, and we all congratulated ourselves on having weatheredthe storm and carried out Captain Miles's boast of making the gale servehis purpose, thus turning a foul wind into a fair one. 

Towards mid-day, the captain took an observation, which amplycorroborated his lunars of the previous evening, we being found to be in32 degrees North latitude and 40 degrees West longitude, the slightdifference between this and his former reckoning being due to thedistance we had run during the night. 

The wind still held up, however, and although we were carrying morecanvas than we really ought to have had on the ship in such a gale, Captain Miles was just thinking of setting the spanker and bending a newfore-topsail, when, as if it had been all at once shut off from itssource, the strong north-western wind in a moment ceased to blow. 

At this time there was not a single cloud on the horizon anywhere, thesky being absolutely clear and beautifully blue; but I noticed somethinglike a white wall of water on our port bow advancing towards the_Josephine_. 

The sight resembled an enormous wave raised up to twenty times theheight of those in our more immediate vicinity. 

"Look, Mr Marline!" I cried. "What is that there to the left?"

He glanced where I pointed, and so did Jackson, the latter singing outthe moment he caught sight of the wave to the two men at the wheel, whowere Davis and a German sailor, "Down with the helm--sharp!"

"Hullo! what's the matter?" exclaimed Captain Miles, hearing the orderand raising himself up from the cabin skylight where he had been bendingover his log-book, in which he had been jotting down an entry. "What'sup now?"

"Something uncommonly like a white squall, sir, " hurriedly explainedJackson. "It's coming down fast on us from windward, and will be on usin a jiffey. Down with the helm sharp, don't you hear?" he called out asecond time to the helmsmen. 

Captain Miles, quite startled now, looked round, and seeing the greatwave of water, now quite close, borne before the coming wind, repeatedthe order to put down the helm more sharply still, adding also to thewatch on duty:

"Cast-off the topsail sheets and let everything go by the run!"

Whether Davis heard the order to let the ship's head fall off andwilfully disobeyed it, on account of its coming from Jackson, whom hehated, or whether he was paralysed with terror at the approach of thisnew danger, after our having passed through all the perils of thecyclone, no one could say; but he not only did not turn the spokes ofthe wheel himself, but he absolutely prevented the other man from doingso. 

Seeing the vessel did not answer the helm, the captain and Jacksontogether darted aft, dragging away Davis and fiercely jamming the wheeldown as hard as they could. 

The movement, however, came too late. 

Before the _Josephine's_ bows could pay off, a terrific blast of wind, worse than anything that had yet assailed her, struck her sideways. Over she was borne to leeward, dipping and dipping until her yard-arms;and then, the tops of her masts, touching the water, becoming graduallyimmersed as the ship canted. 

At the same moment, too, with a loud double report, the foresail andmain-topsail blew out of the bolt-ropes, floating away in the distance. But this relief, great as it was, did not right the ship, for the hugewhite wave, following the gust, forced her over still more on her side;and, in less time than I have taken to tell of the occurrence, the_Josephine_ was on her beam-ends and every soul on board struggling inthe water for dear life. 

"Hole on, Mass' Tom, hole on!" I heard Jake's voice cry somewhere, as Isank beneath the rocking surges that were in an instant cresting overthe poop. "Hole on, Mass' Tom, hole on!"

I tried to battle with the sea, but it bore me down, and down, and down. 

And then--I felt I was drowning!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN. 

IN DIRE PERIL. 

Jake's voice seemed ever so far away in the distance, and there was aconfused sort of humming, buzzing noise in my ears; while some heavyweight on the top of my head appeared to be pressing me down, although Istruggled frantically to free myself. 

It was all in vain, though. 

I was whirled round and round in an eddy of the sea; and soon my effortsceased. 

Then, all at once, when almost the sense of suffocation had passed, Ifelt a hand grasp my collar at the back of my neck; and, oh, graciousheaven! I was dragged above the surface and drew once more a breath ofair. I took in a gulp of water with this; but, in spite of the water, the air was the sweet essence of life and I breathed again!

I had been in a dream before--a terrible dream; now I came to myself, and my recollection returned. 

The buzzing sounds that had previously echoed through my brain resolvedthemselves into the hoarse shouts of the crew of the _Josephine_; theexclamations of the sailors being mingled with the roaring, crashingbreak of the waves as they washed over the wreck, and the creaking andrending of the timbers of the poor ship, while, nearer yet to me, Icould distinguish the cheering cry of faithful Jake:

"Hole up, Mass' Tom, um got um safe now. Hole up an' take good breff;we'se all right, an' ebberybody safe!"

At the same moment that he spoke Jake lifted me up on something which Icould feel with my feet, and I opened my eyes. 

At first, I was almost blinded by the sea-water which had got into them, and the salt spray which continually dashed over my head; but, in aminute or two, I was able to see where I was and grasp the situation. 

The ship was lying over on her starboard side, with her decks submergedup to the hatches, and her masts horizontal on the surface of the sea;but, the whole of her port side was clear out of the water, and, although the waves were breaking over this, still the major part of thequarter and a portion of the poop were almost high and dry in theintervals between the following rollers that ever and anon swept up totheir level. 

On this after part of the ship, Jake had managed to clamber up, luggingme along with him; and, as I looked round, I could recognise CaptainMiles and Mr Marline, as well as several others of the hands, who hadsought such a vantage-ground of safety. 

Away forwards, the _Josephine_ was completely buried in the huge billowsthat were constantly surging over her; but here, too, clinging on to themain-chains was another group of sailors, amongst whom I could make outthe tall figure of Jackson, with Cuffee and Davis close beside him. 

Captain Miles perceived me almost as soon as I saw him. 

"Ah, there you are, Tom!" he cried. "Thank God you are not lost! Imade a hard grab at you when the ship heeled over, but missed you; andthought that the skylight hatch carried you away overboard when itlifted. "

"Me watchee him sharp, sah, " explained Jake. "I'se see de squall comin'an' run aft for tell, an' den I clutch hole Mass' Tom, an' here we is!"

"You've saved your young master then, " exclaimed the captain; "so, Tom, you've got to thank the darkey instead of me! But, how many of us haveescaped?"

As he said this, Captain Miles glanced about and appeared to bereckoning up the list of the crew on his fingers, for I could see hislips move. 

"Marline, you're all right, eh?" he went on presently, speaking outaloud. 

"Oh, yes, I'm here, thanks to Providence, " said the first mate withalmost a sob in his voice. It told better than words his gratitude tothe power on high that had preserved him. 

"And Jackson, I see, with Davis and Cuffee, " continued the captain, running through the names of the survivors as far as he could make themout. 

"There's Adze, the carpenter, too, in the main-chains, with those twoGerman sailors, Hermann and Gottlieb; while there are five more of thehands alongside me, " said Mr Marline looking round, too, and takingstock. 

"But, where's Moggridge?" asked Captain Miles, missing the boatswain atthat moment and not seeing him anywhere. I felt my heart sink at thethought that he was gone. 

"Here I am, your honour, " however, sang out the old fellow, climbing upover the stern gallery. "I almost lost the number of my mess; but I'vemanaged to cheat Davy Jones this time. "

"That makes, with Master Tom here, just sixteen souls, out of eighteenwe had on board, all told, " said the captain. "Anybody seen thesteward?"

"No, he isn't here, poor fellow, " replied Mr Marline. "He was below inhis pantry at the time the squall struck us, and must have been drownedbefore he could scramble out. "

"There's only one other, then, missing, " said the captain. "Count thehands again, Marline. "

The first mate did this; and, then, it was found, on hailing Jackson inthe main-chains--the sea at present making a breach between us anddividing our forces--that the other sailor was a man named Briggs, whohad been ailing for some days past. He had been in his bunk in theforecastle when the ship capsized, so his fate was almost as certain asthat of Harry, the mulatto steward. 

All things considered, though, it was a great mercy, from the suddennature of the calamity, that so many of us should have been saved. Butfor the fact of the accident having occurred in the afternoon, when themajority of the hands were fortunately on deck aft, many more liveswould undoubtedly have been lost. 

However, albeit temporarily preserved from the peril of a watery grave, our outlook, clustered there together on the outside of the partly-submerged vessel, was a very sorry one; for, the sea was still runninghigh, and the waves were breaking over us in sheets of foam, and, although the sun was shining down and the air was comparatively warm, this made us feel most uncomfortable. Besides, the continual onslaughtof the rolling billows necessitated our holding on to everything wecould get a grip of, to prevent ourselves from being washed away. 

We had to lie along the side of the ship, grasping the mizzen rigging, which attitude was a very wearying one; for, the sea would lift us up asthe swell surged by, and then, we had to take a fresh grip, our feetsliding down the hull as the billow retired and the vessel sunk down inthe hollow. 

"I say, Marline, " called out the captain presently, "as you are nearestthe signal halliards, do you think you can manage to run them clear?"

"I'll try, sir, " answered the other; and Moggridge, who had now creptalongside the mate, helping him, the two contrived to haul out the ropein question. 

"Now, who's got a knife handy?" next inquired Captain Miles. 

There was half a dozen replies to this question; but, ere the articlewanted could be passed along, the old boatswain had drawn out his fromhis waistband by means of the lanyard slung round his neck, and wasbusily employed in cutting up the signal halliards into short lengths ofabout a fathom each. 

"Ah, I see you guessed what I was after, " said the captain noticingthis. "If we lash ourselves to the rigging here, it will save us aworld of exertion and trouble, besides leaving our hands free for otherpurposes. "

"Aye, aye, sir, I know'd what you want, " responded Moggridge, andpassing down the pieces of rope as he cut them off, all of us werepretty soon well secured from being washed away, each man helping to tieup his neighbour in turn. 

"Golly, massa, dis am a purdicafirment!" ejaculated Jake, grinning asusual, and with his ebony face shining with the spray; "I'se 'gin feelwant grub--um precious hungry. "

"I am afraid that'll not be our only want, my poor fellow, " said CaptainMiles in a melancholy voice; but rousing himself a minute afterwards headded more cheerfully, "Wait till the sea gets down, and then we'll tryto improve our condition. I wonder, though, how these other fellows aregetting on in the chains amidships? Jackson, ahoy!"

"Hullo, sir, " came a faint hail in answer, from amid the breaking seasfurther on ahead of us, where only a black spot of a head could be seenoccasionally emerging from the mass of encircling foam. 

"Are you all right there?" sang out the captain. 

"We're alive, sir; but nearly tired out, " replied Jackson in a low weaktone. 

"Can't you try, man, to work your way aft and join us, " urged CaptainMiles, comprehending how exhausted the young seaman and his companionsthere must be. "There's plenty of room here for all of us, and you'llnot be so much worked about by the sea. "

"The waves are too strong for us, sir, " cried out the other, but hisvoice now seeming to have a little more courage in it, for he addedafter a bit, "I think we can manage it, though, if you will make fastthe bight of the topsail sheet and heave the end to us. It will serveus to hold on by as we pass along the bulwarks. "

"All right, my hearty, " answered Captain Miles, he and a couple of thesailors beside him doing as Jackson had suggested. 

Then, the captain himself, undoing his lashings, seized one of the briefintervals in which the after part of the hull rose above the sea; when, standing on his feet, while his legs were held by the two sailors, hehove the end of the rope towards Jackson, who, clutching hold of it, secured it to the main-shrouds, whence it was stretched taut to themizzen rigging, thus serving as a sort of life-line by which the mencould pass aft. 

When this was done, the men with Jackson in the main-chains creptcautiously along the bulwarks, half in and half out of the water, clutching on to the topsail sheet hand over hand, soon joined us on thequarter galley--the young second mate being the last to leave, waitinguntil his comrades were in safety. 

The passage from the one place to the other was perilous in the extreme;for, the waves surged up sometimes completely over the poor fellows'heads, when they had once abandoned their footing and had only the frailswaying rope to support them against the wash of the water. They wereroughly oscillated to and fro, hove up out of the sea one minute andlowered down again into it the next. 

It was a wonder some of them did not fall off, getting sucked under thekeel of the ship; but, gripping the life-line with a clutch ofdesperation, their passage across the perilous bridge was at last safelyaccomplished, when the entire sixteen of us, including my own humbleself, were at length gathered together in one group on the counter-railbelow the bend of the poop. The new-comers were then lashed to themizzen rigging like the rest of us, and we all waited with what hope andpatience we could for the sea to calm down. 

By this time, it was late in the afternoon; and, presently, the sun sankdown away to the west in his ocean bed, surrounded by a radiant glow ofcrimson and gold that flashed upward from the horizon to the zenith. 

The wind had died away too, the last violent squall which had been sodisastrous to the _Josephine_, having been the expiring blast of thehurricane; so, although, as I've said, the sea still continued to runhigh, the waves rolled by more regularly and with an equal pulsation, asif Father Neptune was rocking himself gradually to sleep. The oldtyrant was evidently; exhausted with the mad rioting in which he hadrecently been indulging, and the thrashing which the gale had given him!

There was no sleep for us, however, excepting such hasty littledroppings off into brief forgetfulness that our worn-out bodies gave wayto for an instant; for we were constantly being roused up, almost assoon as our wearied eyelids had closed, by the sudden rush of the spentwash of some broken wave wetting our already wet garments. Thisbanished all thoughts of repose; and, when the darkness of night cameon, it was cold and dreary in the extreme, the hours seeming to drag outto the length of a lifetime. 

Poor faithful Jake lay close to me so as to protect me as much aspossible from the wash of the sea; and I found out, when morning lightcame once more to cheer us, that he had actually stripped off a guernseyvest, which Captain Miles had given him to save him from exposure on thenight of the thunder-storm, and had fastened this round my shoulders inorder to keep me warm!

I shall never forget Jake's thoughtful action, I believe, as long as Ilive, for it made a great impression on me when I discovered such astriking proof of his devotion; and, as I now retrace the incidents ofthe past, the incident stands out prominently in evidence of a negro'sbrotherly love. 

Why, his black skin always seemed white to me ever after. Aye, althoughborn an African, his heart was truer than that of many a European, whosecomplexion is only a trick of colour!

During the night we were all silent; but, when the sun rose in the east, flooding the sea with the rosy tint of dawn, hope came back to us andour tongues were unloosed--the more especially as the force of the waveshad considerably lessened, hardly a scrap of spray being now washed overus, while the blows of the billows against the side of the ship were nolonger heard. 

The sea really was calming down at last. 

God was watching over us!

"Say, captain, " said Mr Marline, who was the first to bestir himself, "do you think there's any prospect of our righting the ship?"

The captain was asleep, I believe, for the first mate had to repeat hisquestion twice before he could get an answer. 

"I'm sure I hope so, " at last sleepily muttered Captain Miles, with aportentous yawn--"only wait till the swell calms down and we'll seeabout it. "

"But it is calm now, " rejoined the other. 

"Then wake me again when it is calmer, " replied Captain Miles; and then, he turned on his side and proceeded with his nap as coolly as if he werecomfortably tucked up in his nice swinging cot in the cabin. 

"Well!" exclaimed Mr Marline, "of all the cool, self-possessed men Iever met in my life, you beat the lot!"

He was talking to himself, but the hands heard him, and there was ageneral snigger all round, the captain's very composure having givenconfidence to all. The men believed that he would not have taken thingsso quietly unless he had some sure hope of our speedy release from sucha precarious position. 

"He is a rare brave un, " put in Moggridge. "I've sailed with him manand boy for many a v'y'ge afore this, and I allers found him the same, calm and plucky in danger, and keeping a stiff upper lip when in perilsthat frighten other folk. Captain Miles, sir, is a man as a sailorshould be proud to sail under--that's what I says!"

"Eh, what, what?" murmured the captain, half waking up on hearing hisname spoken, and lifting his head from between his clasped hands. 

"I was a-saying, sir, as how you knew what's what, " replied theboatswain, "and I don't know of any other man I'd say sich of. "

"Belay that, " said Captain Miles, rousing up now and rubbing his eyes. "Ah, it's morning, I see! Well, Mr Marline, and how goes it?"

"As well as can be expected under the circumstances, " answered theother. 

"Bother circumstances, " rejoined the captain; "we must make the best ofthem we can. Now, let us see what's to be done. "

"Do you think we can right her, sir?" asked the mate repeating his oldquery. 

"Right her? yes, certainly, if we can cut away the masts. She's notwater-logged, and all sound below, I fancy, as far as I can see; for thehatches have been battened down since Monday. "

"But she's rather down by the head, sir, " said Mr Marline, as the tworose on their feet and proceeded to look round the vessel as well asthey could from the top of the poop bulwarks, whence they surveyed herposition and surroundings. 

"Ah!" exclaimed Captain Miles, "the fore-peak must have been left openwhen those spare sails were got out, so that she has taken in some waterthere. Never mind, though, there's a stout bulkhead separating thecompartment from the main hold, and, if there's no leak below, we'll beall right. "

"But, the masts have been working the decks all this time, " suggestedthe mate, "and if the sea has got in through the straining of thetimbers we must sink in time. "

"Sink your grandmother, Marline!" retorted the captain, "you forget thatour main cargo is rum, which is ever so much lighter than water, andmore buoyant. As long as we have that below we'll float, never youfear! But, the job is to cut away the masts if we can; she'll neverright, of course, till that is done. A pity your rigging was so wellset up, Marline! If the sticks had only gone by the board when thesquall struck us we'd be all right now. "

"I don't know that, captain, " replied the other. "If the masts had beenbadly stayed they would have gone in the height of the hurricane; andthen, where would we be now?"

"Not in the Sargasso Sea, I fancy, " said Captain Miles with a heartylaugh. "But we can't do anything yet, though, till the sea has gonedown more. Men, " he added, "keep your pecker up! Providence havingwatched over us thus far will now not desert us, I am confident, andwe'll yet weather on Mr Marline's circumstances!"

All hands gave a cheer at this hopeful speech, and the sun having bythis time dried our soddened clothes besides warming us, we began tofeel more comfortable and easy, the captain's words giving us freshcourage. 

Towards noon, however, the heat brought on a most terrific thirst, whichwas all the more painful from our not seeing any chance of relieving it;for, although, like the "ancient mariner, " we saw "water, watereverywhere, " there was not a drop of the wholesome fluid, as far as weknew, that we could drink. 

In this dire calamity, Jackson proved our guardian angel. 

"I say, captain, " he called out, after climbing along the bulwarks downinto that part of the waist of the ship which was clear of the sea, letting himself swing down by the end of the topsail halliards whichwere belayed to the side, "there's one of the water-casks lashed herethat did not fetch away to leeward with the rest when she canted over;and it's full too. If anyone has got a hat, or anything that I can drawoff the water in, I will start the bung and we can all splice the main-brace. "

"Hurrah!" shouted Captain Miles. "That's the best news I have heard formany a day. Here, Marline, pass him down my wide-awake. Mind how youdrive out the bung, Jackson, and have something ready to close up thehole again; or else, all the contents of the cask will be wasted 'forethe hands are served round. "

"I'll take care, sir, " replied the young seaman, who had now turned theend of the topsail halliards into a bight round his body, so that hecould swing down in front of the water-cask and yet have his hands free. 

Then, taking out a marlinespike, which had caught in the rigging somehowor other, he managed, after several blows on either side of the cask, tostart the bung. This, from the position in which the ship was lying, was now horizontal instead of perpendicular; so, as soon as it came out, the water flowed at once into the captain's wide-awake hat, whichJackson had under the bung-hole, stopping up this again with the cork assoon as the hat was full. 

Mr Marline was bending down from the bulwarks above him to receive thestrange jug when the other handed it up to him, and he passed it on toCaptain Miles, who allowed me to have the first drink. 

It tasted like nectar--better than any draught I had ever had before orsince!

Captain Miles himself then took a gulp of the grateful contents of hisold hat, passing it on to Moggridge; and, when emptied, as it very soonwas, the wide-awake was filled and refilled by Jackson until every manhad satisfied his thirst--the last to enjoy the water which he had beenthe means of procuring being the brave young seaman himself, just in thesame way as he had been the last to quit the post of danger when helpinghis shipmates out of the main-chains. 

Quenching our thirst gave us all new life; so, later on in theafternoon, Captain Miles set the men to work casting off the ropes asbest they could with the idea of freeing the masts. However, we coulddo nothing without an axe, for no man had anything handier than hisclasp-knife, which naturally was of no use in helping to cut away thecordage and heavy spars that kept the ship down on her beam-ends. 

What was to be done?

We were all in a dilemma, one man suggesting one thing, and anotherproposing a fresh plan for getting rid of the masts; when, Adze, thecarpenter, who had said nothing as yet, spoke for the first time. 

"I left a large axe o' mine, " he said quietly, as if saying nothingparticularly worthy of notice--"I left a large axe o' mine in my bunk inthe fo'c's'le; and if ary a one can git down theer, he'll find it on thetop side to his starboard hand as he goes in. "

"But, the fo'c's'le's full of water, " said Mr Marline, "and a man mustbe a good diver to creep in there and get the axe under eight or twelvefoot of sea! Besides, I daresay it will have been washed away fromwhere Adze put it in his bunk, the lurch of the ship having shiftedeverything to leeward. "

"It war to leeward already in the top bunk, I tell 'ee, " rejoined thecarpenter; "an', bein' that heavy, I spec's it's theer right enough. Only I can't dive, nor swim above water for that matter, so it's no usemy going after it. "

"I'll go, massa captain, " shouted out Jake, who had been listeningeagerly to this conversation. "I'se dibe like porpuss an' swim likefiss. "

"I know that, " said Captain Miles laughing. "I recollect the way youcame aboard my ship. But you can try if you like, darkey. If you findthat axe, you'll be the saving of all of us, and give a fair return foryour passage, my hearty!"

Jake did not need any further persuasion. 

Making his way along the bulwarks, he clambered on to the main rigging, now lying flat across the capsized vessel, until he came to a clearspace between the mainmast and the forecastle, from whence the boats andcook's galley had been washed away. Jumping into the water at thispoint, he swam towards the spot where he thought the entrance to theforecastle should lie, for the sea was washing about forward, andnothing to be seen above the surface but a small portion of the portbulwarks near the dead-eyes of the fore-shrouds and a bit of the portcat-head. 

Jake then dived below the water, disappearing from our view for a fewseconds that seemed interminable as we waited. 

"I hope he hasn't come to grief, " said Captain Miles anxiously. "Somany things have been carried away and jumbled up in a mass thereforwards, that the poor fellow might get fixed in and be drowned, without the chance of saving himself. "

But his alarm was quite unnecessary, Jake rising above the water inanother moment and scrambling up into the main rigging, in a veryhurried manner, as if something was pursuing him. 

His face as he turned it towards us was almost green | with fright, andwe could hear his teeth chattering | with fear and cold combined. 

"Well, " sang out Captain Miles, "I'm glad to see you out of that holealive. But, what's the matter, my man? have you got the axe?"

"N-n-n-no, Mass' Cap'en, " stuttered Jake, making his way aft again alongthe bulwarks, "got no axe nor nuffin'. Dere am duppy or de debbil in defo'c's'le. Bress de Lor', dis pore niggah only sabe him life an'--datall!"

CHAPTER FIFTEEN. 

A GLEAM OF HOPE. 

"You one big fool!" Cuffee, the cook, screamed out at hearing Jake'sstartling announcement, which made us all laugh in spite of our anxiety. "How can duppy come in de daylight, hey? You only see yer own blackface in water, an' tink um debbil. "

"Duppy, " I may explain, is the negro's common name for what they call aghost, or anything uncanny. 

However, paying no attention to his brother darkey's reasoning as to theimpossibility of such a nocturnal visitor appearing under the searchingrays of the sun, Jake stoutly maintained his own opinion. 

"Dere was sumfin' white dere, I swar, " he said, as soon as he hadsecured his footing on the bulwarks again, well out of the water. "Isee sumfin' white an' cold, an' he grab me by um leg. "

"That must have been poor Briggs's body floating about in thefo'c's'le, " observed Captain Miles. "I forgot to tell him of it beforehe dived down. Hi, Jake, " he added speaking out louder, "you needn't beafraid. I know what it was you saw. "

"D'ye, massa?" said Jake somewhat distrustfully, as if only halfbelieving this. "Golly, it um berry mysteferious. I'se tink--; but, Jerrybosalum, look dar, Mass' Cap'en, look dar!" he suddenly exclaimed, his voice again changing to a tone of intense horror, while he lookedthe picture of abject terror, his eyeballs rolling and his teethchattering as before. "Duppy come catchee me, for suah! Dere he amcomin' up wid him long claw--dere he am--dere he am!"

We all rose up on the side of the bulwarks, as if with one accord, looking in the direction to which Jake's trembling hand pointed, where, between the meshes of the rigging away forward in front of the mainmastwe could dimly discern a long sinuous greenish-white body graduallyrising to the surface of the water that covered the lower part of thedeck. 

The mysterious thing seemed to make after the negro, although noapparent movement was perceptible, while its colour became more luminousas it got nearer. 

Jackson was closer than any of us to Jake; and, as he stood up in themain-chains to help the negro up, he perceived what the object was thathad frightened him, for he could see down into the water clear of therigging, which somewhat hampered our view. 

"Why, it's a shark!" he called out. "It is a big fellow too--largerthan the brute that nearly tackled me the other day. "

"A shark, Massa Jackson, for true, hey?" said Jake, turning round toassure himself of the fact; and, then, seeing his pursuer to be of nosupernatural origin, as he had supposed, but only one of the ordinary, if ugly, denizens of the deep, his alarm disappeared instanter and heburst into a fit of laughing--his African nature being as susceptible asthat of a child, his moods varying in a moment. 

"Yah, yah, " he roared, "me no 'fraid ob shark; I'se tink him ider oneduppy or de debbil, for suah, when um touch me on de shin-bone!"

"I'se tole you so, Jake, " said Cuffee with great contempt. "You'senebber see duppy in de daylight. You'se only big fool to tink so. "

"Berry well, " rejoined the other, "you hab your 'pinion an' I hab mine!If you was down dar in water jus' now, an' see dat long ting snouzle byum leg, lookin' so white an' drefful, I guess you'se frit too!"

If Jake, however, was now pleased at seeing his fancied ghost turn outto be a shark, this was more than we were. Captain Miles could hardlyconceal his chagrin. 

"Confound the hideous brute!" he exclaimed. "He's the very last visitorI cared to see. He will prevent any further attempt being made to getthat axe out of the fo'c's'le--if it is there, as Adze says. "

"It's theer sure enough, cap'en, " put in the carpenter hearing thisremark. "I wish I could only swim and I'd precious soon fetch itmyself!"

"All right, Adze, I don't doubt your word, " said the captainapologetically; "but the shark has put an embargo on it now at anyrate. "

"I'm afraid it just has, " observed Mr Marline, to whom Captain Mileshad really been speaking when the old carpenter overheard him. "Youcan't expect any sensible man to dive into the water when such a nastysort of neighbour is close at hand. I wouldn't like to venture, forone, I confess; and I don't think I'm a very great coward. "

"No, Marline, no; I'll answer for that, " replied the captain warmly. "Your worst enemy wouldn't accuse you of any want of pluck, and really Ishould not' care about undertaking the job either, for that matter. "

Jake, though, wanted to make another effort to recover the axe, hiscourage rising with the emergency, especially as he could notice howdisappointed we all were. 

"Me nebber mind shark, " he cried, drawing out a long clasp-knife whichhe carried in his belt, and opening the blade, which he now brandishedabout in a most ferocious way, showing how he would make mincemeat ofthe sea-pirate if it attacked him. "I'se not 'fraid ob him one lillybit. I tell you wat, I'se gib him goss if um kick up any bobbery widme!"

So saying, he was preparing to plunge again into the water, when CaptainMiles ordered him to refrain, having to repeat his command twice beforethe brave fellow would stop from making the venture. 

"No, Jake, " said the captain, "I can't allow you to risk your life insuch a foolhardy way for what may be only a wild-goose chase. Waitawhile and see if the brute is going to remain here. Perhaps, too, there may be some more of his comrades about; they generally hunt incouples in stormy weather. "

"All right, massa, me wait an' see, " responded Jake submissively, sitting down on the bulwarks again; and then, we all watched the sharkto see what he would do, and whether, as the captain had suggested, there were any more of his species about, coming up to help him inkeeping us prisoners. 

Unfortunately, Captain Miles's fears proved but too well founded. Veryshortly afterwards, no less than three other sharks appeared, hoveringabout the stern of the ship and swimming immediately under the counter, where we were clustered together, as if keeping guard over us. The onethat had pursued Jake took up his station within the interior part ofthe submerged vessel, patrolling backwards and forwards in the waterthat covered the deck of the poop up to the mizzen-mast. This fellow, the first in the field, seemed to say to us grimly, "You sha'n't escapeme here, at all events!"

"Oh, Captain Miles!" I cried. "The sharks are going to wait until wedrop off into the sea one by one, and then they will eat us all!"

"Not a bit of it, my boy, " said he hopefully, to cheer me up. "They'llsoon be tired out and will then swim away and leave us to see aboutrighting the ship. Don't think of them, Tom; they can't touch any of uswhere we are. "

"But how long can we stop like this?" I asked despairingly. 

"Long enough to bother the sharks, " he replied. "They haven't pluckenough to wait when they see they've got no chance; for, they're borncowards at heart, as all sneaking things are!"

Jake also sidled up to me at the same time and somewhat restored myequanimity, saying in his light-hearted way, "Golly, Mass' Tom, we killum all first wid um knife 'fore dey touch you!"

The afternoon waned on; so, as the sharks exhibited no signs of yetleaving us, and the evening was closing in, Captain Miles ordered themen to lash themselves again to the rigging for fear of their tumblingoff in the night and so falling a prey to the brutes--otherwise, therewas no great need of the precaution, for the sea was almost now calm, the waves having quite ceased to break. Only a heavy swell lifted theship up at intervals, letting her roll down again, and swaying gently toand fro with a gentle rocking motion which would have sent us all tosleep but for the hunger which now kept us awake with a nasty, gnawingpain at the pit of our stomachs. 

Our thirst was appeased, Jackson having swung himself down to the water-cask and served out another drink all round shortly after the sharks hadmade their appearance, as they could not approach near enough to thewaist of the ship to interfere with his movements, the deck there beingclear of water. But, oh, we did feel hungry!

"I believe I could a'most eat anything now, " said Moggridge plaintively, chewing away at a piece of leather which he had torn off one of hisboots. 

"Only hold out and we'll get something soon, " replied the captain, whotried nobly to keep up the spirits of the men. "We've got water, andthat is more than many a poor fellow has had when in as bad a plight asours. Let us be thankful for what we have got and for having our livesspared so far! To-morrow, if the sea be calm, as there is every reasonto hope it will be, we'll probably be able to fetch something out of thecabin; while, if the worst comes to the worst, I've no doubt we'll beable to pick up some crabs and shell-fish from the Gulf-weed floatingaround. "

"Right you are, sir, " said Moggridge, ashamed of having spoken. "I seelots of the stuff about us now. "

"Is that the Gulf-weed you told me about, captain?" I asked, pointingto some long strings of what looked like the broken-off branches oftrees, with berries on them, that were washing past the hull of the_Josephine_ on the top of the rolling swell. 

"Yes, Tom, we're now in the Sargasso Sea, its own especial home. Indeed, this region is especially so called on account of the`Sargassum, ' or weed, in the Portuguese tongue. You ask Mr Marline andhe'll tell you all about it, being learned in such matters. "

The first mate, however, did not wait for me to question him. 

Taking the captain's observation as a hint to say something to occupythe attention of the men and myself, and so keep us from thinking of thesharks and our painful position, he proceeded to narrate all he knewabout this curious marine fungus. He had a good deal to say, too, forMr Marline was a well-read man and took a great interest in all mattersof science. 

It was certainly a very novel situation in which to give a lecture, butthe sailors were glad enough to listen to anything to make the timepass. They were very attentive auditors, even Jake appearinginterested, although he could not have understood much of what he heard. 

"The Sargasso, or weedy, Sea, " said Mr Marline, "so called from theberries, like grapes, `sarga' in Portuguese, extends from about theeleventh parallel of latitude to 45 degrees north, and from 30 degreeswest longitude to the Bermudas, and even further west, so that we areabout in the middle of it now. Almost the entire portion of this spaceof the ocean is covered by a peculiar species of sea-weed, termed bybotanists the `fucus natans, ' which is found nowhere else in any greatabundance except in the Gulf Stream, which, skirting along the edge ofthe Sargasso Sea, bears away portions of the floating substance in itsprogress from the Gulf of Florida eastwards. The western current to thesouth of this region also sometimes detaches masses of the weed; but itsmain habitat is the Sargasso Sea, where, there being no eddies orstreams either way and little or no wind generally, the sargassumaccumulates in great masses, presenting frequently the aspect of animmense marine meadow. "

"I think, sir, " I interposed at this point, "I read once in the Life ofColumbus, that, when on his first voyage beyond seas from Spain, hissailors almost mutinied and wanted him to put back on account of theirfancying they could never pass through the weed?"

"They did, " replied Mr Marline. "The men thought Columbus had sold hissoul to the spirits of evil, and that they were in an enchanted sea, butthe brave old Genoese navigator surmounted their fears in the end! Ican better, perhaps, explain, Tom, the reason for the weed accumulatingso hereabouts, by likening, as Maury did, the Atlantic Ocean to a basin. Now, if you put a few small pieces of cork or any other light substanceinto a basin, and move your hand round it so as to give the water itcontains a circular motion, the bits of cork will be found to float tothe centre and remain there. Well, here, the Gulf Stream is thecircular motion of our great basin, while the Sargasso Sea is thecentre, and it is in consequence of the continual current circling roundit that the weed stops there in such quantities--as you will see mostlikely in a day or two, when the ocean gets rested after the great stormwe have had, which has somewhat put things out of their proper trim. "

"And does the weed grow to the bottom?" I asked. 

"Bottom? Why, there are no soundings here under four miles, and itwould take a pretty long root to stretch to such a depth! No, thesargasso weed floats and lives on the surface. When examined closely, it is found to have an oblong narrow serrated leaf of a pale yellowcolour, resembling somewhat in form a cauliflower stripped of itsleaves, the nodules being composed of a vast number of small branches, about half an inch long, which shoot out from each other at a sharpangle, and hence multiply continually towards the outer circumference ofthe plant, each extreme point producing a round seed-vessel like aberry. A great number of little crabs, barnacles, and small shell-fishare generally found attached to the weed, as Captain Miles mentionedjust now when he said we might find something to eat amidst the branchesof it in an emergency. It is wonderful sometimes to see with whatregularity the weed is arranged across the ocean when the wind blows. It looks then exactly like a meadow does after it has been fresh mownand the grass is left upon it in long swathes by the scythe at equaldistances apart. "

"There, Master Tom, " put in Captain Miles here, "I think you know nowall that Mr Marline can tell you about the Sargasso Sea and the weed tobe found there. It's about time we all turned in now for the night, forthe sun has set and it will soon be dark. Have all you men, " he calledout aloud, "lashed yourselves securely?"

"Aye, aye, sir, " they answered one by one, Moggridge coming last. 

"Then good night, and good cheer, my lads!" he cried. "Keep yourpeckers up, and to-morrow morning. I daresay, we'll see our way out ofthis predicament. I don't think it is going to blow any more, so youmay compose yourselves to rest as cosily, my lads, as if you were inyour bunks here, without fear of anything much troubling you, for thesharks can't harm you!"

The sun had set by this time and the evening grew gradually dark, forthere was no moon, as the heavens were overcast; but still, the wind didnot get up again, and the motion of the ship being easy enough we layalong the side of the ship very comfortably, most of the men soonfalling asleep, and I soon following their example. 

It must have been towards morning, for a dim sort of light was beginningto be perceptible in the east, we were wakened up by a terrible yell. 

A moment afterwards a heavy splash sounded in the water alongside. 

"Good heavens! what is that?" cried Captain Miles, starting up andtrying to peer through the darkness, so as to see who was missing. "Anyone gone overboard?"

"Yes, sir, " answered Jackson's voice presently, as if he had waited toreconnoitre, "it is one of the German sailors, poor Hermann. He hasprobably slipped his lashings and slid down the side. I'm afraid thesharks have taken him, for he has never called out once!"

"Poor fellow!" exclaimed the captain, raising a hail. 

"Hi, hullo!"

But, there came no response; and so, Jackson's surmise must have beencorrect. The man had evidently fallen in his sleep, through theslipping of the rope which had secured him to the rigging; and he musteither have been drowned at once or fallen a victim to the maw of one ofthe sharks, whose movements we could hear in the water still below us. 

The accident, however, wakened us all up thoroughly, and we waitedanxiously for daylight. 

When this came, however, a terrible scene was enacted before our eyes. 

No sooner had the rising sun lit up the ocean and enabled us all to seeeach other distinctly, than I noticed Davis, who was close to Jackson, staring at him in a most peculiar manner. 

I never saw in anyone before such a fixed steady glare!

The man seemed out of his senses or bewildered by something, for hiseyes moved about strangely, although with a savage gleam in them, whilehis hair appeared to bristle up. 

"Well, what is the matter?" said Jackson at length, after enduring hisgaze for a moment or two, waiting for the other to speak. "Do you wantwater? Shall I get you some?"

This apparently broke the spell which was upon the wretched man, whoseconstitution had been much enfeebled by his drinking habits--making himthus less able to contend against the exposure and privations | we hadbeen subjected to than the rest of us. 

The minute Jackson spoke, he uttered a queer sort of half-groan, half-shriek; and having previously, I suppose, untied the rope with which hehad been lashed to the rigging, he made a dash at the second mate withboth his hands, trying to grip his throat and strangle him. 

"You devil!" he cried, foaming at the mouth with passion, "you've takenmy place and brought me to this. "

Jackson easily repulsed his struggles to do him any injury; but, beforehe and the other sailors could secure the madman, he sprang to his feetand, shouting out something which we could not distinguish, jumped rightdown among the group of sharks that were still swimming about under thestern. 

There was a heavy plunge, followed by a wild scurrying to and fro in thewater of the moving fins; and, a moment after, when the sea had gotstill again, a circle of blood on the surface alone told of the unhappyman's fate. 

The incident saddened us all very much, taking away our hopeful thoughtsand courage alike; so we waited on listlessly for what we now believedmust shortly be our own doom, not a soul speaking a word or even lookingat his neighbour for some time afterwards. 

Jackson was the first to recover himself. 

The sight of the cruel sharks under the ship's counter and the memory ofour two shipmates, whom they had already devoured, appeared to prey onhis mind and make him furious. 

"I can't stand this any longer, " he cried. "I must try and kill one ofthese brutes, captain, or die in the attempt!"

Captain Miles thought he had gone out of his senses too and spokesoothingly to him; but Jackson soon showed that if he had become insanethere was a method in his madness. 

Rising on his feet, he walked on the top of the bulwarks to the main-shrouds, and clambering out on his hands and knees along these, made hisway to where a long wooden handspike, that had been used for heavinground the windlass, was floating under the rigging. 

Picking up this and cutting off a good length of the topsail halliards, he came back to where we all were, and proceeded to make a running nooseat the end of the rope. 

"What are you going to do?" asked Captain Miles, not quite certain yetof Jackson's sanity. 

"I'm going to try to get one of the sharks to come close enough to givehim a taste of this handspike, " said the stalwart young fellow, drawinghimself up to his full height, and looking round with a determinedexpression on his face that I had never seen there before. "If I canonly get them all to come to the inside of the ship, I shall do for oneor two, I know. "

"Golly, Massa Jackson, me help you wid um knife, " exclaimed Jake, entering with much animation in the other's project. "S'pose we fissfor um wid sumfin', so as make um swim roun' t'oder side ob ship, hey?"

"That's a good idea, " said Captain Miles, and he offered Jake his hat touse as a bait, but the darkey shook his head at this. 

"No, tankee, Mass' Cap'en, I'se got sumfin' better nor dat, " heexclaimed, pulling off the guernsey with which he had sheltered me thefirst night we were exposed on the wreck. "Dis do ebber so muchbetterer. Shark smell um, an' tink he hab dis niggah, yah, yah!"

As he laughed, he tied one end of a bit of the signal halliards, whichhe had used to lash himself to the rigging, to the guernsey, lowering itdown to a short distance above the surface of the water, where he keptit dangling. 

One of the sharks rose towards it, another coming up soon after in itstrain; and then Jake kept continually shifting the rope round thatportion of the taffrail of the poop which was above the sea, the sharksfollowing in chase of the deceptive bait until he had lured them roundto the inside part of the ship to join the one who was still on sentrythere. 

This was just what Jackson wanted; so he now proceeded to climb outalong the mizzen rigging until he reached the point where the sea lappedit, when he arranged his running noose underneath, tying the loose endof the rope to the shrouds in a double hitch. 

Jake then manoeuvred the baited line nearer to where the second mate hadstationed himself, climbing out into the mizzen rigging too; when, asthe leading shark turned over on its back and bit at the guernsey, Jackson slipped the running knot over its tail, pulling the noose in sothat it held tightly. Then, seizing the handspike, he began belabouringthe monster in a way that must pretty well have astonished its weaknerves, Jake the while stabbing it in the tail-end of the body with hislong-bladed knife. 

There was a terrific scuffle in which the water was tossed high in theair; but, after a minute or two, the shark broke the rope and managed toget away, although it was so seriously injured that it still remained onits back, and a quantity of blood poured out from the wounds it hadreceived. 

This made the crippled animal's comrades set upon it, tearing it topieces between them; and, while they were gorging themselves with thedissevered carcass, Jake dived into the sea under the fierce creatures, stabbing them wherever he could with such effect that his onslaughtfrightened the whole lot away--not a shark being visible in the vicinitywithin a few minutes after the commencement of the fray!

"Jerryboosalum!" exclaimed Jake, when, presently, he emerged alldripping and triumphant from the blood-stained waters. "We pay out demdebbels for ebberybody now. You nebber see dem come back hyar agin, I'se bet. "

Nor did we. 

There was no doubt of the rapacious brutes having been finally scaredaway. 

"You're a couple of brave fellows, " cried Captain Miles when the twoavengers climbed back in again on to the poop bulwarks, after thuscarrying the war into Egypt, routing the foes that had kept us so longprisoners, and prevented us from doing anything towards righting theship. "Now, I think, we can make another attempt to find that axe ofthe carpenter's in the fo'c's'le, if you are not too tired, Jake, to goin after it again?"

"Bress you, no, Mass' Captain, me no tire' at all! Me get axe in braceob shakes, if um dar, " answered the willing fellow, laughing and showinghis shining ivory teeth as he opened his mouth from ear to ear; and, almost as soon as he had uttered the words, he ran along the bulwarkstowards the fore part of the ship, scrambled out into the main rigging, and dived into the sea immediately over the opening into the forecastle, at the same spot where he had previously gone down. 

Once, twice, he came up to the surface again to take breath after alengthened stay under the water; but, each time he rose with emptyhands. 

A third time he reappeared, still unsuccessful; and then we began togive up hope, although watching him all the while with the most intenseanxiety. 

None spoke a word, hardly daring to move. 

Our interest in his actions was keen to intensity!

Our fate seemed trembling in the balance. 

Once more he dived. 

This was the fourth time he had ventured beneath the sea in his searchfor the coveted weapon, which was to free the ship from the cumbersomemasts and top-hamper that kept her down on her beam-ends. 

Unless we got the axe we would never be able to right her again; and weall regarded this dive of Jake's as the last chance, although we did notexchange a syllable--our looks expressed our thoughts. 

Jake now remained longer below than he had yet done, so we feared somemishap had befallen him; but, just as Jackson was preparing to dive downinto the water that covered the forecastle, to see what had become ofhim, the plucky darkey popped up above the surface, holding something inone hand as he swam with the other towards the main rigging. 

Our hearts beat high with expectation. 

In another minute, Jake had mounted into the shrouds, when our suspensewas quickly relieved; for, no sooner had he clambered near enough to theship's side to get a support for his feet, than he raised himself erect. 

"Golly, Mass' Cap'en, " he sang out in feeble accents, being now prettywell exhausted with his repeated efforts, "I'se got him at last! I'segot him at last!"

At the same time, he lifted up whatever it was he held in his hand, andtried to wave it round his head in token of his victory. 

It was Adze's axe. 

"Hooray!" shouted Captain Miles at the extreme pitch of his voice, andthe responsive cheer we raised in chorus might have been heard more thana mile away. 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN. 

RIGHTING THE SHIP. 

"Now, men!" cried out Captain Miles, when our excitement had calmed downa little, "we've got the axe; but, the next thing we have to do is touse it, so as to release the ship as soon as we can. I think, my lads, I ought to have the first turn. "

So saying, taking the axe from Jake, he made a slash at the end of thehawser which had been rigged up over the head of the foremast, when, thestrands being cut through after a couple of heavy strokes, the ropeparted, curling up like a whip and flying up in the air with a prettysharp report. 

"Now, Mr Marline, it's your turn, " said the captain, having thus set anexample in commencing the work; and then, the first mate, nothing loth, attacked the main-shrouds, severing them clear to the chain-plates, whenhe handed over the axe to Jackson, who also did wonders with the weapontowards clearing away the heavy rigging that had so long resisted theefforts of the men with their clasp-knives. 

The sea by this time was quite calm, thus greatly facilitating ourlabour; but, from our not having had any food for two days, all handswere very weak, and it took them a much longer time to free the ship ofall her rope hamper and cordage than they would have achieved the taskin if they had possessed their proper strength. It was, therefore, quite late on in the afternoon when the rigging on the port side was alldetached, although Jake had recovered the axe at noon, and we had set towork immediately afterwards. 

This, however, was only a preliminary to the real labour that lay beforeus--that of cutting away the masts, a much more serious matter. 

The ship, it must be recollected, was lying completely over on herstarboard side, with all her spars extended horizontally flat along thesurface of the sea, which washed up to the hatches; so that, evenamidships, the water was too deep for the men to have stood on the deck, even if they could have found foothold; there. Away ahead, the bowswere completely submerged right up to the fore-chains, the ocean swellwashing right through the _Josephine_ fore and aft, right up to thepoop. 

Luckily, however, the upper portion of the mainmast bitts projected outof the water, so, Jackson, climbing down on to these and supportinghimself as well as he could by balancing his body with his feet |extended outwards straddle-ways, commenced to slash away at the masthere; while the rest of the men, under Mr Marline's directions, proceeded to clear away the rigging and unreeve those ropes which theywere able to reach, in order to leave the spar clear for Jackson to workupon it freely. 

It was a terribly tough job, though, the young seaman having to waste apart of each blow in the water that covered the foot of the mast. Thisneutralised his efforts, but he could not help it, for the axe splashedin the sea before touching the wood. 

After a short spell, Jackson, quite feeble from hunger and exhaustion, had to give in, when Moggridge took his place, chopping vigorously atthe mast as long as he was able. Then, another sailor took a turn atit, and so on, until each had had his go; when Jackson, rested a bit andrefreshed by a long drink of water, began anew, making the chips of thehard wood fly as well as the sea, which he splashed up at every strokethe spray going into his eyes and almost blinding him. 

All the men worked with the greatest perseverance in spite of their weakstate; and, just before sunset, when the mast was about half cutthrough, it gave signs of at length yielding, sundry sharp cracks beingheard as its natural buoyancy forced it to rise, the different purchasesthat previously held it to the deck being also now severed. 

"Bravo, men, one spell more all round, and we'll have the spar loose!"cried Captain Miles, going down into the waist himself to head this lastattack, and taking a longer turn with the axe than anyone. 

Blow after blow was then rained upon the heel of the mast, all workingwith fresh courage and determination as the ponderous piece of timbergave way before their efforts, a wide gaping hole having been now madein it by the axe. 

"Look out and stand clear!" shouted Jackson, catching on to the same oldsling he had rove out of the topsail halliards by which he had loweredhimself from the bulwarks, and swinging himself out of danger. "It'scoming at last!"

At the same moment, a scrunching, wrenching sound was heard, followed bya long, loud crack; and then, up floated the mainmast cut off close tothe deck, although still attached to the ship by the rigging on thestarboard side--which could not be reached, of course, at present, beingunder water, and the sea covering it to the depth of ten or twelve feet. 

The effect of this relief to the ship was at once apparent, the forwardportion of the wreck sensibly rising out of the sea, and the top of theforecastle being now visible, as well as the whole of the port bulwarksup to the cat-head on that side; while the main-deck below us, and theupper portion of the poop, became slanting at an angle towards the wateron the starboard, instead of being almost perpendicular to it as before, thus showing that the centre of gravity was changed and the vesselrecovering her stability. 

"Bravo, men!" exclaimed Captain Miles joyously, delighted at suchconfirmatory proofs that his hopes of righting the _Josephine_ were notunduly sanguine. "As soon as we get the foremast clear she'll come upall standing, never fear! Can't you see how the poor thing is tryinghard to free herself now?"

As the portion of the floating mast that was inboard now rose out of thewater as far as the main-top, a party of the men with Moggridgescrambled on to it and began cutting away the various cross ropes, halliards, clew-lines, and so on, that held it to the fore and mizzenspars. The yards had now floated too, although the upper portion of themainmast bearing their weight, as it slewed over, pressed on thestarboard bulwarks, remaining in that position from the calmness of thesea, which had not motion enough to drift it away. 

"If only a slight breeze would spring up now, so as to rouse a littlemore swell, we'd float clear of this wreck, " observed Mr Marline. "Half the weight of the mast still tends to keep the ship down toleeward. "

"Ah, we don't want it rough yet, " said the captain. "The foremast isthe main thing to get rid of now; and, unless the sea keeps still, we'llnever manage to cut that away, for it is still more under water than themainmast was. "

"I forgot that, " replied the mate; and then, both went along thebulwarks forwards to where Jackson was beginning operations at the otherspar. 

If the mainmast had proved stubborn and unyielding, this was twentytimes more so, the great difficulty being that there was no vantage-ground to be had, in the shape of a firm footing, from whence to ply theaxe. 

"It's no use, sir, " said Jackson, when the captain had come abreast ofthe spot where he was standing, in the fore-rigging, trying vainly toreach the mast below. "I can't even touch the timber, much less make ablow at it!"

"Well, all that can be done, " replied Captain Miles, "is to lighten itas much as possible. Cut away what rigging you are able to lay handson, and if the sea gets up in the night it may work free. "

"All right, sir, " said Jackson; so, he and the gang with him went towork with a will, slashing here and there at the cordage connecting themast with the port side of the ship. 

Meanwhile, Jake had been very busy, proving himself quite as useful asthe rest. 

Swimming like a fish he had gone into the sea near the wreck of themainmast; and, with that long knife of his, which had done so muchdamage to the sharks, he began cutting away the fastenings of thetopgallant-yard, although leaving the lee-braces intact, so that thespar could be hauled in by and by. 

Moggridge was on the mast, too, and, with his gang of men, was operatingon the tressel-trees to free the lower yard; so that, before it wasdark, the whole stick of the mainmast was nearly clear. Only theshrouds and stays on the starboard side now held it to the hull; and, consequently, when it felt inclined to shift its position athwart shipit could easily do so. 

Jackson, and those with him forward, having now done as much as theycould to cast-off the foremast gear, Captain Miles hailed them to comeaft. 

"I think, " said he, "if we can only contrive to cut away the mizzen, anda breeze springs up, as there seems every prospect of from these cloudsto windward, then, through the greater buoyancy now possessed by theship amidships and astern, the foremast will go of its own accord. Atall events, we can try it; for, as you say, there isn't any chance ofour getting rid of it by any unaided efforts of our own. "

The lighter spars that Jake and Moggridge had detached were now hauledin and made into a sort of raft, upon which Jackson and the whole lot ofthe crew clambered, proceeding to attack the mizzen-mast, the lower partof which spar was just out of the water. 

Slash, bang went the axe with a will, wielded by hands nerved with allthe strength of desperation, each man cutting away as long as he could, and then another hand taking his turn. Even I was busy with a knife, sawing away at the thick ropes, and doing what I could to help theothers. 

The mizzen, being of considerably less diameter than the mainmast, tooka much less time to conquer; so, soon it gave way with a splinteringcrash, the jagged heel floating up in the same way as the other, andworking about freely as the rigging was severed so that it could easilypass overboard. 

"Now, men, we may cry a spell, " said Captain Miles when the task wasaccomplished. "Nothing more can be done now. We must wait for a breezeto clear away the wreck, when, I've no doubt, the ship will rightagain. "

"I'm sure I hope so, dear captain!" said I fervently. "Do you think shereally will?"

"Not a doubt of it, my boy, " he answered. "She would have never come upso far if she had meant to stop on her beam-ends. See, now! Why, I canalmost stand up here on the poop, the deck has risen so much already. By the morning, I hope she'll be right end uppermost again. "

"But, how about our lodging for the night?" suggested Mr Marline. "Ifwe lie along the bulwarks, in the same way as before, and the shiprights suddenly in the night, we'll be all thrown in the water. "

"I have thought of that, " said Captain Miles. "We'll brace up this raftof spars here close in under the bulwarks inboard, and then we'll be onthe safe side of the hedge if she comes up while we're napping! Let ushave another drink of water now, Jackson, my lad, and turn in for thenight, for I've no doubt you're all pretty tired. I'm sorry I can'tpipe down to supper. "

"You are not more sorry than I am, " put in Mr Marline drily. "I couldeat with the greatest gusto the skeleton of my grandmother's cat now!"

This speech of his had the very effect he wished of making the men laughat their privation. Judging by my own feelings, they must have feltterribly hungry and empty; for, instead of two days, it seemed two yearssince I had tasted food. 

I was fairly famishing!

There was no chance yet, however, of our getting anything to eat; so, inaccordance with Captain Miles's directions, preparations were now madefor our accommodation during the night, as the evening was beginning toclose in and darkness to settle down on the face of the deep, veilingthe waste of waters from the gaze of us poor shipwrecked fellows. 

The loose spars detached from the masts were hauled up lengthwise alongthe bulwarks on the inner side of the poop, where they were lashedsecurely so as to form a sort of shelf; and, on this, all hands nowsettled themselves as comfortably as they could--Captain Miles with MrMarline and myself being on the after part of the structure, whileJackson with the others bunked down nearer the break of the poop; but, each man was separately tied, for greater precaution, in case of the seagetting up again and the waves breaking over the vessel. 

While we had been moving about exerting ourselves, the sense of hungerhad not been so apparent, although all experienced its gnawing pain in agreater or less degree; but now, resting quietly, doing nothing andhaving to bear all the suspense of waiting for what might turn outpossibly to be only an uncertainty on the morrow, the ravenous feelingthat assailed us became almost unbearable, several of the men moaningand groaning in their sleep. 

As for myself, I know that when I dozed off in fragmentary snatches ofsleep I dreamed of all sorts of splendid banquets, with nice dishes suchas I had often tasted in the West Indies when dad gave a dinner-party;only to waken up in the still darkness and hear the melancholy wash ofthe sea surging up against the ship's hull, with the creaking noise themasts made as they surged to and fro on the swell. 

Up to midnight, as far as we could tell the time, no breeze came; but, towards morning, a slight wind arose, when the sea became agitated, aswe could hear from the sound of it breaking over the hull forwards, theends of the masts worked to and fro more boisterously, grinding againstthe starboard bulwarks and tearing the timbers away bit by bit. 

"Ah!" I heard Captain Miles say, as if talking to himself, "this is ourchance if it only does not get too rough. "

The sound of his voice woke up Gottlieb, the remaining German sailor, who was lying near Jake, the latter being next me as usual. 

This man had taken the loss of his countryman a good deal to heart. Ourhardships, besides, had affected his health; for, all of us noticed howill he looked during the day when working at clearing away the masts. 

"I vas die!" he now exclaimed. 

"Dying? Nonsense, my man, not a bit of it, " cried Captain Miles. "Keepup your courage, and you'll be worth a hundred dead men yet. "

"Ach nein, I vas die, I knows, " replied the other, speaking solemnly indeep low tones. 

His German accent and mode of speech seemed to come out more stronglynow than I had noticed before; and it flashed across my mind how I hadonce read somewhere that, when a man is at his last, though he may havelived amongst strangers for years and spoken a foreign tongue, he willthen naturally go back to the language and thoughts of his own country. 

"Shall I get you some water?" asked Jackson, who was also awake andheard what Gottlieb had said. 

"Nein--no. I want not water, not nothing, " returned the other. "Listen, I've got to tell you sometings before I vas die. I did notspeak before for fear to make mischief. You remember my poor frientsHermann?"

"Aye, " said Captain Miles, now keenly attentive. "Poor fellow, he felloverboard and got caught by the sharks. "

"Dat is what I vant explain, " painfully whispered the German, his voicefailing him. "Hermann vas not fall overboard. He vas throwed over. "

"Thrown over! How--by whom?" exclaimed the captain quite startled. 

"He vas throw over by Davis--he one bad man. "

"Davis?" cried Captain Miles, all of us eagerly listening. 

"Ye-es. Davis, he grab holt of poor Hermann and say, `ah, you rascal, Jackson, I have you now, ' and den he pitch him over the side. PoorHermann, he give one yell, for he vas sleep and not awaken yet, and dendere vas a splash and de sharks swallow him up!"

"Good heavens, man!" cried Captain Miles, "why did you not tell us ofthis before?"

"I vas afraid, and de man is now dead too; so I did not speak, " answeredthe other slowly. 

"Yes, he's dead and gone to his account! I suppose we need not talkabout him any more, " said the captain, deeply moved, adding a minuteafter, as if unable to keep his emotion to himself, "But, he was ascoundrel! I say, Jackson, you had a lucky escape from him last night!"

"Thank God, sir, yes, " replied the young seaman. "He took a grudge tome from the first, before ever you promoted me, and that, of course, made him hate me afterwards more than ever. I did not think, though, hewould have tried to take my life. I suppose that was the reason helooked so very strangely when he tried to clutch me before he jumpedinto the sea?"

"Not a doubt of it, " said Mr Marline. "He seemed thunderstruck, Iknow, for I particularly noticed his look. He must have been surprisedat seeing you there alive, when he thought he had already settled youfor good and all!"

"Well, he has met his own punishment, " answered Jackson; "and I do notbear him any ill-will now--or ever did for that matter. Let him rest. "

"Aye, " said Captain Miles; "but, how's Gottlieb going on--are youbetter, my man?"

But, there was no answer to the captain's question; and Jackson, bendingover the German sailor, found his heart had ceased to beat, his bodyalready becoming cold. 

"Golly, Mass' Cap'en, " called out Jake, "him 'peak de trute dat time, suah, him dead as door-nail!"

This news made everyone silent, each man thinking how soon his own timemight come; and we anxiously awaited the morning. 

During the sad episode that had occurred the wind had risen, beginningto blow pretty strongly from the westwards. The sea, too, had got up, for short choppy waves were dashing against the stern of the ship andthrowing their broken wash over us. This made our situation lesscomfortable than it had been previously, our worn-out bodies and hunger-stricken frames not being able to stand the exposure so well now as atfirst. 

The masts, also, were grinding against the bulwarks and making ahorrible din, the crunching of the timber work and splintering noise ofthe planks almost deadening the noise of the sea and preventing us fromhearing each other speak. Not that we felt much inclined forconversation, answering for myself; for, I was chilled to the bone fromthe cool evening air penetrating my wet clothes, which got more and moresaturated as the waves came over the poop, while I was faint with hungerand exhausted from want of sleep. 

Thus the weary night passed, the sky being clouded over so that even thelights of heaven could not shine down to cheer us up; and, to add to thebitterness of our unhappy plight, our hearts were full of the untimelyend of poor Gottlieb, the German sailor who had passed away so suddenlyfrom amongst us, and the shocking disclosure he had made just before histired spirit sought eternal rest, of the treachery of Davis--whoseterrible fate, in front of our very eyes, seemed a just judgment for hismurder of Hermann and foiled vengeance on Jackson, the latter of whomhad evidently only escaped with his life through the wretched man'smistake. 

At last, when it seemed as if we could hold out no longer, a faint gleamappeared in the east lighting up the horizon, and morning dawnedgloomily upon us; but, a heavy mist hung over the sea and it took therays of the rising sun a long time to pierce through this, albeit therewas light enough for us to survey the scene around. 

The ocean now, instead of rising and falling with the sullen swell thathad given motion to it the day before, was covered with short brokenwaves that rolled up from the westwards with the wind, dashing againstthe partly-submerged vessel and throwing clouds of spray over thoseportions of the hull above the surface of the water, a large share ofwhich we also came in for. 

This motion of the sea, we could perceive, had considerably altered theposition of the masts that had been cut away, for they were rolling overand grinding down the starboard bulwarks, the inboard ends workingthemselves gradually fore and aft the ship, the lee side of which hadrisen quite a couple of feet higher out of the water during the night. 

"Another good wave or two will send all that hamper adrift, " saidCaptain Miles, looking round and calculating our chances. 

"Yes, " replied Mr Marline, "they are coming from the right directiontoo, for if they broke over us abeam, then the foremast could not freeitself. Now it possibly may, from the leverage it has against thefo'c's'le. "

"You're right, " said the captain; "and here comes a good-sized rollerthat may finish the job. Look out, lads, and hold on!"

Onward, as we gazed astern, came a large green sea, with a white angrycrest, swelling larger and larger as it got nearer, until it almost hungabove the poop before breaking. 

"Hold on, lads, hold on!" cried the captain, repeating his previouswarning, when, with a dull thud the mass of water broke, covering us allwith a sheet of foam that drenched us through and through, almost sweptus away from our lashings--the spars that supported us being lifted upfrom the deck and then dropped again as suddenly. 

At the same time, there was a heavy crash heard forward, and the shiplurched as if she were going to founder. She quivered all over, and hertimbers creaked and groaned. 

Next, she rolled heavily more over to starboard, as the wave which hadbroken over us sped onwards, washing the waist and forecastle; and then, with another great crash the mizzen and mainmasts rolled into the sea, and the port side of the ship that was under water rose up clear. 

The foremast, which had broken away when we heard that great crashforwards had been snapped off just below the slings of the fore-yard, and had followed its companions overboard, although still towedalongside by the stays and starboard rigging that also held the otherspars; and, the next instant, with an upward bound the _Josephine_righted. At the same moment, the water that had filled the cabin andwaist and forecastle poured out on either side through the scuppers andbroken bulwarks; while the sunken part of the poop and lower deck rosehigh and dry again as we looked on, hardly believing that what we had soanxiously awaited and striven for had come to pass at last. 

"Thank God!" exclaimed Captain Miles in a voice faltering with emotion;while several of the men, quite unnerved, burst into tears. 

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. 

"A BAKER'S DOZEN. "

"Do you know what day it is?" observed Captain Miles presently, as wewere all busily engaged freeing ourselves from the lashings that held usto the spars, preparing to stand on the deck once more in an uprightposition and stretch our sadly cramped legs, our movements for so manyhours having been much restricted. 

"No, " replied Mr Marline, taking the question to himself as he stampedhis feet vigorously to restore the circulation of the stagnant blood. "I have lost all count nearly of time during this awful week!--Saturday, is it not--or Monday?"

"You are a little behind in one guess and too far ahead in the other!"said the captain quietly. "It is Sunday, the seventh day since ourtrials began. "

"Well, " responded the other; "it is a lucky day for us, whatever it maybe, sir. I confess I never expected such a fortunate ending as this toour sad misfortunes. I had made up my mind that we must go to thebottom; and pretty soon too, after the wind rose again!"

"I hoped for the best, " answered Captain Miles, shaking himself like abig Newfoundland dog, and stepping gingerly along the poop as if halfafraid to walk. "I never despaired even in our darkest hour; and I'mglad to say I didn't, for I trusted in Providence! But come, " he added, with all his old brisk manner restored in a moment, smiling cheerfully, "we must see about getting things ship-shape around us; for it would bea poor return for the mercy we have received to sit down idly now and donothing to help ourselves. Look alive, men, there's plenty to see to!"

There was; so much, indeed, that it almost seemed a puzzle where tobegin. 

Our first consideration was the masts, which were still attached to thehull by all the starboard rigging, and were banging against that side ofthe vessel with each send of the sea, threatening to knock the lowertimbers in; so, a working party being quickly organised under theindefatigable Jackson, the axe was called into use again and theremaining shrouds cut away, the fore and main-braces being passed roundthe stump of the foremast, which stood some twenty feet or so from thedeck, in order to prevent the span from going adrift when the shroudsparted. 

The lee rigging, tautened by the strain of the masts dependent from it, was soon severed; and then, the ship being more buoyant, floated awaysome yards leeward--the spars veered out to the length of the braces, serving as a sort of breakwater and keeping the waves from coming inover the bows as she tended, for her stern at once coming round causedher to ride easily, head to wind, just as if she were anchored. 

"Now, men, " cried Captain Miles when this was managed, and no pressingdanger stared us in the face, "we must now see whether we can't get upanything to eat from the after-hold. I daresay you fellows feel a bithungry, eh?"

You should have only seen the look on every face when he said this!

The very idea of food made all ravenous; and it was as much as CaptainMiles could do to prevent the hands from rushing in a body into thecabin. 

The men seemed inclined to eat him when he put out his hand to stopthem. 

"Take it coolly!" he sang out, pushing one or two back that had pressedforwards. "I will see that you've not long to wait. Jake, you knowyour way below, I believe?"

"Iss, massa, " replied the darkey with a broad grin. "Harry bery oftensen' me down to get stores when um busy. "

"Ah, the poor fellow, I had forgotten him, " ejaculated the captain, entering the cabin at once and going towards the steward's pantry; buthe had to pick his steps carefully, the place being heaped up with avariety of things that had been swept out of the different berths by thesea, and were washing up and down for more than two days. 

As Captain Miles had surmised, the mulatto had been drowned inside thelittle apartment devoted to his use; for there his body was now found, the colour of the skin nearly white through the action of the water. The corpse was brought out and laid reverently under the break of thepoop by a couple of sailors whom the captain called into the cabin forthe purpose; after which he and Jake then proceeded to unfasten thehatches leading down into the after-hold in search of provisions for theliving, there being plenty of time to attend to the obsequies of thedead later on when our more urgent needs were supplied. 

Cuffee the cook during this interval had gone forward to look after hisold galley; and loud was his lament to find it washed away, its weighthaving parted the strong lashings that secured it to the ring-bolts inthe deck when the ship capsized. 

"Boderation!" he exclaimed. "How can um cook w'en dere's nuffin' tocook, an' no place to cook in?"

"Belay that grumblin' o' yourn, darkey, " cried old Moggridge, who hadbeen poking about amongst a heap of the debris of ropes and broken sparsand gear that were piled in a heap between the windlass bitts and thetop of the topgallant forecastle. "I do believe your blessed oldcaboose hasn't been washed overboard arter all! Here it is, only on itsbeam-ends like the ship was an hour ago; but I daresay all your pots andpans are all right inside. "

"Golly, bosun, does you mean dat?" exclaimed Cuffee, going up quickly towhere Moggridge was standing, inspecting the mass of heterogeneousthings that had fetched up in the corner, consisting of a portion of oneof the anchor-stocks, the men's clothes and traps washed out from theirbunks, mess-tins, and all sorts of stray dunnage. "You tell me degalley am right an' safe, for true, hey?"

"Why, there it is, you ugly varmint! Can't you see it for yourself?"retorted the old seaman, rather nettled at having his word doubted. 

"Lor' a mussy, dere it am!" ejaculated Cuffee, highly delighted when hisown eyes confirmed the fact. "Golly, Bosun, we can cook sumfin' now!"

"I don't know how you're going to manage that as it stands, " saidMoggridge sarcastically. "Strikes me you'd better see about rigging itup properly first!"

"I'se spec' you'll help, Massa Bosun, " hinted the darky cook in anobsequious way; "you clebber man, Massa Moggridge, an' knows how tobowse tings up. "

"Oh, yes; I don't want any of your blarney now, Cuffee. I fancy we'reall hungry enough to eat anything raw when we gets it, without botherin'about cooking to-day at any rate!"

A grunt of assent came from all the hands standing by at this remark;and I then turned round to see what Captain Miles and Jake were about inthe cabin. I had not yet entered that apartment, the finding of thesteward's dead body having scared me away. The pallid corpse looked soghastly and terrible!

As I turned to go to the after portion of the vessel I was almost afraidthat I should see the dead body of the steward again; but on reachingthe entrance to the cabin I noticed a tarpaulin covering it in thecorner, and I went hastily by, turning my face away, and bolting withinthe swing doors. 

Here, if the jumble of miscellaneous odds and ends under the break ofthe forecastle had struck me as strange, the confusion was ever so muchworse; for, nothing having been washed out, the entire furniture ofevery separate berth, as well as of the main saloon, were mixed togetherin one indistinguishable mass--clothes, books, food and crockery-ware, perishable and imperishable goods alike, all mingled in one inharmoniouswhole. 

Blankets, bedding, and pillows were piled on the chairs and benches thathad surrounded the centre table, which article, with its legsupstanding, was jammed into the captain's own sanctum, half in and halfout, like the cow had been; while the fragments of plates and dishes, coffee-pots and glass-ware of all description, were scattered on thefloor in every direction. Captain Miles's sextant and the tell-talecompass, that used to hang from the middle of the ceiling of the deckabove, reposed peaceably together on the top of a double Gloucestercheese. Every variety of eatable was mixed up higgledy piggledy witharticles for table use, and all sorts of known and unknown garments. 

My trunk had not escaped the general destruction, the new outfit withwhich I had been provided being all spoilt; while some pictures andvarious cherished mementoes of my old West Indian home shared the fateof Mr Marline's wardrobe and the captain's kit. 

Indeed, the sea had performed its scouring work so well, that it wouldhave puzzled a wiser man than Solomon to have decided what was eachindividual's personal property, the whole having been thrown togetherlike one of the odd lots at an auction sale. 

After surveying the medley for a few moments, my attention was attractedto Captain Miles and Jake, the latter of whom was down within the store-room under the hatch in the stern-sheets, only his woolly headprojecting, handing up several tins of potted meats and bags of biscuitto the captain; while the latter was placing these as he received themon a clear space of the deck from which he had swept the broken refuseaway, checking off the things as Jake ferreted them out from below, hishead bobbing down and up again each moment. 

"There, " said Captain Miles, as I came up to the two; "three bags ofbiscuit, four seven-pound tins of boiled mutton, two tins of preservedvegetables, one ham, one cheese, six pounds of coffee, and one firkin ofbutter. I think that will do. But, where is the sugar I told you toget out, Jake?"

"Here he am, " replied the darkey, handing another bag up. "Dat's finesugar, sah, for de cabin table. "

"And where is the other sort?" asked the captain. 

"Um here too; but cask too big for dis chile to lift. "

"Then you must get out more in something smaller, for the men's coffeein the morning, " said Captain Miles. "I don't want them to be treateddifferently to myself, and I know I like sugar in mine. "

"Yah, yah, massa too good, " laughed Jake; but he proceeded to obey thecaptain's orders, and another bag was soon added to the pile on thefloor of the cabin awaiting distribution. 

"Now, Tom, " said Captain Miles to me, "run and call in a couple of thehands to take out their rations. I'm going to serve out the grub atonce, and we may as well all eat together. "

It should be mentioned that all these preparations, although I havetaken so long to describe them, did not take up much time, the captainknowing from his own feeling that the men were all starving, and notkeeping them an instant longer without food than he could help. 

On receipt of his order, therefore, I hastened away, returning almostimmediately with one of the sailors and Cuffee, who asserted his rightof coming for the food; but, while I was absent Jake had procured aknife that was used for opening the tins of preserved meat out of thesteward's pantry, where, from its being hung on a hook, it had escapedbeing lost among the other debris. With this useful little article henow proceeded to take off the tops of the cases containing the boiledmutton, Cuffee and his assistant parcelling the same out under thecaptain's eye. 

The cabin table had been set upon its legs again and the provisionsplaced upon it, when the men being ordered to file in, Captain Milesdistributed a small portion of the meat with a couple of biscuits toeach. He advised them to eat slowly and moderately, saying that if theydid otherwise they would feel very badly afterwards, on account ofhaving gone so long without food. 

Mr Marline and Jackson and myself were also rationed out in similarfashion, each and all of us, irrespective of position, being treated onan equality and Captain Miles himself only taking the same quantity thathe gave us; then, when all had thus broken their fast, the men weredismissed and allowed to carry off away forward the greater portion ofthe provisions that had been got out for them, although with strictinjunctions still to eat sparingly, at all events on this first day oftheir tasting any nourishment. They were likewise told to be carefulnot to drink too much water, Jackson, who had charge of the cask, beingordered to use discretion. 

"We are only thirteen all told now aft--a baker's dozen, men, " said thecaptain, "and I wish to carry you home in good health with me toEngland; so, mind what you are after, for my sake if not for your own!We have weathered the gale, and stuck to the ship though bottom upwards, for nigh on three days, braving the perils of the deep in the way ofsharks and such like; consequently I think it would be hard lines on meif I couldn't fetch you safe into port in the end. "

"You're a real good sort, Cap'en Miles, that's what you are!" criedMoggridge--acting as spokesman for the rest by general consentapparently, for the others gave a subdued sort of cheer that seemed tointimate their acquiescence in his remarks--"and I thinks as how we'd beno better nor brute beasts if we weren't to act as how you advises, eh, lads?"

"Aye, aye, " chorused the rest affirmatively. 

"That's all right then, " said Captain Miles. "You can see I don't wantto stint you, for I've only given you these few supplies to carry you onuntil we can get to the ship's stores in the main hold. You may goforward now, and I'd recommend you to get out all your duds and hang 'emout to dry as soon as you can, so as to have a shift bye and bye, andthat'll do you as much good as the grub. "

The hands then retired from the cabin, leaving only the captain and MrMarline and I there, Jackson going out into the waist too, in order todraw some water and serve it out by the captain's directions. 

"Oh, Captain Miles!" I exclaimed when we were thus left together, "allmy clothes are spoilt. "

"And oh, Master Tom!" he retorted, "how about my poor chronometers?They've stopped and will never go again, I suppose, till they've beenput in dry dock in London and had a thorough overhaul, salt water notagreeing with their constitutions as it does with some folk. By Jove, though, Marline, I never thought of that before. I shall be puzzled howto get my longitude bye and bye, I fancy. "

"My old watch is going, sir, " said the mate. "I set it by the ship'stime before our capsize, and it goes pretty correctly, for I didn'tforget to wind it up all the time we were spread-eagling on thebulwarks. "

"You didn't?" cried the captain. "You're a wonderful fellow, Marline, and you ought to be Archbishop of Canterbury or something! You say youset it by the ship's time on Thursday?"

"I don't know what day it was, sir, but it was the last time you tookthe sun, " replied the other. 

"Then, at that time, I recollect, we were in 32 degrees north latitudeand 40 degrees west longitude. Ha, humph, I see! That will give uspretty well the time at Greenwich, with a little deduction. It's allright, Marline, I have it. Mind, though, you don't let the old turniprun down. "

"Turnip, indeed!" exclaimed Mr Marline in pretended indignation, winking at me. "Just you hear him, Master Tom!"

"Well, well, I beg its pardon and yours, " said the captain laughing;"but, let us get out of this disgraceful hole and go out on deck to seewhat the weather is like. Jake!"

"Iss, massa, " replied the darkey, who, I forgot to mention, remainedbehind when the rest of the crew went forwards. 

"I'm going to make you steward in poor Harry's place, " said CaptainMiles. 

"Iss, massa, " responded Jake, greatly pleased at the honour thusbestowed on him, and making a low how with a scrape back of his leftfoot, according to negro etiquette, in acknowledgment of the favour. 

"Look out, my lad, and make matters snug here as well as you can. Youmay call in your brother darkey the cook to help you, if you like. "

"Golly, massa, me do him much betterer own self, " replied Jake grinninghugely. "Dat Cuffee bery lazy sometimes. "

"Well, well, that's like the pot calling the kettle black, I fancy, "said Captain Miles smiling. "However, you can please yourself, and getany of the hands you may want to assist in lifting back the bunks and soon in their proper places--some of the things may be too heavy for you. At all events, make the saloon presentable before we come down again, and swab up the deck. "

"That's a willing fellow, " he added to Mr Marline, as we went out andmounted the poop-ladder. "I never saw a negro so handy, so plucky, andso willing. "

"Thank you, Captain Miles, " I said, taking the compliment to myself, ashaving a sort of family ownership in Jake. 

"Why, what have you got to do with it, Tom Eastman?" he asked in hishumorous way, poking fun at me. 

"Well, captain, I don't think you'd ever have seen him on board if ithadn't been for me, " I retorted. 

"You're right there, but I'll thank you for his passage-money, then, Master Tom, " said he, laughing at his joke and I too joining in, ourwonderful good fortune having restored all our spirits amazingly. 

The sun now came out and the day became bright and cheerful, with agentle soft breeze blowing from the south-west which was just sufficientto curl the crests of the waves and make the sea sparkling, the heavywaves of the morning having lessened considerably and the whole expanseof the ocean dancing before our eyes in the warm light of the noontide. 

"I see, " observed Mr Marline, "the hands have quickly acted on youradvice about drying their clothes. "

"Aye, poor fellows; and time enough, too, for they haven't had a dry ragon them, I believe, since last Monday. "

"You forget you have been in the same plight, " replied the other, as welooked at the long strings of shirts and trousers and guernsey frockshanging from ropes that were stretched from the stump of the foremastacross the deck forwards, all fluttering in the wind and making the shiplook as if she were dressed with bunting in honour of some royalbirthday. 

"And so have you too, Marline, as well as this young shaver, " returnedthe captain good-humouredly; "but I was not thinking of ourselves; for, we're both young fellows, like Master Tom here, and able to braveanything. Hasn't the ship suffered, though, poor old thing!" he addedas he glanced sympathetically over her and saw all the damage, which, first the gale, and then our subsequent cutting away of the masts, hadeffected. 

"Aye, she doesn't look as trim as when she left port, " said Mr Marline. 

Nor did she by a long way!

The mizzen and mainmasts had been cut down close to the deck, while thebutt-end of the foremast stood up only some twenty feet or so above theforecastle--a jagged broken piece of timber, with the stays and otherropes stretching away from its head to the wreck of the spars tumblingabout in the sea in front of us. The bowsprit alone remained intact ofall our sticks, the gale having even spared the jib-boom; while themartingale and dolphin striker, with the shrouds on either side of theprojecting spar were still all standing. 

Looking inboards, the helm and steering apparatus were undamaged, as wasalso the binnacle, although this had a severe list to starboard; but, the skylight in the centre of the poop had been swept away, as well as aportion of the bulwarks on the side that had been under water, therasping of the mizzen-mast having sawn them off flush with the deck. 

This was the case, too, below in the waist, where the starboard timbershad been carried away nearly to the fore-chains, which probably hadacted as a buffer and stayed further destruction in that direction; andit was only owing to this that the galley and pump-box had been saved, as otherwise both would have been swept overboard along with the dunnageI had noticed collected under the lee of the forecastle. 

"Well, we mustn't grumble, " said Captain Miles after meditating a bitover the damage with a serious face. "Our lives have been spared andthe ship floats; so, there you have two things to the good, to balanceour account on the other side of the ledger!"

"You're right, sir, " replied Mr Marline; "but have you sounded her yetto see if we have shipped much water?"

"Aye, I did that a long time ago, while you were dreaming, " said thecaptain with a chuckle. "Old Adze the carpenter saw to the matter assoon as we righted. She has taken in very little in the main hold; butthe fore-peak is full, as I thought, through some careless fellow notputting on the hatch and battening it down again after we got up thesenew sails. However, we can't see about clearing it out yet, for thepumps are smashed and it will take Adze all day to-morrow to get them inworking order again. Besides, I don't want the men to do more than isabsolutely necessary to-day, for it is Sunday, as I told you before; andwe ought, in more ways than one, considering all we have gone through, to observe it as a day of rest. "

"I quite agree with you, sir, " replied Mr Marline; "and if I had notthought so, you would have seen me long ere this on the fo'c's'le, getting up a jury-mast or something. "

"Let you alone for that, " said Captain Miles. "But, Marline, " he addedthe next moment, "there is one thing we must do presently. I thought itbest to leave it until sunset, before letting all hands turn in and havea good night's rest; and that is--"

"To bury the steward, " suggested the other. 

"You've guessed rightly, " said he; "so now, as I see the men taking intheir clothes, which are by this time dry enough, I should fancy, fromtheir exposure to the sun and wind, I think I'll give them a hail. "

This he did; and bye and bye, as the orb of day sank below the sea, thebody of Harry, tied up in a piece of tarpaulin and with a heavy piece ofchain-cable attached to the feet to make it sink, was committed to thedeep, Captain Miles reading the impressive burial service, for thoselost at sea, out of a prayer-book which he had recovered from the debrisof the cabin and put in his pocket for the purpose. 

This was our religious observance of the day. It was a great contrastto the prayers on the poop which we had on the previous Sunday, when theship, in all the glory of her fine proportions, with her lofty maststowering into the skies, was rolling on the calm bosom of the ocean, with her idle sails spread vainly to the breeze that would not come;now, she was but a battered and dismantled hulk. The breeze we hadwished for had come at last and waxed into a strong wind, which hadultimately developed into the hurricane that had done all the mischief--the final result of which was the present burial of our drowned comrade!

"Lads, " cried Captain Miles when he had finished reading the service andthe body had disappeared below the surface of the restless sea, "you cango and turn in now, all that like. Mind, you have a good caulk untilearly to-morrow morning, when you'll have to rouse out sharp, all hands, for there be lots to be done!"

We who were on the poop also went below soon afterwards to the cabin, where we found that Jake had cleared out all the debris and arranged theplace so neatly that one would scarcely have imagined it had ever beenin the state of confusion we noticed when first entering it. 

Our bunks, too, were all arranged comfortably, with dry blankets spreadin each; and I know that I, for one, was so glad to lie down on anythinglike a bed again after the two nights' exposure outside the ship, that Idropped off to sleep the moment I turned into my cot--the remark thecaptain had made about our being now thirteen in number, or a "baker'sdozen, " running in my head as a refrain to my dreams, although my restwas not in any way disturbed. The baker's dozen, however, made me thinkof bread on my waking up in the morning; for, I felt more hungry thenthan on the previous day, when the first morsel of food I tasted almostchoked me. 

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. 

WE BEAT UP FOR THE AZORES. 

It was early dawn when the unwonted sound of feet bustling about over myhead on the deck, which I had not heard now it seemed for anunconscionable length of time, roused me up to the realisation of ourhaving at last been relieved from our terrible peril and the privationswe had suffered whilst the ship was on her beam-ends. 

Oh, what joy it was to think we were all safe on board the _Josephine_again!

Hunger, one of the most painful of the sufferings we had experienced, and indeed the one which I felt the most of any, was now banishedcompletely to the realms of the past; and I had presently trustworthyevidence of this, Jake appearing at the door of my cabin and bringing ina steaming bowl of coffee and some biscuits, as a sort of "littlebreakfast" before the larger and more substantial meal was ready--thegalley being already fixed up properly and Cuffee having resumed hisculinary duties with all his paraphernalia in train. 

When I got out on the poop, I noticed that the hands had not been idlewhile I was sleeping, so much already having been accomplished in theway of restoring the ship to an effective condition that the men musthave set to work long before daylight, I was certain. 

Moggridge was just going down the poop-ladder as I mounted it, on hisway forward to execute some order Captain Miles had given him. 

"Fine morning, Master Tom, " he said. 

"It is, " I responded, "a regular jolly one; but, how busy you all are!"

"Aye, aye, young master, we can't afford to wait when there's so much tobe done and so precious little time to do it in. "

And then he was off in a jiffey. 

Captain Miles was sitting on the port bulwarks, which were intact, polishing up his sextant. 

"Good morning, captain, " I said. 

"Morning, " he answered absently, so much engrossed with one of the eye-pieces of the instrument that he couldn't even look up. 

I felt like the idle little boy in the story-book, who went and asked, first, the horse to play with him, and then, when that sagacious animalrefused to accede to his request, on the plea of having his master'sbusiness to attend to, he tried to induce various other quadrupeds tocome and amuse him, only to meet with a constant refusal--the idle boyhaving in the end to go to work himself, finding idleness, withoutcompanions to share it, the reverse of pleasure. 

Everybody on board seemed too much engrossed with some task in hand toattend to me; even Jake, when I went below again, could hardly spare mea word, for he was intent on polishing up the saloon table again, tryingto efface the effects of its long immersion in the water from thesurface of the mahogany--a somewhat vain task, I may add, as the woodnever recovered its original tone. 

I then went forwards, only to see the men there working like bees. Nota soul even raised his head to glance at me as I passed by. 

Adze, the carpenter, was up to his ears in the pump casing, which he hadfixed again over the well amidships, after first taking out the valvesand fitting new suckers to them. Cuffee, too, was blowing away at thegalley fire till his black face looked like that of a red Indian; and, as for Mr Marline, he was in his element, as he always was whenoverseeing anything connected with the rigging of the ship, enjoyinghimself to his heart's content in setting up a jury-mast to take theplace of our broken foremast. He had made the men lash the topmast andtopgallant-mast to the fragment left of the original spar, securing itwith back-stays and preventers on the port and starboard sides beforegetting up the shrouds. These latter, of course, would have now to bereduced, in order to suit the diminished height of the new mast, whereonthe topsail-yard would have to do duty for the old fore-yard, and thetopgallant one be transferred into a topsail-yard. 

Mr Marline seemed rather proud of his handiwork; so, this made him moreconversational than anyone I had yet tried to talk to. 

"Ha, Tom, " he said, "you're just in time to see us cross our yardsagain--not a bad job, eh?"

"No, sir, " I replied; "have you been long over it?"

"Ever since daylight. "

"And have all of you been equally busy?" I asked. 

"Bless you, yes! As for Cuffee, he roused out poor Moggridge early inthe middle watch, to help him to fix the galley, bribing him with thepromise of some hot coffee. That started the hands; for, the boatswainmust needs hail Adze to see after the pumps, and hearing them stirringabout, I came on deck and employed the idlers in getting the sparsalongside, as the sea was as calm as a pond. Then, I set them to workunreeving the gear and making things snug for setting up our jury-masts, of which this is the first--a downright seamanlike piece of work I callit. "

"So it is, sir, " said I to please him, seeing him looking up at the newforemast admiringly; "and, I suppose, Mr Marline, when you've finishedrigging this, you'll begin setting up a new mainmast. "

"Aye, my boy, and a mizzen too after that! You shall see the oldbarquey spreading her canvas bravely again before I have done with her. "

Presently, Adze called out that he had made the pumps act at last. 

This brought down Captain Miles from the poop; when, a party of thesailors at once setting to work, the bilge-water soon rose from belowand flowed in a stream in the scuppers. 

Half an hour's spell served to make the pumps suck dry, showing that themain hold of the ship was clear; and, seeing this, the captain turnedround and hailed Mr Marline with a triumphant shout. 

"There, Marline, " he cried, "what do you think of that, eh? Who wasright and who was wrong?"

"Well, sir, you were a true prophet this time, " replied the first mateequally well pleased at the result, although it went against his ownprognostication; "I only hope you'll get the fore-peak free as easily;for, then, we'll float on an even keel. "

"All right, my boy, so we will, " said Captain Miles; and he then orderedthe hands to bend the end of the hose down into the forepart of the shipbelow that part of the forecastle where the men bunked, the other end ofthe hose being attached to the pump cylinder. 

This job was a heavier one than that of clearing the main hold, the menhaving to be relieved in spells; but, after several hours' hard work, the bows of the ship were sensibly lightened of the extra water ballastwe had carried here, and by the afternoon this part of the vessel wasalso clear. 

Meanwhile, however, Jake had announced that breakfast was ready and onthe cabin table. This was the first hot meal we had had the chance ofpartaking of now for four days, and it may be imagined with what gustowe all enjoyed it I should add that, Captain Miles, liking good livinghimself, took care that the men all round had an equally good spread, sharing his own private stores liberally, so that those in theforecastle fared as sumptuously as we did. 

The captain did this out of his own innate good nature; but, had he beengenerous merely as an act of policy, it could not have served him inbetter stead, the sailors working all the afternoon and far into thenight with all the greater willingness in setting the ship to rights asa return for the kindness he had displayed. None wanted driving to makethem stick to their several tasks. 

Mr Marline had believed that when the fore-peak was clear of water the_Josephine_, which until then had her bows almost level with the sea, would have recovered her proper floatation; but, although her head nowrose, she displayed a decided list to starboard that became the moreapparent as her head became elevated more and more. 

"Some of the cargo must have shifted, " said Captain Miles; and with him, true sailor as he was, to discover a fault was to suggest a remedy. 

"We must take off the battens of the main hatch, " he cried. "MrMarline, stop rigging those sticks for a bit. It is far more importantfor our stowage to be true before we take any more of the heavy spars onboard; for, if we meet with any bad weather, we may turn the turtleagain and not come out of it so cleverly as we managed on the firstoccasion!"

"All right, sir, " replied the mate, ordering the hands under his orderson the forecastle to move aft, where, under the captain's directions, the hatches were taken off and the cargo exposed to view. 

A pair of shears were then rigged up over the hold, on which a runningtackle with blocks and falls was rigged; when, after several puncheonsof rum had been hoisted out, it was found that the lover tier of thecargo had lurched over at the time the ship careened. 

It took many hours to alter the arrangement of the sugar casks below, the rum having to be all hoisted on deck first; but, the hands workingzealously, the job was at last accomplished, the ship soon afterwardsrighting properly, with her deck now horizontal to the plane of thewater instead of being at an angle with it as before. 

The puncheons of rum were then again lowered down and stowed securelyand the hatches put on again. The men after this ceased their toils forthe day, it being close on to sunset. 

On the third day, the rigging of the jury foremast was completed and thehead-gear all attached to it, new sails being bent to the yards in theplace of those that had been blown away. Fresh halliards and runningropes were also rove, so that on an emergency, if the wind arosesuddenly, we could have made sail on the one mast, and thus made a shiftof battling with the elements. 

Fortunately, however, the weather remained beautifully calm, only aslight breeze springing up for a short time during the first hours ofthe morning watch. The light wind had hardly sufficient power to givemotion to the bull of the vessel, and so the task of setting up theother masts and rigging was satisfactorily proceeded with. 

The mainmast caused the greatest trouble, the remains of the heel havingfirst to be taken out; although Mr Marline luckily thought of this whenwe were re-stowing the cargo on the previous day. Otherwise, we wouldhave had a second sorting out of the contents of the hold. 

The shears used for raising the rum puncheons not being strong enough tolift the mainmast, which was a very heavy piece of timber weighingseveral hundredweights, the main and fore-yards, with the mizzentopmast, were set up as a triangle over the place where the spar had tobe stepped--the ends of the yards being fixed firmly against thebulwarks on either side and lashed together at the top. This "crab" wasthen raised in the air by a tackle and purchase, the falls of which werebrought to the capstan and run up by the crew as if they were weighinganchor. 

Then, the mainmast was slung just about its balancing centre and hauledinboard through the broken bulwarks--which had not yet been restored onpurpose until all the spars were hoisted in. 

The falls were now again manned; and, the sailors heaving away with oneof their animating choruses, up went the spar in the air above thevacant hole in the deck from where the old part of the heel had beenremoved--guys being belayed on either side to make it drop in true whenit was right over the place for its reception. 

It did not take long to fix it now perpendicularly; although, as thespar had been severed some feet from the deck, the new end of it wasmore slender than the old, and so required packing round with pieces ofwood driven in by mallets to make it secure. 

Next, the standing rigging was set up after being first shortened; andAdze had a good deal of blacksmith's work to do in making fresh boltsand eyes, converting Cuffee's galley into a temporary forge for thispurpose. All the ropes and blocks having been carefully collectedbeforehand and sorted, this labour did not consume half the time thatone would have thought. 

On the fifth day, the mizzen-mast was also got back into its place. 

Then the yards were crossed and sails bent on the mainmast; and the_Josephine_ appeared to show nearly as much top-hamper as she did beforethe gale, only that all the masts were much shorter than before, theforemast especially being only an apology for the former spar. 

However, the change made a wonderful improvement in the appearance ofthe ship; and when the broken bulwarks were patched up, which was doneon the last day of the week, she was herself again. 

On the Sunday that followed the righting of the ship we had our prayerson the poop as usual, Captain Miles returning especial thanks to thegreat Ruler of the deep for all the mercies we had received; and, as afair wind sprung up in the evening of the same day from the south, weset sail once more, moving away from the spot where we had beenrefitting. 

"I don't think, " said Captain Miles, "that we've drifted twenty mileseither way since this day week; for there's no current hereabout, andwe've had little or no wind. "

"We're then still about the centre of the Sargasso Sea, " observed MrMarline. 

"Aye, " responded the other; "so Master Tom will have ample opportunitieswithin the next fortnight or so for studying all you told him about theGulf-weed, for I've no doubt we'll presently pass through lots of it. "

"Shall you shape a straight course for the Channel, sir?" asked thefirst mate, looking at his watch as he did so in a very self-satisfiedsort of way, it seemed. 

"You may well observe that time-piece of yours carefully, " said thecaptain with a sigh, although he smiled as he spoke. "On that littlearticle depends all our navigation--that is, until we meet with somepassing vessel to correct our reckoning, and I don't suppose we shallcome across many of these, for we're out of the track of all voyagingover this part of the Atlantic save those homeward-bound from the Cape. I intend to make for Flores, the westernmost island of the Azores, aswe're short of water; besides, by my pursuing that course we shall getup into the trades, and bye and bye fetch the Gulf Stream, which willrender our passage shorter to the Channel. "

"Very well, we'll see, " said Mr Marline, unconsciously using his oldstereotyped form of answer to almost everything. 

"I believe, " cried Captain Miles laughing, "that if anybody asked you toaccept a thousand pounds you'd reply, `I'll see about it!'"

"You just try me and see, " replied the first mate drily to this remark, joining in the captain's laugh; but I noticed that the other did nottake up the offer. 

Through our detention by the calm, in addition to the scurrying to andfro we had during the hurricane and the long time we remained a helplesslog on the waters, it was now considerably more than two months since wehad left the West Indies; and, as the _Josephine_ did not sail so wellnow, besides having light and variable winds, it took us more thananother fortnight to reach Flores and sight the Morro Grande--a mountainsome three thousand feet in height, rising high in the clouds aboveSanta Cruz, the capital of the island. 

But, for days before this, we sailed through that wonderful SargassoSea, the circumstances of whose being Mr Marline had explained to meduring the fearful night we passed clinging to the capsized hull of theship, exposed to the cruel wash of the pitiless waves; and, as weploughed over this submerged meadow of sea-weed in the centre of theAtlantic, I could not help recalling the mangrove swamps and lagoons ofthe tropic island in which my childhood had been passed, wondering thewhile, too, whether the _Josephine_ would not be reported as lostthrough the protraction of her voyage--for she was expected to reachEngland by the middle of September at the latest, and it was nowOctober. 

Why, if news came to Grenada that we were given up at Lloyd's, poor dadand mother would be in a terrible way about me, I knew!

The day of the receipt of such intelligence would be a sad one at MountPleasant, where all had loved me and would miss me now more than ever. 

These thoughts, however, were but idle fancies, I reflected when wesighted Flores; for, even if we had been given up, the news would nowsoon be sent on that the old ship was still to the fore. So, whenCaptain Miles had taken in fresh water and provisions, besides buying anew chronometer, and then shaped a course direct for the EnglishChannel, I looked forward anxiously to relieving my parent's anxiety asmuch as I did at the realisation of my boyhood's dream of seeing Londonand going to school. 

CHAPTER NINETEEN. 

DAD. 

My tale will soon come to an end. 

After leaving Santa Cruz, we had a fine steady wind from the north-west, right on our quarter, all the way to the chops of the Channel; and thisenabled us to accomplish the intervening twelve hundred miles ofdistance in ten days' time. 

We were equally lucky in getting up to the river, although it was wellon in the month of October, when easterly winds generally prevail; for, without requiring the assistance of a tug, after making the Lizard, wepassed up towards London in fine style, walking at a great rate byDunnose, Beachy Head, Dungeness, and all those other landmarks thatmariners know so well. 

When we got to Gravesend, I had a great surprise; for, who on earth doyou think should come off to the ship as we anchored in the stream, waiting for a pilot to take us up the river to the Saint Katherine'sDocks, where we were bound? The very last person in the world whom youor I could possibly have expected to meet me there!

Who do you think?

Why, dad!

Yes--he; and none other. 

It seems that shortly after I sailed in the _Josephine_, the gentlemanwho had made him an offer to purchase Mount Pleasant when I was ill--andthen backed out of the bargain because dad would not immediately come toterms--renewed the proposal, and dad accepted at once. 

Then, as he had nothing remaining to keep him out in the West Indies, hetook passages in the next mail steamer home for my mother and my sistersand himself, arriving over here even before I could have expected toreach England had all gone well with our ship. 

When they got to London, however, news came from Lloyd's that the_Josephine_ was lost, as our boats, which had been swept away in thehurricane, had been picked up by a homeward-bound ship. 

Needless to say, dad and all my folk were heart-broken at hearing this. 

Hardly, however, had they become reconciled to my death, as theythought, than a fresh piece of intelligence was passed on from Flores, narrating how we had touched there, all well on board; so, as soon as wewere reported as being sighted in the Channel, dad was on the watch tobe the first to greet me, coming down specially to Gravesend to boardthe ship as soon as she entered the river. 

I need not describe the meeting with dad in the first place, nor the wayin which my mother and sisters, dear little Tot included, welcomed me?

Hardly!

Jake must have the last word, though; for, it was only through hisfaithfulness that I had been preserved during all our perils on the sea. 

You must remember that, not only did he save me from drowning in thefirst instance, when the vessel capsized; but, it was mainly through hiswatchful attentions that my life was saved during the time that I wasexposed on the hull of the ship while she was on her beam-ends. 

"Golly, Massa Eastman, " he cried out to dad the moment he put foot onboard the _Josephine_, "I'se look arter Mass' Tom, as I promiss, suah, and here he am, sah, safe an' sound!"

So I was; but, in spite of that, I have never forgotten my experiencesof the Sargasso Sea, nor The White Squall. 

THE END.