wouldn't speak, Jack Reid himself--and he was a verybrave sailor, sissie--did speak.
"`Ahoy, maties!' he cried, `ye don't seem an over-lively lot here, Imust say, but has e'er a one o' ye got sich a thing as a bit o' baccy?'
"Jack told me, Babs, that when he made this speech he got a fearfulfright. Every merman stood up straight on its stool, its skinny armsand claw-like hands held straight above its head, and a yell rangthrough the hall that Jack says is ringing in his ears till this day.
"`Oh!' he cried, `if that's your little game, here's for off.'
"Jack must have been glad enough to get back to the ballroom, but thiswas now deserted. No one was there at all except the lovely mermaid whohad saved him from being devoured by the terrible devil-fish.
"She smiled upon him as sweetly as ever.
"`I'm going to guide you,' she said, `to the nursery grotto; it is timethat all sailor boys went to by-by.'
"`Go on, missie,' Jack said, `go on, yer woice is sweeter far than thesong of--of a Mother Carey's chicken. Wot a lovely lady ye'd be, miss,if ye didn't end in ling!'
"She smiled, and combed her hair with her long white fairy fingers asshe glided on.
"`Going to by-by am I? Well, the mum did used to call it that like,miss, but we grown-up sailor lads calls it a bunk or an 'ammock. Ain'tgot ne'er a bit o' baccy about ye, has ye, miss?'
"But the fairy mermaid only smiled.
"So soft and downy was the bed that Jack fell asleep singing low tohimself--
"`All in the downs the fleet was moored.'
"And that is the end of the story, siss."
"Oh, no! What did he see when he woke up again?"
"Well, when he awoke in the morning, much to his amazement, he foundhimself in his own bed in his mother's little cottage at home.
"He rubbed his eyes twice before he spoke.
"`What! mother?' he cried.
"`Yes, it is your own old mother, dearie, and I've been sittin' up withyou, and sich nonsense you has been a-talkin', surely.'
"`I'm not a merman, or anything, am I, mother? I don't end in ling, doI, mother?'
"`No, Jack Reid, you end in two good strong legs; but strong as theyare, my boy, they weren't strong enough to keep you from tumbling downlast night. O Jack, Jack!'"
Book 2--CHAPTER NINE.
WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF THE DANCING CRANE.
Hardly had Ransey finished his story ere a bright flash of lightning litup the ship from stem to stern--a flash that seemed to strike the top ofevery rolling wave and hiss in the hollows between; a flash that leftthe barque in Cimmerian though only momentary darkness, for hardly hadthe thunder that followed--deep, loud, and awful--commenced, ere flashsucceeded flash, and the sea all around seemed an ocean of fire.
For a time little Nelda could not be prevailed upon to go below. Shewas indeed a child of the wilds, and a thunderstorm was one of her chiefdelights.
Ah! but this was going to be somewhat more than a thunderstorm.
"Hands, shorten sail! All hands on deck!" It was Tandy's voicesounding through the speaking trumpet--ringing through it, I might say,and yet it scarce could be heard above the incessant crashing of thethunder.
The men came tumbling up, looking scared and frightened in the blueglare of the lightning.
"Away aloft! Bear a hand, my hearties! Get her snug, and we'll splicethe main-brace. Hurrah, lads! Nimbly does it!"
Swaying high up on the top-gallant yards they looked no bigger thanrooks, and with every uncertain lurch and roll the yard-ends seemedalmost to touch the water.
It was at this moment that the stewardess came staggering aft.
"Don't go, 'Ansey--don't go," cried Nelda.
"Duty's duty, dear, and it's `all hands' now."
He saw her safely down the companion-way, and next minute he wasswarming up the ratlines to his station. But he had to pause every fewseconds and hang on to the rigging, with his back right over the water--hang on for dear life.
The sails were reefed, and some were got in, and not till the men hadgot down from aloft did the rain come on. For higher and higher had theclouds on the northern horizon banked up, till they covered all the sky.
So awful was the rain, and so blinding, that it was impossible to seeten yards ahead, or even to guess from which direction the storm wouldactually come.
The wind was already whirling in little eddies from end to end of thedeck, but hardly yet did it affect the motion of the ship, or give herway in any one direction.
The men were ordered below in batches, to get into their oilskins, forright well Tandy knew that a fearful night had to be faced.
The men received their grog now, and well did they deserve it.
Another hand was put to the wheel (two men in all), and near them stoodthe bold mate Tandy, ready to give orders by signal or even by touch,should they fail to hear his voice. All around the deck the men wereclinging to bulwark or stay.
Waiting for the inevitable!
Ah! now it came. The rain had ceased for a time. So heavy had it beenthat the waves themselves were levelled, and Tandy could now see a longline of white coming steadily up astern.
He thanked the God who rules on sea as well as on dry land that thesquall was coming from that direction. Had it taken the good shipsuddenly aback she might have gone down stern-foremost, even with thenow limited spread of canvas that was on her.
As it was, the first mountain wave that hit the good barque sent herflying through the sea as if she had been but an empty match-box. Thatwave burst on board, however--pooped her, in fact--and went roaringforward, a sea of solid foaming water.
The good vessel shivered from stem to stern like a creature in thethroes of death. For a few minutes only. Next minute she had shakenherself free, and was dashing through the water at a pace that only ayacht could have beaten.
The thunder now went rolling down to leeward, and the rain ceased, butthe gale increased in force, and in a short time she had to be easedagain, and now she was scudding along almost under bare poles. It wouldbe hours before mate Tandy could get below; but Ransey's watch was nowoff deck, so he went down to ask Janeira, the stewardess, if Nelda wasin bed.
She was in bed most certainly, but through the half-open doorway shecould hear Ransey's voice, and shouted to him.
"I fink, sah," Janeira said, "she am just one leetle bit afraid."
There was no doubt about that, and the questions with which she pliedher brother, when he took a seat by her bunk to comfort her, werepeculiar, to say the least.
"Daddy won't be down for a long, long time?"--that was one.
"The poor men, though, how many is drownded?"--another.
"The ship did go to the bottom though, didn't it, 'cause I heard thewater all rush down?"--a third.
"You are quite, quite sure father isn't drownded? And you are sure noawful beasts have come up with long arms? Well, tell us some stories."
_Nolens volens_, Ransey had to. But Babs got drowsy at last, the whiteeyelids drooped and drooped till they finally closed; then Ransey wentquietly away and turned into his hammock.
Young though he was, the heaviest sea-way could not frighten him, northe stormiest wind that could blow. The sound of the wind as it wentroaring through the rigging could only make him drowsy, and the shipherself would rock him to sleep. The barque was snug, too, and it washappiness itself to hear his father's footsteps, as he walked thequarterdeck, pausing now and then to give an order to the men at thewheel.
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"Behaved like an angel all through, Halcott!" That was what Tandy toldthe skipper next morning at breakfast.
"I knew she would, Tandy. I'm proud of our _Sea Flower_, and, myfriend, I'm just as proud of you. I'd have stopped on deck to lend ahand, but that wouldn't have done any good.
"Jane," he cried. Jane was the contraction for "Janeira."
"Iss, sah; I'se not fah off."
"Is there
no toast this morning?"
"No, sah; Lord Fitzmantle he done go hab one incident dis mawnin'. Heblingin' de toast along, w'en all same one big wave struckee he and downhe tumble, smash de plate, and lose all de toast foh true."
"Oh, the naughty boy!" said Nelda, who was hurrying through herbreakfast to go on deck to "see the sea," as she expressed it.
"No, leetle Meess Tandy, Lord Fitzmantle he good boy neahly all de time.It was poorly an incident, meesie, for de big sea cut his legs cleanoff, and down he come."
"Well, I'm sorry for Fitz," said Nelda with a sigh; "I suppose it wasonly his sea-legs though. And I'm going to have mine to-day. I askedthe carpenter, and he