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+Project Gutenberg's The Wreck of the Nancy Bell, by J. C. Hutcheson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Wreck of the Nancy Bell
+       Cast Away on Kerguelen Land
+
+Author: J. C. Hutcheson
+
+Illustrator: W. S. Stacey
+
+Release Date: April 15, 2007 [EBook #21085]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRECK OF THE NANCY BELL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+
+The Wreck of the Nancy Bell; or, Cast Away on Kerguelen Land
+
+By John Conroy Hutcheson
+___________________________________________________________
+
+A well-written nautical novel by J.C. Hutcheson.  The "Nancy
+Bell" appears to be a well-found ship, on its way out from
+the United Kingdom to New Zealand, but she is beset early
+on by a severe storm which leaves her rudderless and
+mastless.  One of the passengers was an ex Royal Navy
+Commander who, for some reason, was travelling incognito.
+He had offered the Captain advice which was rejected as the
+Captain thought it came from a landsman.  Very possibly,
+had he heeded that advice, the whole train of disasters
+might not have occurred.
+
+Hutcheson has a habit of introducing characters who speak
+in their own form of English.  In this case he has a
+Jamaican, an Irishman, and a Yankee, all speaking with
+their own native versions of the language.  For good
+measure there is also a Norwegian, who has to make himself
+understood in a mixture of German and English.  All this
+makes for a rather difficult book to transcribe, but I hope
+we have got it right.
+
+Eventually the vessel is wrecked just off Kerguelen Island,
+where the crew and passengers land and build themselves a
+shelter to take them through the winter.  There had been a
+mutiny just before the wreck, and some of the crew had
+landed elsewhere, but eventually one or two men who had not
+been the actual mutineers, but who had got caught up in
+events, make their way back to the main party.
+
+When spring arrives they make their way to the other side
+of Kerguelen Island, by a route which includes an overland
+traverse by boat, portaging where necessary.  Eventually a
+vessel comes in, and they are saved.
+
+Hutcheson is very good at getting his characters to appear
+quite real, and for this reason he is a good author to
+follow.
+
+___________________________________________________________
+
+THE WRECK OF THE NANCY BELL;
+OR, CAST AWAY ON KERGUELEN LAND
+
+by JOHN CONROY HUTCHESON
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+OUTWARDS BOUND.
+
+"How's her head?" exclaimed Captain Dinks, the moment his genial, rosy,
+weather-beaten face appeared looming above the top-rail of the companion
+way that led up to the poop from the saloon below, the bright mellow
+light of the morning sun reflecting from his deep-tanned visage as if
+from a mirror, and making it as radiant almost as the orb of day.
+
+"West-sou'-west, sorr," came the answer, ere the questioner could set
+foot on the deck, in accents short, sharp, prompt, and decisive, albeit
+with a strong Milesian flavour, from the chief mate.  He was the officer
+of the watch, and was standing alongside the man at the wheel on the
+weather-side of the ship, with a telescope under his arm and a keen look
+of attention in his merry, twinkling grey eyes.
+
+"Ha-hum!" muttered the captain to himself reflectively.  "I wish the
+wind would shift over more to the nor'ard, and we'd then be able to
+shape a better course; we're going far too much to the west to please
+me!  I suppose," he added in a louder tone, addressing the mate again,
+"she isn't making any great way yet since daylight, McCarthy, eh?"
+
+"No, sorr, leastways, Captain Dinks," replied that worthy, a genuine
+thorough-going Irishman, "from the crown of his head to the sole of his
+fut," as he would have said himself, and with a shaggy head of hair and
+beard as red as that of the wildest Celt in Connemara, besides being
+blessed with a "brogue" as pronounced as his turned-up nose--on which
+one might have hung a tea-kettle on an emergency, in the hope that its
+surroundings would supply the requisite fire and fuel for boiling
+purposes.  "No, sorr, no way at all at all, sure!  Not more'n five
+knots, cap'en honey, by the same token, the last time we hove the log at
+six bells, bad cess to it!"
+
+"Everything drawing, too, slow and aloft!" said the captain, with just a
+shade of discontent in his cheery voice, as he took in with a quick,
+sailor-like glance the position of the ship and every detail of the
+swelling pyramids of canvas that towered up on each mast from deck to
+sky--the yards braced round sharp, almost fore and aft, the huge square
+sails flattened like boards, the tremulous fluttering of the flying jib,
+and occasional gybing of the spanker, showing how close up to the wind
+the vessel was being steered.  "You couldn't luff her a bit more,
+McCarthy, could you?" he added, after another glance at the compass and
+a murmured "steady!" to the steersman.
+
+"Not a ha'porth, sorr," replied the mate sorrowfully, as if it went to
+his heart to make the announcement.  "I had the watch up only jist a
+minit ago; an' if you'll belave me, Cap'en Dinks, we've braced up the
+yards to the last inch the sheets will run, bad cess to thim!"
+
+"Well, well, I suppose we'll have to put up with it; though it's rather
+disheartening to have this sou'-wester right in one's teeth before we
+have cleared the Chops of the Channel, after all our good luck in having
+so fair a wind down with us from the Nore!"
+
+The captain still spoke somewhat disconsolately; but, his temperament
+was of too bright and elastic a nature to allow him long to look merely
+on the dark side of things.  Soon, he saw something to be cheerful over,
+in spite of the adverse influence of Aeolus; and this was, as it
+appeared to him, the wonderful progress the ship was making, although
+sailing, close-hauled as she was, with the wind right before the beam.
+
+"Now, isn't she a beauty, though, McCarthy," he said presently, with a
+sort of triumphant ring in his speech, after gazing for a few moments in
+silence over the taffrail astern at the long foaming wake the vessel was
+leaving behind her, spread out like a glittering silver fan across the
+illimitable expanse of greenish-tinged water.  "Isn't she a beauty to
+behave as she does under the circumstances!  There are not many ships
+laden like her that would make five knots out of a foul wind, as she is
+now doing, eh?"
+
+"That there ain't, sorr," promptly returned the other with hearty
+emphasis, only too glad to have the opportunity of agreeing with his
+skipper.  "An' jist you wait, sorr, till we get into the nor'-east
+trades; an' by the powers we'll say the crathur walk away from us, like
+one of thim race-horses on the Skibbereen coorse whin you're a standin'
+still and a watchin' thim right foreninst you."
+
+"Aye, that we will, McCarthy," chimed in Captain Dinks, now all good
+humour again, chuckling with anticipated pleasure and rubbing his hands
+together gleefully.  "I wouldn't wish for a better ship under me in fair
+wind or foul than the _Nancy Bell_.  Bless her old timbers, she's
+staunch and sound from truck to keelson, and the smartest clipper that
+ever sailed out of the London Docks--when she has anything like decent
+weather!"
+
+"That she is, sorr, plaze the pigs!" chorused the Irishman to this paean
+of praise, which might have run on to an interminable length if it had
+not been just then interrupted by the mate's suddenly raising his gilt-
+banded cap in nautical salute to a new-comer, who now appeared on the
+scene.
+
+Captain Dinks, at once "cutting short" any further rhapsodical encomiums
+he may have contemplated anent the merits of the _Nancy Bell_, turned
+round.
+
+"Ah, good morning, Mr Meldrum," said he in cordial tones, raising his
+cap politely like his chief officer.  "You are early on deck: an old
+sailor, I presume!"
+
+"Good morning, Captain Dinks," smilingly replied the gentleman
+addressed, one of the few saloon passengers who patronised the cuddy of
+the New Zealand clipper on her present voyage.  He had only just that
+moment come up from below, tempted to turn out by the genial brightness
+of the lovely June morning; and, as he emerged from the companion
+hatchway, he bent his steps along the poop towards the binnacle, by
+which the captain and his aide-de-camp were standing.  "Yes," he
+continued, in answer to the former's question, "I have had a voyage or
+two in my time, and one is accustomed to keep early hours at sea."
+
+"Begorrah, ye're right, sorr!" ejaculated the Irish mate, with an
+empressment that showed his earnestness.  "An' a dale too airly for some
+ov us sometimes.  Sure, an' a sailor's loife is a dog's loife entirely!"
+
+"Shut up, you old humbug!" said the captain with a laugh, turning to the
+passenger; "Why, to hear him you would think McCarthy to be one of those
+lazy lubbers who are never content unless they are caulking below,
+snoozing their wits away whilst the sun is scorching their eyes out;
+whereas, he's the most active and energetic seaman I ever met with in
+all my experience at sea, man and boy, for the last thirty years.  Look
+you, Mr Meldrum, he never waits to be roused out by any chance when
+it's his watch on deck; while, should the weather be at all nasty, you
+really can't get him to go below and turn in--it is `spell ho' with him
+with a vengeance, night and day alike!"
+
+"Don't you belave his blarney, sorr," put in the mate eagerly, bursting
+into a roar of merriment, although blushing purple with delight the
+while at the skipper's compliment.  "Why, sorr, whin I go to slape
+sometimes, the divil himself couldn't wake me!"
+
+"Ah!" rejoined Captain Dinks, "that may be when you're ashore, Tim, but
+I know what you are when you're aboard ship and duty calls!  I don't
+forget, old man, how, under Providence," and this the captain added
+reverently, taking off his cap and looking up to heaven as he spoke,
+"you saved the _Nancy Bell_ on our last voyage home--no, Tim, I don't
+forget!"
+
+"Aye, aye, Cap'en Dinks," replied the other, not to be beaten, "true for
+you, sorr; but, where was yoursilf the whilst, I'd like to know, and
+what could I have done without your hilp sure, wid all your
+blatheration?"
+
+"Nonsense, Tim," returned the captain, giving the mate a slap on the
+back which must have taken his breath away for the moment, as it made
+him reel again, and then holding out his hand, which the other grasped
+with a vice-like grip, in a paw that resembled more in size and shape a
+leg of mutton than anything else--"Tip us your fist, my hearty, and let
+us say no more about it!"
+
+It would have done anyone's heart good to see the way in which these two
+brave men--sailors both every inch of them--then looked each other
+straight in the eyes, a smile of satisfaction illumining their faces, as
+if each had reason to be proud of the other, their hands locked in a
+friendly clasp that was true to the death!
+
+As for Mr Meldrum, the passenger, who was a delighted observer of the
+good feeling existing between the captain and second in command of the
+vessel in which, like Caesar, he had "embarked himself and all his
+fortunes," and was now journeying across the surface of the deep--a good
+feeling that was fairly indicative of everything going well on the
+voyage--he was so carried away by the spirit of the moment that he felt
+inclined to ask that the general hand-shaking might be "passed round for
+the good of the crowd."  What is more, he immediately put his "happy
+thought" into execution; whereupon, much fist-squeezing ensued between
+the trio, the steersman looking on with a grin of complacency at the
+fraternal exhibition, and gripping the spokes of the wheel more firmly,
+as it were, out of a sort of fellow-sympathy, as he kept the ship "full
+and by!"
+
+"Tim McCarthy and I are old shipmates," said Captain Dinks presently, as
+if apologising for the little ebullition of sentiment that had just
+taken place, "and we've seen some rough times together."
+
+"Pray don't mention it," said Mr Meldrum; "your friendly feelings do
+you both honour!  But, how are we getting on, captain," he added, to
+change the subject, "the ship seems to be slipping along through the
+water?"
+
+"Pretty well, but not so well as I could wish.  We've got an obstinate
+head-wind against us, and cannot quite lay on our proper course; so I
+don't think we'll be able to log much of a run when we take the sun at
+noon.  The wind looks like shifting now, however, so the next twenty-
+four hours may tell a different tale."
+
+As the captain spoke, the sails flapped ominously against the masts;
+and, in obedience to a motion of the mate's hand, the steersman had to
+let the vessel's head fall off a little more to the westward, in order
+to fill the canvas again and make it draw.
+
+"I think, cap'en, we'd better thry her on the other tack," said the
+Irishman after a pause.  "The wind's headin' us sure!"
+
+"All right, McCarthy," answered the captain, "go forwards and call the
+watch, and we'll see about getting her about."
+
+Handing the captain the telescope, which he had retained until now under
+his left arm, apparently regarding it as the badge of his authority as
+officer of the watch--an authority which he now relinquished to his
+chief--the mate was down the poop ladder and on the deck below in "a
+brace of shakes;" and, in another moment, his voice was heard in
+stentorian tones ringing through the ship fore and aft.  "Hands 'bout
+ship!"
+
+The cry was like the wave of an enchanter's wand in the realms of Fairy-
+land; for, where all had been previously quiet and easy-going, with only
+the helmsman apparently doing anything on board so far as the vessel's
+progress was concerned, there was now a scene of bustle, noise, and
+motion,--men darting forwards to flatten the headsails and aft to ease
+off the boom sheets, and others to their allotted stations, waiting for
+the well-known orders from the captain, who stood in the centre of the
+poop, with the passenger beside him, looking on with a critical eye at
+the way in which the manoeuvre should be executed.
+
+"All ready forward?" shouted the captain, as soon as he saw the crew at
+their several posts.
+
+"Aye, aye, sorr," replied Mr McCarthy.
+
+"Ready, aye ready," repeated the captain--it was a sort of catch-word of
+warning to prepare the men for the next word of command, like the
+"'Tention!" of the drill sergeant to his squad of recruits--and he then
+waved his hand to the man at the wheel to put up the helm.
+
+"Helm's a lee!" was the next cry; and, instantly, the jib and foresail
+began to shiver and shake as the ship's bows came up to the wind, and
+the square sails flattened against the masts, while the boom of the
+mizzen swung to and fro until the vessel should get out of stays and pay
+off on the port tack.
+
+"Raise tacks and sheets!" came in rotation, and the topgallant-bowlines
+were let go, ready for the next move.
+
+"Mainsail haul!"--and the ponderous mainyard was swung round, bringing
+with it the maintopsail and topgallant yards with all their acreage of
+canvas: the foreyards followed suit, when the captain shouted, "Haul of
+all;"--and, after the final order, "Brace sharp!" the _Nancy Bell_ might
+have been seen heading a sou'-south-east course in lieu of her former
+direction to the westwards, and gaining more southing by the change.
+
+The mate had just returned to the poop, after seeing the watch trim the
+forward sails and curl down the slack of the ropes, while Captain Dinks
+was wondering why the steward had not yet summoned them down to
+breakfast, considering that it was past eight bells.  He was just indeed
+asking Mr Meldrum whether he felt hungry or not, when suddenly a great
+commotion was heard down the companion hatch, as of voices in
+altercation, a crash of crockery following in rapid sequence.
+
+"I'd like to know what that stupid lubber is up to now," ejaculated the
+captain.  "He's an ignorant ass, and as slow as a mute at a funeral.
+I'm sorry I had to ship him; but I had no alternative, for my old
+steward was taken suddenly ill, and I had to put up with this substitute
+whom he sent me just as we were leaving Plymouth."
+
+"Perhaps," began the passenger, as if he were about to offer some good-
+natured excuse for the man's awkwardness, but his observations were
+drowned by a louder clatter below than ever; and, ere the captain could
+descend to ascertain the cause, the new steward rushed up the companion
+ladder, with his eyes half-starting from his head, his hair standing on
+end, and his face pale with terror.
+
+"Howly Moses!" exclaimed the mate.  "Be aisy, can't ye.  What's the
+matter wid ye, you spalpeen, to be rooshin' on deck like a bull in a
+china shop?  Spake, you blissid omahdawn, or I'll shake the loife out of
+ye!"
+
+And the Irishman, putting his brawny hands on the terrified man's
+shoulders, appeared about to carry out his threat, when the unfortunate
+wight stuttered out in stammering accents, "Lor-ord, sir, do-oo-oo come
+below.  The-eer's a ghost in the cabin; an-an-and he wants to m-m-murder
+me!" the man looking the while as if he was going to faint.
+
+"A ghost in the cabin?" said the passenger, laughing; "and in daylight
+to?  Why, Captain Dinks, he must be a sort of _rara avis_--not _in
+terris_, however, in this instance."
+
+"A ghost in the cabin?" repeated the captain, in a serious tone of
+voice, with a frown on his forehead that somewhat disturbed the usual
+good-humoured expression of his countenance; "we must see about this.  I
+don't allow any ghosts aboard my ship!"
+
+And, with these words he dived down the companion, followed closely by
+the mate and passenger; the panic-stricken steward contenting himself
+with remaining at the top of the hatchway at a safe distance from the
+object that had alarmed him, although he could not help peering down
+below and listening with bated breath as to what might ensue in the
+cabin--heedless of the entreaties of the man at the wheel, in whom
+curiosity had overpowered the sense of duty for the nonce and made to
+speak in defiance of discipline, to "tell him all about it!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+STOWED AWAY.
+
+When the "party of observation" under the leadership of the captain
+arrived at the foot of the companion way, nothing very alarming was
+presented to their notices as there were no signs of disturbance to be
+seen in the steward's pantry, which was close to hand on their right;
+although, judging by the crashing sounds they had heard when on deck,
+one and all would have almost sworn that a "free fight" had taken place
+in that sanctum, causing its complement of crockeryware to come to
+irretrievable grief.
+
+Nor was anything wrong to be perceived, at first sight, on entering
+within the cuddy.
+
+On the contrary, everything there seemed in due order.  The doors of the
+cabins on either side, as well as those of the state-rooms at the
+further end of the saloon, were closed in their ordinary way--with the
+exception of one, which was opened for an instant, to allow of a night-
+capped head, evidently of female ownership, peering forth for a
+momentary peep round, and then immediately slammed to again; and, the
+long table, which ran fore and aft the vessel the entire length of the
+apartment from the foot of the mizzen mast, was neatly spread over with
+a snow-white cloth, on which knives and forks were laid equi-distantly
+with trim regularity, as well as other prandial paraphernalia, in
+preparation for breakfast; while to complete the category, the swinging
+trays above, that oscillated to and fro as the ship gave an occasional
+lurch and roll to port or starboard, betrayed no lack of their proper
+quota of wine-glasses, decanters, and tumblers.  No, there was no trace
+of any disorder here, nothing to account for that noise of a struggle
+and of breakages below that had preceded the sudden uprush of the
+steward to the poop.  What could possibly have caused all that clatter
+and commotion?
+
+Evidently so thinking, the captain, mate, and passenger looked at each
+other in a bewildered fashion, as if each were endeavouring to solve
+some knotty conundrum, and had ultimately come to the conclusion to
+"give it up!"
+
+They had not long to wait, however, for an explanation to the mystery.
+
+All at once, a deep, sepulchral groan came from abaft the mizzenmast, as
+if some one was being smothered in the hold below; and, almost at the
+same instant, there echoed from the adjacent cabin--that whence the
+night-capped head before mentioned had popped out--a shrill scream, as
+of a female in distress, succeeded by the exclamation, "Gracious
+goodness, help us and save us!  We shall all be murdered in our beds!"
+
+"Be jabers," ejaculated the mate, following up the captain, who had
+immediately rushed aft to the spot whence the groan had proceeded; "sure
+and that's the Meejor's swate voice!  I'd know it onywheres, aven in the
+Bog of Allen!"
+
+On the captain reaching the end of the cuddy table, which had, of
+course, interfered with his view, the crash of crockery which they had
+heard, and which had been hitherto inexplicable, became at once clear;
+for, there on the floor of the deck was the debris of a pile of plates
+and scattered fragments of cups and saucers which had been suddenly
+dropped by the steward in his fright and were smashed to atoms; while,
+in the centre of the scene of devastation, was the dungeon-like cavity
+of the after-hatchway, the cover of which had been shifted from its
+coamings by the man, in order for him to get up some of the cabin
+provisions from the hold, whose gloomy depths were only faintly
+illumined by the feeble rays of a lantern, which as it lay on its side
+rolling on the deck, participated in the general upset.
+
+Captain Dinks promptly took up the lantern, holding it over the open
+hatchway; and, as he did so, a second groan came from below, more hollow
+and sepulchral than before.
+
+"Who's there?" shouted the captain down the hatchway.
+
+There was no reply, save a fainter moan, apparently further away in the
+distance, followed by a sort of gurgling sound, and then the fall of
+some heavy object was heard in the hold.
+
+"Who's there below?" repeated the captain, endeavouring to pierce the
+cimmerian darkness by waving the lighted lantern about and holding it as
+far down the hatchway as his arm could reach.  "Speak or I'll fire!"
+
+This was an empty threat of the skipper's, as he held no weapon in his
+hand save the lantern; but it had the necessary effect all the same.
+
+"It's only me, massa," said a thick guttural voice from below; "only
+me," repeated the voice pleadingly.  "Goramighty, massa, don't shoot!"
+
+"And who's me?" interrogated the captain sternly, as the mate and the
+passenger looked at each other inquiringly, a smile creeping over Mr
+Meldrum's face, while the Irishman screwed up his left eye into a
+palpable wink.
+
+"Me, Snowball, sah--a 'spectable collud genleman from Jamaikey, massa,"
+replied the voice in the hold.
+
+"And what the dickens are you doing aboard my ship?" asked Captain Dinks
+in an angry tone; but the others could see that he was half-laughing as
+he spoke.
+
+"Me want passage, sah, back home.  Very bad peoples, sah, in Plymouth;
+tieve all poah niggah's money and make him drunk.  Snowball starbing; so
+um see lubly fine ship goin' way and get aboard in shore boat wid um
+last shillun: eb'ryting scramble and jumble when come on deck; so
+Snowball go get in cabin, and den down in hold, where he see steward
+stow um grub, and lie quiet till ship sail.  When hold open, he try get
+out, but can't; box fall on um foot, and Snowball holler wid pain;
+steward tink um de Debbel and knock down tings.  Snowball done no harm;
+um bery bad wid um leg!"
+
+"Sure, an' it's an impedent schoundrel he is, the spalpeen!" said the
+mate.  "Of all the cheeky stowaways I ever came across, he bates the lot
+entirely.  Shall I rouse him up with a rope's end, cap'en?"
+
+"No, wait a bit, McCarthy," said the captain; "we'll try a little
+persuasion first.  Here, `Snowball,' or whatever else you call yourself,
+just sling your hook out of that, and come up here.  I fancy I shall be
+able to accommodate you with something, besides a free passage at my
+owner's expense!"
+
+"Can't, massa," replied the stowaway, after making a movement, as they
+could hear, below, succeeded by a suppressed cry of pain; "um leg jammed
+'tween box and cask: Snowball feel bery bad--tink leg go squash: can't
+move um nohow."
+
+"Be jabers!" exclaimed the good-natured Irishman, "sure an' the poor
+baste's hurt, and, by your lave, cap'en, I'll go down and say what's the
+matther."
+
+"Do," said Captain Dinks; but ere he could get out the word, the mate,
+taking his consent for granted, had caught hold of the hatchway coamings
+with his powerful hands and swung himself down on to the lower deck;
+reaching up afterwards for the lantern, which the captain handed him,
+and then disappearing from view as he dived amongst the heterogeneous
+mass of boxes and casks, and bales of goods, mingled with articles of
+all sorts, with which the place was crammed.
+
+After a moment's absence, he came back beneath the hatchway.
+
+"Plaze, git a blanket or two out of one of the cabins, cap'en, to hoist
+him up," said he; "the unlucky beggar sames to be injured badly, and I
+think his ribs are stove in, besides a heavy box having fallen on his
+leg.  He hasn't got such a chape passage this toime as he expected; for
+he has been more'n half suffocated in the flour hogshead where he first
+stowed himself away; and, begorrah, to look at him now, with his black
+face all whitened, like a duchess powthered for a ball, and his woolly
+hid, and the blood all over him, as if he had been basted wid a
+shillelagh at Donnybrook Fair, why, his own mother wouldn't know him.
+It's small blame to that fool of a steward to be afther taking him for
+somethin' onnatural, sure!"
+
+While the mate had been giving this explanation of the stowaway's
+condition Captain Dinks had not been idle.
+
+With an agility of which none would have thought him capable, looking at
+his thick-set and rather stout figure, he had rushed in a second to his
+own cabin, which was near aft; and, dragging out a couple of railway
+rugs and a coil of rope had pitched them below to the Irishman,
+concluding his operations by jumping down alongside him, to aid in
+releasing the injured man from his perilous position--telling the
+passenger as he quitted him to "sing out" for assistance.
+
+"Steward!" shouted Mr Meldrum up the companion, in obedience to the
+captain's injunction; but never a bit did that worthy stir in response,
+nor did the ringing of a hand-bell, which the passenger saw in one of
+the swing-trays above the cuddy table expedite the recalcitrant
+functionary's movements, albeit it brought others to Mr Meldrum's aid.
+
+"What is the matter, papa dear?" said a tall, graceful, nice-looking
+girl, of some eighteen summers, as she emerged from the state-room on
+the starboard side of the saloon and came towards Mr Meldrum.  "Florry
+and I heard a heavy crash which woke us up, and then a cry of alarm, and
+a rush of feet along the deck which frightened us, for we could not tell
+what had happened.  I dressed as fast as I could, but I wouldn't have
+come out if I had not heard your voice.  As for poor Florry, she says
+she won't get up, and is now hiding her head under the clothes, as she
+thinks there's a mutiny going on or something dreadful!" and the girl
+laughed merrily as she spoke, disclosing the while a set of pearly teeth
+that were beautifully regular, and coral lips that would have put a
+rosebud to the blush; but, when she came up beside her father, who
+looked very young to be her parent, for he barely seemed forty years of
+age, she placed her hand on his arm in a caressing way, looking up into
+his face with a more serious expression, as if she had merely assumed
+the laugh to disguise a fear that she really felt.
+
+"Oh, there's nothing very dreadful happening, Kate," replied Mr
+Meldrum; "only a stowaway in the hold whom the steward took for a ghost,
+to the serious detriment of the breakfast things which you heard being
+smashed; so, pray go back to your cabin, my dear, and soothe `poor
+Florry's' alarms.  We are just getting our unexpected guest up from his
+temporary quarters under the saloon, and I'll call you when the coast is
+clear."  This he said that she might not be shocked at the sight of the
+wounded man; and he felt far more comfortable when she had retired into
+her state-room and shut the door of communication that opened from it
+into the cuddy.
+
+His comfort, however, was not of very long duration.
+
+"I'd like to know what all this terrible hullabaloo is about?" exclaimed
+a gaunt and elderly female with sharp features and a saffron-hued
+complexion, coming out from the cabin on the opposite side of the deck,
+where she had previously appeared for an instant when in deshabille, as
+her night-capped head had evidenced.  "It is positively scandalous,
+disturbing first-class passengers like this in the middle of the night
+and frightening them out of their wits!"
+
+"My dear madam," said Mr Meldrum blandly; "why, it is just on the
+stroke of eight o'clock, and we'll be soon having breakfast."
+
+"Don't `my dear madam' me, sir," returned the lady indignantly; "my name
+is Mrs Major Negus, and I insist on being treated with proper respect.
+Where is the captain of the vessel, sir?"
+
+"Down there," said Mr Meldrum laconically, pointing to the open
+hatchway.
+
+"And why is he not at his post, looking after the welfare of his
+passengers?" demanded the lady sternly, with the voice of a merciless
+judge.
+
+"Really I think you had better ask him," replied Mr Meldrum laughing;
+"it strikes me he is now looking after the welfare of one of his
+passengers, unexpected though the sable gentleman may be!"
+
+What Mrs Major Negus might have rejoined to this, cannot unfortunately
+be told, for at that moment, just as she had drawn herself up to her
+full height of some five feet ten inches, or thereabouts, and appeared
+prepared to demolish Mr Meldrum for his temerity in laughing at her--in
+laughing at her, forsooth; the wife of the deputy assistant comptroller-
+general of Waikatoo, New Zealand--the captain called out to him to bear
+a hand to raise the wounded darkey from out of his self-selected prison.
+Mr Adams, the second mate, turning out of his cabin at the same time
+to take his watch, the two managed to raise "Snowball"--the captain and
+the Irishman easing the burden by lifting him from below.  As for the
+grand Mrs Major Negus, she had to content herself with looking on with
+an undisguised contempt at the whole proceeding, wondering all the while
+that they should dare to introduce a negro into the saloon in that
+manner without having first asked her permission!
+
+Help generally comes when it is not specially wanted; so, by the time
+the stowaway had been lifted and placed on a berth in one of the vacant
+cabins, having his wounds, which were somewhat serious, seen to and
+bound up, some others of the passengers appeared on the scene.
+
+Notably amongst these was Mr Zachariah Lathrope, of Providence, Rhode
+Island, an American gentleman of a particularly inquisitive nature, but
+who, professing some knowledge of medical craft, was really of some use
+in this instance, as there was no regular ship surgeon on board; and,
+secondly, young Master Negus, a "born imp of mischief," whose
+acquaintance will be further improved as the voyage proceeds; while,
+Llewellyn, the steward, summoned courage at last to descend the
+companion, in company with his wife the stewardess, who had been forward
+to the cook's galley in search of some early tea for the lady
+passengers.  Seeing her husband on the poop she had brought him below,
+being, as Mr McCarthy observed, "twice the man" that her presumptive
+"lord and master" could possibly have been supposed, even by his warmest
+admirer.
+
+The mystery being thus satisfactorily explained, and the stowaway made
+comfortable for the while in a much more sumptuous lodging than he ever
+expected--Captain Dinks waiting to call him to account until he should
+have recovered from his injuries--the debris of broken crockeryware was
+cleared away, and the saloon party piped to breakfast, throughout which
+meal, it need hardly be added, Llewellyn got chaffed immeasurably anent
+his supernatural visitor, never having a moment's peace about his
+discovery of the "ghost in the cabin" and subsequent terrific fight
+therewith.
+
+And, all this while, the ship was tacking every now and then to make the
+most out of the wind, which was shifting from the west to the south, and
+veering occasionally from the east to the north; rising as it shifted
+and blowing with an ever-increasing force, till the vessel was running
+under reefed topsails and foresail, with her spanker half brailed up,
+her spread of canvas having been reduced by degrees, in preparation for
+the threatening gale that seemed coming from the south-west, that is, if
+the appearances of the sea and sky were to be trusted.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+A NARROW SQUEAK.
+
+During the forenoon watch, the deck was in charge of Mr Adams, the
+second mate--a plain, steady-going, matter-of-fact sort of man, with
+none of that buoyant spirit and keen sense of humour which characterised
+hid senior shipmate McCarthy, although he was a thorough sailor to the
+backbone, and believed the human race to be divided into two classes,
+those who were seamen and those who weren't.  The wind now took a more
+favourable turn, settling itself in the south-east quarter as if it
+meant to remain there, thus enabling the ship to steer a better course;
+and, meanwhile, the sky clearing up a bit, the threatening clouds
+drifted to leeward and the sun shone out again just as it did when the
+captain first came on deck in the early morning.
+
+Taking advantage of the change, the reefs were shaken out of the
+topsails, the courses let fall again, the jib and flying-jib hoisted,
+and the topgallants set; and soon, with her head steering south-west and
+a half south, the _Nancy Bell_ was bounding over the waves under all
+plain sail, as if anxious to make up for the time she had lost in
+tacking about against the head-wind that had barred her southward
+progress ever since she took her departure from the Lizard Point on the
+previous day when she hauled out from the Channel.
+
+The breeze was freshening, and there was a nasty sort of chopping sea,
+when the captain came on the poop at noon to take the sun, in order to
+ascertain his longitude--an operation which would have been much more
+difficult in the hazy weather that had prevailed some few hours
+previous, with the zenith every now and then overcast by the fleecy
+storm wrack and flying scud that came drifting across the sky as the
+wind veered; but the ship was making good running, and everything bade
+fair for her soon crossing the boisterous Bay of Biscay, on whose
+troubled waters she had now entered.
+
+"She's slipping along!" said Captain Dinks to Adams, rubbing his hands
+together gleefully, as he put down his sextant on the top of the saloon
+skylight for a moment and gave a glance aloft and then over the side to
+windward.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the second mate.  "Going fine--eleven knots last
+heave of the lead."
+
+"Ah, nothing can beat her on a bowline!" said the captain triumphantly.
+"She's a clipper and no mistake when she has the wind abeam: bears her
+canvas well, too, for a little un!" he added, with another glance aloft,
+where the sails could be seen distended to their utmost extent and
+tugging at the bolt-ropes, while the topgallant-masts were bent almost
+into a curve with the strain upon them and the stays aft were stretched
+as tight as fiddle-strings.
+
+"Yes, sir; she does," agreed Adams; "but, don't you think, sir, she's
+carrying on too much now that the wind has got up?  I was just going to
+call the hands to take in sail when you came on deck."
+
+"Certainly not," replied Captain Dinks, struck aghast by the very
+suggestion of such a thing.  "I won't have a stitch off her!  Why, man
+alive, you wouldn't want me to lose this breeze with such a lot of
+leeway as we have to make up?"
+
+"No, sir; but--"
+
+"Hang your `buts'!" interrupted the captain with some heat.  "You are a
+bit too cautious, Adams.  When you have sailed the _Nancy Bell_ as long
+as I have you'll know what she's able to carry and what she isn't!"
+
+With these pregnant words of wisdom, the captain resumed possession of
+his sextant and proceeded to take the altitude of the sun, shouting out
+occasional unintelligible directions the while through the skylight to
+Mr McCarthy, who was in his cabin below, so that he might compare the
+position of the solar orb with Greenwich time as marked by the
+chronometer.  Then telling Adams at the end of the operation to "make it
+eight bells," whereupon the tinkling sounds denoting twelve o'clock were
+heard through the ship, he himself also hurried below, to "work out his
+reckoning."
+
+On Captain Dinks coming up again, he reported that the _Nancy Bell_ had
+done better than he expected for her "first day out," considering the
+adverse circumstances she had had to contend with, for she had logged
+more than a hundred and fifty miles; but he did not look quite so
+jubilant as he had done before going below, nor did McCarthy, who now
+accompanied him on deck to relieve the second mate, whose watch had
+expired.
+
+"What's the matter, captain?" asked Mr Meldrum, with a smile, "are you
+not satisfied; or, did you expect the ship to have done more?"
+
+The passenger was patrolling the poop, in company with his two
+daughters, Kate and Florry--the latter a rompish little girl, some
+twelve years old, with long golden-brown hair which the wind was making
+wild havoc of, dashing it across her face as she turned, and streaming
+it out to leeward behind her in picturesque confusion.  The girls had
+some little difficulty in walking along the deck, as it was inclined to
+a considerable angle from the vessel's heeling over; but, by dint of
+clutching hold of their father, which they did with much joking and
+merriment and silvery laughter, each taking an arm on either side, they
+managed to preserve their equilibrium, keeping pace in regular quarter-
+deck fashion.
+
+"No," replied Captain Dinks to Mr Meldrum's chaffing question, "I can't
+say that I am satisfied, for I'm sorry to tell you that the barometer is
+going down."
+
+"Indeed!" said the other, "and with the wind from the south-east!  I'd
+advise you, captain, to take in sail at once."
+
+"Why, you're as bad as Adams," returned Captain Dinks rather huffily; "I
+suppose you'd like me to strip the ship just when we're getting the
+first fair breeze we've had since leaving Plymouth!  Excuse me, Mr
+Meldrum, I know my business; and, I presume, you'll allow a sailor to be
+better acquainted with his duties than any landsman can possibly be."
+
+"Oh, certainly, Captain Dinks," said Mr Meldrum with a bow, "and I'm
+sure I beg your pardon for interfering!  Of course, as you say, a
+landsman has no knowledge of these things and has no right to speak."
+
+"Oh, papa!" exclaimed Kate Meldrum reproachfully, "how could you say
+that?" while Florry pinched his arm and seemed convulsed with laughter,
+which she endeavoured to choke down in vain, at some secret joke or
+other; but Captain Dinks, quite restored to his usual good-humour and
+politeness by Mr Meldrum's apology, did not notice the girls, and
+presently all were chatting together with the utmost cordiality, the
+captain enlarging on the excellent run he hoped to make to New Zealand,
+and promising the young ladies that they should see Madeira ere the week
+was out, for he anticipated that the south-easterly breeze they now had
+would carry them well past the Spanish coast and into the north-east
+trades, when their voyage would be all plain sailing down to the
+Equator.
+
+How true, however, is the old adage, "Man proposes and God disposes!"
+
+While the captain was chatting gaily with his passengers, another change
+was taking place in the appearance of the heavens.  The heavy,
+threatening clouds, which had risen up after breakfast and been swept
+away to leeward by the south-east wind as it got up, were now slowly
+being banked up along the horizon to the northward and westward, the
+haze extending down to the south right ahead of the vessel's track,
+while a lot of scud began to be seen flying aloft at a very considerable
+rate--not from but towards the point from which the breeze was blowing,
+a sign that betokened not merely another shift of the wind, but a
+squall, and one not to be trifled with either!
+
+The obscuring of the sun by the drift was the first thing that called
+the captain's attention to the altered state of the weather, and he at
+once gave the order--"All hands shorten sail!" the mate rushing forwards
+to see the details properly carried out.
+
+The order did not come an instant too soon.
+
+All at once, in a moment, the wind, which had previously been blowing
+strongly from the south-east, died away and it was dead calm; while the
+sea--already rough enough with the short chopping waves of the morning--
+began to run with those huge billows that seem to get up almost without
+preparation on the advent of a gale, every second growing more
+mountainous.
+
+At the captain's word of command, re-echoed by Mr McCarthy, the crew
+had sprung aloft immediately; and, working with a will, had furled the
+topgallant-sails, taken in the flying-jib, hauled up the mainsail and
+mizzen-trysail and squared the after yards, when the ship resembled a
+gladiator, entering the arena of the prize-ring stripped for a fight, as
+she thus awaited the approach of the storm.
+
+In the south-east the sky was clear and cloudless, but in the opposite
+direction dark heavy purple masses of vapour rolled over each other,
+more unnatural in appearance owing to a lighter cloud covering the
+curling, wreathing fluid as if with a veil.  Shooting from this dark
+pile of clouds, some few were detached and became separated, rising to a
+higher region of the air, in which they were dissipated and blown out
+like mares'-tails that passed rapidly across the zenith; whilst on the
+water, and about a mile or so from the vessel, the sea appeared covered
+with a thick white mist, before which ran a dark line of black.
+
+Mr Meldrum had sent the girls below the moment Captain Dinks had given
+his orders to shorten sail, in spite of their entreaties to be allowed
+to remain on deck with him and "see the storm;" so, being now alone, he
+stationed himself near the binnacle close to the captain.
+
+As he stood watching the lull before the break of the squall, he felt a
+hand touching his shoulder; and looking round he found his fellow
+passenger, Mr Zachariah Lathrope, by his side.
+
+"Jee-hosophat! mister," said the American; "I guess we're goin' to have
+a blizzard, and no mistake!"
+
+"What's a blizzard?" said Mr Meldrum, smiling at the other's nasal
+intonation, which was more marked than usual, even for a citizen of the
+land of the setting sun.
+
+"Why, darn my moccasins, deon't yew know what a blizzard is?"
+
+Mr Meldrum shook his head in the negative: he felt that he should laugh
+outright in the other's face if he opened his mouth to speak, and he did
+not wish to appear wanting in politeness.
+
+"Waal," said the American, drawing himself up, as if proud of his
+superior knowledge and ability in being able to enlighten a backward
+Britisher.  "A blizzard's a hurricane and a tornader and a cyclone, all
+biled inter one all fired smash and let loose to sweep creation.  We
+have 'em to rights out Minnesota way; and let me tell you, mister, when
+you've ten through the mill in one, you wouldn't kinder like to hev a
+share in another.  Snakes and alligators!  Why, a blizzard will shave
+you as clean as the best barber in Boston, and then friz the marrow in
+your bones an' blow you to Jericho.  It's sarten death to be caught out
+on the prairie in one of 'em: your friends won't find your body till the
+snow melts in the spring.  I guess you wouldn't like to try one,
+streenger!"
+
+"No, I think not," said Mr Meldrum, shivering at the description, for
+he had heard before of these "Northers" of the Far West; but, the next
+moment, the thoughts of blizzards and all belonging to them were
+banished from his mind by what he saw, for the storm was upon them.
+
+It came with a blast that shook the ship from truck to keelson and
+almost turned her over, the wind being accompanied by a shower of hail
+and rain that pelted those on deck like grape-shot and completely took
+their breath away.
+
+"Let go everything!" shouted the captain.  Fortunately, the halliards
+being cast off in time, the ship was not taken aback; and the steersman
+putting the helm down, she paid off from the wind and ran off for
+sometime directly before it, tearing through the water at the rate of
+twenty knots an hour, with everything flying by the run.
+
+"Thank God!" exclaimed Mr Meldrum, in heartfelt thanksgiving to Him who
+controls the winds and storms, as he sprang to aid the man at the wheel,
+seeing that he had a hard task to keep the helm over.
+
+"Ya-as, I guess that were a narrow squeak," said the American; "and I
+kalkerlate I'll make tracks down south fore another of them snorters
+come!"  So saying, Mr Lathrope dived down the companion-way, his
+departure being accelerated by a heavy sea which washed over the quarter
+and floated him below.
+
+"Way aloft there!" shouted the captain; and, although his words could
+not be heard from the howling of the wind, which shrieked and raved like
+pandemonium broken loose as it tore through the rigging, the men knew
+what was wanted and scrambled up the shrouds as well as they could,
+sometimes stopping for breath as a stronger blast than usual pinned them
+to the ratlines, where they stuck as if spread-eagled for sport.
+
+After a good half-hour's hard work, the courses were clewed up and
+furled, the jib hauled down, and the topsails close-reefed, a staysail
+being set to steady her, when the men came down from aloft pretty well
+worn out with their exertions.
+
+Hardly had they got below, however, than the captain, seeing a second
+squall coming, ordered them up again, to strip the ship of her remaining
+sail.
+
+But, he was too late this time.
+
+Before the men could ascend the shrouds the wind struck the vessel, like
+an avalanche, on her starboard broadside, heeling her over to port as if
+she had been canted by the caulkers in dock.  Then, another following
+sea pooped her and cleared the decks fore and aft, sweeping everything
+loose overboard, the maintopsail being split to pieces at the same time;
+while the foretop-mast stay-sail was blown clean away to leeward,
+floating in the air like a white kite against the dark background of the
+sky.  Finally, the foretop-gallant mast was carried by the board to
+complete the ruin, leaving the ship rolling like a wreck upon the
+waters, though, happily, no lives as yet were lost.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+SAVED!
+
+While all this turmoil and confusion was going on above on deck--with
+the ship labouring and straining through the heavy seas that raced after
+her as she ran before the wind, one every now and then outstripping its
+fellows and breaking over her quarter or stern-rail with a force that
+made her quiver from end to end, and "stagger like a drunken man," as
+the Psalmist has so aptly described it, the thud of the heavy waves
+playing a sort of deep bass accompaniment to the shrieking treble of the
+wind as it whistled and wailed through the shrouds and cordage, and the
+ragged remnants of the torn topsail flapping against the yard, with the
+sound of a stock-driver's whip, in a series of short, sharp reports--
+those below in the cuddy were far from having a pleasant time of it;
+for, they were almost in the dark, the captain having caused the
+companion-hatch to be battened down, and a heavy tarpaulin thrown across
+the skylight to prevent the tons of water that came over the poop at
+intervals from flooding the saloon as the waves swept forward in a
+cascade of foam.
+
+This was just after Mr Zachariah Lathrope, the American passenger, had
+so well illustrated Virgil's line, _facilus descensus averni_, in coming
+down the stairway by the run, on the top of a "comber;" and, although
+the steward had lit one of the swinging lamps over the cuddy table, it
+only served, with its feeble flickering light, to "make the darkness
+visible" and render the scene more sombre.
+
+The _Nancy Bell was_ a wooden ship, clipper built and designed for the
+passenger trade; but, being only of some nine hundred tons or so
+burthen, she had not that wealth of accommodation below that some of the
+first-class liners running to Australia and New Zealand possess,
+especially in these days of high-pressure steamers and auxiliary screws,
+which make the passage in half the time that the old-fashioned sailing
+vessels used to occupy.
+
+She was, however, as well fitted up as her size permitted; and, as her
+list of passengers was by no means filled, there was plenty of space for
+those who now had possession of the main saloon, most of whom have been
+already introduced to notice.  If she had had, indeed, as proportionate
+an amount of cargo as she had passengers it might have been all the
+better for her seaworthiness.  Instead of this, however, she was, by
+far, too deep in the water, having a lot of deadweight amid-ships, in
+the shape of agricultural implements and other hardware, which she was
+taking out to Otago, that seriously interfered with her buoyancy, making
+her dip to the waves instead of rising over them, and depriving her of
+that spring and elasticity which a good ship should always have.
+
+Now, she was groaning and creaking at every timber, as if in the last
+throes of mortal agony; and the manner in which she rolled when she got
+into the trough of the sea, between the intervals of the following
+billows, would have dispelled any idea one might have possessed as to
+her proper angle of stability, and made the observer feel inclined to
+treat it as "a vanishing point."
+
+Added to this, she pitched every now and then as if she were going to
+dive into the depths of the ocean; and, when she rose again in
+recovering herself, it seemed as if she were going down bodily by the
+stern, the surge of the sea along the line of ports in the cabin bearing
+out the illusion as it swelled up above her freeboard.
+
+With the glass and crockeryware in the steward's cabin rattling, as if
+in an earthquake, and trunks and portmanteaus banging from side to side
+of the saloon, or floating up and down in the water that had accumulated
+from the heavy sea that had washed down the companion when Mr Zachariah
+Lathrope so gracefully made his rapid descent below, the place was a
+picture of discomfort and disorder such as a painter would have been
+powerless to depict and words would utterly fail to describe.
+
+Kate and Florry Meldrum had retired to their berths, having experienced
+a slight suspicion of squeamishness which the unwonted movements of the
+vessel had brought about.  They thought in such case that "discretion
+was the better part of valour," especially as they felt no alarm as to
+the safety of the ship, having perfect confidence that their father
+would look after them if there was any danger; but Mrs Major Negus, on
+the contrary, was firmly convinced that the _Nancy Bell_ was going to
+the bottom.  She sat in the captain's seat at the head of the cuddy
+table, tightly clutching on to the sides to preserve her equilibrium at
+each roll of the ship, loudly bewailing her untimely fate; and between
+the paroxysms of her grief she found time now and again to scold her son
+Maurice, who was enjoying himself most delightfully amongst the floating
+baggage, narrowly escaping destruction every moment from the wreck of
+the debris on the cabin floor, as it banged to and fro with the swish of
+the water and the roll of the ship.
+
+During one of the lulls in the series of squalls that swept over the
+vessel in rapid sequence, Mr McCarthy came below by the direction of
+the captain--who, of course, could not leave the deck--to see how the
+passengers were getting on, as well as to have the dead-lights put up in
+the state-rooms, in case of the stern-ports being battered in by the
+waves; for these had now swollen to an enormous size, and seemed
+veritably mountains high, rising up far above the cross-jack yard
+sometimes.
+
+"And how are we getting on now, Mrs Meejor?" said he, good-humouredly
+addressing the lady at the head of the table, as he made his way to the
+aftermost end of the saloon, followed by a couple of sailors, who had
+accompanied him to aid him in his task of barricading the ports.
+
+"Sir," replied she, endeavouring to speak with as much dignity as her
+insecure position and her qualmishness would allow, "I am surprised at
+your asking me such a question and displaying levity when I feel as if I
+am dying, and we are all going down to the bottom--stee-ured!"
+
+"Yes, mum," said that worthy from the pantry door, to which he was
+holding on, surveying the scene of desolation before him with the air of
+a connoisseur.
+
+"Bring a basin, please--oh, my!"
+
+"Yes, mum; coming, mum."
+
+"Maurice!"
+
+"Yes, ma."
+
+"Get up out of that mess there, and come to me at once!"
+
+"What, ma?"
+
+"Come to me here, im-mediately!"
+
+"Sha'n't!"
+
+"I'll--oh, Lord; oh, dear!  Steward, send the stewardess to me, and help
+me into my cabin.  I'm dying, I know I am!  Oh, gracious goodness, why
+did I ever come to sea?"
+
+"Faix, the ould lady has had to give in," said the mate to one of the
+sailors with him.  "I thought she wouldn't hould out much longer!"
+whereat, of course, there was a general laugh from the men.
+
+"The Major"--as everybody on board spoke of the lady, almost after a
+day's acquaintance with her peculiarities and haughty airs--was just
+then endeavouring to rise from the captain's chair, when the vessel,
+after a deeper pitch forward than usual, settled down suddenly by the
+stern, accompanying the movement by a lurch to starboard that carried
+away the lashings of the chair; and, in an instant she and the steward
+and stewardess, along with Master Negus, were rolling to leeward on the
+floor amongst the dunnage, the whole quartette sputtering and splashing
+in the sea-water, and vainly endeavouring for some time to rise, for the
+"Major," first clutching one and then the other as they were scrambling
+to their legs, hampered their efforts without improving her own position
+in the least.
+
+At last, by the aid of Mr McCarthy and the sailors, the good lady was
+pulled up on to her feet and assisted into her cabin, where lying back
+in her berth, she loudly inveighed against the conduct of everyone,
+particularly selecting the Captain, in her outpour of indignation, for
+putting to sea when he must have known, as she held, that a storm was
+coming on; he had only done it, she was certain, in order to annoy her
+and put her life in peril!
+
+In the midst of her diatribe--which was listened to by no one, for the
+mate and sailors had returned on deck after completing the job that had
+brought them down in thorough ship-shape fashion, and the steward and
+stewardess, now that they had got my lady to her bunk, were trying to
+make matters more comfortable in the saloon--Mrs Major Negus suddenly
+bethought herself of her young hopeful, of whose existence she had been
+awhile oblivious while attending to her own woes.
+
+"Maurice!" cried she, in accents whose shrillness rose above the roar of
+the waves and the groaning of the ship's timbers, "Maurice, come here at
+once, sir, I order you!"
+
+But, lo and behold! no Maurice made his, appearance; nor did he respond
+to his mother's heart-rending appeal.  The young scamp had sneaked up
+the companion, unperceived by the mate, and was now on deck in high glee
+at his freedom from maternal thraldom, watching the battle of the
+elements and the struggle of the ship against the supremacy of the wind
+and waves, that were vying with each other to overwhelm her.
+
+The boy stood on the lee side of the poop, and was looking over the side
+at the wreck of the fore-topgallant mast, which was still attached to
+the ship by the stay and braces of the yard, the men not yet having time
+to cut it adrift--all hands being busy in doing what was possible to
+save the main-topgallant mast, that had begun to show signs of giving
+way.
+
+Nobody knew he was there, or that he was on deck at all, till Mr
+Meldrum happened suddenly to cast his eye in his direction, when he at
+once motioned him to come away.
+
+But, "the imp" took no notice of the warning, and Mr Meldrum was
+hesitating whether he should leave his station by the binnacle, where he
+had been doing yeoman's service in aiding the helmsman ever since the
+first squall burst over the ship, when a heavy wave came over the
+quarter to windward, and, dashing violently against the port bulwarks,
+carried a large portion away into the sea; and, along with the broken
+timber-work, away went young Master Negus!
+
+Mr Meldrum hesitated no longer as to crossing the deck; but another was
+sooner at the scene of action.
+
+Frank Harness, the "third mate," as he was euphemistically called--a
+dashing young fellow of nineteen, and just completing his sea-time as
+midshipman before passing the Trinity House examination for his
+certificate in seamanship--who had been aloft bearing a hand in making
+the mizzen-topsail snug, the leech of the sail having blown out through
+the violence of the gale, was just on his way down the rigging again to
+see where he could be of use elsewhere, when he noticed the boy's peril
+as quickly as the passenger; and, with one bound, he alighted on the
+deck.
+
+In a rapid eye-glance he took in the situation.
+
+Raised on the top of a curling wave, the fragments of the broken
+bulwarks and stanchions had got entangled with the wreck of the fore-
+topgallant mast, some twenty yards or so to leeward of the ship; and,
+clinging to the mass, Frank could see the boy holding on with a grip of
+desperation and terror, drenched with his ducking and the surf that
+washed over him, and with his mouth wide open as if yelling for
+assistance--although never a sound reached those on board for the roar
+of a giant could not have been heard against the wind.
+
+Taking a turn of the signal halliards round his wrist, Frank Harness at
+once leaped into the sea and struck out gallantly for the boy; those on
+the poop cheering him as he cleaved through the foaming billows and
+quickly neared the wreckage, forgetful for a moment of their own
+immediate peril in the exciting scene before them, and waiting anxiously
+for their turn to assist the rescuer and the rescued on board again.
+
+In the meantime, Mrs Major Negus--alarmed at the disappearance of her
+young hopeful from below, neither the steward or stewardess being able
+to give any account of him after searching the cabins in vain--had
+managed to scramble up the companion-way, nerved to desperation by the
+divine power of a mother's love; and by some means or other she
+contrived to slide back the hatch and step out on to the poop-deck,
+where, holding on by the rail, she eagerly looked to the right and left
+in quest of Maurice.
+
+Seeing the group on the lee-side gazing steadfastly at the scene in the
+water, she staggered towards them, clutching hold of the tarpaulin over
+the skylight to steady herself.
+
+"My boy! my boy!" she exclaimed frantically.  "Where is he?  Oh, he's
+lost," she added with a piercing scream,--"fiends, monsters, are you
+going to let him drown before your eyes?"--and she made an effort as if
+to plunge overboard to where she could see the curly head of her darling
+rising just above the waves.
+
+"Hold!" cried Captain Dinks kindly, grasping her arm firmly and drawing
+her back.  "He's being saved, and we'll have him on board again in a
+minute.  There, don't you see, some one has plunged in after him and is
+just gripping him; we'll have them up together as soon as he has made
+fast!"
+
+"Bless him, the brave fellow!" exclaimed the poor lady, whose
+peculiarities and bad temper were now forgotten by all in sympathy with
+her natural alarm and anxiety, for she spoke in a voice broken with sobs
+and tears.  "Who is he?  I'll fall down on my knees and thank him for
+saving my boy!"
+
+"Frank Harness," said the captain; "but I'm sure the gallant fellow will
+not want any thanks for doing a brave action!  Look alive forward
+there!" he called out to the men in the waist, "and ease off those
+topgallant braces a bit and let the wreck drift alongside.  So--easy
+there--belay!  Another minute, and we'll have them."
+
+Frank had reached the wreckage while Maurice's mother had been speaking,
+and without an instant's delay had looped the end of the signal
+halliards round the boy's waist as he held on himself to the end of the
+topgallant yard, to which the lee braces were attached.  A quick motion
+of his arm had then apprised Captain Dinks what to do, and in another
+minute or two the wreckage had been floated in under the ship's quarter,
+and a dozen hands were helping the brave lad and the boy whom he had
+rescued up the side--Maurice, indeed, being hauled up by the bight of
+the signal halliards first.
+
+His mother almost went into hysterics when he was restored to her, as if
+from the very gates of death; but her joy did not allow her to forget to
+thank his rescuer, which she did far more enthusiastically than Frank
+liked, with all the men looking on!
+
+The gale continued raging with unabated force all that evening; but
+towards midnight it lulled sufficiently for some sail to be set on the
+ship, which was then kept more on her proper course.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+A CALM.
+
+It was a lovely dawn the morning after the storm in the Bay of Biscay.
+
+Even Mr Adams, plain, matter-of-fact, simple, and unsympathetic sailor
+as he was, without a particle of poetry or imagination about him, could
+not but gaze with admiration at the glory of God's handiwork, as he
+noticed the grand panorama of change that marked the progress from
+darkness to light, from night to day!
+
+Soon after his watch began, the twinkling stars had gone to rest,
+putting out their tiny lanterns, as they had arisen, one be one; and
+now, the violet blue of the firmament paled gradually into sea-green and
+grey, soft neutral tints mixed on the great palette of Nature to receive
+the roseate hue that presently illumined the whole eastern sky,
+heralding the approach of the glorious orb of day.  Next, streaks of
+light salmon-coloured clouds shot across the horizon, their edges
+decorated with a fringe of gold that gleamed brighter and more intense
+each moment, the water glowing beneath the reflection as if wakening
+into life: and then, the majestic sun stepping up from his ocean bed--
+all radiant--"like a bridegroom out of his chamber," and moving with
+giant strides higher and higher up the heavens, as if "anxious to run
+his course," and make up for the lost time of the night--shone through
+the transparent purple mist of the morning like a blush rose behind a
+glittering veil of dewdrops!
+
+By the time the breakfast hour arrived--"eight bells"--the blue sea was
+dancing merrily in the sunshine, the waves calming down to only a
+crisping curl of their foam-flecked summits, and the _Nancy Bell_ was
+speeding along under a pile of canvas fore and aft from deck to truck,
+Mr Adams having made good use of his time while others were sleeping to
+get up the spare topgallant-mast forward and set all the upper sail he
+could; so the passengers, roused up to new life by the cheery influence
+of the bright summer day, coming after all the gloom and misery and
+storm and tempest of the past, mustered round the cuddy table in full
+force.
+
+Mr Meldrum and the American were there as a matter of course; but, by
+the side of her father, on the right of the skipper, appeared now for
+the first time at the table since the ship had left port, the graceful
+form of Kate Meldrum accompanied by the slighter figure of Florry,
+supported on the other side of the table by Mrs Major Negus and her
+young hopeful; while Mr Adams faced Captain Dinks--it being the chief
+mate's turn of duty on deck--having brave Frank Harness close alongside.
+
+They formed a very joyous coterie altogether, and enjoyed themselves all
+the more from their natural revulsion of spirits after all the
+discomfort and misery they had passed through, Captain Dinks himself
+setting an example and provoking the merry laughter of the girls with
+his absurd jokes, although the young ladies seemed brimful of fun,
+especially Miss Florry, who the skipper said might make a good match for
+mischievousness with Master Negus--whereat a grim smile was seen to
+steal across the face of "the Major," lightening up her sallow
+countenance and making her "come out in new colours."
+
+As for Mr Zachariah Lathrope, he was too busy with the ham and eggs to
+do much talking; although, like the monkeys, he probably thought the
+more, for ever and anon he would pass encomiums on the viands and pass
+up his plate for a fresh helping, the steward having enough to do in
+supplying his wants quickly enough.
+
+After breakfast, a visit was paid to "Snowball," the darkey Stowaway,
+who was found much better and progressing so favourably that the captain
+ordered his removal to the "fokesail," to complete his convalescence;
+which it may be here added he satisfactorily accomplished in a few days,
+when he was installed in the galley as cook, in the place of a Maltese
+sailor who was glad to get forward again before the mast.  The negro had
+slept continually from the time he had been released from durance vile
+in the after-hold, neither the racket below nor the turmoil on deck
+during the storm having disturbed his slumbers.  This, no doubt, had
+hastened his recovery, for Mr McCarthy was positive that three of his
+ribs at least had been broken.
+
+"Why is Snowball like a worm, Miss Meldrum?" said Captain Dinks to Kate,
+after telling her that he intended installing the darkey in the galley
+as cook; "do you know, eh!"
+
+"Oh, if that's a conundrum, captain," replied she with a piquant laugh
+that lit up her whole face, making it quite beautiful, Frank Harness
+thought, "I give it up at once.  I'm a bad hand at guessing riddles."
+
+"Well, you see," said Captain Dinks, with that cheery "ho, ho!" of a
+laugh of his, which always preceded any of his good things, "the worm or
+grub develops into the butterfly; but Snowball made the butter fly when
+he tumbled over that cask in the steerage, and now he is going to
+develop into the grub line and turn cook!"
+
+"That's too bad!" said Kate laughing.  "I never heard a worse sort of
+pun in my life."
+
+"Then it's all the better, my dear," replied he; and as everybody else
+laughed too, they possibly shared the captain's opinion.
+
+After this, there was a move on deck--not before it was needed perhaps!
+
+At noon, Captain Dinks, after manipulating his sextant and adjusting the
+sights, seemed to be much longer taking his observation than usual; and
+when he went below to his cabin to work out the reckoning he certainly
+remained a most unconscionable time.
+
+By and by, however, he came up the companion again, his face beaming
+with delight.
+
+"What do you think, Mr Meldrum?" said he, somewhat excitedly, to that
+gentleman, who, along with the remainder of the saloon party, was
+standing on the poop leaning over the taffrail to windward, looking over
+the apparently limit less expanse of water, that stretched away to the
+horizon, and basking in the sunshine, which was tempered by a mellow
+breeze that seemed just sufficient to keep the sails of the _Nancy Bell_
+full--and that was all.
+
+"I'm sure I can't say," replied Mr Meldrum good-humouredly.  "Found
+another ghost in the cabin, eh?"
+
+"No, no; couldn't have two in one voyage," said the skipper.
+
+"Made another conundrum?" again inquired the other slily, poking fun at
+the captain's previous attempt in the riddle line.
+
+"Oh, no," said Captain Dinks, laughing out at this.  "That was too good
+to be repeated: I've got better news than that, Mr Meldrum--something
+really to surprise you!"
+
+"I'm all attention," said Mr Meldrum, "but pray do not keep us long in
+suspense.  Don't you see we're all anxious!"
+
+"Why," exclaimed Captain Dinks triumphantly, "the _Nancy Bell_ has made
+nearly five degrees of latitude since I last took the sun, there!"
+
+"Oh dear!" said Florry ruefully; "I thought you were going to tell us
+something funny!" and she looked so disappointed that Kate laughed at
+her and Master Maurice Negus grinned; whereupon Florry, in a pet,
+smacked the young gentleman's face, for which she was reproved by her
+father and ordered below, although the sentence of banishment was
+remitted later on at Mrs Major Negus's especial request.
+
+This little interlude over, the captain proceeded with his explanation.
+
+"Yes," said he, "we're now in latitude 44 degrees 56 minutes north, and
+longitude 9 degrees 42 minutes west; so that we've run pretty close on
+four hundred miles since yesterday at noon.  Just think of that, now!"
+
+"A pretty good distance," said Mr Meldrum; "but, you must recollect we
+had the gale to drive us on."
+
+"Aye, sorr," said Mr McCarthy, joining in the conversation, "and didn't
+it droive us too!  Begorrah, there was some times that the wind tuck the
+ship clane out of the wather and carried us along in the air like one of
+them flying-fish you'll say when we gits down to the line!"
+
+"It was fortunate it was in our favour," observed the captain
+reflectively.  "We couldn't have tried to beat against it; and, heavily-
+laden as we are, it would have been madness to have tried to lay-to!"
+
+"You're right," said Mr Meldrum, "and it was equally fortunate that the
+gale carried us so far and no further!  Another twelve hours of it and
+we would have been high and dry ashore on the Spanish coast."
+
+"I think you're not far out," replied the captain, scratching his head
+and pondering over the matter, "for we'll only just shave past Cape
+Finisterre now keeping our course; and if we hadn't made so much westing
+when we got out of the Channel I don't know where we should have been!"
+
+"Faix and it was grumbling at it you were all the toime, cap'en!" said
+McCarthy with a knowing wink; "though you do now say it was all for the
+best, as the man said when they buried his wife's grandmother!"
+
+"Aye, you're right," said Captain Dinks more seriously, "all is for the
+best, if we could only know it at the time!"
+
+Thenceforward, the weather kept fine; and the fates seemed favourable to
+the _Nancy Bell_ in her pilgrimage across the sea.
+
+There was no lack of incident in the voyage, however.
+
+One day, about a week after they had bidden farewell to the Bay of
+Biscay with all its terrors and troubled waters, as the ship was
+approaching that region of calms which lies adjacent to the Tropic of
+Cancer, her rate of progression had grown so "small by degrees and
+beautifully less," that she barely drifted southward with the current,
+until at length she came to a dead stop, so far as those on board could
+judge, lying motionless on the surface of the water "like a painted ship
+upon a painted ocean," as the situation is described in Coleridge's
+_Ancient Mariner_.
+
+Round about the vessel, dolphins disported themselves, and "Portuguese
+men-of-war" floated over the sea with their gelatinous sails unfurled,
+and everything seemed lazy and enjoyable to the passengers--although the
+captain and crew did not evidently relish the state of inaction which
+the calm brought about, for they were looking out in all quarters for
+the wished-for wind.
+
+Not a ship was in sight--nothing happening to break the peaceful repose
+of the deep for hours.
+
+The captain was "having a stretch" below; the men snoozing away on the
+deck forwards in all sorts of odd corners; the officer of the watch
+blinking as he squinted aloft to see if the dog-vane stirred with any
+passing breath of air; even the steersman was nodding over the helm, as
+the wheel rotated round to port or starboard as it listed, according as
+the ship rose or fell on the long heavy rolling swell that undulated
+over the bosom of the deep; and most of the passengers were in the same
+somnolent state--when all at once an event occurred that soon broke the
+monotony of the afternoon, waking up the sleepy ones to fresh vitality,
+for an object of interest had at last arisen in the uneventful day
+sufficient for the moment to enchain their attention.
+
+The listless lotus eaters had to thank Master Negus for the excitement,
+in the first instance.
+
+That young gentleman was possessed of a keen desire for knowledge, which
+his more prosaic seniors were in the habit of misconstruing, deeming it
+to arise, as they said, from an insatiable and impertinent curiosity
+combined with an inherent love of mischief.  Be that as it may, this
+desire for knowledge on Master Maurice's part frequently led him into
+places where, to put it delicately, his presence was undesirable in many
+ways; his love for investigation taking him especially to certain
+dangerous localities whither he was peremptorily forbidden to go both by
+his mother and the captain.
+
+Among such tabooed spots in the ship was the forecastle; and here,
+consequently, as a matter of course, Master Maurice most delighted to
+steal away when neither the maternal eye of Mrs Major Negus was upon
+him nor any of the other people aft were watching him.  He did not mind
+the sailors, for they made a point of encouraging him forward and took
+much pleasure in developing his propensities for mischief.
+
+This afternoon, he was enjoying himself after the desire of his heart-
+climbing about the rigging in a way that would have made his mother
+faint, when, in one of his scrambles up to the foretop, he saw something
+in the water which was hidden from the sight of the others on board,
+through the head-sails of the ship shutting out their line of view.
+
+"Oh, crickey," shouted out Master Negus at the top of his voice, at once
+betraying his whereabouts in his excitement, "there's a fight going on
+in the water, and two whales are leathering each other like fun!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+THE BLACK FISH AND THE THRESHER.
+
+"Good gracious me!" exclaimed Mrs Major Negus, jumping up in a fright
+from the comfortable nap which she had been taking in a lean-back chair
+on the poop; "where is that unhappy boy?  He'll be the death of me some
+day!"
+
+"I'm here, ma!" shouted out Maurice from the forecastle.  "Do come,
+everybody.  It's such fun!  Ah, there, the big one has just got such a
+whack and is in a terrible wax.  He's hunting about for the little one,
+who has dived away from him out of reach!"
+
+"Fokesall, ahoy!" hailed Mr Adams, who had charge of the deck; "what's
+the matter forward!"
+
+"Only a fight, sir, between a black-fish and a thresher," answered Ben
+Boltrope, the carpenter, an old man-o'-war's man, and one of the most
+efficient hands of the _Nancy Bell's_ crew.
+
+"A fit!" exclaimed Mr Zachariah Lathrope, drawing his long telescopic
+legs together and rising into a sitting posture on the top of the cabin
+skylight, where he had been taking his usual afternoon siesta instead of
+putting himself to the trouble of going below and turning into his bunk,
+as was his usual wont after luncheon.  "A fit!  Wa-al I guess I'm on.  I
+allers likes to hitch in with a muss!" and, so saying, the lanky
+American was soon scrambling down the poop-ladder and making his way
+forward, followed by all the remainder of the passengers--Mrs Major
+Negus, of course, going to look after her darling boy, while Frank
+Harness accompanied Kate Meldrum, as he said, to "take care of her,"
+although, as her father was not far distant, it might have been supposed
+that his protecting arm was not so absolutely necessary as he thought!
+
+A very strange spectacle was seen, when the party, after diving beneath
+the slackened sheets of the mainsail, that flapped about an inert mess
+of canvas above their heads, and picking their way past the galley and
+windlass, at last climbed up into the bows of the ship, where the
+majority of the crew had already assembled and taken up vantage points
+in the rigging, half-way up which was Master Maurice, waving his hat
+wildly in a great state of excitement, and the master as it were of the
+situation.
+
+"There they are!" said he pointing to where the water was lashed up and
+broken into foam, about half a mile ahead of the ship, amidst which a
+couple of dark bodies could be seen tumbling about--one occasionally
+jumping up high in the air and coming down on the other with a thud, and
+a smack that sounded like the crack of a whip, or report of a rifle.
+"There they are, Miss Meldrum, I saw them first!"
+
+"Come down out of that, sir, at once!" screamed out his mother, with a
+pant and a puff between each word, her breath having been almost taken
+away by her unusually quick movements in getting forwards.  "Have I not
+ordered you never to go up those ropes?"
+
+"Oh, bother, ma!" exclaimed the young hopeful, paying not the slightest
+attention to his mother's command.  He had been so spoilt, petted at one
+time and scolded another, that all her authority over him was lost save
+in name.  "There! bravo, little one--oh, my, wasn't that a good one,
+now?"
+
+And so, Mrs Major Negus--abandoning any expectation of making Maurice
+descend from his perch in the shrouds, where, however, she could see
+that he was in no imminent danger, for he had one of the sailors on
+either side of him who would catch him should he slip--was obliged
+perforce to do as all the rest were doing and gaze at the thrilling
+marine drama that was being acted out with such tragic earnestness on
+the surface of the deep before their eyes.
+
+A black-fish--which, it may be mentioned here, for the benefit of the
+uninitiated, is a species of cachalot, although differing from the true
+spermaceti family of whales in having the spout-holes placed on the top
+of the head, in place of on the snout, and the pectoral fins shorter--
+was being assailed by its bitter enemy the thresher or "fox shark."
+This latter is one of the most peculiar fishes to be seen throughout the
+length and breadth of the ocean, that world of living wonders; for it
+has a most extraordinary face, or head, which is more like that of an
+ape than of one of the piscine tribe; while its tail is divided into two
+lobes or blades, one of which is small and insignificant, and the other
+larger than the body of the animal, curling up at the end like the tail-
+feather of a bird of paradise.
+
+There could be no comparison between the two combatants, in respect to
+size at least; for, while the whale was some fifty feet long--nearly a
+third of the length of the _Nancy Bell_--the thresher could not have
+exceeded thirteen feet; and as for girth, the former was in proportion
+like a portly, Daniel-Lambert sort of man put by the side of a starving
+street urchin of seven.  The only advantage the thresher apparently
+possessed was in its eyes, which, when one could get a glimpse of them,
+looked like those of a hawk; while the unwieldy cetacean had little tiny
+optics, not much bigger than those of a common haddock, which were
+placed in an unwieldy lump of a head, that seemed ever so much bigger
+than its body, with a tremendous lower jaw containing a row of teeth,
+each one of which was nearly a foot long.
+
+The thresher, seemingly, had only the advantage of his antagonist in the
+proportionate size of his eyes; but, "just wait till you have seen him
+use his long feather-like tail!" as Maurice Negus said, and you will
+arrive at the conclusion that the combatants were not so very unequally
+matched after all.
+
+The very size of the black-fish militated against his chances for, while
+it took him more than his own length to turn in the water, the thresher
+darted, here, there and everywhere, like an eel--just getting out of his
+reach when the other thought he had got him and had opened his ponderous
+jaws to crush him.  It was at this moment that his agile tormentor,
+seizing his opportunity, would leap out of the water and give the whale
+a "whack" on his side behind the fin, one of his tenderest spots, the
+blow resounding far and wide over the water and probably leaving a weal
+if not an indentation in the animal's side.
+
+Mr Zachariah Lathrope got quite interested, bobbing from one side of
+the topgallant-forecastle to the other, and trying to obtain the best
+view he could of the contest.
+
+"Bully for the little scorpion, marm!" he exclaimed to "the Major," as
+he shoved his hands down into his trouser pockets and seemed to lift
+himself up in his eagerness.  "I'll bet my bottom dollar he'll fix that
+air whale to rights!  By gosh, that wer a sockdolager; I guess the big
+varmint is kinder gettin' riled!"
+
+The whale here spouted and fluked his tail, diving down for a moment
+beneath the surface; but, he did not long disappear, and when he came up
+shortly afterwards nearer the ship, the spectators could see that the
+water around him was dyed with blood.
+
+As the black-fish rose, the thresher, who evidently had been waiting for
+him and knew the precise spot where he would reappear, threw himself up
+in the air, turning a sort of summersault; and, "whack!" came his whip-
+like tail round his victim's body, the whale seeming to writhe under the
+blow as if driven half mad with pain.
+
+"Look, look!" exclaimed Florry Meldrum, "the thresher isn't alone; what
+are those long-nosed fishes swimming about under the whale?  They seem
+to be helping the other one!"
+
+"You're right, Florry," said her father, "they are swordfish.  What you
+think are their noses are long projecting saw-like blades, and they are
+the whale's deadliest enemy.  I never saw them, however, attacking one
+in company with a thresher before: they must have formed an alliance for
+the express purpose, as they have really nothing in common."
+
+"It reminds me, mister," said the American, putting a chew of tobacco in
+his mouth pensively, "of a bull fit I once see in Carthagena when I was
+to Spain some years ago.  That air thresher is jist like the feller all
+fixed up with lace and fallals called the Piccador, who used to stir up
+the animile with squibs and crackers and make him fly round like a dawg
+when he's kinder tickled with a flea under his tail; and the sword-fish,
+as you calls them outlandish things, are sunthen' like the Matador that
+gives the bull his quietus with his wepping.  That air power of blood
+that you see, I guess, is from them, and not from t'other's cow-hide of
+a tail!"
+
+"Golly, massa, you speaks for true," said Snowball, who formed one of
+the party of lookers-on, abandoning his coppers in the galley in order
+to see the fun.  "Bress de Lord! see how dat long snout chap dere gib
+him goss now!"
+
+It really seemed an organised attack.
+
+As soon as the back of the black-fish appeared above the surface, the
+thresher, springing several yards out of the water, descended with great
+violence on the object of its rancour and inflicted what sounded like a
+hearty slap with its tail, the sword-fishes in their turn striking the
+whale from below; so that, try how he might, the unhappy monster of the
+deep could not escape his persevering foes.
+
+"Sure and be jabers it bates Donnybrook Fair entirely!" said Mr
+McCarthy, who had also come up from below, the news having also reached
+him of what was taking place.  "The poor baste will soon be bate into a
+cocked hat with all them ragamuffins on to him at once!  It's liking to
+help him I'd be if I saw the chance!"
+
+But the doom of the black-fish was evidently by this time sealed and
+human aid was powerless to assist him: all could see for themselves that
+the last act in the drama was close at hand!
+
+Suddenly, the thresher gave another violent bound upwards into the air
+from the surface of the ensanguined water, leaping almost over the
+whale; and, as he fell back again into the sea, his tail, which was bent
+like a bow, delivered a terrible lash, surpassing any of its previous
+attempts.  At the same time, as if by a concerted movement, those on
+board could see--for the combatants were now so close alongside the ship
+that the bight of a rope could have been easily hove over them--one of
+the sword-fish made a dart at the exposed flank of the whale, burying
+its ugly saw-like weapon almost up to the head and inflicting a wound
+that must have been mortal.
+
+The black-fish instantly emitted a sort of hollow muffled roar; and,
+sending up a fountain of watery spray mixed with blood from its spout-
+holes, splashed the sea violently with its formidable flukes, after
+which it rolled over, rocking from side to side in its last dying flurry
+or death agony.
+
+"I guess he's a gone coon!" said the American, hitching up his trousers
+again and turning over the quid of tobacco in his mouth.  "It seems a
+terrible pity to waste him though.  There's a powerful sight of blubber
+in that air animile!" and the speaker appeared to gaze sadly at the
+carcase of the conquered cetacean as it floated by.
+
+"It's all over," said Mr Meldrum, turning from the now pitiful
+spectacle with disgust.  "Come away, girls!"  But Kate had long since
+left the scene, the sight not having been of a nature to suit her tender
+heart; and, she was now far away aft with Frank Harness, sitting in a
+secluded corner of the poop, where she could see nothing of the
+sanguinary ending of the contest.  Florry, on the contrary, had remained
+to the last, as well as Mrs Major Negus--who, it may be observed, had
+watched the struggle from its commencement to its close with almost as
+much interest as her enthusiastic son and heir; and Mr Meldrum had much
+difficulty in tearing the little girl away from her rapt contemplation
+of the dead whale.
+
+"Stop a minute, papa," she urged when he took hold of her arm to draw
+her from the rail.  "Do look! they have all left him now they have
+killed him.  I wonder what they quarrelled about?"
+
+"Sure, an' just for the same rayson, missy, that Christians hate sich
+other," said Mr McCarthy, "just for no cause at all, but bekaze they
+can't help it, alannah!  And now that the little divils have kilt him,
+sure they've swum off and left the poor crathur to die, just the same as
+some ov us does to sich other, more's the pity, by the same token!"
+
+It was true enough.
+
+The thresher and his active allies had all at once disappeared, how,
+when, or where, none of those looking on could tell; the lifeless body
+of the black-fish only remaining in evidence of the battle that had
+taken place.
+
+There it was, floating sluggishly on the heavy rolling swell of the
+ocean, in solitary grandeur; for the dolphins and "Portuguese men-of-
+war" that had been seen earlier in the afternoon had taken themselves
+off as soon as the light began--evidently preferring calmer scenes and
+not relishing the proximity of such inveterate enemies of their several
+species as the late combatants.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+FIRE!
+
+The calm continued for four days, during which time not a breath of wind
+came from any point of the compass to waft the ship on her way;
+although, of course, she could not help drifting a few miles every
+twenty-four hours southwards, under the influence of the great
+equatorial current.
+
+However, if there was no wind, there was no lack of novelty to those of
+the passengers who had never been to sea before; for, from their being
+now within the tropical region, the ocean around, albeit so still and
+glassy, seemed to swarm with life.  Thousands of flying-fish were to be
+seen fluttering on either side of the vessel, while skipjacks and
+bonetas also showed themselves occasionally; and the dreaded shark, with
+his close attendant and valet the pilot-fish, was not an absentee, for
+he was continually cruising about astern on the constant look-out.
+
+"How funny those flying-fish look!" said Florry Meldrum, watching a
+shoal of them that rose from the water just like a covey of white larks,
+and which, after skimming past the _Nancy Bell_, again settled in the
+sea, quite tired out with their short flight.
+
+"You should see them nearer," said Frank Harness, who was between the
+two girls, looking out over the gangway aft--"and then you would call
+them funnier.  Ah! here is one," he added, catching one of the little
+fluttering creatures that had become entangled in the mizzen rigging;
+"you see, it doesn't have wings as you think, but only a membrane
+between its fins, just like what a bat has."
+
+"Yes," said I "I see.  It is curious, though, that they should look so
+white at a distance, when their backs are dark and blueish, like a
+mackerel!"
+
+"Ah! that is because the under part of their wings is only then visible.
+Look, now, at that lot there that have just risen to escape the boneta.
+They seem exactly like a fall of snowflakes!"
+
+"Poor things!" said Kate.  "The boneta seems to be their inveterate
+enemy, or rather consumer, as he appears to be in good condition on the
+diet.  It's a pity, though, that he's such a glutton; for he's a nice-
+looking fish, all purple and gold, and he oughtn't to be so cruel!"
+
+"Oh! he's not the only enemy of the flying-fish, Miss Meldrum," answered
+Frank; "you should see the albatross after them down near the Cape.  The
+bird hunts them as soon as they rise in the air, and the boneta when
+they're in the water; so, between the two, they have little chance of
+escape--just like the fight, the other day, between the black-fish on
+the one side and the thresher and sword-fish on the other."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Kate with a shiver, "I couldn't look at that long!  The
+boneta hunt the flying-fish in a fairer way, and they do look so pretty
+when they jump out of the water!  How disappointed the boneta must then
+feel when they see them take unto themselves wings and fly away?"
+
+"They needn't be disappointed long," said Frank Harness, laughing, "for,
+they must know that they're bound to catch them up in the long run.
+But, look at that cloud there, Miss Meldrum, slowly creeping up the sky.
+`I guess,' as our American friend says, that we're going to have some
+rain."
+
+"Do you think so?" she answered, smiling at Frank's rather good
+imitation of Mr Lathrope's nasal intonation of voice; "I thought it
+looked too bright for that."
+
+"We'll have it soon; just you see," said Frank.
+
+"All right, Mr Positive, I suppose we must bow to your superior
+nautical skill."
+
+"Oh, Miss Meldrum, don't laugh at me, if I am only a poor sailor," said
+he reproachfully; "you always seem to taunt me with my profession!"
+
+"I!" exclaimed Kate in surprise.  "Why, I would not make fun of you, or
+hurt your feelings, for the world!"
+
+Frank seized her hand and pressed it, as if he were about to say
+something in response; but, just at that moment, the rain, without
+offering the apology of a warning drop or two to give notice of its
+approach, came down in a perfect deluge, making them rush for shelter
+beneath the poop awning.
+
+This was just after lunch, early in the afternoon; and the rain lasted
+until the dinner-bell sounded, coming down in regular sheets of water,
+as if emptied out suddenly from some enormous reservoir above.
+
+All sorts of tubs, buckets, kegs, and open casks, including the scuttle
+butt, were ranged along the spar-deck, below the break of the poop, to
+catch the welcome shower, tarpaulins being spread over the open
+hatchways, where exposed, to prevent the flood from going below: while
+the ends of the after awning were tied up in a sort of huge bag for the
+rain to drain off into it, so that none of it might be wasted--the
+canvas being let down, when the receptacle was pretty full, to empty the
+contents into the water-puncheons--for the pure liquid was a precious
+godsend, being an agreeable relief to the brackish supply which the ship
+carried in her tanks.
+
+As might have been imagined, Master Negus and Miss Florry watched all
+these operations with the greatest interest, for they would have been
+only too glad if their respective guardians had allowed them to take a
+more active part in the watery campaign than that of merely looking on.
+
+Mr Zachariah Lathrope, however, was his own master, and he made himself
+very busy amongst the dripping sailors, who were hopping about on the
+wet decks as if enjoying their ducking, much amusement being caused when
+Mr McCarthy, for a joke, let the leach of the awning once go by the
+run, when, the American passenger being off his guard, some hundred
+gallons of water came down on him, giving the worthy gentleman an
+impromptu shower-bath.
+
+It was grand fun while the rain lasted, all the men folk paddling about
+in it to their hearts' content and ducking each other when they had the
+chance; while the ladies observed the sports from the shelter of the
+poop, seeming to take equally as much pleasure in the skylarking.  It
+was amazing, too, to notice the amount of dirt and rubbish which the
+downpour washed away into the scuppers.  What with the continual
+swilling and scrubbing and swabbing that the decks underwent every
+morning, it ought to have been an impossibility for any dust or debris
+to exist; but, there it was, to prove the contrary--the rain "exposing
+the weakness of the land," and making a clean sweep of everything that
+was dirty which lay about in the odd corners fore and aft the ship.
+
+The day after the rain, just when all on board--sick of the calm, the
+listless monotonous roll of the ship, the flapping of the idle sails
+against the masts, and the sight of the same cloudless sky and endless
+expanse of tumid sea, with surface unbroken by the tiniest ripple, save
+when a dolphin leaped out of the water or a fairy nautilus glided by in
+his frail shell craft--were longing for the advent of the north-east
+trades, which Captain Dinks had expected them to "run into" ever since
+they lost their first favourable wind, there came a visitor to the
+_Nancy Bell_, the most dreaded of all the perils of the deep--Fire!
+
+Eight bells had just been struck in the morning watch; and the
+passengers were just preparing for breakfast--that is, such as were late
+risers, like Mrs Major Negus and Mr Lathrope, neither of whom turned
+out earlier than was necessary.  Those who knew what was the healthiest
+plan, like Mr Meldrum and his daughters, had been up and out more than
+an hour before, walking up and down the poop and getting up a vigorous
+appetite for the first meal of the day.
+
+The captain had not long come up the companion; and, after looking aloft
+and to the northward, scanning the horizon around, had stepped up to the
+binnacle, where he stood contemplating the compass hopelessly, as if he
+had given up all idea of the wind coming, while the hands of the watch
+on duty were listlessly idling about the waist of the ship, dead weary
+of having nothing to do.
+
+The cook, apparently, was the only really busy person on board at the
+time, for he could be seen popping in and out of his galley forwards,
+handing dishes to Llewellyn, the steward, to bring aft for the cuddy
+table.  The darkey seemed bathed in perspiration, and looked as if he
+found cooking hot work in latitudes under the constellation of the Crab,
+whither the vessel had drifted.
+
+All at once, however, a change came over the scene.
+
+As the steward was passing the main hatch in his second journey aft to
+the saloon, he noticed a thin column of smoke ascending from the main
+hold, where the principal portion of the cargo was stowed.  Like a fool,
+although it might have been pleaded for him that he was constitutionally
+nervous, he let fall the dishes he was carrying on a tray, in his fright
+at the sight of this evidence of a conflagration below, instead of going
+quietly up to the captain and telling him what he had seen; and, to make
+matters worse, he called out at the same time in terrified accents, as
+loud as he could bawl--"Fire! fire! the ship's on fire!"
+
+Had a thunderbolt burst on board, or had the vessel struck on a rock in
+the middle of the ocean, the alarm that was instantly spread on board
+could not have been greater; and where all had been listless inactivity
+but a moment before, was now all life, motion, and excitement.
+
+"A fire! whar?" exclaimed Mr Zachariah Lathrope poking his head out of
+the companion-way, judiciously concealing the remainder of his lanky
+person, as he had not yet quite finished his toilet.  "Snakes and
+alligators, Cap'en, but I'm terrible skeart at fires!  I hope it ain't
+up to much chucks?"
+
+"Oh, no!" said Captain Dinks, reassuringly, expressing what he wished
+more than what he felt.  He had remained aft in order to somewhat allay
+the alarm which the outcry of the steward had excited; but he was
+itching to get to the scene of action himself, although he had sent Mr
+McCarthy there already, besides ordering the crew to their respective
+stations, and having the hose-pump manned.--"Oh, no, nothing at all,
+only one of that ass, Llewellyn's, happy discoveries, another sort of
+ghost in the cabin!  Here, Harness," he added aside to Frank, who had
+just come up from below, dropping his voice to a whisper.  "Just stop on
+the poop a minute, and keep these people quiet.  I must go down to the
+hold myself to look after matters; don't say anything more than you can
+help."
+
+So saying, the captain scuttled down the poop ladder on to the spar-deck
+in a jiffey, and in another second he was descending the main hatch,
+whence the smoke could be now clearly seen, coming up in clouds.
+
+Mrs Major Negus's voice was also heard at this juncture.  The good lady
+had ascended the companion behind the American, who still remained at
+the spot where he had first made his appearance, and was just then
+adjusting his braces; and almost at the same instant that her dulcet
+accents reached the ears of those on deck she burst upon them, as it
+were by storm, carrying Mr Lathrope along with her, still _en
+deshabille_, it is true, as regarded his coat and waistcoat, but
+fortunately now with his trousers, or as he called them "pants,"
+properly arranged.
+
+"Goodness gracious, man!" she exclaimed frantically--"do get out of the
+way.  Lord a mercy! where's the fire?  Oh dear, oh my!  We shall all be
+burnt alive?  Maurice, my darling boy! come to your mother's arms and
+let us die together.  Maurice!  Where's my boy?"
+
+"You'd better stop that screechin' and say your prayers, marm," said Mr
+Zachariah Lathrope, sententiously.  "The b'y is all right below,
+sleepin' in the corner of the sofy, and I'd advise you to go and rouse
+him up, instead of rushing up har like a mad bull in fly time, a
+knocking folks down and hollerin'."
+
+Mrs Major Negus took his advice; for, without withering up the American
+with her scorn, as she would probably have done another time, she at
+once rushed back below to the cuddy as quickly as she had come up, to
+wake up Maurice; while Kate Meldrum, seizing the opportunity which the
+diversion afforded, sidled up to Frank Harness unperceived.
+
+"Is there any danger really?" she asked the young sailor in a low tone,
+so that no one else could hear; and her face was pale, but composed and
+resolute, as she looked into his.
+
+"Could you bear to be told the truth?" said he hesitatingly.
+
+"I could," she replied; and he saw that she meant it.
+
+"Well, there certainly is danger, although it is best not to alarm
+everybody, for when people get frightened they interfere and hinder what
+is being done to save them.  I wouldn't like to tell the crew, Miss
+Meldrum, what I tell you; but I know you are brave, and see that you can
+bear to be told the truth.  A lot of woollen goods are on fire in the
+main hold, and must, from the extent of the area already consumed, have
+been smouldering for days.  We are doing all that men can do to quench
+it, and we may succeed, as there is no wind and nothing to fan the
+flames; but the only thing that hinders us is our being unable to get to
+the seat of the mischief, which is in the very centre of the cargo.
+However, the men are now breaking in the deck above, and as soon as we
+are able to get the end of the hose down and pass buckets, all may be
+well.  Keep a good heart, Miss Meldrum, there's no absolute danger yet;
+when there is I will tell you.  So, please, prevent that `Mrs Major'
+from going into hysterics!"
+
+"I will, for I trust you," said Kate with a somewhat sad smile on her
+pale face.  "Here, Florry, come below away from the smoke and sparks;
+Mr Harness says the fire will soon be out and that there is no danger,
+and I don't want you to spoil your new frock!"
+
+So courageously speaking, the brave girl then went below with her
+sister; and by her presence and example assuaged "the Major's" fears,
+thus preventing that lady from going back on deck and spreading
+consternation amongst the crew by her cries, as would otherwise have
+been the case.  Mr Zachariah Lathrope, too, came down to the cuddy,
+attracted by the smell of breakfast, which the captain had directed the
+steward to go on getting as if nothing had happened--thus to punish the
+poltroon in a sort of way for his cowardly alarm; hence, the coast was
+left clear for the officers and men to put out the fire without being
+flurried by the fears and importunities of the passengers.
+
+Meanwhile, Captain Dinks with Mr Meldrum, who was the first to
+volunteer--their efforts well supported by the exertions of McCarthy and
+the second mate and Frank Harness--were working like Britons in the
+_Nancy Bell's_ hold.
+
+The fire had broken out, as Frank had stated, almost in the centre of
+the ship; for two bulkheads had to be battered down and the main deck
+cut through, before the source of it could be reached.  However, by dint
+of arduously plying the axe and crowbar, an opening was at length made
+whence the fire could be got at.  Flames immediately burst forth the
+moment air was admitted into the hold, but these were pressed down with
+wet blankets, and, the fire-hose being carried down and the pumps manned
+by the watch on deck, a copious stream of water was directed throughout
+that portion of the ship where all the light woollen and textile goods
+were stowed.  The hose, too, was supplemented by a continuous relay of
+buckets full of water passed rapidly along the lower deck and down the
+hatchway by the starboard watch--whose turn it was below, but whom the
+alarm of fire had caused to rouse out again to duty--so that in half an
+hour from the discovery of the outbreak all danger was over and the last
+spark quenched.
+
+"Thank God!" said Kate Meldrum, with heart-felt earnestness, her lovely
+eyes full of tears as she looked up into Frank's face when he came to
+tell her the news.  "I thought all hope was gone, you were so long in
+coming!"
+
+"But were you not certain I would come?" asked Frank anxiously.
+
+"Yes, I had confidence in your promise."
+
+"Thank you," was all he replied; but his look spoke volumes.
+
+At the same time another mutual "confidence game" was being played in a
+different part of the ship; but in this the understanding was between
+Mr Meldrum and Ben Boltrope, the ship's carpenter and ex-man-o'-war's-
+man.
+
+"Aye, aye, sir," said the latter when the two were parting on the main
+deck after the termination of their labours in the lower hold.  "I
+recognised your honour the moment you came on deck that morning of the
+storm in the Bay of Biscay.  I couldn't mistake the cut of your honour's
+jib, sir, begging your pardon."
+
+"Well, I'm sure I did not recognise you, or you may be sure I would have
+spoken to you.  Still, you need not blurt out my identity to everybody,
+you know."
+
+"Sartinly not, your honour.  I'll keep mum, sir, never you fear, though
+I don't forget the old--"
+
+"Stop," said Mr Meldrum, changing the subject.  "I've no doubt all
+hands are pretty dry after all the heat we've been in down below, so,
+with the captain's permission, I'll send something forward for them to
+splice the main brace with."
+
+"Aye, aye, your honour," replied Ben; "a nod's as good as a wink to a
+blind horse."
+
+And the two parted, the one going forward to the forecastle and the
+other aft into the saloon.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+AN OCEAN WAIF.
+
+"Wa-al, Cap," said Mr Lathrope after dinner that day, when he was
+sipping his coffee on top of the skylight, which he had selected for his
+favourite seat when on the poop, the "location," as he expressed it,
+having the advantage of possessing plenty of "stowage room" for his long
+legs--"I guess we've had a long spell o' calms, and a tarnation
+slitheration of a del-uge, 'sides being now a'most chawed up by a fire;
+so I kalkerlate its 'bout time we hed sunthen' of a breeze.  Thunder,
+mister, it's kinder gettin' played out, I reckon, knocking about in
+these air latitoods, without nary going ahead even once in a blue moon!"
+
+"Oh, the wind isn't far off now," replied Captain Dinks, "you see those
+porpoises there, passing us now and playing astern?  Well, they are a
+certain sign of a breeze soon coming from the quarter towards which
+they're swimming."
+
+"Wa-al, I dew hope so," drawled the American, with a sigh and a yawn of
+weariness, "guess I shall snooze till it comes;" and he proceeded to
+carry his thought into execution.
+
+Captain Dinks turned out a true prophet.
+
+A little later on in the day a breeze sprang up, that subsequently
+developed into the long-wished-for south-east trade-wind, thus enabling
+the good ship to bid adieu to the Doldrums and cross the equator, which
+feat she accomplished two days after the fire.
+
+From the line--which Master Negus was able to see distinctly with the
+aid of one of Mr McCarthy's fine red hairs neatly adjusted across the
+object-glass of his telescope--the ship had a splendid run over to the
+South American coast, following the usual western course adopted by
+vessels going round the Cape of Good Hope, in order to have the
+advantage afterwards of the westerly winds and get well to the south;
+and, when she had reached the thirty-fourth parallel of longitude and
+latitude 18 degrees 22 minutes south--that is, about midway between
+Bahia and Rio Janeiro, her head was turned to the south-east with light
+winds from the northward and eastward, and she began to make way towards
+the "Cape of Storms," after getting to the southward of which she would
+have a straight run due east to New Zealand.
+
+The _Nancy Bell's_ bows, however, were not long pointed in the direction
+of the rising sun, when another incident occurred to vary the monotony
+of the voyage--although, fortunately, this time not a second fire, nor
+any peril from the sea to those on board.
+
+It was the second day of her south-easterly course; and from the wind
+blowing fresh from the north-east, right on her port quarter, with fine
+bright weather, the ship was running pretty free, all sail being set, at
+the rate of over twelve knots an hour, leaving a wake behind her like a
+mill-race.
+
+"Arrah, sure, and I call, that goin'!" exclaimed the first mate
+exultantly, as he walked up and down the poop quickly--just as if his
+doing so helped the vessel along, in the same way as one sees the
+coxswain of a boat bending backwards and forwards to keep time with the
+rowers!
+
+"Yes, like one o'clock!" chimed in Captain Dinks, showing an equal
+enthusiasm.  "The old girl is walking away with us at a fine rate,
+McCarthy.  I wouldn't be surprised if we logged three hundred by noon."
+
+"And fifty more tacked on it, sorr," said the mate.  "Why, we've done
+twelve knots ivry hour of my watch; and Adams tould me she wor running
+the same at eight bells.  By the piper that played before Moses, it's a
+beauty she is--she'd bate aisy the fastest tay clipper from Shanghai!"
+
+"Aye, that she would!" chorused the captain.  "What do you think of the
+ship now, Miss Kate?" he added to that young lady, who was leaning
+against the bulwarks to leeward, looking out over the sea.  She was all
+alone with her thoughts, Frank Harness being away forwards attending to
+the cutting out of a new main-topgallant sail to replace the one they
+had lost in the storm, the one they were now using being old and unable
+to stand any further rough usage.--"You are not ashamed of the old
+_Nancy_, now, eh?"
+
+"Oh no, Captain Dinks," answered Kate, "I never was, even in her worst
+moments when we were becalmed; and I'm sure I couldn't be now, when she
+is sailing along so beautifully; but, what is that speck out there,
+captain, away to the right--is it a bird, or what?"
+
+"Eh, my dear?" said the skipper, looking in the direction the girl had
+pointed--"a bird? no, by Jove, it looks like a sail of a boat well down
+on the horizon.  Here, McCarthy, hand me your glass."
+
+Captain Dinks seemed even more excited than he had been a moment before
+when he spoke of the vessel's progress; for, taking the telescope that
+the mate handed him, he scrutinised eagerly the object Kate had noticed.
+
+"Good heavens, it is a boat!" he exclaimed presently, "and I think I can
+see a man in the stern-sheets, though I'm not quite sure: at all events,
+I'll run down and overhaul it, for it would never do to abandon a poor
+fellow in distress; no English sailor would think of such a thing!  This
+is all your doing, Miss Kate, you and your pretty eyes, which have the
+best sight of any on board.  We'll have to put the ship about,
+McCarthy," he added to the mate; "we can't fetch that boat on this
+tack."
+
+"Hands 'bout ship!" roared the mate, in response to the captain's
+implied wish; and, immediately, there was much running to and fro on the
+decks, and a yelling out of orders and hoarse "aye ayes" in reply--a
+striking difference to the quiet that had reigned a moment or two
+before, when the ship was slipping along through the water with the wind
+on her quarter, never a sail having to be shifted or a rope pulled, and
+only the man at the wheel for the time being having anything to do out
+of the thirty odd hands on board.
+
+"Helm's a lee!" cried the captain, and the head-sheets were let go;
+"raise tacks and sheets!" and the fore-tacks and main sheets were cast
+off; while the weather crossjack braces and the lee main braces were
+belayed, ready to be let go at a moment's notice, and the opposite
+braces hauled taut.  "Mainsail haul!" then sang out the captain when
+these preparations were completed; when the braces being let go, the
+yards swung round like a top.  The after yards were subsequently braced
+up and belayed, the main sheet hauled aft, the spanker eased over to
+leeward, and the watch stood by the head braces.
+
+"Let go and haul!" was the next word of command; upon which the weather
+fore-braces were let go and those to leeward hauled in by the men
+forward under the personal supervision of Mr McCarthy, after which the
+men boarded the fore-tack and hauled down the jib-sheet, clapping a
+tackle on it as it blew fresh; and the _Nancy Bell_, braced round on the
+starboard tack and with the wind a little more aft than when she was
+running eastwards just now, stood towards the boat that Kate had been
+the first to perceive, drifting a bout upon the wild ocean so far away
+from land.
+
+At this juncture, Frank Harness sprang up into the fore cross-trees to
+con the ship, by Captain Dink's directions; and presently his orders to
+the steersman could be heard ringing out clear and distinct above the
+creaking of the cordage and the wash of the sea alongside--those on the
+poop, listening to all they could hear with intense eagerness, and
+waiting for the moment when they could see for themselves the object of
+the ship's quest.
+
+"Keep her up a bit--steady!"
+
+"Aye, aye, sir; steady it is!"
+
+"Port!"
+
+"Port it is!"
+
+"Steady!"
+
+"Steady it is!"
+
+"Luff!"
+
+"Aye, aye, sir!"
+
+"Keep her so!"
+
+"There is a man in her, sir!"  Frank now called out in a different tone
+of voice; "I can see him distinctly!  He is trying to wave a
+handkerchief or something.  He looks almost dead, poor fellow!"
+
+The excitement on board at hearing this piece of news became all the
+more intensified.
+
+"Are we nearing him?" shouted out Captain Dinks.
+
+"Oh yes, sir; the boat bears now broad on the weather beam.  Keep her
+steady as she is, and we can round-to close alongside.  Look out, we're
+getting pretty close now!"
+
+"Look out forward there!" cried the captain: but several hands were
+there already with the first mate at their head, a coil of rope in his
+hand, on the watch to heave it over the boat as soon as she was
+approached near enough.
+
+"Time to come about, sir," hailed Frank from the cross-trees; and,
+"Hands 'bout ship!" roared out Captain Dinks, almost in the same breath.
+
+During the bustle that ensued, those on the poop could not see what was
+going on forward; but when the _Nancy Bell_ paid off again from the wind
+on the port tack--thus resuming again what had been her previous course
+before the boat had been sighted--it was found that the object for which
+they had gone out of their way was safely alongside.
+
+It was a shocking sight!
+
+Four dead bodies were stretched, in every conceivable attitude of agony,
+across the thwarts and in the bottom of the boat, which from its shape
+had evidently belonged to some whaling vessel; while, sitting up in the
+stern-sheets, close to the helm, which his feeble hands were powerless
+to grasp, was the living skeleton of another sailor, whose eyes seemed
+starting out from their deep sockets and whose lips appeared feebly
+endeavouring to shape the syllables of "wa-ter!"
+
+In a second, Mr McCarthy had leaped down into the floating coffin as it
+towed alongside; and, lifting the body of the solitary survivor from
+amidst the corpses of his dead comrades, handed the light load--for the
+poor, starved creature did not weigh more than a child of ten, although
+a man of over six feet in height--up to hands that as carefully received
+him; and then, leaping back again on board himself, the whale-boat was
+scuttled by a plank being knocked out of her bottom and cut adrift, to
+sink with her mortal freight into the common grave of those who die on
+the deep, the stench from the remains being horrible and permeating the
+whole ship while the boat was in contact with her.
+
+The rescued sailor was placed in a cot and given at first a small
+quantity of thin soup which Snowball was busily concocting for the cabin
+dinner, and after that, nourishment at intervals.  By these restorative
+measures, in a day or two, he recovered sufficiently to be able to tell
+who he was and how he came to be in such a sad plight.
+
+He was a Norwegian sailor, he said, and belonged to an American whaler
+which had been on her voyage home after a three years' whaling cruise in
+the South Pacific.  On rounding Cape Horn, they had encountered a
+fearful storm which had nearly dismasted the ship and washed the master
+and five hands overboard.  He and four others had launched the only boat
+they had left over the side, trying to pick up their shipmates; but, the
+sea was too heavy for them, and when they endeavoured to return, they
+found they could not fetch their vessel again, which perhaps was just as
+well, for soon afterwards they saw her go down stern foremost.  After
+that, they ran before the wind for several days and nights--how long he
+could not tell--until his four comrades had died from exhaustion, and he
+himself, he believed, was just on the point of giving up his life when
+providence sent the _Nancy Bell_ to succour him.
+
+"Ach der goot Gott!" said the man in his half German, half English way,
+speaking brokenly and with tears in his eyes.  "Der lieber Gott!  I
+shall nevare vergersen sie nevare!"
+
+They had had, he said, a breaker of water in the boat when they quitted
+the whaler, but this was soon drunk out, and although they had
+occasionally something to eat, catching several fish, they suffered
+terribly from thirst.  It was that which had killed his comrades mainly.
+As for him, he bore it better than them, but it must have been eight
+days since a drop of liquid had passed his lips.
+
+"Golly, dat am bad," said Snowball in the galley that evening, when some
+of the hands gathered round the caboose to have a comfortable pipe and
+talk over the events of the day.  "Dat orful bad, eight day widout grub
+or liquor! dis niggah not able 'tomach dat for sure!"
+
+"Lor', Snowball, that's nothing when you are used to it," said Ben
+Boltrope, the man-o'-war's-man, who was pretty well king of the
+forecastle by reason of his service in the navy and general smartness as
+a seaman.  "What is eight days in a boat without grub, when you've got
+to go ten, as I've done, besides wandering about on a sandy shore after
+swimming for a day and night to save my life?  Why, that's nothing!"
+
+"Goramighty, Massa Boltrope, you no swim ten day widout habin' notin' to
+eat, nor no water, hey?" said Snowball in astonishment.
+
+"No, you blessed donkey, I didn't say that," replied the worthy Jack
+tar.  "I said as how I had gone without grub or water for ten days after
+swimming for more than twelve hours."
+
+"Dat berry rum for sure," said the darkey--"don't know how to belieb
+dat, no how!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+THE CAPE OF STORMS.
+
+The steady nor'-east wind that was driving the good ship so gallantly on
+her way when Captain Dinks put her about in order to rescue the
+Norwegian sailor, continued for days, accompanied by such magnificent
+weather, that the _Nancy Bell_ was enabled to make very rapid progress
+down to those lower parallels it was necessary for her to reach before
+she could stretch forward, in a straight line eastward towards her port
+of destination.
+
+"I guess, Cap," said Mr Zachariah Lathrope, noticing the quick change
+of temperature in the air, day by day, as they left the tropics behind--
+the mornings and evenings becoming gradually colder--"she air making as
+straight tracks fur the south as them northern carpet-baggers did after
+our little onpleasantness, what you folks called the civil war in the
+States; when they used to rush down from Washington arter
+postmasterships and other sich like offices, which wer to be hed, they
+kinder thought, fur the asking!  She air goin' slick, and that's a
+fact!"
+
+"Yes," replied the worthy captain, whose face beamed with good humour
+and satisfaction at the splendid run the vessel was making; "we are
+going ahead, working down our southing, and will soon be able to steer
+for New Zealand.  She does walk along, and no mistake!"  And then he
+would look aloft, perhaps, and give an order for a brace to be tautened
+here, or a sheet slackened there--the hours thus flying by in halcyon
+moments, as far as the wind and sea, and the course of the ship, and all
+on board were concerned--collectively and individually.
+
+The nights in these southern latitudes were simply beautiful beyond
+compare.
+
+The moon had no sooner died out than she revived again, as if gifted
+with perpetual youth--not an evening passing without her presence,
+sooner or later, on the scene--and appeared, too, to have more dignity
+of position and greater size than in the frigid north, ascending right
+up to the very zenith, instead of merely skirting the heavens, as she
+sometimes does here, and shining down from thence like a midnight sun in
+radiant splendour.  The Scorpion, also, amongst the various
+constellations, was similarly promoted, occupying a place nearer the
+centre of the firmament; while the Southern Cross, quite a new
+acquaintance, followed by Castor and Pollux, began to descend towards
+the sea, becoming more diagonal as the days drew on than when originally
+observed, and finally vanishing from view head foremost.
+
+As for the North Star, it had long since entirely disappeared; and only
+the horses in Charles' Wain yet remained above the horizon towards that
+point of the compass.
+
+To Kate Meldrum's eyes, the sunsets were especially grand; for, as soon
+as the time came for the glorious orb of day to sink to rest in the
+golden west, a series of light amber-tinted clouds would arrange
+themselves all round the horizon, as if with a studied pictorial effect,
+like the stage grouping in what theatrical people term "a set piece;"
+and then, by degrees, these clouds would become tinged with the
+loveliest kaleidoscopic colours, all vividly bright--while the far-off
+heaven that lay between them was of the purest palest rose-hued gold,
+and the sky immediately above of a faint, ethereal, blueish, transparent
+green.
+
+In the daytime, especially as the ship drew nearer to the meridian of
+the Cape, there was more life in, on, and about the ocean; and on
+passing the Island of Tristan da Cunha, which the _Nancy Bell_ sailed by
+some three hundred miles to the northward, Master Maurice Negus was
+greeted with the sight of a sperm-whale.
+
+This fellow was much smaller than the black-fish which had come to such
+an untimely end when assailed by the thresher, being scarcely longer
+than thirty-two feet.  Maurice was especially credited with the
+cetacean's discovery, because, when he noticed the spout of spray the
+animal threw up from his blow-holes in the distance, he surprised
+everybody by calling out that he could see one of the Crystal Palace
+fountains--getting much laughed at, as might have been expected, for the
+naive announcement.
+
+As those on board watched, they could see the whale every now and then
+heave himself out of the water, half the length of his long dark body,
+and fall "flop" down again, with a concussion that sent up the water
+around him in white surf, like breakers.  After this little diversion,
+he amused himself with swimming backwards and forwards past the ship, as
+if just showing what he could do, at a great rate; exposing only a thin
+streak of his back and the fin and tail, but making the sea boil up as
+if a plough were going through it, and leaving a wake behind him like
+that of a paddle-wheel steamer--finally starting off suddenly due north,
+as if he had all at once recollected an appointment in that direction,
+when he soon disappeared from sight.
+
+The flying-fish and dolphins, bonetas and sharks, like the "Portuguese
+men-of-war," were long since all left behind; but their places were
+taken by the albatross, the Cape pigeon, the shearwater, and a sea-bird
+called the "parson," dozens of which flew about the ship every day.
+
+The shearwater was a larger species of tern, or sea-swallow; the
+"parson," so called for his sombre appearance and sedate manner, was a
+kind of sable gull about the size of an English crow.  His colour,
+however, was not black, but a dusky brownish black, as if the reverend
+gentleman's coat had got rusty from wear.  These birds had a very odd,
+"undertakerish" air about them, which amused Maurice and Florry very
+much, and some having venerable white heads, which appeared as if
+powdered with flour, like a footman's for a party, were so much more
+eccentric looking, that even the grave Mrs Major Negus could not help
+smiling at their appearance and queer ways.
+
+"Do look, papa!" exclaimed Kate--who during the voyage would at one time
+be in the highest spirits, and the next pensive, as if occupied by a
+world of thought--"I declare if that one isn't the very image of Mr
+Trotter, our curate at Allington!  He has the same little tuft of hair
+on top on his head; and, besides, he has the identical same way of
+popping it on one side when he used to speak, and staring at you with
+his little round eyes.  Is he not like Mr Trotter, father?" and she
+pointed out one especially jaunty little "parson" to his notice.
+
+"Well, there is a little resemblance, certainly," said Mr Meldrum,
+joining in Florry's laughter at the remark.  "I don't suppose, though,
+my dear, we'll ever see poor Mr Trotter or Allington again."
+
+"Dear old Allington!" murmured Kate with a sigh; and, in a moment, her
+memory flew back to the past, with all its sad associations.
+
+The Cape pigeons were the prettiest of all the birds that visited the
+ship, being very like the common wood pigeon in the shape of their head
+and bill, but having webbed feet to suit their aquatic habits.  They
+were much plumper, too, than either the shearwaters or parsons--which
+latter, by the way, unlike the fat cleric of popular opinion, were of
+very slender and delicate proportions.
+
+In the matter of plumage, the Cape pigeons were white and downy, with
+the head and wings striped with brown like butterflies, a large species
+of which they strongly resembled when flying away from the ship, with
+their pinions spread.
+
+But, of all the birds they saw, the albatross was the most wonderful to
+observe.  Not much larger than a goose in the size of its body, it had
+enormous thin-edged wings, that enabled it to float about in the air, at
+will apparently, without any perceptible motion, for hours at a stretch.
+It seemed to direct its course by the slightest possible turning of its
+body, so as to alter the inclination of its wings, which, extending out
+straight and firm, bore the bird up or down, or away many miles off in a
+second of time, in the most surprising manner.
+
+The albatross floats, or skims along the air, but does not fly according
+to our ideas, although it has an extraordinary power of launching itself
+from enormous heights down to the level of the sea with the velocity of
+lightning.
+
+"Just like a white-winged messenger of light," as Kate Meldrum observed
+in the hearing of Captain Dinks, "sent out from the angelic host above
+on some divine mission to suffering humanity below!"
+
+"Ah; that sounds very pretty, missy," said the captain; "but the
+albatross' mission happens to be fish; and I fancy that spoils the
+sentiment a bit!"
+
+Eighteen days after passing the line, some seven weeks from her start,
+the _Nancy Bell_ crossed the meridian of Greenwich, or longitude zero--
+at which precise time her position could not be said to be either east
+or west--in latitude 38 degrees south, a couple of degrees below the
+Cape; and the wind, which had kept steadily from the north-east and
+northward ever since the South American coast had been left astern, now
+got well round to the south-west, enabling every stitch of canvas to
+draw, from the spanker to the flying jib.  Seeing this Captain Dinks
+caused the upper yards to be squared a bit and the main and fore top-
+gallant studding-sails set, thus helping the vessel on her way.
+
+This sort of weather lasted for five days, the ship being steered east
+by south, meeting the sun and losing an hour a day by the chronometer
+and going twelve knots each hour out of the twenty-four; when on
+reaching the longitude of the Cape "a change came o'er the spirit" of
+the _Nancy Bell's_ "dream."
+
+The wind shifted suddenly from the south-west to the north-east; and the
+heavy rolling sea, peculiar to the Southern Ocean, set in, accompanied
+by showers of rain, and hail, and snow.  Soon, sail had to be reduced,
+and the ship, with all her gay canvas stripped off her, had as much as
+she could do to stagger along under reefed topsails and foresail, the
+mizzen staysail being set to give her more power aft, her steering
+becoming very wild after a bit although two men were at the helm.
+
+From merely looking squally, the clouds gathering on the horizon grew
+thicker and thicker, till they got as black as ink.  The sea, also,
+darkened to a dark leaden hue, and the swell increased so rapidly in
+height that when the vessel sank down into the intermediate valley not a
+glimpse could be obtained of anything beyond the watery mountains on
+either side.
+
+"I guess we're going to have it pretty rough, Cap, eh," said the
+American to Captain Dinks; "it looks all-powerful squally, it dew!"
+
+"You're right," said the captain.  "We're now in the vicinity of the
+Cape of Storms, and we've got to look out."
+
+So saying, Captain Dinks showed his determination of "looking out," by
+having all the lighter spars of the ship sent down from aloft, besides
+causing everything to be made secure on deck and below for the expected
+storm.
+
+Not long after the _Nancy Bell_ was made snug the tempest burst upon
+her.  The high, smooth rolling waves were torn and wrenched asunder, as
+it were; and their summits wreathed into masses of foam, which curled
+over as they advanced against the wind, and, breaking away in fragments,
+blew off in masses of snowy whiteness to leeward.  The ship was meeting
+this swell nearly head on; and as the rollers caught her fairly on the
+bows she struck them with a sound as heavy as that with which the weight
+falls in a pile-driving machine, taking in some of the sea over the
+forecastle and carrying it aft as far as the break of the poop--washing
+about everything in its course until the water finally found vent from
+the deck through the scuppers.
+
+One of these waves--a regular mountain of a sea, the water all green,
+and standing up like a huge pellucid wall before it toppled over--coming
+in over the bows, made a clean sweep of all that was movable lying
+forward of the mainmast, carrying over the side all the hen-coops,
+sheep-pen, water casks, as well as spare spars that had been stowed
+along the deck, nothing being left to show that they had ever been
+there!  Even Snowball's galley was upset and rolled about in the waist
+to leeward, the sea having not been quite strong enough to carry it
+overboard, while its unhappy occupant, half drowned in the scuppers and
+not able to extricate himself from his perilous position, was loudly
+calling for aid.
+
+Ben Boltrope--who had been having a confab with the darkey, and probably
+a "drop of something hot," his special failing, in the galley when the
+sea washed over the ship and fetched it away--was promptly at hand to
+help his sable friend; when the galley was reinstated in its proper
+place, and so tightly lashed down to the ring-bolts that a sea would
+have had to carry away the deck itself to have lifted it again.  But,
+sad to relate, the sheep and the poultry had disappeared for ever from
+human ken, along with their pens and coops, and the saloon passengers
+would thenceforth have to fare without any such delicacies as roast
+mutton and boiled fowl--a terrible piece of news for Mr Lathrope when
+it was brought to his ears!
+
+As the evening closed in and night came on, the force of the wind and
+sea both seemed to increase, and it appeared incredible that a fabric
+formed by human hands should have been capable of sustaining the rude
+shocks and ponderous blows which the ship received again and again as
+she battled with the waves; but the captain had in the end to let the
+vessel fall off her course and scud before the gale, going whither the
+elements listed.
+
+"Oh, father," said Kate to Mr Meldrum, the two remaining on deck long
+after the others had gone below, "what confidence sailors must have in
+the qualities of their ship, not to be overcome with dread at such a
+scene, especially if they direct a thought to the frail timbers that
+only separate them from the watery abyss!"
+
+"Aye, my child," replied he; "but, what greater confidence in God's
+protecting power!"
+
+"True, father," said Kate, and after that she remained silent until Mr
+Meldrum declared it was time to go below.  They did not retire, however,
+until it was as dark as pitch, when nothing could be seen beyond the
+wall of water on either side of the taffrail--the tumid mass looking
+like a black avalanche about to overwhelm them, while the roaring of the
+wind and rattling of blocks and creaking of cordage, in conjunction with
+the groaning of the ship's timbers, and crashing sounds of the waves as
+they broke against the quarter, as if trying to beat the vessel's sides
+in, made such a discord and concert altogether that it drowned
+conversation, even had either been inclined to talk in the presence of
+such a display of the mighty power of Him who rules the waves.
+
+Down in the cuddy, the scene was certainly more cheerful; and, what with
+the bright light of the swinging lamps, and the well-spread table
+comfortably arranged for tea, with the cups and saucers placed between
+"fiddles" to prevent them from slipping adrift when the vessel pitched
+or rolled, it afforded a strong contrast to the barren bareness and
+gloomy discomfort of the deck, especially on such a cold night, with
+suspicions of hail, and sleet, and snow at intervals.  But, still, here
+also everything was not quite so rose-coloured as might have at first
+appeared; for stormy weather at sea discounts what might be called the
+market value of the comforts and conveniences of everyday life to a most
+surprising extent!
+
+The cups and saucers were all right, or so they seemed at first sight in
+their abnormal position; but, the moment those who sat down at the table
+began to use them, they took to flying about like shuttles in a carpet-
+loom.  Bread-baskets and cake-dishes discharged their contents like
+catapults against the panelling of the cabin doors, while jugs of
+condensed milk--which was used not from any special liking for the
+article, but through default of there being a cow on board--were emptied
+most impartially on to the shirt-fronts and dresses of the gentlemen and
+ladies who unfortunately sat opposite to them.
+
+"Durn my boots!" ejaculated the American once; "but if them air sheep
+hadn't gone overboard to feed the fishes, I guess we'd hev hed capers
+enuff goin' on down har to sarve for sass to the biled mutton!"
+
+All put up, however, with these petty annoyances gleefully enough, only
+too glad to be able to joke and make capital out of them and pleased
+that their present calamities were not too serious for laughter; and
+when they separated at bedtime, it was with the cheerful wish that the
+weather might be a trifle brighter on the morrow.  No one seemed to
+think for a moment of danger, or took heed of the bustle on deck, or of
+the quivering and shaking of everything in the saloon, which seemed
+suffering from what Mr Lathrope styled a "seaquake"--in
+contradistinction to earthquake.
+
+But, hardly had six bells been struck in the first watch when the order
+"out lights" was given and the welcome gleam of the cuddy lamp
+disappeared summarily, plunging all in darkness--than a sudden
+stupendous shock assailed the ship startling the sleepers.
+
+There came first a stunning blow, apparently from a wave, right
+amidships; and then, the vessel seemed to go down to the very water's
+edge on one side, heeling over as rapidly immediately afterwards to the
+other.
+
+Away went everything that was movable below, flung backwards and then
+forwards right across the ship--the thumping noise made by the heavy
+boxes falling in the cabins and state-rooms, combined with the crashing
+and smashing of glass and crockeryware in the cuddy, where the table and
+settle-seats had been carried away by the run, and the outcry of the
+sailors yelling and stamping above, not to speak of the grinding and
+groaning of the bulkheads and shuddering of the ship's timbers between
+decks, all making up a babel of sound and confusion that was worse by a
+thousand fold than what had previously occurred during the first storm
+which the vessel, experienced in the Bay of Biscay.
+
+Naturally, the majority of those below thought that all was over, and
+piercing cries of terror and appeal for help resounded through the ship.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+CAUGHT IN A CYCLONE.
+
+A storm at sea is bad enough in the daytime, but at night it is
+terrible; for then, the peril unseen is so magnified by the terror-
+stricken mind as to become far more appalling than a much greater danger
+seen face to face and realised:-- the latter can be grappled with, but
+the former, by its very intangibility and "unreachableness," daunts the
+bravest heart and paralyses the strongest arm!
+
+Llewellyn, the steward, managed to procure a light, which he did only
+after much delay--the racket and uproar having apparently sent his
+little wits wool-gathering--the cuddy looked the very picture of
+desolation, almost leading to the belief that the sea had made a clean
+breach through the sides of the ship in one of its rude onslaughts
+dashing everything to pieces.
+
+Fortunately, however, this was not the case, although the saloon
+skylight had been carried away, gratings and all, and a considerable
+amount of water had come down through the opening, which loomed now
+above the semi-lighted space like a large hole broken in the deck; but,
+by reason of the carrying away of the table and seats from their
+lashings and ring-bolt fastenings and now being washed in a jumbled heap
+to one side of the cuddy, the cabins to leeward were so completely
+barricaded that their occupants were prevented from issuing forth.  It
+was from this quarter that the cries for help proceeded--the voice of
+Mrs Major Negus, it need hardly be mentioned, predominating, although
+the American passenger, who had a berth alongside that distinguished
+lady, also sang out pretty loudly.
+
+"Hullo, steward!" called out Mr Meldrum on seeing the light, having
+already opened the door of his state-room, which had a sliding panel and
+was undamaged as far as he could notice.  "Why, what's the matter!"
+
+"Only shipped a sea, sir," answered Llewellyn rather gruffly, for he was
+annoyed at being roused from his sleep, "though from the row they're a-
+making one would think we were all going to the bottom!"
+
+"Much mischief done, eh?" asked Mr Meldrum, taking in at a glance the
+havoc in the cuddy--"I mean on deck," he added.
+
+"Can't say, sir," replied the other; "ain't had time to look about here
+yet, much less to go up and see!  It's a bad berth that o' steward to a
+lot of bawling females on a passenger ship; I'd liefer--"
+
+But, his grumblings were stopped for the moment by the renewed loud
+screams of Mrs Major Negus--who was his pet aversion on board on
+account of her giving him more trouble than all the rest combined, while
+Master Maurice really was the plague of his life.
+
+"Steward--stew-ard!" she cried, "Come here at once and get me out!  I'm
+all smothered and drowned, and nobody will help me!  Stew-ard!  I'm
+dying--I'll tell the captain with my last breath.  Stew-ard!"
+
+"Sure I'm coming, mum, as fast as I can," sang out Llewellyn aloud,
+adding _sotto voce_ for his own satisfaction, "Hang that Major Madam!
+I'd never have shipped in the _Nancy Bell_ if I had a-knowed she was
+coming aboard!  Bless you, mum, I'm coming--everything is all right and
+there isn't no cause for alarm!"
+
+"Isn't there?" indignantly demanded the lady in a queer sort of half
+suffocated voice from behind the barred door of her cabin.  "If you were
+jumbled in a pool of water, with all your luggage on top of you, I don't
+think you'd think everything right.  Help, man! release me at once, or
+I'll be drowned and flattened into a pancake!"
+
+"Say, you Mister Steward, you jest hurry up and git the lady out of her
+muss, and come and fix me up," chimed in the voice of Mr Zachariah
+Lathrope.  "I guess I've had my innards a'most squoze out agin the
+durned bunk, an' feel like a dough-nut in a frying-pan.  If you leave me
+much longer I kalkerlate this old boss'll be cold meat, you bet, and
+you'll have the funeral to pay!"
+
+Mr Meldrum coming to Llewellyn's aid, the steward managed at length to
+clear away the wreckage from before the door of Mrs Major Negus' cabin,
+and then from that of the American, when both the occupants were found
+more seriously hurt than either of their rescuers had imagined, they
+thinking that their outcries had proceeded more from alarm than any real
+injury.
+
+The wife of the deputy-assistant comptroller-general of Waikatoo was
+lying, all purple in the face, with a heavy portmanteau on the top of
+her, on the deck of her cabin in nearly a foot of water; and by the time
+they got her up from her perilous position she fainted dead away in the
+steward's arms.
+
+"Here, Mary!" called out Llewellyn to his wife, the stewardess, who
+quickly appeared on the scene half-dressed.  "Attend to this lady, while
+we go and see after Mister Lathrope."
+
+The American was in a much worse plight; for, whereas Mrs Major Negus
+had only swallowed a lot of sea-water and had been only nearly
+frightened to death, Mr Lathrope's sallow face was so unearthly pale
+that Mr Meldrum was certain he had received some severe injury; as he
+was tightly jammed between his bunk and the washing-stand, while a heavy
+packing-case had tumbled out of the top berth on to one of his
+shoulders, preventing him from moving.
+
+"I guess, mister, you jest come in time," said the poor fellow with a
+sickly smile, as they pulled away the case and wash-stand, and helped
+him into a sitting position on the bunk, "another minnit and it would
+have been all up with Z Lathrope, Esquire!"  And he gasped for breath,
+putting his hand to his left side, as if feeling pain there.
+
+"Oh, papa, are you there?" said Kate, coming out, in a charming state of
+dishabille, from the state-room she shared with her sister on the
+opposite side of the saloon, alongside to that of Mr Meldrum.  "Is
+anybody hurt?"
+
+"Yes, my dear," answered her father, "you'd better bring some sal
+volatile or something.  Mrs Negus has fainted; and I'm afraid poor Mr
+Lathrope is in a bad way."
+
+The plucky girl did not delay, or exhibit any of that feminine weakness
+or nervousness which might have been expected under the circumstances.
+Retiring for a moment, to throw a shawl round herself and get what was
+required in the emergency, she quickly reappeared again at the door of
+the state-room,--which she closed behind her to prevent Miss Florry,
+inquisitive as usual, from coming forth; and then proceeded to cross the
+floor of the cuddy as well as she was able--a somewhat difficult task
+considering the rolling and pitching of the vessel, and the fact that
+the table and seats, which generally formed points of vantage for
+holding on, had been swept away, so that there was nothing for her to
+cling to.
+
+Half running, half sliding, she, however, reached the opposite side and
+was quickly engaged in the Samaritan task of bathing Mr Lathrope's
+temples with Eau de Cologne.
+
+"Don't you bother, miss," said the American faintly, "I guess I ain't so
+much hurt arter all!" but he couldn't help groaning as he spoke,
+whereupon Mr Meldrum laid him down gently and sent the steward for some
+brandy, which revived him somewhat.
+
+"I got a pretty considerable gouge in the ribs from that air wash-
+stand," said he, pointing out the objectionable piece of furniture as he
+uttered the words; "but I guess I'll be all right presently.  How's
+Madam Negus!"
+
+"Oh, she was more frightened than hurt," said Mr Meldrum laughing; "she
+was in a nice pickle on the floor of her cabin.  You should just have
+seen her.  I really don't think she could ever be dignified to me any
+more!"
+
+"For shame, papa, to laugh at misfortune!" said Kate; "and now, as Mr
+Lathrope seems better, I'll go and look after his fellow-sufferer."  So
+saying, the girl clambered along by the side of the saloon to where Mrs
+Major Negus was ensconced in state, in the adjoining cabin--now revived
+from her fainting fit and with Mary Llewellyn ministering to her wants,
+although "the Major" could not help scolding the latter at intervals, as
+if she were the cause of the disaster.
+
+In the midst of all this, down came Mr McCarthy, the first mate, from
+the poop.
+
+"Be jabers and it's a foine time you are having of it, any way!" said he
+by way of greeting, looking round with a quizzical cock of his eye at
+the dismantled cuddy.  "I only thought you'd have had a drop of wather
+or two whin the skoilight got adrift, and we've rigged up tarpaulins
+over it and battened it down comfortably, so that ye'll not be throubled
+any more by the say washing down.  But, how did the table git carried
+away!  It was fixed down so strong it's a puzzle to me entirely!"
+
+"Goodness only knows," said Mr Meldrum; "there came a tremendous crash
+amidships soon after midnight, and away it went!"
+
+"Ah that was whin that gossoon Adams had howlt of the helm.  The
+omahdawn, he was looking up at the spars and tellin' the cap'en about
+taking the topsails off her, as she was carrying too much sail, instead
+of mindin' his own business and lookin' to the steering; and, faix, he
+let the ship broach to, bad cess to him!"
+
+"And how are you getting on now, on deck?" asked Mr Meldrum.
+
+"Will, sorr," said the mate, speaking more earnestly than was his usual
+wont, and dropping his voice so that no one else could hear him.  "To
+spake the truth and shame the divil--faix it's no lie I'm telling--we're
+right in the centre of a cyclone, and the Lord only knows if we'll iver
+git out of it!"
+
+"I thought so," murmured Mr Meldrum; "my poor children!"
+
+"Sure and be a man now!" whispered the mate as Kate came out of Mrs
+Major Negus' cabin.  "I wouldn't have tould you if I had thought
+contrariwise!"
+
+"I was not thinking of myself," said Mr Meldrum sternly; "what sail are
+you carrying?"
+
+"Sail!" exclaimed Mr McCarthy; "faix and its joking ye are!  Ivery
+stitch of canvas, sure, was blown to smithereens when the ship broached
+to, and the foretop-mast was thin took out of her, too, by the same
+token!  The divil a hap'orth are we carrying, save a piece of tarpaulin
+lashed in the weather rigging to kape her hid to the say, and that's all
+we can do till daylight comes, if we iver say it, please God, for it's
+as dark now as a blue dog in a black entry, and you couldn't say your
+hand before your face to set any sail, if ever a man could git up the
+rigging--but whist now about that!  Steward," he added in a louder key,
+"come, look alive here and git the cuddy to rights in shipshape fashion!
+By the powers, but the skipper'd be in a foine rage if he saw it all
+mops and brooms like this!  Bear a hand, man, and be smart, and I'll
+send the carpenter to help you as soon as the watch is relayed."  With
+these words he bustled on deck again, after changing his oilskin, which
+was all knocked to pieces, for a rough pea-jacket, and saying to Mr
+Meldrum that he thought the latter would be more handy, for it was
+blowing enough to take one's hair off!
+
+"Papa," said Kate as soon as the mate had ascended the companion, "what
+was that Mr McCarthy was saying when he spoke so low to you?"
+
+"Eh, my dear?" answered her father a little confusedly, with some
+hesitation in his voice.  "Oh, only that the storm was raging violently
+and did not seem to lull at all yet."
+
+"Did he say that there was any danger?"
+
+"Danger, eh? no, I--I can't say.  I think I'll just step up and see for
+myself;" and, anxious to escape this cross-examination, as well as
+really to judge whether the position of the ship was as precarious as
+the chief mate had indicated, Mr Meldrum likewise went up on to the
+poop, finding some trouble when he reached the top of the companion
+stairs, in opening the hatch.
+
+For a moment, after emerging on to the deck, all was terribly dark--as
+black as ink, as Mr McCarthy had said; but, the next instant, the whole
+awful scene was lit up by the most intense and vivid flash of lightning
+Mr Meldrum had ever beheld--the electric fluid being quite
+unaccompanied by any peal of thunder, although that might have been
+drowned by the continuous roar and shriek of the howling wind which
+appeared to have gone mad with the unbridled fury of a demon.
+
+During the brief space of time in which the zigazag stream of fire from
+the vault of heaven momentarily lit up the surroundings of the ship,
+which it did with a brightness that eclipsed the light of day, Mr
+Meldrum could see the vessel tumbling about amid a chaotic mass of
+waves, which it was no exaggeration to term mountains high, as if she
+were in the vortex of a whirlpool; while dense opaque black clouds
+hovered over her, vomiting forth wind, apparently from every quarter of
+the horizon, the gusts tearing at the ship with harpy-like clutches, as
+if they would rend her to pieces--she, like a poor human thing racked
+with pain, labouring and groaning, and bending this way and that to
+escape the relentless wind, so well aided by the clutching billows from
+below that leaped up to engulf the vessel when they themselves were not
+absolutely flattened to the surface of the water, as they were
+sometimes, by the force of the hurricane.
+
+The scene was literally awful!
+
+The next moment all was darkness again; with the night black as Erebus,
+and Mr Meldrum unable, as the mate had said, to see his hand before his
+face.
+
+Captain Dinks, however, had noted his arrival on deck; and approached
+him without being seen.
+
+"I advise you to go below, Mr Meldrum," said he, "you can do no good
+here, nor any of us, indeed, until morning, when I hope we'll have
+better weather.  It's a terrible night, the worst I have ever seen at
+sea in all my time!"
+
+"Aye, terrible," replied the other, shouting in the ear of the captain,
+but, as he was facing the wind, his voice seemed to the latter only like
+a whisper.  "I'll take your advice, as I see I could be of no use;
+still, if I can be of any service, mind you call me!"
+
+"Aye, aye," said Captain Dinks, "you go down and go to sleep.  We are
+all in God's hands now, though I'll do all that man can--good night!"
+
+"Good night," said Mr Meldrum; and he then went below again to give
+what report he could to Kate, who was waiting anxiously for his expected
+reappearance, as he had said he should not be gone long when he left
+her.
+
+She had been certain the ship was in great danger; and she now read the
+confirmation of her worst fears in her father's face.
+
+"Oh, papa!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms round his neck as soon as
+he came down the companion, without waiting to hear a word from him.  "I
+thought so, I thought so!"
+
+"Hush, my child!" said he soothingly, leading her towards her state-room
+and opening the door, "go in to your cabin and pray!"
+
+And thus the weary night passed away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+IN UNKNOWN LATITUDES.
+
+When daylight came, through the exertions of Ben Boltrope, the
+carpenter, and a couple of the crew sent to aid him, the cuddy offered a
+more presentable appearance than it had done just immediately after the
+midnight scare; for, the table and seats were fixed back in their
+original positions, the debris cleared away, and a portion of the
+skylight restored--all of which so brightened up the interior that what
+had passed but a few hours before seemed but a dream, at first, to those
+of the passengers who turned out early.  The continuous sustained roar
+of the wind and waves had so drowned the noise of the men hammering and
+moving about that the repairs appeared to have been accomplished by
+magic.
+
+As soon as Mr Meldrum went on deck, however, he could see little
+alteration for the better there.
+
+The great rolling billows, as Maury has described them, were running
+high and fast, tossing their white caps in the air, looking like the
+green hills of a western prairie capped with snow, and chasing each
+other in sport; while the wind was still blowing a hurricane, and the
+ship, resembling a crippled bird with her foretop-mast gone, was running
+now before the gale under a single storm-staysail, that looked no bigger
+than an ordinary sized pocket-handkerchief, at a greater rate of speed
+than she would have done in a stiff breeze with all her canvas spread.
+
+The outlook around, too, was by no means cheering.
+
+The horizon was piled up with masses of blue-black clouds, whose ragged
+edges meant mischief, and scraps of greyish white scud were flying
+across the sky in all directions--now towards the same point as the
+wind, now against it, as if there were contending currents aloft and
+they could not decide what precise course to travel.
+
+Captain Dinks, who, with the other officers, had been on deck all night,
+looked haggard and care-worn.  The men, too, seemed worn-out, which
+could not be wondered at, as no sooner had the watch whose turn it was
+to be relieved, got below than they were roused up again at the call of
+"All hands"--when, of course, they had to tumble on deck again, without
+a moment's time for the rest and repose they needed after the exposure
+they were subjected to in battling up and down the rigging in the
+tempest of wind and rain and hail that had lasted through the livelong
+night.
+
+"Not a very bright look-out!" said the captain, trying to speak
+cheerily, but failing miserably in the attempt.  "Old Boreas, too, I'm
+afraid, is going to put on a fresh hand to the bellows, for the
+barometer has fallen again."
+
+"Indeed?" answered Mr Meldrum.
+
+"Yes," continued Captain Dinks; "it stood at 29.50 at three o'clock this
+morning, and when I looked just now it was at 29.25."
+
+"That's bad," said the other; "it shows we've not got the worst of the
+cyclone yet."
+
+"No," replied the captain; "we've got that all to come!  Luckily, I sent
+down the topgallant-masts yesterday evening, or we'd have had every
+stick out of her by now:-- they would have been safe to go when the
+foretop-mast went, if not before.  However, there they are, all lashed
+together by the longboat, not gone yet; and I hope we shall have some
+use for them yet bye and bye."
+
+"I only hope so," said Mr Meldrum sadly, the despondent way in which
+Captain Dinks spoke affecting him too.
+
+The ship seemed easier running before the wind than when lying-to,
+although there was the risk of the heavy following seas pooping her, a
+contingency that had already happened when a portion of the bulwarks
+were carried away at the time the saloon skylight was smashed, leaving
+an ugly gash in the ship's side; but a spare hawser had been triced up
+and secured fore and aft to prevent the men being washed overboard
+through the aperture, and life lines were rove and passed along the deck
+for the same purpose.
+
+"It's safer to carry on," observed Captain Dinks, seeing the anxious
+glance Mr Meldrum bent to windward.  "I've heard of a ship outrunning a
+hurricane before; and so might we again."
+
+"So have I," said Mr Meldrum; "but not a cyclone!  Look there, ahead,
+at that bank of storm-clouds; perhaps we're running into a worse gale
+than the one we've got."
+
+"Well, we can only act for the best," replied the captain curtly,
+apparently not relishing this criticism of his seamanship from a
+landsman--as he thought--who knew nothing about the matter; and he then
+moved back to his post by the binnacle, leaving Mr Meldrum standing by
+the head of the companion, where he was presently joined by Frank
+Harness, the first and second mates being both forward, superintending
+the bending of preventer stays to secure the masts, which seemed to be
+ready to jump out of the ship from the leverage exercised even by the
+little sail she was carrying.
+
+By noon, when it was utterly impossible to take an observation, the
+heavens being black all round, with showers of hail and snow coming down
+at intervals, and the wind, blowing over the Antarctic ice-fields,
+seemed to cut the face as with a knife--the temperature of the air had
+become bitterly cold, while the barometer fell to 29 inches.  The very
+spirit of destruction appeared to brood over the ill-fated _Nancy Bell_.
+
+Mr Meldrum, after a brief visit below to look after his daughters and
+see how the American passenger was progressing since his accident, had
+returned on deck, accompanied by Kate, who pleaded so earnestly to be
+allowed to come that he could not resist her entreaties.  She now stood,
+sheltered behind him, in the mouth of the companionway, watching the
+brewing of the fresh storm with which the vessel was about to be
+assailed--Frank Harness close to her side as if for additional
+protection, although the captain had told him he might go below and have
+a spell off after being up all night.  The young sailor, as soon as she
+came up, had taken off his own monkey-jacket and fastened it round her
+shoulders to protect her from the wind and hail, despite all Kate's
+protests, to which he was obliged to turn a deaf ear by reason of the
+force of the gale.
+
+Suddenly, the dark looming mass of clouds in front of the ship appeared
+to split asunder, showing gaping ragged edges fringed with white, just
+like a shark's mouth.
+
+Mr Meldrum at once rushed to where Captain Dinks was standing close to
+the wheel-house, where two men had all they could do to control the
+helm, although they were the strongest hands on board, the one being Ben
+Boltrope, the ex-man-o'-war's-man, and the other Karl Ericksen, the
+Norwegian sailor who had been rescued from the boat, and who was a
+perfect giant now that he was restored to health and strength--standing
+over six feet, and with long brawny arms that seemed as powerful as
+those of a windmill when he threw them about.
+
+"For God's sake, Captain," exclaimed Mr Meldrum, "round the ship to, if
+you can!  If that squall that's coming right forward catches her in the
+teeth, she will go down stern foremost in a second!"
+
+"Nonsense, Mr Meldrum!" answered Captain Dinks hotly.  "Who are you? a
+landsman, to give orders to a trained seaman!  I don't allow passengers
+to interfere with me in working my own ship."
+
+"Considering I have been in the royal navy all my life, and left the
+service with the rank of commander," said Mr Meldrum quietly, not a
+whit angered by the captain's somewhat reasonable indignation, "I think
+I am something of an authority on the point.  But, don't let us argue
+that matter now, Captain Dinks.  I apologise for interfering; but I have
+seen and been through a good many cyclones in the China seas, when I was
+in command of a gunboat there, and I advise you to do as I've said."
+
+"Trust his honour, Capting, sir," chimed in Ben Boltrope, for once
+forgetting his sense of discipline, and speaking to his superior officer
+without leave; "I've sarved with Commander Meldrum, and knows what he
+is."
+
+"I'm sure, sir, Mr Meldrum, I hardly know how to address you," said
+Captain Dinks, his old polite sell again, and smiling as if there was no
+storm near.  "I beg your pardon for not recognising that you were of the
+same craft; but what could I think, or how could I judge?"
+
+"Oh, never mind that now," said Mr Meldrum eagerly.  "Put her about at
+once, as you value all our lives."
+
+"All right!" replied Captain Dinks; "down with the helm there, sharp!"
+
+The men strained every sinew to get the wheel round, the muscles on the
+Norwegian's arms standing out in relief like wire ropes, and Ben
+Boltrope using his utmost strength and assisting him with a will.
+
+"Look out forward!" shouted the captain in the meantime, to warn
+McCarthy and the men what was going to be done so that they might hold
+on; "were going to 'bout ship."  And although they could not hear a word
+he said, they judged what he meant by his motions and prepared
+themselves accordingly.
+
+The manoeuvre was executed at last, but very nearly a moment too late.
+
+As the ship came round, she met the sea full butt, and was for the
+instant almost buried--the water coming in high over the forecastle and
+falling like a cataract into the waist, engulfing the men there in a
+well of green wave and foam; while, at the same moment, the squall ahead
+struck her on the port bow, the vessel, between the two opposing forces,
+being like a piece of iron 'twixt hammer and anvil.  The concussion was
+tremendous, knocking everybody off their feet just as if the ship had
+struck on a rock.
+
+Crash went the remains of the foremast over the side, carrying with it
+the maintop-mast and the solitary scrap of sail that was set; and for a
+moment the ship broached to, heeling over as if she were going to
+founder.
+
+However, the same expedient that had been tried in the night, that of a
+tarpaulin in the weather-rigging, was again resorted to; and the helm
+being kept down, the vessel's head was got to the sea, the wreck of the
+foremast, which had swung clear of the ship although still kept attached
+by the gear forwards, acting as a sort of breakwater, and tempering down
+the strength of the waves, so that after a time she rode somewhat easy.
+
+Meanwhile, Kate had a terrible fright.
+
+As the shock came when the _Nancy Bell_ was put about, Frank Harness
+threw his arm round Kate's waist to prevent her from being thrown down,
+holding on himself at the same time like grim death to the rail of the
+companion; and on the ship steadying, he released the girl and let go
+his hold.  At that moment, however, a wave came over the poop, and he,
+being taken off his guard, was rolled over on the deck and washed
+towards the opening in the broken bulwarks.
+
+Kate instantly, without hesitating for a second, made a snatch at his
+collar; and, clutching hold of it, in the very nick of time, saved him
+by a miracle--had he been carried overboard, no earthly power could have
+rescued him!
+
+"Oh, Frank!" she exclaimed, "I thought I had lost you!"  And, as he
+scrambled to his feet, pale with the suddenness of his peril and her
+effort to rescue him, the brave girl sank down, apparently lifeless, on
+the deck--all of a heap.
+
+"Good heavens, she is dead!" cried Frank.  "She has been killed in
+trying to save me!" and in the desperation of grief he looked as if he
+were going to throw himself into the sea.
+
+"No, no, my boy," said Mr Meldrum, who had witnessed the incident from
+the wheel-house, and had now come to his aid; "she has only fainted from
+revulsion of feeling and the strain on her nerves.  Help me to carry her
+below."
+
+And, as the two descended the companion-way with their apparently
+inanimate burden, the young sailor could not help furtively kissing the
+floating tresses of dark brown hair that swept across his face as he
+tenderly supported Kate's head on his shoulder, guarding it jealously in
+the passage below.  His anxiety was soon afterwards relieved by Mr
+Meldrum coming out from the cabin where they had deposited poor Kate,
+and telling him that she was getting better.
+
+It was a bad case with the ship, however; worse than anyone thought.
+
+Soon after Frank and Mr Meldrum had left the deck, Ben Boltrope, who
+was still in the wheel-house with the Norwegian, called out to Captain
+Dinks:-- "I think there's something wrong with the rudder, sir," he
+said.
+
+"Wrong with the rudder!" repeated the captain.  "What do you mean?" and
+he came nearer to look himself at the steering gear.
+
+"Why; the wheel goes round either way, just as you please, without any
+strain at all, as if the ropes were parted, or the rudder gone adrift!"
+
+"Mercy on us!  That would be a calamity!" exclaimed Captain Dinks; and,
+watching his opportunity, when the stern of the ship rose up in the air,
+he looked over the rail below.  "It is really the case!" he said, in
+grave accents.  "The rudder and rudder-post have both been carried away.
+What a blessing that they did not go before we got her about; if they
+had, nothing could have saved us."
+
+"True for you, sir," responded Ben in acquiescence; while the Norwegian
+nodded his head and said, "Ja! ja!"
+
+"Come away from there, my men," presently said the captain after a long
+silence, as if he were thinking to himself what should be done; "it's no
+use your stopping there any longer.  But, stay, it is best not to alarm
+the crew too soon.  You stop, Norwegee," calling that sailor by the name
+the men had dubbed him; "and you, carpenter, go and sound the well to
+see what water we have taken in.  Mind and do it quietly, now, so as not
+to be seen; and you need not tell any of the hands about the loss of the
+rudder, you know."
+
+"Aye, aye, sir, I twig," said Ben, going forwards and then down the main
+hatchway, slipping off the cover for the purpose.
+
+Presently he returned aft, looking very serious.
+
+"There's four feet water in the hold, sir," said he.
+
+"Only four feet?" replied Captain Dinks, pretending to treat the matter
+with great unconcern; "why, I thought she would have had ever so much
+more in her, with all the straining she has gone through in the last
+twenty-four hours, besides the lot of seas she took in before we had the
+hatches battened.  Still we'd better get rid of it, carpenter, as
+there's no use our carrying more cargo than we are obliged, eh?"
+
+"No, sir," said Ben somewhat dubiously, not taken in by the captain's
+manner.
+
+"Just what I think," said Captain Dinks.  "Here, McCarthy," he cried out
+to the first mate, who, ever intent on duty, was busily engaged in
+trimming matters amidships, having the lashings of the longboat and
+spare spars overhauled in readiness for the next sea that might flood
+the decks--for nothing could be done about the wreck of the foremast
+till the gale moderated, as to loose it now would be to lose their
+sheet-anchor.  "McCarthy, just have the chain-pumps rigged and pump out
+the hold to get rid of all that water we have taken on board."
+
+"Aye, aye, sorr," was the hearty response, and the "cling, clang" of the
+pumps was soon heard resounding with a will through the ship, the men
+encouraged by the mate to do their best.
+
+Still, it was a bad look-out.
+
+The ship had first been scudding due east, and then to the northward,
+goodness only knew how many miles off her course; and now, here she was,
+drifting southwards, dismasted and rudderless, a hopeless wreck in
+unknown waters, at the mercy of the elements!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+ICE AHEAD!
+
+Although the wind and sea had being doing their utmost, without, to
+transform the previously trim ship, that had sailed from Plymouth so
+gallantly, into the veritable semblance of a battered hulk, no further
+damage had been done below: so that, in the cuddy, all was comparative
+comfort--in contrast to the scene on deck.
+
+Mr Zachariah Lathrope, who made light of his injuries, albeit his left
+arm was in a sling--confessing, too, that his side "felt kinder painful,
+as if some coon had given him a sockdolager in the ribs, or a grizzly
+bar put his hug on"--was seated at the replaced table, pitching into a
+sort of heavy lunch, to make amends for his missed breakfast, while the
+steward was cutting up a plentiful supply of ham for him on his plate,
+so that he could use his solitary hand with a fork and so feed himself.
+Mrs Major Negus was busily engaged in her cabin, and with the
+assistance of Mary Llewellyn, the stewardess, was rearranging all her
+numerous goods and chattels that had been so ruthlessly banged about in
+the night; and Master Maurice, whom the turmoil had not disturbed in the
+least, was still sleeping in the top bunk as composedly as he had
+continued doing all through the period of his mother's struggles on the
+floor and narrow escape from suffocation, unawakened either by the noise
+or her loud calls for help--the worthy lady as soon as she came to
+herself having earnestly cautioned Kate and the stewardess not to arouse
+her darling boy, for "he would be so frightened, you know, if he saw me
+like this!"
+
+Kate herself, recovered from her faint, but yet feeling weak and languid
+from the effects of all she had gone through, was mechanically assisting
+Florry to dress, wondering the while, in a dull apathetic way, whether
+she would ever again have to tender the same offices to her little
+sister, for she was prepared for the worst and believed that the ship
+was in imminent danger--although she hoped still, with the ardent nature
+of youth, that they might be delivered, trusting to the loving mercy and
+watchful care of that God to whom she had prayed during the night, even
+before her earthly father's counsel, and before whose footstool she had
+already that morning bent the knee more than once.
+
+As for Mr Meldrum--who had remained below from the consciousness that
+he could not be of any service in the immediate present on deck and from
+an unwillingness to having the appearance even of shoving himself
+forward and interfering with the management of the ship after what
+Captain Dinks had said--he had tumbled out a portmanteau in his state-
+room in order to overhaul some old papers; and he presently came out
+into the cuddy with a chart in his hand.
+
+"Hillo, mister," said the American as soon as he noticed him, "jest
+roused up, hey?  I thought you wer havin' a bit of snooze, and wondered
+when you were goin' to turn out!"
+
+"Ah," said Mr Meldrum gravely, "it's no time for sleeping now for any
+one on board.  The ship is in far too perilous a position for that!"
+
+"Is she?" asked Mr Lathrope, most unconcernedly apparently.
+
+"She really is," replied Mr Meldrum.
+
+"Wa-al, if she is," returned the other, lifting a huge morsel of ham on
+the end of his fork, and surveying it critically with much relish of eye
+before placing it in his capacious mouth, "why, it's a bad business,
+that's all I ken say; and I'm right down sorry fur it, I am--things was
+going on so slick and pleasant!  But if we can't help it, mister, what's
+the sorter use in grievin'?  I don't see the good in cryin' over a spilt
+petroleum can, I don't!  Now, dew, mister, draw up har and make yourself
+comf'able; you'll find this bacon prime, for I knows it's the gen-u-ine
+Chicago brand and came out of the States."
+
+"No, thanks," said Mr Meldrum, smiling at the other's imperturbable
+philosophy and epicureanism that seemed proof against everything, even
+the sense of mortal peril, "I had something to eat earlier, and do not
+care about anything now."
+
+At that moment, Captain Dinks came down the companion and looked into
+the saloon, when, seeing Mr Meldrum, he beckoned to him.
+
+"Would you mind coming on deck for a few moments," said he hurriedly, "I
+want to speak to you about something?"
+
+"Certainly," said Mr Meldrum, at once getting up from the table, on
+which he had spread out the chart he had brought from his cabin and was
+engaged with a pair of compasses in picking out the ship's possible
+position.
+
+"Say, mister--" commenced the American.
+
+"Pray, excuse me," interrupted Mr Meldrum, "I'll speak to you when I
+come down again; I must join the captain now, as you see;" and he
+hurried to the companion-way, Captain Dinks standing aside and motioning
+to him to go up first.
+
+"Say, Cap--" called out Mr Lathrope, not to be baffled.
+
+"Can't stop now," curtly replied Captain Dinks; and he, too, disappeared
+in the rear of Mr Meldrum.
+
+"Now, I do jest wonder what them two coons hev on hand?" said the
+American, when they had thus left him with his curiosity unslackened;
+"I'm durned if I don't go up myself and see: people must rise pretty
+airly o' mornin's to take a rise out of this old hoss!"
+
+A roll of the ship, however, coming as soon as he had risen from his
+seat, settled his inquisitiveness.  "I guess I'd better bide har," he
+murmured to himself, uttering his thoughts aloud.  "This air vessel's a
+durned sight too skittish on her footing to please me, an' that air
+ramshackly arm o' mine might git squoze agin if I went on deck!  No, I
+guess I'll bide har in the land of Gilead--Steward!" he added, raising
+his voice.
+
+"Yes, sir," answered Llewellyn, coming out of his pantry.
+
+"Hev you got any coffee or tea fixins?"
+
+"No, sir, that lazy nigger Snowball says he can't light the galley
+fire."
+
+"Does he?  I'd make him smell fire if I'd got him out on the plantation
+whar I was riz!  Then, bring me a glass of brandy and water, and make it
+stiff: I allers go in fur temperance drinks when I can get them, that is
+before sundown; but if I'm obleeged to take pizen, why, I likes it
+strong!"
+
+When Mr Meldrum gained the deck, in company with the captain, he found
+the wind still blowing with terrific force and a dangerous sea on,
+although as the gale had not shifted during the last hour from the
+north-west, to which quarter it had finally veered, there was some hope
+that they had escaped from the worst of the cyclone and were now being
+hurried along its outside edge.  In one of the last onslaughts of the
+wind, however, the mainyard truss had been carried away, and the yard
+swung so violently to and fro after snapping the braces like pack-thread
+that it seemed as if the main-mast would go; but, fortunately, in one of
+its mad gyrations, as it moved about like the arms of a semaphore, the
+yard-arm had caught in the standing rigging on the starboard side,
+where, through the gallant exertions of Frank Harness and the Norwegian
+sailor, who performed the task at the peril of their lives, it was
+firmly lashed and secured from doing further mischief.  This operation
+eased the ship considerably, and certainly saved the masts.
+
+The worst piece of news that the captain had to tell Mr Meldrum was
+with reference to the manner in which the ship was leaking.
+
+"We had four feet water in her when the carpenter sounded the well at
+six bells," said Captain Dinks; "and after rigging the pumps we reduced
+it considerably; but since then, she has made nearly two feet again--all
+clear and clean without any bilge in it--which shows she's taking it in
+fresh and fast."
+
+"There must be a big leak somewhere," said Mr Meldrum, "and the sooner
+we see about stopping it the better."
+
+"Yes," said the captain, "we might keep it down certainly by an hour's
+spell in each watch; but it tires out the men so.  I think it is coming
+in somewhere astern; the rudder-post must have started some of the
+timbers when it got wrenched off."
+
+"Very probably," said the other; "but then, the ship has had a good deal
+of straining the last day or two, besides from the storm in the Bay of
+Biscay."
+
+"Ah! she felt that," replied Captain Dinks.  "That's what, no doubt,
+weakened the rudder and made it go so easily this morning; but I'll call
+the carpenter."
+
+The port watch had gone below with Mr Adams, to have a little rest, for
+there was no need of all the crew being on deck, the ship riding out the
+gale to leeward of the floating anchor which providence had sent them in
+the shape of the broken foremast, and there being nothing to do; so, on
+a hail from the captain, Mr McCarthy passed the word forwards for Ben
+Boltrope, who soon made his appearance out of the fo'c'sle--scrambling
+aft as well as he could by holding on to every rope in his way, for the
+vessel rolled and pitched most uneasily, rendering upright walking along
+the deck an utter impossibility.
+
+"Sarvent, sir," said he, touching his hat to Mr Meldrum on coming up
+the poop ladder; "glad to see you on deck."
+
+"What about this leak, carpenter?" said Captain Dinks.  "Please tell Mr
+Meldrum all you know."
+
+"Well, your honour," said Ben, "all that can be said lies in a nut-
+shell!  She's making water as fast as it can pour in; and if we don't
+find the leak and stop it, she'll founder pretty soon."
+
+"Have you any idea where it is coming in?" inquired Mr Meldrum.
+
+"Well, sir, the cap'en say it's by the rudder-post; but I myself thinks
+it's amidships or else forrud: I'd have looked, but I couldn't shift the
+cargo without help."
+
+"This must be seen to at once, Captain Dinks," said Mr Meldrum.  "As
+you have asked my aid, I would advise your calling the watch below; and
+I'll go down with the carpenter and see whether we can spy out the
+leak."
+
+"Oh, by all means, if you think that will do any good, although I'm of
+the opinion that the leak is in the stern.  McCarthy, call the port
+watch up to go below and break cargo!"
+
+"All hands, ahoy!"
+
+This cry soon brought up the weary sailors, who had only just retired
+after more than twenty hours of duty, before they had had time to close
+their eyes in their first sleep, but they came out of the forecastle
+willingly enough, well knowing the peril the ship was in; and, down
+below the main-hatch they bumbled after Mr Meldrum and the carpenter,
+glad that it was not for another spell of pumping for which they had
+been called up.
+
+Ben Boltrope was found to be right.  After tossing to one side the bales
+and boxes and heavy masses of iron that filled the midship section of
+the hold, they found a great gap between the timbers through which the
+water was spouting in at the rate of some hundred gallons an hour--the
+cause of the hole being apparent enough in a long iron girder which had
+got jammed against the side of the ship, end outwards, and in the
+working of the ship had made its way clean through the strakes and
+planking--just as if it had been an auger, the hole had been bored so
+round and neat!
+
+This orifice was now carefully plugged and battened over; and when the
+pumps were again rigged and the vessel cleared it was found that she had
+ceased to make water to any appreciable extent.
+
+"Thank God for that!" said Captain Dinks heartily.  "I own I was wrong,
+for I was certain that the rudder-post was the seat of mischief:-- the
+ship was bound to leak there!"
+
+"It was a very natural thought of yours," said Mr Meldrum, to soothe
+his sense of defeat.  "I would have held to the same but for the
+carpenter."
+
+"Ah! he's a roight good man, sorr," chimed in Mr McCarthy, "and a
+cridit to the sarvice that brought him up.  Sure, an' he's a sailor ivry
+inch ov him, from the crown of his hid to the sole of his fut!"
+
+The sky was still obscured by clouds and the stormy billows were tossing
+about, striving to bear down the ship and beat her to pieces; but she
+bravely held her own, head to sea, and rode out the gale all that day
+and night, as if she had been at anchor, although drifting steadily the
+while in a south-easterly direction, the impulse of the waves and the
+force of the wind on her hull carrying her thither.
+
+It was the same the next day; but, on the third morning, the gale
+somewhat moderated, although still blowing with considerable force from
+the northward and westward, and under Mr Meldrum's advice, which
+Captain Dinks now eagerly sought on every occasion, sail was got upon
+the ship and she was allowed to run before the wind, hoping that the
+vessel might reach smoother latitudes and fine weather, when they would
+be able to repair damages and continue their voyage.
+
+It was but a poor pretence of making sail, however!
+
+All they could set was a close-reefed mizzentop-sail and a fore
+staysail, which latter was hoisted on a jury-mast rigged forwards in
+place of the foremast; while the missing rudder was replaced by an
+ingenious makeshift, the joint handiwork of Mr Meldrum and the
+carpenter, composed of lengths of a spare hawser and some of the smaller
+spars, sawn up, lashed together, and then planked over, so as to offer a
+yielding surface to the sea, and secured under the stern by guys and
+tackles leading from the quarter galleries, the steering gear being then
+attached.
+
+This contrivance was found to work admirably in guiding the ship before
+the wind, although if they had tried to wear her or put her about by it,
+there might have been some difficulty and danger in the operation.
+
+Towards the evening of this day, while the crippled _Nancy Bell_, so
+ruthlessly shorn of her fair proportions, was going along pretty
+bravely, nevertheless, at some six knots an hour or more under the
+little sail she was carrying, with the sea still rough and wintry and
+the sky all clouded over, the thermometer was noticed to go down again
+several degrees; and Mr Meldrum, who alone had made the discovery for
+the wind having been bitterly cold for days past the feeling in the air
+would not have specially attracted attention--at once warned Captain
+Dinks that they had run so far southwards that he was certain they were
+near ice, and consequently it would be best to keep a strict look-out.
+
+"Ice?" exclaimed the captain aghast.  "Why, we aren't much below the
+latitude of the Cape, I take it!"
+
+"You'll find you are wrong when we're able to get an observation,"
+replied Mr Meldrum.  "I wouldn't be surprised to find that we were far
+below `the Forties,' with all that drift and leeway we've had!  However,
+wherever we are, we're not far from ice, take my word for it, whether it
+be a wandering berg out of its latitude or the drift from the Antarctic
+ice-fields."
+
+"All right, sir," said Captain Dinks laughing, "I'll take your word for
+it; though an iceberg hereabouts, to my thinking, is a rather rum
+visitor this time of year, and I'll believe it when I see it!"
+
+However, the captain was wrong again.
+
+Just before dark, the look-out in the maintop reported something ahead,
+which presently turned out to be an enormous iceberg, fortunately far
+away to leeward out of the course of the ship.  It was an immense
+irregular mass several miles long and of great height, appearing to
+reach up into the clouds above as it heaved up and down on the heavy
+rolling sea; and its top and points, covered with snow, stood out
+distinctly against the dark horizon.
+
+"Ah, we are well away from that fellow!" said Mr Meldrum rubbing his
+hands; but his congratulations were cut short in a moment by the look-
+out man forward--the Norwegian sailor, who as an old whaler was
+accustomed to Antarctic sights and sounds--shouting out that there was
+field-ice ahead, and that from the crashing of the floes he thought the
+ship must be near the pack.
+
+"Take in sail at once," said Mr Meldrum, "and keep a sharper look-out
+than ever.  If the vessel runs against the ice woe betide us all!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+"LAND HO!"
+
+"Let go the mizzentop-sail halliards, and man the fore staysail down-
+haul!" shouted out Captain Dinks the moment Mr Meldrum had spoken; and,
+the helm being put down at the same time, the ship was again brought
+head to wind, almost sooner than it has taken to describe the operation.
+However, as it was observed after a little while that the vessel
+drifted so rapidly to leeward, through the mere force of the wind on her
+exposed hull and remaining spars, not to speak of the wash of the sea,
+and thus ran in quite as great danger of colliding with the ice as if
+she had been going ahead, the fore staysail, reefed into the most
+attenuated proportions, was set again--so that the ship might be under
+steerage way and be able to avoid, under judicious control, the numerous
+small bergs that now hove in sight like miniature islands in every
+direction, making the navigation perilous in the extreme.
+
+As night came on, too, the dangers surrounding the _Nancy Bell_
+increased tenfold; for, the wind not only blew with greater strength,
+but it was accompanied by blinding showers of hail and snow, while a
+thick fog rose from the freezing water, more like steam than anything
+else, obscuring everything and preventing the floating ice from being
+seen until it was immediately under the bows.
+
+It was just about the beginning of the second dog-watch at four bells--
+six o'clock in the evening--that the mist came; so, after a brief
+consultation with Mr Meldrum, Captain Dinks told the chief mate to call
+the hands aft.
+
+"We are in as tight a hole, McCarthy," said he, "as the poor old ship
+was ever placed in, and it will take us all our time to get out of it;
+so, it's best to let all the hands know it, that each may do his best
+for the good of all."
+
+"Aye, aye, sorr," answered Mr McCarthy; "it's no sight o' use beating
+about the bush when danger's under weigh.  Till 'em the truth, Cap'en,
+and shame the divil!"  Soon afterwards, his ringing voice calling, "all
+hands ahoy!" was heard forwards.
+
+The crew were not long tumbling aft; and, when they had assembled on the
+main deck, Captain Dinks addressed them from the break of the poop.
+
+"Men," said he, "I'm sorry to say the _Nancy Bell_ is in a position of
+the greatest peril.  We are now, after fighting with a cyclone for five
+days, being carried along by a rising gale into the midst of scattered
+icebergs, any one of which may knock a hole in the ship; while if we
+should run upon one of the bigger ones we must go to pieces at once.
+You know how, throughout the bad weather we've had, I have tried, to
+spare you as much as I could, conveniently with the proper working of
+the ship, and I've always allowed the watches their regular spell below;
+but to-night, and as long as we are surrounded by the ice, I can't allow
+a man off duty!  None of us can tell whether the _Nancy Bell_ will be
+afloat and we alive by morning; so, no single hand must leave the deck
+without special permission.  You may be certain I sha'n't set the
+example, and you can now go forwards.  I am about to set fresh look-
+outs, and each man will have his station."
+
+The majority of the crew gave a cheer at this, Ben Boltrope's lusty
+voice being conspicuously to the fore; but some, amongst whom was a lazy
+lout named Bill Moody, who was the chief grumbler in the forecastle,
+expressed their discontent audibly; saying that they "hadn't signed
+articles to be worked like dogs!"
+
+Captain Dinks' ears were pretty sharp, and he heard what was said; so he
+called the men back.
+
+"I know who spoke," said he, "and I wouldn't disgrace the rest of the
+crew by supposing that they share his feelings; but I'll add this for
+his benefit, that anybody who may be discontented will find me easy-
+going enough when I am stroked the right way, but a pretty tough
+customer when anybody falls athwart my hawse!"
+
+While this little incident was taking place, of course, the usual look-
+out was not neglected, the Norwegian being still aloft in the maintop,
+with Frank Harness and Mr Adams on the forecastle; but now, extra men
+were detailed for the duty.  Karl Ericksen, called down from the maintop
+where his range of view had become limited through the increasing
+darkness and snowstorm, was placed between the knight-heads; a man on
+each bow; Frank Harness on the fore scuttle; Mr McCarthy and Adams on
+the port and starboard quarters; and Ben Boltrope at the wheel--Captain
+Dinks being here, there, and everywhere to see that everybody was on the
+_qui vive_, even ascending the mizzen rigging sometimes into the top, to
+have an outlook from there and try whether his eyes could pierce the
+misty vapour that hung over the sea by dint of looking down into it.
+
+Thenceforward, throughout the weary night, there was little to do save
+looking out and conning the ship.
+
+When a large cake of ice or berg was seen drifting perilously near, or
+bearing down upon the vessel, the word was passed along the deck from
+forward to aft and her head turned one way or the other, the yards of
+the mizzen-mast--now the only ones left on the ship, with the exception
+of the fouled main-yard--being squared or braced up to help her
+inclination to either side, which was also assisted by the loose
+mizzentop sail.  This latter had only been hauled up by the clewlines
+and buntlines when sail was shortened, so as to be available to be
+dropped and sheeted home at a moment's notice in any sudden emergency
+when it might be necessary to get way on the ship to prevent her running
+foul of some giant iceberg that was trying to overtake her.  From
+midnight the only break in the monotony of the silent watch, throughout
+the anxious hours that elapsed before daylight, was the warning cry of
+the look-outs' forward "Ice ahead!" or "Ice on the lee bow!" with the
+sailing directions of the captain to the steersman, quickly following
+the words of warning, "Hard up with the helm!" or else, "Keep her off a
+little, my man!" or the single word,--sometimes the most important order
+of all,--"Steady!"
+
+In the cuddy, naturally, it was an equally anxious time throughout the
+trying night; indeed, more so, considering the state of mind of those
+concerned.
+
+Mr Meldrum, on going below, had told of the course of things above,
+explaining the perilous position of the ship without unduly alarming the
+nervous susceptibilities of the women folk, and after his periodical
+visits to the deck he brought back the cheering news that all was as yet
+going on well; but still, the very fact of being unable to do anything
+save watch and pray, was even more exhausting and wearying than in being
+exposed to the bitter weather like the crew and officers of the ship
+were--for the sense of duty and something constantly calling on their
+attention prevented the latter from thinking, as those could only do who
+had no cause or call for action.
+
+The American passenger did not, however, appear in the least put out or
+more than ordinarily impressed with the gravity of the situation, taking
+it, as it were, as a matter of course.
+
+"It's no use making a muss over what can't be helped," he said with the
+utmost sang-froid.  "The ship's in good hands, and as I can't do
+anything, why I guess I'll let things ride and be as comf'able as I
+ken."  So he ate and drank with just as good an appetite as ever when
+dinnertime came--though it was later than usual, through Snowball not
+having been able to light the galley fire till nearly dark; and, on the
+arrival, according to Mr Zachariah Lathrope's reckoning, of bedtime, he
+curled himself up in his bunk, going to sleep as composedly as if he had
+been safe and sound ashore, with the comforting assurance to the others,
+as he said "good-night," that "if things should kinder turn out
+onpleasant, why, I guess they'll rouse me up!"
+
+Florry Meldrum, too, and Master Maurice Negus were not one whit the more
+alarmed by the critical condition of the _Nancy Bell_ either; but,
+neither Maurice's mother nor Kate closed their eyes for a moment the
+livelong night.
+
+When some feeble rays of light at length strayed down through the
+skylight, causing the lamps over the cuddy table to burn more dimly,
+when the scuttles in the cabins, seen through the half-opened doors,
+became illumined by some reflection from without, showing that the long-
+wished-for morning had broken at last, Kate, unable to endure the
+suspense any longer, put on her cloak and went on deck.
+
+The scene and all its surroundings had very much altered since she had
+last been up the companion-way; so that when she got on the poop now, so
+great a transformation had occurred that it seemed to her as if she were
+in a species of nautical fairyland.
+
+The ship herself was cased in ice--hull, spars, and standing rigging,
+and all--with long pendulous icicles hanging from the main and mizzen
+yards.  The fog or mist having also cleared away and the clouds vanished
+from the sky, every object glittered like jewels in the golden rays of
+the rising sun.
+
+But the _Nancy Bell_ was not the only object of attraction and interest.
+
+She was surrounded by icebergs in every direction--to the right, to the
+left, right in front, and astern--some little mites not bigger than
+cockle-shells in comparison with the larger ones, baby bergs, so to
+speak, and others as lofty as mountains, extending as far as the eye
+could reach to the horizon; the ship racing by them and threaded her way
+in and out between the moving masses with the dexterity of a Highlander
+executing the sword-dance.  The wind was still blowing more than half a
+gale from the northward and westward, and the vessel was running before
+it under the fore staysail and mizzentop-sail, which had been dropped
+again with the reef points shaken out, making eight knots good, too, at
+that.
+
+Where there was no ice, the rolling sea was of an intense ultramarine
+blue, reflecting the colour of the distant sky; while, as the sun came
+up higher, different tints were displayed by the icebergs, whose shape
+was as various as their sizes--bergs that in their gorgeous architecture
+and fairy magnificence, with fantastic peaks and airy pinnacles, which
+glittered now in the full light of day with all the varied colours of
+the rainbow, flashing out scintillations and radiances of violet and
+iris, purple and turquoise, and sapphire blue, emerald green and orange,
+blush rose and pink and red--all mingled with soft shades of crimson and
+carmine, and interspersed with gleams of gold and silver and a frosting
+over all of bright white light.
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated Kate, uttering her thoughts aloud, so carried away was
+she by the vivid beauty of the scene, "those who haven't seen an iceberg
+at sea at sunrise, have no idea of the grand loveliness of God's
+handiwork in nature!"
+
+"They look beautiful enough now, missy," said Captain Dinks, who had
+come to her side unnoticed, and seemed much jollier than he had done the
+night before, when he thought the ship in her last extremity; "but we
+didn't think them so a little while ago, when it looked as if the poor
+old _Nancy Bell_ would lay her old bones amongst them!"
+
+"Ah!  Captain Dinks," replied she, "there was One above looking after us
+then, as he is now!"
+
+"You are right," said he earnestly; "or we should never have escaped as
+we did; once or twice, when we grazed a berg, I thought it was all up
+with us."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Kate with a shudder, "it was a terrible night; and you
+and the poor fellows on deck must have found it bitterly cold."
+
+"Not a doubt of that," said Captain Dinks laughing.  "I was almost half-
+frozen in the mizzen rigging; and as for poor Frank Harness, when he
+came off the fore-scuttle, where he was stationed all night to pass the
+word from the look-outs forward, he could hardly move his limbs!  If it
+hadn't been for the hot coffee our friend Snowball served out every two
+hours to warm us up, I don't believe any of us would have been alive
+this morning.  But here comes your father.  How sly your were all to
+keep it so carefully concealed that he was in the navy; and I taking him
+all the time for a lubberly landsman!  I'll never forgive myself; for
+you must all have laughed at me, especially you, Miss Kate, and your
+roguish little sister.  Ah! good morning, Mr Meldrum," added the
+captain turning to that gentleman; "I was just thinking about you.  I
+wanted to have a consultation about our course.  My dead reckoning is
+all at sea, and I hardly can guess where we are now; but I trust we
+shall be able to get an observation of the sun at noon, and then we will
+be able to prick off our position on the chart."
+
+"I sincerely hope so," said Mr Meldrum; "for I think we're going far
+too much to the southward."
+
+"Do you, still, eh?" replied Captain Dinks.  "I don't quite agree with
+you.  I thought it best to keep the ship before the wind, not only
+because it eases her but on account of the gale being bound to slacken
+down soon; and if we run down to a lower latitude, as I have frequently
+done in this part of the ocean before, we will probably get fine weather
+and be able to tinker up the old craft and make her look all a taunto
+again."
+
+"Ah!" said Mr Meldrum, "you are just as likely to run on to something
+else, not quite so pleasant as fine weather!  Mark my words, Captain
+Dinks, I am as certain, and more so now than I was three days ago, as I
+told you then, that we are far down in the Forties; and what with the
+easting we have made since passing the meridian of the Cape and the
+leeway we have drifted, we must be pretty close to the Crozet Islands or
+Kerguelen Land."
+
+"Kerguelen Land!" ejaculated the captain; "nonsense, man; why we are
+hundreds of miles to the westward of it."
+
+"Are we?" replied Mr Meldrum.  "Well, just wait till twelve o'clock and
+we'll see who is right, you or I!"
+
+Hardly, however, had the words escaped his lips than the look-out man in
+the maintop--who had been replaced as soon as day broke, when the
+prospect around the ship became more extended, thus rendering his
+services useful--shouted out a cry that had almost been forgotten, and
+which made every heart on board leap with mingled feelings of
+overpowering joy, consternation, surprise, dismay!  Every pulse stopped
+for a second spellbound!  The cry was--"Land ho!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS.
+
+"Land!" called out the captain.  "Where away?"
+
+"On the weather-beam," answered the man aloft, who still spoke in a
+voice which sounded as if he had been greatly startled.  "It's rising
+rapidly every moment, sir, out of the water."
+
+"The fellow must be blind!" exclaimed Captain Dinks.  "There is no land
+there in that direction, if I know it.  He must be taking one of those
+big icebergs for an island; that's about the matter.  Hanged if I don't
+go up and see for myself!"
+
+Running down the poop ladder, the captain soon started up the shrouds on
+the port side towards the maintop where the lookout man was stationed.
+It was not Karl Ericksen this time, whose word he would have implicitly
+taken, but Bill Moody, one of the worst of the crew, and who, it may be
+remembered, had already evinced an unsailorlike spirit by his
+insubordination on an occasion when the pluck and endurance of everyone
+required to be tested.  From this fact alone, Captain Dinks was the less
+inclined to trust him.
+
+The captain, however, found mounting the ratlines not so easy a task as
+he might have imagined, for the rigging was all frozen hard and as
+unbending as iron; but he persevered unflinchingly, and disdaining to
+creep through the "lubber's hole," climbed over the top in the usual
+sailor's way, although he puffed and panted a good deal when he got
+there, which proved to him that the flesh he had gained on his plump
+little person, since he had been a youngster and first shinned up the
+rigging, had not improved his climbing powers.
+
+"Now, where's this wonderful land of your's!" he asked, as soon as he
+got alongside of Bill Moody, taking his glass out of his pocket and
+adjusting the focus ready for action.
+
+"There," answered the man surlily, pointing towards the north-east,
+where a faint blue bank seemed to rise out of the ocean above and beyond
+the ice-fields.  It could be seen with the naked eye to be of a
+different colour to even the most distant bergs, the distinction being
+quite marked.
+
+"By Jove, the man's right!" ejaculated Captain Dinks with surprise.
+
+"I knew I were," said Bill Moody in a bragging sort of way.  "I think I
+can see a hole in a ladder as well as most people; and if that ain't
+land, why, I'll eat it."
+
+"There, that will do," interposed the captain to stop any further
+remarks, while he proceeded to inspect the hazy object with keen
+attention for some minutes, after which he replaced his glass in his
+pocket and prepared to descend to the deck again.
+
+"Keep a sharp look-out," he said to Moody as he disappeared over the
+side of the top, "and sing out, as soon as we get any nearer, whether
+you can see a line of breakers at the foot of the island; for island it
+is, sure enough!"
+
+"Aye, aye," grunted out the man; and Captain Dinks went down the rigging
+even more carefully than he had ascended, finding great difficulty in
+preventing his unaccustomed feet from slipping off the ratlines, which
+were like rungs of the smoothest and most polished ice.
+
+"You were right, and I was wrong," he said to Mr Meldrum, as soon as he
+had regained the poop.  "There is land in sight, sure enough, although I
+can at present only see it faintly towards the north-east.  It must be,
+as you say, either the Crozet Islands or Kerguelen Land, for there's
+nothing else between us and the Australian continent, as we haven't yet
+got quite so far south as the Antarctic regions."
+
+"It's probably Kerguelen Land," observed Mr Meldrum, "for you couldn't
+see the Crozets nearly so far off; but I hope there's not going to be
+another change of the weather.  It seems clouding over again."
+
+"Not before we get an observation, I trust," replied the captain; "I
+don't like knocking about any longer without knowing where I am."
+
+"Nor I, sorr," put in the first mate heartily.  "Sure it's like goin' in
+the dark to Bandon Fair, for all the worruld over."
+
+"It's not what we like," interposed Mr Meldrum somewhat dryly.  "We
+have got to put up with what we can get."
+
+"True for you, sorr," said Mr McCarthy, not to be beaten; "sure, but
+isn't it best to make the best on it."
+
+"That's incontestable," replied Mr Meldrum with a laugh; and there the
+conversation ended, Kate and her father going below to breakfast.
+
+The weather got thicker, with the wind coming in gusts and now and then
+shifting a bit, so that the solitary mizzen-topsail of the _Nancy Bell_
+had now again to be close reefed, and her course directed more towards
+the land, which they did not seem to near so rapidly as they had thought
+they would--owing probably to some current that was all the time
+carrying them southwards while they were steering towards the east.
+
+They were actuated, however, by no vulgar curiosity to inspect this
+ocean land in thus seeking to approach it.
+
+On an ordinary occasion they would most certainly have given it a pretty
+wide berth; but now, should the sky cloud over so much as to prevent
+their getting an observation of the sun by which to correct their
+latitude and longitude, the identification of the land would at once
+prove their position on the chart without further trouble.  This was why
+they wanted to near it.
+
+After breakfast, when Mr Meldrum came on deck again, the wind had
+freshened considerably, although still blowing from the north-west,
+while the outlook was generally squally; but the sky above still kept
+clear, with the sun shining down at intervals, when the scud, which was
+beginning to fly about again, did not interpose to hide its beams.  The
+land, the while, was steadily rising to the northward and eastward.
+
+"It's Kerguelen Land, sure enough," said Mr Meldrum, when, after
+imitating Captain Dinks and paying a visit to the maintop to
+reconnoitre, he returned to the poop.  "I can see the outlying rocks
+towards its north-west extremity called `The Cloudy Isles,' and away to
+the east I noticed the snow-white peak of Mount Ross, which stands in
+the centre of the island and is over six thousand feet high."
+
+"Well, you've good eyesight to see that at the distance," observed
+Captain Dinks in a chaffing way.  "I wish my optics were as clear."
+
+"I can see pretty well," replied the other; "and if you had had to look
+out as sharply as I've had to do for pirate junks up the Gulf of
+Tonquin, I fancy you would have had your eyesight improved!"
+
+"All right, Mr Meldrum," said Captain Dinks frankly.  "I'm sure I did
+not doubt your word for a moment.  I've never been so far south before,
+and feel a little out in my reckoning.  However, it will soon be time to
+take the sun, and that will decide the point."
+
+A few stray snowflakes came fluttering down on the deck just then, and
+both he and Mr Meldrum looked aloft.  No cloud was to be seen exactly
+overhead, but a heavy bank of haze was creeping up from the south
+towards the zenith that looked ominous.
+
+"We shall have a repetition of yesterday again, I'm afraid," said Mr
+Meldrum presently with much concern, after a long interval of silence
+between the two.
+
+"I'm afraid so," was Captain Dinks' reply; "but I hope it won't come for
+another hour at least."  He then hailed the steward down the companion-
+way, telling him to bring up his sextant from the cabin.
+
+Fortunately, it just kept clear enough for an observation to be taken;
+and when Captain Dinks had worked it out, both he and Mr Meldrum acting
+independently so as to test the accuracy of the reckoning, it was found
+that the ship was in 48 degrees 50 minutes south latitude, and 68
+degrees 40 minutes east longitude.  Consequently, the land they were
+approaching could be none other than Kerguelen Land.
+
+"As we now know where we are," said Mr Meldrum, when the fact was
+established, "we must give the island as wide a berth as we can, for the
+coast is most dangerous; and in winter-time, as it is now, July being
+the December of the antipodes, the most fearful storms are said to
+spring up at a moment's notice in its vicinity.  As the wind is still
+from the north-west, and we are well up to the northward, I should try
+to weather it if possible; and, if we can't do that, we must pass to the
+south of the land."
+
+"Very good," replied the captain.  "Only, you know the poor old _Nancy_
+cannot sail as well now, as she could when in full trim.  I don't at all
+like the look of the weather, though, Mr Meldrum.  It seems to me that
+ono of those coast storms you were speaking of is brewing up.  The ice,
+too, is getting thick round us again; and if a fog comes on again we'll
+be in a worse position than yesterday, for then we'd plenty of sea-room
+at any rate, while now, we have that blessed island almost dead to
+leeward."
+
+"We must trust in Providence," said Mr Meldrum, "and keep a sharp look-
+out if the fog thickens; but try to beat to windward we must, if
+possible!"
+
+During the bright morning, the hands, working diligently under the
+supervision and help of the first mate and Adams, the second, had been
+trying to make the _Nancy Bell_ a little more shipshape, and, although
+they had been greatly hampered through the ropes and running gear being
+frozen so stiff that it was almost impossible to unbend or run them,
+they succeeded finally in trussing the mainyard again and splicing the
+braces, so that they now were able to set the mainsail reefed, a welcome
+addition to the limited sailing power of the ship in working to
+windward.
+
+All things were proceeding very satisfactorily in the afternoon, by
+which time they had got the land to bear well on the lee-beam, and it
+looked as if they could weather it; when, suddenly, there came on a
+thick snowstorm, mingled with showers of hail, and the same kind of mist
+which had risen almost at a precisely similar hour on the previous day
+again enveloped them in its folds, shutting out all view of the water at
+even a short distance from the vessel's side.
+
+The _Nancy Bell_ was then steering nor'-nor'-east and some ten miles off
+the land, with the wind coming from the northward and westward in
+squalls.  Presently, it blew so fresh that the lately set mainsail had
+to be taken in again, and next the mizzen, for the ship heeled over so
+much that it was thought at one time she would not recover her
+stability; but, even under the reefed fore staysail, which was still
+retained to enable her to weather the land, she tore through the water
+at such a rate, that, in spite of the continual watch, it was most
+difficult to avoid the heavy masses of floating ice that seemed to
+spring up on all sides again, and which she had appeared to have been
+leaving behind her in the morning.
+
+"Sure and it's a worse look-out than last night, sorr," said the first
+mate to Mr Meldrum, who was peering out anxiously to windward, the gale
+veering round just at the most critical time to the northward.  "Faix,
+and I don't think we can weather them islands now, with all this ice
+about too."
+
+"Nor do I," replied Mr Meldrum.  "Captain Dinks, we'll have to run for
+it.  Do you think you can wear her?"
+
+"If your rudder holds out," said the captain.
+
+"I'll guarantee the rudder," answered Mr Meldrum.  "The only thing is,
+I fear the spars will go."
+
+"We must risk those, my friend.  It's a case of neck or nothing now.
+Listen!  Can you hear anything?" and the captain bent his ear to
+leeward.
+
+Yes, Mr Meldrum could hear something.  They all could hear something
+above the shrieking of the wind, and the roar of the waves, and the
+crash of the cakes and bergs of ice tumbling against each other.  It was
+something that sounded like the death-knell of the _Nancy Bell_, and
+made their faces blanch with fear.  It was the noise of breakers,
+distant yet, but still as plainly distinguishable as if quite near--
+breakers breaking on a lee-shore, the most terrible sound of all sounds
+to a sailor's ear!
+
+"Stand by to wear ship!" shouted Captain Dinks, and he himself took hold
+of the spokes of the wheel as he uttered the words, easing it round,
+while the mate rushed forwards, calling the hands.
+
+"Tumble up, men, tumble up!" cried Mr McCarthy; "don't stop for your
+clothes.  All hands wear ship."
+
+Frank Harness and Mr Adams had already darted towards the braces; and,
+the men soon joining them, the yards were braced round, the mizzen and
+mainsail being again dropped and sheeted home to enable her to pay off
+from the shore, which the vessel soon did on the other tack, although
+the canvas made her bury her bows in the sea and almost heel over till
+the mainyard dipped.
+
+"Let her carry on, she'll bear it," said the captain.  "We cannot do too
+much to get away from those confounded breakers; I'd sooner hear
+anything than them!"
+
+"So would I," responded Mr Meldrum, still looking pale, for the _Nancy
+Bell_ had had a narrow squeak of going to the bottom when wearing; "but
+we are rushing into almost as terrible a danger as the lee-shore.  If we
+come in contact with one of these icebergs, going at the speed we now
+do, the shock will sink us to a certainty."
+
+"Well," said the captain, "of the two dangers that is the least.  By
+keeping a good look-out we may avoid the ice, which we could never do
+with the lee-shore, save by getting away from it, as we are doing now.
+By Jove, isn't she walking along--the beauty, crippled as she is--just
+as if she knew the peril she was in!"
+
+"Better not holler till yer out of the wood," observed Mr McCarthy; "as
+for myself, I wish it was mornin' agin, sure!"
+
+He'd no sooner uttered the words, however, than the look-out man forward
+suddenly gave vent to a frightened exclamation, drawn from him by the
+sight of something unexpected and terrible.
+
+"Ice on the lee bow!" shouted he.  "Port your helm hard!"
+
+But the warning came too late.
+
+Almost at the same instant as the cry reached the ears of those aft, the
+_Nancy Bell_ struck full butt against a dark object that loomed up out
+of the fog right ahead of the ship, and which had been unperceived a
+moment before.
+
+There was a grinding rending crash and sound of breaking timbers, the
+vessel quivering from stem to stern; and then, the main and mizzen
+masts, with all their yards and the sails which had so lately been
+urging the ship on to her destruction toppled over the sides, whilst a
+wave, washing back from the base of the iceberg and coming in over the
+bows, swept the decks fore and aft.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+MAKING THE BEST OF IT.
+
+All hands were on deck at the time of the collision; and, with one
+concentrated cry of alarm which was more a yell than anything else, the
+men rushed in a body amidships to where the long-boat was stowed.
+
+Captain Dinks, however hesitating and undecided as he had shown himself
+frequently of late in the navigation of the ship, now all at once
+brought out in this emergency that courage and capacity for command
+which he had really at bottom but which had been before dormant.
+
+"Back for your lives, men, to your stations!" he shouted.  "Although the
+bows are stove in, the bulkhead forward will prevent the water from
+flooding us beyond the fore compartment and give us time to run the ship
+ashore, when we can all escape.  No boat could live in the sea that's
+now on; and if it did, it would run a worse chance of being stove in by
+the ice than our poor vessel had!"
+
+His words made the men hang back, all save Bill Moody and a couple of
+others, who began casting off the lashings of the longboat; but Mr
+McCarthy rushing down on the main deck and seizing a capstan bar with
+which he threatened to brain the first man who resisted the captain's
+authority, the unruly ones desisted for the time, slinking forwards
+grumblingly.
+
+"Carpenter," called out Captain Dinks, "sound the well and see what
+damage has been done; and, Mr Adams, send the port watch aft to clear
+away this top hamper.  It is thumping away alongside and may make
+another breach in our timbers!"
+
+The captain's apparent calmness, combined with the sense of duty
+paramount on ship-board, made the men set to work with a will; besides
+which, they well knew that by acting together in harmony they had a
+better chance of escape than by any mere individual effort.  Mr
+McCarthy, too, and Adams showed themselves equally as capable as Captain
+Dinks in lending a hand and encouraging the crew--Frank Harness being
+not one whit behindhand either; so that, within a very few minutes after
+the consternation which the catastrophe had caused on its first
+happening had passed away, all, recovering that equanimity habitual to
+sailors in almost any predicament or calamity, were engaged in carrying
+out the orders given them, as coolly as if the _Nancy Bell_ were snug at
+anchor in some safe harbour.  But, in what a sadly different position
+was she now!
+
+Battered as she had been by the storm in the Bay of Biscay and crippled
+by the terrible cyclone off the Cape, which had left her tossing
+rudderless and almost dismasted on the deep, her then condition was
+favourable in comparison with her present state--that of a complete
+wreck, with her bows stove in, her masts all carried by the board, and
+her decks swept fore and aft of everything!
+
+Fortunately, as the mainmast had fallen over the side, it had jammed
+against the iceberg with which they had collided, so fending off the
+vessel's head that she had sheered to starboard and thus passed by the
+floating mountain; otherwise, probably, the poor _Nancy Bell_ would have
+been ground down by the pressure of the ice below the surface of the
+sea.  Ben Boltrope, too, returning from forward after a survey of the
+damage, in accordance with the captain's command, reported another piece
+of good news.  The bows had been stove in, it was true, and the bulkhead
+smashed, filling the fore compartment and bringing the ship's head so
+much down that it would be almost impossible to sail her even in a
+smooth sea; but the jury-mast, which had been rigged forward in place of
+the lost foremast, had gone over on the port bow, instead of falling to
+the starboard side of the ship like the other masts, and the fore
+staysail attached to it, dragging overboard, had got sucked into the
+hole which the iceberg had made, thus stopping the inrun of water to any
+appreciable extent Ben said that he believed they would be able so to
+patch up the damaged place in the bows after a time, thanks to this
+circumstance, that they might hope to make a shift of rigging up a sail
+again to run the ship ashore with.
+
+"Bravo!" said Captain Dinks on hearing this.  "Take what men you like
+and commence the repairs at once, for there's no time to be lost Mr
+Meldrum, what say you to this?"
+
+But, Mr Meldrum had gone below to his daughters, well imagining the
+state of alarm they would be in and rather surprised that Kate had not
+already made her appearance on deck.  When he reached the cuddy, the
+reason of her absence was explained.
+
+Poor Florry had met with an accident, the concussion when the ship had
+struck the iceberg having thrown her out of her berth, cutting her head
+against the cabin door; and Kate, assisted by Mr Lathrope, was binding
+up the wound and comforting the sufferer.
+
+"I guess, mister," said the American, looking up as Mr Meldrum entered
+the main saloon, "I've had to act the good Samaritan, same as your gal
+did to me when I got jammed together t'other day in my innards agin the
+wash-stand!  We're fixin' up the little miss finely.  'Tain't much of an
+injoory, I kalkerlate, missy, though thar be a sight of blood, and it'll
+soon git closed up agin!"
+
+"Thanks for your kind services," said Mr Meldrum.  "I would have been
+down before, but was too busy on deck."
+
+"I know," replied the other, nodding his head--"helping the captain out
+of the muss, eh?  That wer an allfired smash, though!  Done much hurt?"
+
+"Yes," said Mr Meldrum guardedly, with a glance at the girls; "but the
+mischief's over now for the present, though."
+
+"I see, I see," whispered Mr Lathrope; "I don't need nary nother
+explanation, mister.  I hev shed my eye-teeth, I hev, and thar's no use
+in skearin' folks.  That madam the Meejur, now, has been going on tree-
+men-jus, an' it has ben as much as your gal could kinder dew to get her
+to quiet down.  Jee-rusalem! but she wer goin' to have the cap'en up on
+court-martial, an' the steward tarred and feathered, an' the Lord knows
+what!  Then, too, ther wer that b'y of hern, squalling like a frog in a
+fit, the durned young imp, I'd lief have skinned him!  If it hadn't been
+for your gal, they'd have raised thunder aboard, they would: you oughter
+be kinder proud, mister, to hev sich a sensible young woman fur yer
+darter!  She warn't a bit skeart when the shock came; but braced herself
+up as cool as a cowcumber, and thar she's ben, keeping them noisy folks
+quiet, and tendin' her little siss like a Christian!"
+
+"Indeed I am proud of her," said Mr Meldrum, gazing at Kate fondly;
+"but you say nothing about yourself.  You've been making yourself of use
+too."
+
+"Snakes and alligators, mister, I ain't worth a corn-chuck alongside of
+your gal!  In course, I wer a bit flabbergasted when we collided just
+now--with one of them hammocks of ice, I guess, hey!"
+
+"Yes," said Mr Meldrum, "we ran against an iceberg, and a pretty big
+one too."
+
+"I thought so," continued the other.  "But you knows me by this time.  I
+never gets upsot by no matter what happens, so I jest fixes on one of
+them life-belts I always has handy whenever I travels on them high-
+pressure steamboats we hev on the Mississippi--whar you run the chance
+of getting busted up regular every trip--and thar I turned out of my
+cabin slick for anything, so I wer able to help miss, har, in shaking
+down that dreadful old screech-owl yander, and plaster up little missy
+arterwards."
+
+"How's your arm now?" asked Mr Meldrum kindly.
+
+"Oh, the durned thing's all right, only a bit stiff.  Madam gave it a
+squoze jist now when I histed her off the floor, whar she got throwed
+down and wer bellowin' like a mad bull in fly time.  That made the pain
+grip me agin; but I dessay it's all right now for a scrimmage if needs
+be."
+
+"And where's Mrs Negus, eh?"
+
+"Thar she is, with that young imp clasped in her arms, sobbin' her heart
+out in her cabin; and if you go fur to comfort her, as I did just now,
+why, she bites your nose off like a crocodile, she dew!  She sez we'll
+all go to the bottom; and that the cap'en and everybody else have runned
+the ship ashore just to spite her--she knows, she sez, it's ben only
+done fur that!"
+
+And the American laughed with a keen relish of the joke, which no sense
+of his own peril could subdue.
+
+"She isn't far out in thinking the ship going down," said Mr Meldrum
+gravely.  "The vessel has a hole knocked in her bows, through which you
+might drive an omnibus, and her fore compartment is full of water.
+We'll soon have to abandon her, although, I've no doubt, she'll keep
+afloat for some hours yet.  I advise you, Mr Lathrope, to put on the
+warmest suit of clothes you've got, and get together any few little
+things that may be of use in a boat, as I'm going to do.  Kate, my
+dear," he added, addressing his daughter, who had been listening
+attentively while he had been talking to the American, at the same time
+that she hushed and soothed Florry, who was moaning with pain from her
+injured head, "you'd better do likewise; and see also to poor Mrs
+Negus, who appears utterly helpless and unable to look after herself.
+Where are the steward and stewardess?"
+
+"The stewardess went on deck some time ago, papa, to try and get a cup
+of tea for Mrs Negus from the galley, and she has not yet returned,"
+answered Kate; "I think the steward is asleep in his pantry."
+
+"I thought him too big a coward to keep so quiet when the ship was in
+any danger," said her father.  "However, he'll have to rouse up now,
+whether he likes it or not."
+
+"Hi, Llewellyn!" shouted he, going up to the door of the pantry, which
+was closed, and rapping outside with his fist loudly several times.
+
+But there was no answer; so, turning the handle of the lock
+unceremoniously, he looked within and saw to his astonishment the object
+of his quest coiled up in a corner of a locker that ran across one side
+of the pantry, with a heap of blankets drawn tightly over his head.
+
+Mr Meldrum entered and proceeded to shake the human bundle, calling the
+man again by name; when, after a little while, he disinterred his
+terrified face from amidst the folds of his coverings, looking as pale
+as a Niobe in marble.
+
+"Wha-wha-what do you want?"  Llewellyn stammered out, with his usual
+stutter when spoken to sharply.
+
+"Rouse up, man, and turn out at once," said Mr Meldrum.  "What do you
+mean by hiding yourself here, cowering in a corner like a frightened
+hound, when the ship's in danger and there's work for all hands to do."
+
+"I thought she was going down, sir, and--and--"
+
+"And you hadn't the pluck to face your fate like a man, eh!" continued
+Mr Meldrum, finishing his sentence for him.  "But you must know that
+brave men don't allow cowards to hamper their movements!  Get up at
+once, sir, and see about raising up all the tinned meats and cabin
+stores you can fetch out of the steerage.  Now, look sharp!"
+
+"Ye-e-es, sir," replied Llewellyn, crawling unwillingly out of his
+corner; "but, Cap'en Dinks said--"
+
+"No matter what Captain Dinks said," interrupted Mr Meldrum, "I've got
+his authority for what I am doing, and order you at once to set about
+getting the provisions up for the boats.  We'll shortly have to abandon
+the ship; and, if you don't obey my orders, you shall be left behind."
+
+"I'll do it at once, sir," answered the steward with alacrity, the
+threat of being abandoned in the sinking vessel being quite sufficient
+to expedite his movements; and he at once made for the after hatch to
+get down into the hold, Mr Meldrum satisfying himself that he had set
+about the task before leaving him, and then, with a kindly word or two
+to Kate and Mr Lathrope, going on deck again.
+
+On gaining the poop, Mr Meldrum found that the snow had ceased to fall,
+the gale having gone down a bit.  There was also a clear sky overhead,
+and a few stars were shining out; but the heavy misty fog still hung
+over the water, like a curtain, preventing the view of anything beyond a
+limited range from the sides of the ship, while the sea was extremely
+rough, the waves being nasty and choppy, as if some current or tideway
+was working against the wind, causing the rollers to break over the
+battered bows every now and then in sheets of foam.
+
+However, the outlook was better than he expected; and, besides, he could
+see, on looking round, that no time had been lost by Captain Dinks and
+the crew since he had been below.
+
+The wreck of the main-mast and mizzen-mast, with the yards and sails
+attached, which had been knocking about in the water alongside the
+ship--bumping against the timbers and threatening a danger almost as bad
+as the collision--had been cut adrift, the smaller spars being first
+cast loose and hoisted on board in case of need for jury-masts.  The
+carpenter and some of the hands, meanwhile, had braced up the broken
+bulkhead with stout beams placed across, so as to prevent it from giving
+way under the strain and allowing the contents of the fore compartment
+to flood the main hold; for, it was utterly impossible for the present
+to clear it of water, although the pumps, which had been kept constantly
+going, sufficed to keep the rest of the ship pretty free and avert the
+danger of sinking for a time.  It was only a question of time!
+
+The captain was just then overhauling the longboat, which, with the
+jolly-boat, that had been stowed inside of the former for safety and
+convenience, were the only two boats that had been left, the others
+having been washed off the beams at the time that the cook's caboose had
+been carried away during the cyclone; and Mr Meldrum, going down on to
+the main-deck, approached the skipper.
+
+"We'll have to take to the boats soon," said the captain, turning round
+as he came up, "that is, when the sea moderates a bit.  I don't see
+anything else that can be done--do you?"
+
+"If I were you," suggested Mr Meldrum, "I would try and run her ashore
+first and beach her.  We're not far from Kerguelen Land, and though it
+is now winter time on the island and desolate enough, it would be better
+our stopping there than wandering about the ocean in the boats, trying
+to get into the track of the Australian liners, or else making for the
+Cape, the only place we could steer for."
+
+"It's a bad look-out any way," said the captain despondently.
+
+"Yes, I grant that," replied the other; "but, if we land there and
+manage to hold out till September or October, only three months at the
+outside, a lot of whaling craft generally put into Kerguelen for the
+seal-fishery about that time, and I daresay we could get one of these to
+take us to the Cape."
+
+"Perhaps that would be the best," said Captain Dinks, reflecting a
+moment--"but what would you advise now--how are we to get ashore, eh!"
+
+"Why, rig up a jury-mast or two at once and make for the land!" answered
+Mr Meldrum promptly.  "The island must be close to us now to leeward;
+and with this wind we ought to be able to reach the shore by daybreak,
+when we would be able to look about us better.  It is certainly not the
+slightest good our remaining here doing nothing till then, for the
+carpenter tells me, it is only just as much as the men can do to keep
+down the water by constant pumping, so by the morning they'll be pretty
+nigh exhausted and we be no better off.  Besides, as you can observe for
+yourself, it would be madness while that sea is on to try to launch the
+boats, unless we are absolutely compelled to do so in order to save our
+lives; whereas, if we run the old craft ashore, we will have the boats
+for a last chance."
+
+"I suppose you're right," said Captain Dinks, "though I can't say that I
+like to leave the poor old thing's bones to bleach on this outlandish
+coast.  What say you, Mr McCarthy, eh?"
+
+"I agree, sure, with Mr Meldrum, son.  He spakes like a sailor; and as
+he's a naval officer he ought to know best," answered the chief mate.
+Mr Adams and Frank Harness, who were both also admitted to the "council
+of war," having given a similar opinion, Mr Meldrum's advice was
+immediately acted upon.
+
+Without delay, a small jury-mast was rigged up aft, attached to the
+stump of the mizzen-mast, and one on the main-deck, close to where the
+main-mast bitts yet remained, as it was thought better not to step the
+jury-masts too far forward, for fear of the vessel plunging her bows
+under.  After this, the mizzen-topsail and topgallant-sail, which had
+been cut off from the yards and saved from the wreck, were hoisted on
+roughly improvised yards; when, the _Nancy Bell_ being brought round
+with the wind abeam, was cast loose from the wreckage and headed due
+east towards the land--in the very direction whence had been heard the
+sound of breakers, and which all on board had been so anxious to give a
+wide berth to but so few short hours before.  What had been her dire
+peril was now looked on as a haven of safety!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+ALMOST A MUTINY.
+
+Towards midnight, the slight surface fog, which had up to that time hung
+over the sea, lifted, when it could be seen that the ice had almost all
+disappeared--drifting towards the south, where some towering bergs,
+amongst which probably was the one that had done all the mischief to the
+ill-fated vessel, were conspicuous in the distance.
+
+The wind, also, had diminished considerably in force, blowing now from a
+point to the westward of north, although the waves were still rolling
+heavily, as they always do for some time after a storm in the southern
+ocean, setting in towards the land that was just faintly visible right
+ahead of the _Nancy Bell_, and whither she was now proceeding steadily,
+but, of course, making but very slow progress through being waterlogged
+forwards and possessing such small sail-power.
+
+There was no moon, to complete the description; but the heavens above
+were twinkling with bright stars that gave sufficient light to illumine
+the horizon for miles round, for they touched up the crests of the waves
+with coruscations of silver, and made the broken spray gleam like jets
+of flame above the dark expanse of water.  Everything, in a word, looked
+favourable for their enjoying a quiet interval on board after all the
+anxiety and hard work of the preceding day and night.
+
+Seeing that no pressing danger was imminent, and that nothing more could
+be done for the present, Mr Meldrum tried to induce Captain Dinks, who
+had been on deck for over forty-eight hours, to go below and have some
+rest, as he had a good deal yet before him to go through, and looked
+fagged and worn-out.
+
+But the captain would not hear of the suggestion for a moment.
+
+"No," said he; "I mistrust that mutinous chap, Bill Moody, and the lot
+who sided with him in making a rush for the boats when we struck.  I
+know they would be up to some mischief or other as soon as my back is
+turned."
+
+"But there is McCarthy your chief mate," replied Mr Meldrum, "surely he
+can take command of the vessel, as he has so often done before, while
+you have a spell off?"
+
+"Ah, McCarthy, though as good an officer as ever stepped a plank, isn't
+myself, Mr Meldrum; and as for Adams, he wants backbone, while Frank
+Harness is too young a lad for the men to obey him if any difficulty
+arose.  Besides, there are a lot of things to see to that want my
+supervision, which must be given while I have this breathing time--the
+boats have to be prepared and provisioned, for instance."
+
+"Talking of that," interrupted the other, "I have roused up that lazy
+steward of yours and set him to work collecting all the tinned meats and
+cabin stores he can find, and getting them up out of the steerage."
+
+"That's right," said the captain.  "It was very thoughtful, and just
+what I had intended doing myself, only I forgo it!  I have got our old
+friend Snowball, the cook, busy here in the same way, boiling as much
+salt beef and pork as he can cram into his coppers, so that it may be
+ready-cooked when wanted and save time.  The darkey has got the galley
+fire in full blast now."
+
+"A good precaution," said Mr Meldrum; "but I do wish I could get you to
+go below.  If you like I'll remain on deck in your stead?"
+
+But, no!  Captain Dinks would not hear of leaving the deck until the
+fate of the poor _Nancy Bell_ was settled for good or ill; and there he
+remained amidships--the mates sticking by him and lending a willing hand
+so as to inspire the crew with an equal energy--superintending the
+constant pumping operations which were necessary to keep the water from
+gaining, one watch at a time being engaged solely on the task.  Others
+were preparing the longboat and jolly-boat for service, which was a
+tedious job, for the gunwales and bottom planking of both had been
+damaged greatly by the knocking about they had sustained since leaving
+England, even if they had been properly seaworthy then--a very
+problematical point, for many of the boats of merchant ships which carry
+passengers on distant voyages are never taken off the chocks or tested
+from year's end to year's end, in spite of all marine codes and
+Passenger Acts or Board of Trade ordinances to the contrary, and Mr
+Plimsoll's effort notwithstanding!
+
+When Mr Meldrum got below again he found that matters had quieted down
+in the cuddy.  Mrs Negus, persuaded at last that the ship was not
+immediately going to engulf herself and her darling boy, had been
+induced to take some refreshment--Snowball sending in a splendid hot
+supper by the direction of the captain, as the regular routine of the
+meals in the cuddy had been somewhat revolutionised through the
+calamities of the vessel.  If she had any scruples, Mr Lathrope set the
+good lady a praiseworthy example in looking after the necessities of the
+inner man.
+
+"S'pose we air gwine down to Davy Jones's Locker," said the American,
+with a comical twinkle in his cunning grey eyes; "thar's no reason why
+we shouldn't go with a full stummick as well as one like an empty meal
+sack, hey?  Look at me, marm.  I treats it philosopherically, I dew, fur
+I find thars nothin' like feedin' to keep up a coon's grit."
+
+Mrs Major Negus murmured something about "somebody" being "shockingly
+vulgar," but, whether inspired by Mr Lathrope's "philosopherical"
+remark or not, she could not resist a second helping of some capital
+"lobscouse" which the darkey cook had dished up most appetisingly; after
+which the good lady retired to her cabin for the night in much more
+cheerful spirits.
+
+Florry's cut head was easier, too, and by Mr Meldrum's directions she
+and Kate turned in comparatively early.  They really both wanted a good
+night's rest, and their father was not long in following out his own
+precept, advising Mr Lathrope to do likewise, to which he was nothing
+loth; so that, soon after eight bells had struck, all the occupants of
+the saloon were buried in repose and the ship quiet--with the exception
+of an occasional tinkering sound from the main-deck, coupled with the
+"clink-clank" of the chain-pumps and the wash of the waves past the
+sides, all of which were almost inaudible aft.
+
+About four bells in the morning watch, Mr Meldrum awoke; and, without
+disturbing any of the others, he rose and went on deck.
+
+He seemed to have a presentiment of something happening.
+
+It was quite dark now, the stars having gone in and the sky become
+clouded over; while the wind had changed and was blowing in short sharp
+gusts from the southward, which, with the chopping sea, made the ship
+labour a good deal, taking in lots of water forward.  She seemed to bury
+her head in every wave, her bows being so depressed from the fore
+compartment being full; and this compelled the crew in consequence to
+work double spells at the pumps, which caused much grumbling, for the
+men were almost dead beat, although Captain Dinks still kept them hard
+at it.
+
+The disaffection had almost reached a head before Mr Meldrum came up,
+on account of the captain keeping the port watch, in which was Moody and
+two of his special chums--at the unpleasant task, without allowing them
+a turn off below, as he had done the other watch, the members of which,
+however, had had their spell of duty before "all hands" had been called,
+and thus were fully entitled to the relief.  But, the grumblers, in
+considering their own grievance, did not recollect this, and the
+appearance of the passenger, whom some of them were already inclined to
+dislike from something Ben Boltrope had dropped of his being a naval
+man, and the fact of his now ranging himself alongside of the captain,
+as if to support his authority, brought matters to a crisis.
+
+"Spell ho!" shouted Bill Moody defiantly, dropping his arms and striking
+work.  "I'm hanged if I pump another stroke!  The blessed old hulk can
+go to the bottom as soon as she likes."
+
+"Nor I," exclaimed another, likewise leaving off.  "Nor I!" chorused
+half a dozen more; and, in a second, the pumps were at a standstill.
+
+Adams, the second mate, who was in charge of the men on the main deck--
+Mr McCarthy and Frank Harness having been sent below by Captain Dinks
+along with the starboard watch--stood meanwhile, staring aghast at the
+delinquents and not knowing what to do, "like a stock fish," as Mr
+Meldrum thought, looking on the scene.
+
+It was a critical moment.
+
+Captain Dinks, of course, hearing the steady "clink, clank" of the pumps
+stop, knew that something had occurred, and guessed the cause; but he
+waited to hear what the second mate would say before he interfered,
+nudging Mr Meldrum to call his attention, although the latter was
+already listening with keen interest.
+
+"Do, my men," they could hear Adams entreat the rebellious gang, "do put
+your hearts into it and start work again!  It won't be for long, you
+know."
+
+"A cursed sight too long for me!" said Moody, interrupting him with a
+coarse laugh.  "You aren't a going to come over us with your soft
+sawder, nor the skipper neither!  I, for one, ain't agoing to have any
+more o' this slave-driving work!  Why should we sweat our hearts out
+trying to keep the old tub afloat and drive her to shore, when we can
+reach there quite as well in the boats, without half the trouble?  I
+votes for quitting her at once--what say you, mates?" and he turned
+round to the others, seeking their support.
+
+"Aye, aye!" shouted several voices together with acclamation.  "Let us
+have no more pumping or slaving; but quit the ship at once and leave the
+cussed thing to sink.  To the boats!  To the boats!"
+
+Captain Dinks thought he had allowed the matter to go far enough.  The
+time for action had arrived, and he was ready.
+
+"Hold!" cried he, in clear ringing tones that penetrated fore and aft
+the vessel and which could be heard above every other sound, advancing
+to the top of the poop ladder and drawing a revolver from his pocket as
+he spoke.  "The first man who touches either of those boats without my
+orders, I'll shoot like a dog!"
+
+At the first sound of his voice the men had stopped speaking, and now
+there was a dead silence in which you could have heard a pin drop.  Not
+a movement was made by any of the men--all standing still as if turned
+to stone.
+
+"Do you know that what you are doing, men, is rank mutiny?" continued
+the captain, taking advantage of the occasion.  "Return to your duty at
+once, however, and I'll think no more about it.  What I am making you do
+is for the good of us all, and I wouldn't give you a moment's
+unnecessary work if I could avoid it!"
+
+"But," interposed Bill Moody.
+
+"Ah, I thought it was you, you scamp, ever trying to foment discord
+amongst the crew--a lazy hound, always grumbling and skulking, you're
+not worthy the name of a sailor--you are only a thing aboard a ship!
+I'll soon settle your reckoning, my hearty!"  And, little man as he was,
+Captain Dinks sprang down the poop ladder in one bound; and, dashing up
+to where Moody was standing, knocked him senseless to the deck with a
+blow from the butt end of the pistol which he held in his hand right
+across his temples.
+
+"There!" exclaimed he, when the ringleader of the gang was thus disposed
+of, kicking his body on one side and spurning it with his foot.  "That's
+the way I deal with mutineers!  Now, man the pumps again, my lads, and
+set to work with a will.  As Mr Adams told you just now, it will not be
+for long that you'll have to stick at it, for we'll soon be able to
+beach the vessel, and then your task will cease!"
+
+Cowed by his summary treatment of Moody, rather than encouraged by his
+words, the men started pumping again, although without any heartiness,
+clink-clanking till daylight, when they were relieved by the other watch
+and went below, taking Moody with them--that worthy having regained his
+consciousness after a time, in consequence of the water in the lee
+scuppers, where he was lying, washing over him and acting more
+efficaciously than the application of smelling-salts or sal volatile
+would have done under other circumstances.
+
+Before the mutineer went below, however, he turned his scowling face
+towards the poop, the blood all streaming down from a rather ugly cut on
+the left temple, and shook his fist in the direction of Captain Dinks,
+although the latter did not see the gesture, for his face was turned at
+the moment to the binnacle.
+
+But, Mr Meldrum saw it.
+
+"You'll have some more trouble yet from that fellow!" said he to the
+captain, relating what he had seen and telling how Moody looked.
+
+"Pooh!" exclaimed the captain.  "He's only a bully and a lazy grumbler;
+and all bullies and grumblers are curs at heart!"
+
+"Ah," said the other, "but those sort of sneaking chaps are just as
+likely to knife you as not when your back's turned, though they would be
+afraid to face you pluckily, like a man."
+
+"Let him knife away," replied Captain Dinks.  "That is, if I give him
+the chance!  I fancy he'll remember that little tap I gave him just now;
+and if he gives me any occasion for it he shall have another!"  The
+skipper then went away laughing, but Mr Meldrum, from the vindictive
+look he had seen on the man's face did not think it a laughing matter at
+all.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+THE BARRIER REEF.
+
+As the light increased, the land in front could be seen more distinctly
+rising steadily out of the seal with the high elevated peak in the
+centre which Mr Meldrum had identified the day before as the Mount Ross
+marked on the chart.  The mountain, however, showed now on the port bow;
+so, the ship must necessarily have run down a considerable portion of
+the western coast, after they had abandoned the idea of weathering the
+island on the port tack--which they had done as soon as they were
+alarmed by the sound of breakers, letting her drive to leeward--before
+the collision with the berg.  This was a discovery which did not appear
+to give Mr Meldrum much satisfaction.
+
+"It's a great pity," he said to the captain, "that we could not get
+round that northerly cape I pointed out to you, before the snowstorm and
+sea-fog set in!  There were one or two good bays there marked on the
+chart, such as Christmas Harbour and Cumberland Bay, which have been
+properly sounded and have the points laid down; but of this western
+coast little appears known, and it has been only from surmise that the
+outlines of the map have been sketched in.  I really don't think any
+exploring party has ever visited it since Monsieur Lieutenant de
+Kerguelen-Tremarec briefly surveyed it in 1772--more than a hundred
+years ago."
+
+"And it might have changed a lot since then," observed Captain Dinks.
+
+"Yes," continued Mr Meldrum; "for the French discoverer narrated all
+sorts of wonders about a raging volcano, with geysers and hot springs
+like those of Iceland; and if volcanic agency has been at work since
+then, no doubt the place is very much altered."
+
+"If there is a live crater there, it can't be so very cold then, eh?"
+
+"I don't know about that," replied Mr Meldrum.  "Away in the north, I
+have seen boiling water freeze as soon as it was exposed to the outside
+air; so I don't suppose it will be much warmer here than we can expect
+from all accounts."
+
+But, warm or cold, it was the only haven of refuge for the sinking ship,
+which slowly, and more slowly still, by reason of the stormy sea and
+shifting wind, the latter of which grew gustier as the morning advanced,
+made her laboured way towards the land in crab-like fashion--half
+sailing, half drifting, and burying her bows deeply every now and then
+in the heavy rollers she was powerless now to ride over, and rising
+again from the water so sluggishly that it sometimes seemed impossible
+that she would recover herself, but must founder, whenever she took a
+deeper plunge than usual.
+
+Bye and bye, Mr Lathrope came on deck escorting Kate Meldrum; although
+our heroine looked more like escorting him, for he was very pale and
+appeared much thinner than before--if that were possible to one
+belonging to the order of "Pharaoh's lean kine!"
+
+It was the first appearance of the American outside the cuddy since the
+accident that had crippled him, and he could not help noticing the
+altered state of the ship--having last seen her just before she
+encountered the cyclone.
+
+"Snakes and alligators, Cap, but you hev hed it rough, and no mistake!"
+said he to Captain Dinks, gazing with surprise at the broken bulwarks,
+which had been torn away when the masts went by the board, the wrecked
+forecastle, and the unsightly stumps to which the jury-masts had been
+attached, which now occupied the place of the tall graceful spars and
+neatly-braced yards, with the canvas smoothly stowed away in shipshape
+fashion, that he had left so trim when he went below that stormy night.
+"Why, you're busted up entirely, I guess!"
+
+"Not quite yet, I hope," replied Captain Dinks, smiling mournfully as
+he, too, looked around; "but, the old _Nancy_ has been sadly battered
+about.  Ah, Mr Lathrope, if she hadn't been a stout built one, she'd
+have gone to the bottom before this!"
+
+"You bet!" said the American, humouring this little remaining bit of
+pride the old seaman had in the ship he had commanded for so many years,
+a pride that was mingled with a sorrow at her approaching end, which he
+could foresee and mourn over, as if the vessel had been a living
+thing--"she's been a clipper in her time, and made a smart fit for it;
+but, the winds and the waves have licked her at last, same as they done
+me, when they squoze in my durned ribs t'other day."
+
+But, the captain could not laugh at what the other had said as a joke
+about himself, just in order to banish the poor skipper's gloom.  It
+seemed to him a sort of sacrilege towards the _Nancy Bell_ to liken her
+mortal injuries to the mere temporary ones of the American; so he turned
+the conversation.
+
+"I hope you feel better now?" he said.
+
+"Wa-al, I ain't downright slick and hearty agin, that's a fact; fur my
+innards got a'most druv into smash!  But I'm picking up, I guess, and
+feed reg'ler; so I s'pose I'll do, Cap, for an old hoss, eh?  Durned if
+I don't feel kinder peckish now.  Hullo, my lily-white friend," added
+he, catching sight of Snowball, who was bustling about the galley close
+to him, for Mr Lathrope had gone down on the main-deck along with
+Captain Dinks, to inspect the damage to the ship more narrowly than he
+was able to do on the poop.  "Ain't it near breakfast-time?  I hope
+you've got something for us as good as that lobscouse last night: it wer
+prime, and no mistake!"
+
+"Golly, massa, no time for um 'scouse dis mornin'--too busy bilin' beef;
+but breakfast in um brace of shakes," replied the darkey, grinning from
+ear to ear and showing his white teeth and full lips to great advantage.
+
+"I'm durned glad to hear it," said Mr Lathrope.  "Look alive, Ivories,
+fur I feels a kinder sinkin' in my stummick that tells me it's time to
+stow in grub.  You're a prime cook, let me tell you, darkey, and hev
+done me a heap of good since I've ben aboard!"
+
+"Glad massa like um cookin'," replied Snowball; and he bustled back into
+his galley with the intention of continuing to deserve the high encomium
+he had received from such an authority on eating as the steward had
+reported the American to be, while the latter proceeded to remount the
+poop ladder and join Kate.  She, however, was not now alone, Frank
+Harness having seized the opportunity of seeing her on deck to come up
+and speak to her; and the two parted with some little embarrassment as
+soon as Mr Lathrope approached.
+
+Towards mid-day, the _Nancy Bell_ had closed with the land so much that
+its features could be distinguished.  A bare, inhospitable coast it
+looked!
+
+It seemed nothing but a series of abrupt cliffs and headlands, six to
+eight hundred feet high--as well as could be judged from the distance
+they were off--at the base of which the waves thundered, sending up
+columns of spray, without any bay or opening into which they could run
+the ship with any chance of getting ashore in safety.
+
+There was, certainly, a projecting cape stretching far into the sea,
+like an arm, to the southward, to which point the coast-line trended,
+and beyond that there might probably be a harbour of some sort for it
+was to the lee of the island; but then, the wind was now blowing from
+the southward and westward--the very direction almost they ought to take
+to give the point a wide berth--and thus, unless it chopped round, it
+would be utterly impossible for the crippled vessel to round the
+headland, save by a miracle.
+
+Captain Dinks and Mr Meldrum looked at each other in blank dismay; for,
+the gale seemed to be rising again, while the sea got rougher and
+rougher every moment, and dark masses of cloud began to pile themselves
+up along the horizon to seaward.  If they were unable to beach the ship
+soon it was but only too apparent that she would sink from under them in
+deep water, when--God help those on board!
+
+Suddenly, however, when hope abandoned them both, there was a break in
+the dark sky just overhead and a bit of blue was to be seen, followed
+presently by a gleam of sunshine which sent a ray of comfort into their
+hearts and bid them not utterly despair.  This caused one, at least, to
+pluck up his courage again.
+
+"It is close on noon now," said Mr Meldrum, speaking cheerfully, "we
+had better take an observation, so as to see where we precisely are."
+
+"And what good will that do us?" asked the Captain disconsolately; "no
+amount of observations are of any use to us now."
+
+But he fetched out his sextant all the same, as well for the mere sake
+of doing "something" as to oblige Mr Meldrum; and taking advantage of a
+favourable opportunity, he "took" the sun.
+
+"We're in 49 degrees 10 minutes south latitude," he observed after a
+short interval during which he had been calculating his reckoning, "and
+68 degrees 45 minutes east longitude--if that information can help us!"
+
+"I'll soon tell you," answered Mr Meldrum stretching out on the
+binnacle a chart of Kerguelen Land which he had brought up from the
+cabin, and marking on it the position of the ship with a pencil.  "Yes,
+it's exactly as I thought just now.  You see that headland, there to
+starboard?  That is the promontory put down here as Cape Saint Louis;
+and if we can get round it, there, as you see in the chart, we'll find
+ourselves in a large sheltered bay, safe from the ocean swell, where we
+can run her ashore with ease.  Why, it is the very thing! how
+providential it was that I put in this chart by accident along with some
+others of the Pacific I had amongst my papers!  I didn't know I had it
+till the other day."
+
+"Ah," said Captain Dinks, returning to the main question, "but how are
+we going to weather the point, eh?  That's the difficulty."
+
+"We may do it yet," replied Mr Meldrum, whose hopes appeared to rise
+the more the Captain seemed determined to look gloomily on the outlook.
+"You can see for yourself that we are drifting equally as much to the
+south as we are sailing towards the coast, and making about the same
+progress each way.  From this circumstance I have little doubt that
+there is a considerable current running southwards; and if so, it may
+carry us round the cape--especially should the wind shift to the
+northward."
+
+"Aye, if it should!" said Captain Dinks sarcastically.
+
+"I do not really see why it should not," persisted Mr Meldrum, "it has
+already veered about a good deal this morning; and, if you remember,
+both yesterday afternoon and on the previous day it shifted shortly
+after sunset to that very direction."
+
+"Yes, I recollect," said the other with grim humour, "and the shift
+brought a snowstorm and a fog with it on each occasion!  I hope, really,
+with all my heart, Mr Meldrum," he added more heartily, "that the
+weather may be as accommodating as you seem to fancy; but, as a matter
+of precaution, I will go and see that the boats may be ready, in case we
+have to abandon the ship soon, which I think will be the end of it all.
+They are both patched up now, so as to be pretty serviceable; and
+fortunately, there'll be no difficulty in getting them over the side, as
+the bulwarks have been swept away, and all we'll have to do will be to
+launch them into the water.  I am just going to superintend the stowage
+of the provisions and water casks.  They are piled on the main-deck
+quite handy; and I will see, too, that the oars and sails are not
+forgotten."
+
+"Very good," answered Mr Meldrum.  "But I hope we sha'n't want them
+after all; and, while you are down there, I'll remain here and look
+after the pilotage of the ship--that is, if you'll send some one below
+in my place to see to my daughters and their arrangements.  I have told
+Kate already that she must only take the barest necessaries with her, in
+case we have to embark in the boats, and above all, not to forget warm
+clothing for herself and Florry; so you'd better advise whoever you send
+down, to see that Mrs Major Negus does the same.  Mr Lathrope is smart
+enough to look after himself."
+
+"Aye, aye," said Captain Dinks, as he turned to descend to the main-
+deck, "I think I'll send down Frank Harness.  He's the most of a ladies'
+man on board the ship, and I imagine that he and Miss Kate will get on
+pretty well together, eh, Mr Meldrum?"
+
+But the other made no reply to this remark.  He was too busily engaged
+just then in looking out across the rolling sea astern, and watching a
+haze which appeared to be creeping up over the water to the northward,
+with a dark line of cloud hovering over it, both coming rapidly towards
+the ship.
+
+"Hurrah!" he exclaimed at last in an ecstasy of joy, when his faint hope
+became confirmed into a certainty; "the wind's shifting, and chopping
+round to the north in our favour!"
+
+"You don't say so?" said Captain Dinks equally excited, abandoning the
+provisioning of the boats and skipping up the poop-ladder like a young
+two-year-old; "why, yes, really!  It's the best piece of news I ever
+heard!  Put the helm amidships!" he added to the man at the wheel.
+"We'll have to ease her round and run before it a bit for the last time;
+and if the wind only holds to the northward for a short spell, we'll get
+round the point yet and lay her old bones ashore decently.  Steady,
+Boltrope, steady!"
+
+"Steady it is!" laconically answered the carpenter, whose trick it was
+at the wheel, obeying the captain's directions implicitly.
+
+"Look alive, McCarthy, and square the yards," was the captain's next
+command; "but do it gingerly, my man, do it gingerly!  If we lose the
+jury-masts now it will be all up with us."
+
+"Aye, aye, sorr," was the response of the chief mate, as he aided
+himself in carrying out the order; and the vessel's head coming round
+south by west, under the impulse of the helm and the shifting of the
+sails, she began to exhibit some of her old powers and claw off the
+land, bringing the cape now to bear upon her port bow well to leeward.
+
+In addition to this, it was perceived that she made much better way
+through the water than when she had been steering direct for the shore,
+as, from the breeze being now well abeam, it made her heel over on her
+side, thus elevating her broken bows somewhat and preventing her from
+dipping her head so frequently in the waves.
+
+It was a moment of intense interest and suspense, everybody being on
+deck to witness the struggle the ship was making against the odds
+opposed to her.
+
+If she got round the point, they would be comparatively safe--at least
+they thought so; whereas, if the wind failed, or a brace started, or the
+rudder proved powerless to guide her at a critical period, the vessel
+would be driven against the iron-bound cliff they were approaching in an
+oblique line--against whose base the heavy rollers were now thundering
+with a crashing roar that each instant became louder as they neared the
+point, throwing their spray high up its precipitous face; and then--Why,
+they were lost!
+
+Frank Harness was at this time standing by the side of Kate and Florry
+on the poop; but nearer to the former, who had just asked him to save
+her little sister should the ship strike.
+
+"I will," said he in a whisper close to her ear, "God helping me! and
+you, too; but call me `Frank' again, Miss Meldrum.  You did so once, you
+know, when you caught me that time I was nearly washed overboard, and
+saved me!"
+
+"Do you remember that?" asked Kate.
+
+"I do," said he; "how could I forget it?  Do not fear, I'll save you and
+Florry too!"
+
+"Thank you, `Frank,' then for your promise," whispered she--in accents
+so low that they were almost drowned by the noise of the waves dashing
+against the cliff; but he heard her, and his face lightened up as
+brightly as if he had been redeemed from all peril and saw heaven before
+him.
+
+Onward the ship sped, ever drawing closer to that terrible wall of rock
+and yet gaining at the same time inch by inch on the promontory, that
+jutted out into the sea like an arm stretched forth to stay her
+progress; while, as the anxious moments flew by, the northerly wind
+which had come so opportunely to their rescue gradually rose into a
+gale, threatening to destroy them--the _Nancy Bell_ approaching the
+cliff so closely, as she skirted by, that it seemed to those on board
+that they might have touched it by merely stretching out their hands
+over the side.  The sky, too, was growing darker and darker every
+moment.
+
+They were now quite near the southerly point of the cape, and within
+half a cable's length of its precipitous face: five minutes--three
+minutes--one minute--would settle the question.
+
+"Luff, man, luff!" shouted the captain, as all held their breath with
+excitement.
+
+It was a case of touch and go!
+
+"Hurrah! down with the helm! she's done it!" called out Captain Dinks
+again, as the vessel glided by the last spur of the promontory, and,
+rounding to on the other side, she seemed to get into smoother water--a
+fine beach stretching out in the distance a few miles away and no rocks
+being apparent--"the old ship has conquered, and won the race after
+all."
+
+His triumph, however, was as short-lived as it was premature.
+
+Hardly had the _Nancy Bell_ rounded the cape, than the air grew dense
+around them, and snow began to fall heavily; while a thick fog rising,
+shut out the shore and every object from view.  Then, as Captain Dinks
+and Mr Meldrum were deliberating whether it would be better under the
+circumstances to run the ship straight for the beach--which they had
+calculated to be some five miles in front of them to the south-east or
+the cape they had just passed--or else to continue pumping until the
+weather got lighter and they could see better where they were going, the
+matter was settled for them, in a very unexpected manner, by the ship
+running on to a sunken ridge of rock immediately under her forefoot;
+and, in a moment, there she stuck hard and fast, bumping and scraping
+her bottom, with a harsh, grating sound and a quivering and rending of
+her timbers, as if every plank below the water-line was being torn out
+of her piecemeal.
+
+The _Nancy Bell_ had struck on some barrier reef, which guarded at a
+distance the desolate and inhospitable shore, just at the very moment
+everything was deemed secure and all danger past!  And, as she stranded,
+the thick-falling white snow which had already covered the decks seemed
+to be busy wreathing a shroud for the ill-fated ship, while the surges
+sang her requiem in their dull, heart-breaking roar--the sea-fog hanging
+over the scene of the calamity the while like a sombre pall.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+A FOUL BLOW!
+
+Every one was on deck at the time--the crew, the officers, the
+passengers; but, with the exception of a slight scream from Mrs Major
+Negus, which passed unnoticed, not a single exclamation of terror or
+alarm was uttered.  All seemed completely stupefied by the unexpected
+shock, their consternation being too great for words--they stood as if
+spell-bound!
+
+Captain Dinks was the first to break the silence.
+
+"God forgive me!" he cried out to everybody's surprise.  "It is all my
+fault!"
+
+"Your fault!" repeated Mr Meldrum; "how--why?"
+
+"I should have had a man forward, sounding with the lead, but I quite
+forgot it--quite forgot it; and this has happened."
+
+"Nonsense, man!" said the other to cheer him up--the captain appearing
+to be more concerned at his own neglect, as he regarded it, than he was
+at the actual fact of the ship's striking on the reef--"such a
+precaution would have been utterly useless!  We were probably in deep
+water a minute before; and even if a man had been stationed in the
+chains, he could scarcely have had time to have swung the lead and sang
+out the marks, before she was on the rocks!  It is one of those
+unforeseen calamities that are inevitable and which can never be
+prevented by any human foresight.  I for one, and I've no doubt every
+one else here agrees with me, entirely exonerate you from all blame."
+
+The captain was endeavouring to make some broken reply, as far as his
+deep emotion would allow, when Mrs Major Negus interrupted him.
+
+"Speak for yourself, please, Mr Meldrum," she exclaimed, elbowing
+herself forwards in front of the group, her shrill high-pitched voice
+sounding almost like another scream, as she waved her arms wildly about
+and addressed Mr Meldrum and Captain Dinks alternately.  "Speak for
+yourself, please, for I don't agree with you at all!  I say it is the
+captain's fault; and he knows it, though it's rather late in the day for
+him to acknowledge it!  And I'd like to know, sir, how I and my darling
+boy are going to get on shore now in this blinding snowstorm--in such a
+bleak and dreary outlandish place, too!  A nice captain you are; and you
+bargained to take us safe to New Zealand when you took our passage-
+money.  My poor Maurice, oh my dear boy, you'll never, never see your
+father now, for we'll all be drowned, and Captain Dinks is the cause of
+it!"
+
+So shrieking, she proceeded to weep and wail in a way that made Mr
+Meldrum lose all patience with her.
+
+"Peace, woman!" cried he indignantly.  "This is no time for hysterics
+and such violent displays: you'd better keep them till the fine weather
+comes, and remain quiet now!  The best thing you can do if you hope to
+escape, is to allow the captain to see about getting the boats ready to
+take us off, for the ship will probably break up soon."
+
+His latter remark, while it reduced "the Major" to a state of limp
+collapse that made her silent and subdued, had the effect he intended,
+of rousing the captain to action--thus causing him to forget for a time
+his grief at the _Nancy Bell's_ disaster in having to exert himself so
+as to provide for the safety of those on board.
+
+"Main-deck ahoy there!" he shouted.
+
+"Aye, aye, sorr," answered the first mate, who had remained there,
+looking to the trimming of the sails while the ship was working up to
+the cape.
+
+"Have the men finished storing those things in the boats yet?"
+
+"They're jist at it now, sorr.  We were all a bit flabbergasted when the
+poor crathur struck; but we're working hard now, sorr, and the boats
+will soon be ready to launch into the wather."
+
+"That's right, McCarthy, we've no time to lose.  Send one of the hands
+forwards to see how her head lies."
+
+"Aye, aye, sorr.  Mr Adams has gone already sure: an' I've sint the
+carpenter, Boltrope, to sound the well."
+
+"He'd better by far sound alongside, to see what depth of water we're in
+and which would be the best side for launching the boats off!" replied
+Captain Dinks.  "But stay, Harness," he added, "you can do that.  Heave
+the lead aft here, and then amidships, telling me what soundings you
+get."
+
+On returning from his mission forwards, Mr Adams reported that the
+vessel's bows were fixed hard and fast between two conical points of
+rock, which were covered by about four fathoms of water; while Frank
+Harness, who had been sounding round the ship as the captain directed,
+stated that there were twenty fathoms of water aft and the same on the
+port side amidships, but on the starboard, or right-hand side, the lead
+only gave the same depth the second mate had found forward--
+consequently, the ship's stern, being so much lighter than the flooded
+fore-compartment, had slewed round with the sea towards the reef, on
+which therefore the _Nancy Bell_ must have projected herself more than
+half her length.  Probably, had her bows not been so depressed, she
+would have gone over it altogether with a scrape, merely taking off her
+false keel and dead-wood without doing any material damage.
+
+As it was, however, there she was; and the question now was whether the
+tide was at the ebb or flow at the time she struck.  If the former, the
+likelihood was that as soon as the tide began to rise, the vessel would
+float off and founder, Boltrope having reported that there were eight
+feet of water in the hold and that it was gaining fast--the pumping
+operations, of course, having long since been stopped, but, should she
+have run on the reef at high water, there she was immovably fixed as
+long as she held together; and in that case they would be able to get
+ashore to the mainland in comfort, almost at their own convenience,
+should the weather remain calm, in addition to saving many articles from
+the wreck that would be of use to them, and a much larger proportion of
+the ship's provisions and stores.
+
+After the first bumping and scraping that had immediately succeeded her
+stranding, the _Nancy Bell_ had remained quiet, as if the old ship was
+glad to be at rest after all the buffeting about and bruisings she had
+received from the boisterous billows.  Hence, the natural alarm that had
+been excited by the ship's striking had calmed down, there being nothing
+in her present situation to heighten the sense of danger; for the vessel
+was sheltered from the wind under the lee of the cape, and the sea, in
+comparison with the rough water she had recently passed through and the
+stormy waves she had battled with when beating round the point, was
+almost calm.  Everybody, therefore, inspired by the example set them by
+Mr Meldrum and the captain, remained perfectly cool and collected, the
+crew obeying the orders given them with alacrity and working as heartily
+as if the poor old _Nancy Bell_ were still the staunch clipper of yore,
+careering over the ocean in the full panoply of her canvas plumage and
+prosecuting her voyage, instead of lying, a broke and battered hulk,
+hard and fast ashore on an outlying reef of rocks at Kerguelen Land, the
+"Desolation Island"--name of ominous import--of Antarctic whaling ships!
+
+Even Bill Moody, mutinous as he had shown himself before and lazy to a
+degree, now appeared metaphorically to "put his shoulder to the wheel,"
+as if to make amends for the past, lending a willing hand to the
+preparations that were being made by Mr McCarthy for equipping the
+boats and laying down ways for launching them from the main-deck--there
+being no davits now, nor any means for rigging a derrick to lift them
+over the side.  Indeed, when Mr Adams ordered a gang to man the pumps
+again on the carpenter's reporting that the water was gaining in the
+hold, the whilom mutineer was one of the first to step forwards for the
+duty, although Captain Dinks at once countermanded the order, seeing its
+inutility, and saying that there was no use in working a willing horse
+to death!
+
+"They could never clear her now, Adams," said he, "pump as hard as they
+could; and if they did it would be useless, for she'll never float
+again.  However, if you want to give the men something to do, you can
+set to work breaking cargo and lightening her amidships, for then we'll
+swing further up on the reef and get fixed more firmly."
+
+"Very good, sir," replied the second mate; and the hands were therefore
+at once started to open the hatches, getting out some of the heavy goods
+from the hold below, especially the dead-weight from just abaft the
+main-mast, that had so deducted from the ship's buoyancy when sailing on
+a wind during the earlier part of her voyage.
+
+Moody's change of demeanour had not escaped the notice of the captain;
+and he commented on it to Mr Meldrum, saying that he thought the lesson
+he had given him had had a very satisfactory result.  "There is
+nothing," said he, "so persuasive as a knock-down argument!"
+
+The other, however, did not believe in the rapid conversion.
+
+"I've heard of shamming Abraham before," said he.  "The rascal may have
+something to gain, and wishes to put you off your guard by his apparent
+alacrity and willingness to work.  If you had seen the scowl he gave you
+when your back was turned that time after you knocked him down, you
+wouldn't trust him further than you could help!  I believe all this good
+behaviour of his is put on, and that you'll see the real animal come out
+by and by."
+
+"All right!" said Captain Dinks as cheerfully as if the matter were of
+no moment to him; "we'll see!  But we must first observe the tide and
+the ship's position on the rocks; I think we'll be able to decide those
+points before the other matter can be settled, by a long way!"
+
+When the _Nancy Bell_ struck, it had been close upon six bells in the
+second dog-watch--seven o'clock in the evening--the entire afternoon
+having passed away so rapidly while those on board were anxiously
+watching the struggle of the vessel against the wind and sea in her
+endeavours to weather the cape, that, in their intense excitement as
+they awaited the denouement which would solve all their hopes and fears,
+they took no heed of the flight of time.  It seemed really but a few
+brief minutes, instead of hours, from the period when Captain Dinks had
+taken the sun at noon to the terrible moment of the catastrophe.
+
+Now, it was midnight, or approaching to it, the intervening period
+having glided by much more speedily through the fact of everybody having
+been engaged in doing something towards the common safety of all.  Not
+even the lady passengers had been exempted from the task, Mr Meldrum
+having told Kate to go below and collect whatever she saw in the cabins
+that might be of use to them on the island; while Mrs Negus, dropping
+her dignity for once, cordially assisted.  As for Florry and Maurice
+they participated in the work with the greatest glee, looking upon the
+wreck as if it had been specially brought about for their enjoyment,
+like an impromptu picnic--it was the realisation of their wildest
+childish dreams.
+
+All this while the ship lay quiet, as has been stated, save that after a
+time she took a slight list to starboard, as if settling down on the
+rocks, a fact which confirmed the captain in his belief that it had been
+high water when she went on the reef.  This increased his satisfaction.
+
+"She won't move now," said he to Mr Meldrum.  "She's wedged as securely
+forwards as if she were on her cradle; and, unless a storm comes, she'll
+last for a week."
+
+"How about when the tide flows again?" asked the other.
+
+"Oh, she can't float off.  That weight of water in the fore compartment
+has regularly nailed her on the rocks, thus preventing the only danger I
+feared--that of her slipping off into deep water as the tide ebbed.  As
+she struck when it was flood and jammed herself firmly then on the reef,
+there she'll remain when it flows again; so, we have plenty of time
+before us to transport the whole cargo ashore if we like!"
+
+"I hope so, I'm sure," replied Mr Meldrum; "but you should recollect
+that, from the experience we've already had, the weather is not to be
+trusted for very long hereabouts.  If it comes on to blow again from the
+south and the sea should get up, we'll be in a nasty position."
+
+"Don't croak," said Captain Dinks, who seemed to have quite recovered
+his spirits as the others around him became despondent.  "Look, the
+snowstorm has ceased already and the sea-fog is rising and drifting
+away.  Why, we'll have a fine bright night after all!"
+
+It was as the captain had stated.  The fog had lifted up and the snow
+stopped falling; but, his hopes of a fine night were doomed to be
+disappointed, for, although the sky above cleared for a short spell and
+allowed a few stray stars to peep out, while an occasional gleam of
+moonshine lit up the ship's surroundings, the heavens were soon obscured
+again with thick driving clouds, the wind shifting to the southward and
+westward and blowing right into the bay behind Cape Saint Louis, where
+the _Nancy Bell_ was aground.
+
+Presently, a heavy rolling sea began to sweep in upon her from the
+offing; and as the tide rose again, her stern swung more to the
+starboard side, being driven up higher on the rocks, while her whole
+frame became uneasy, rocking to and fro and quivering from abaft the
+main hatch, the fore part of her grinding and working about in a way
+that threatened to tear her soon to pieces.
+
+"I'm afraid she won't last till morning," said Mr Meldrum, who had
+never left the deck, but was watching the course of events.  "We'd
+better take to the boats while we can.  By and by it may be too late!"
+
+"Oh no," replied Captain Dinks, "she'll hold out all right, and it's
+best for us to land by daylight.  Besides, I've allowed the hands to
+turn in, save two or three who are keeping a sort of anchor watch, and
+I'm not going to rouse them out again unnecessarily--poor fellows,
+they've had a hard time of it the last few days!"
+
+"Not many of them have taken advantage of your permission," said Mr
+Meldrum drily.  "I fancy they feel like myself, too uneasy to sleep,
+with this fresh gale springing up again and the ship rocking about so!"
+As he spoke, he pointed to a group amidships, where at least half the
+crew were gathered about the boats, while some others were standing by
+Snowdrop's galley and having a warm, for the night was intensely cold.
+
+"They can please themselves," replied the captain sententiously.  "If
+they don't choose to turn in, they needn't; but I'm not going to launch
+the boats yet and leave the ship while it is safe.  I'm considering what
+is best for us all, Mr Meldrum; and, excuse me, but as long as the
+vessel holds together I'm captain of her, and don't intend to give over
+my duty to anybody else."
+
+This was speaking pretty plainly, so Mr Meldrum had perforce to remain
+silent and nurse his uneasiness; the two pacing up and down the poop on
+opposite sides, without ever a word passing between them for some time,
+just as if each ignored the other's presence.
+
+At two o'clock in the morning, however, the wind increased and the heavy
+waves began to break against the windward side of the ship, dashing over
+her amidships in columns of spray.  She also lurched more to starboard,
+as if thrown on her bilge, the deck inclining to an angle of forty-five
+degrees.
+
+At the same time, too, the group of men forward could be dimly seen in
+the half light moving about excitedly.  They were evidently tired of
+their forced inaction; for, their voices could be heard occasionally
+between the lulls of the breaking waves and sound of the wind whistling
+by.  They were grumbling in tones of dissatisfaction.
+
+The climax was put to the matter by the sudden rushing up on deck of Mr
+McCarthy, whom Captain Dinks had told to go below until the morning
+watch.
+
+"Be jabers, cap'en," he exclaimed, "she's druv in her starboard streeks
+against the rocks, and the wather is pouring in like winking.  Faix, it
+is breaking up she'll be before were out of her, sure!"
+
+Thus urged, the captain at length gave the order to launch the boats.
+This was, now, a very difficult task, for the water was boiling in
+eddies round the ship to leeward even on her sheltered side, although a
+couple of hours before it had been as calm there as a mill-pond, so that
+a Thames outrigger might have been floated off in safety.
+
+As soon as the men heard the tardy word of command, there was a tussle
+and a rush towards the long-boat, seeing which Captain Dinks, who was
+standing just over the break of the poop, ran down the ladder-way and
+stood amongst the excited group, with his arm uplifted to enforce his
+orders.
+
+"Avast there!" cried he; "get away from that long-boat, and prepare to
+run in the jolly-boat.  I want that launched first for the ladies and
+passengers, and I must see them all safely out of the ship before a man
+Jack amongst you leaves her!  Go down, McCarthy," he added to the first
+mate, "and ask the ladies to come on deck, sharp; we'll have the boat
+prepared by the time you come up with them."
+
+The crew still hustled round the long-boat, however, and showed signs of
+insubordination, whilst a voice called out, "Let the passengers be!  I
+say every man for himself now!"
+
+"What is that I hear?" exclaimed the captain.  "Are you men--are you
+British seamen--to abandon women and children in time of peril and seek
+your own safety?"
+
+"My life's as good as anyone else's, passenger or no passenger," cried
+out Bill Moody defiantly, pressing closer to Captain Dinks.
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated the latter, "I thought it was you--what! you haven't
+learnt your lesson yet, eh?" and he made a grab at the man's neck as if
+to grasp it.
+
+But, Bill Moody was prepared this time.  The captain did not catch him
+unawares, as he had done on the previous occasion when he had knocked
+him down with the butt-end of his pistol.
+
+Raising a sheath-knife, which he must have had ready drawn for the
+purpose in his hand, the man plunged it with all his force into the
+breast of the captain as he approached him.
+
+Captain Dinks was borne back and half turned round by the strength with
+which the blow was delivered.  Then, staggering first on to his knees,
+and exclaiming, "Murder!  I'm a dead man!  The villain has stabbed me!"
+he fell forwards on the deck in a pool of blood.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+DESERTED!
+
+There was a cry of consternation from the men on seeing the captain
+fall, for, although the majority of them evidently supported Moody in
+the rush for the boats, none had dreamt of going to the lengths he did;
+still, not a man stepped forward to seize the assassin, who, coolly
+throwing overboard the bloody blade with which the foul blow had been
+dealt, proceeded to carry out his original intention of casting loose
+the lashings of the long-boat and launching it over the side, several
+assisting him as he began the task.
+
+However, Mr Meldrum had seen what had happened from the poop, not
+having followed Captain Dinks too closely, for fear of being again
+accused of interfering with the duties of the ship.
+
+Now, single-handed as he was, he at once dropped on to the lower deck,
+rushing to where Moody was standing, but the other men got in between
+and hustled him away; so, seeing that he could do nothing towards
+arresting the miscreant for the present, he bent over the poor captain
+and lifted him on his knee to see whether life was quite extinct.
+Happily he still lived! moaning faintly as Mr Meldrum raised him in his
+arms; consequently, as it was too dark--for it was just under the break
+of the poop where the wounded man was lying--for him to see what was the
+extent of the injury he had received, Mr Meldrum called out loudly for
+assistance, that he might be able to carry him below to the saloon and
+bind up the wound properly.  It was vitally necessary to staunch the
+blood speedily, as it was flowing copiously and had already saturated
+the coat-sleeve of Mr Meldrum's supporting arm.
+
+"What are you calling out for?" shouted out the miscreant Moody in
+derision.  "None of them will hear you through the bulkhead.  Let the
+cursed brute bleed to death and be hanged to him!  I'm sorry I didn't
+settle him, right out, as I intended!"
+
+Somebody did hear, however; for at that moment, Frank Harness--who had
+been told to go below along with McCarthy and Adams at midnight by the
+unfortunate captain, who said he would take the sole duty of the ship on
+himself until the morning watch was called--rushed up the companion way
+on to the poop.
+
+"Did you call, Captain Dinks--Mr Meldrum!" he cried, looking about and
+seeing nobody there.  "I thought I heard someone call out for help!"
+
+"I'm here below on the main-deck," shouted Mr Meldrum.  "Call for
+assistance and come and help me at once.  Poor Captain Dinks has been
+stabbed by one of the crew, and I fear he's dying!"
+
+"Good heavens!" exclaimed Frank in startled surprise, staggered for the
+moment; but he did not stop long to think or act.
+
+"Mr McCarthy!--Mr Lathrope!" he called loudly down the companion.
+"Come up here at once and leave the ladies for the present.  Something
+dreadful has happened!"
+
+Then, without uttering another word, he jumped down alongside of Mr
+Meldrum on the lower deck; where, catching up a marlinspike that was
+handy, he rapped vehemently against the coamings of the hatchway, some
+of the hands having gone to bunk down there since the cargo had been
+partly removed, on account of the forecastle being quite untenable from
+the water that had accumulated there, besides which the waves were now
+washing over it freely.
+
+"All hands ahoy!" sang out Frank.  "Tumble up, men!  Tumble up just as
+you are!  There's murder afloat!"
+
+"Stow that yelling!" cried the group around Moody, who did not wish to
+be interrupted yet awhile with their plans; but Frank took no notice of
+their observations, save that a contemptuous smile passed over his face
+as he compressed his lips.
+
+"Who did it?" asked he of Mr Meldrum, looking down at the latter as he
+bent over the poor captain, supporting his head and shoulders still on
+his knee so that he might breathe more freely.
+
+"That man there," was the answer, Mr Meldrum pointing to where Moody
+was standing in the centre of some ten others of the same kidney.  "The
+same man whom Captain Dinks knocked down the other day for
+insubordination, and whom I saw threaten him afterwards, as I can swear.
+If the captain dies, he will be tried for wilful murder, and hung, for
+it was no accidental blow, but a deliberately premeditated deed!"
+
+"Oh, Bill Moody?  I thought it was that scoundrel!" exclaimed Frank; and
+in a moment he had leaped fearlessly amidst the throng--with the
+marlinspike fortunately still in his hand, for he was otherwise
+weaponless.
+
+"Stand back!" shouted one of the men warningly, pushing him away--not in
+any rough fashion, but as if to keep him out of harm's way.  "We don't
+wish to do you any hurt, Mr Harness, but I'd advise you to leave Moody
+alone!  He's desperate now and might cause you an injury; besides which,
+he's one of us, and we don't intend to give him up!"
+
+"Don't you?" exclaimed Frank, flaming up and struggling with the man who
+held him back; while the would-be murderer, drawing another knife from
+his belt, stood apparently at bay waiting for him to come on.
+
+"Hillo! what's all this yere muss about?" called out Mr Lathrope,
+appearing on the poop at this juncture; "whar's everybody!"
+
+"Here, help!" said Frank.  "The crew have mutinied and the captain has
+been stabbed.  I'm trying to get hold of the murderer; but they're too
+many for me.  Help, Mr Lathrope, help!"
+
+"You will have it then, you young devil!" screamed out Moody savagely,
+making a plunge at Frank with the formidable knife that he had now
+drawn, which had a much longer blade than that with which he had
+stricken down the captain.  "I'll soon stop your cursed yelling, my
+joker, and give you something better to cry for!"
+
+"I guess not, sez Con," drawled out the American, the crack of his six-
+shooter echoing through the air at the same time that the knife fell to
+the deck from the miscreant's hand, which had been neatly perforated by
+a bullet.  The instant he raised it above his head to strike Frank, Mr
+Lathrope catching sight of it, had "drawn a bead on it," as he would
+have expressed it, without delay.  "No, sirree, I guess not, as long as
+old Zach hain't forgot to handle the shootin'-irons!" he continued.  "I
+fancy, mister, I've spiled your murdering little game; an' now we'll go
+in for a rough and tumble, I opine!"
+
+So saying, the American, not shooting again for fear of wounding Frank,
+was down on the main-deck in a jiffey and by the side of the brave young
+sailor who was tackling the mutineers so gallantly--Mr Meldrum also
+joining in the struggle, first laying down the now nearly lifeless body
+of the captain again on the deck, however, and drawing off his coat to
+place it under his head so as to raise it up.  The trio were shortly
+afterwards reinforced by the arrival of Mr McCarthy, panting and out of
+breath, with the side of his monkey-jacket half torn off by Major Negus,
+who had caught hold of it in trying to prevent his rushing up the
+companion ladder on hearing Frank's cry for help, the good lady
+imploring him not to leave her to be murdered!
+
+The first mate's brawny fists, hitting out right and left, did yeoman's
+service in the melee that ensued, and so did Mr Lathrope, while Frank
+and Mr Meldrum also fought well; but the four were powerless against
+Moody's gang, who numbered a round dozen and had, by battening down the
+main-hatch, prevented the loyal portion of the crew from coming to their
+assistance--when, of course, the tables would have been turned.
+
+Fortunately, there was no knife used in the fray, beyond the one which
+Moody had so unceremoniously dropped, and thus further bloodshed was
+prevented; but some hard knocks were given and received, and the party
+from the poop did not come off scathless, Mr Lathrope having his rather
+long nose somewhat flattened and almost turned to one side by a blow
+from the sledge-hammer fist of one of the mutineers.  Mr Meldrum had
+also been considerably mauled about, and Frank had a splendid black eye.
+As for the first mate, who had gone into the very thick of it, he
+"hadn't a sound bone in the howl of his body from the crown of his head
+to the sole of his fut"--that is, according to his version of it!
+
+The struggle did not last very long, the opposing forces being so
+unequally matched; so, as soon as Frank and his coadjutors had been
+borne down by the sheer weight of numbers, their conquerors hustled them
+into the corner of the deck under the break of the poop, where the
+captain was still lying, throwing them down beside him and telling them
+they had better keep quiet now they had had the worst of it, that is if
+they valued their lives.  It was no empty threat, either; for, the
+mutineers emphasised the order by leaving two of their number on guard
+over them, with belaying pins in their hands, with which they were told
+to "knock them on the head" should they stir or call out--a command
+which they looked quite capable of executing.
+
+The gang then proceeded to drag the long-boat to the opening in the
+broken bulwarks on the starboard side of the ship and launch her into
+the water, for it was a little smoother there on account of being
+inclosed like a sort of lagoon between the vessel and the reef.  It was
+a ticklish job, for an occasional roller swelled into the boat from
+round the stern of the ship; while as the waves that broke over the
+forecastle and weather quarter of the _Nancy Bell_ washed through the
+vessel, they poured like a cascade from the inclined deck, threatened to
+swamp the little raft as she lay tossing uneasily alongside until the
+mutineers could complete their arrangements for embarkation.
+
+There was not much to do, for, thanks to Captain Dinks' precautions,
+provisions and small water casks, or barricoes, had already been stowed
+in the bows and along the sternsheets of the long-boat; so, after
+chucking in one or two articles which they had brought up from below
+beforehand on the sly, amongst which was a good-sized barrel of rum,
+they proceeded to drop down into the boat one by one, Moody going first
+and the others following until the whole number, a round dozen in all,
+had got in--the two who had remained as sentries over the poop party
+being the last.
+
+Then the little craft, which appeared loaded down to the gunwales, was
+shoved off with a cheer of bravado from the side of the ship, and was
+soon lost to the sight of those left behind.  The latter, however,
+eagerly looked after the boat as it was rapidly borne towards the shore
+between the heavy rolling waves that raced after it, until it finally
+disappeared in the night gloom.
+
+"Sure an' it's a good riddance they are!" exclaimed Mr McCarthy, rising
+to his feet and shaking out his legs to see how far they were capable of
+movement after the mauling he had received.  "May joy go wid them!"
+
+"I hope the hull durned crowd will git swallowed up in Davy Jones'
+Locker afore they git ashore, I dew!" said the American fervently,
+stroking his nose tenderly and speaking more nasally than ever through
+the injury the organ had received.  "Of all the tarnation mean skunks I
+ever kim across from Maine to California, I guess they're 'bout the
+right down slick meanest--not nary a heathen Chinese would ha' done what
+they hev!  I'd tar and feather them, I would sure, if I hed the chance,
+right away!"
+
+"Never mind them," interposed Mr Meldrum, whose first care after the
+mutineers had released him and gone over the side, was to raise up poor
+Captain Dinks' head again and feel his pulse.  "I have no doubt they
+will meet with their proper deserts!  Let us see to the captain now.  I
+think he had better be moved into the cabin, for this night air is doing
+him no good; and, besides, we'll there be able to see to his wound
+better.  However I shall want some assistance."
+
+"I'll hilp you in a minit, sorr," ejaculated Mr McCarthy, who, as soon
+as he had satisfied himself that his limbs were pretty sound, had
+devoted his energies to opening the hatchway--"that is as soon as I've
+unkivered this limbo and let the other hands come up.  Faix, an' if them
+divils had not battened it down and Boltrope and the Norwegee could a
+got at thim, it's too many for tbim we'd ha' been, I'm thinking!"
+
+"I didn't see what they were after," said Frank, "or I would have
+slipped the cover before they secured it; but I wonder where Mr Adams
+is all this time?  Surely he must have heard the row!  He ought to have
+come to our aid."
+
+"By the powers," exclaimed the first mate, "I niver thought of him till
+this blessid minnit!  Where, in the name of Moses, can he be?  I believe
+he wint down and turned into his cot when I did."
+
+"He ain't jined them copperheads and left us in the lurch, hey?"
+inquired the American.  "I didn't kinder think it on him, though he wer
+sorter quiet and sly-like."
+
+"No, sorr," replied Mr McCarthy, "Adams is a first-rate seaman and a
+good officer too!  He would be the last man to join a mutiny.  Something
+must have happened to him, I'm thinking."
+
+"I wonder, too," said Mr Meldrum, "that my daughter Kate has not come
+up before from the saloon!  She must have known that something unusual
+was taking place on deck from our calls for help and the report of your
+pistol, Mr Lathrope?"
+
+"I'm durned if I know!  I'm all in a tangle, I guess," answered the
+American; "but I'll go down and see, mister."
+
+All this while, Mr McCarthy had been fumbling at the fastenings of the
+hatchway, where the remainder of the crew were supposed to be
+imprisoned; but when he and Frank Harness, who lent his assistance, had
+at last got off the cover by a violent effort, not a soul appeared,
+rushing up as they expected, nor was there any response to their
+summons--"All hands on deck!"
+
+What could have become of them all?
+
+The mysterious silence below was a proof that something unforeseen had
+happened!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+NOTICE TO QUIT!
+
+The mystery, however, was soon solved.
+
+Hardly had the strange disappearance of the crew from below been
+discovered, than the whole of the missing men, with Mr Adams at their
+head and Kate Meldrum bringing up the rear, rushed up the companion-
+ladder on to the poop with a loud "hurrah," as if with the intention of
+taking part in the contest with the band of mutineers:-- their
+mortification may be imagined when they found that, as the first mate
+expressed it in his happy Irish way, "they were jist in toime to be too
+late, sure!"
+
+But, had the mutineers not so rapidly abandoned the ship, the arrival of
+his rescue party on the scene of action would no doubt have tended to
+considerably alter the complexion of events; and the credit of
+organising the force and bringing the men from such an unexpected
+quarter with so great a dramatic effect had to be shared equally between
+Miss Kate Meldrum and Snowball, the cook--Mr Adams being only admitted
+as a partner in the scheme at the last moment.
+
+It seems that Snowball, while in the galley about midnight, had heard
+Moody talking to two or three of his especial "pals" in the port-watch;
+and, thinking from his knowledge of the man that he was up to some
+mischief, the darkey had listened--thereby indulging a propensity which
+was Master Snowball's weak point, that of being inordinately curious
+about other people's business!
+
+He listened, however, to some purpose on this occasion, for he heard
+enough to learn that a large proportion of the crew intended, as soon as
+they saw a favourable opportunity, to seize the long-boat--which
+contained nearly all the provisions that had been got up from the hold--
+and desert the ship before morning.
+
+What was their intention in doing this the cook could not guess, but he
+imagined that they must have thought that they would perhaps have to
+work to save the cargo if they remained on board, whereas if they went
+off, as they planned, they would escape all supervision from the
+officers and be under their own control.  Besides, he knew that Moody
+was anxious to pay off the grudge he had against the captain, for he
+heard him specially chuckle over the fact that if they took away the
+long-boat, the "old man" would never be able to leave the ship with all
+the remaining hands and the passengers, and the rest of them would all
+thus "sink together, and a good job too," as the bloodthirsty ruffian
+said.
+
+Primed with this news, Snowball at first hardly knew how to make use of
+it for the benefit of those the mutineers intended to abandon; for, the
+men were all hanging about the galley, where he pretended to be asleep,
+and if he attempted to go aft then, where nothing was stirring and when
+no one called him there, it would have at once aroused their suspicions
+and, probably, precipitated matters.
+
+Snowball was in a quandary.  He could see no way of warning the
+unsuspecting captain; and yet, even while he waited, the cowardly gang
+who thus purposed to desert their shipmates might carry out their
+intention!
+
+Presently, he heard Captain Dinks tell the mates and starboard watch
+that they might go below, and Mr McCarthy and the others went to their
+cabins aft while the "star-bowlines" tumbled down the main hatchway, all
+glad to have a spell of rest and be out of the bitter cold night wind
+which almost seemed to freeze their bones and pierce them through and
+through.
+
+"Its just like the grinding old tyrant," he heard Moody mutter at this
+to another of his gang, "to keep us here on deck when there ain't no
+need for it!"  But Snowball was quick to notice that, when the captain
+subsequently called out that all the rest of the hands might turn in if
+they liked, save two or three to keep an anchor-watch, not one of them,
+in spite of all their grumbling at the hardship of having to stop on
+deck previously, now stirred to go below.  He also saw Moody and some of
+the others, when the captain was not looking at them, stealthily shift
+round the bows of the long-boat on to the top of the hatchway, in
+addition to battening it down on the quiet, so that those who had gone
+below could not easily get up again, and they would thus have things all
+in their own hands.
+
+Moody's gang evidently intended to carry out their nefarious plan; but
+how was he to prevent it?
+
+At last, while the mutineers were watching for their opportunity, he saw
+his; and at once took advantage of it.
+
+During the excitement that ensued when Mr McCarthy rushed on deck,
+declaring that the vessel had bilged in to starboard--at which time
+Captain Dinks at length gave his tardy order to launch the boats--
+Snowball crept out of the galley; and making his way aft, entered the
+saloon.
+
+He was so frightened and confused, and full of what he had heard, that
+he did not know what to do at first, and this had prevented his speaking
+to the captain as he should have done; while, when he grew collected
+again, there was Frank Harness shouting down the companion and Mr
+McCarthy and the American passenger bolting up on to the poop, and no
+one to speak to, that he could see, who could do any good.  He called
+out for the steward, but he had disappeared; and the darkey feared that
+his plan for defeating the schemes of the mutineers would turn out
+fruitless from his failing to find any one to help him in undertaking
+it, when all at once he saw Kate Meldrum, for whom he had a profound
+respect on account of her plucky behaviour during the storm and her
+kindness to him when he was discovered as a stowaway and so injured in
+the hold.
+
+"Lor, missy," exclaimed he, "help me sabe ship and capting, and all; or
+dey all go way and leab us drown on board!"
+
+"Why, what do you mean?" said Kate, who was pale and excited, for she
+could not help hearing Frank's call for assistance; and was just about
+proceeding to ascend the companion ladder to see for herself what was
+going on and if she could be of any aid, when Snowball thus ran against
+her.  "What is the matter on deck; and why do you come here?"
+
+"Dat debbel Bill Moody, an' all him gang in port watch, say dey is goin'
+murder capting and go way in long-boat, and leab us drown on board!"
+
+"But won't the other men prevent them?" asked Kate anxiously.
+
+"Dey can't, missy!  Dey is down in main-hold; an' Moody shut um under
+hatchway so dat dey can't get up."
+
+Just then the report of Mr Lathrope's revolver sounded above, and Kate
+almost screamed; but she controlled herself by a strong effort.
+
+"And what can you or I do to help the captain and the others?" she said
+as calmly as she could, longing all the while to go above, although her
+presence there would be useless.
+
+"Dat jus why I come here," replied Snowball eagerly.  "We can get down
+steerage, whar I'se stow away dat time--I knows de place well--clear way
+traps in de way, and knock down bulkhead; starboard watch come troo de
+openin' and up on poop; den Moody's gang knock all of a heap, catch it
+hot, missy!  But, really, poah Snowball not able do it all alone down
+dere!"
+
+Such were the darkey's spasmodic utterances, as they came out in gasps,
+amidst the sound of the struggle going on on the main-deck and the
+hoarse cries of those engaged, which could be plainly heard in the
+cuddy.  Kate at once comprehended the situation.
+
+"I see," said she, as eagerly now as Snowball.  "There's Mr Adams in
+his cabin asleep.  He was so worn out, I suppose, that he couldn't hear
+Frank--I mean," she corrected herself blushing unconsciously--"Mr
+Harness call!  Rouse him up at once, and I'll get a light for you to go
+below."
+
+The darkey did as she told him, although he found it a difficult task to
+awaken the second mate, who was so fast asleep that he had to be pulled
+out of his cot before he opened his eyes.
+
+He was already dressed, however, and would have rushed up on deck the
+moment Kate told him what had occurred had she not laid her hand on his
+arm and prevented him, pointing out how much better Snowball's plan
+would result in bringing material assistance to the little party who
+were still struggling with the mutineers, and fighting desperately, as
+they could hear.
+
+"Do be quick and go down at once," she pleaded.  "A moment's delay may
+sacrifice a valuable life; and then, it will be all your fault!"
+
+So urged, Mr Adams consented against his will almost; and, following
+Snowball down into the after hold with the lantern Kate had procured
+from the steward's pantry, which she found tenantless, Llewellyn having
+mysteriously vanished out of the saloon, the two proceeded as rapidly as
+they could to work their way through the packing-cases and casks that
+were stowed right under the cuddy floor, towards the bulkhead that
+divided this portion of the ship from the main hold.
+
+Arrived here, Snowball soon recognised the advantage of having Mr Adams
+along with him; for, in addition to the fact that the second mate, as is
+usual in merchant vessels, knew where each and every article of the
+cargo was stowed, he also was acquainted with the circumstance of there
+being a sliding door in the bulkhead, which the darkey was unaware of
+and had thought they would have to break it down, which would have been
+a rather long job.
+
+Consequently, in far less time than either he or Kate had imagined, the
+imprisoned crew, who had been long aroused by the trampling on deck and
+the noise of the struggle immediately over their heads, and had been
+knocking madly at the hatchway cover and trying vainly to lift it up,
+were released.  Eager for the fray, from which they had so long been
+debarred from taking part, they rushed up through the cuddy and up the
+companion to the poop, prepared to take summary vengeance on those who
+had incarcerated them but with what result has been already described.
+
+While Kate was giving this explanation to her father of the course of
+events below and how the affair was planned--Frank Harness listening to
+her the while with glistening eyes, and squeezing her hand furtively as
+he pressed to her side--it was amusing to watch the demeanour of the
+darkey cook.
+
+His mouth was spread open from ear to ear in one huge grin at the
+recital of his well-planned scheme for the defeat of the mutineers'
+machinations and release of the imprisoned crew.  His chest expanded,
+too, with pride at the praise bestowed on him for his pluck and
+perspicacity; and when, finally, Ben Boltrope, who, of course, with Karl
+Ericksen, had remained loyal and been locked down below with the rest of
+the starboard watch, proposed "three cheers for Snowball," the cook
+could contain himself no longer, but burst into a loud guffaw, thus
+taking a prominent part in the demonstration in his own honour.
+
+In the meantime nobody had been idle.
+
+Poor Captain Dinks had been carefully lifted into the saloon, where, on
+removing his clothes, it was discovered that Moody's stab, although
+inflicting a dangerous cut across the chest, had touched no vital part,
+the sufferer's exhaustion proceeding more from loss of blood than from
+any imminent risk.  He was therefore placed in his own cot and the wound
+strapped up, after which he sank into a feverish sleep, with Kate
+watching by his side.
+
+Mr Meldrum, who had been urgently asked by Mr McCarthy and Adams to
+take command of the ship while the captain was incapacitated, a request
+that the crew heartily endorsed and which Captain Dinks himself
+confirmed as soon as he recovered consciousness proceeded in the interim
+to devise the best means he could for saving all on board; and, in the
+first place, he ordered the men to renew the lashings of the jolly-boat.
+This was their sole remaining means of escape, and was now in danger of
+being washed overboard by the heavy seas that were breaking over the
+ship in cataracts of foam.
+
+Immediately the mutineers had got away in the long-boat it had come on
+to blow harder; and, shortly after they were out of sight in the haze
+that hung over the land, a tremendous squall had swept over the water in
+the direction they were last seen, the billows mounting so high as they
+raced by the stranded vessel that it was very problematical whether the
+boat would ever reach the shore.  Mr Meldrum could not help observing
+that those left on board had much greater chance of saving their lives,
+in spite of the waves breaking over the ship, which trembled through her
+frame with the repeated shocks she was subjected to as she was jolted on
+the rocks as if coming to pieces every minute.
+
+"The poor captain was right after all," said he to Mr McCarthy.  "Those
+scamps in the long-boat had better have waited till morning, as he said.
+I don't think they'll ever get to land."
+
+"Nor I, sorr," replied the first mate; "but it sarves them right, bad
+cess to 'em!"
+
+"Well," said the other, "if they have gone down, they've gone with all
+their sins on their heads, for they certainly believed that they left us
+to perish, and did so purposely, too!"
+
+"Jist so, the murtherin' villins!" ejaculated Mr McCarthy.
+
+Mr Lathrope at that moment came up from the cuddy.
+
+"Whar's that sanctimonious cuss of a steward!" inquired he.  "I've
+shouted clean through the hull ship, and I'm durned ef I ken find him to
+git some grub; for I feels kinder peckish arter that there muss.  I
+guess the critter has sloped with them t'other skunks!"
+
+"We'll muster the hands and see," said Mr Meldrum.
+
+This was soon done; but the steward did not answer to his name--nor
+could he be found anywhere on board, although parties of the men hunted
+through every portion of the ship fore and aft for him.
+
+"Snakes and alligators, mister," said the American, "I guess it's jest
+as I sed, and the slippery coon has skedaddled with the rest of the
+varmint!"
+
+"Perhaps so," answered Mr Meldrum; "but I think it far more probable
+that he has accidentally tumbled over the side!"  In this belief, it may
+be added, the stewardess shared, bewailing her loss accordingly,
+although she was not quite so much overwhelmed with sorrow as might have
+been imagined to be proper on the loss of a helpmate by those
+unacquainted with the domestic relations of the pair.
+
+In addition to securing the safety of the jolly-boat, Mr Meldrum
+ordered preparations to be made for constructing a large raft, upon
+which an additional stock of provisions, which were brought up from
+below to replace those taken away by the mutineers in the long-boat,
+were stowed; but no attempt was made as yet to leave the ship, all
+hoping that the sea would go down as the tide fell, besides which, they
+thought that when daylight came they would be able, as Captain Dinks had
+told them, to "see their way better."
+
+And so they waited in hope till morning should come.
+
+Just before four bells, however, and when the faint light of day was
+beginning to streak the eastern sky, bringing out in relief the snow-
+white peaks of some mountains on the mainland, which were a little
+distance to the left of where the vessel was lying on the reef, a larger
+wave than any of the rollers that had yet assailed her struck the ship
+right amidships; and the timbers dividing under the strain, the poor old
+_Nancy Bell_ broke in two.  Still, the two sections of the hull did not
+immediately separate, the seas apparently losing their force and
+reserving their powers after delivering such a telling blow.
+
+"I guess, mister," said Mr Lathrope, who took the catastrophe as coolly
+as he did every other incident of his life apparently, "this air smash
+is a kinder sort o' notice to quit, hey?"
+
+But Mr Meldrum made no reply.  He saw that the end was coming.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+GETTING ASHORE.
+
+Fortunately, the jolly-boat had been safely secured abaft the main
+hatchway, the very point at which the ship parted amidships; and, being
+lashed to ring-bolts athwart the deck, close to the break of the poop,
+the little craft remained uninjured in the general rending of timbers
+and splintering of planks that ensued when the beams gave way under the
+strain upon them.  The poor _Nancy Bell_, indeed, seemed to fall to
+pieces in a moment; for, as soon as the keel broke in two and the lower
+works of the vessel began to separate, the hold opened out like a
+yawning gulf, dividing the bows and foremost sections from the stern by
+a wide gap.  Through this the sea made a clean breach, washing out the
+cargo--the waves bearing away such articles as were floatable to
+leeward, whilst the heavier portion of the freight, after being tossed
+about and battered out of shape, quickly sank down to the bottom out of
+sight.
+
+Some of the men had been on the forecastle immediately before this
+happened; but roused by Mr Meldrum's cry of warning they had just time
+to escape the inrush of the sea and scramble aft to where the others
+were grouped together on the poop, which was now considerably elevated
+above the level of the water, the stern having been gradually forced up
+more on the rocks as the fore part sank down, until it was now nearly
+high and dry.  This circumstance enabled all hands to proceed all the
+more expeditiously with the construction of the raft that had been
+already commenced, and which they had luckily begun here, instead of on
+the main-deck that had just been broken up, where they would have lashed
+it together but for the accidental fact of the mizzen jury-mast forming
+the base of the raft, and their being unable to drag it forward before
+the keel of the vessel began to give way.  The extra quantity of
+provisions, too, which had been got out of the hold had also remained on
+the poop; and thus everything providentially was in their favour.
+
+Certainly, their chances of escape now seemed more hopeful!
+
+No time, however, was to be lost; for, although their haven of refuge,
+the stern section of the ship, was high up on the reef and almost out of
+reach of the remorseless waves that had already done such damage, still
+there was no knowing what another tide would effect if the wind should
+again get up.  It behoved them all therefore to take advantage of the
+opportunity afforded them and make their preparations for getting ashore
+before it should be too late.  Thus urged, the seamen, working with a
+will under the supervision of Mr McCarthy and Adams, had completed a
+substantial raft by eight o'clock, at which hour a spell was cried and
+all hands piped to breakfast.
+
+Meanwhile, the morning had advanced; and the sky being pretty free from
+clouds, Mr Meldrum was able to obtain a good view of the land that
+surrounded the bay in which the _Nancy Bell_ had come to grief.
+
+The ship had, evidently, not merely been carried to leeward of the cape
+by the strong current before striking, but had also been taken some
+distance inshore as well; for the reef on which she was lying seemed
+more than two miles to the eastward of the projecting point which she
+had so much difficulty in rounding, close in to a range of rock-bound
+coast similar to that which they had passed to the northward and
+extending almost due east for from eight to ten miles--as nearly as Mr
+Meldrum could judge--the line of the shore then trending off to the
+south-west at an acute angle, as far as the eye could reach.  High above
+this latter stretch of coast rose a series of snow-crowned hills,
+arranged in terraces the one above another, gradually increasing in
+height until their peaks culminated in one that towered far beyond all,
+like a giant amongst pigmies; while, to the right of this mountain, and
+apparently much nearer, on a spur of the chain projecting into the sea
+nearly south of the vessel's position, was one solitary peak, which
+occasionally emitted thin columns of smoke and which, from the fact of
+its summit being denuded of snow, most likely marked the site of some
+volcanic crater in active operation.
+
+Altogether, the prospect was sad and dispiriting in the extreme, for,
+nothing was to be seen in the immediate foreground but the bare black
+basaltic cliffs, against whose base the angry billows broke in endless
+repetition, throwing up clouds of spray and tracing out their
+indentations with lines of creamy foam; and, beyond the cliffs, were
+high table-lands and hills all clad in the spectral garb of winter--with
+never a tree or a single prominent feature to vary the monotony of the
+landscape!
+
+"We must endeavour to make for that curve in the bay to the north-east,
+where the shore breaks off and leads southward," said Mr Meldrum to the
+first mate, who, having seen the raft completed, had now come to his
+side for further instructions.  "It is only there, as far as I can see,
+that there is likely to be any sort of harbour where we can land in
+safety."
+
+"Be jabers, I can't say, sorr," returned McCarthy; "sure an' it's
+yoursilf that knows bist.  I belave, however, it'll be the wisest
+coorse; for the divil a harbour can anyone say ilsewhere; and, by the
+same token, sorr, the current is setting shoreward in that very
+direction.  Look at thim planks there, sorr, sure an' if that's the case
+it'll hilp the rhaft along foinely!"
+
+"You're right," said Mr Meldrum, glancing in the direction to which Mr
+McCarthy pointed, where some of the broken timbers of the ship, after
+being carried away to leeward, were now steadily drifting past her
+again--although now in an easterly direction and in a parallel line with
+the cliffs to the left.  "The sooner, too, that we take advantage of
+that same current the better, as it will be hard work for the jolly-boat
+to have to tow us all the way.  Let us see about getting the raft over
+the side at once, Mr McCarthy.  The sea is much calmer now, and I think
+we'll be able to launch and load it without much difficulty.  The jolly-
+boat won't give us half the trouble to float that the raft will, for the
+deck forms an inclined plane with the water and we can run her in when
+we please."
+
+"Aye, aye, sorr," answered Mr McCarthy, and breakfast being now
+finished--a cold one for all parties, Snowball and his galley having
+parted company, and the waves now rolling between the two sections of
+the ship--the tough job of floating the raft alongside was proceeded
+with; purchases being rigged so as to lower it down easily, and prevent
+it afterwards from breaking away when it had reached the surface of the
+sea, which was still rough and boisterous.
+
+The weather keeping calm and bright, and the wind lulling instead of
+increasing in force as the sun rose in the heavens, the task was at
+length satisfactorily accomplished.
+
+It was not done, however, until after two hours of continuous labour, in
+which all hands were engaged, even Mr Lathrope assisting as well as his
+still injured arm would permit.  By six bells in the forenoon watch,
+too, the jolly-boat had also been lowered into the water safely.  Now,
+nothing remained but to get the provisions and whatever else they could
+carry that was necessary on board; for, Mr Meldrum sternly negatived
+any attempt at taking private property, thereby incurring Mrs Major
+Negus's enmity, for he refused passage to three large trunks of hers
+which she had declared were absolutely indispensable, but which, on
+being opened, were found to contain only a lot of tawdry finery which
+might possibly have helped to astonish the natives of Waikatoo, but was
+perfectly useless, even to herself, on the inhospitable shores where the
+passengers of the _Nancy Bell_ were about to seek refuge from the
+sinking ship.
+
+Kate Meldrum was far more sensible, taking only those articles of warm
+clothing which her father recommended for the use of herself and Florry;
+and, indeed, leaving behind many things that he would probably have
+permitted as necessaries, in order that she should not overburthen the
+raft with what would not be serviceable to all.  Unlike the "Major,"
+Kate thought that it would be selfish on her part merely to consider her
+own and her sister's wants!
+
+As for Mr Zachariah Lathrope, his luggage consisted chiefly of an old
+fur cloak, in addition to the clothes he stood up in, besides his
+inseparable "six shooter" and a rifle--which latter he stated had been
+given to his grandfather by the celebrated Colonel Crockett of "coon"
+notoriety, and was "a powerful shootin' iron."  The rest of the men folk
+took with them almost as little; but Mr Meldrum did not forget charts
+and nautical instruments, besides a compass and the ship's log-book and
+papers.  These latter he removed from Captain Dinks' cabin, at his
+especial request, that, should he ever see England again, he might be
+able to give a circumstantial account as to how the vessel was lost, and
+satisfy both his owners and Lloyd's.
+
+In reference to the general provisioning of the raft, it may be briefly
+mentioned that all the bread and flour that had not been washed out of
+the after-hold had been collected, in addition to several casks of salt
+beef and pork, and such of the tinned meats and other cabin stores that
+had not been stowed in the long-boat--for the benefit, as it
+subsequently turned out, of the mutineers.
+
+Some casks of water were also embarked; but not many, for, in the event
+of a fresh supply not being found on landing they could easily melt down
+the snow and thus manufacture what they required from time to time.
+
+While considering the important question of a proper supply of food, the
+pertinent fact was not lost sight of, that they would be exposed to a
+climate of almost arctic severity for, probably, many months to come;
+and, consequently all the blankets in the ship were collected and put on
+board the raft, besides spare bedding and some hammocks.  Snowball also,
+true to his culinary calling, took care to secure his cooking utensils,
+clambering back into the dilapidated forecastle for the purpose, almost
+at the peril of his life--the darkey subsequently bewailing much his
+inability to remove the ship's coppers, which were too firmly fixed in
+the galley for him to detach them from that structure.
+
+Finally, one or two small spars and sails were added to the general pile
+of heterogeneous articles that had been heaped up in the centre of the
+raft, whose buoyancy had been much increased, since it was first made
+and launched overboard, by the accidental discovery in the steerage of
+some empty puncheons, which were carefully bunged-up so that no water
+could get into them and lashed underneath the floating platform; the
+catalogue of stores being then completed by heaving on the heap all the
+cordage that could be got at and cut away, in addition to some blocks
+and a few odds and ends--the tarpaulin from off the broken cabin
+skylight, which was certain to be of the greatest use, being, like other
+equally serviceable articles, only thought of at the last moment.
+
+By the time all these things were stowed on board, and the raft immersed
+as deeply as it was considered advisable with safety--as few things as
+possible being put in the jolly-boat, which was kept light in order that
+she might be more usefully employed in towing the other--it was close on
+twelve o'clock.
+
+This was the hour Mr Meldrum had fixed for abandoning the ship, as then
+the tide would be at the half flood, and they would be able to utilise
+not only that but the current as well, which would about that time set
+inshore--at least, judging by its influence on the previous day in
+carrying the _Nancy Bell_ in that direction of the reef.  By these
+various means Mr Meldrum thought the raft might be floated onward
+towards the curve in the coast-line which he had pointed out to the
+first mate as a probable place where they might expect to discover some
+small bay or harbour to land at.
+
+Besides this, Mr Meldrum believed that by starting on the half tide, in
+the event of the stream turning before they were able to reach an
+available beach in some sheltered cave--for the current which he had
+noticed took a southerly direction with the ebb--the retiring tide could
+not possibly drift them out to sea.  At the very worst, it would only
+sweep the raft down the coast in the direction of the volcanic peak that
+had been observed to cap the spur of the mountain chain which stretched
+out right into the water at an angle with the land; and, here, there was
+every probability of their finally finding an opening in the breastwork
+of adamantine rocks that ranged along the coast-line as if to prevent
+any intrusive strangers like themselves from getting on shore!
+
+Before Mr Meldrum gave the order for embarkation, however, he had one
+last duty to perform on board the _Nancy Bell_.
+
+It was just noon; and, the sun being for a wonder unobscured, he
+determined to take a final observation to fix their position, or rather
+that of the reef on which the ill-fated vessel was doomed to leave her
+bones.  This was an eventuality which evidently could not take long in
+its accomplishment, for the forward portion of the ship was being
+rapidly broken to pieces, and it would not be any great time before the
+stern followed suit, some of the cabin furniture below having already
+been shaken down, while the poop did not offer a very firm foothold,
+trembling every now and then from the washing in and out of the waves
+below, as if, the poor thing were seized with a submarine ague fit!
+
+After a brief calculation, as briefly worked out, Mr Meldrum found that
+the ridge of rocks, which bore north-west by south-east, was in
+longitude 68 degrees 45 minutes east, and latitude 49 degrees 16 minutes
+south.  These facts indisputably settled the point of their being to the
+southwards of Cape Saint Louis, put down on the chart as the westernmost
+point of Kerguelen Land, and that the highest of the snow-covered
+mountain peaks to the south-east was Mount Ross.  The information, he
+thought, might possibly be of much assistance to them hereafter in
+directing their course, should such a step become necessary, to those
+better known portions of the island on the eastern side which whalers
+and seal-hunting craft were reported to be in the habit of frequenting
+during the short summer season of that dreary region.  This period,
+however, would not come round for the next three or four months, as it
+was now only the first week in August, the midwinter of antarctic
+climes.
+
+The last observation made, and the ship's ensign hoisted, upside down,
+on the stump of the mizzen-mast--not so much for the very unlikely
+chance of any passing vessel observing it, as from the special request
+of Mr McCarthy, that, as he expressed it, the poor _Nancy Bell_ should
+"have a dacent burial"--Mr Meldrum at length gave the word for all
+hands to embark, an operation which occupied even less time than that of
+his "taking the sun."
+
+First, in due order of precedence, the ladies were lowered down in a
+chair by a whip from a boom rigged out over the stern right on to the
+raft, where a comfortable place had been arranged in the centre and
+barricaded round with chests and barrels.  Next, Captain Dinks was
+lowered down in his cot, which had been removed bodily from its slings
+in his cabin below, so that he might be shifted without disturbing him;
+then, Mary Llewellyn, the now husbandless stewardess, followed suit;
+and, after her, Mr Lathrope and the children.  Eight of the remaining
+sixteen men of the crew were then directed to take their places around
+the ladies' inclosure, along with Mr Adams and Frank Harness, while the
+other eight hands, under the command of Mr McCarthy, were told off to
+the jolly-boat, which was provided with double-banked oars and attached
+to the raft by a stout tow-rope--it being the intention of Mr Meldrum,
+who remained on the raft as deputy commander-in-chief of the whole party
+in poor Captain Dinks' place, to relieve the rowers every alternate
+hour, so that all should have an equal share in the arduous task of
+towing, a job which would tax all their strength.
+
+Everything being ready, the signal was given to start, when, away went
+the jolly-boat, smartly at first, but more slowly afterwards as soon as
+the strain of the tow-rope was felt, moving gradually from the wreck of
+the old ship, and tugging after her the unwieldy raft, which seemed
+somewhat loath to go.  But, not an exclamation was uttered, not a word
+spoken, as the survivors of the wreck glided off through the water
+towards the shore, leaving behind them the wave-scarred craft that had
+so long been their ocean home.
+
+It was like a funeral procession.
+
+The thoughts of all were too deep for words.
+
+Even the children were awed into silence by the seriousness of their
+elders;--a seriousness that was as much owing to the uncertainty of
+their own fate as to their regret at parting the last link that bound
+them to their English home and civilisation, from which they seemed to
+have been cut adrift for ever in casting off from the poor, old, ill-
+fated _Nancy Bell_!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+DESOLATION ISLAND.
+
+Kate Meldrum was the first to break the melancholy silence that reigned
+as they rowed away from the old ship, all looking back sadly at her
+battered hull, whose crippled condition could now be better seen--the
+bows all rent and torn by the violence of the waves, the gaping sides,
+the gutted hold washed out by the water, and the sea around covered with
+pieces of shattered planking from the 'tween-decks, besides the curved
+knees and other larger parts of the timber work, that had been wrenched
+off during the vessel's battle with the elements, and numbers of
+packing-cases and empty casks and barrels that were floating about, the
+flotsam and jetsam of the cargo.
+
+"Papa," said she, speaking low in order that none of the others could
+hear her, "did you see anything of the long-boat, or of the men who went
+away in her, when you were looking round the coast this morning--I
+forgot to ask you before."
+
+"No, my dear," he answered.  "There was not a trace of them, as far as I
+could see with the glass; either along the shore in the direction in
+which we are going now, or down to the southwards off there to the
+right!"
+
+"Do you think they have landed in safety, papa?"
+
+"Hardly, Kate.  There was a terrible squall which came on shortly after
+they deserted us, and I believe they must have gone down in it.  But,
+why do you ask the question, my dear?  I don't suppose you have much
+sympathy with the treacherous scoundrels!"
+
+"No, papa," said she; "but I thought that if we got on shore at the same
+place that they did there might be a quarrel, or that something dreadful
+would happen; and I'm sure we had enough of horrors on board the poor
+old ship!" and Kate shuddered, as she spoke, at the recollection.
+
+"You need not be afraid of that, my dear," replied her father kindly.
+"If the mutineers have managed to run in the boat anywhere during the
+frightful sea that was on at the time they deserted us, it must have
+been miles away from any spot near here, for the wind was blowing in
+quite the contrary direction.  Besides, my child, only a few could have
+saved their lives; so that, in case we should ever come across them,
+they would be quite powerless against the strong force we have now to
+oppose them, in the very impossible event of their trying to molest us.
+I hope, however, that we may not meet."
+
+"Isn't it shocking," observed Kate presently, as if reflecting over what
+had happened, "to think that, companions in misfortune as we are, we
+should be so anxious now to avoid them!"
+
+"Yes," replied her father; "but the fact only exhibits a common phase of
+human nature, and thus affords but another proof of the inherent
+selfishness of the animal man.  Wickedness, my child, ever begets
+wickedness!"  Mr Meldrum then lapsed again into silence.
+
+The raft proceeded but very slowly, in spite of the exertions of the
+towing party in the jolly-boat.  This was on account of the current and
+the tideway neutralising each other, instead of being both in their
+favour, as Mr Meldrum had expected; so, in order to fight against the
+drawback, he ordered Ben Boltrope to get up a sail on one of the
+studding-sail booms which was rigged as a yard across the mizzen
+topgallant mast that had been stepped in the centre of the platform.
+However, the wind was so light from their low elevation in the water,
+that the influence of this new motive power was only faintly
+perceptible, the shore seeming almost quite as far off after an hour's
+hard rowing as before, and the ship equally near.
+
+This would never do.
+
+At such a rate of progress, nightfall would probably still find them
+afloat in the centre of the bay, in danger, should the sea again get up,
+of being dashed to pieces against the precipitous cliffs to the left;
+while, in the event of their escaping that peril, the raft might run on
+to some hidden shoal or reef down southwards in the darkness, or else be
+swept out into the offing, where they would be the sport of the waves,
+and could never hope to reach the land again.
+
+They had hitherto been keeping well out from the adjacent coast, by
+reason of their seeing its inhospitable look, and the scanty chance
+there was of their effecting a landing there.  This fact, indeed, was
+self-evident, for they could see the surf breaking in one continuous
+line, as far as the eye could reach, against the steep rocky face of the
+cliff.  Besides, Mr Meldrum had thought it the best plan to take the
+shortest course towards the curve he had selected, where the southern
+shore branched off at an angle with the eastern one, in the hope of
+there being some sort of a beach in that vicinity.  Now, however, he
+determined to try another way of gaining his end; and that was by going
+"the longest way round."
+
+"Pull in to the left," he sang out to Mr McCarthy, "and let us see how
+the current will then affect us.  I fancy we'll feel it all the more as
+we get inshore."
+
+"Aye, aye, sorr," replied the first mate, directing the head of the
+jolly-boat right towards the face of the frowning cliff nearest to them;
+but still, for some time, there was no increase in their rate of speed,
+the short chopping waves that formed the backwater of the surges, which
+had already expended their strength on the rocky rampart of the coast,
+militating against any slight advantage they gained by the current
+taking them along with it.
+
+At last, however, after three hours' hard work, and when the fourth
+relay of men had just begun to handle the oars in the jolly-boat, the
+raft appeared all at once to move along more briskly and smoothly,
+while, at the same time, the sea grew calmer.
+
+Things looked promising.
+
+They had approached close inshore to the rocky wall of the cliff; and,
+if it had seemed formidable at a distance, it looked ten times more
+imposing now that only a few hundred yards of sea divided them from it.
+Its bold precipitous face appeared to ascend right up into the clouds,
+while the counterscarp, or base, seemed to dive abruptly into the deep
+without a slope.  It was really just like a gigantic iron wall, straight
+up and down and quite even in contour, without a fissure or break as far
+as could be seen; and the surf made such a thundering din as it dashed
+fretfully against the lower part of the cliff, that it was almost
+impossible for the shipwrecked voyagers to hear each other speak.
+
+Indeed, the whole scene could not but force their imagination to picture
+what might be their fate should a storm arise just then and give them
+over into the power of the billows.  These were only in play now, so to
+speak; but if their demeanour changed to one of dreadful earnest, the
+mad waves would easily toss them as high and as savagely as they did the
+yeasty fragments of spindrift, which circled up into the air like
+snowflakes--flung off from the tops of the breakers after each
+unsuccessful onslaught on the rocky barrier that balked their endeavours
+to annihilate it.
+
+However, there was little fear of such a catastrophe at present.  Thanks
+to the aid of the current, combined with the towing powers of the jolly-
+boat's crew--the sail having been found useless in the little wind there
+was and lowered again--the raft was proceeding steadily along at the
+rate of some three miles an hour; keeping all the while at a safe
+distance from the cliffs, in order to avoid any undertow, and rapidly
+losing the hull of the _Nancy Bell_--albeit, the flag of the ship could
+yet be seen distinctly far away astern to seaward, fluttering in the
+slight breeze that expanded its folds.
+
+Each moment, too, the coast on the starboard hand rose up nearer and
+nearer, closing in sharply with that to port, thus showing that they
+were approaching the embouchure which Mr Meldrum had marked out.  Soon,
+a little more exertion on the part of the rowers would decide whether
+the naval officer had judged rightly or wrongly as to there being a bay
+there--a veritable "harbour of refuge" it would be for them.
+
+"I guess, mister," said Mr Lathrope, who had been for some time quieter
+than usual, "that air animile ain't far off its roosting peg; and whar
+he lands I kalkerlate we can dew too."
+
+As he spoke, the American pointed out a species of black shag or
+cormorant, which had evidently been on a fishing expedition and was
+returning home with the fruits of his spoil in his bill for the
+delectation of the home circle.
+
+"You are very likely right," said Mr Meldrum.  "That sort of sea-fowl
+generally selects a flat shore for its habitat, in preference to high
+places--just as the penguins do, so that they may the sooner tumble into
+the water when desirous of taking to that element.  I would not be
+surprised to find a landing-place as soon as we round that further point
+of the cliff, where the line of surf seems to end.  Stretch out with
+those oars, men," he added, speaking in a louder tone to those in the
+jolly-boat.  "One more long pull altogether and we'll be able to get
+ashore."
+
+"Aye, aye, sorr; go it, my hearties," sang out Mr McCarthy; and, the
+hands, giving a responsive cheer and putting their backs into each
+stroke, made the boat race along--dragging the raft behind it at a speed
+that caused it to rock from side to side, and slightly startle the
+ladies, while the boat, too, shipped a little water that came in over
+the bows as it dipped forward from the jerk of the tow-rope.
+
+At length the limit of the cliff line was reached.  It terminated as
+abruptly as it rose from the water; for, when the boat had pulled past
+the last of the breakers, a long narrow fiord or inlet of the sea opened
+before the eager eyes of the castaways, stretching far inland and
+bordered on each side by shelving slopes of hills that from their shape
+must have been composed of the same basaltic rock as that of the cliffs,
+although now completely covered with snow.  A sight that pleased them
+more, however, was a broad beach of black sand--extending up to the
+slope of the higher land--on which they could ground the raft in safety.
+It was the very thing they sought!
+
+"Hooray boys!" exclaimed the first mate, taking off his cap and waving
+it round his head in excitement.  "Sure an' we've rached the land at
+last!"
+
+A shout of joy came from all, in sympathetic response.
+
+A few strokes more, and the jolly-boat had touched the shore; when, the
+men jumping out, and those on the raft following suit, although the
+water was icy cold and almost up to their arm-pits, the raft was quickly
+hauled up close to the beach and everybody scrambled on shore.  Even
+Mrs Major Negus was so delighted to stand once more on _terra firma_
+that she did not mind getting her feet wet for once, and was almost one
+of the first to jump off the raft.
+
+"Thank God!" exclaimed Mr Meldrum as he stood up in the centre of the
+group, taking off his hat reverently in acknowledgment of the divine
+mercy of that watchful providence which had guided them safely through
+all the perils of the deep and now permitted them to land without harm--
+the untaught seamen around him appearing to sympathise with his
+heartfelt thanksgiving as they, too, bowed their heads in silence; while
+Kate fell upon her knees also in an ecstasy of gratitude to Him who
+ruled the wind and waves and had protected them to the last!
+
+Then, all began to look about them.  However, as they surveyed the
+strange scene, they found to their surprise that they were not the only
+inhabitants of "Desolation Island," as Captain Cook so aptly named, when
+he first saw the place, the land which had been previously discovered by
+Monsieur de Kerguelen.
+
+From the beach, the land rose up on both sides of the fiord in a gentle
+slope to the hills above, which latter were broken away in some places,
+forming flat level tables of basaltic debris that had tumbled from the
+tops of the cliffs; and, these stretches of table-land being under the
+lee of the hills, were sheltered from the snow that otherwise covered
+every place in sight, valley and mountain peak alike.
+
+On these tables of bare black ground, numerous colonies of penguins had
+established themselves--the tenants already in possession of the island,
+to prove that it was not altogether deserted.
+
+The birds were standing about in crowds in the queerest and most
+ungainly attitudes in the world, croaking and barking, according to
+their usual wont, at the unexpected visitors who had so unceremoniously
+come to disturb the quietude of their island home.  They looked
+excessively funny, waddling about awkwardly on their short legs and
+flapping their wings as if grumbling at the intrusion, much resembling a
+lot of little dumpy old women with grey tippets on; and Maurice Negus
+and Florry Meldrum went into fits of laughter at their appearance.
+
+The penguins were not very busy at that time of year evidently.
+
+They were simply idling about the beach and "loafing," as if they had
+nothing particular to do but gossip with each other as to what meant the
+outlandish creatures, who had invaded their territory.  Occasionally,
+two or three would proceed out together to fish in the quiet waters of
+the creek, and these would pass another party coming back from the same
+errand, when they would croak a greeting; but the majority did nothing
+but strut about from one position to another in order to stare the
+better at the intruders--an inspection which, it need hardly be told,
+the latter returned with an equal interest.
+
+However, the survivors from the _Nancy Bell_ had a good deal to do
+besides watching the penguins, for it was now late in the afternoon and
+growing dark, with the wind rising again.  A few premonitory scattered
+flakes of snow, too, that fell flutteringly down in a half hesitating
+way every now and then, pointed out what the weather might be expected
+to be bye and bye and reminded them that it would be just as well for
+them to be under shelter of some sort before night came on to interrupt
+their labours.
+
+A word from Mr Meldrum was sufficient, the first mate then giving the
+necessary orders for setting the whole party to work.
+
+"All hands shift cargo!" he cried, stepping back upon the raft; when,
+the men following him, he divided them into two gangs, the first of whom
+he directed to carry out Mr Meldrum's instructions under Frank Harness,
+while the second remained with him to remove the stores on to the beach,
+where Mr Adams supervised their landing.  But, before anything else was
+done, the cot containing poor Captain Dinks--the only one who had not as
+yet been ashore--was carefully lifted up from the raft and transported
+to a spot high up from the water and shielded by a spur of the hills on
+the right from the winds.  This Mr Meldrum had selected as a favourable
+place for their camp, and Snowball was already engaged there in building
+up a fire with some wood that he had fortunately brought from the
+wreck--for not a scrap of brush or twig, or the sign of any tree, could
+be seen in the neighbourhood of the fiord, nor a single bit of drift on
+the beach!
+
+The stores being all landed and piled up on the shore some little
+distance beyond high-water mark, Mr McCarthy's portion of the crew then
+proceeded to take the raft to pieces and carry up the timbers of which
+it was composed likewise to a place of safety, for fear lest the waves
+should bear them away in the night-time when the tide again came in;
+besides which, the material was wanted for other purposes--as Mr
+Meldrum had foreseen when causing the raft to be constructed--although
+it was now too late in the day to utilise it to that end, for, even
+while they were landing the things, the evening had closed in and it was
+nearly dark.
+
+Meanwhile, the second body of men, working under Frank Harness's
+direction and Mr Meldrum's personal supervision, were equally
+industrious.
+
+The site for the camp having been chosen, a couple of the largest spars
+that had been brought ashore on the raft were erected as uprights, some
+twenty feet apart, close under the scarp of the cliff; and a block and
+running tackle having been previously attached to the top of each of
+these, a third spar was hoisted up and lashed across them at right
+angles.  After this, a spare top-sail, which had been brought with them
+in the jolly-boat, was pulled over the framework; and, the ends of this
+being tied down by the reef points to stout pegs driven in the ground,
+the structure formed a good sized tent which would do well for temporary
+accommodation for a night or two.  Of course, something more substantial
+would be required if the shipwrecked people were forced to remain long
+on the island--which, indeed, seemed more than probable, considering the
+time of year, and the faint hope of their rescue by any whaling vessel
+before the month of November.
+
+"I guess it air prime," said Mr Lathrope, looking at the tent with much
+satisfaction as he walked round it.  He evidently took considerable
+pride in the construction, in which, indeed, he had some share, his
+experience "out west" having been of great use in suggesting the shape
+and location of the shelter.
+
+"Yes," replied Mr Meldrum, who was still busy at work on the details.
+"I think it will do till we can rig up something better."
+
+"Wa-ll, all you've got to do neow, I guess," said the other, "is to
+stretch a rope across the hull consarn, and fix up a blanket or two to
+screen off the femmels from the menfolk; and the thing's done slick and
+handsome."
+
+"Right!" responded Mr Meldrum, taking his advice and dividing the tent
+across into two portions, one of which was reserved for the ladies;
+when, the spare bedding and blankets having been brought up from the
+raft, the improvised apartments were made to look as comfortable as
+circumstances permitted.  Really, the interior, on being lighted up by
+the ship's lanterns, which had not been forgotten, appeared quite cosy,
+especially when Snowball's fire, which was now burning up briskly from
+the chips shovelled on to it, could be seen sparkling and leaping up in
+spurts of flame through the open flap that had been left to serve for a
+doorway.
+
+"And now, I kalkerlate, it's time for grub," said the American when the
+tent was finished and the ladies' comfort provided for--Captain Dinks,
+still in his cot, being ensconced in a warm corner--"I hope that blessed
+darkey has got something good, for I feel powerful holler, I dew!"
+
+He need not, however, have been in any doubt as to Snowball's capacity.
+That worthy allowed nothing to interfere with the exercise of his
+culinary skill; so, when the first mate by Mr Meldrum's directions had
+"piped down" all hands, he had ready a repast which appeared to the
+hungry castaways more like a splendid banquet than an improvised meal,
+and one as well cooked as if Snowball had all the facilities of the
+galley on shipboard to prepare it.  His chief dish was a well-seasoned
+"Irish stew," compounded of salt beef and preserved vegetables, which
+seemed on that cold evening a perfect _chef-d'oeuvre_, and would, as Mr
+Lathrope "guessed" after a third helping, have "made a man leave his
+grandmother for his wife's mother's aunt, any day!"
+
+Soon after the meal was finished, night came on, when the snow began to
+fall heavily and the wind to blow piercingly from the north'ard and
+westward, just as it had done the evening before when the poor _Nancy
+Bell_ was struggling round Cape Saint Louis and rushing on to her doom;
+but the castaways happily were now sheltered from the inclemencies of
+the weather, and as they one and all nestled into their blankets as soon
+as bedtime came;--man and woman, Jack tar and landsman alike!--thanked
+God fervently that they were now no longer on board ship.
+
+Towards morning, a slight alarm was created by some of the melted snow
+finding its way down upon the sleepers through the sail that served for
+the roofing of their tent; but this was soon remedied by lashing over it
+the old tarpaulin from off the cabin skylight, which, it may be
+recollected, was only thought of at the last moment, although such a
+useful article.  The leak in the roof stopped, all turned to sleep again
+with the greater zest, enjoying such a night's rest as they had not had
+for the last week at sea--not a soul indeed waking up till long after
+daybreak, all were so dead tired out with the fatigue and anxiety they
+had undergone.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+NEARLY A CATASTROPHE!
+
+SLept till long after daybreak, did they?
+
+Why, it was getting on for noon when Mr McCarthy roused the crew from
+their unusually long caulk amongst the blankets in the corner of the
+tent reserved for them with his cheery call of "All hands ahoy!  Tumble
+up there! tumble up!" coupled with the information that the sun was
+"scorching their eyes out"--which latter observation, it may be casually
+remarked, was a slight stretch of his imagination, considering the
+feeble power of the solar orb at that time of the year on the snow-
+covered wastes of Kerguelen Land!
+
+Still, late or early as they might be in rising, the first point to
+which everybody turned their gaze on getting out into the open, was the
+little spot on the horizon to seaward where they had left the ship,
+where she had been last seen on the previous afternoon just as the
+evening was beginning to close in.  Since they had quitted her, however,
+the wind had been blowing pretty stiffly all night, although it had
+calmed down again towards the morning; while the last thing they had
+heard, ere they had sunk into the sound dreamless sleep all had enjoyed
+through the complete exhaustion of their frames, had been the roaring
+noise of the breakers thundering against the base of the cliffs beyond
+their sheltering fiord.  So, it was with but very faint hopes of
+perceiving the remains of the poor old _Nancy Bell's_ hull still fixed
+on the treacherous reef of her destruction, that they looked wistfully
+out into the offing!
+
+But, lo and behold! in spite of all their forebodings, there in the
+distance they could yet dimly descry the stern section of the ill-fated
+vessel still intact, as far as they could judge with the naked eye,
+amidst the rocks; and about it the waves played and circled and the surf
+showered its spray.  Above the wreck, too, there still fluttered feebly
+the flag which Mr Meldrum had attached to the stump of the mizzen-mast,
+as if defying the powers of the wind and the waters to destroy the
+gallant old ship and her belongings, strive how they might in all their
+majesty!
+
+Every heart felt glad at the sight.
+
+"It does me ra-al good, mister, it dew!" said Mr Lathrope to the first
+mate, who was intently watching the object of general interest, as if he
+could not take his eyes off it.  "When I riz just neow, I felt kinder
+lonesome, a thinking we'd parted company with the old crittur fur ever
+and wouldn't never see her no more; but thar she is still as perky as
+ever, in spite of last night's gale, which I thought would ha' blown all
+her timbers to Jericho!"
+
+"Ah, sorr!" replied Mr McCarthy with a heavy sigh and a troubled look
+in his usually merry twinkling grey eyes, "you'll never say another ship
+the likes of her again!  If you'll belave me, Mister Lathrope, sorr,
+she'd sail ten knots on a bowline; and I'd like to know where you'd bate
+that now?"
+
+"I'll not deny she had her good pints," said the American
+sympathisingly; "but I guess the poor thing'll soon be bruk up."
+
+"Yes, son, more's the pity," responded the other; "sure an' I wish we
+had her safe ashore here and we'd save ivory plank of her."
+
+"It wouldn't be a bad notion," observed Mr Meldrum, who just then came
+up to where the two were talking, "to take another trip out to the ship
+in the jolly-boat and see whether we could not land some more things
+that might be of use to us?"
+
+"Sure the hould's gutted now enthirely," said the Irish mate sadly, "and
+the divil a hap'orth we'd get by going.  Look at the say that's running,
+too; and considther the long pull out there and back again--not that I
+wouldn't be afther going, sorr, if you were to say the word!"
+
+"Oh, no, never mind," replied Mr Meldrum.  "There's not the slightest
+necessity for it, for I believe we brought away all the provisions that
+were left in her, and we'd find little enough now!  I only thought we
+might secure some more of the timber work, as there doesn't seem to be a
+particle of wood on the island."
+
+"We'd better wait till she breaks up, sorr," said Mr McCarthy; "sure
+and it'll float in thin to us, widout the throuble of fetching it."
+
+"All right!" answered the other.  So the contemplated last trip to the
+stranded vessel would have been abandoned, had not Florry at that moment
+rushed up to her father.
+
+"Oh, poor puss!" she exclaimed, half-crying and almost breathless with
+excitement as she clung to his arm and looked up into his face
+entreatingly.
+
+"Puss!" repeated Mr Meldrum in astonishment; "what puss?"
+
+"The--the--poor pussy cat we used to play with in the cabin," sobbed
+Florry.  "It was shut up by the stewardess, and has been left behind in
+the ship!"
+
+"Yes, sir," said Mary Llewellyn, who with Kate had followed Florry.  "I
+clean forgot the creature in the flurry of coming away.  I locked it in
+the pantry, as it seemed frightened and was scurrying about the cuddy;
+and when we went on deck, I didn't think to take it out, so there it'll
+be starved to death, or drownded!"
+
+"It was my fault as well," interposed Kate, looking quite as unhappy as
+her sister and the stewardess.  "I told Mary to lock it up."
+
+"Be jabers!" ejaculated the first mate, "it'll never do to lave it
+there.  Sure and we'd be onlucky altogether if a cat came to harm in the
+old ship!  I didn't know it was aboord at all, at all.  Sure an' there's
+no knowing but what all our misfortunes have been brought about by the
+same baste, bad cess to it?"
+
+"Oh, Mr McCarthy!" exclaimed Kate, "how can you believe that?"
+
+"Sure, and I mane it," answered the Irishman promptly, as if he put the
+greatest faith in the superstition.
+
+"Well," said Mr Meldrum, "I'm sorry for the poor animal; but it will
+have to stop there now!  The sea is very rough, and I would hardly like
+to risk men's lives to save a cat!"
+
+"I'll go back for it, sir," volunteered Frank Harness with a look at
+Kate, which said as plainly as looks could speak that he was ready to do
+a good deal more than that to please her.  "You were speaking just now
+of sending off the jolly-boat to fetch what we could from the wreck; so
+we can bring the poor cat on shore at the same time."
+
+"Yes, I certainly did suggest that just now," said Mr Meldrum; "but, as
+Mr McCarthy pointed out, there is a good deal of sea on, and--"
+
+"Sure, but I said, sorr, I'd go if you liked," interrupted the first
+mate eagerly, not wishing to be behindhand when Frank had offered; "and,
+faix, I'm ready at once."
+
+"Let the durned animile slide," put in Mr Lathrope.  "It ain't worth a
+cent, much less such a tall price as yar life."
+
+"No, we won't," said Mr McCarthy, all anxiety now to start.  "Who'll
+volunteer to go back to the wreck and save the cat!" he called out
+aloud.
+
+"I will," and "I," and "I," cried out several of the seamen, laughing
+and passing all sorts of chaff about the expedition; and soon there were
+more than enough offers to man the jolly-boat twice over if all had been
+taken who offered.
+
+Ben Boltrope was one of the first to stand out; but Mr Meldrum at once
+motioned him back.
+
+"You must not go," said he.  "I shall want your carpentering aid very
+soon, and can't spare you."  It was the same with some others amongst
+the hands, Mr Meldrum picking them out as they stepped forwards.
+
+Before long, however, a crew was selected; when, the jolly-boat being
+run down into the water by the aid of a dozen other willing hands,
+besides her own special crew, she was soon on her way back to the scene
+of the wreck of the _Nancy Bell_--McCarthy steering her, and Frank
+Harness, who would not relinquish his privilege of going in her after
+having been the first to volunteer, pulling the stroke-oar, no idlers
+being wanted on board.  Kate looked at him and waved her hand in adieu
+as the boat topped the heavy rolling waves and got well out into the
+offing; and, after that, Frank did not mind what exertion he had to go
+through.
+
+It was a long pull and an arduous one, although, in spite of Mr
+McCarthy's warning to the contrary, there was nothing dangerous in the
+accomplishment of the feat.  The first mate had probably felt a little
+lazy when he endeavoured to set Mr Meldrum at first against the
+expedition, for after a couple of hours' hard work, having the tide to
+contend with most of the way, they easily managed to approach the reef
+and bring up the boat under the vessel's stern, where the side ropes and
+slung chair, which they had omitted to remove on board the raft remained
+just as they had left them, swinging about to and fro as the wind
+brushed by, causing them to oscillate with its breath.
+
+On climbing up to the deck, they found the poop pretty much the same,
+but the forward portion of the ship had all broken to pieces, hardly a
+timber being left, save part of the forefoot or cut-water, which had got
+jammed in between the rocks along with the anchor-stock, the heavy mass
+of iron belonging to which must have fallen down below the surface when
+the topgallant forecastle was washed away.
+
+Going down into the cuddy, Frank could hardly at first believe that its
+former tenants had quitted it for good and all, for the cabin doors were
+thrown wide open, and dresses and other articles of feminine attire
+scattered about--one special shawl of Kate's, which he readily
+recognised as the one she had on her shoulders the night they had
+watched the stars together in the South Atlantic, being placed over the
+back of the captain's chair at the head of the table, as if the owner
+had just put it down for a minute and was coming back to fetch it.  He
+at once took charge of this, besides collecting sundry other little
+articles which he thought Kate might want; but he was soon interrupted
+in his quest of feminine treasure-hunting by a mewing and scratching at
+the door of the steward's pantry, which made him recollect all at once
+what had been the ostensible object of his mission on board the vessel.
+
+"Gracious goodness!" he exclaimed, speaking to himself, for Mr McCarthy
+was busy raking amongst his clothes in his own cabin, also oblivious to
+the fate of the poor feline for whom they had come aboard the ship.  "I
+almost forgot the cat after all.  Puss, Pussy, poor Puss!" and he
+wrenched open the pantry door, setting the animal free.
+
+If ever mortal cat purred in its life, or endeavoured to express its
+pleasure and satisfaction by walking round and rubbing itself against a
+person, raising and putting down its fore-feet alternately, with the
+toes extended, as if practising the goose step or working on some feline
+treadmill, why that cat did then.  The poor animal could not speak, of
+course, but it really seemed to utter some inarticulate sounds that must
+have been in cat language a paean of joy and praise and thanks at its
+deliverance; and, finally, in a paroxysm of affection and endearment, it
+turned itself head over heels on the cabin floor in front of Frank.
+
+"Poor Puss; poor little thing!" said the young sailor, taking it up in
+his arms.  "I believe I would have come back for you even if it hadn't
+been to oblige Kate--my darling!" and he kissed the fur of the animal as
+he held it in his arms, as if he considered it for the time being her
+deputy.
+
+Judging by several well-picked bones that could be noticed lying on the
+deck of the pantry, Frank assured himself that Puss had not been starved
+since she had been locked up; and, indeed, she could not have been in
+any serious want, as there was a freshly-cut ham on one of the shelves
+and a round of spiced beef, which she had not touched, both of which
+Frank took the liberty of appropriating for the benefit of those on
+shore.
+
+Then, still in company with Puss, who would not leave his side, he
+imitated the example of the first mate, and selected a coat or two and a
+change of clothes from out of his own sea-chest.  He did not forget the
+others either, but gathered together various garments which he saw lying
+about in the captain's cabin and that of Mr Meldrum, thinking that both
+might perhaps be glad of them bye and bye.
+
+Beyond what Frank had found in the pantry, however, neither he nor Mr
+McCarthy could discover any provisions, or other things that might be
+useful on shore, save the unbroken half of the cuddy skylight.  This
+they carefully lowered down into the jolly-boat, for the glass framing
+would come in handy for the windows of any house they built--Mr Meldrum
+having hinted on the previous evening of some more substantial structure
+being necessary than the tent, which had been only put up for temporary
+accommodation on their first landing on the island.
+
+The several articles that had been collected being now put on board the
+jolly-boat, in addition to the accommodation chair, which was cut from
+the slings, at McCarthy's especial request, and lowered down on
+board--"jest to plaze the meejor," as he said, alluding to Mrs Negus's
+weakness for sitting in high places during the voyage.  Frank then
+descended with the cat in his arms and took a seat in the stern-sheets,
+the first mate very good-naturedly pulling the stroke-oar on the return
+journey in his place; and, all these little matters being thus arranged,
+Pussy's rescuers started again for the shore.  The tide, luckily, was
+with them all the way; so they accomplished the distance back to the
+beach inside the fiord in very nearly half the time they had taken in
+rowing out to the ship--getting everything ashore and the jolly-boat
+hauled up safely beyond high-water mark with none of the trouble they
+had anticipated on setting out, the wind and sea having both calmed down
+in the interim.
+
+Kate's thanks to Frank need not be alluded to:-- they were simply
+inexpressible; but, if Puss is described to have been pleased when she
+was first released from captivity and an untimely end on board the
+shipwrecked vessel, what can be said for her raptures now that she was
+landed on _terra firma_--which she probably had never expected to see
+again--especially when she recognised the bevy of old friends amongst
+whom she found herself alive once more.
+
+"I guess," said Mr Lathrope, as he watched her affectionate antics,
+"the stoopid old cuss will purr herself to potato parings, and rub all
+her darned fur inter a door-mat with joy!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+AN AFTERNOON CALL.
+
+"I'm glad you brought the skylight," said Mr Meldrum to the first mate
+when the excitement attending the return of the boat's crew with Miss
+Pussy had somewhat calmed down.  "Its the very thing we'll want
+presently!"  He then proceeded to show Mr McCarthy what he and those
+who had remained ashore had done during the absence of the others.
+
+Adjoining the site of the tent, and under the lee of a sort of gable-end
+of the cliffs, a piece of ground had been cleared of the snow close to a
+freshwater tarn some little distance above the sea-shore, where it was
+not affected by the tide; and here the land had been levelled in the
+form of a parallelogram, some thirty feet long by twenty wide, round
+which a trench had been dug about a foot deep.
+
+At the four corners of this, stout posts, selected from some of the
+deck-beams of the _Nancy Bell_ that had been secured for the under-
+structure of the raft, were set up in holes excavated of such a depth
+that they would firmly resist any lateral pressure brought to bear
+against them by the wind; and, round the top of these uprights, a
+scantling of deal had been nailed on, thus making the framework of a
+good-sized cottage.
+
+Mr McCarthy was quite surprised at the progress made.
+
+"You've been pretty busy, sorr," he said.  "Be jabers, you'll have a
+cabin built in no time!"
+
+"Yes," replied Mr Meldrum, "we have got along; but you must remember
+we've had fourteen hands at work besides the carpenter, including Mr
+Lathrope and myself; and such a number of men, when their labour has
+been systematically divided, can accomplish a good deal in a short time.
+I wish we had some more timber, though!  We've got the roof yet to
+make, and a partition or two in the inside for the proper division of
+the building.  I have planned out a separate room for the ladies, and
+one for us men; in addition to a general sort of apartment, where we can
+all have our meals together, and which will serve as a store-room as
+well."
+
+"Sure an' you don't think, sorr, we'll have to live here long!" said the
+first mate, a little alarmed at the magnitude of the other's plans.
+
+"Indeed I do," answered Mr Meldrum.  "It is now only the beginning of
+August, which is the worst season here, as I mentioned to poor Captain
+Dinks; and the winter will probably last from four to five months;
+during which time, according to all accounts that I've read of the
+place, we may expect to experience the most bitter weather, and have to
+depend entirely on our own resources; for, none of the whaling schooners
+that go seal-hunting in these parts ever visit the island, as far as I
+know, before November or December--and even then they go generally to
+the eastern side and do not come here!  Before that time, however, that
+is as soon as the snow melts and the spring sets in, we'll have to try
+and cross over the land to one of the harbours which the whalers
+frequent, and which I've got marked on the chart.  Until that period,
+Mr McCarthy, as you must perceive, we will have to remain here; so it
+is best for us to try and be as comfortable as we can under the
+circumstances.  Last night, as you know, it was cold enough in all
+conscience; but that will be nothing to what we may expect later on when
+the regular gales and sea-fogs and snowstorms set in, and they continue
+for weeks, I believe!"
+
+"Begorrah, it's a bad look-out!" said the mate,--"a bad look-out,
+anyway!"
+
+"It is; there's no good of our blinking the fact," replied the
+other,--"but, still, other shipwrecked crews have borne worse hardships
+than we'll have to contend with, and, you know, what men have done men
+may do!  I wish we had some more of the poor old ship's planks, however.
+Besides their being necessary for completing our house properly, we
+shall want a large supply of them for fuel during the next four months."
+
+"Sure and they'll float ashore," said the mate.
+
+"I don't know about that," responded Mr Meldrum.  "You said just now,
+when you returned in the jolly-boat, that all the bows and forward parts
+of the vessel had been washed to pieces; and yet, of all that wreckage
+not a single scrap came ashore here to tell the tale before you brought
+the news:-- what do you think of that, eh!"
+
+"Be jabers, it's all that blissid current that takes it back agin!  Sure
+an' I've sane it floating in foreninst the land myself."
+
+"Well, we'll have to try and baulk the current, then," said Mr Meldrum.
+"We must keep a good look-out on the ship; and, as soon as we see that
+the stern has broken up, the jolly-boat will have to be manned and
+cruise about to pick up and tow ashore whatever timber and stray planks
+may be seen."
+
+"Right you are, sorr," replied Mr McCarthy.  "I'll say to that!"
+
+"Say, mister," interposed the American, who had remained silent during
+the deliberations of the other two, although he was supposed to be
+present at the council and a deliberative member.  "How'll the grub last
+all that air time!  Twenty-seven folks all told, as I've kalkerlated
+'em, take a powerful lot of feedin' in four months!"
+
+"Ah!" said Mr Meldrum, "that's a serious consideration.  However, with
+that lot of penguins there,"--and he pointed to the little colony of the
+quaint birds, which were still croaking and grumbling at them, not
+having yet become accustomed to their strange visitors,--"I don't think
+we'll starve!  Besides these gentry, too, there will be lots more sea-
+fowl, and perhaps some land ones as well.  Still, it will be advisable,
+Mr Lathrope, as you have introduced the subject, to take stock of all
+the stores we have, and Master Snowball must be instructed to be not
+quite so lavish in his display at dinner-time as he was yesterday."
+
+"Sorry I spoke," said Mr Lathrope, rather chop-fallen at the way in
+which his suggestion had been taken.  "I didn't want you to cut short
+the vittles, but only to kinder kalkerlate!"
+
+"I'm just doing that," replied the other, "and we'll see what we've got
+to depend upon at once."
+
+As the American had remarked, they were just twenty-seven souls in all:
+_Imprimis_, Captain Dinks--whose wound evidently was progressing
+favourably, for he had lost all those feverish symptoms that were
+apparent the day previous and was now in a sound sleep, after eating
+some thin soup which Snowball had concocted for him by Mr Meldrum's
+direction--Mr McCarthy, Adams, Frank Harness, Ben Boltrope the
+carpenter, and Karl Ericksen the rescued Norwegian sailor, besides
+Snowball and thirteen others of the crew of the _Nancy Bell_, making
+twenty of those belonging to the ship; while, of the passengers, there
+were six--Mr Meldrum, Kate, Florry, Mrs Major Negus and her son and
+only hope Maurice, and lastly, though by no means least, Mr Lathrope--
+the grand total, with the stewardess, who must not be forgotten, coming
+exactly to seven-and-twenty.
+
+Now, to feed all this large family, they had brought ashore on the raft
+three barrels of salt beef and four of pork, six hams uncooked, besides
+the one which Frank had removed from the steward's pantry along with the
+round of spiced beef on his visit to the ship in search of the cat; some
+four dozen eight-pound tins of preserved meats and vegetables; about a
+couple of hundredweight of flour; five bags of biscuit; a few bottles of
+spirits; and sundry minor articles, such as pickles and salt, and one or
+two pots of preserves--not a very considerable amount of provender,
+considering the number of souls to be supplied, and the length of time
+Mr Meldrum thought it wise to estimate that the provisions would have
+to last.
+
+Just as they were rolling back the casks under the shelter of the tent,
+Maurice Negus rushed up to Mr Meldrum in company with Florry, both of
+the children being intensely excited evidently about something they had
+seen or heard.
+
+"Oh crickey!" cried out the former before he had quite got up to the
+party, so as to have the first voice in the matter,--"Do come!  There's
+an awful long thing just crawled out of the sea, and it is creeping up
+to the tent as fast as it can!"
+
+"Yes," chorussed Florry, "and it's like the seals we saw in the
+Zoological Gardens; only it's twice as big and has a long trunk like an
+elephant!"
+
+"Jeehosophat!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope, feeling for his revolver.  "It
+must be a rum outlandish animile, if it's like that!"
+
+"Zee-oliphant," said Karl Ericksen, the Norwegian sailor, in his broken
+English.  "He is not harmful:-- he good for man eat."
+
+"Snakes and alligators! that's prime anyhow, I reckon," put in Mr
+Lathrope.  "I guess this air animile'll save your old stores, mister,
+hey?"
+
+"I hope so," answered Mr Meldrum.  "Although I've never tasted seal
+beef myself, I have heard it's very fair when you can't get the genuine
+article; the whalers generally use it, at all events, some of them even
+thinking it a dainty.  But, let us go and see this sea-elephant that the
+children have discovered!"
+
+They did not have to go far; for, the queer-looking amphibious creature
+had by this time crawled up on to the rocks close outside the tent, and
+was quite near to where they were standing--the Norwegian sailor having
+already seen and recognised its species before he spoke.
+
+The animal was a gigantic sort of seal, some twenty-five feet in length
+and quite five high.  If big, it was certainly also most unwieldy, for
+it appeared to waddle up from the shore with the greatest difficulty.
+Its body was covered with a short brown fur, with lighter hair of a dun
+colour under the throat; and, what gave it the singular appearance
+whence its name of "sea-elephant" was probably more derived than from
+its size, was the pendulous nostrils, which hung down over its mouth,
+just like the proboscis or long trunk of the children's old friend,
+"Jumbo."
+
+Karl Ericksen had managed to rummage out a harpoon one day amongst the
+odds and ends in the forecastle of the _Nancy Bell_, and the sailor
+having been familiar with its use from long whaling experience, had not
+forgotten to bring it ashore when they abandoned the wreck--looking upon
+the weapon with almost as much veneration as Mr Lathrope regarded the
+rifle he had inherited from the celebrated Colonel Crockett.
+
+This harpoon Karl now brought forth, approaching the seal with the
+obvious intention of despatching it summarily; when another evidence of
+its elephantine character was displayed, well justifying its title.
+
+As the sailor came up to it and raised the harpoon to strike, the animal
+raised itself on its fore-flappers, snarling and emitting a hollow roar
+which startled everybody near, causing them to jump away, and give it a
+wide berth; while at the same time it erected its nose so that it stood
+out quite stiff, more than a foot long, and, opening its mouth, it
+exposed the bright scarlet palate and gullet, from the bottom of which
+its hoarse bellow proceeded.  Karl, however, was not frightened by the
+sea-elephant's rage, but with a single swinging blow from his harpoon on
+the snout stretched it lifeless on the ground, when all were better able
+to appreciate its enormous size.  Its girth alone exceeded sixteen feet,
+and the animal appeared all the more imposing when dead than alive.
+
+The Norwegian sailor cut out the tongue, telling Mr Meldrum that this
+portion of the sea-elephant and the snout were considered great
+delicacies by the whalers; but none of the party relished either,
+although Snowball served up both at dinner in his most recherche
+fashion.  The flesh of the body, too, was of a blackish hue, and had an
+oily taste about it, which made the sailors turn up their noses at it
+and wish to fling it away; but this Mr Meldrum would not allow.
+
+"We will probably be glad enough to get it bye and bye," he said; and he
+then caused the despised seal "beef" to be cut up in pieces and salted
+down in one of their spare casks in case of future need.
+
+During the time Mr Meldrum had been taking stock of their stores,
+before the coming of the sea-elephant--"to pay them an afternoon call,"
+as Florry said--the carpenter, with a number of the hands working under
+him, had been proceeding with the house-building operations; but he had
+to stop at last, more from want of the proper timber wherewith to
+complete the job than through the darkening of the afternoon on account
+of the approach of night.
+
+"I can't get along nohow," Ben explained to Mr Meldrum, who was now
+regarded as the head of the party, and the one to look to in every
+difficulty.  "I'm at a standstill for planking, sir.  I can manage the
+roof part pretty well, by breaking up those old puncheons we brought
+under the raft and using the staves for shingles; but the joists and
+rafters bother me, sir."
+
+"Well, we must hope to get some more to-morrow from the wreck," said Mr
+Meldrum.  "The ship cannot last much longer; but, recollect, we can't
+get any ashore till she breaks up."
+
+"Aye, aye, sir, I knows that," replied Ben.  "Still, I hopes it won't
+all drift away to sea when she do go to pieces."
+
+"We'll try to prevent that, Boltrope," said the other.  "Mind, Mr
+McCarthy, and have a look-out stationed in the morning to keep an eye on
+the ship, with a man to relieve him watch and watch, the same as on
+board!  She's all firm now, for I saw the flag still waving when I
+looked before the light began to fail; but if the wind and sea get up
+again, as they very likely will towards midnight, tomorrow will tell a
+very different tale!"
+
+"I'll have a look-out, never fear, sorr."
+
+"And, McCarthy--"
+
+"Yes, sorr!"
+
+"See that the jolly-boat is ready and a crew picked for it to put off
+the moment any wreckage is observed floating inshore.  We must not
+neglect any chance of securing all the timber we can for fuel, putting
+the house out of the reckoning entirely!"
+
+"Indade I will, sorr," answered the mate cheerily; and then, all struck
+work for the day and retired into the tent, not sorry to have another
+easy night's rest.  Every one was anxious to turn in, for really there
+was nothing else to be done.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+BREAKING UP OF THE VESSEL.
+
+They did not sleep so soundly, however, on this occasion as they had
+done the first night of their landing on the island; for, soon after
+dark, the wind rose into a tempestuous gale, making the tent flap about
+in such a way that it seemed as if it were about to be carried off
+bodily!
+
+As it was, indeed--through the blowing in of the sides, and the jumping
+up and down of the tarpaulin on the roof every now and then as the
+boisterous gusts got under it--a lot of snow, which had begun to fall
+before they retired to rest and was now coming down in a regular storm,
+as fast and furious as the flakes could succeed each other, managed to
+find its way inside, not contributing much to their comfort; and this,
+combined with the roar of the breakers against the base of the cliffs,
+which seemed louder than ever now that the men were lying down with
+their ears to the ground, tended to keep the majority of the castaways
+awake and made them long for the morning to come again.
+
+At last, the day broke; and, as the faint light gleamed through the
+chinks in the tent, telling all that the dreary night was past, they
+quickly bestirred themselves--Snowball being one of the first to turn
+out, and at once hastening to kindle up the fire, which he had left
+carefully banked up the previous evening, besides wisely hedging it in
+with heavy pieces of stone so that the wind should not scatter it away,
+as would otherwise probably have been the case.
+
+"Soon get drop hot coffee, massa," said he to Mr Meldrum, who was an
+early riser too and not far behind the darkey; "Um berry good for de
+tomack fust thing in mornin'!"
+
+But the other was too much concerned about the fate of the ship to think
+of coffee then; and, long before Snowball had finished his remark, he
+was actively ascending the highest rock near to get a good view out to
+seaward.  Here he was shortly joined by Mr McCarthy and Ben Boltrope,
+who were also equally anxious in the matter; although the others, not
+having been called, did not hurry themselves to leave the warm
+atmosphere of the tent for the cold and raw air without.
+
+The lookers-out, however, could not see much as yet; for the usual
+surface fog--which in these regions generally creeps up in the evening
+and hangs over the sea till broad daylight--had not yet completely
+cleared away; and so, a curtain of haze shut out the offing from their
+gaze.  Still, as far as the eye could reach, the sea was very rough,
+with heavy rollers rolling in landward.  The gale of the night had not
+abated much, albeit the wind was not so gusty as it had been, while its
+force seemed to be lessening as the morning drew on.
+
+"I'm afraid," said Mr Meldrum, after vainly trying for a long time to
+peer through the impenetrable veil of mist which hid the reef from
+sight, "that this last blow has settled the old ship."
+
+"Faix, and I'm thinking just that very same," responded the first mate.
+"It blowed tremenjus towards four bells, sorr, an' the poor crathur must
+be clane smashed up by now!"
+
+"It's very unfortunate if that has happened," replied the other.  "The
+sea is running too high for us to launch the jolly-boat, and so we'll
+lose all chance of saving the wreckage."
+
+"True for you, sorr, save and onless it drifts ashore."
+
+"There's not the slightest hope of that," replied Mr Meldrum.  "Nothing
+has come up on the beach here yet, that I've been able to perceive!"
+
+"But, sure an' the wind's bin blowing on to the land, sorr, all night.
+P'r'aps that might make a difference!"
+
+"Perhaps it might," said the other; "but I very much doubt it."
+
+"Well, sorr, we'll say," retorted the mate.  However, the argument was
+settled offhand by Ben Boltrope, who had clambered up to a higher ledge
+of rock from whence he could see further out to seaward over the fog,
+which hung low on the water and did not extend to the upper regions of
+the air.
+
+"There she is, your honour, bless her old heart!" he exclaimed.  "She's
+still hard and fast on the reef, and never another plank sprung from the
+starn, as far as I can see!"
+
+This was good news; and Mr Meldrum, with the mate, hastened to join the
+carpenter on his perch above.
+
+Yes, there in the distance, rising out of the mist, could be seen the
+upper portion of the poop of the _Nancy Bell_, although the wreck was
+still occasionally obscured by a wave breaking over it; and, presently,
+on the lifting of the fog, as the clouds cleared off from the face of
+the sky and a gleam of sunshine stole out, lighting up the sea and
+landscape around, it could be observed that the remains of the vessel
+were nearly in the same condition, apparently, as when last noticed on
+the evening before--save that the poor ship was now surrounded by a line
+of breakers which dashed over the stern continually, looking as if they
+meant to pull it in pieces before they had done with it!
+
+"She's shifted more on to her side," said Mr Meldrum, who had taken out
+a glass from his pocket and was now inspecting the remains of the old
+ship more carefully.  "I can see the deck clearly.  The waves are
+spurting up through the hole where the skylight was removed, so the
+cabins must be pretty well washed out by this time."
+
+"Ah! that's the rayson we couldn't say the flag, sorr," observed the
+mate.
+
+"It is there still," replied Mr Meldrum; "although it is now all to
+port, instead of right amidships as it was when we left.  This is on
+account of the mizzen-mast stump leaning over into the water, for I
+couldn't see it myself till I took the glass.  She can't last much
+longer, though.  Those seas are breaking over her with frightful force,
+judging by the amount of surf they send up, and they must soon make an
+end of her!"
+
+"I hope it'll calm down a bit, sir," said Ben Boltrope.  "I'm nervous
+about them timbers for the roof of the house."
+
+"Be aisy with you, man," put in Mr McCarthy.  "Sure an' all the anxiety
+in the worruld won't dhrive a pig to market!  If we're to have the
+crathur's planks we'll have thim sure enough; and if we aren't, why we
+won't, that's all about it!"
+
+"The sea may run easier at low water, Boltrope," said Mr Meldrum to
+console the carpenter; "and if she should be broken up by that time,
+we'll send out the jolly-boat and pick up what we can."
+
+"Begorrah, you won't have to wait long," cried the mate; and almost as
+he spoke, a heavy roller was seen to lift up the wreck on the top of its
+crest and roll it over, after which the dark body they had observed on
+the reef with the little scrap of a flag fluttering over it was there no
+longer!
+
+The _Nancy Bell_, or rather the remaining fragments of her hull, had
+disappeared at last beneath the waves!
+
+"I'm afraid we sha'n't be able to save anything," said Mr Meldrum,
+after a moment of silence, in which each of the three witnesses of the
+vessel's end had drawn a deep breath, showing how affecting had been the
+sight.  "It is such a long distance out there, and the sea is running so
+heavily besides, that I wouldn't like to risk the boat."
+
+"Sure and we could thry, sorr," pleaded the first mate eagerly.
+
+"No, Mr McCarthy, it would be hazardous in the extreme; and we ought
+not to peril the men's lives unnecessarily!  Still, if you want to do
+something--"
+
+"Bedad I do," interrupted the other, as if ready at once to dive into
+the sea if required.
+
+"Well," continued Mr Meldrum, "you can post a man on the watch here and
+one or two other places along the cliff, to notice if anything floats
+inshore; and then, of course, we'll make an effort to bring it to land
+should the wreckage drift near."
+
+"Aye, aye, sorr, you may dipind upon me that same," said Mr McCarthy;
+and, rushing down from the rock, he was soon in front of the men's
+compartment of the tent, rousing them out with a cry of, "Ahoy there!
+All hands on deck to save ship!  Tumble up, tumble up there, my
+hearties, there's no time to lose!"
+
+The men coming out with alacrity, half bewildered by such a hail under
+the circumstances and surroundings, four were picked out and posted to
+look out like sentinels--two on the beach and two on the ridge above--
+and all with strict injunctions to report anything they saw at once,
+just as if they were put to the same duty on board ship.
+
+"Now, mind ye kape a good watch," said the first mate, as he left them
+to their own devices, "and out if you say a single hincoop floating in
+the say foreninst ye--though it's little enough of them you'll say,
+sure, considerin' they were all washed overboard off the Cape!--I mane
+if ye say any timbers or spars from the wrack drifting inshore, just you
+hould your eye on thim, or the divil a mother's son ye'll have a roof
+over his hid or a pace of foire to warm his-self!  Faix, ye needn't
+snigger, ye spalpeens; it's the truth I'm afther tellin' ye!" and Mr
+McCarthy then went off, shaking his fist good-humouredly at those who
+laughed at his quaint speech.
+
+Four other men he selected as a crew for the jolly-boat, which was
+hauled down on the beach in readiness to shove off as soon as any of the
+wreckage was reported in sight; the remainder of the hands being
+directed to place themselves under the orders of the carpenter until
+their services should be required to relieve the look-out men at the end
+of their watch.  The duty of these latter, however, was for some time a
+sinecure, as the breakers were still breaking angrily against the cliffs
+and keeping up the hoarse diapason in which they expressed their
+impotent rage; while the wind, though blowing with less force than
+during the night time, was yet strong enough to sweep off the tops of
+the billows when it caught them well abeam, carrying the spindrift away
+to leeward and scattering the surge with its blast as it transformed it
+into fairy-like foam bubbles and wreaths of gossamer spray.
+
+Noon came before there was any change.
+
+Then, soon after the end of the ebb and just as the tide began to flow
+again, the wind died away into a dead calm; and the sea settling down
+somewhat--the rollers still rolling in, but only breaking when they
+reached the shore, instead of jostling one another in their tumultuous
+rushings together and mimic encounters out in the open--every eye was on
+the _qui vive_.  It was either "now or never" that they might expect
+anything coming inshore from the wreck!
+
+"Sail ho!" at length shouted one of the look-out men on the ridge.  The
+sailor evidently could not help using the nautical term from old habit,
+although he well knew that there was little chance of his seeing a
+"sail" that quarter!
+
+"Where away?" called out Mr McCarthy, who had the jolly-boat's crew
+round her, running her into the water the moment he heard the cry.
+
+"Right to leeward of the reef, sir, about a mile out," answered the
+look-out, adding quickly afterwards, "it looks a pretty biggish bit of
+timber, sir, and rides high in the water."
+
+"All right, my man," said the mate; "mind you kape still on the watch,
+and fix any other paces of planking you may say in your mind's eye!  You
+can till me where to look for thim whin I come back agin within hail.
+Shove off, you beggars!" he then cried out to the boat's crew, as he
+jumped in over the side.  "Arrah put your backs into it, for we're bound
+to save ivery scrap of the ould vessel we can come across, in order sure
+to tow it ashore!"
+
+Watching for an opportunity, the boat's head was shoved out on top of a
+return wave, when, the oars being plied with sturdy strokes, the little
+buoyant craft was soon well out of the broken water and making steady
+progress in the direction that had been pointed out.  No object,
+however, could be seen as yet by Mr McCarthy; for the rollers were
+still so high that when the boat was sunk in the hollow between them
+nothing could be noticed beyond the curving ridge of the next wave and
+the broken wash of the one just overtopped.
+
+"Go it, boys, kape at it with a will," cried the mate, rising up in the
+stern-sheets after a while to look round better, steadying himself by
+holding on to the yoke-lines and leaning forwards.  "Ha!  I can say it
+now, right in front!  We'll soon have it--one more stroke, and we'll be
+there, sure!"
+
+"Aisy, now--avast--row of all!" he cried out in turn; and then, with a
+sullen, grating sound the boat brought up against a large mass of broken
+timberwork which the men had no difficulty in recognising as the larger
+portion of the poop deck.  It had the combings of the companion and
+skylight still attached, as well as a part of one of the ladder-ways,
+and was in every sense a treasure trove.
+
+"Sure we're in luck, boys, anyhow," said Mr McCarthy joyfully.  "Be
+jabers, I niver expected to git so much ov it all at once without any
+trouble!"
+
+The first mate proceeded without delay to attach the small hawser which
+they had used for towing the raft to a ring-bolt, left as if for the
+purpose on the floating mass; and then the men, backing water on one
+side, and pulling sharp on the other, soon had the boat on her way back
+to the land, with the mass of broken timberwork trailing behind her.  It
+was in itself, without picking up another plank, more than sufficient to
+supply all the carpenter's needs for the roof of the house, "besoides
+making the ladies a prisint of a staircase for the front door," as Mr
+McCarthy observed!
+
+It was fortunate they came across this, for little more of the wreckage
+was secured, the tide having evidently carried out the lighter portions
+of the planking too far to sea for it to be brought back again by the
+returning flood.  It was probably only owing to the weight of the poop-
+deck that they had been able to make certain of that.
+
+Still, on making a trip out to the reef later on, to see whether any
+more of the timbers remained there, a "find" was discovered which
+greatly rejoiced Snowball's heart when it was brought on shore.
+
+This was nothing less than one of the ship's coppers, which had become
+detached from the galley framework and in falling on to the reef had
+managed to get securely fixed between the rocks, just a little below the
+surface of the water.  A couple of the men were easily able to pull it
+up into the jolly-boat, where, on being inspected, it was found
+perfectly sound and as good as ever!
+
+"Golly, massa," exclaimed the darkey, when Mr Meldrum presented him
+with the recovered copper--which Snowball looked upon almost as the
+apple of his eye--"me able cook pea-shoop now, sah, and bile de beef in
+'spectable style, sah!  Dat sospan, massa, no good for ship's company.
+Um bile, and bile, and bile, and nebbah bile enuff!"
+
+"Ah! mind you don't go cooking too extravagantly," said Mr Meldrum.
+"If I see you wasting anything, I'll taboo the copper."
+
+"Lor, massa, I'se too careful for dat," replied the negro cook, with a
+grin which displayed his ivory-mounted mouth from ear to ear; "when de
+men sing out for more thoop, why, sah, I just water um grog!  Yah, yah!
+ho, ho!" and he burst into a roar of laughter in which those around
+could not help joining, the darkey's hearty merriment was so contagious.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+KERGUELEN CABBAGE.
+
+While Mr McCarthy and the jolly-boat's crew were thus trying to save
+all the "flotsam and jetsam" they could from the wreck, Ben Boltrope and
+those of the crew told off to help him, as "carpenter's mates," were as
+busy as bees house-building, if running up the shanty which Mr Meldrum
+had designed could be so designated; while the rest of the party were
+lending all the aid they could in fetching and carrying what the actual
+workers required.
+
+It was only a rough wooden hut, or rather "composite" structure; but as
+it was more than probable that it would have to be the home of the
+shipwrecked people for some five months at the least, no trouble or
+pains were spared in endeavouring to make it as substantial and
+comfortable under the circumstances as Ben and his active assistants
+could effect with the limited means at their command.
+
+The gable-end of the cliff, under whose lee the hut was erected, so as
+to gain shelter from the southward and westward winds, which seemed to
+be the most prevalent on the coast, presented a flat and even face, just
+like a slab of black slate standing up perpendicularly from the ground.
+The wall of rock, which was of a hard volcanic material that was
+evidently not porous, was made to serve for the back of the building, a
+niche or groove being excavated along it, about ten feet from the
+bottom, for the insertion of the ridge poles.  This was a task of some
+difficulty, owing to the toughness of the stone; but it was a necessary
+one in order to prevent the moisture from above trickling down into the
+interior between the roof and the face of the cliff.  The lower ends of
+the ridge poles, which sloped down from the top at an angle of some
+fifteen degrees, were then firmly fastened to the posts placed in the
+holes dug for them and lashed together with stout seizings of rope and
+sennet, so strongly that it would almost have taken a hurricane to have
+blown them away.
+
+The next proceeding was to fix, at equal distances apart across the
+rough framework of the roof, a series of slender scantlings cut from the
+deck planks by splitting them with an axe, which Ben was forced to make
+use of on account of his having no saw, that and other similar useful
+instruments having been left in his tool-chest, which had been placed in
+the long-boat when the first preparations were made for abandoning the
+_Nancy Bell_.
+
+The scantlings were secured to the ridge poles diagonally, not only for
+greater security but on account of the shortness of some of the pieces
+of timber they had and the necessity there was for their economising it;
+and, over the scantlings were laid in due order, the one overlapping the
+other to prevent any crevices in between, the shingles which the
+ingenious carpenter had improvised out of the staves of the empty
+casks--although, as the space to be covered amounted to some seven
+hundred superficial feet or thereabouts, every one of the casks had to
+be broken up save the six containing their beef and pork and the salted-
+down flesh of the sea-elephant, Ben even then hardly having enough
+shingles for his purpose.
+
+However, casks or no casks, the roof of their house was a consideration
+that stood at the moment before all others; and, being now properly
+shingled, it was rendered additionally watertight by spreading over it
+the old tarpaulin and sail that had already temporarily done duty above
+their tent, and then giving them a good coating of pitch.  A supply of
+this article had been fortunately thrown on to the raft along with the
+other odds and ends that had came in so usefullys and it was now melted
+down in Snowball's recovered copper.  The finishing touch was given to
+the structure by piling several big boulders over the upper row of
+shingles along the ridge pole, for greater stability and to prevent
+boisterous Boreas from playing any of his rude tricks to its
+disadvantage.
+
+The roof done, all hands turned their attention to raising the sides of
+the shanty.  This was a much easier job, consisting in nailing rough
+pieces of planking at intervals across the corner-posts from end to end,
+both inside the building and without, and then filling up the
+interstices, or intervening hollows, with the basaltic debris that was
+scattered around--just as rubble is thrown in between skeleton brickwork
+by what are termed "jerry-builders" to form party-walls of modern
+tenements.  The side walls were then carried up to within a foot or so
+of the eaves of the roof, the sail-covering of which after being allowed
+to lap over was now tucked in at the top, thus closing up the chinks and
+making all snug.
+
+The front of the shanty was afterwards finished off in the same way,
+although more planking was employed as greater nicety of detail was
+necessary in order to arrange for the doorway and windows, for which
+latter the remains of the cabin sky-light Frank thought of bringing
+ashore supplied the material; but it took a couple of days to complete
+the building to the satisfaction of Ben and Mr Meldrum, notwithstanding
+which drawback the whole party took possession of it the night after the
+wreckage had been landed, the recovered timber enabling the carpenter
+and his crew to proceed with the work--all declaring that the house was
+perfect and ever so much better than the discarded tent, in spite of
+many things being still wanting.
+
+In the interior, of course, a flooring had been dispensed with, from the
+simple fact of their having no wood to spare for such a luxury; but
+otherwise it was made to look very comfortable.
+
+Through the aid of canvas curtains suspended from the roof, it was
+divided, as Mr Meldrum had originally planned, into three tolerably
+commodious apartments, the cosiest and most sheltered of which, at the
+extreme end of the building, was apportioned to the ladies some
+sailcloth being spread on the bare ground to render it warmer; while the
+middle and larger room was reserved as a store and place of general
+assembly for eating and carrying on such avocations as were required
+when the weather was too rough for out-of-door work.
+
+The third apartment, at the beach end of the building, was devoted to
+the dormitory accommodation of the men folk, who slept on the bare rock
+below in their blankets--Mr Meldrum, with the American and the officers
+of the ship swinging above the crew in hammocks.
+
+They had a tight fit of it altogether, some one-and-twenty sleeping in a
+space of not more than twenty feet by eight, according to the dimensions
+of the floor; but Captain Dinks' cot was hung for the present in the
+general compartment, on account of his wounded condition and the
+necessity of his having free air and ventilation, lest there should be a
+return of his feverish symptoms, which a confined atmosphere might have
+brought about.
+
+When all these arrangements were completed, and the stores neatly ranged
+round the central division, which Ben Boltrope had further adorned with
+a rough deal table and some settles placed in the centre, the place
+presented quite a homelike appearance to the castaways.  The children,
+indeed, declared that it was like the cuddy of the poor old _Nancy
+Bell_--that is, when things went well with the vessel.  This resemblance
+was especially apparent on the second night after taking possession of
+the new house, when it was "declared open" in state, on which occasion
+it was lit up by no less than two of the ship's lanterns as a sort of
+house warming in honour of the event.  Snowball was also allowed by Mr
+Meldrum to spread the festal board with as luxurious a feast as their
+scanty supplies permitted, a bottle of wine being subsequently produced
+for the ladies and grog served out to the men.
+
+"I guess, mister," said Mr Lathrope, who took quite as much pride as
+Mr Meldrum in the building--indeed had an equal share in planning its
+construction, although he did not work quite so hard in carrying out the
+details--"I'd a sight rayther have this air shanty than a brown stone
+front in Philadelphy--yes, sir!"
+
+"Well, we've got a roof over our heads at all events!" replied Mr
+Meldrum, "and I confess I was anxious about that point.  We've had
+exceptionally fine weather for the time of year here, however, and
+there's no knowing how soon it will turn off; so, now that our house is
+finished, the next thing to be considered is the state of our
+provisions."
+
+"Ah!" said the American, "I kalkerlate that's coming to hum."
+
+"The food question is a vital necessity in most cases, and especially
+now in ours,"--continued the other--"taking into account the many mouths
+we have to feed."
+
+"But the Lord filleth the hungry, we're told," said Mrs
+
+Major Negus, who had developed, since landing on the island, what had
+evidently been a strong religious trait previously dormant in her
+character, if quoting Scripture texts were any proof of this
+disposition.
+
+"Ah ma'rm," responded Mr Lathrope, "don't you believe it, unless the
+hungry work for it."
+
+"And much you've done to earn your food!" said the lady tartly.
+
+"Wa-al, ma'rm, if it warn't for me, as Mr Meldrum here will tell you,
+I've no doubt yer wouldn't have a chimbley, nor nary fire to sot by
+inside haar!"
+
+"A fine smoky chimney it is too!" retorted Mrs Major Negus.  "It is
+quite suffocating, I declare."
+
+"That's better nor bein' friz," said the American, with some little
+heat.  He was rather annoyed at having his special contrivance sneered
+at, for it was only after repeated attempts and failures that the
+building party had at last managed to rig up a fireplace against the
+back wall of the shanty--running up through the roof of the "general"
+room a chimney-shaft of loosely piled stones, enclosed within a
+framework of planks to which was nailed on the sea-elephant's skin in
+order to prevent the wood from catching fire.  This served the purpose
+of warming the whole of the interior, as the other apartments opened
+into this room, which indeed also provided the only means of
+communication with the outside of the hut, the principal and solitary
+door of the establishment being here.
+
+"I'd sooner be smoked any time fur chice, myself, than friz!" said Mr
+Lathrope again, as if to provoke his opponent.
+
+"No wonder," retorted the lady, eager to have the last word, "when
+you're at it all day long, smoking your brains out with that vile
+tobacco!"
+
+"What were you going to say about the provisions, papa?" interposed Kate
+at this juncture, in order to give a turn to the conversation, which
+seemed to be getting a trifle too personal between Mr Lathrope and "the
+Major."
+
+"Well, my dear," said her father, glad of the interruption, "I was about
+to call a council of war.  What we have can't last us very long, at our
+present rate of consumption.  We shall have to eke it out, as far as it
+is practicable, by the native products of the island."
+
+"That's snow and pumice-stone, as fur as I ken see," put in Mr
+Lathrope; "and I guess I must be durned peckish fore I tackle those!"
+
+"You forget the seals and the penguins," said Mr Meldrum.
+
+"Waal, mister," rejoined the American, "we've only seed one seal, as I
+reckon.  That was that air `Sea Olly-fant,' as the Norwegee called it,
+and the animile's meat warn't 'zackly what this child ken stomach!  As
+for them penguins, I guess they're kinder fishy."
+
+"My dear sir, we can't be squeamish," said the other.  "Perhaps we'll be
+only too glad to get anything we can presently!  Besides the seals and
+birds, however, there's something else I shall have to look after to-
+morrow.  It is what I should have thought of before, only we were so
+busy about the house--some vegetable food to eat with our salt beef.  We
+must use some antiscorbutic; and we haven't a tin of our preserved stock
+left, I think."
+
+"And whar'll you find vegetables haar, mister?"
+
+"Why, there's one specially distinctive of the island and I daresay
+we'll not have to hunt far for it.  From the accounts I've read it ought
+to grow quite close to the seashore."
+
+"And what's that, mister?" asked the American.
+
+"Kerguelen cabbage," promptly answered Mr Meldrum.
+
+"Snakes and alligators, mister!  Do you expect to find sich kitchen
+stuff haar?"
+
+"I do," replied the other; "and intend to search for it to-morrow
+morning, as soon as I turn out!"
+
+"It was lucky we have poor puss, papa," said Florry just then.  "We
+would have had all our things eaten up by the mice only for her."
+
+"Dear me!" ejaculated Mrs Major Negus, drawing her skirts closer to her
+in alarm, "you don't say so?  Mice! gracious goodness that I ever should
+have come to such a place.  Of all the things I hate, those nasty
+creatures are the worst."
+
+"Ah! ma'rm," put in Mr Lathrope, seeing his chance of revenge for the
+lady's comments on his chimney; "if all Mister Meldrum kalkerlates comes
+true about the shortness of our provisions, I guess you'll be glad to
+eat 'em bye and bye!  I've seed the Chinee immigrants gobble 'em up in
+Californy often enough!"
+
+"Disgusting!" ejaculated Mrs Major Negus, raising her nose in the air
+with an expression of intense scorn.  "I for one, sir, will never
+descend to adopt Chinese fashions and live on rats and mice, whatever
+you may have learnt to do in your travels."
+
+"Pray, do not alarm yourself," interposed Mr Meldrum, laughing.  "Can't
+you see that Mr Lathrope is only joking!  I do not dread our being
+reduced to such a sad extremity as he pictures!  Are you sure about the
+mice, Florry?"
+
+"Oh yes, papa," answered that young lady.  "Pussy killed four not long
+ago, and brought them purring, one after another, to Kate and me--as if
+to show us what she had done!  Besides, I'm sure I heard them squeaking
+behind the boxes last night."
+
+Florry's statement was true enough, for on hunting amongst the stores it
+was found that the corners of the bags containing the small supply of
+biscuits they had left had been nibbled through and their contents
+scattered on the ground; in addition to which there were other evidences
+of the presence of the little depredators.  The mice must have been
+originally introduced into the island by some whaling ship; and, they
+had evidently multiplied considerably since then, for they were now very
+numerous and puss would have all her work cut out for her in keeping
+them down.
+
+In spite of the mouse diversion, Mr Meldrum did not forget what he had
+said about the "Kerguelen cabbage."
+
+Instituting a search next day, it was not long before he came across the
+plant in a little hollow, close to the fresh-water tarn adjoining their
+hut and just peeping out from a thin covering of half-melted snow that
+lay on the ground.
+
+This peculiar vegetable production, which was first noticed by Captain
+Cook a century ago and is indigenous to the island, is termed by
+botanists the _Pringlea antiscorbutica_, and belongs to the order of
+plants classed as the _Cruciferae_, which embraces the common cabbage of
+every household garden, the radish, and the horse-radish--to the latter
+of which the Kerguelen cabbage is the most closely allied, on account of
+its hot pungent taste when eaten raw as well as from its habit and mode
+of growth.
+
+Mr Meldrum could not have failed to discover and recognise it at first
+sight from the description he already had, for the leaves of the plant
+grew thick about the root and put forth an upright stem, some two to
+three feet high, from which proceeded shoots, like broccoli sprouts on
+an enlarged scale, the outer petal-like leaves of which were six to
+eight inches long, and of a dark olive-green hue and fleshy nature,
+rounded and ciliated at the margin; while the inner leaves were of a
+paler green that approximated to yellow in the centre, where they were
+crumpled together, exactly like as in the "heart" of the well-known
+cabbage, to which the vegetable bore a very close likeness on being
+first seen.
+
+"Begorrah, it's a cabbage, all the worruld over!" exclaimed the first
+mate, who had accompanied Mr Meldrum in his quest.  "Sure you'd hardly
+know the hid ov the baste, if it was cut off, from one grown in
+Connemara!"
+
+"Not quite so strong a resemblance, perhaps," replied Mr Meldrum,
+smiling.  "Still, there's likeness enough to recognise its membership to
+the general cabbage family; but, we have yet to try how it tastes!"
+
+"Aye, aye, sorr," said Mr McCarthy.  "The proof of the pudden's in the
+aiting, sure!"
+
+However, the Kerguelen cabbage stood this test well enough.
+
+It was tried that very day at dinner; and, although tasting slightly
+acrid and hot flavoured when raw, on being cooked in the same water in
+the copper in which some salt pork had been boiled, it seemed not very
+much dissimilar to the native home-grown article commonly known as
+"greens."
+
+"I guess, mister, it air downright prime, an' no mistake," said Mr
+Lathrope, passing opinion on its qualities; "and more'n that, it fills a
+feller up fine!"
+
+"Begorrah, it's jist like bacon and greens!" observed Mr McCarthy.
+
+The majority of the men, too, relished it greatly.  It was a long time
+since any of them had tasted fresh meat much less vegetables, by reason
+of the _Nancy Bell_ not having stopped at any port on her way after
+leaving England; so, thenceforth, both on account of its antiscorbutic
+as well as from its "filling up" qualities, the plant invariably formed
+a leading feature in the dietary scale of the castaways; Snowball never
+failing to have a plentiful supply of "cabbage" to cook when meal times
+came round, or else he or somebody else in fault for its absence, would
+have to "tell the reason why!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+COLONEL CROCKETT'S RIFLE.
+
+Captain Dinks was gradually getting better; but his recovery was so very
+slow that it would be weeks before he would be able to quit his cot.
+His wound had been a severe one, and had narrowly missed his heart.
+
+Under these circumstances, therefore, Mr Meldrum still retained the
+position of chief of the party--not only the first mate and Mr Adams
+acquiescing in the arrangement, which the poor captain desired; but the
+general bulk of the men themselves, who were prejudiced in his favour
+from Ben Boltrope's frequent yarns of his ability when an officer in the
+navy, requested his continuing to be their leader by acclamation, when
+he expressed a wish of surrendering the command as soon as they had
+landed safely from the wreck and things had been made comfortable for
+them on the island.  This was only a repetition of what they had done
+when they were in peril of their lives on board the _Nancy Bell_, at
+which momentous time, it may be remembered, Mr McCarthy, speaking on
+behalf of all, had asked him to assume the direction of things and
+endeavour to extricate them from danger, looking upon him as the most
+competent person to guide them in the emergency.
+
+Just so, now, on his speaking of relinquishing the leadership, he was
+requested to retain it for the common benefit, at least until Captain
+Dinks should be able to get about.  This was the more desired from the
+fact of Mr Meldrum having managed matters so well for them already that
+they expected him to "see them through" all present difficulties.
+
+As on the previous occasion, Mr Meldrum did not hesitate to retain the
+post, believing from his training and experience in commanding bodies of
+men that he really would be the best leader they could have, in default
+of the captain; but, before consenting to the general wish, he addressed
+all hands, impressing on them the necessity of implicit obedience to his
+orders and a rigid attention to whatever duties he might set them--
+adding that they might be certain he would not tell them to do anything
+which was not, to the best of his impression, for their own good.
+
+To this the men assented with a cheer of acquiescence, and he then
+dismissed them with the assurance that he would endeavour to deserve the
+confidence they had displayed in him.  But, prior to separating from Mr
+McCarthy and Adams, Mr Meldrum drew up a code of rules for their
+guidance, premising that where a large party of seamen such as they had
+under them were thus thrown ashore with no regular duties to perform,
+such as they had on board ship, it was most urgently necessary that
+employment of some sort should be made for them; not only to keep them
+out of that mischief which the evil one is proverbially said to find
+"for idle hands to do," but also to prevent them from dwelling on the
+misery of their situation.
+
+"We must keep watches, turn and turn about," Mr Meldrum explained,
+"just the same as we did on board the ship; for, although there'll be no
+sails to attend to, in the cold nights which we will shortly have the
+fire will need careful looking after to prevent it from going out and
+leaving us all perhaps to freeze to death, while, in the daytime, there
+will be seal-hunting and water fetching to employ the hands, besides
+seeing to keeping the rooms clean.  These and such similar duties must
+be performed regularly, so that through their aid the long hours will
+pass the more rapidly, until we are able--as I trust we shall about
+November, when the snow melts here, I believe, and we can travel--to
+start towards the other side of the island, where I hope we'll fetch
+some harbour where the whalers touch, and get taken on board and landed
+at the Cape or some other civilised spot.  But, mind, in order to do
+this," he added in conclusion, "we must all work together in harmony;
+and, to prevent discord, and all sorts of unpleasantness, we must keep
+the men constantly employed--not too onerously, but so that they shall
+always have something to do--in order that the weary time of waiting
+shall not hang heavy upon them.  However, my friends, to encourage them,
+you must likewise find something to be busy at for yourselves, as I
+shall find for myself!  Excuse this little bit of a sermon, gentlemen,"
+said Mr Meldrum at the end of his discourse; "but I thought it
+necessary to say it, as I've seen the evil of having a lot of men about
+me with nothing for them to do on a foreign station before now, and I've
+learnt wisdom by experience!"
+
+"True for you, sorr," replied Mr McCarthy, stretching out his brawny
+fist; "and there's my hand on it to say I'll attind to your orders, if
+it's to holystone the face of that ould cliff there."
+
+"All right, my friend!" said Mr Meldrum, shaking the hand outstretched
+cordially.  "I see we understand each other; and, believe me, I'll not
+be a hard taskmaster."
+
+"I'm certain of that, sir," responded Mr Adams; and the trio then
+parted company to carry these arrangements into effect, the first result
+of which was that everybody looked more cheerful than they had been
+since the completion of the house, after finishing which some dulness
+and lassitude had been observable in the men, coupled with a tendency to
+idle about and mope.
+
+This soon disappeared now when the first mate and Mr Adams, in
+pursuance of Mr Meldrum's directions, made them bustle about here and
+there.
+
+They did all sorts of jobs.  They scraped the jolly-boat's planking, and
+pitched her inside and out; after which they collected all the stray
+blocks of basalt they could find and built a "shebeen," as Mr McCarthy
+called it, to contain her, and then housed it and her over with all the
+spare planks they could get hold of--marching miles along the black
+sandy beach for the purpose of seeing what stray timber might be
+stranded.  In addition to this work achieved, they rigged up a flagstaff
+on the head of the cliff and used to signal from thence at stated hours
+of the day.  In fact, they were employed in doing everything that could
+be thought of to give employment to their minds and bodies, McCarthy and
+Adams finding them fresh jobs continually.
+
+Amongst all these various tasks, however, the very needful one of
+replenishing their gradually diminishing larder was not forgotten.
+
+"We've got some green-stuff," said Mr Lathrope--whom the question of
+eating, or rather what to get to eat, seemed more materially to affect
+than anyone else--"and I ain't a-going to gainsay but what it's fust-
+rate green-stuff of the sort, and right down prime filling stuff too;
+but, mister, we ain't all ben brought up to live on sauerkraut, like
+them German immigrants as I've seed land at Castle Garden, New York.  I,
+fur one, likes a bit o' somethin' more substantial, that a feller can
+chew.  'Spose we goes a-huntin', hey?"
+
+"Very good," replied Mr Meldrum to this exordium; "but what shall we
+hunt!"
+
+"Anything you durned please, siree," said the other.  "There's seals and
+them penguins besides lots of cormorants and sichlike."
+
+"Well, I don't think the seals will want much hunting or shooting," said
+Mr Meldrum; "for, if we come across any, a stroke over the nose with a
+stick will settle them, and the same can be said of the penguins--
+although I don't want them to be disturbed yet, as it will soon be their
+breeding season and I hope to get a lot of eggs from the little colony
+adjacent to us.  As for the cormorants, if you complained about the
+former birds having a fishy taste, you'll find these fishier still.
+However, to relieve your mind, I believe that there are a number of wild
+rabbits on the island, so we'll try to shoot some of those."
+
+"Bully for you!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope.  "We'll go rabbit-hunting,
+mister, as soon as you please.  If there wer one thing I liked in the
+old country it wer rabbit-pie, and it kinder made me lonesome to think
+I'd never fix my grinders through another 'fore I got played out!"
+
+"I've heard, too," continued Mr Meldrum, "that there's a very fine sort
+of tern or duck here that is good eating; and I fancy I saw a brace fly
+across the creek the other day.  We might come across some!"
+
+"If we dew," said the American complacently, tapping the barrel of the
+old rifle he had brought ashore as his most valued possession, and
+spoken of as the gift of his deceased grandfather, "I guess Colonel
+Crockett haar ken give a sorter good account of 'em.  When I draws a
+bead with that thaar rifle, mister, what I shoot at's as good as a gone
+coon!"
+
+"I hope you'll have plenty of practice with it then, to the advantage of
+our dinner-table," replied Mr Meldrum pleasantly, preparing for the
+expedition by loading carefully a double-barrelled gun which he too had
+saved from amongst the various goods and chattels he had left on board
+the wreck.  "You can have all the rabbits I kill if you let me have the
+ducks."
+
+"That's a bargain, mister," said Mr Lathrope; "though I guess you'll
+gain by the swop."
+
+"Sure and it sames to me you're both countin' your chickens afore
+they're hatched," observed the first-mate with a huge grin at his own
+joke.
+
+"You're not far wrong, Mr McCarthy," said Mr Meldrum.  "I, for one,
+don't expect to come back overladen with game; but of course I can't
+answer for my friend here, who may be another American `Deerslayer,' for
+all I can tell, though he'll find rabbits his biggest quarry on this
+island."
+
+"Sir," retorted Mr Lathrope, "I ain't goin' to let out all I ken dew,
+fur a leaky sieve's gen'rally bad for holdin' water, I guess; but, you
+jest wait and see what you jest see!"
+
+"Arrah sure and we will, sorr," said Mr McCarthy, bursting into a
+regular roar of laughter, in which Mr Meldrum and the others joined--
+Mrs Major Negus being especially prominent in her merriment, as she
+always was when anything was said to the American's disadvantage, he
+being apparently her direct antipathy.  "But I hope, sorr, though it
+goes agin my own counthry to say it, what you bring back won't be as
+much as Paddy shot at."
+
+"You slide along with your durned brogue," was all the retort that Mr
+Lathrope condescended to make to this hit.  It touched him, however, on
+his tenderest point, for he certainly prided himself on his proficiency
+in the use of "the lethal weapon;" so, when he turned round and observed
+that Master Snowball had heard the remark and was indulging in a quiet
+guffaw at his expense, he rounded on him a little more sharply.  "I
+guess you'd better stow that, you ugly cuss!" said he menacingly; "or
+else I'll soon make you rattle your ivories to another toon!"  Whereupon
+the darkey reduced his grin to a proper focus and endeavoured to look as
+grave as he could.
+
+This appeased Mr Lathrope at once.
+
+"Oh! durn it all, nigger, laugh away," he said, his wrath passing away
+as quickly as it had risen.  "I guess those ken laugh who win;" and he
+handed Snowball a chaw of tobacco to show that he did not harbour any
+ill-will.
+
+Leaving their house on the creek--which, by the way, Florry had
+christened "Penguin Castle," in consequence of its propinquity to the
+colony of queer sea-fowl--Mr Meldrum and Mr Lathrope, with Frank
+Harness, who was also of the shooting party as well as two men to help
+in carrying back home the fruits of the sport, all pursued their way in
+company up the valley in a north-easterly direction to the right of the
+cliff against which the house was built.
+
+The ground here rose gradually as they went along, and the walking
+became rather heavy after a time, in consequence of the snow having
+partly thawed and the soil beneath it being of some sort of peaty
+substance, into which their feet sank deeply at each step.
+
+Presently, Frank, to whom Mr Meldrum had lent a second gun he had
+brought ashore, saw a bird just like a little bantam cock, which he at
+once shot.
+
+This bird was pure white, with strong yellowish feet, that were not
+webbed like those of aquatic habits, rather short wings like those of a
+game bird, a strong black bill, stout spurs, and a bold black eye, which
+latter seemed to reproach Frank when he went to pick it up.  Mr Meldrum
+said it was what was called a sheathbill, and not good for eating, which
+made Frank regret all the more having killed it, especially when its
+mate hopped up to him presently--as if asking him why he had shot her
+husband!
+
+It was next Mr Lathrope's turn, a wild duck flying right over his head;
+but, somehow or other, "Colonel Crockett's rifle" didn't happen to be
+just ready in time, and the duck would have escaped but for Mr
+Meldrum's bringing it down with his right barrel.  It was really very
+curious.
+
+The same thing resulted when a second teal, or widgeon--the wild duck
+appearing to partake of the characteristics of both varieties--came by.
+Strange to say, the American's weapon again missed fire, and Mr Meldrum
+had to kill the bird with his left barrel.  These repeated failures to
+bring down anything made Mr Lathrope use rather strong language anent
+the rifle.
+
+"Burn the old thing!" said he; "I can't make out what's come over it.
+My old grandfather's shot scores of deer with the tarnation weppin, and
+I guess it's jest cranky, that's all.  I bet I'll shoot the next fowl
+that comes across haar, or I'll bust it."
+
+Unfortunately, however, no more ducks were to be seen; but as they
+ascended a rather steep and bare hill at the back of their own cliff,
+and somewhat sheltered, like that, from the ocean winds, they noticed
+one or two little objects, jumping up and down out of holes in the
+ground and then scuttling back again--not from any alarm at their
+appearance, but as if only in play, for they did not interrupt their
+pastime for a moment as the shooting party approached.
+
+"By Jove! there are the rabbits," said Frank, levelling his gun.
+
+"Jeerusalem! so they air," exclaimed Mr Lathrope.  "Dew let me hev the
+first shot!"
+
+"All right; fire away!" replied Mr Meldrum, who was ready to aim at a
+couple of the little creatures that were sitting up on a fragment of
+rock right opposite the three sportsmen, apparently combing their
+whiskers and eyeing them curiously the while.  So near were they,
+indeed, that the most unskilful marksman in the world could hardly have
+missed them.
+
+"Here goes, mister!" ejaculated Mr Lathrope, pulling the trigger of his
+piece with as strong an effort as if he were wrenching back a gate-post.
+"I guess you'll soon see the fur fly."
+
+Instead of this, however, the phenomenon was witnessed of the fragments
+of the rifle dispersing in all directions the moment it was discharged,
+the American being at the same time knocked backward to the ground by
+the kick of the weapon, which went off with a loud report.
+
+"You're not hurt, I hope?" asked Mr Meldrum, who with Frank had at once
+hurried to the American's side and taken hold of his hand to raise him
+up.
+
+"No, I guess not," replied Mr Lathrope slowly, getting up on to his
+feet and proceeding to feel himself carefully all over.  "No, I ain't
+hurt; but I feels flummuxed by the durned old shootin'-iron.  I
+kalkerlate my grandfather was a fraud, and took me in on that job.  I
+would ha' betted my bottom dollar on the weppin, and now it ain't worth
+a cent!"
+
+There was a pretty good laugh round at "Colonel Crockett's rifle," and
+what it had brought down, but the American took it all with very good
+temper.  After that, Mr Meldrum and Frank handing him their guns
+alternately, so that they all three could have a fair number of shots
+apiece, they managed to make a very good bag out of the rabbits, which
+were not in the least dismayed either by the bursting of the rifle in
+the first instance, or by the rapid disappearance of their companions
+subsequently, although each discharge of the sportsmen's guns laid many
+of them low.
+
+Indeed, they might have shot the lot had not Mr Meldrum observed that
+they had secured enough; besides which, the two sailors who accompanied
+the party said they could not cram any more into the sacks they had
+brought.  Thereupon all set about counting the spoil, and found that
+they had bagged no less than sixty-three brace.
+
+These, with five wild ducks--Mr Lathrope bringing down a pair right and
+left, on their way back, in a fashion which amply retrieved his
+character as a shot, and Frank securing the odd one--were the nett
+result of the day's sport, in addition to the little sheathbill; and the
+shooting party returned to the house under the cliff as well satisfied
+with their own prowess as the home party were to welcome them,
+especially as they were now so plentifully provided with what all had
+been longing for since the last sheep had been washed overboard the
+_Nancy Bell_ when she was off the Cape--fresh-meat!
+
+That very day Mr Lathrope had a pie made for his own special
+delectation by Snowball as a sort of _amende honourable_ for the
+darkey's laughter at Colonel Crockett's celebrated rifle, which had come
+to such a deplorable and dangerous end; and, for some time after, the
+entire community of "Penguin Castle," with the exception of the penguins
+themselves, feasted upon bunnies _ad libitum_, until they could say, as
+did the servants of that parsimonious nobleman who fed them without
+change on similar fare:--
+
+  "Of rabbits young and rabbits old,
+  Of rabbits hot and rabbits cold,
+  Of rabbits tender and rabbits tough,
+  Thank the Lord, we've had enough!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+A CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION.
+
+In spite of the abundance of their supply of rabbits, however, Mr
+Meldrum would not allow them to be prodigally wasted.
+
+Wisely "providing for a rainy day," he caused a considerable quantity to
+be split open and cleaned; and, after the skin was removed, had them
+rubbed over with dry salt, of which fortunately they had plenty.  The
+carcasses were subsequently hung up on lines across the general room,
+adjacent to the fireplace, the warmth of which in a short time cured
+them like hams, so that they would keep for weeks, and even months if
+not required for culinary purposes earlier--as, it eventually turned
+out, they were.
+
+It was a lucky thing that the shooting party went on their excursion
+when they did.  Had they delayed it, as might have been the case, until
+they had turned their attention to the seals--which it had been Mr
+Meldrum's intention first to have hunted, in order to obtain as many
+furs as possible before the severe cold weather, that he expected soon
+to set in--they might have starved; for, the very day that succeeded the
+one on which they brought home the rabbits, a heavy fall of snow
+commenced that completely blocked up all the approaches to the creek,
+and compelled them to remain indoors during the ensuing week.  The wind
+blew so terribly keen and strong from the north-east, right over the
+cliffs on the opposite side of the bay, during the whole time the snow
+continued to fall, that it was painful in the extreme to be exposed to
+it; while, if the door of the house happened to be left open but for a
+few minutes, the driving snow-flakes made their way within and banked
+themselves up like a heap of frozen drift in their midst.
+
+"Ah!" said Mr Meldrum, "I told you that the fine weather we had was
+very exceptional, and could not last.  It was providential that we were
+prepared for this, or we should have been in a miserable plight."
+
+"You're right, boss," observed Mr Lathrope.  "This air snow-storm is
+jest like one of them blizzards I told you about when we were aboard the
+old ship that I had noticed in Minnesota.  I didn't kinder think then
+that I should come across another o' them this side of the globe!  I'd
+ha' bet agin it any day."
+
+"Aye," responded the other, "it is a fortunate thing for all of us that
+we cannot foresee the future, and that our strength is apportioned by
+degrees to the burdens sent us to bear.  The great majority of us would
+succumb at once if we only knew the struggle that lay before us, the
+griefs, the trials, the mental weariness, the physical pain!"
+
+"Oh, papa," said Kate, "don't speak so sadly!  Let us rather think of
+the joy and unlooked-for happiness which so frequently comes to our lot
+when we have the least cause to expect them; and--and--" but here the
+girl's voice faltered.
+
+Kate well knew the reason of her father taking so sombre a view of life,
+and she shared the sorrow that filled his heart, for her mother had but
+died a short period before they left England.
+
+"Think, papa," she added, after a pause, "of the glorious hope of
+eternity, and the city within the golden gates, where we shall all of us
+meet the loved ones who have gone before!"
+
+"Thank you, my child," replied Mr Meldrum, drawing her fondly to his
+side, and speaking as if they were alone together.  "You have taught me
+a lesson, and I will repine no longer about the immutable.  It is best
+to look forward, as you say.  We ought to recollect that all our days
+must not necessarily be gloomy because for the moment they may happen to
+be overcast!"
+
+"No, sirree," interposed Mr Lathrope, "and I guess this air blizzard
+ain't going to last for ever:-- it looks now railly as if it wer' goin'
+to leave off snowing."
+
+"I think you are right," said Frank Harness, who had been sitting on the
+other side of Kate, listening quietly to the conversation between her
+and her father.  "I don't see any flakes now coming through the chinks
+of the door, as they were doing a short time ago.  It is either leaving
+off, or the wind has chopped round to the southward and westward again."
+
+So saying, Frank got up and went to peer without the portal, the others
+that were in the general room not stirring, for the greater number of
+the seamen were asleep in their dormitory.  It was getting towards
+evening and most of the limited duties which it was possible to give the
+men to do, now that they were continuously confined indoors, had been
+already got through for the day.
+
+Only Ben Boltrope and Karl Ericksen, amongst the hands, were up and
+awake; and they were engaged in playing a game of chequers with a set of
+counters which the Norwegian had skilfully carved out of black basalt
+and white pumice-stone, both of which had been found lying close
+together at the bottom of the creek.  The board that they played on was
+made by the carpenter, but it had been divided into proper squares
+through the aid of Mr Meldrum's compasses and parallel ruler, wielded
+by Mr Lathrope; so that all of them, so to speak, had a hand in the
+construction of the complete article.
+
+Both Mr Lathrope and Frank were right as to the weather, for, although
+the snow-flakes came down more slowly and were much smaller than they
+had been, the shifting of the wind had created the change.  This was now
+blowing into the bay straight from the sea; and while the gale was still
+as high and fierce as at the beginning of the snow-storm, it was not
+quite so cold.
+
+The waves, however, were rolling against the cliffs just as they had
+done when the _Nancy Bell_ struck on the reef, and the reverberation of
+their roar was fearfully grand out in the open.  The piled-up snow
+against the sides of the house had so deadened the sound within, that
+the party ensconced there could hear little beyond the whistling of the
+wind round the eaves of the house.
+
+Frank returned to those within, after carefully closing the door again
+behind him, just like the dove messenger came back to Noah and his
+imprisoned family in the ark!
+
+Like the bearer of the olive branch, he too was a herald of glad
+tidings.
+
+"There is a change," said he, addressing himself to Mr Meldrum, "and I
+think, sir, we'll soon be able to get out again."
+
+"I'm glad to hear that," replied the other, getting up to look; but he
+came back even sooner than Frank, and did not seem quite so jubilant.
+
+"I'm afraid the shift of the wind will not do us much good, as far as
+getting about is concerned," he said.  "It will only tend to drift the
+snow where it has not penetrated before; and may very probably shut us
+in more firmly than ever.  I notice one good thing, however, that the
+snowstorm has done.  It has covered over the house, and we will be all
+the warmer should it start freezing again!"
+
+"But won't it break down the roof?" said Mrs Major Negus, alarmed at
+this.
+
+"Oh, no!" replied Mr Meldrum, "the roof is too strongly built for that;
+besides which, we're under the lee of the cliff that protects us from
+this very wind.  Still, I hope we'll have a chance of getting some more
+Kerguelen cabbage before the snow commences to fall heavily again, as
+I've no doubt it will.  I ought to have laid in a stock when we went
+rabbit shooting that time.  In this sort of treacherous climate one
+should take advantage of every fine day and provide for the next."
+
+"You forget," said Mrs Major Negus, "sufficient for the day is the evil
+thereof!"
+
+"But it don't say the good, only the evil, ma'rm; mind that," put in Mr
+Lathrope.  "Some folks seem to take a pleasure in twisting Scripture
+contrariwise, jest to suit theer own squintin'-one-eye-skimmin'-the-pot-
+and-t'other-lookin'-up-the-chimbley sort of conscience!"
+
+"Some people," retorted the lady, "never apply the parable of the mote
+and the beam, because they can't see their own faults."
+
+"We should live and let live," said Mr Meldrum, trying to put a stop to
+a sort of argument which was endlessly going on between the pair of
+combatants, much to his annoyance generally, when Florry created a
+diversion.
+
+"Look!" she exclaimed.  "Puss has caught another mouse!"
+
+"Thar, boss," said Mr Lathrope laughing, "is a case in pint, to
+illustrate yer saying about lettin' folks be.  I'm afeard me and Missis
+Meejur is unkimmon like the mouse and the cat!"
+
+"Speak for yourself, please," interposed the lady, thinking that he
+meant to designate her as the feline animal.  "If you've a mind to liken
+yourself to one of those dreadful creatures that are always nibbling, I
+don't choose to be called a cat."
+
+"I aren't a bit pertickler what you call me, ma'rm," replied the
+American very good-humouredly, "although I confess I am a bit partial to
+nibblin' when thar's anything good to eat!"
+
+"That's you all over," said Mrs Major with much satisfaction; when, as
+she appeared pleased, Mr Lathrope allowed the conversation to rest
+there, which satisfied Mr Meldrum also, as he did not like these
+continual bickerings going on before the younger members of the party,
+besides their being, as has been said, especially distasteful to
+himself.
+
+The next day it stopped snowing altogether; consequently a vegetable-
+hunting expedition was organised, a small party which started up the
+valley managing to bring back with some difficulty a few heads of
+cabbage, which with the dried rabbits alone now constituted their daily
+fare--both the beef and pork getting so low that Mr Meldrum had to stop
+their issue, although the men were not so hard pressed yet as to take to
+the salted sea-elephant.
+
+Had the cabbage not been out of the line of drift, in a more secluded
+portion of the creek, the vegetable-seekers would have been unable to
+find it; for, the entire landscape was covered with a deep snow that was
+evenly distributed over hollow and hill alike--the lower lying land and
+the higher eminences so running into one another that they could not be
+distinguished.  The tops of the loftiest peaks, indeed, seemed to be
+dwarfed down to the monotonous level of the plain; and, where elevated
+at all, they resembled more a cluster of little round mounds like sugar-
+loaves than anything else!
+
+During the cessation of the snow-storm, the castaways contrived to
+secure another sea-elephant which visited the bay, Karl Ericksen
+harpooning him in the water.  This time the men did not despise the
+flesh, but appeared to relish it very much when Snowball fried it
+fresh--a considerable portion of it being eaten in this way; while all
+the fat and blubber was melted down, and the remainder of the meat
+salted and packed in the cask with the other seal beef which was as yet
+untouched.
+
+On one of these days, too, Ben Boltrope went fishing from the lower
+cliffs, just above the bay at the head of the creek--on account of the
+sea there being calmer, and no breakers ruffling the water near.
+
+This pursuit would have been tried before, only that amongst the various
+articles that had been brought away from the ship there was not a single
+fish-hook The old man-o'-war's man, however, had at length managed to
+overcome the difficulty, manufacturing in his leisure moments a very
+good substitute by beating out some small nails that he had previously
+made malleable by putting them in the fire.  After spending some hours
+angling, Ben returned home with some half a dozen fish about the size of
+a small haddock.  These had their heads armed with stout strong spines;
+but in spite of this peculiarity, they proved under Snowball's
+manipulation to be very palatable, and Mr Lathrope, "for one," as he
+himself said, regretted that the carpenter had not caught more; he
+"guessed" he would have "gone for 'em!"
+
+The interregnum of fine weather did not last long; for, soon the snow
+set in falling again as if it would never stop.  The days, consequently,
+grew unutterably dreary, from the misfortune of all being perforce
+confined, as before, to the house by the bitter cold wind; and, to make
+matters worse, the snow-flakes now seemed to penetrate through the
+tiniest crevices within the hut, so that the air in the interior of the
+dwelling was of the temperature of freezing, no matter how great a fire
+was kept up!
+
+While this lasted, Mr Meldrum devised all sorts of amusements for the
+men.
+
+Amongst other things tried was music, one of the crew having made a
+banjo, the strings of which were twisted from the smaller intestines of
+the last sea-elephant they had killed; and by the aid of this instrument
+harmonic meetings were organised in the evenings, Mr Lathrope
+developing an almost forgotten talent he possessed, and coming out as a
+comic singer.  He absolutely bewitched even the "Major," with his
+version of "Buffalo Gals," and the "Cackle, cackle, flap your wings and
+crow," chorus of the Christy Minstrels, who certainly, in his person,
+did perform on this occasion out of London!
+
+It was at this period, when the days seemed as if they would never end
+and the nights longer, that a memorable event occurred for two, at
+least, of the party.
+
+Ever since that night of the storm on board the _Nancy Bell_, when she
+had, as he firmly believed, saved his life by catching hold of him as he
+was on the point of being washed away by the sea, Frank had become
+deeply attached to Kate; and the more he saw of the true-hearted girl--
+her fond affection for her father, her anxious solicitude towards her
+little sister, her kind sympathy for everybody--the more his affection
+ripened, until at length he thought he could conceal his dawning love no
+longer.
+
+Then came the wreck; and, in the trying scenes which subsequently arose,
+in which the two were each in their own way actors, the more Frank saw
+to admire in his fairy ideal, the prompt courageous woman of action.
+Subsequently they were thrown more closely together in the enforced
+companionship of the castaway community on the desolate shores of
+Kerguelen Land, when every moment increased their intimacy, while it
+enabled him to study more closely those salient points of her character
+which appeared to develop themselves as circumstances called them
+forth--her filial love, her devotion to her sister, her unconquerable
+faith, her unbounded hope and cheerfulness in the most despondent
+situations--but, above all, her innate sense of religion, a feeling that
+seemed to underlie her nature and yet which in no wise detracted from
+her superabundant animal spirits, which harmonised themselves to the
+moods and weaknesses of all.  Seeing all this, and noting what he saw
+and reverenced, Frank could not but love Kate Meldrum with all the
+warmth and passion of his heart.  So loving her, and dying for the want
+of some response to the wealth of affection he had so long treasured up
+in his breast, he could not refrain from seeking from her a word of
+hope.
+
+It was one evening when, save to him and her, it appeared to be the
+dreariest of all the dreary ones they had already passed in their
+extemporised dwelling--"home" they called it, as people will style any
+shelter to which they can retreat from all the trials and exposures of
+the outside world, "no matter how homely!"
+
+The seamen had all retired to their dormitory, as had likewise Mr
+McCarthy and Adams; while Mr Lathrope was nodding in one corner of the
+general room by the fireplace, and Mr Meldrum immersed in thought in
+the other.
+
+Florry and Maurice Negus had both gone to sleep long since.  Mrs
+"Major," and the stewardess had also retreated to their sleeping
+chamber; and thus, Frank and Kate were, so to speak, alone.  The
+opportunity was propitious.
+
+They had been talking for some time in a low tone of voice, so as not to
+interrupt the others.  In a desultory way, they had thus chatted about
+all sorts of things and had at last lapsed into silence--a silence that
+remained for some time unbroken.
+
+At length Frank spoke.
+
+By a strong effort, he at once went to the point
+
+"Kate," said he suddenly, in a voice rendered so thick by emotion that
+she could not help starting, although she made no reply.
+
+"Kate, do you remember you promised to call me `Frank' that night on the
+wreck when we expected every moment that the _Nancy Bell_ would go down
+with us and every soul aboard?"
+
+"Ye-es," she murmured, very softly and in a hesitating way.
+
+"Well, I want you to call me always so--that is to have the right--you
+know what I mean."
+
+Her tender blue eyes were raised to his inquiringly.
+
+"I love you," he cried passionately, "and I want you to promise--"
+
+"Hush!" said she, putting her hand over his lips; but he only kissed the
+hand, and went on with what he was about to say when she had interrupted
+him.
+
+"I want you, Kate, my darling, to promise to be my wife!" he said.  "I
+love you more than I can tell--I have loved you since ever I first saw
+you--and I shall love you till my dying day; will you promise, Kate, to
+be my wife? but, if you can't yet do all I ask, will you try to love me
+a little?  Oh, Kate, I do love you so dearly!"
+
+Her head bent lower and lower, so that he had to bend his too in order
+to see what her face said, for she would not speak; and, as the
+firelight danced upon the dear face and lightened up the blue eyes which
+so shyly looked into his, Frank seemed to read an answer there that was
+favourable to his hopes, for he passed his arm round her waist without
+another moment's hesitation, and ventured to imprint a kiss upon her
+lips.
+
+"My darling, my darling!" he murmured in an ecstasy of joy; but just
+then Mr Meldrum raised his head from between his clasped hands and
+looked at the pair.
+
+He evidently realised what had happened, and, as evidently, he was not
+taken by surprise at the event.  Nor, indeed, would anyone else have
+been in the whole community; for Frank's love to Kate had been as
+palpable to all as the famed ostrich of the story was when it hid its
+head in the sand and imagined itself invisible to its pursuers!
+
+"My children," said he kindly, coming over to them and holding out his
+hand to Frank, who at once grasped it, "I expected this; and I cannot
+say I am displeased.  I know you have an affection for each other--"
+
+We love each other," interrupted Frank eagerly.
+
+"Well, you love each other, if you prefer it being so put; but you are
+both very young, and you must wait for some time even after we are
+released, as I hope we shall be by and by, from this desert isle.  I
+have seen enough of you, Frank Harness, to feel confident that I can
+trust my daughter's happiness to your keeping; but you must first secure
+a name and a competence for yourself before you can dream of asking her
+to be your wife.  You see, my boys I may perhaps have overheard more of
+your whispered conversation than you thought!  I can give Kate nothing,
+for I am a ruined man, and was going out to New Zealand to try and
+retrieve my lost fortune when this untoward disaster happened!"
+
+"Mr Meldrum," said Frank respectfully, standing up by the side of the
+other and facing him like a man, "I want nothing but Kate.  She is the
+greatest fortune I could ever crave!  My father is a rich man, one of
+the largest ship-owners in Liverpool, and my taking to the sea has been
+strongly against his wish, although he consented to it when he saw how
+bent I was upon being a sailor.  He could make me independent to-morrow
+if I asked him."
+
+"I prefer you as you are, Frank," responded Mr Meldrum; "and I'm sure
+so does Kate, eh?"
+
+Yes," said she shyly, and blushing as she looked up for an instant.
+
+"Then keep as you are, my boy,"--continued her father--"and as soon as
+you are captain of a vessel of your own--and Mr McCarthy tells me you
+are quite competent to pass the Trinity-House examination for a first-
+mate's certificate; why, you may come to me and claim Kate's hand!"
+
+"Is that a bargain?" asked Frank anxiously, looking from one to the
+other.
+
+"It is," replied Mr Meldrum, while Kate faintly whispered another
+"yes."
+
+"Then," said Frank triumphantly, "she shall be my wife before another
+year goes over our heads; for, I can pass as soon as I go home for a
+first officer's certificate, and get a ship to command immediately
+afterwards if I like.  Look out for me to make my claim within that
+time, according to your promise!"
+
+"And I guess I'm witness to that thaar agreement," exclaimed Mr
+Lathrope, starting up.
+
+The artful old fellow had been "playing 'possum," as he termed it, all
+along; only waiting for the denouement of the little drama before
+disclosing himself.  However, he seemed so genuinely pleased with what
+had taken place that neither of the principal performers could be angry
+with him for listening.
+
+"I'm downright real glad," said he after a bit, congratulating them both
+and wringing poor Frank's hand well nigh off in the exuberance of his
+delight.  "Say, if yer don't believe me, may I never eat another clam
+chowder agin--durn my boots if I ever will, thar!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+BLACK SNOW!
+
+By the middle of September, the worst of the winter weather was over,
+the snow gradually ceasing to fall and the drifts that had accumulated
+in the valley up which the creek entered, and where the shipwrecked
+people from the _Nancy Bell_ had built their house--beginning to melt
+under the influence of the milder winds and increasing warmth of the
+sun's rays.
+
+But, everywhere the landscape still remained wrapped in the same white
+mantle it had worn ever since the castaways had first taken up their
+residence on the island, the bare spots then apparent in some places,
+which was a circumstance owing to the shelter of the cliffs and crags in
+the immediate vicinity of the sea, having been subsequently covered by
+the heavy storms at the end of August.
+
+It would take a long time, all saw, for the snow to clear away even if
+the most rapid thaw were now to set in; and this the climate did not
+permit of, the transition from winter to spring being carried through a
+course of progressive stages that were as disagreeable as they were
+prolonged.
+
+There was balm in Gilead, however.
+
+Not long after the last of the heavy snowfalls, and when the days began
+to grow brighter, thus enabling the castaways to crawl out in the open
+and have a little more exercise than they could obtain within doors, the
+bird colony adjacent to "Penguin Castle" became largely increased, their
+numbers swelling continually by fresh accessions; so that, in a short
+time, it was impossible for any of the people to stir out of their
+habitation without stumbling across a batch of penguins, ever
+continually grumbling, croaking, chuckling, and otherwise expressing
+their indignation at being, as they seemed to think, so unjustly
+interfered with by the castaways.
+
+It was evident that the building season of the birds had arrived; and it
+could not certainly have come at a more auspicious time, for their
+provisions were almost exhausted and Mr Meldrum was in great straits
+how to supply the party with food.  The despised flesh of the sea-
+elephants, even, had by this time been consumed and all hands placed on
+short allowance, it being impossible to go out hunting again as yet, or
+to penetrate up the valley to the rabbit warren, on account of the snow
+blocking the way and rendering the ascent of the hills impracticable.
+
+The influx of the penguins, therefore, for which he had been looking out
+for the last few weeks and had almost despaired of, was hailed by Mr
+Meldrum with the deepest joy, for it solved his greatest difficulty at
+once, taking away the fear of starvation that had been haunting him.
+With such a plentiful supply of the birds, they might now hope to last
+out until they could procure more palatable food; and those who were
+"squeamish" in objecting to the fishy odour of the penguins themselves,
+would _faut de mieux_ find plenty of sustenance in the eggs that there
+was no doubt would soon be laid in much greater abundance than they
+either required or could consume.
+
+As the penguins mustered their forces, each day seeing some fresh
+arrivals to fight for the occupation of the rookery, they were a
+constant source of amusement to the snow-bound party, who, not being
+able to stir far from the doorway of the "castle," had nothing hardly to
+occupy their attention save the movements of the birds.
+
+The penguins, they observed, were of four different classes or
+varieties, although all belonged to the same family, partaking of the
+common characteristics of such; but, even as they differed in size and
+appearance, so they presented diverse modes of conducting their domestic
+arrangements and varied in their habits.
+
+Some were of the most retiring nature.  These, isolating themselves in a
+separate encampment, drew a strong line of demarcation between the abode
+of their neighbours and their own retreat, as if they were of too
+exclusive a temper to associate with the common herd; while others, of
+quite a different species, appeared to have no false pride which
+prevented them from associating with the rest, of whatever class they
+might belong to, for they were "hail fellow well met" almost on their
+arrival with every bird in the rookery.
+
+"Them's republicans, I guess," said Mr Lathrope, noticing this trait of
+character.  "They don't care a cuss for social distinctions!"
+
+Mr Meldrum, having had some previous acquaintance of the penguin family
+when on board a ship which had been employed in surveying duties in the
+Straits of Magellan and round the Falkland Islands, was able to give the
+others a good deal of information about the birds.
+
+There were four varieties, he said, on Kerguelen Land, as far as he
+could see, namely:-- the "king penguin," the aristocrat of the
+community, who kept aloof from the rest; a black-and-white species that
+whaling men call the "johnny;" a third, styled the "macaroni penguin,"
+which had a handsome double tuft of rich orange-coloured feathers on
+their heads; and a fourth variety, distinct from the last-mentioned only
+from its smaller size, and the fact of its plume or crest being single
+instead of double, and of a pale sulphur yellow in lieu of orange.
+
+Amongst the penguins, too, were to be seen numbers of little
+sheathbills--just like small bantams, similar to the specimen Frank
+Harness had shot, and which he was so sorry about.  The little birds
+went about in pairs and appeared to act as the scavengers of the larger
+ones, for they haunted their breeding-places, scraping about the nests
+and dung, clearing out the rotten eggs, and making free with the insects
+that properly appertained to the penguins.  Indeed, they were impudent
+enough sometimes to seize upon the freshly-laid egg that some lady
+macaroni had laid, right under the eyes of its owner, feloniously
+appropriating it to their own use; while they thought nothing of giving
+an occasional peck to one of the king penguins if he got in their way,
+regardless of his exalted position!
+
+Flocks of shags, or cormorants, also visited the bay at the same time.
+These were found good eating, although not so fleshy as the penguins;
+and, before the end of the month, there came a large family of seals,
+which would probably have taken up their abode in the creek had not some
+of the sailors frightened them away so effectually by their
+indiscriminate slaughter that they never returned, nor did any others
+come subsequently to the place.
+
+The coats of these seals were of a fine iron-grey hue, something like
+that of an otter, only with much more delicate hair.  Mr Meldrum was
+very anxious to secure as many of them as was possible, so he was much
+chagrined when they disappeared and left him fur-less.
+
+Another visitor was the pretty little Cape pigeon, which Kate recognised
+as an old friend and was delighted to see.  It reminded her, she told
+Frank, of "old times," when they grew acquainted with each other on
+board the _Nancy Bell_ and watched the stars at night--and all the rest
+of it!
+
+But the penguins were the great attraction.
+
+They were "food for the mind and food for the body as well!" the
+American would say, as he watched Snowball picking the feathers off some
+scores of the birds when preparing the dinner.  The darkey would persist
+in putting himself to this trouble every day, in spite of Mr Meldrum
+telling him that the easiest plan was to skin them, when the feathers
+would come off in a lump in a quarter of the time; but Snowball would
+not be persuaded to adopt this course, although the majority of the
+sailors did so when preparing the penguins for storing up, and there was
+consequently a large accumulation of skins, which came in very handy
+presently for tailoring purposes.
+
+Through constant wear, the trousers of the majority of the menfolk were
+into such a dilapidated condition that it became absolutely necessary to
+try and restore them--none of the entire party having a single change of
+clothing with them, excepting the ladies; while the only material
+available for their rehabilitation was sailcloth, which, besides not
+being enough for all, was rather too stiff a material for either comfort
+or warmth.
+
+In this dilemma, the happy thought struck Mr McCarthy of fashioning a
+pair of "unmentionables" out of penguin skins; and he had no sooner
+"hatched the idea" than he carried it into practical effect by
+instructing Ben Boltrope, who was by a long way the smartest and most
+ready-witted of the men, to make him the trousers.
+
+The deed was accomplished; and, really, the garments did not look at all
+bad when finished, for, on the removal of the outside feathers, the skin
+of the bird was found to be coated with a fine down like that of the
+eider-duck, which lent an originality of appearance to the trousers that
+could hardly be described.
+
+"They're just like Barnum's woolly horse," said Mr Lathrope,
+criticising them calmly.  "If I were you, Mac, I wouldn't go nigh the
+rookery with them on, or them birds will take you for a fledgeling,
+mister, I guess!"
+
+"Begorrah, I don't care, for they're worrum and comfortable," said Mr
+McCarthy, "and it's raal white ducks they are, anyhow!"
+
+They certainly looked it; but, as the first-mate would not be put out of
+any conceit with the garments, in spite of their appearance, and as
+others began to be similarly in need, they had perforce to follow his
+example, when penguin trousers may be said to have "become the rage" on
+the island--even Mr Lathrope, who had laughed at Mr McCarthy for
+wearing them, having to follow the fashion and don the "ducks."
+
+Owing to this new demand on the feathered colony it would seem like
+exaggeration to state how many thousands came to an untimely end, in
+addition to the numbers that were killed to supply the daily necessities
+of the table and the large quantity which Mr Meldrum had caused to be
+prepared and dried, like the rabbits, "for a rainy day;" while, as to
+the eggs that were eaten--well, the least said about these the better!
+
+From all of this it may be gathered that the penguins made a bad move
+when they came back to their old breeding-place; but the stupid birds
+never seemed to be aware that they could at any time save themselves by
+flight if they liked, although they must have been somehow or other
+acquainted with the deplorable fact--in a bird-like way--that their
+rookery was becoming rapidly depopulated!  No, notwithstanding that they
+saw their friends and relatives repeatedly slaughtered before their very
+eyes--their penguin parents, children, godfathers, godmothers, and first
+cousins thus perishing at the hands of miscreants in human form, and
+subsequently converted into food and clothing and to other "base uses"
+by those who took their innocent lives--they never appeared to make an
+effort in self-defence, either by executing a "strategical movement" or
+otherwise!
+
+The spirit of penguinism, so to speak, was dead, the bird colony
+contenting themselves by grumbling, an infallible resource for all
+similarly constituted creatures--in which respect, as Mr Lathrope was
+pleased to put it, they resembled a class of modern politicians who need
+not be alluded to here.
+
+Amongst those included in the list of penguin slayers was one who
+pursued them to the death--although rather through a desire for
+malicious sport and self-gratification than from any actual necessity--
+and this vindictive enemy was Master Maurice Negus.
+
+The young gentlemen had developed many pleasing traits of character
+during the comparatively short period during which he was brought into
+public notice as one of the passengers of the ill-fated _Nancy Bell_;
+but in none of these had he so well exemplified his natural and
+ingenious bias of mind as in the little predilection, if it may be so
+termed, for bird slaughter _in ovum_, which first saw the light in
+Kerguelen Land.
+
+Soon after the penguins came to breed there, Master Maurice noted them
+carefully, and it pleased him much thereafter to go "bird-nesting," as
+he called it.  He would go by himself and remain away for hours, no one
+knowing what "the imp," as all spoke of him, was up to; but one day it
+was discovered that the fancy for "collecting eggs," according to his
+own explanation, consisted in swallowing as many raw ones as he could
+get hold of unseen--he being observed on the occasion in question to get
+rid of a round dozen of the eggs deposited by the penguins, just as he
+would have done so many oysters, saying afterwards when taxed with the
+gluttony that he felt delicate, and had heard that eggs were recommended
+by doctors for consumptive patients!
+
+But, later on, the young gentleman "caught a tartar."
+
+On his last bird-nesting excursion he happened, fortunately or
+unfortunately, to shove a half-hatched egg down his throat; and, the
+embryo bird nearly choking him, his poultry-fancying propensity was
+transformed into an inveterate dislike towards the entire penguin
+tribe--a slightly lucky mistake for the creatures in question, as
+thereby the list of their enemies became decreased by one.
+
+Time thus slipped by with the inhabitants of the house on the creek.
+
+Melting by degrees, the vast piles of snow began to vanish from the
+valleys and low-lying lands, although still clothing the distant hill-
+sides and mountain-peaks, from the loftier ones of which it probably
+never entirely cleared away even in the height of summer; but, the
+ground around was naturally so damp and marshy, and had become so
+soddened now with moisture, that it was almost as impracticable for Mr
+Meldrum or any other of the party to get away from the vicinity of the
+hut, as it had been during the heavy storms of August when the snow had
+drifted up the gullies and levelled the country.
+
+In fact it was more so, for, the accumulated water, proceeding from the
+thaw and the rain, which came every now and then to aid it, had swelled
+the fresh-water tarn near them so greatly that it had overflowed its
+banks, which now extended on the right to the base of the furthest hills
+at the head of the valley that penetrated the creek; while, to the left,
+the water was pouring down, a foaming torrent, into the sea--the house
+being almost surrounded and separated by the newly-made river from the
+little building in which the jolly-boat had been housed on the beach.
+
+They were thus threatened with a flood, for the water was rising every
+moment and slowly creeping up to their feet, narrowing the little
+peninsula on which their habitation stood.
+
+That was not the worst either!
+
+While they were pondering as to the best means for extricating
+themselves from the danger of being washed away, a new one arose.
+
+Through the melting of the snow on the mountains above, a sparkling
+cascade commenced all at once to leap down the face of the cliff at the
+back of the house, right on to the roof over their heads.
+
+This was serious; for, should this peril not be guarded against and some
+sort of pent-house put up as a shield, the slight timber work of the
+roof would soon be crushed in and swept away by the ever-increasing
+weight of the falling water.
+
+In the midst of these imminent dangers, a phenomenon occurred which for
+the moment appalled everybody, not even excepting Mr Meldrum--it was so
+strange, so awe-inspiring!
+
+It commenced snowing again; but there was nothing unusual in that.  What
+was unusual was, that the flakes which fell, instead of being white,
+were as black as ink!
+
+What could the awful portent foretell?
+
+It was inexplicable.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+AN APPARITION!
+
+"Goodness gracious me!" exclaimed Mrs Major Negus in accents of genuine
+terror, "the world's coming to an end!" and she sank down in a heap on
+the ground, close to the door of the general room, where she had been
+standing uncertain whether to go out or in.
+
+There was ample reason for the good lady's consternation, for danger
+seemed staring her in the face in either direction.
+
+On the one hand, the flood in the valley appeared approaching as if to
+swallow up the hut and all its belongings; while, on the other, the
+deafening noise of the water pouring down from the cliff above on to the
+roof made everybody feel impelled to quit the house.
+
+Mary Llewellyn, the stewardess, generally a quiet and retiring person,
+was driven into a fit of hysterics by the concatenation of horrors that
+all at once surrounded them.
+
+As for the children, they shared the fright of their elders, Florry
+clinging convulsively to Kate, who had dropped on her knees and was
+praying in the corner--believing really that the last supreme moment was
+at hand.
+
+The men, too--they had been hastily called together the moment the
+dangerous predicament of the roof was noticed, and had begun to knock
+together a sort of wooden shield to interpose between the cliff and the
+top of the house, so that the water might rim over it in the fashion of
+a spout--stopped in their task with one accord, staring as if bewildered
+at each other the moment the terrible black snow began to fall from the
+sombre pall-like clouds which hung over the creek.  This was immediately
+after the cascade of water came down the cliff; and so frightened were
+they, that not one of them uttered a word, nor did Mr McCarthy, who had
+summoned them together, urge them on with their work.  All remained
+spell-bound and tongue-tied.
+
+"It air orfull," said Mr Lathrope, drawing a deep breath, and looking
+up at the sky as if to peer into its mysteries.  "I guess I never seed
+such a fall before--no, nor nobody else in the land of the living!"
+
+No one answered him, however; for, at that moment, there was a strange
+concussion in the air, the earth shaking beneath their feet, and they
+were all thrown to the ground.  At the same time, the black flakes
+descended faster and faster as if to bury them, and some of the men,
+imitating the example of the women, cried out in positive alarm.
+
+Mr Meldrum was the first to recover his self-command.
+
+"Silence!" he shouted, making his powerful voice heard above the chorus
+of groans and shrieks that arose from the frightened men and screaming
+women.  "It's only an earthquake; and God will protect us here against
+the perils of the land, the same as he did through the tempests of the
+deep!  Let us meet what may be in store for us with the courage of brave
+men and faith of Christians!"
+
+His words at once checked the tumult--even the stewardess and Mrs Negus
+hushing down their wailing outcry to an occasional moan or faint muffled
+sob, which they could not quite stifle; but the strange rocking motion
+of the ground, which seemed as if they were again on shipboard,
+prevented the yen from at once regaining their feet, only a few being
+able to scramble up into an erect position by holding on to the supports
+of the house, which fortunately stood the shock of the subterranean
+commotion without giving way.
+
+"The worst is past now," said Mr Meldrum presently, as the throbs of
+the earthquake grew less and less potent and the quivering sensation,
+which appeared to jingle through every nerve in their bodies, died away
+into a faint rumbling in the distance, that finally disappeared a few
+seconds afterwards--the whole thing not lasting longer than a minute
+altogether, although it seemed more than an hour to the terror-stricken
+people.  "I don't think we'll have another shock."
+
+He stood up firmly as he spoke; and those of the men who were still
+lying on the ground rose too.
+
+"But the snow, sir," said one.  "What does that mean?"
+
+"Why, look--can't you see!" replied he, drawing his hand over his face
+and showing it to the speaker.
+
+"Lor' bless us!" ejaculated the sailor.  "It's only smut from the
+chimbley."
+
+"Ah! it came from a bigger chimney than we have here," said Mr Meldrum.
+"There has been a volcanic eruption on the island; and what we all
+thought was black snow was only the ashes thrown up from the crater, and
+these have now been brought down from the higher air by the descending
+ram."
+
+"Snakes and alligators!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope, who was one of the last
+to get on his long legs and when he did so appeared to touch the ground
+as tenderly "as if he were a cat treading on hot eggs," as Mr McCarthy
+said.  "If I wurn't clean took in, and thought the outlandish thing wer
+nat'ral, like the red rain I've heerd folks tell o' seeing in some parts
+of the world!  I guess you was startled, too, mister, and kinder frit!"
+
+"I confess I was, at first," replied Mr Meldrum, "till I felt the
+earthquake.  Then I recollected about the volcano."
+
+"Oh! the one down south, that we seed to leeward when the old ship poked
+her nose on the reef?"
+
+"The same," said the other.  "It was smoking then; and we've just had
+the eruption.  It is pretty nearly over, I think, however, for the ashes
+are not falling quite so thickly now."
+
+"I'm glad to hear that," said Mr Lathrope.  "Gin it didn't stop soon,
+we'd all be transmogrified inter blacker niggers than the cook haar!"
+
+"I ain't no nigger, massa!" interposed Snowball, feeling his dignity
+insulted by the remark.
+
+"My crickey!" ejaculated the American, emitting a shrill whistle of
+astonishment at the naive assertion.  "Then what, in the name of George
+Washington and Abe Lincoln rolled into one, air you, sir-ree!"
+
+"I'se a 'spectable collud genlemun," replied the darkey pompously.
+
+"I guess you'll do," said Mr Lathrope laughing.  "Jest hear that, now!
+Waal, never mind, my Ethiopian serenader," he added good-humouredly.
+"You're none the worse fur your colour, as fur as I ken see; and I will
+say this fur you, that you're the slickest and smartest ship's cook I
+ever came across from Maine to Californy; and that's saying something!"
+
+"Tank you, massa," replied Snowball, much flattered by the compliment.
+"I make you one good rabbit-pie next time I'se get rabbits."
+
+"That's a bargain!" said Mr Lathrope; and there the incident ended.
+
+"Rouse up there with that spout!" shouted out Mr McCarthy, who had at
+once turned back to tackle the roof as soon as the alarm caused by the
+earthquake had passed away.  "Bedad, if you don't look pretty sharp,
+there'll be no ruff to put it on, at all at all!"
+
+"That's right!" said Mr Meldrum.  "In the fear of a greater calamity, I
+had forgotten the lesser danger!  Do you think the roof will bear the
+pressure on it?"
+
+"Sure, sorr," replied the other.  "It has borne it all this toime, and
+the ould house has stood the airthquake; so, there's hopes that it'll
+last out yit!  It is more frightened of the flood coming up and swaping
+it away I am, than that the wather'll do it any harm."
+
+"Then we're safe, thank God!" said Mr Meldrum.  "The river has not
+swelled any more since I last marked it.  It seems to have worn a
+channel deep enough to carry off all the overflow from the valley,
+without spreading further and threatening the house.  I think we are out
+of danger now."
+
+"We've much to be thankful for, papa," observed Kate thoughtfully.
+
+Frank had joined her within, after the last shock of earthquake, having
+been engaged before in helping Mr McCarthy on the roof; so his prayers
+had ascended to heaven along with hers, the two kneeling side by side in
+silent worship and praise to Him who had watched over them.
+
+Coming out of the house together, they had approached the spot where Mr
+Meldrum was standing.
+
+"Yes, my child, we have much to be thankful for," said he in answer to
+Kate's observation.  "You need not fear now, my dear," he added.
+
+"I was not frightened, even when the earth trembled, papa."
+
+"No!" said he inquiringly.
+
+"No, not a bit," she answered quietly; "although, I confess, I thought
+we should all be killed.  I can't tell what sort of feeling seemed to
+possess me; but I felt quite peaceful and happy, as if I were prepared
+to die!"
+
+"Ah!" said her father, "you had that peace which the world cannot give!
+I--I--"
+
+"I felt happy, papa," continued Kate, as if uttering her thoughts aloud,
+"because I thought we would see mamma again--you, and I, and Florry."
+
+"And didn't you think of me too, Kate; and wish me to be with you?"
+asked Frank eagerly.
+
+"Yes, you too," said she.  "Don't you belong to me now?"  Mr Meldrum
+did not hear Frank's answer; for his attention was at that moment called
+away by Ben Boltrope, who had come up to report that the roof had been
+made snug, the water from the cliff now arching over it in a cascade,
+and not pouring down directly on to it as it had done before, when it
+fell with terrific force right upon the shingles, displacing some which
+were now repaired as soon as the spout was put up.
+
+The weather improved very much after this, the sun appearing and shining
+with increasing power each day, while the snow disappeared entirely from
+the valleys and lower portions of the hills.  The water below, however,
+did not drain off sufficiently to allow of any excursion for some days
+towards the rabbit warren they had visited before, or of their going
+anywhere, indeed, far from the little stretch of beach before the creek.
+
+But, in spite of this drawback, the castaways' stock of provisions was
+most unexpectedly added to, a very agreeable change of diet from penguin
+fricassees being introduced, by the coming of large flocks of wild
+ducks, which visited the valley a few days after they were all in danger
+of being flooded out.  The water evidently was the attraction, for,
+previously, none of the water-fowl had ever come near the place--with
+the exception of a solitary couple of teal that Mr Meldrum had noticed
+flying over the creek shortly after they landed from the wreck.
+
+The first day that they had roast duck for dinner, everybody thought
+that Mr Lathrope would have said something about the unexpected treat;
+but he did not, and Mrs Major Negus seemed somehow or other much vexed
+at his silence in the matter.
+
+"You generally speak a good deal about eating," said she at last
+impatiently.  "I wonder why you've nothing to say now!"
+
+"Ah! marm," replied Mr Lathrope, "don't you be surprised at anything!
+I'd advise you never to measure other people's corns by your own
+chilblains!  Because you happen to set your fancy on a thing, that's no
+reason for other folks to do the same!"
+
+"No," said she; "though I can't see the application of your remark about
+chilblains, for I never had one in my life."
+
+"Ah! that's a sort of metaphorical conundrum, which I leave you to find
+out bye and bye!  But, if you'd really like to know why I ain't
+satisfied with having roast duck to dinner, I'll tell you; it makes me
+feel kinder lonesome, it dew!"
+
+"Why!"
+
+"'Cause there ain't no green peas with it, marm," said Mr Lathrope,
+with a melancholy smile.  "I guess I'm a whale on peas, I am!"
+
+It was now the end of September; but the month was not fated to pass
+without another event happening to break the monotonous life of the
+little party.  On its very last day, something occurred which took them
+all by surprise.
+
+It may be remembered that when Mr Meldrum assumed the command of the
+party in the place of Captain Dinks, who was still on the sick list and
+recovering slowly but yet far from well, he established certain
+regulations for the employment of the men.
+
+Amongst the several duties they had to perform, in accordance with these
+regulations, was the one of keeping watch, as if on guard, for a certain
+stated number of hours at the foot of a short flagstaff which had been
+erected on the top of a little eminence overlooking the beach in front
+of the creek--a man being stationed here regularly to report anything
+that might come in sight.  This duty, it may be added, had been a
+sinecure from the date of its institution, nothing having ever since
+been seen.
+
+On this last day of September, however, all hands were electrified by
+the look-out man calling out, just about noon.
+
+"Sail ho!"
+
+"A sail!" cried Mr Meldrum, quite as much astonished as the rest; and
+he hurried out to scan the offing.  However, he could not see anything,
+and thought the man must have been asleep at his post and dreaming.  "Do
+you know what you are saying?" he called out to the look-out.  "Where
+away is this sail, my man!"
+
+"Far off on the port side of the reef, sir," answered the sailor,
+speaking quite composedly.
+
+"What do you make it?" asked the other, as he hastened to the look-out
+station, which commanded a larger stretch of the coast than could be
+seen from the house--Mr McCarthy and the others following after him
+with anxious curiosity.
+
+"Looks like a boat's sail, sir; but, it's so far to leeward, I can't
+quite make it out yet."
+
+"I see," said Mr Meldrum, who had now reached the man, taking his glass
+from his pocket and looking in the direction pointed out.  "Yes, there
+is a small boat, sure enough.  By Jove," he added presently, "I wouldn't
+be surprised if it were the missing mutineers in the longboat turned up
+at last!  Look, McCarthy, and see if you don't recognise the _Nancy
+Bell's_ boat by the white streak below the gunwale."
+
+The first-mate took the telescope and gazed intently at the approaching
+object for some few moments.  He then turned round and stared at Mr
+Meldrum.
+
+"Be jabers, it is the longboat, sorr!" he exclaimed at length; "and
+faix, sorr, I belave I can say that baste Moody lookin' out over the
+gunwale, as if tellin' thim where to steer, with his long black hair and
+ugly mug, and the cut across his hid which the cap'en giv him wid the
+butt end of his pistol!  The murtherin' villin! won't I be aven wid him
+if iver he comes ashore, and pay him out--bad cess to him!"
+
+"Are you sure," said Mr Meldrum, "that it is the long-boat?"
+
+"As sartin as there's mud in a ditch, son--the divil a doubt of it!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
+
+A TERRIBLE TALE!
+
+By this time, the news having rapidly spread amongst the little
+community that the longboat was in sight, every one--save of course poor
+Captain Dinks, who could not yet move--had come out of the house.
+
+The castaways were gathered together in little groups, some near Mr
+Meldrum and the first-mate, who stood by the flagstaff, others along the
+ridge which ran from thence above the beach, and the remainder on the
+shore; but all were intent on one object, and looking down the bay at
+the little speck in the distance that was said to be the boat, which was
+steadily making its way towards the creek.  The tide was on the ebb and
+against its onward progress, although the wind was in its favour, so it
+approached only very slowly.
+
+Mr Meldrum's first intention on having his suspicions confirmed by the
+mate's opinion, had been to haul down the flag--a little white ensign
+made out of portions of some old silk handkerchiefs which had been
+mustered amongst the party and sewn together by Kate; but, he dismissed
+the idea as soon as the thought occurred to him.
+
+"No," said he to Mr McCarthy, belaying the halliards again, "it is too
+late now, for they must have seen it.  Besides, what have we to fear if
+they do come?  We can easily prevent them from landing, if we like, for
+we're nearly two to one against them in numbers should they try force;
+and we are stronger by far in moral as well as physical courage!"
+
+"True for you, sorr," replied the first-mate.  "It's a good larrupping
+they'd git, if they thried that on anyway.  Bedad, I'd die aisy an' I
+could only give that baste Moody the bating I've had in store for him
+since he and his gang abandoned us, the dhirty schoundrels!"
+
+"We must forget the past, considering we've been so mercifully
+preserved," said Mr Meldrum.  "Perhaps it was all for the best that we
+were not able to leave the ship when they did."
+
+"Maybe; but faix, they didn't have the dacency to ax us!"
+
+"Well, we'll see what they have to say for themselves when we've a
+chance of speaking to them," said Mr Meldrum.  "The boat's coming on a
+bit quicker now.  It has got out of the set of the tide and has the wind
+well abeam, just the thing for that lugsail she carries."
+
+"Sure and she's a smart sailer, sorr," observed Mr McCarthy after a few
+minutes' interval, during which time the longboat, which had been
+heading up the coast, hauled her wind and was steered towards the
+entrance of the little creek at the top of the bay, close by where the
+flagstaff was erected and the Penguin Castle people were on the look-
+out.
+
+As she came nearer, however, it could be seen that Mr McCarthy's
+imagination had been quicker than his eyesight, for there was no one
+looking out over the gunwale--least of all Bill Moody, whose tall
+herculean form and peculiar visage would have been easily recognisable
+even at some distance off.
+
+Indeed, there seemed to be very few persons in the boat at all, only two
+being observed in the stern-sheets, one of whom was steering with an
+oar, while a third was sitting on one of the forward thwarts attending
+to the sheet of the lugsail, slacking it out as the wind came aft
+occasionally, and hauling it in taut again when the sail jibed on the
+boat's head falling off a point or two through the alteration of her
+course now and again.
+
+The castaways were all in a state of the greatest expectation and
+surmise, as the longboat gradually grew more visible and the small
+number of its occupants became noticeable; for, as she rounded the point
+of the ridge, those on the beach could now observe her as well as Mr
+Meldrum and the first-mate, who were by the side of the look-out man at
+the signal station on the higher ground and were the only ones able at
+first to see the boat.
+
+"They look as if they'd had hard times," said Ben Boltrope, who was one
+of those who could now have a look at the boat, "and some of them seem
+to have lost the number of their mess."
+
+"And a durned good job, too!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope; "the mean skunks,
+to scoot away and leave a lot of wemmen and children to drown, as they
+thought.  They've well arned any troubles they've come by, I guess!"
+
+"Poor creatures!" said Kate, who was standing near the American, with
+Frank, of course, the inseparable, by her side; "please don't say that!
+If all of us only just got what we deserved, we should have a sorry
+reckoning!"
+
+"Very proper, and just what I think," observed Mrs
+
+Major Negus in a sort of condescending and approving way.  "I do not
+consider it right myself to condemn others, and never do it on
+principle, for--"
+
+"Thar you go agin, measurin' other folks' corns right away by your own
+chilblains, marm," interrupted Mr Lathrope.  "It's allers what you'd
+do; and you never kinder give a thought to what t'other people would
+have to say in the matter!  I guess you're a bit narrow-minded, excuse
+me, marm."
+
+"Narrow-minded, humph!" snorted "the Major," highly indignant at the
+accusation.  "The idea of the thing! to be sure, Mr Lathrope, I ought
+never to be surprised at anything you choose to say; your manners and
+conversation are so very--ah, well--elegant!"
+
+"Much obleeged, marm, I'm sure," said the other, chuckling at making her
+angry.  "I took fust-class when at school in the States for elegancy and
+deportment."
+
+"I'm sure I wish you had stopped there!" retorted the lady; but any
+further amenities were arrested from passing between them by the nearer
+approach of the longboat, and the fact of Mr Meldrum and those with him
+coming down from the ridge so as to be on the beach when their
+unexpected visitors got in to shore.
+
+Closer and closer the boat came, until at last its keel touched ground,
+when, slewing round broadside on, it was left stranded on the beach.
+
+"Snakes and alligators!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope, the lugsail swinging
+aside and enabling him and the others to see into the boat clearly, a
+thing which had been previously impossible from the boat's coming up end
+on.  "They air a ruin lot, mister!  Of all the starved, God-forsaken
+critturs as I've ever seed they're 'bout the worst!"
+
+They were.
+
+Only the man who had been steering with the oar and the one who was on
+the thwart amidships were apparently able to sit up, for three other
+figures were observed stretched in the bottom of the boat in a lump
+together; while one was by himself in the bows, doubled up in a
+crouching posture, quite dead and with his ghastly eyes staring out
+sightless from the retreating sockets.  The closely-drawn features and
+general appearance of this latter miserable object showed that he must
+have expired in the last stage of starvation!
+
+"Why, this is almost worse than you were when we picked you up off
+Pernambuco," said Ben Boltrope to Karl Ericksen.
+
+"Ja, ja!" replied the Norwegian.  "It var sehr kalt, and we was expose
+as mooch as starve; but it vor bad, very, and so is dese, it remind me,
+oh! so much;" and he turned away his head, as Kate had already done,
+from the hideous spectacle, quite unable to gaze any longer at it from
+its association with his own rescue from a similar horrible death.
+
+The men by Mr Meldrum's side, however--forgetting the past conduct of
+the survivors of those in the longboat and the fact of their not only
+having deserted them but even locked them below to drown in the hold of
+the sinking ship--rushed into the water, eager, in the common exercise
+of that humanity which is common to us all, but especially noticeable in
+English sailors, to relieve the misery that was so apparent, and to
+separate those who were living from those who had ceased to suffer; and,
+of all these Good Samaritans, Mr McCarthy, who had been so bitter in
+his denunciation of the mutineers, was the first to go forward, with
+Frank and Mr Meldrum, you may be sure, not very far off.
+
+"Only six out of the dozen that left the ship!" exclaimed Mr Meldrum to
+the man in the stern-sheets, to whom he extended his hand to aid him in
+getting out of the boat.  "Where are the rest of your number?"
+
+But the emaciated wretch--who seemed to have suffered considerable
+bodily injury as well as want of food, for one of his arms hung down
+powerless at his side, and there was a broad cut across his face from
+some weapon--was as incapable of speech as he was apparently of moving.
+His lips only worked feebly, without any sound coming from them, and he
+stumbled and fell forwards on his face when he tried to rise by the aid
+of Mr Meldrum's arm.
+
+"Bedad, they're in a bad way, sorr," said Mr McCarthy sympathisingly,
+coming up and helping Mr Meldrum to lift the man out and place him on
+the beach, where he had already laid down the corpse that had been in
+the bows, throwing a bit of the sail over it to hide it for the time
+from observation.  "The poor divil can't spake, sure.  I wondther which
+of them it wor?  I'm blest if I can make him out, and I knew all the men
+purty well, most of them being in my own watch, by the same token."
+
+But just then, the stewardess saved him from puzzling over the man's
+face any further.
+
+"It's Llewellyn, my husband!" she cried out, pushing Mr McCarthy away,
+and taking the almost lifeless figure he was supporting tenderly in her
+arms, oblivious of everything save of her natural womanly pity and love.
+"The poor fellow! the poor fellow!" and she burst into tears over the
+miserable semblance of the man, who, coward and deserter as he had
+proved himself to be, had yet once been dear to her as her husband.
+
+"Ah! then he accompanied them too!" said Mr Meldrum reflectively to the
+first-mate, as the last man was raised from the bottom of the boat and
+carried as tenderly ashore as if he had been one of their own party and
+a loved shipmate.  "So there were thirteen of them altogether, instead
+of twelve, as I thought!  That makes seven unaccounted for.  I wonder
+what became of them!"
+
+"Sure and the divil only knows," replied the first-mate laconically,
+"for Bill Moody, the baste, must be along o' them, as he's not with
+these here; and he was sartain to be will looked afther by the ould
+gintleman in black down below!"
+
+"Hush!" said Mr Meldrum.  "If he is dead, let him rest in peace!"
+
+"Aye, aye, sort; so say I," answered Mr McCarthy; "and may joy go with
+him, for he was the broth of a boy!"
+
+Bye and bye, when Llewellyn, the steward, recovered sufficiently to be
+able to speak, he had a terrible tale to tell.
+
+On the outbreak of the row on board the ship, he said, between Captain
+Dinks and Moody, he was about to slip forward to join Snowball in the
+galley to have a warm, for he found it cold in his pantry; and, besides,
+he had no one to speak to there, and he felt dull and cheerless.
+
+Frightened at the altercation and afraid of getting hurt in the scuffle
+that arose, he hid himself in the bows of the longboat; and, as luck
+would happen, he was there when the boat was launched and went away from
+the side of the vessel with the mutineers, for he could not scramble out
+in time.
+
+Bill Moody, said the steward, wanted to chuck him over board when he was
+discovered; but the rest of the men overruled him, and he was allowed to
+remain.
+
+The boat was carried far to leeward, and so pitched about by the heavy
+sea which was running, that every moment they thought she would be
+swamped.  They had to bale her out continuously, for the waves broke
+over her each moment, half-filling her on many occasions.
+
+Fortunately, they were not dashed ashore in the darkness against the
+cliffs, which they could faintly see through the haze to be quite close;
+and towards daylight they were able to get up the fore-sail and steer
+her along the land, which stretched far away down to the southward,
+miles away from where they had left the ship.  The mutineers tried all
+they could to find some place where they could beach the boat without
+risk of getting her stove in on the rocks; but their efforts were vain.
+
+At last, they came past a mountain which was smoking, and as the shore
+seemed to shelve down here, Moody determined to endeavour to land there,
+saying that they would find the vicinity of the volcano warm and
+comfortable--better than some frozen ice-glaciers which they had noticed
+further north.
+
+After many attempts and failures, they managed to run the boat on to a
+black sandy stretch of beach which opened out beyond the smoking
+mountain; and here, they unloaded her in safety.
+
+They had then more provisions than would have lasted them for months
+with care.
+
+"All of ourn!" ejaculated Mr Lathrope, interrupting the steward at this
+point of the narrative.  "We would ha' swopped some o' them penguins and
+Kerguelen cabbage fur the lot, I guess."
+
+But, continued Llewellyn, the men wasted all the stores, recklessly
+destroying much more than they ate; for they pitched away half-consumed
+cans of preserved meat, opening fresh ones with the greatest
+carelessness before requiring them.
+
+Besides all this, there was the drink--a curse which followed them from
+the ship.
+
+Moody had contrived to secrete a cask of rum in the boat before quitting
+the wreck, and this was opened soon after landing, he and most of the
+mutineers drinking themselves drunk and indulging in the wildest orgies
+whilst it lasted.
+
+One evening, about a week after they had got ashore, in the middle of a
+drunken debauch Moody set fire to a tent, which they had constructed out
+of some of the spare sails placed in the boat.  It was completely burnt,
+many of the men being almost roasted alive before they could extricate
+themselves and three dying subsequently from the injuries they had then
+received.
+
+This was not the worst, however; for, in addition to the tent, their
+entire stock of provisions, which were stored inside, was consumed; and,
+beyond a few of the half-eaten tins that had been previously thrown
+away, they had nothing afterwards left to eat.
+
+Starvation stared them in the face.
+
+"Did you not search about and find the cabbage that we got here?" asked
+Mr Meldrum.
+
+"No," replied the steward; "the whole land thereabouts, before the snow
+fell, was as bare as a brick-field, and just as black and burnt up
+like."
+
+"And did no seals or birds come?"
+
+"Some animals swam in one day," said Llewellyn, "but the men were drunk
+at the time and frightened them away; so they never came back again when
+we needed them.  Only a stray gull or two occasionally flew by, so far
+out of reach that none of us could catch them."
+
+"Well, go on to tell the story in your own way," said Mr Meldrum.
+
+Their hunger got so great, the man proceeded to say, that they hunted
+about for stray ham-bones, and even gnawed the soles of their boots; and
+at last Bill Moody said they would have to cast lots and sacrifice one
+of their number for the good of the rest.
+
+"Oh, the dhirty cannibal!" interposed Mr McCarthy.  "He'd be quite
+capable of that; bad cess to the baste!"
+
+There were now only ten of them left, with himself, continued Llewellyn,
+and he could see that Moody wanted him to be killed, it being all a
+pretence about casting lots.  Some of the men saw through the plot, too,
+as well as he did and took his part.  It was then that a fight came
+about, and in it he got that slash across his face which they had
+noticed.
+
+Moody's own particular adherents amongst the party were only four in
+number; but they had all got pistols, which the others did not possess;
+and Llewellyn's party would probably have got the worst of it had not an
+awful thing happened.
+
+Just at the moment the fight began, the smoking mountain blew up!
+
+"An eruption of the volcano," said Mr Meldrum.
+
+The steward did not know anything about that.  He explained that, while
+they were in the midst of the struggle, a lot of fire and stones came
+down upon them, and Moody and some of the other mutineers were crushed
+to death outright.  The survivors, with himself, then managed to push
+down the longboat into the sea again, and made off from the terrible
+place--coasting back along the coast in the hope of coming across one of
+the settlements of the whaling vessels, which some of them had heard
+frequented the island.
+
+When they were suffering the last extremities of hunger and thirst--the
+latter being a fresh privation, for they had had plenty of water to
+drink on the volcano beach, however much they had wanted food--they saw
+the flag of the "Penguin Castle" settlers, and made towards it as well
+as they were able.
+
+"And, thank God, I'm here with you all!" concluded the steward when he
+had brought his narrative to this point.  "I have been saved from a
+horrible death."
+
+"Arrah, sure, all's well that inds will!" said Mr McCarthy; "but I'm
+glad you weren't a desarter, as I thought you were; and I'm roight glad,
+too, that that thafe of a Moody has mit with his desarts at last!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
+
+PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE.
+
+It was a fortunate circumstance, not only for the surviving mutineers
+who had turned up so strangely, but for the little community at Penguin
+Castle as well, that they did not make their appearance on the scene
+earlier; for, had they came at the trying period, when famine, so to
+speak, reigned in the land, they certainly would not have been "welcome
+guests!"  Of course, even then, Mr Meldrum and the others would have
+felt bound to do as much for them as they could; but as at that time the
+castaways were almost near upon starvation, they could ill have afforded
+to help others in the same predicament, however much charity might have
+constrained them.
+
+But, now, things were very different in regard to their larder, wild
+ducks being plentiful enough and another heavy "bag" of rabbits having
+been secured as soon as the road to the warren had become passable
+through the partial subsidence of the flood in the valley; while, in
+addition to those stores of substantial food, there was Kerguelen
+cabbage _ad libitum_ at their disposal--all the fresher and more juicy
+through being covered up by the snow and watered by the spring rains--
+besides an abundance of the haddock-like, spike-headed fish to be had
+for the catching in the bay, not to speak of the dried penguins as a
+last resource, should the other articles of diet fail to suit or pall on
+the palate after a time.  Indeed, as Mr Lathrope observed frequently
+when seated at the central table of their general room and disposing of
+the savoury residue of some gipsy stew of Snowball's concoction, during
+this period of plenty, which came in such pleasing contrast to their
+recent scarcity of provender, they were "living like fighting cocks, and
+no mistake!"
+
+Such being the state of things at "Penguin Castle," it was not long
+before the emaciated men, who arrived in the longboat almost at death's
+door through want, were restored to health.  Mr Meldrum, however, took
+the precaution of binding them down by the most stringent conditions as
+to their obedience and orderly conduct before admitting them on the same
+terms as the rest to the common membership of the community--it being
+clearly put before them that the least _lache_ or inattention to orders
+would subject them to expulsion, when they would have to shift for
+themselves and give a wide berth to those of the settlement.
+
+Captain Dinks had recovered so far now that he was able to sit up for a
+short time each day; but the length of his illness and the amount of
+blood he had lost had so aged and pulled him down that he was
+transformed, from the smart energetic sailor he had been, into a feeble
+old man, utterly incapable of ever resuming his former position should
+events ever place it in his power to take command of a ship again--at
+least so it seemed from his general state of prostration.
+
+Under these circumstances, therefore, Mr Meldrum was unquestionably
+still looked upon as the head of the party, quite apart from any
+appointment as such, from the simple reason that everybody recognised
+that it would be only through his advice and forethought that they could
+ever hope to escape from the island and see home once more.
+
+Although he had as yet never spoken directly to the point on the
+subject, all could gather, from stray hints and observations which
+occasionally dropped from his lips, that this thought was ever before
+him; and that, when he considered that the proper time for action had
+arrived, he would lay his plans before them.
+
+They were not mistaken.
+
+One evening, about the third week in October and the third month of
+their residence on Desolation Island, when all were assembled in the
+general room after the principal meal of the day--gathered together for
+a social chat over the little petty details of their life since the
+morning and cogitating as to what was best to be done on the morrow, as
+was their invariable custom each night before separating at bedtime--Mr
+Meldrum unbosomed himself, just when they least expected it.
+
+Mr Lathrope was having a spirited contest with the first-mate over the
+chequer-board that he had assisted in making; Kate was reading out of a
+little pocket Bible to the poor captain as he lay back in his cot; while
+the others, grouped around, were talking and otherwise amusing
+themselves--some of the men knitting a net, which it was intended to use
+as a seine for catching fish some day when finished, and the steward
+assisting Snowball in cutting up some cabbage which they were going to
+pickle and lay by for emergencies--when Mr Meldrum, after a preliminary
+"hem," to attract their attention, addressed the little gathering.
+
+"Friends," said he, "it was my intention to speak to you some little
+time back about our future prospects here, but I waited for the weather
+to become more settled.  Now that the spring has fairly set in, however,
+it is better not to delay our preparations any longer, for time is
+precious and we shall have to accomplish a great deal in the short
+period which will be at our disposal."
+
+"I 'spose," put in Mr Lathrope, "you mean about shifting our diggings,
+mister, hey?"
+
+"Precisely," replied the other.  "The season was not sufficiently
+advanced before; but now that it is, the rain having stopped falling
+persistently and the weather showing signs of clearing up, why, the
+sooner we are up and stirring, the greater chance we shall have of
+getting rescued!"
+
+"Waal," drawled the other in his usual nasal way, "you've only got to
+say the word, boss, and I guess we're on the move!"
+
+"All right!  I'm coming to that, but I want you to understand the
+situation.  Here is a map of Kerguelen Land," and Mr Meldrum unrolled
+the old admiralty chart which has been alluded to before, as he spoke.
+"You will see, from the rough outline given of the island, that it is
+formed of two peninsulas, running nearly north and south respectively
+and both of nearly equal size, but divided by a comparatively narrow
+neck of land.  The whole island is, taking its outside limits, about
+ninety miles long by sixty broad in its widest part, although at the
+narrow point or neck which I have mentioned--see, just here where I
+place my finger--the distance from sea to sea between the eastern and
+western sides does not exceed fifteen miles."
+
+"I say it clearly, sorr," said Mr McCarthy, all attention when his
+especial element was mentioned.
+
+"Well, it so happens," continued Mr Meldrum, "that our position here,
+the correctness of which I have carefully ascertained from observations
+that I have taken and worked out, is, very fortunately for us, on the
+western side of this isthmus, and not at the extremity of the broader
+portion of the island.  Consequently, we shall only have to traverse the
+short width of this neck of land in our endeavours to get across to the
+eastern side, whither we must go if we hope for any vessel to pick us up
+and take us to a civilised port--none ever touching here on account of
+the dangerous character of the coast, which we already know to our
+cost!"
+
+"Bedad, I can't say how ye are going to get the boats over fifteen miles
+ov solid ground, more or less," said the first-mate, scratching his head
+vigorously, as he always did when puzzled by anything.
+
+"I'll tell you," answered Mr Meldrum.  "You may have noticed since the
+snow melted and the rains came, how the waters of that originally small
+lake at the bottom of the creek have become extended so that they now
+reach up the base of the furthest hills in the valley?"
+
+"Yis, sorr," said Mr McCarthy, stopping from disturbing his auburn
+locks any further with his fingers and now all eagerness again, as if
+only just then beginning to comprehend what the other was driving at.
+
+"All right, then," continued Mr Meldrum, "so far, so good!  Now, to-
+day, I went prospecting up to the top of the cliff here, and I see that
+the waters of the swollen tarn are united in the extreme distance--to
+the left there on the map--with a river, or some other lake, which comes
+round that further hill.  Hence, this very width of fifteen miles which
+we have to cross may be but half of it land and half water, so that,
+really, in that case, we should have only to haul the boat, or boats,
+over the intervening bits of _terra firma_ in passing from sea to sea."
+
+"I guess, mister," said Mr Lathrope, "you mean what the lumber men on
+the Susquehanna and Red River call `making a portage,' hey?"
+
+"I don't quite follow you," observed Mr Meldrum.
+
+"Why, when they come across a rapid in the river, they jest tote up
+their canoes and carry 'em along the bank, or through the forest
+sometimes, till they gits to whar the stream runs free agin, when they
+floats 'em and sails along as slick as you please!"
+
+"Exactly," said Mr Meldrum, "you have just hit what I wished to
+describe.  Well, friends, whether we have to carry the boat a short
+distance or a long one, we shall have to cross this isthmus; and, the
+sooner we commence making our preparations, the better."
+
+"You sid only a boat, sorr; aren't ye going to take the pair ov 'em?"
+asked Mr McCarthy.
+
+"No," replied the other, "one will be about as much as we shall be able
+to manage, and the smaller of the two at that."
+
+"Be jabers!" exclaimed the first-mate in surprise; "and how, thin, will
+you carry the lot ov us?"
+
+"When we have to cross land," said Mr Meldrum, "of course we'll have to
+walk, and can go in a body or not, just as we please; but when we have
+to take to the water again, why the boat will have to do it in so many
+trips--taking over a certain number first and returning for a fresh
+load, until all shall be taken over; and repeating the process from
+stage to stage."
+
+"It kinder strikes me, mister," said Mr Lathrope, reflectively, "that
+you'll find that thar jolly-boat a heap bigger and a pile heavier than
+them birch-bark canoes of the lumber men and Injuns I was a talkin'
+about; and yet, they're heavy enough to cart along fur any raal sort o'
+distance, you bet, fur I've tried 'em!"
+
+"I've already thought of that," said Mr Meldrum, "and to-morrow the
+carpenter and I will have a talk about a little job which will, perhaps,
+relieve your mind in the matter; but, take the boat we must, by hook or
+by crook!  Do you know that, after crossing the isthmus and getting into
+the open sea on the other side, we shall have to coast along for another
+fifty or sixty miles before we can expect to reach Betsy Cove, the
+little harbour out of Hillsborough Bay or sound, which--you can see it
+here on the chart--is the rendezvous of the whalers.  Thither, I tell
+you, we must go if we hope to meet any of these in order to be taken off
+the island.  Now, if we can't get there by water we should have to go by
+land; and the distance, by the circuitous route we should have to adopt,
+would exceed two hundred miles, the way, too, taking us across mountains
+which the ladies at least would find impassable!"
+
+"And when are you thinking of starting?" asked Captain Dinks, speaking
+for the first time.
+
+"As soon as possible.  The whalers are said generally to arrive at Betsy
+Cove about the beginning of the summer, that is in November; and, what
+with the difficulties we may meet in traversing the isthmus here, and
+the subsequent long distance we should have to go by water--for we may
+have to make repeated trips in order to transport all the members of our
+party to the point I am aiming at--it will take us all our time to reach
+there in a month."
+
+"All right!" responded the captain, who looked for the moment more
+cheerful at the idea of moving away, "make all the arrangements you
+like, Mr Meldrum; I'm only a useless old hulk now, and can do nothing
+to help you."
+
+"Bedad you'll be all right agin, cap'en," said Mr McCarthy.  "That is,
+faix, when you say the say on t'other side, sure.  Cheer up, my hearty,
+and niver say die!"
+
+"Thank you, Tim," said Captain Dinks, actually smiling, which was the
+best sign he had shown for weeks; "your face is as good as a tonic any
+day, old friend, and you make me feel better already!"
+
+The very next day all began to prepare for the contemplated shifting of
+their quarters, Mr Meldrum so contriving that each had his quota of
+work to perform in making ready for the start.
+
+Ben Boltrope was commissioned to manufacture as speedily as he could,
+out of what spare timber he could get hold of--and, if necessary, he was
+empowered to break up the longboat in default of finding any elsewhere,
+for they would not want to use it again--a small light carriage with
+large broad wheels similar to those commonly used in transporting life-
+boats from place to place along the coast, when their services are
+suddenly required at some spot remote from their station and it would
+take too long to send them round by sea.
+
+This carriage, of course, was for the accommodation of the jolly-boat,
+whenever it should be found necessary for it to abandon its more
+congenial element the water, for the land; and as the wheels required
+some delicacy of manipulation, it was a lucky thing that the mutineers
+had forgotten to take Ben's tool-chest out of the longboat, and that it
+had been restored to his possession.  Otherwise, the old man-o'-war's
+man would have been unable to have completed satisfactorily the
+difficult task set him with only an old axe and a hammer for his
+available tools, as had been the case when the house was being built.
+
+Such of the party as were not assisting the carpenter were set to work
+collecting and curing everything in the shape of food, or provisions of
+any sort that came to hand--the rabbit warren being depopulated and wild
+ducks slaughtered to such an extent that the latter abandoned the
+valley; while, the last remaining birds in the penguin colony, old and
+young alike, were sacrificed to appease the craving gods of the common
+larder.
+
+Neither were the ladies idle; for, Kate Meldrum and Mrs Major Negus
+were employed making canvas bags for the stowage of all these good
+things in proper ship-shape fashion.  Even Master Maurice--the whilom
+"Imp," who had almost been reformed by his experience amongst the
+penguins--and Miss Florry, had their services requisitioned in one way
+or other.
+
+One and all, without exception, had each something to do!
+
+"I guess, mister," said Mr Lathrope a week later on, when he and Mr
+Meldrum were returning from an unsuccessful foray on the adjacent
+marshes that had been the haunt of the wild fowl--without once getting a
+shot, much less bagging a duck to reward their trouble,--"this'll be a
+tall moving; and the sooner we make tracks the better now, since all the
+game's skeart.  I don't see nary a grasshopper to aim at!"
+
+"The arrangements are all completed," replied the other, "and I have
+determined to start to-morrow.  As you say, there's nothing to be gained
+by our waiting any longer; so, as we've now as much provision collected
+as we shall either want or can carry, and as Ben has finished the boat-
+carriage, I don't see any reason for delaying our departure a single
+day!"
+
+Mr Meldrum was as good as his word.  He gave out an intimation of the
+projected start on the morrow to the household the same evening, as soon
+as the two reached the little dwelling by the creek which they were
+about to abandon so remorselessly after the long shelter it had given
+them in their adversity!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
+
+ACROSS COUNTRY.
+
+It was a lovely morning, the loveliest that the shipwrecked people had
+seen since their landing on Kerguelen Land, when the little party
+started away from Penguin Castle, bidding adieu to the spot which for so
+many long months had given them a shelter and a home.
+
+The sun was shining out brightly, the sky without a cloud, and the air
+felt quite warm, although with a freshness in it that just gave zest to
+movement; while the atmosphere had that peculiar opalescent translucency
+about it and an almost imperceptible colouring--in the faintest tints of
+light mauve and amber, with a shade of tender apple-green--which is
+rarely seen in more northern latitudes, excepting in those regions that
+are well within the borders of the Arctic circle.
+
+Out in the bay opposite the creek, the water was as smooth as glass,
+undisturbed by the slightest breath of wind so as to cause a ripple; and
+numbers of baby puffins and young penguins, their spruce little downy
+bodies clad in bright new coats of silky feathers, were scattered in
+groups over the mirror-like expanse, diving and coming up again in a
+moment in the centre of a series of expanding circles that gradually
+grew wider and wider in diameter, as when a stone is flung into a still
+pond, only to disappear the next minute.  Others were flitting along
+over the surface with the pinions of their little wings just dipped in
+the water, so that they flicked it up, in the short flights they took
+now and then in play and mimic pursuit of each other, like as rowing men
+do when they "feather" their oars too soon in lumpy water.  Sometimes,
+the generally restless birdlets would rest tranquilly for a brief while
+on the bosom of the sea, chattering away like so many aquatic magpies in
+miniature mottled flocks; but this was only for a very short spell.
+
+To the right of the creek, rising abruptly out of the sea, the black
+basaltic cliffs which formed such a bold headland to the bay stretched
+far out to where the extreme point of Cape Saint Louis could be seen,
+embracing within the compass of its arm the reef on which the _Nancy
+Bell_ had been lost; and to the left, beyond the ridge at the back of
+the castaways' dwelling, the higher ranges of the inland mountains,
+which seemed to run down to the southwards and eastwards as far as the
+eye could reach, stood up--towering in the distance above the hills
+immediately near in the foreground and lifting their snow-clad summits
+into the blue vault of the heavens.
+
+The "travelling caravan," as Mr Lathrope had styled the jolly-boat when
+he saw it first mounted on its broad-flanged, awkward-looking carriage,
+had been packed the night before with all the impedimenta of the
+pilgrims.  Their few "goods and chattels and household effects" were
+stowed in and about below the thwarts, with the canvas bags containing
+the dried birds and Kerguelen cabbage which formed their stock of
+provisions ranged round the gunwales and crammed in anywhere; while a
+special place was kept clear and reserved in the stern-sheets for the
+accommodation of poor Captain Dinks, who was deposited here in his cot.
+
+Pussy, who had been so happily saved from the wreck at the last moment
+and had since done such good service in demolishing the mice which
+infested the house, was placed alongside of the captain to keep him
+company, and he had also in charge a tame, or rather an educated
+penguin, that Master Maurice Negus had displayed considerable ability in
+training and which Mr Meldrum had allowed to be taken along with the
+other things as a reward for the "imp's" services of late in assisting
+at the preparations of the expedition.
+
+For some days prior to this, Mr Meldrum had been very busy taking short
+excursions in various directions, but all tending to the same point of
+the compass.  He was endeavouring to find out which route would be the
+most practicable for reaching the eastern seaboard; and, after
+collecting all his observations into one harmonised whole and
+deliberating over the matter with Mr Lathrope and the first-mate, who
+had severally accompanied him in his various prospecting tours, the
+final course of the party was at length agreed on.
+
+The bright morning appeared to all as an augury of success; so it was
+with light hearts that they set out.
+
+They abandoned Penguin Castle in all its entirety, Mr Meldrum saying
+that possibly they might have to seek its shelter again; but, if happily
+there should arise no occasion for that eventuality, the building might
+still be of service to other shipwrecked men in a like extremity to
+themselves.  Thus it came to pass that the place was left "all
+standing," with rooms, furniture--such as it was--Snowball's copper and
+the cooking range all intact.  Even the flagstaff with Kate's ensign at
+the peak was left hoisted, as if to show, that if deserted now, the spot
+had once been inhabited!
+
+They were thirty-two souls in all now, reckoning the steward and the
+other four men of the mutineers who had come back in the longboat--which
+had to be broken up, by the way, after all, to form the jolly-boat's
+carriage; and it was just "six bells in the forenoon watch" when they
+started, a team of the sailors, tethered in traces like a pack of
+Esquimaux dogs, hauling away at the boat-carriage and running it along
+merrily with a chorus of "cheerily men, cheerily ho!"  The others
+tramped behind the queer vehicular conveyance, without respect of
+persons; only poor Captain Dinks being allowed a seat in the boat, while
+it travelled on land, and that only by reason of his helplessness and
+inability to move without assistance.  When they had to take to the
+water, of course, the jolly-boat would have to carry more passengers.
+
+On the way, sometimes, they had serious difficulties to encounter, for
+the ground in many places was moist and spongy, causing the feet of the
+men hauling to sink deeply into the soil as they tugged at the towing-
+rope of the jolly-boat's carriage; but, as frequently Mr Meldrum
+remarked, to rouse the seamen's energies, "difficulties were only made
+for brave men to conquer," so at it they went with a will which soon
+overcame the dead weight of the load they had to drag behind them--a
+fresh towing team relieving the first at the expiration of every half
+hour, so as not to weary the men out by a too prolonged strain at such
+unusual exertion.
+
+Bye and bye, they arrived at the end of their first "portage," the
+shores of the little lake which Mr Meldrum had noticed trending in an
+eastward direction.  This water would now considerably aid their passage
+across the isthmus by allowing the jolly-boat to take to its native
+element, on whose bosom it would be borne some miles on the onward way.
+
+Here a halt was called and a short luncheon taken, after which the
+jolly-boat was safely launched on the water by backing it down on its
+carriage.  This plan was easy as well as expeditious; for, as soon as
+the boat had reached its proper point of immersion, it floated off the
+wheels.
+
+The ladies then got into the stern-sheets, alongside of the captain,
+accompanied by Mr Meldrum, while four of the seamen took their places
+on the thwarts in order to row them across--the remainder of the party
+stopping where they were, along with a portion of the packages that had
+been removed from the boat so as to make room for Mrs Major Negus and
+the others who went with her.  The carriage belonging to the boat was
+also left behind until the latter should have deposited its first cargo
+on the other side of the lake and return to fetch a fresh load.
+
+Three trips were taken before the whole party were thus transported over
+the lake, the boat's carriage being then towed over at the last
+crossing.
+
+It would be needless repetition to recount in detail all the different
+portages of the jolly-boat over the strips of land which lay between the
+chain of lakes that were spread over the line of their route; or, to
+tell the number of the trips by water that had to be made.
+
+There were many unloadings of the little craft, and many packings-up
+again.
+
+Many weary miles the poor unaccustomed pedestrians had to tramp,
+sometimes up-hill, sometimes down dale, through marshy lands and over
+stony boulders that blistered their feet; and all the while they had to
+drag after them that terrible Frankenstein-like monster, the jolly-boat
+mounted on its carriage, which seemed to the worn-out men sometimes a
+species of Juggernaut car, crushing out their spirits and sapping their
+every energy.
+
+Suffice it to say, that, at the end of a fortnight's time, they at
+length reached a magnificent stretch of blue water, which Mr Meldrum
+said was Hillsborough Bay, on the eastern side of Kerguelen Land.
+
+Hurrah--they had crossed the isthmus, and arrived so far towards the end
+of their destination!
+
+As they toiled over this neck of land which united the two principal
+peninsulas into which the island was divided, they could mark how, as
+had been noticed along the coast, the country was composed of a series
+of terraced hills, rising above a chain of lakes and lagoons that
+indented it deeply on either side and forming an endless succession of
+deep fords and harbours, the hills being almost invariably covered, from
+their crests down to a certain altitude, with perpetual snow.  Below
+this line, their sides were clothed with green verdure, composed chiefly
+of a species of azorella and a rough spinated grass; while, the
+strangest feature of all was, that not a single tree, or plant
+approaching to the dimensions of a shrub, could be seen on any portion
+of the island!
+
+The most charming characteristic of the scenery noticed, was the
+profusion of cataracts, cascades, and waterfalls, which leaped and
+sparkled from terrace to terrace of the basaltic net-work of peaks and
+ridges that ran here, there, and everywhere across the isthmus,
+enclosing the valleys and scarping the sea--the splashing of these
+natural fountains making soft music everywhere as the water gurgled down
+into tiny rivulets and brooks below, which stole their way along banks
+bordered by chickweed and liverwort into the lakes, and from the lakes
+into the ocean, only to be sucked up again by the clouds and deposited
+on the hills in the form of rain, forming the cascades and cataracts
+anew; and so on, _da capo_.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
+
+RESCUED.
+
+"Snakes and alligators, mister!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope when the whole
+party were gathered together on the shore of Hillsborough Bay, united
+once more after the boat-carriage had been lugged over its final
+portage, and the boat itself had accomplished its last separate short
+trip before adventuring again on the open waters of the sea--"I guess
+your fifteen miles has come to a considerable sight more'n fifty, you
+bet."
+
+"Oh! please be a little more moderate in your estimate," laughed Mr
+Meldrum.  "I confess I somewhat understated the probable distance; but
+really, now, fifty miles is a little too much."
+
+"Wa-al, then, let us call it five-and-twenty," said the American with a
+genial grin over his sharp-cut features, which were almost as elongated
+as his legs.  "You can't grumble at that anyway, I reckon, boss!"
+
+"That's pretty much like the story of the five hundred cats which came
+down, I believe, to two, if I'm not mistaken," slily put in Miss Kate,
+smiling.
+
+"Now, don't you be too rough on a feller, missy," said Mr Lathrope,
+pretending to be very serious over the matter, in his humorous way.  "I
+cave in to the fifty, that's a fact, as I kinder wanted to pile on the
+agony; but when I took my stand to be euchred on twenty-five miles, I
+meant the distance we've tramped over, and nary a bit of the water
+passage, for my old boots hev got busted up, I guess, and the sooner I
+git a noo pair the better for this child."
+
+"Bedad, that's the same case wid mysilf," interposed Mr McCarthy,
+exhibiting the articles he wore as he spoke, which, from their repeated
+patchings and general state of dilapidation, would certainly have
+carried off the prize at a curiosity show.  "Sure, and it's walkin' on
+my fut I've bin the last foor days entirely."
+
+"You'd have ben a smart coon to have done the contrary, I guess, mister,
+anyhow," said the American drily.
+
+"Sure, an' it's the sole of me fut I mane, sorr," explained the first-
+mate in Hibernian fashion.
+
+"Jest so," said Mr Lathrope, laughing at the blunder; "and it would
+puzzle you to walk different, I kalkerlate, that is onless you tried the
+sole of your head!"
+
+"Well, here we are, no matter what distance we have travelled," said Mr
+Meldrum, going back to business; while Frank and Kate, who had not been
+able to get much conversation together of late, were having a very
+interesting little _tete-a-tete_ confabulation in a corner, out of ear-
+shot of the rest.  "We shall, however, soon have to separate our forces
+again, for we must make the next start on our journey by water, which
+will now be our travelling medium all the way."
+
+"Be jabers, and it's glad I am to hear that same!" exclaimed Mr
+McCarthy, interrupting the speaker in his jubilation at not being forced
+to walk any more, a means of locomotion to which, from his long life at
+sea, the first-mate was strangely averse.
+
+"As I was saying," continued Mr Meldrum, "we must now make up our minds
+for a short separation, the rest of our journey having to be performed
+by water.  I'll tell you what I think will be the best plan, if you will
+listen:-- From here to Betsy Cove, the harbour I have mentioned where
+the whalers call every year, is in a bee-line just about thirty-five
+miles right ahead across the stretch of sea there; but as we may have to
+make a detour in order to avoid reefs and any rocks or islands which may
+come within this straight line, we'd better call it fifty miles."
+
+"Better say a hundred, mister, while you're at it," said Mr Lathrope,
+with a wink to the others; "you kinder forget the fifteen miles you made
+it across the isthmus 'fore we started, hey?"
+
+"There's no fear of my making that mistake here," replied Mr Meldrum.
+"This is all plain sailing, with correct latitude and longitude to go
+by!  It won't be more than fifty, indeed, even if we have to creep round
+the coast of the bay all the way, instead of shaping a course right
+across it, as I intend doing.  Well, all things considered, it will be
+best for the boat first to take half of us this distance to Betsy Cove,
+going all the way in the one trip; and then to return for the other
+portion of the party.  We have lightened her considerably of the
+provisions during the last ten days, and being able to carry twelve or
+fourteen hands ordinarily, she will now easily take us across the bay in
+two trips--that is, if some of you don't mind a little squeezing."
+
+"Will--will--it be quite safe?" said Mrs Major Negus in a hesitating
+way, looking at the bright, frisking little wavelets which covered the
+blue sea of the bay with some slight alarm.  She had imbibed a perfect
+horror of the water and all pertaining to it ever since the wreck.
+
+"Quite," answered Mr Meldrum.  "We've had peril enough without my
+seeking to endanger your safety now!  I suppose," continued he, going on
+to explain the arrangements, "the boat will take a day, say, in getting
+to Betsy Cove, and another day coming back on the return voyage for the
+rest.--We'll call it three days, to allow for contingencies; so that, we
+shall not be apart more than four days at the outside, allowing due time
+for the boat reaching the Cove again after her second trip hither."
+
+"Fancy!" whispered Frank to Kate.  "Four whole days that I may not be
+able to see you!  I know it will be just my luck that I shall have to
+stay behind at the camp; for, your father will most probably take all
+the ladies with him in the first trip, as he did at setting out."
+
+"Oh, dear!" said Kate smiling, "that will be a terribly long separation,
+won't it?"
+
+"You darling tease!" exclaimed he; "I don't believe you care for me half
+as much as I do for you!"
+
+"Don't I!" she said softly; and her melting blue eyes would have
+disclosed a secret if Frank had been looking into them at the moment--
+which very probably he was!
+
+However, the sad eventuality he had conjectured did not occur.  Mr
+Meldrum, knowing the condition of matters between the lovers, did not
+have the heart to separate the two, even temporarily; and so Frank had
+the supreme and unexpected felicity of accompanying Kate in the first
+trip the jolly-boat took across the bay to Betsy Cove--Mrs Major Negus
+and Maurice, Mr Meldrum and Florry, Mr Adams and Captain Dinks, of
+course, besides six of the seamen, being their fellow-passengers.
+
+Mr Lathrope remained at the head of the inlet, with Mr McCarthy, in
+charge of the camp and the remaining hands until the jolly-boat came
+back to fetch them; and it really seemed, from the many earnest "good-
+byes" exchanged between those starting off and the ones left behind as
+if the castaways were parting for ever, the separation seemed to cause
+such a wrench after they had been so long together!
+
+Thanks to the fine fresh breeze, and the fact of their being almost in
+the open sea now--for the sides of the bay diverged so greatly after a
+time that the opposite coasts could not be seen--the boat was under sail
+instead of being pulled along; and the motion was ever so much more
+pleasant than when it was oscillated to and fro by the sharp jerky
+strokes of the rowers.
+
+The weather still continued fine and clear, with the sun shining on the
+water and a bright blue sky overhead; and as the boat glided along,
+heeling over to the wind every now and then and tossing the spray from
+her bows as she came down with a flop on the crest of some little wave
+which got in her way, Frank wished that he and Kate could glide on so
+for ever.  Everything seemed so delightful around them after the dreary
+winter they had so recently passed through.
+
+Nature herself was smiling again upon them in the bright summer dawn!
+
+Even the penguins seemed to enjoy the change of season, for they raced
+after the boat as she pursued her way, moving through the water like a
+shoal of albacore, and rarely showing more than their heads above the
+surface for a little while.  Then, all of a sudden, as if playing a game
+of leapfrog amongst themselves, they would spring out of the sea in long
+lines, one after another, showing their steel-grey backs and silvery
+sides, so that Kate could hardly believe they were not fishes jumping up
+in sport, like as she had frequently seen the bonito do when off the
+African coast in the Atlantic.
+
+The jolly-boat had such a spanking breeze from the north-west all the
+way with her, right abaft the beam, that she accomplished the distance
+between the head of the inlet and Betsy Cove before nightfall, Mr
+Meldrum shaping her course so well by the old chart he had that she
+fetched the harbour in a bee-line almost from their point of departure,
+steering east by south.
+
+There was no mistaking the place.
+
+Betsy Cove was a second bay within a larger one, called "Accessible Bay"
+on the chart and marked by a curious isolated mountain-peak which raised
+itself on the very extremity of a low spit of land that ran out into the
+sea, a long way out from the main shore.
+
+On the beach were several old wooden huts and a large iron boiler that
+had evidently been used for "trying out" seal and whale oil from the
+blubber; while further up the shore was a small graveyard, a rather
+melancholy-looking spot with a few wooden crosses and piles scattered
+about it bearing dreary legends relating to the untimely end of
+different seamen who had either died there on shore, or had lost their
+lives at sea in the immediate vicinity.  However, the most important
+point to our little party, was the fact that there were no signs of any
+vessels having recently visited the place; and, consequently, Mr
+Meldrum had carried out his original plan to the letter, having
+evidently arrived there in time before the annual coming of the whalers.
+
+Early the next morning the jolly-boat was sent back to fetch the others,
+and towards the evening of the day following the whole of the party were
+once more together.
+
+A week passed by without any event of note happening, during which
+period the little community did not suffer from any want of food or
+other necessaries, for they found a store of provisions in one of the
+huts that had evidently been placed there in case of need similar to
+their own; so, things jogged on evenly enough.  Still, all were in a
+state of high-strung suspense, looking out eagerly from morning till
+night for the promised vessel that every one expected was coming to
+deliver them.
+
+"I guess they'd better look alive, mister, if they're coming," said Mr
+Lathrope, "or else the summer'll be gone afore we git away, and then we
+shall have to go back to Penguin Castle for another winter.  I'd sooner
+a durned sight be thar than haar if it comed on to blow!"
+
+"Patience, my friend!" replied Mr Meldrum.  "Don't you recollect that
+old French proverb, `Everything comes to him who waits!'"
+
+"Don't reckon I dew, mister," answered the other.  "I guess, though, it
+warn't a waiter at one of them hotels that said that, hey?"
+
+"Perhaps not," said Mr Meldrum, smiling at the American's hit; "but
+I've no doubt we shall be rescued this year, even if we have to wait."
+
+He was not disappointed.
+
+On the Monday morning of the following week the look out man--for they
+had set up another signal station here at the head of the harbour the
+same as at Penguin Castle--sang out the welcome call--"Sail ho!"
+
+And, soon after, a large fore-and-aft rigged schooner was seen entering
+the bay.
+
+She proved to be the _Matilda Ann_ of New London.  She was engaged in
+the whale and seal fishery between Kerguelen Land and the neighbouring
+Heard Islands; and as she was empty, having transferred her oil to a
+homeward-bound whaler belonging to the same owners, her captain readily
+accepted the offer made him by Mr Meldrum on behalf of Captain Dinks,
+to charter the schooner to convey the survivors of the passengers and
+crew of the _Nancy Bell_ to the Cape of Good Hope, whence they would
+easily be able to get a passage back to England or to their original
+destination in New Zealand.
+
+"I guess that air prime," said Mr Lathrope; "but I've hed enuff v'yging
+fur a spell, and I kinder kalkerlate I'll make tracks to hum.  I don't
+mind either, darkey, if I take you along o' me!  I've got a fust-rate
+brown-stone front in Philadelphy, and I'll chuck you in as cook, if you
+like, hey?"
+
+"Golly, massa, you don't mean dat, suah!"
+
+"Guess I dew," said the American deliberately.
+
+"Tank you, massa; den you ken take down de bill, I ain't no longer to
+let--I'm on, yah, yah!" shouted Snowball, giving way to the most
+obstreperous merriment, in order to testify his satisfaction at Mr
+Lathrope's engaging him in his service, the darkey having always had a
+hankering after the American from his thorough appreciation of his
+cookery.
+
+Mrs Major Negus was true to the last.
+
+"What an extremely fishy smell!" she exclaimed as she went on board the
+whaler which had so opportunely come to rescue them from the solitude of
+Desolation Island.  "I'm sure I wish Captain Dinks had secured a passage
+for us in a more respectable ship after choosing to cast away his own!"
+
+But little more remains to be added.
+
+The whaling schooner reached Table Bay in safety, without encountering
+any storms similar to that which had led to the loss of the _Nancy
+Bell_, and all the rescued castaways were shortly afterwards landed at
+Cape Town.  Here, Captain Dinks, who had recovered much from his wound
+since he was taken off the island, secured a passage home to England for
+himself and officers and such of the passengers of the lost ship as
+desired to go back thither, sending on to New Zealand, at the owners'
+expense, those who preferred proceeding to their original destination.
+
+Amongst these latter was Mrs Major Negus and her son, "the Major" being
+extremely anxious to join her husband at Waikatoo as soon as possible.
+Mr Meldrum and his family also went on; the ex-commander in the Royal
+Navy having sold out the little property he had at home and capitalised
+his pension with the object of settling in New Zealand, had now no
+desire to return to England, or the means to live there if he had such a
+wish.
+
+Frank did not forget his engagement with Kate, however.
+
+Although he was obliged to accompany Captain Dinks back to England, it
+was not long after his arrival in London before he passed the Trinity
+House Board, obtaining a certificate licensing him to act as chief mate,
+in which capacity he went out to New Zealand on his very next voyage.
+
+This will not be his last trip to the Antipodes either, for rumour has
+it that, not improbably, Frank Harness, promoted to the rank of a master
+in the mercantile marine, will proceed shortly again to Otago in command
+of a ship of his own, when, possibly, he will have one especial item of
+human freight to bring home with him on his own account!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.
+
+THE LAST OF THE OLD SHIP!
+
+There is one thing more to tell.
+
+It all arises from the unpardonable stupidity of that donkey of a
+steward, Llewellyn, who forgot the memorandum concerning the
+circumstance and left it down below in the cabin--and that, too, in
+spite of Ben Boltrope's telling him to be certain to bear it mind,
+besides his wife, Mary, having continually jogged his memory on the
+subject!  Had it not been for this, the omission would never have
+occurred, as the matter would have been mentioned in its proper place
+some time ago.
+
+Shortly after the _Matilda Ann_ set sail from the little whaling station
+at Betsy Cove with the rescued castaways of Kerguelen Land on board, and
+just as she was weathering the Cloudy Islands, as they are called--a
+group of rocks that lie to the north-east of the mainland--the look-out
+man in the fore cross-trees, who was keeping a keen watch for breakers,
+the navigation at this point being rather ticklish on account of the
+treacherous reefs and stray currents that wander about there, suddenly
+shouted down to the man at the wheel to put the helm down, which of
+course he immediately did.
+
+"What is it?" called out the steersman, who happened to be the master of
+the schooner himself.  He noticed no sign of breakers anywhere near and
+wondered at this sudden alteration of the vessel's course--"Where's the
+reef?"
+
+"'Tain't no reef, sir," sang out the man aloft in answer, "but I see
+something like a man in the water."
+
+"Man be hanged!" exclaimed the schooner's skipper in a rage.  "And was
+it for such an absurd idea that you've nearly made me shiver the masts
+out of her?  If it be a body, it can only be a corpse; for no man could
+swim out here from Kerguelen, and I'm blessed if he could live on those
+rocks of islands beyond!"
+
+"There!" shouted the look-out man again, taking no notice of the other's
+upbraiding, and seeming to be very anxious about whatever he had seen in
+the water.  "It is quite close now on the lee bow."
+
+"Well, just to oblige you," said the skipper, speaking loud enough for
+all on board to hear, "and to let you see for yourself what a confounded
+fool you are, I'll fetch her up to it!"
+
+"Bully for you, cap'en!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope, who with the others of
+the rescued party was on deck, not liking the rather fusty odour of the
+schooner's cabin--which, to do justice to Mrs Major Negus, did smell
+most abominably of seal-oil, and even worse scents!
+
+The floating object was soon approached on the schooner's bearing away
+towards it; and a man in the bows, who had a boat-hook ready in his
+hand, quickly grappled it and pulled it alongside.
+
+It was no man, however, as the look-out had thought; but only a piece of
+square timber which had evidently once formed some portion of a vessel's
+belongings, and it was carved out roughly on the uppermost side to
+represent a female head and bust.
+
+"I wasn't far out in thinking it were a man in the water," said the
+look-out man, gazing down on the object from his perch above, as the
+schooner's skipper, giving the helm in charge of some one else, came
+forward to have a look over the side at the innocent cause of all this
+unnecessary fuss, as he thought.
+
+"You'd better say no more," replied the skipper, scornfully shouting
+back up to the man.  "I always thought you were a fool, and now I know
+you are one!  A drowning man, indeed! why, it's only the broken
+figurehead of some old vessel or other!"
+
+"Look, Mr McCarthy!" cried Mr Meldrum to the Irishman, who just then
+came up to see what all the commotion was about.  "Don't you see what it
+is?"
+
+"Be jabers, I do!" responded the ex-mate, quite as much excited as the
+other.  "Sure, an' it's the last of the ould ship!  I wondther
+howsomedever it iver floated all the way here?"
+
+It was the figurehead of the ill-fated _Nancy Bell_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Wreck of the Nancy Bell, by J. C. Hutcheson
+
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