_ CHAPTER TWENTY. A WARM BLUSH
Uncle Paul sat very quietly thinking for some time, while the other occupants of the cabin were waiting for him to deliver himself of what seemed to be gathering in his brain. "You see, Captain Chubb," he said at last, "human nature has always been prone to exaggerate. If a boy like my nephew here hooks a fish and loses it, he goes home and tells everybody that it was about five times as big as it really was."
"Oh, uncle!" cried Rodd indignantly. "I am sure I never did!"
"Well, well, perhaps not," said Uncle Paul shortly. "Don't say 'perhaps not,' uncle. That isn't fair. You know I always try to tell the truth."
"Well, well; yes, yes, yes, yes," said Uncle Paul testily. "I am not accusing you, Rodney. I am only alluding to what people who tell stories do."
"Why, of course, uncle, they say what isn't true if they tell stories."
"Will you oblige me, Rodney, by letting me continue what I was about to say?"
"I beg pardon, uncle."
"Yes, Captain Chubb," continued Uncle Paul, "there is that natural disposition born with us, one which requires a great deal of education to eliminate; that disposition to exaggerate in talking about things we have seen and others have not."
"Yes, sir, I know," grunted the skipper. "People will stretch."
"Exactly," said Uncle Paul--"magnify wonders that they have seen."
"Quite right, sir. I did just now about that sparm whale. I don't believe after all that they get to a hundred foot."
"Still," said the doctor, "we know what a spermaceti whale is; but this supposed creature which has been reported of over and over again under the name of the sea-serpent still lives only in the land of doubt--"
"Oh, uncle!" cried Rodd.
"Well, sir, I didn't see much doubt about that thing."
"H'm! no," replied the doctor thoughtfully; "but still you must grant that we did not have a fair examination, and that neither of us, even if we were clever with our pencils, could sketch an exact representation of the natural phenomenon."
"Nat'ral, sir?" said the skipper gruffly. "Well, to my mind it is a very unnatural sort of thing."
"I think I could sketch it, uncle, if I were clever with my pencil, which I am not, for I can seem to see it quite plainly now, as it raised its neck out of the water when it swam by."
"You think you could, my boy; but a great deal of it must have been under water, and your representation would be open to doubt."
"Humph! What was it like, youngster?" said the skipper gruffly.
"Just the same shape as a swan," said Rodd, with something like a shudder, "only enormously, big; but instead of having wings and feet it was just as if it had four great paddles."
"That's right," grunted the skipper; "just like what I see about ten years ago in the Indian seas. I didn't see enough of this one to be able to tell."
"Well," said the doctor gravely, "I for a long time have been of opinion that the reports that reach us from time to time about the sea-serpent must have some truth in them, though they have doubtless been greatly exaggerated."
"Don't hear of many reports now, sir," said Captain Chubb. "We sea-going people have been laughed at too much."
"Yes, I know," said the doctor, "and I have thought over these matters a great deal, and fully believe that we have a great many things to discover, both at sea and on land, quite as wonderful as the so-called sea-serpent. There's plenty of room, and I see no reason to doubt that there are great fish--"
"This warn't a fish," growled the skipper.
"Reptiles, then," grunted Uncle Paul, "which as a rule dwell far down in the depths of ocean, and which only occasionally seek, or are forced up to, the surface."
"Forced up, uncle? What could force up a great thing like that?"
"You ask that, Rodd? Why, what forces a fish up sometimes, to float upside down on the surface?"
"Oh yes, I know," replied Rodd; "something wrong with its swimming bladder."
"Exactly; and I should say such a creature as you saw would in its natural state be always living deep down in the ocean."
"'Cept when he comes up to feed," growled Captain Chubb. "This 'ere one was hard at work in that shoal of fish."
"I don't see that that interferes with my argument, Captain Chubb," said the doctor; "but what I was going on to say was this. There was a time in the history of this earth, when just such creatures as my nephew here described used to be plentiful."
"How long ago?" asked the skipper.
"Ah, that's more than any one of us can say; but I have seen their remains turned to stone, laid bare in a stone quarry--that is to say, their skeletons, which show pretty well what must have been their shape; and if they existed once there is no reason why some of their descendants, though very rarely seen, may not still survive, though I am half afraid that my nephew here must have some half-forgotten lingering memories of one of these creatures that he has seen in some geological work, and upon seeing that fish or reptile let his imagination run riot and finished it off by memory."
Rodd shook his head.
"I saw it plainly enough, uncle."
And the skipper gave his head a sapient nod, while the doctor shook his.
"What were you going to say, Captain Chubb?"
"Only this 'ere, sir. I have 'eard more argufying and quarrelling about sea-sarpints than about almost anything else. I say sarpints, but I mean these things, and I say this. It will never be settled properly till one of 'em is caught--which aren't likely--or one of them is cast ashore so as everybody can see fair and square. I believe in 'em, and I've good reason to."
"So do I, uncle," cried Rodd.
"Well," said Uncle Paul, "I have for a long time had my doubts, and now I am no longer a sceptic."
He looked very hard at the skipper as he spoke, and feeling that he was called upon to answer, the sturdy captain shook his head and brought his big hand down heavily upon the cabin table.
"That you are not, sir," he said; "your head's too full of science and knowledge and larning to be what you say. I don't quite exactly know what it means, but I'll answer for it you are not that; and now if you don't mind I should like for us to go up on deck again and have a good look round. It's 'most as light as day, and if a thing like that is playing around we are just as likely as not to sight it again. What do you say, sir, to taking your glass and being on the look-out?"
"By all means," said the doctor. "Get the glass, Rodd. Hullo! What's the matter with you?"
"Oh, nothing, uncle," said the boy, hastily rising.
"Why, you took hold of the table as if you felt dizzy."
"No, no, uncle. I am all right."
"Not afraid, are you?"
"I--I was for a moment, uncle."
"Good lad and true! Naught to be ashamed on, and spoke out like a man," grunted the skipper.
"But I tell you I am all right now," cried Rodd angrily, and he darted a fierce look at the speaker.
"Of course you are, youngster; but you felt a bit skeart again, and 'nough to make you."
"Yes," said Rodd sharply, "I did feel startled for a moment, but it's all gone now. Come on, uncle; I have got the glass;" and the boy made a dash for the cabin stairs.
"I say," whispered the skipper, "that's better than brag, doctor."
"Yes," said Uncle Paul, drawing a deep breath; "a great deal."
They both then hastened up the stairs, to find Rodd half-way along the deck, hurrying with the glass under his arm to join the men, who were all gathered together at the bows, save their solitary messmate at the wheel.
"Well, my lads, did you make it out again?" shouted the skipper.
"No, sir," replied Joe Cross, who took upon himself the part of spokesman. "Aren't seen a sign of it. We have been casting it up among us that it got more than it liked in the shape of that bullet, and after going down, it turned waxy-like and come up again to have something to say to us, but turned worse and went down."
"Humph!" grunted the skipper. "Then you think we hit it?"
"Yes, sir; and some of the lads have been saying that if they was you they'd load the big gun well with a lot of grape-shot, and if the beggar come up again be on the look-out and let him have it."
"Some on us, Joe Cross; not all."
"Nay, but you meant it, Ikey Gregg," said Joe.
"Not me, messmate. I says it's dangerous to be safe to get meddling with things like that."
"Ay, ay!" came from two or three of the other men, but only in a half-hearted way.
But it was encouragement enough for slow, quiet, fat Isaac Gregg to continue--
"You see, gentlemen, it's like this. That there long-necked sarpint thing has only got to make a rush and chuck itself out of the water aboard us here, and break the schooner's back, and where should us be then?"
"I don't know," said the skipper shortly. "But what do you say, doctor?"
"Well, for my part, speaking for the advancement of natural history, Captain Chubb, I should like to see that creature lying dead upon the surface, and left floating long enough for you and your men to take measurements, while my nephew and I did the best we could with pen and pencil to describe what might very well be called one of the wonders of the world."
"And what do you say, squire?" asked the skipper, speaking eagerly.
"I say you'd better load the gun again, Captain Chubb," replied Rodd, speaking very hurriedly. "We might hit it if it came up, and then we could try and do what my uncle says."
"Right," growled the skipper. "Man the gun again, and you, Cross, come below with me and fetch a canister of grape-shot and a full business charge to load the piece. You lads who are not wanted for the gun, each of you take a musket and an axe. It aren't likely that we shall come to close quarters, but if we do--well, you know what."
Every man on board joined in a hearty cheer, and in a very short time the preparations were made, even the cook playing his part of keeping the galley fire ready, while directly afterwards he edged up to where Joe Cross was in conversation with Rodd.
"Thought I would come the old-fashioned dodge as well, sir," he said.
"Old-fashioned? What do you mean?"
"For firing the gun, sir. I've left the poker in between the bars to get red-hot. Put that to your touch-hole. Beats slow match hollow; don't it, Joe?"
"Ay, that it do, mate, if you have got the fire, and the poker's hot; but you have to come back to the slow match if neither one nor t'other's ready. Well, Mr Rodd, sir, it don't look as if any of us is going to have the watch below to-night."
"No, Joe, it doesn't. Do you think the monster will come up again?"
"Can't say, sir, I'm sure, and to speak honest, there are times when I hope it will and there are times when I hope it won't. Sea-sarpints aren't much in my line. I have had a turn in a whaler, and though a right whale is a nasty kind of a bird to tackle when she is in her flurry, you know what you are about. There's the harpoon in her, and you have got her at the end of your line, and you're waiting for her with your lances ready to put her out of her misery. But even if you have got a few shot in her, a sea-sarpint's different sort of cattle altogether, and I didn't like the looks of this 'ere one at all. She came up quite vicious-like to look after us. You see her eye, Mr Rodd, sir? I did, sir, for a moment. There was a sort of leery look about it, and it seemed to me as if she had just picked you out and meant to have you. All the lads here know I'm one as never brags, but if there's a bit of fighting on I am always ready to stick to my mates, just as I would now."
"Ay, ay, Joe! That's a true word," came in chorus.
"Thank you, messmates," said Joe modestly. "Well, then, I'll speak out. Between you and me and the post, my lads, I hope this 'ere annymile won't come up to give us a shot."
There was a low murmur at this which sounded very much like assent.
"It's narvous sort of work, you see. If the schooner had been fitted out as a sea-sarpinter with the right and proper sort of tackle, why, that's another thing. But then you see, she aren't been. We haven't got the proper sort of tools, and we aren't been drilled to use them even if we had."
"That's a true word, messmate," came in chorus.
"And that's why I says I hope she won't look us up to-night; but if she is following us up and keeping one of them great sarcer eyes upon our keel somewheres far away down below, I hope she'll leave it till morning. After sunrise we shall be able to see better, and have had time to get rid of a nasty unked sort of feeling which rather bothers me just now, though I don't know how it is with you. There, Mr Rodd, sir, you faced the thing splendid. I see you, sir. You didn't turn round and run away like Ikey Gregg. You stood fast there with your hands resting on the rail, staring the thing straight in the face. How you managed to do it I don't know. But do it you did, and I admired you, sir."
It was moonlight, and the change in Rodd's face passed unobserved, but it was scarlet, and felt so hot that the boy involuntarily raised his hand to his cheek, while a feeling of annoyance pervaded him as he looked at Joe Cross suspiciously, in the belief that the man must be bantering him; but as far as the boy could make out, Joe Cross's frank countenance was quite innocent of guile and he was speaking exactly as he felt.
But Rodd was not at rest, and in the calm still watch that followed, with every one on the look-out and ready to imagine that each phosphorescent flash in the sea meant the moving upwards of the uncanny enemy, Rodd waited till all was still and restful and they seemed likely to be undisturbed, to make his way to Joe Cross's side and get him alone. _