CHAPTER NINETEEN.
CHUBB RE SEA-SERPENTS.
"Hah! Very disappointing--very," said the doctor.
"Yes, it's gone, I suppose, sir. One couldn't see where the shot hitfor smoke, but I expect it turned up the water and scared the thingaway. Well, it's best as it is. A great thing like that might havegrown very dangerous if it had been hit."
"Oh, we don't know that," cried the doctor. "Well, I suppose we can donothing more," he continued, as, following his nephew's example, hestrained his eyes over the darkening plain.
"No," said the captain. "Cover up that gun, my lads, and break off.You, Cross, take charge of the gun, and well sponge her out. Youothers, pikes; fall in. Now then, right face. March!"
"I'm disappointed," said the doctor, as the men were marched off. "Ishould have liked to have had a closer examination of that creature.Well, captain, what next?"
"Tea," said the skipper bluntly.
The tropics were very near, and the night began to come on rapidly, sothat the tea meal was partaken of by the light of the swinging lamp.But before it was over the moon rose above the sea very bright andsilvery, and getting rapidly near the full, while later on as it rosehigher it was nearly as light as day.
Rodd was anxious to get on deck again, to see if by any possibility theweird-looking object that they had seen that evening might rise to thesurface; but anxious as he was to join the sailors and question them asto whether they had seen anything more, the conversation between hisuncle and the skipper kept him below, where he listened to theirdifferent expressed opinions.
At last, though, he went on deck, and found all the men grouped togetherforward, and whispering to themselves about the visitor they had seen.
One man said it was a sign, and another grunted, while a third turned toJoe Cross to ask his opinion.
It was the stout heavy member of the crew who went by the name of theBun, and seeming the most impressed of the whole crew he asked Joe Crossas above.
"Yes," said Cross slowly, "you are quite right, Ikey Gregg. It's asign."
"What's a sign?" asked Rodd, coming up.
"The--the--Bun--Ikey Gregg says it is a sign, sir, that we see that bigsquirming wormy thing, and I says he's quite right, sir. It is a sign."
"Why, what can it be a sign of, Joe?"
"Sea's calm, sir, and that brings all the shoals of young fish up to thetop to feed, and that there thing that feeds on them come up to the topto get a regular tuck out."
"Oh, that won't do," said Gregg the fat. "Things like that only come upto the top at particular times, and you mark my words, it means astorm."
As the man finished, he turned his eyes to right and left, scanning thebeautiful silvery water before him, and then uttering a loud yell, hedashed by his companions, made for the forecastle hatch, and withouttroubling himself about the steps, leaped right down.
"What's the matter with Ikey?" said one of the men. "Showing us how hecan jump?"
"Nonsense!" said Rodd. "It was as if he had been scared by something.He looked quite wild."
The boy walked close up to the rail and looked over, to see that thewhole of the water right away from the bows was apparently ablaze withfire; but for a time he could make out nothing else, in spite of itscrystal clearness and the way in which in addition it was laced andlatticed as it were by the rays of the moon.
Seeing nothing for the moment likely to have alarmed the sailor, he wasabout to turn off, but only to start the next minute, and stand clingingwith both hands to the rail, for some fifteen or twenty yards away theerst calm, heaving sea began to be violently agitated, running as itwere with the swiftness of a mill-stream; and then something dull andglistening and shining like a halo appeared just beneath the surface,rising till it was quite clear of the water, and passing the schooner inone broad pale streak.
He was too much astonished to be startled, and for a few moments theonly idea that he could form was that a good-sized vessel had careenedover on to its side and was swiftly gliding along almost level with thewater.
Then all at once something of the same moonlit glistening tint, but longand sinuous, slowly rose up eight or ten feet above the sea; then higherand higher till it was double that altitude, and in his excitement andagitation he realised that it was ended or begun by a snake-like headsomething after the fashion of that of a huge conger, the eyes beingmany inches across and dull and heavy after the fashion seen in adeep-sea fish.
One moment he thought it eel-like, the next that it was some serpent,while to his utter astonishment what he took to be its neck rose higherin a graceful swan-like shape, beautiful in curve as it was horrible inits gleaming, pallid, slimy aspect. One of the great eyes seemed turnedto him with a peculiar glare, while as he fixed his own upon it as ifunable to resist the attraction, he made out that from behind the curvethe elongated body of the creature rose just above the surface, carryingout the semblance on a great scale to some swan-like half-fishycreature, and then with a quick rush as if the water were being hurledfrom it by enormously powerful fin-like paddles, the strange fish,reptile, or whatever it was, had passed on into the hazy moonlit nightand was gone.
"Hullo here! Anything the matter, Rodd?" cried the familiar voice ofDr Robson, as he came quickly forward, followed by the skipper. "Whereis it?"
"Where is it, uncle?" faltered the boy.
"Yes; that man Cross came running down to us in the cabin to say thatthey had seen the sea-serpent again."
Rodd slowly raised one hand from the rail to which he had been holding,and pointed outward over the sea.
"Well," said Uncle Paul, "what are you pointing out? Plenty ofmoonlight, and glorious phosphorescence, but where's the sea-serpent?Where did it show again? Why, what's the matter, boy?" he continued,catching his nephew by the arm and taking his hand. "Don't standstaring like that. Your hand's all wet, and like ice! Have you beenfrightened?"
"I--don't know, uncle, I suppose so," said the boy slowly and dreamily."I never saw anything like it before, and--and--it came so close to theschooner. I think I thought it was going to make a snatch at me andtake me under water. But don't ask me now, please. I don't feel quiteright. I suppose I am cowardly; but it made Gregg run away."
"Then why didn't you," said the doctor jocularly, "if it was so horribleas that?"
"I couldn't, uncle," cried the boy passionately. "I turned cold allover and couldn't stir."
"Well, come down below for a bit," continued the doctor. "Why, Chubb,the boy's had a regular scare."
"Ah! and no wonder," said the skipper gruffly. "It scared the men too.They saw it."
"What, the same thing that you fired at?"
"Ah, that I don't know. That was a great long eely thing; but Joe Crosshere says this was more like a great turtle, with flippers and a longneck, and a head like a snake."
No more was said till they were in the cabin, where soon after he hadfound himself in safety, shut in and with the swinging lamp burningabove his head, Rodd heaved a deep sigh and then uttered a forced laugh.
"I couldn't help it, uncle," he said, "and I didn't think I could havebeen such a coward; but I am all right now. The other men did see ittoo, didn't they?"
"Yes, my lad; they saw it too," replied the skipper; "and next time wegoes ashore, if we are stupid enough to talk about it every one willlaugh and say we are making up tales for the marines. I've knownskipper after skipper who has seen something of the kind in the warmseas and has told yarns about them. But men don't often do so now, nomatter what they see, for one don't like to be laughed at. Well, sir, Isuppose you believe there's more queer things in the sea than mostpeople know of?"
"Well, yes," said Uncle Paul, "I am beginning to believe more and morethat we who follow out natural history have a great deal to learn."
"Take my word for it, sir, you have. But I dare say you will bedisposed to laugh at me and think that I am making up a bit of gammon,when I ask you if you remember what a frigate looks like when she h
asgot all her ports open and her lanterns lit."
"I don't see why I should," said Uncle Paul quietly. "But of course Ihave seen a man-of-war like that by night; and a very beautiful objectshe is."
"Very, sir. But what should you say if I was to ask you if you had seena fish looking like a little frigate with her ports all open and herlights shining in a couple of rows along her sides--lights that don'tburn, sir, but shine brightly as if they did?"
"Well, I am not a man to laugh at anything new in science, Chubb," saidthe doctor quietly, "but between ourselves, your description is a bittoo flowery."
"Not a bit, sir."
"I have seen," continued the doctor, "phosphorescent fish and insects,and even now, swimming round us, the sea is full of light-givingcreatures, but nothing approaching your frigates with the ports open, oranything near them."
"Well, sir, I could take you right away to the eastward into the Indianseas--and I am not romancing, mind, but talking honest truth--I couldtake you and squire here, where you could drag up fishermen sort offish, big-mouthed fellows ready to swallow what they catches, fish thatguide themselves down in the dark deeps of the sea amongst the seaweedat the bottom, and there they hang out from the tops of their heads longbarbels that look like worms, and fish with them for other fishes, tocatch them to eat."
"Oh yes, that's right enough, captain," replied the doctor. "You know,Rodd, that great frog fish, the Father Lasher, as the fishermen callhim. Why, captain, we have got them at home off the Devon coast."
"I know," said the skipper. "I have seen them; but those are not what Imean. He didn't give me time to finish, squire," continued the skipper,facing round to Rodd. "My ones out yonder in the Eastern seas alwayslive down below where it's deep and dark, and where the fishes couldn'tsee their baits. So what do you think they do?"
"Swim up to where it's lighter," said Rodd. "Not they, sir. They growsa little bait as might be a little bit of meat at the end of theirbarbel-like fishing-lines, and wave it about in the water for the fishthey want to catch to see."
"You said it was all black darkness deep down there," cried Rodd.
"So it is, my lad, and so that the fish may see it those little baits oftheirs all glow with light, and shine out in the dark black water. Now,doctor, what do you think of that for a bit of nature?"
"Extraordinary!" cried the doctor. "But who told you that?"
"Nobody, sir. I have seen them with my own eyes."
"Yes, but what about the men-of-war with their ports lit up?"
"Of course I didn't mean men-of-war, sir. I thought I made youunderstand I meant fish. Fish about two foot long, with a row of lightsdown each side like lamps to see their way in the darkness. There,gentlemen, that's no story to tell to the marines, but a fact that Ihave seen with my own eyes; and if there's things like that deep down inthe seas, I don't see anything wonderful in there being what some peoplecalls sea-sarpints that might be as big as a great sparmacetti whale;and if you put some of them beside a cable a hundred foot long thereisn't much rope to spare. I knew of a ninety-footer once, though theydon't often get so long as that."