they steamed once moreout of the bay, passed many a strange, fantastic island, passed rockspierced with caves, and bird-haunted, and so, with the vessel's prowpointing to the northward and west, they left the Faroes far behindthem.
Tremendous seas rolled in from the broad Atlantic all that night and allnext day, little wind though, and no broken water. In the evening, inthe dog-watch, the waves seemed to increase in size; they were mileslong, mountains high; when down in the trough of the sea you had to lookup to their crests as you would to the summer's sun at noontide.Indeed, those waves made the brave ship _Arrandoon_ look wondrous small.
McBain, somewhat to Stevenson's astonishment, made the man at the wheelsteer directly north.
"We're out of our course, sir," said the mate.
"Pardon me for a minute or two," replied the captain, halfapologetically, "we are now broadside on to these seas, I just want totest her stability."
"Well, everything is pretty fast, sir," said the mate, quietly; "but ifthe ship goes on her beam-ends don't blame me."
"Perhaps, Mr Stevenson, there wouldn't be much time to blame any one;but I can trust my ship, I think. Wo! my beauty."
The beauty didn't seem a bit inclined to "wo!" however. She positivelyrolled her ports under, and Rory confessed that the doldrums werenothing to this.
Presently up comes Rory from below.
"Och! captain dear," he says, "my gun-case has burst my fiddle-case, andI'm not sure that the fiddle herself is safe, the darling."
Next up comes Stevenson. "Please captain," he says, "the steward sayshis crockery is all going to smithereens, and the cook can't keep thefire in the galley range, and Freezing Powders has broken the tureen andspilt the soup, and--"
"Enough, enough," cried McBain, laughing; "take charge, mate, and do asyou like with her, I'm satisfied."
So down below dived the captain, the ship's head was once more turnednorth-west, and a bit of canvas clapped on to steady her.
CHAPTER SEVEN.
SANDIE MCFLAIL, M.D.--"WHA WOULDNA' BE A SEA-BIRD?"--THE GIRL TELLS HERSTRANGE ADVENTURES--NIGHTFALL ON THE SEA.
There is one member of the mess whom I have not yet introduced, but avery worthy member he is, our youthful doctor. Poor fellow! neverbefore had he been to sea, and so he suffered accordingly. Oh! rightbravely had he tried to keep up for all that. He was the boldestmariner afloat while coming down the Clyde; he disappeared as the shipbegan to round the stormy Mull. He appeared again for a short time atOban, but vanished when the anchor was weighed. At Lerwick, where theycalled in to take old Magnus Bolt on board, and ship a dozen stalwartShetlanders, the doctor was once more seen on deck; and it was currentlyreported that when the vessel lay helpless on the reef, a ghostly formbearing a strong resemblance to the bold surgeon was seen flitting aboutin the darkness, and a quavering voice was heard to put this solemnquestion more than once, "Any danger, men? Men, are we in danger?"This was the last that had been seen of the medico; but Rory found aslate in the dispensary, into which sanctum, by the way, he had no rightto pop even his nose. He brought this slate aft, the young rascal, andread what was written thereon to Allan and Ralph, from which it wasquite evident that Sandie McFlail, M.D., of Aberdeen, had made a mostintrepid attempt to keep a diary. The entries were short, and ransomewhat thus:--
"February 9th.--Dropped away from the Broomielaw and steamed down thebeautiful Clyde. Charming day, though cold, and the hills on each sidethe river clothed in virgin snow. Felt sad and sorrowful at leaving mynative land. I wonder will ever we return, or will the great seaswallow us up? Would rather it didn't. I wonder if _she_ will think ofme and pray for her mariner bold when the wind blows high at night, whenthe cold rain beats against the window-panes of her little cot, and thestorm spirit roars around the old chimneys. I feel a sailor already allover, and I tread the decks with pride.
"Feb. 10th.--At sea. The ocean getting rough. Passed some seagulls.
"Feb. 11th.--Sea rougher. Passed a ship.
"Feb. 12th.--Sea still rough. Passed some seaweed.
"Feb. 13th.--Sea mountains high. Passed--"
"And here," says Rory, "the diary breaks off all of a sudden like; andall of a sudden the entries close; so, really, there is no saying whatthe doctor passed on the 13th. But just about this time, the mate tellsme, he was seen leaning languidly over the side, so--"
"Ho, ho!" cried McBain, close at his ear. The captain had entered thesaloon unperceived by boy Rory, and had been standing behind him all thetime he was reading. Ralph and Allan saw him well enough, but they, ofcourse, said nothing, although they could not refrain from laughing.
"Ho, ho, Rory, my boy!" says McBain; "ho, ho, boy Rory! so you're fairlycaught?"
"And indeed then," says Rory, jumping up and looking as guilty as anyschoolboy, "I didn't know you were there at all at all."
"Of that I am perfectly sure," McBain says, laughing, "else you wouldn'thave been reading the poor doctor's private diary. What shall we dowith him, Ralph? What shall he be done to, Allan?"
"Oh!" said Ralph, mischievously; "send him to the masthead for a coupleof hours. Into the foretop, mind, where he'll get plenty of air abouthim."
"No," said Allan, grinning; "give him a seat for three hours on the endof the bowsprit. Of course, Captain McBain, you'll let him have abottle of hot water at his feet, and a blanket or two about him. He isonly a little one, you know."
"But now that I think of it," said McBain, "you are all the same, boys;there isn't one of you a whit better than the other."
"Sure and you're right, captain," Rory put in, "for if I was reading,they were listening, most intently, too."
"Well then, boys, I'll tell you how you can make amends to the honestdoctor. Off you go, the three of you, and see if you can't rouse himout. Get him to come on deck and breathe the fresh air. He'll soon getround."
And off our three heroes went, joyfully, on their mission of mercy.
They found the worthy doctor in bed in his cabin, and forthwith setabout kindly but firmly rousing him out. They had even brought FreezingPowders with them, to carry a pint of moselle.
"I feel vera limp," said Sandie, as soon as he got dressed, "vera limpindeed. Well, as you say, the moselle may do me good, but I'm ateetotaler as a rule."
"We never touch any wine," said Ralph, "nor care to; but this, my deardoctor, is medicine."
Sandie confessed himself better immediately when he got on deck. WithAllan on one side of him and big Ralph on the other, he was marched upand down the deck for half an hour and more.
"Man! gentlemen!" he remarked, "I thought I could walk finely, but I'mjust now for a' the world like a silly drunken body."
"We were just the same," said Allan, "when we came first to sea--couldn't walk a bit; but we soon got our sea-legs, and we've never lostthem yet."
The doctor was struck with wonder at the might and majesty of the waves,and also at the multitude of birds that were everywhere about and aroundthem. Kittiwakes, solons, gulls, guillemots, auks, and puffins, theywhirled and wheeled around the ship in hundreds, screaming and shriekingand laughing. They floated on the water, they swam on its surface, anddived down into its dark depths, and no fear had they of human beings,nor of the steamer itself.
"How happy they all seem!" said Rory; "if I was one of the loweranimals, as we call them, sure there is nothing in the wide world I'dlike better to be than a sea-bird."
"True for you," said Allan; "it's a wild, free life they lead."
"And they seem to have no care," said the doctor. "Their meat is boundto their heads; at any rate, they never have far to go to seek it. Whentired they can rest; when rested they can fly again. Then look at thewarm and beautiful coats they wear. There is no wetting them to theskin; the water glides off o' them like the rain from a duck's back.Then think o' the pleasure o' possessin' a pair o' wings that can cleavethe air like an arrow from a bowstring; that in a few short days,independent o' wind or waves or weather, can carry them from the cauld
north far, far awa' to the saft and sunny south. Wha wouldna' be asea-bird?"
"Yes," reiterated Rory, stopping in front of the doctor; "as you say,doctor, `Wha wouldna' be a sea-bird?' But pardon me, sir, for in you Irecognise a kindred spirit, a lover of nature, a lover of the beautiful.You and I will be friends, doctor--fast friends. There, shake hands."
"As for Ralph and Allan," he added, with a mischievous grin, "'deed introth, doctor dear, there isn't a