For the next ten days the negroes had subsisted upon a few scraps of
food that they found in the stern cabin; but as the store room was
entirely under water, they were quite unable to obtain a drop of
anything to drink, and the freshwater tanks that had been lashed to the
deck had been stove in at the time of the catastrophe. Tortured with
thirst, the poor men had suffered agonies, and having on the previous
night entirely lost consciousness, they must soon have died if the
"Pilgrim's" timely arrival had not effected their rescue.
All the outlines of Tom's narrative were fully confirmed by the other
negroes; Captain Hull could see no reason to doubt it; indeed, the
facts seemed to speak for themselves.
One other survivor of the wreck, if he had been gifted with the power
of speech, would doubtless have corroborated the testimony. This was
the dog who seemed to have such an unaccountable dislike to Negoro.
Dingo, as the dog was named, belonged to the fine breed of mastiffs
peculiar to New Holland. It was not, however, from Australia, but from
the coast of West Africa, near the mouth of the Congo, that the animal
had come. He had been picked up there, two years previously, by the
captain of the "Waldeck," who had found him wandering about and more
than half starved. The initials S. V. engraved upon his collar were the
only tokens that the dog had a past history of his own. After he had
been taken on board the "Waldeck," he remained quite unsociable,
apparently ever pining for some lost master, whom he had failed to find
in the desert land where he had been met with.
Larger than the dogs of the Pyrenees, Dingo was a magnificent example
of his kind. Standing on his hind legs, with his head thrown back, he
was as tall as a man. His agility and strength would have made him a
sure match for a panther, and he would not have flinched at facing a
bear. His fine shaggy coat was a dark tawny colour, shading off
somewhat lighter round the muzzle, and his long bushy tail was as
strong as a lion's. If he were made angry, no doubt he might become a
most formidable foe, so that it was no wonder that Negoro did not feel
altogether gratified at his reception.
But Dingo, though unsociable, was not savage. Old Tom said that, on
board the "Waldeck," he had noticed that the animal seemed to have a
particular dislike to negroes; not that he actually attempted to do
them any harm, only he uniformly avoided them, giving an impression
that he must have been systematically ill-treated by the natives of
that part of Africa in which he had been found. During the ten days
that had elapsed since the collision, Dingo had kept resolutely aloof
from Tom and his companions; they could not tell what he had been
feeding on; they only knew that, like themselves, he had suffered an
excruciating thirst.
Such had been the experience of the survivors of the "Waldeck." Their
situation had been most critical. Even if they survived the pangs of
want of food, the slightest gale or the most inconsiderable swell might
at any moment have sunk the water-logged ship, and had it not been that
calms and contrary winds had contributed to the opportune arrival of
the "Pilgrim," an inevitable fate was before them; their corpses must
lie at the bottom of the sea.
Captain Hull's act of humanity, however, would not be complete unless
he succeeded in restoring the shipwrecked men to their homes. This he
promised to do. After completing the unlading at Valparaiso, the
"Pilgrim" would make direct for California, where, as Mrs. Weldon
assured them, they would be most hospitably received by her husband,
and provided with the necessary means for returning to Pennsylvania.
The five men, who, as the consequence of the shipwreck, had lost all
the savings of their last three years of toil, were profoundly grateful
to their kind-hearted benefactors; nor, poor negroes as they were, did
they utterly resign the hope that at some future time they might have
it in their power to repay the debt which they owed their deliverers.
[Illustration: The good natured negroes were ever ready to lend a
helping hand.]
CHAPTER V.
DINGO'S SAGACITY.
Meantime the "Pilgrim" pursued her course, keeping as much as possible
to the east, and before evening closed in the hull of the "Waldeck" was
out of sight.
Captain Hull still continued to feel uneasy about the constant
prevalence of calms; not that for himself he cared much about the delay
of a week or two in a voyage from New Zealand to Valparaiso, but he was
disappointed at the prolonged inconvenience it caused to his lady
passenger. Mrs. Weldon, however, submitted to the detention very
philosophically, and did not utter a word of complaint.
The captain's next care was to improvise sleeping accommodation for Tom
and his four associates. No room for them could possibly be found in
the crew's quarters, so that their berths had to be arranged under the
forecastle; and as long as the weather continued fine, there was no
reason why the negroes, accustomed as they were to a somewhat rough
life, should not find themselves sufficiently comfortable.
After this incident of the discovery of the wreck, life on board the
"Pilgrim" relapsed into its ordinary routine. With the wind invariably
in the same direction, the sails required very little shifting; but
whenever it happened, as occasionally it would, that there was any
tacking to be done, the good-natured negroes were ever ready to lend a
helping hand; and the rigging would creak again under the weight of
Hercules, a great strapping fellow, six feet high, who seemed almost to
require ropes of extra strength made for his special use.
Hercules became at once a great favourite with little Jack; and when
the giant lifted him like a doll in his stalwart arms, the child fairly
shrieked with delight.
"Higher! higher! very high!" Jack would say sometimes.
"There you are, then, Master Jack," Hercules would reply as he raised
him aloft.
"Am I heavy?" asked the child,
"As heavy as a feather."
"Then lift me higher still," cried Jack; "as high as ever you can
reach."
And Hercules, with the child's two feet supported on his huge palm,
would walk about the deck with him like an acrobat, Jack all the time
endeavouring, with vain efforts, to make him "feel his weight."
Besides Dick Sands and Hercules, Jack admitted a third friend to his
companionship. This was Dingo. The dog, unsociable as he had been on
board the "Waldeck," seemed to have found society more congenial to his
tastes, and being one of those animals that are fond of children, he
allowed Jack to do with him almost anything he pleased. The child,
however, never thought of hurting the dog in any way, and it was
doubtful which of the two had the greater enjoyment of their mutual
sport. Jack found a live dog infinitely more entertaining than his old
toy upon its four wheels, and his great delight was to mount upon
Dingo's back, when the animal would gallop off with him like a
race-horse with his jockey. It must be owned that one result of this
intimacy was a serious diminution of the supply of sugar in the
store-room. Dingo was the delight of all the crew excepting Negoro, who
cautiously avoided coming in contact with an animal who showed such
unmistakable symptoms of hostility.
The new companions that Jack had thus found did not in the least make
him forget his old friend Dick Sands, who devoted all his leisure time
to him as assiduously as ever. Mrs. Weldon regarded their intimacy with
the greatest satisfaction, and one day made a remark to that effect in
the presence of Captain Hull.
[Illustration: "There you are, then, Master Jack!"]
"You are right, madam," said the captain cordially; "Dick is a capital
fellow, and will be sure to be a first-rate sailor. He has an instinct
which is little short of a genius; it supplies all deficiencies of
theory. Considering how short an experience and how little instruction
he has had, it is quite wonderful how much he knows about a ship."
"Certainly for his age," assented Mrs. Weldon, "he is singularly
advanced. I can safely say that I have never had a fault to find with
him. I believe that it is my husband's intention, after this voyage, to
let him have systematic training in navigation, so that he may be able
ultimately to become a captain."
"I have no misgivings, madam," replied the captain; "there is every
reason to expect that he will be an honour to the service."
"Poor orphan!" said the lady; "he has been trained in a hard school."
"Its lessons have not been lost upon him," rejoined Captain Hull; "they
have taught him the prime lesson that he has his own way to make in the
world."
The eyes of the two speakers turned as it were unwittingly in the
direction where Dick Sands happened to be standing. He was at the helm.
"Look at him now!" said the captain; "see how steadily he keeps his eye
upon the fore; nothing distracts him from his duty; he is as much to be
depended on as the most experienced helmsman. It was a capital thing
for him that he began his training as a cabin-boy. Nothing like it.
Begin at the beginning. It is the best of training for the merchant
service."
"But surely," interposed Mrs. Weldon, "you would not deny that in the
navy there have been many good officers who have never had the training
of which you are speaking?"
"True, madam; but yet even some of the best of them have begun at the
lowest step of the ladder. For instance, Lord Nelson."
Just at this instant Cousin Benedict emerged from the stern-cabin, and
completely absorbed, according to his wont, in his own pursuit, began
to wander up and down the deck, peering into the interstices of the
network, rummaging under the seats, and drawing his long fingers along
the cracks in the floor where the tar had crumbled away.
"Well, Benedict, how are you getting on?" asked Mrs Weldon.
"I? Oh, well enough, thank you," he replied dreamily; "but I wish we
were on shore."
"What were you looking for under that bench?" said Captain Hull.
"Insects, of course," answered Benedict; "I am always looking for
insects."
"But don't you know, Benedict," said Mrs. Weldon, "that Captain Hull is
far too particular to allow any vermin on the deck of his vessel?"
Captain Hull smiled and said,--
"Mrs Weldon is very complimentary; but I am really inclined to hope
that your investigations in the cabins of the 'Pilgrim' will not be
attended with much success."
Cousin Benedict shrugged his shoulders in a manner that indicated that
he was aware that the cabins could furnish nothing attractive in the
way of insects.
"However," continued the captain, "I dare say down in the hold you
could find some cockroaches; but cockroaches, I presume, would be of
little or no interest to you."
"No interest?" cried Benedict, at once warmed into enthusiasm; "why,
are they not the very orthoptera that roused the imprecations of Virgil
and Horace? Are they not closely allied to the -Periplaneta orientalis-
and the American Kakerlac, which inhabit--"
"I should rather say infest," interrupted the captain.
"Easy enough to see, sir," replied Benedict, stopping short with
amazement, "that you are not an entomologist!"
"I fear I must plead guilty to your accusation," said the captain
good-humouredly.
"You must not expect every one to be such an enthusiast in your
favourite study as yourself." Mrs. Weldon interposed; "but are you not
satisfied with the result of your explorations in New Zealand?"
"Yes, yes," answered Benedict, with a sort of hesitating reluctance; "I
must not say I was dissatisfied; I was really very delighted to secure
that new staphylin which hitherto had never been seen elsewhere than in
New California; but still, you know, an entomologist is always craving
for fresh additions to his collection."
While he was speaking, Dingo, leaving little Jack, who was romping with
him, came and jumped on Benedict, and began to fawn on him.
"Get away, you brute!" he exclaimed, thrusting the dog aside.
"Poor Dingo! good dog!" cried Jack, running up and taking the animal's
huge head between his tiny hands.
"Your interest in cockroaches, Mr. Benedict," observed the captain,
"does not seem to extend to dogs."
"It isn't that I dislike dogs at all," answered Benedict; "but this
creature has disappointed me."
"How do you mean? You could hardly want to catalogue him with the
diptera or hymenoptera?" asked Mrs Weldon laughingly.
"Oh, not at all," replied Benedict, with the most unmoved gravity. "But
I understood that he had been found on the West Coast of Africa, and I
hoped that perhaps he might have brought over some African hemiptera in
his coat; but I have searched his coat well, over and over again,
without finding a single specimen. The dog has disappointed me," he
repeated mournfully.
"I can only hope," said the captain, "that if you had found anything,
you were going to kill it instantly."
Benedict looked with mute astonishment into the captain's face. In a
moment or two afterwards, he said,--
"I suppose, sir, you acknowledge that Sir John Franklin was an eminent
member of your profession?"
"Certainly; why?"
"Because Sir John would never take away the life of the most
insignificant insect; it is related of him that when he had once been
incessantly tormented all day by a mosquito, at last he found it on the
back of his hand and blew it off, saying, 'Fly away, little creature,
the world is large enough for both you and me!'"
"That little anecdote of yours, Mr. Benedict," said the captain,
smiling, "is a good deal older than Sir John Franklin. It is told, in
nearly the same words, about Uncle Toby, in Sterne's 'Tristram Shandy';
only there it was not a mosquito, it was a common fly."
"And was Uncle Toby an entomologist?" asked Benedict; "did he ever
really live?"
"No," said the captain, "he was only a character in a novel."
Cousin Benedict gave a look of utter contempt, and Captain Hull and Mrs
Weldon could not resist laughing.
Such is only one instance of the way in which Cousin Benedict
invariably brought it about that all conversation with him ultimately
turned upon his favourite pursuit, and all along, throughout the
monotonous hours of smooth sailing, while the "Pilgrim" was making her
little headway to the east, he showed his own devotion to his pet
science, by seeking to enlist new disciples. First of all, he tried his
powers of persuasion upon Dick Sands, but soon finding that the young
apprentice had no taste for entomological mysteries, he gave him up and
turned his attention to the negroes. Nor was he much more successful
with them; one after another, Tom, Bat, Actæon, and Austin had all
withdrawn themselves from his instructions, and the class at last was
reduced to the single person of Hercules; but in him the enthusiastic
naturalist thought he had discovered a latent talent which could
distinguish between a parasite and a thysanura.
Hercules accordingly submitted to pass a considerable portion of his
leisure in the observation of every variety of coleoptera; he was
encouraged to study the extensive collection of stag-beetles,
tiger-beetles and lady-birds; and although at times the enthusiast
trembled to see some of his most delicate and fragile specimens in the
huge grasp of his pupil, he soon learned that the man's gentle docility
was a sufficient guarantee against his clumsiness.
While the science of entomology was thus occupying its two votaries,
Mrs. Weldon was giving her own best attention to the education of
Master Jack. Reading and writing she undertook to teach herself, while
she entrusted the instruction in arithmetic to the care of Dick Sands.
Under the conviction that a child of five years will make a much more
rapid progress if something like amusement be combined with his
lessons, Mrs. Weldon would not teach her boy to spell by the use of an
ordinary school primer, but used a set of cubes, on the sides of which
the various letters were painted in red. After first making a word and
showing it to Jack, she set him to put it together without her help,
and it was astonishing how quickly the child advanced, and how many
hours he would spend in this way, both in the cabin and on deck. There
were more than fifty cubes, which, besides the alphabet, included all
the digits; so that they were of service for Dick Sands' lessons as
well as for her own. She was more than satisfied with her device.
On the morning of the 9th an incident occurred which could not fail to
be observed as somewhat remarkable. Jack was half lying, half sitting
on the deck, amusing himself with his letters, and had just finished
putting together a word with which he intended to puzzle old Tom, who,
with his hand sheltering his eyes, was pretending not to see the
difficulty which was being labouriously prepared to bewilder him; all
at once, Dingo, who had been gambolling round the child, made a sudden
pause, lifted his right paw, and wagged his tail convulsively. Then
darting down upon a capital S, he seized it in his mouth, and carried
it some paces away.
"Oh, Dingo, Dingo! you mustn't eat my letters!" shouted the child.
But the dog had already dropped the block of wood, and coming back
again, picked up another, which he laid quietly by the side of the
first. This time it was a capital V. Jack uttered an exclamation of
astonishment which brought to his side not only his mother, but the
captain and Dick, who were both on deck. In answer to their inquiry as
to what had occurred, Jack cried out in the greatest excitement that
Dingo knew how to read. At any rate he was sure that he knew his
letters.
Dick Sands smiled and stooped to take back the letters. Dingo snarled
and showed his teeth, but the apprentice was not frightened; he carried
his point, and replaced the two blocks among the rest. Dingo in an
instant pounced upon them again, and having drawn them to his side,
laid a paw upon each of them, as if to signify his intention of
retaining them in his possession. Of the other letters of the alphabet
he took no notice at all.
"It is very strange," said Mrs. Weldon; "he has picked out S V again."
"S V!" repeated the captain thoughtfully; "are not those the letters
that form the initials on his collar?"
And turning to the old negro, he continued,--
"Tom didn't you say that this dog did not always belong to the captain
of the 'Waldeck'?"
"To the best of my belief," replied Tom, "the captain had only had him
about two years. I often heard him tell how he found him at the mouth
of the Congo."
"Do you suppose that he never knew where the animal came from, or to
whom he had previously belonged?" asked Captain Hull.
"Never," answered Tom, shaking his head; "a lost dog is worse to
identify than a lost child; you see, he can't make himself understood
any way."
The captain made no answer, but stood musing; Mrs. Weldon interrupted
him.
"These letters, captain, seem to be recalling something to your
recollection.
"I can hardly go so far as to say that, Mrs. Weldon," he replied; "but
I cannot help associating them with the fate of a brave explorer."
"Whom do you mean? said the lady.
"In 1871, just two years ago," the captain continued, "a French
traveller, under the auspices of the Geographical Society of Paris, set
out for the purpose of crossing Africa from west to east. His
starting-point was the mouth of the Congo, and his exit was designed to
be as near as possible to Cape Deldago, at the mouth of the River
Rovouma, of which he was to ascertain the true course. The name of this
man was Samuel Vernon, and I confess it strikes me as somewhat a
strange coincidence that the letters engraved on Dingo's collar should
be Vernon's initials."
[Illustration: Jack cried out in the greatest excitement that Dingo
knew how to read]
"Is nothing known about this traveller?" asked Mrs. Weldon.
"Nothing was ever heard of him after his first departure. It appears
quite certain that he failed to reach the east coast, and it can only
be conjectured either that he died upon his way, or that he was made
prisoner by the natives; and if so, and this dog ever belonged to him,
the animal might have made his way back to the sea-coast, where, just
about the time that would be likely, the captain of the 'Waldeck'
picked him up."
"But you have no reason to suppose, Captain Hull, that Vernon ever
owned a dog of this description?"
"I own I never heard of it," said the captain; "but still the
impression fixes itself on my mind that the dog must have been his; how
he came to know one letter from another, it is not for me to pretend to
say. Look at him now, madam! he seems not only to be reading the
letters for himself, but to be inviting us to come and read them with
him."
Whilst Mrs. Weldon was watching the dog with much amusement, Dick
Sands, who had listened to the previous conversation, took the
opportunity of asking the captain whether the traveller Vernon had
started on his expedition quite alone.
"That is really more than I can tell you, my boy," answered Captain
Hull; "but I should almost take it for granted that he would have a
considerable retinue of natives."
The captain spoke without being aware that Negoro had meanwhile quietly
stolen on deck. At first his presence was quite unnoticed, and no one
observed the peculiar glance with which he looked at the two letters
over which Dingo still persisted in keeping guard. The dog, however, no
sooner caught sight of the cook than he began to bristle with rage,
whereupon Negoro, with a threatening gesture which seemed half
involuntary, withdrew immediately to his accustomed quarters.
The incident did not escape the captain's observation.
"No doubt," he said, "there is some mystery here;" and he was pondering
the matter over in his mind when Dick Sands spoke.
"Don't you think it very singular, sir, that this dog should have such
a knowledge of the alphabet?"
Jack here put in his word.
"My mamma has told me about a dog whose name was Munito, who could read
as well as a schoolmaster, and could play dominoes."
Mrs. Weldon smiled.
"I am afraid, my child, that that dog was not quite so learned as you
imagine. I don't suppose he knew one letter from another; but his
master, who was a clever American, having found out that the animal had
a very keen sense of hearing, taught him some curious tricks."
"What sort of tricks?" asked Dick, who was almost as much interested as
little Jack.
"When he had to perform in public," continued Mrs. Weldon, "a lot of
letters like yours, Jack, were spread out upon a table, and Munito
would put together any word that the company should propose, either
aloud or in a whisper, to his master. The creature would walk about
until he stopped at the very letter which was wanted. The secret of it
all was that the dog's owner gave him a signal when he was to stop by
rattling a little tooth-pick in his pocket, making a slight noise that
only the dog's ears were acute enough to perceive."
Dick was highly amused, and said,--
"But that was a dog who could do nothing wonderful without his master."
"Just so," answered Mrs. Weldon; "and it surprises me very much to see
Dingo picking out these letters without a master to direct him."
[Illustration: Negoro, with a threatening gesture that seemed half
involuntary, withdrew immediately to his accustomed quarters.]
"The more one thinks of it, the more strange it is," said Captain Hull;
"but, after all, Dingo's sagacity is not greater than that of the dog
which rang the convent bell in order to get at the dish that was
reserved for passing beggars; nor than that of the dog who had to turn
a spit every other day, and never could be induced to work when it was
not his proper day. Dingo evidently has no acquaintance with any other
letters except the two S V; and some circumstance which we can never
guess has made him familiar with them."
"What a pity he cannot talk!" exclaimed the apprentice; "we should know
why it is that he always shows his teeth at Negoro."
"And tremendous teeth they are!" observed the captain, as Dingo at that
moment opened his mouth, and made a display of his formidable fangs.
CHAPTER VI.
A WHALE IN SIGHT.
It was only what might be expected that the dog's singular exhibition
of sagacity should repeatedly form a subject of conversation between
Mrs. Weldon, the captain, and Dick. The young apprentice in particular
began to entertain a lurking feeling of distrust towards Negoro,
although it must be owned that the man's conduct in general afforded no
tangible grounds for suspicion.
Nor as it only among the stern passengers that Dingo's remarkable feat
was discussed; amongst the crew in the bow the dog not only soon gained
the reputation of being able to read, but was almost credited with
being able to write too, as well as any sailor among them; indeed the
chief wonder was that he did not speak.
"Perhaps he can," suggested Bolton, the helmsman, "and likely enough
some fine day we shall have him coming to ask about our bearings, and
to inquire which way the wind lies."
"Ah! why not?" assented another sailor; "parrots talk, and magpies
talk; why shouldn't a dog? For my part, I should guess it must be
easier to speak with a mouth than with a beak."
"Of course it is," said Howick, the boatswain; "only a quadruped has
never yet been known to do it."
Perhaps, however, the worthy fellow would have been amazed to hear that
a certain Danish -savant- once possesed a dog that could actually
pronounce quite distinctly nearly twenty different words, demonstrating
that the construction of the glottis, the aperture at the top of the
windpipe, was adapted for the emission of regular sounds: of course the
animal attached no meaning to the words it uttered any more than a
parrot or a jay can comprehend their own chatterings.
[Illustration: "This Dingo is nothing out of the way."]
Thus, unconsciously, Dingo had become the hero of the hour. On several
separate occasions Captain Hull repeated the experiment of spreading
out the blocks before him, but invariably with the same result; the dog
never failed, without the slightest hesitation, to pick out the two
letters, leaving all the rest of the alphabet quite unnoticed.
Cousin Benedict alone, somewhat ostentatiously, professed to take no
interest in the circumstance.
"You cannot suppose," he said to Captain Hull, after various
repetitions of the trick, "that dogs are to be reckoned the only
animals endowed with intelligence Rats, you know, will always leave a
sinking ship, and beavers invariably raise their dams before the
approach of a flood. Did not the horses of Nicomedes, Scanderberg and
Oppian die of grief for the loss of their masters? Have there not been
instances of donkeys with wonderful memories? Birds, too, have been
trained to do the most remarkable things; they have been taught to
write word after word at their master's dictation; there are cockatoos
who can count the people in a room as accurately as a mathematician;
and haven't you heard of the old Cardinal's parrot that he would not
part with for a hundred gold crowns because it could repeat the
Apostles' creed from beginning to end without a blunder? And insects,"
he continued, warming into enthusiasm, "how marvellously they vindicate
the axiom--
'In minimis maximus Deus!'
Are not the structures of ants the very models for the architects of a
city? Has the diving-bell of the aquatic argyroneta ever been surpassed
by the invention of the most skilful student of mechanical art? And
cannot fleas go through a drill and fire a gun as well as the most
accomplished artilleryman? This Dingo is nothing out of the way. I
suppose he belongs to some unclassed species of mastiff. Perhaps one
day or other he may come to be identified as the 'canis alphabeticus'
of New Zealand."
The worthy entomologist delivered this and various similar harangues;
but Dingo, nevertheless, retained his high place in the general
estimation, and by the occupants of the forecastle was regarded as
little short of a phenomenon. The feeling, otherwise universal, was not
in any degree shared by Negoro, and it is not improbable that the man
would have been tempted to some foul play with the dog if the open
sympathies of the crew had not kept him in check. More than ever he
studiously avoided coming in contact in any way with the animal, and
Dick Sands in his own mind was quite convinced that since the incident
of the letters, the cook's hatred of the dog had become still more
intense.
After continual alternations with long and wearisome calms the
north-east wind perceptibly moderated, and on the both, Captain Hull
really began to hope that such a change would ensue as to allow the
schooner to run straight before the wind. Nineteen days had elapsed
since the "Pilgrim" had left Auckland, a period not so long but that
with a favourable breeze it might be made up at last. Some days however
were yet to elapse before the wind veered round to the anticipated
quarter.
It has been already stated that this portion of the Pacific is almost
always deserted. It is out of the line of the American and Australian
steam-packets, and except a whaler had been brought into it by some
such exceptional circumstances as the "Pilgrim," it was quite unusual
to see one in this latitude.
But, however void of traffic was the surface of the sea, to none but an
unintelligent mind could it appear monotonous or barren of interest.
The poetry of the ocean breathes forth in its minute and almost
imperceptible changes. A marine plant, a tuft of seaweed lightly
furrowing the water, a drifting spar with its unknown history, may
afford unlimited scope--for the imagination; every little drop passing,
in its process of evaporation, backwards and forwards from sea to sky,
might perchance reveal its own special secret; and happy are those
minds which are capable of a due appreciation of the mysteries of air
and ocean.
[Illustration: Occasionally Dick Sands would take a pistol, and now and
then a rifle.]
Above the surface as well as below, the restless flood is ever teaming
with animal life; and the passengers on board the "Pilgrim" derived no
little amusement from watching great flocks of birds migrating
northwards to escape the rigour of the polar winter, and ever and again
descending in rapid flight to secure some tiny fish. Occasionally Dick
Sands would take a pistol, and now and then a rifle, and, thanks to Mr.
Weldon's former instructions, would bring down various specimens of the
feathered tribe.
Sometimes white petrels would congregate in considerable numbers near
the schooner; and sometimes petrels of another species, with brown
borders on their wings, would come in sight; now there would be flocks
of damiers skimming the water; and now groups of penguins, whose clumsy
gait appears so ludicrous on shore; but, as Captain Hull pointed out,
when their stumpy wings were employed as fins, they were a match for
the most rapid of fish, so that sailors have often mistaken them for
bonitos.
High over head, huge albatrosses, their outspread wings measuring ten
feet from tip to tip, would soar aloft, thence to swoop down towards
the deep, into which they plunged their beaks in search of food. Such
incidents and scenes as these were infinite in their variety, and it
was accordingly only for minds that were obtuse to the charms of nature
that the voyage could be monotonous.
On the day the wind shifted, Mrs. Weldon was walking up and down on the
"Pilgrim's" stern, when her attention was attracted by what seemed to
her a strange phenomenon. All of a sudden, far as the eye could reach,
the sea had assumed a reddish hue, as if it were tinged with blood.
Both Dick and Jack were standing close behind her, and she cried,--
"Look, Dick, look! the sea is all red. Is it a sea-weed that is making
the water so strange a colour?
"No," answered Dick, "it is not a weed; it is what the sailors call
whales' food; it is formed, I believe, of innumerable myriads of minute
crustacea."
"Crustacea they may be," replied Mrs. Weldon, "but they must be so
small that they are mere insects. Cousin Benedict no doubt will like to
see them."
She called aloud,--
"Benedict! Benedict! come here! we have a sight here to interest you."
The amateur naturalist slowly emerged from his cabin followed by
Captain Hull.
"Ah! yes, I see!" said the captain; "whales' food; just the opportunity
for you, Mr. Benedict; a chance not to be thrown away for studying one
of the most curious of the crustacea."
"Nonsense!" ejaculated Benedict contemptuously; "utter nonsense!"
"Why? what do you mean, Mr. Benedict?" retorted the captain; "surely
you, as an entomologist, must know that I am right in my conviction
that these crustacea belong to one of the six classes of the
articulata."
The disdain of Cousin Benedict was expressed by a repeated sneer.
"Are you not aware, sir, that my researches as an entomologist are
confined entirely to the hexapoda?"
Captain Hull, unable to repress a smile, only answered
good-humouredly,--
"I see, sir, your tastes do not lie in the same direction as those of
the whale."
And turning to Mrs. Weldon, he continued,--
"To whalemen, madam, this is a sight that speaks for itself. It is a
token that we ought to lose no time in getting out our lines and
looking to the state of our harpoons. There is game not far away."
Jack gave vent to his astonishment.
"Do you mean that great creatures like whales feed on such tiny things
as these?"
"Yes, my boy," said the captain; "and I daresay they are as nice to
them as semolina and ground rice are to you.
"When a whale gets into the middle of them he has nothing to do but to
open his jaws, and, in a minute, hundreds of thousands of these minute
creatures are inside the fringe or whalebone around his palate, and he
is sure of a good mouthful."
"So you see, Jack," said Dick, "the whale gets his shrimps without the
trouble of shelling them."
"And when he has just closed his snappers is the very time to give him
a good taste of the harpoon," added Captain Hull.
The words had hardly escaped the captain's lips when a shout from one
of the sailors announced,--
"A whale to larboard!"
"There's the whale!" repeated the captain. All his professional
instincts were aroused in an instant, and he hurried to the bow,
followed in eager curiosity by all the stern passengers.
Even Cousin Benedict loitered up in the rear, constrained, in spite of
himself, to take a share in the general interest.
There was no doubt about the matter. Four miles or so to windward an
unusual commotion in the water betokened to experienced eyes the
presence of a whale; but the distance was too great to permit a
reasonable conjecture to be formed as to which species of those
mammifers the creature belonged.
Three distinct species are familiarly known. First there is the Right
whale, which is ordinarily sought for in the northern fisheries. The
average length of this cetacean is sixty feet, though it has been known
to attain the length of eighty feet. It has no dorsal fin, and beneath
its skin is a thick layer of blubber. One of these monsters alone will
yield as much as a hundred barrels of oil.
Then there is the Hump-back, a typical representative of the species
"balænoptera," a definition which may at first sight appear to possess
an interest for an entomologist, but which really refers to two white
dorsal fins, each half as wide as the body, resembling a pair of wings,
and in their formation similar to those of the flying-fish. It must be
owned, however, that a flying whale would decidedly be a -rara avis-.
Lastly, there is the Jubarte, commonly known as the Finback. It is
provided with a dorsal fin, and in length not unfrequently is a match
for the gigantic Right whale.
While it was impossible to decide to which of the three species the
whale in the distance really belonged, the general impression inclined
to the belief that it was a jubarte.
With longing eyes Captain Hull and his crew gazed at the object of
general attraction. Just as irresistibly as it is said a clockmaker is
drawn on to examine the mechanism of every clock which chance may throw
in his way, so is a whaleman ever anxious to plunge his harpoon into
any whale that he can get within his reach. The larger the game the
more keen the excitement; and no elephant-hunter's eagerness ever
surpasses the zest of the whale-fisher when once started in pursuit of
the prey.
To the crew the sight of the whale was the opening of an unexpected
opportunity, and no wonder they were fired with the burning hope that
even now they might do something to supply the deficiency of their
meagre haul throughout the season.
Far away as the creature still was, the captain's practised eye soon
enabled him to detect various indications that satisfied him as to its
true species. Amongst other things that arrested his attention, he
observed a column of water and vapour ejected from the nostrils. "It
isn't a right whale," he said; "if so, its spout would be smaller and
it would rise higher in the air. And I do not think it is a hump-back.
I cannot hear the hump-back's roar. Dick, tell me, what do you think
about it?"
With a critical eye Dick Sands looked long and steadily at the spout.
"It blows out water, sir," said the apprentice, "water, as well as
vapour. I should think it is a finback. But it must be a rare large
one."
"Seventy feet, at least!" rejoined the captain, flushing with his
enthusiasm.
"What a big fellow!" said Jack, catching the excitement of his elders.
[Illustration: "What a big fellow!"]
"Ah, Jack, my boy," chuckled the captain, "the whale little thinks who
are watching him enjoy his breakfast!"
"Yes," said the boatswain; "a dozen such gentlemen as that would
freight a craft twice the size of ours; but this one, if only we can
get him, will go a good way towards filling our empty barrels."
"Rather rough work, you know," said Dick, "to attack a finback!"
"You are right, Dick," answered the captain; "the boat has yet to be
built which is strong enough to resist the flap of a jubarte's tail."
"But the profit is worth the risk, captain, isn't it?"
"You are right again, Dick," replied Captain Hull, and as he spoke, he
clambered on to the bowsprit in order that he might get a better view
of the whale.
The crew were as eager as their captain. Mounted on the fore-shrouds,
they scanned the movements of their coveted prey in the distance,
freely descanting upon the profit to be made out of a good finback and
declaring that it would be a thousand pities if this chance of filling
the casks below should be permitted to be lost.
Captain Hull was perplexed. He bit his nails and knitted his brow.
"Mamma!" cried little Jack, "I should so much like to see a whale
close,--quite close, you know."
"And so you shall, my boy," replied the captain, who was standing by,
and had come to the resolve that if his men would back him, he would
make an attempt to capture the prize.
He turned to his crew,--
"My men! what do you think? shall we make the venture? Remember, we are
all alone; we have no whalemen to help us; we must rely upon ourselves;
I have thrown a harpoon before now; I can throw a harpoon again; what
do you say?"
The crew responded with a ringing cheer,--
"Ay, ay, sir! Ay, ay!"
CHAPTER VII.
PREPARATIONS FOR AN ATTACK.
Great was the excitement that now prevailed, and the question of an
attempt to capture the sea-monster became the ruling theme of
conversation. Mrs. Weldon expressed considerable doubt as to the
prudence of venturing upon so great a risk with such a limited number
of hands, but when Captain Hull assured her that he had more than once
successfully attacked a whale with a single boat, and that for his part
he had no fear of failure, she made no further remonstrance, and
appeared quite satisfied.
Having formed his resolve, the captain lost no time in setting about
his preliminary arrangements. He could not really conceal from his own
mind that the pursuit of a finback was always a matter of some peril,
and he was anxious, accordingly, to make every possible provision which
forethought could devise against all emergencies.
Besides her long-boat, which was kept between the two masts, the
"Pilgrim" had three whale-boats, two of them slung to the starboard and
larboard davits, and the third at the stern, outside the taffrail.
During the fishing season, when the crew was reinforced by a hired
complement of New Zealand whalemen, all three of these boats would be
brought at once into requisition, but at present the whole crew of the
"Pilgrim" was barely sufficient to man one of the three boats. Tom and
his friends were ready to volunteer their assistance, but any offers of
service from them were necessarily declined; the manipulation of a
whale-boat can only be entrusted to those who are experienced in the
work, as a false turn of the tiller or a premature stroke of the oar
may in a moment compromise the safety of the whole party. Thus
compelled to take all his trained sailors with him on his venturous
expedition, the captain had no alternative than to leave his apprentice
in charge of the schooner during his absence. Dick's choice would have
been very much in favour of taking a share in the whale-hunt, but he
had the good sense to know that the developed strength of a man would
be of far greater service in the boat, and accordingly without a murmur
he resigned himself to remain behind.
Of the five sailors who were to man the boat, there were four to take
the oars, whilst Howick the boatswain was to manage the oar at the
stern, which on these occasions generally replaces an ordinary rudder
as being quicker in action in the event of any of the side oars being
disabled. The post of harpooner was of course assigned to Captain Hull,
to whose lot it would consequently fall first to hurl his weapon at the
whale, then to manage the unwinding of the line to which the harpoon
was attached, and finally to kill the creature by lance-wounds when it
should emerge again from below the sea.
A method sometimes employed for commencing an attack is to place a sort
of small cannon on the bows or deck of the boat and to discharge from
it either a harpoon or some explosive bullets, which make frightful
lacerations on the body of the victim; but the "Pilgrim" was not
provided with apparatus of this description; not only are all the
contrivances of this kind very costly and difficult to manage, but the
fishermen generally are averse to innovations, and prefer the
old-fashioned harpoons. It was with these alone that Captain Hull was
now about to encounter the finback that was lying some four miles
distant from his ship.
The weather promised as favourably as could be for the enterprise. The
sea was calm, and the wind moreover was still moderating, so that there
was no likelihood of the schooner drifting away during the captain's
absence.
When the starboard whale-boat had been lowered, and the four sailors
had entered it, Howick passed a couple of harpoons down to them, and
some lances which had been carefully sharpened; to these were added
five coils of stout and supple rope, each 600 feet long, for a whale
when struck often dives so deeply that even these lengths of line
knotted together are found to be insufficient. After these implements
of attack had been properly stowed in the bows, the crew had only to
await the pleasure of their captain.
The "Pilgrim," before the sailors left her, had been made to heave to,
and the yards were braced so as to secure her remaining as stationary
as possible. As the time drew near for the captain to quit her, he gave
a searching look all round to satisfy himself that everything was in
order; he saw that the halyards were properly tightened, and the sails
trimmed as they should be, and then calling the young apprentice to his
side, he said,--
"Now, Dick, I am going to leave you for a few hours: while I am away, I
hope that it will not be necessary for you to make any movement
whatever. However, you must be on the watch. It is not very likely, but
it is possible that this finback may carry us out to some distance. If
so, you will have to follow; and in that case, I am sure you may rely
upon Tom and his friends for assistance."
One and all, the negroes assured the captain of their willingness to
obey Dick's instructions, the sturdy Hercules rolling up his capacious
shirt-sleeves as if to show that he was ready for immediate action.
The captain went on,--
"The weather is beautifully fine, Dick, and I see no prospect of the
wind freshening; but come what may, I have one direction to give you
which I strictly enforce. You must not leave the ship. If I want you to
follow us, I will hoist a flag on the boat-hook."
"You may trust me, sir," answered Dick; "and I will keep a good
look-out."
"All right, my lad; keep a cool head and a good heart. You are second
captain now, you know. I never heard of any one of your age being
placed in such a post; be a credit to your position!"
Dick blushed, and the bright flush that rose to his cheeks spoke more
than words.
"The lad may be trusted," murmured the captain to himself; "he is as
modest as he is courageous. Yes; he may be trusted."
It cannot be denied that the captain was not wholly without compunction
at the step he was taking; he was aware of the danger to which he was
exposing himself, but he beguiled himself with the persuasion that it
was only for a few hours; and his fisherman's instinct was very keen.
It was not only for himself; the desire upon the part of the crew was
almost irresistibly strong that every opportunity ought to be employed
for making the cargo of the schooner equal to her owner's expectations.
And so he finally prepared to start.
"I wish you all success!" said Mrs. Weldon.
"Many thanks!" he replied.
Little Jack put in his word,--
"And you will try and catch the whale without hurting him much?"
"All right, young gentleman," answered the captain; "he shall hardly
feel the tip of our fingers!"
"Sometimes," said Cousin Benedict, as if he had been pondering the
expedition in relation to his pet science, "sometimes there are strange
insects clinging to the backs of these great mammifers; do you think
you are likely to procure me any specimens?"
"You shall soon have the opportunity of investigating for yourself,"
was the captain's reply.
"And you, Tom; we shall be looking to you for help in cutting up our
prize, when we get it alongside," continued he.
"We shall be quite ready, sir," said the negro.
"One thing more, Dick," added the captain; "you may as well be getting
up the empty barrels out of the hold; they will be all ready."
"It shall be done, sir," answered Dick promptly.
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