But, would you believe it, hardly had I reached the verandah, when, there on the top step I saw old Pompey standing in an attitude of great expectancy, with his footless wine-glass in hand, the same as was his habit at home on the plantation, although it was more than two hours past his usual grog-time!

No sooner had I appeared than out came his stereotyped formula:

"Hi, Mass' Tom! um come rum."

I felt sad enough at the moment, but the sight of Pompey with his wine- glass, and his quaint well-known way of expressing himself, made me burst into a fit of laughter which brought out dad from the dining-room.

"Hullo, Tom, what's the matter?" he cried. "Ah, I see! Why, Pompey, you old rascal, you're past your time," he added, catching sight of the old negro at the end of the verandah. "What do you mean by coming for your grog at four bells, eh? I suppose, though, as Master Tom's going away we must let you have it."

So saying, dad went back into the dining-room, bringing out presently a tumbler filled with something which he handed to Pompey, the old darkey swallowing the contents with his usual gusto, and, needless to say, without any very great amount of exertion.

"There," said dad when Pompey returned the empty glass with a bow and scrape, "go and tell the others that Master Tom wants to say good-bye, as he will start in a minute or two, and that he wishes them to come round and drink his health too."

Pompey thereupon shuffled off awkwardly in his boots, returning soon with two of the other negroes who had come down with us from the plantation. These now had each a glass of wine in honour of my departure, Pompey managing to come in for an extra one on the sly by the artful way in which he looked at me and showed his footless measure.

"But where is Jake?" asked dad suddenly, after the darkeys had emptied their glasses.

"Me no see him," replied Pompey, acting as spokesman for the rest. Indeed, on this occasion he seemed to abandon his customary taciturnity, for he wished me "um berry fine v'y'ge, Mass' Tom," when drinking my health.

"Not seen him!" repeated dad, much surprised. "Where can he be?"

"Dunno, massa. He put him Dandy an' Prince in 'table an' den him say um feel berry bad, an' go way."

"Poor fellow, he may be really ill! I must look after him," said my father putting on his hat and proceeding round to the stables; but as he could see nothing of Jake he soon returned, for the afternoon was getting on and it was time to have my luggage carried down to the boat of the Josephine as well as for me to see about going on board also.

While my trunks were being taken to the wharf by Pompey and the other two darkeys, I had to pass through the painful ordeal of bidding farewell to my mother and sisters. The less I say about this the better!

Baby Tot could not grasp the idea that I was really going away from her until the very last moment, when, seeing the others overcome with emotion, especially my mother, who was crying as if her heart would break, my little sister clung round my neck so tightly that dad had to unclasp her tiny fingers one by one before she would release her hold of me.

As for my mother's last kiss and her broken words, telling me always to fear God and be good, whatever might betide, I can never forget them.

At length the parting was over, when dad calling me in a husky voice to come along, I proceeded with him down to the wharf, where the Josephine's boat was lying alongside the steamboat landing-stage, waiting for me to start.

Here another farewell had to be taken of old Pompey and the negro servants who had brought my traps from the hotel; but, strange to say, I could see nothing of Jake, so I had to commission one of the others to say good-bye to him for me.

At the last moment, too, Doctor Martin came up and gave me one of his hearty hand-shakes, bidding me "always tell the truth and shame the devil," pointing out at the same time that he had sent down a lot of fresh cocoa-nuts for me that had been stowed in the ship's boat with my luggage. He thought they would "come in handy," he said, for assuaging my thirst during the hot weather I might expect before getting out of the tropics. Then came the final wrench of dear old dad's last embrace and sad God-speed, after which the boat shoved off from the shore, bearing me, almost heart-broken, with all my belongings out to the Josephine, which anchored at the mouth of the harbour with her blue peter flying, her sails loosed, and every sign of departure.

"Cheer up, my sonny!" said Moggridge, my old friend the boatswain, as I sat in the stern of the boat with my face buried in my hands, for I had not the courage to look back at those I was leaving; "I thought you were a reg'lar chip of the old block, and your father told you mind, sir, to be a man."

These words put me on my mettle, so I picked up a bit and waved my handkerchief to dad, whom I could see standing still gazing after me; and, when the boat got alongside the vessel, I clambered up the side- ladder instead of allowing myself to be hoisted in as before.

"That's your sort," said Moggridge, who followed me up closely, in order that he might catch me should I tumble back. He also helped me into the entry port and on to the deck of the Josephine, where I found Captain Miles waiting to receive me.

"Ha, here you are at last, youngster!" he cried out in welcome. "I thought you were never coming out, and that we would have to start without you. Wind and tide, you know, wait for neither man or boy! Hoist in his traps, boatswain," he added to Moggridge, "and be as sharp as you can about it too, for the breeze is just beginning to come off the land."

I may here mention a meteorological fact that Captain Miles subsequently explained to me. He said that this regular alternation of the sea and land breeze in warm latitudes, as in the tropics generally, when the wind blows for so many hours in the day on and off-shore, is owing to the different powers for the radiation and absorption of heat possessed by land and water, so that when the day temperature is highest on the land the alternating breezes will be stronger, and vice versa. During the day, to illustrate this fact, the radiation of the sun's heat on the land causes the air to expand and so rise from the surface, which, creating a vacuum, the air from the sea rushes in to fill the void. At night this process is reversed, for, while the surface of the soil will frequently show in the West Indies during the daytime a temperature of a hundred and twenty degrees and more under the meridian sun, the thermometer will sink down in the evening to fifty or sixty degrees; whereas, the sea, being a bad radiator and its temperature rarely exceeding eighty degrees, even at the hottest period of the day, it is alternately colder and warmer than the land, and the direction of the wind accordingly oscillates between the two. The minimum temperature being at a little before sunrise in the early morning and the maximum somewhere about two o'clock in the afternoon, the change of these breezes usually occurs at some little time after these hours, the one lulling and the other setting in in due rotation—that is, of course, near the coast, for out in the open sea their effect is not so apparent.

In August, which is one of the "hurricane months" of the tropics, when the Josephine left Grenada on her voyage to England, the winds are more variable, blowing at odd and uncertain times; so, there was every reason for Captain Miles' taking advantage of the first cat's-paw of air off the land now, as otherwise, perhaps, he might not have been able to make an offing before morning, when he would lose the advantage of the current amongst the islands towards Saint Vincent, where he had to call in for some puncheons of rum and coffee to complete his cargo.

Under the direction of Moggridge, the crew made short work of hoisting in my traps and innumerable boxes, including the cocoa-nuts Doctor Martin had sent down for me, all of which Captain Miles ordered to be taken into the cabin he allotted to me on the starboard side of the ship near his own; and then, the boat itself was hauled on board by the derrick amidships which had been used for getting in the cargo, there being no davits at the side as in a man-of-war.

After seeing this operation satisfactorily accomplished, I went up the poop-ladder and walked aft to the side of Captain Miles, who was now busy about getting the vessel under weigh.

"Hands up anchor!" he roared out with a stentorian shout, and immediately there was a bustle forward of the men with much thumping of their feet on the planks and a clanking of the chain as the windlass went round under their sturdy hands. Mr Marline, the first mate, I noticed, had charge of the crew engaged in heaving, while Moggridge went on the forecastle to see that everything was clear for catting and fishing the anchor as soon as it was run up out of the water and the stock showed itself above the bows.

"Clink, clank! clink, clank!" came the measured rattle as the slack of the cable was wound round the windlass and carried along the deck to the chain locker; and then, after another spell of hard heaving, Moggridge sang out, "Swings clear, sir!"

"All right," responded Captain Miles, jumping up on a hen-coop by the taffrail so as to make his voice go further, as well as to command a clear view of all that was going on, "Hands, make sail!"

On hearing this order those of the crew who were not engaged at the windlass swarmed up the rigging and threw off the gaskets of the foresail and mainsail, while a couple of hands ran out on the bowsprit and unloosed the lashings of the jib, the topsails having been dropped before I came on board.

"Man the topsail halliards!" then sang out the captain, and with a cheery cry the yards were run up with a will and the halliards then belayed.

"Sheet home!" was the next command, whereupon the sails were stretched out to their full extent, swelling out before the off-shore wind; and one of the men, by the captain's orders, now going to the helm, a few turns of the spokes brought the vessel's head round.

"Now, look alive there forward and heave up the anchor!" shouted Captain Miles.

In another minute the stock of the kedge showed above the bows, when the catfalls being stretched along the deck, and laid hold of by Moggridge, the rest of the crew tacking on after him, the flukes were run up to the cat-head to a rhythmical chorus in which all hands joined, the men pulling with a will as they yelled out the refrain—

"Yankee John, storm along! Hooray, hooray, my hearties! Pull away, heave away, Hooray, hooray, my hearties! Going to leave Grenada!"

The clew-garnet blocks now rattled as the main-sheet was hauled aft, when, the broad sail filling, the Josephine paid off before the wind; and shortly afterwards she was making her way to leeward towards Saint Vincent, passing almost within a stone's throw of Fort Saint George, as she cleared the northern point of the harbour and got out to sea.

The jib and flying-jib were now hoisted as well as the topgallant-sails and spanker, to get as much of the breeze as we could while it lasted, so that the vessel began to make fair progress through the water; and the hands under the superintendence of the two mates were then set to work coiling down ropes and getting in the slack of the sheets as well as making things ship-shape amidships, where the deck was still littered with a good deal of cargo that had not yet been properly stowed.

I was all this time standing by the side of Captain Miles on the poop, alternately looking at the men jumping about the rigging like monkeys and at the fast-receding shore, which, as soon as the sun set, became dimmer and dimmer in the distance, until it was at length finally shut out from my gaze by a wall of mist.

"Fo'c's'le ahoy, there!" sang out Captain Miles presently, when it began to grow dusk.

"Aye, aye, sir!" responded the voice of Moggridge, the boatswain, from forward.

"Keep a good look out, my man, ahead, or we may be running down some of those coasting craft inward bound."

"Aye, aye, sir, I'm on the watch myself," sang out Moggridge; but hardly had he given this answer than, all at once, he cried out suddenly in a louder tone, "Hard a-port, hard a-port! There's something standing across our bows."

The man at the wheel immediately put the helm up, letting the head of the vessel fall off from the wind; but, at the same instant, there came a sudden crash ahead, followed by a loud yell.

"Gracious heavens!" cried out Captain Miles, rushing forwards to the forecastle, where several of the hands had also hurried on hearing the cry of the boatswain—I going after the captain in my turn to see what was the matter, dreading some fearful disaster.

There were several short and quick exclamations, amidst which I saw, in the dim light, Moggridge in the act of heaving a rope overboard towards some dark object in the water.

"Hooray, he's got it and has clutched hold!" I then heard somebody say. "The line has fallen just over his shoulders, and he has got the bight of it."

"Haul him in gently!" cried the captain. "Pull easy—so!"

Next I saw a couple of the seamen bending over the side, and in another moment they helped a dripping figure to scramble on to the deck; when, as I pressed nearer to see who the rescued person was, I heard a well- known voice exclaim, in tones of earnest thankfulness and joy:

"Bress de Lor', I'se safe!"

It was Jake, the very last person in the world, most certainly, whom I could have expected to meet on board the Josephine, if I had guessed a hundred times!



CHAPTER SIX.

THE CAPTAIN'S COW.

"Why, Jake!" I cried out. "How have you contrived to come here?"

"Am dat you, Mass' Tom?" he answered catching sight of me behind the captain. "Golly, I tole you so; I'se tole you I come 'board ship wid you somehow or nudder. Who 'peak de trute now, hey? golly, yah, yah, I'se so berry glad!" and the poor faithful fellow commencing with one of his hearty African laughs ended in his voice breaking into a sob of joy that evidently came from the bottom of his heart.

From hearing his words Captain Miles immediately began to "smell a rat," as the saying goes.

"You impudent black rascal!" he said, half in joke, pretending to be angry, and yet partly in earnest. "What the dickens do you mean by shipping yourself aboard my vessel in this fashion without leave or license?"

"I'se come for to go wid Mass' Tom," answered Jake meekly.

"But how did you get off from the shore and overhaul the ship?" continued Captain Miles, pursuing his inquiries, the hands around meanwhile commencing to nudge one another and exchange grins as the colloquy waxed warm between the two principal performers.

"I tell you for true, massa, beliebe me," said Jake earnestly. "Dis forenoon wen I see Mass' Tom agwine I'se go down to de warf an' dere I see um lilly boat lyin' widout nobody a-mindin' it; so I'se jump in and row out ob de harbor an' git roun' by de ole fort till I see de ship make sail. Den I'se pull, an' pull, an' pull, like de debbel, to come up wid you, an' I tinks I nebber reach de bessel, wen, jus' as I'se git 'longside an' cotch you up, de ship gib one big lurch an' squash in de boat, wen I'se trown in water an' you fish um out; dere, massa, dat's de trute, s'help me!"

"Lucky for you you didn't go squash, too," observed the captain grimly. "But, was there no one else with you?"

"No, massa, only me," replied Jake.

"Thank God for that!" said Captain Miles fervently. "I was afraid I had run down one of those fishing sloops from Cariacou, and that all hands were drowned but you. Whose boat was it?"

"Dunno, massa, I'se tell you," answered Jake with great nonchalance, apparently giving but little thought to the little craft whose broken timbers were now floating away, far astern of us.

"Well, you're a cool hand anyway!" exclaimed Mr Marline the first mate drily, whereat Moggridge and the rest of the crew burst into a general shout of merriment. In this even the captain himself could not help joining, although he still tried to preserve a grave demeanour before Jake, as if annoyed at his coming on board.

Jake, however, was much hurt at being laughed at; and he went on now to justify his conduct with such native dignity that those who had been making fun of him before seemed almost ashamed of their ill-judged ridicule.

"I'se know Mass' Tom ebber since he was lilly pickaninny, an' I lub him," he said, speaking with a feeling and earnestness which no one would have thought of his possessing, and uttering the words in a thick choked voice. "I took de boat 'cause de boat was dere; but if dere was no boat, I'd hab swam off to de ship, for I'se boun' to go were Mass' Tom go, an' if he go in ship I'se go too!"

"But, my poor fellow," put in Captain Miles kindly to him, "your young master does not want a servant to wait on him on board the Josephine, and we haven't room for any idlers. I shall have to put you ashore at Saint Vincent, from whence you'll be easily able to get a passage back home again."

"For de Lor' sake don't do dat, Massa Cap'en!" implored Jake, utterly overwhelmed at such an unexpected downfall of his hopes, falling on his knees on the deck and holding up his hands in the most supplicating manner. "Only let dis poah nigger go wid you an' Mass' Tom an' he do any ting you want."

"But, what can you do?" said Captain Miles, who, I could see, was relenting. He really had no idea of carrying out the stern intention which his words implied. "We've got no horses to groom here."

"Ah, you dunno all I can do, Massa Cap'en," replied the darkey eagerly, rising again to his feet now, all animation. "'Fore I go wid Mass' Eastman, I'se help my fadder in fishin'-boat, an' know how to make sail an' reef an' steer. You jus' try dis chile an' see!"

"Very good, we will try you," said Captain Miles good-humouredly. "But, mind, my darkey friend, you'll have to work for your passage!"

"All right, Massa Cap'en, me work safe 'nuff. See now, I'se handy boy aboard ship!" So saying, Jake at once scrambled up the rigging and in a minute or two was away up in the foretop, waving his arms about and shouting with laughter in great glee.

"Yah, yah!" he cried. "I'se go higher, if um like."

"No, that will do now," sang out Captain Miles, "you can come down and go and warm yourself, after your wetting, by the galley fire, where you'll find another darkey to keep you company. You must enter his name in the list of the crew, Mr Marline," added the captain, turning to the first mate; "and see, too, about messing him in the fo'c's'le. I daresay we'll make something out of him during the voyage."

During this little interlude, the Josephine had been making away from Grenada with the land breeze, aided by a current setting to the westward at the rate of a couple of knots an hour; so that, by the time it got dark, we had sunk the island to windward, Captain Miles having caused the royals to be hoisted, in order to take every advantage of the light air, for we had to make the best of a north-east course on the starboard tack.

Towards nine o'clock, however, the wind freshened, and as the navigation was rather ticklish, we being not yet in the open sea, the lighter canvas had to be taken in, the vessel proceeding during the remainder of the night under double-reefed topsails, courses, topgallant-sails, and her jib and spanker—for, these could be easily handed in case of any sudden shift of wind, which frequently veers round without warning under the lee of the land.

I, of course, only learnt all this afterwards, picking up my nautical knowledge by degrees from my old friend Moggridge, who took me under his tuition, promising to make a sailor of me ere the voyage was over, for I was told to turn in by Captain Miles at nine o'clock, when the lights were put out in the cabin.

In the morning, when I came on deck again, we were off Saint Vincent; but, as the current and wind were both against us, although our port was well in sight we had to beat up to make the harbour, not dropping our anchor until late in the afternoon.

It was a beautiful spot, for we lay as it were in a circle of mountains, the tall Souffriere with its volcano peak overtopping them all.

Although we arrived late, Captain Miles did not lose any time in shipping his cargo of rum, going on shore immediately in his gig, which was still hanging to the davits astern, not having been taken on board with the other boats before leaving "my island," as I always call Grenada. Soon afterwards, a couple of heavy launches manned by negroes and each stored with several big puncheons came off to us, the rum being at once hoisted in and lowered away into the hold—the operation being achieved in less time nearly than I can describe it, for it was necessary for us to be off again by nightfall to take advantage of the land breeze; or else we might be detained at Saint Vincent another day.

Besides the puncheons of rum another piece of cargo was brought on board. This subsequently caused quite a little commotion as well as giving us all a good deal of entertainment.

Our new freight was a cow.

Captain Miles, you must know, was a bit of a gourmand, liking to have good eating and drinking when he could get them; and, as he was particularly fond of coffee with plenty of milk in it, he always carried a cow with him in his different voyages.

During his last trip from home, however, his old milk purveyor had died; and, as such animals are rather scarce in the West Indies, he was not able to procure one either for love or money at Grenada, and was at a complete nonplus till we got to Saint Vincent.

Here, fortunately, or unfortunately as it happened eventually for the poor cow, the captain heard at the last moment of a fine Alderney which a planter was anxious to dispose of, and had brought down to the town to send off to Barbadoes, hoping to find a market there for her. Captain Miles, therefore, at once closed with the planter, and the last of the launches conveying the rum puncheons to the Josephine brought off in addition this cow.

But, taking an animal of this sort away from the shore, and out to a ship lying some distance from the land is one thing, and getting it on board is another! This the captain found presently, when, having completed all his business ashore and cleared the last of his cargo, he was rowed out in his gig to regain the vessel. He had intended making sail the moment he stepped on the deck again; but, instead of finding everything stowed and the anchor tripped ready for the Josephine to start on his arrival, he saw that her cable was still out, while the barge containing the cow was yet alongside.

Captain Miles was awfully angry. Everybody could see this; as he ordered the men in the gig to row her astern, and in a very harsh tone of voice, as he scuttled up the side-ladder and turned into the main- deck port; hook on the falls ready for hoisting her up again to the davits.

"Mr Marline!" he cried out to the first mate when he reached the deck, "what is the meaning of this? I expected you'd have been all ready to sail, and here is that launch alongside yet and the cargo not aboard!"

"All the rum's in, sir," replied Mr Marline quietly, for he was a dry old stick and seldom said a word more than necessary.

"But the cow, man, the cow!" retorted the captain. "Why is she not hoisted inboard as well?"

"We couldn't manage her, sir," replied Mr Marline with a sly grin. "The brute butts everybody that comes near her."

"Why didn't you sling her?" inquired Captain Miles.

"We tried to, but couldn't," said the mate. "She kicks so that she tumbled back twice and nearly went into the sea."

"Oh, you're all a parcel of nincompoops!" exclaimed the captain quite roused at this. "I'll show you how a seaman can manage it!" With that, catching hold of the side lines, he went down the ladder again like winking and into the launch alongside.

Here, the cow, which looked even more enraged than Captain Miles, stood in the centre of the boat, with the negroes who had pulled out the live load from shore, standing up in the bows and on the gunwales, so as to be out of the reach of the infuriated animal, which every now and then made a rush at some black leg or other, making the owner yell out and try to avoid the butt.

"Pass down a whip with a spare bit of canvas," sang out the captain, sitting down in the stern-sheets; and on receiving these articles he set to work to make a sort of broad belt to pass under the cow's stomach, in the same way as is done with horses about to be shipped on board transports when cavalry regiments are embarking.

When he had made the sling to his satisfaction, satisfying himself that it was strong enough by attaching it to his own person and then making the crew haul him up, his sixteen stone weight being some criterion to go by, he ordered those at the derrick to lower him down again; and then, with a halter all ready, which he threw over the animal's head, he advanced bravely towards the cow to arrange the belt under her body, thinking he could do it easily enough.

Mrs Brindle, however, was too quick for him.

Tossing off the rope bridle like a piece of straw, she lowered her head, and catching the captain in the stomach sent him head over heels backwards into the bottom of the boat, where one of the thwarts only prevented her from pursuing him further, which she would most undoubtedly have done judging by her vicious look.

At that moment, Jake, who had been looking over the side of the ship, seeing what had happened and anxious to be of service, slid down the whip-tackle into the boat. Arrived here his first task was to pick up Captain Miles, after doing which he took hold of the canvas belt the captain had prepared and dropped in his confusion at the unexpected assault.

"You let dis niggah try, Massa Cap'en," he said. "I'se able to ride any wild hoss, and tinks I can settle de rampagious animile."

"All right, fire away," replied Captain Miles, rather out of breath from his tumble as well as from the punch the cow had given him "right in the wind."

Jake thereupon, shoving the other darkeys away, climbed on to the gunwale of the launch. Then, advancing gingerly until he was right opposite the cow, and seizing a good opportunity, he jumped suddenly on her back. In a moment or so, he cleverly fixed the slings round her; while one of the other negroes, emboldened by his success, threw a noose over her head, which kept her from plunging about any longer, or at all events, from butting at everybody as she had done previously.

"By Jingo, you're a smart fellow!" exclaimed Captain Miles with much gusto. "You're worth all the rest of those stupid lubbers of mine boiled down together! Haul away now, Mr Marline," he added, looking up; "I think we've fixed the cow this time."

He was right; for, as soon as the hands on board manned the derrick and turned the winch handle the poor animal was raised in the air, kicking out spasmodically all the while, and wondering, no doubt, how she lost hold of her footing. When she had been hoisted high enough to clear the bulwarks, the derrick was then swung inboard and the cow lowered safely on the deck.

The empty launch with the negroes was now cast-off, and preparations made for raising the anchor again and making sail.

However, this was not the end of the cow episode by any means; for, as luck would have it, all Captain Miles' hopes of milk with his coffee during the voyage home to England were soon summarily dispelled, the career of the animal which was to have supplied the lacteal fluid having terminated most unexpectedly.

All hands being busy getting the ship under weigh, the animal had been left standing for the time where she had been set down in the waist, the sling being unloosed from her and the end of the halter, which Jake had put over her head when she had been secured, tied to the mainmast bitts—so as to prevent her moving until the long-boat amidships, which was to form her quarters, should be made ready for her reception.

Then, when the canvas of the Josephine was once more spread to the breeze and the vessel was working out from Saint Vincent, Captain Miles told the steward to serve dinner in the cabin, it being now near sunset and long past the usual hour for that meal, which was generally on the table at "eight bells," or four o'clock in the afternoon.

I went into the cabin with the captain and second mate, Mr Marline being left in charge of the poop; and, presently, I could see through the sliding-doors leading from the main-deck into the cuddy, which were of course left wide open, as we were still in the tropics, the steward Harry, a freckle-faced mulatto of the colour of pale ginger, bringing in a tureen of soup from the cook's galley forward.

As he passed by close to where the cow was tethered, whether the smell of the savoury compound aroused the animal's hunger, or because Harry, coming too near, reminded her of the recent indignities to which she had been subjected, the cow all at once made a plunge at him with her head.

Harry sheered off, spilling a portion of the soup; and he was so frightened that he ran full speed with the remainder into the cabin.

He was not, however, quick enough for Mrs Brindle; for the sudden dive she made, throwing her whole might on the halter, caused the rope to snap like a piece of pack-thread. The next instant, the cow made a plunge after the mulatto steward, giving him a lift by the stern-post as he was entering the cuddy door which pitched him right on to the cabin table, where he fell amidst all the plates and dishes. There was a terrible smash, all the dinner things coming to grief, as well as the soup tureen, which he still held in his hands, the boiling contents passing over the second mate's head, and scalding his face, besides making him in a pretty pickle.

"Oh Lord, oh Lord, I'm blinded!" screamed Davis, the thick pea-soup having gone into his eyes; while the captain had scarcely time to use his favourite ejaculation, "By Jingo!" before the cow, which had followed up her successful attack on the steward by galloping after him into the cabin, catching the arm-chair that Captain Miles was ensconced in sideways, started the lashings that held it to the deck, hurling the terrified occupant in a heap in the corner—the captain being utterly ignorant of the cause of the whole catastrophe, for he was sitting with his back to the door and so had not seen the steward's somersault nor the approach of the animal like I did from the beginning of the affair.

As for me, being on the other side of the table, I escaped any harm, although I immediately bolted into the steward's pantry near me, where, shutting the half-door, I looked out from this coign of vantage surveying the scene of havoc which the cabin presently presented, for the cow tossed about everything she could reach bellowing like one of the wild bulls of Bashan all the while.

The steward had fainted away, from fright I believe; and he lay stretched on the table as if he were practising swimming in Doctor Johnson's fashion. As for Davis, the second mate, he had his face bent down in his hands, apparently unmindful of everything but his own pain, but Captain Miles speedily sprang to his feet and was starting to attack the cause of the uproar with one of the broken legs of his chair when just at that moment Mr Marline poked his nose down the open skylight from the poop above.

"What's the matter?" he asked suavely. "What is all the row about?"

"Come down and see," said Captain Miles savagely. "Talk of a bull in a china-shop; why, that would be child's play to a cow in a cabin!"

Mr Marline burst out laughing at this, and so too did Captain Miles himself as soon as he had spoken the words, while I couldn't help joining in, it was all so funny. Then the first mate came down with two or three of the hands to remove the violent animal, which had now jammed itself under Captain Miles' own cot in his private sanctum beyond the cuddy.

But, Mrs Brindle was not so easily dislodged, one of the sailors having to get through the stern port in order to raise the cot while the other men pulled at her legs.

She was evidently determined not to be moved against her will; for, on being lugged out again into the main cabin, she quickly shook off the grasp of her captors, cantering out of the sliding-doors, with her tail in the air, bellowing still furiously and butting at those in her way.

Her course was soon arrested, however. As she bounded forwards along the deck she came to the open hatchway leading to the hold, where tumbling down on top of the rum puncheons, before anyone could interpose, she broke her neck instanter.

"It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good," says the old proverb, the truth of which was exemplified in this instance. If the captain lost his milk, the crew gained a plentiful supply of fresh meat by the accident, faring sumptuously for many days afterwards on roast beef and all sorts of delicate dishes which Cuffee concocted out of the carcass of the unfortunate animal.

"I wouldn't have lost her for twenty pounds!" said Captain Miles on the poop later on, when he and the first mate were talking over the strange way in which the thing all happened.

"Humph!" observed Mr Marline slyly in his dry way; "I think she gave you one or two on account before she performed the happy despatch, eh?"

"Funny dog!" exclaimed Captain Miles, giving him a dig in the ribs by way of acknowledging the allusion to the thumps poor Brindle had treated him to, before she came on board and after; and, there, the matter ended, as far as everybody was concerned, the steward recovering from his fainting fit, and the eyes of Davis the second mate being none the worse as it turned out for their deluge of hot pea-soup, while the damages in the cabin were soon repaired. Only the poor cow came to grief!



CHAPTER SEVEN.

AMONGST THE ISLANDS.

In spite of all Captain Miles' endeavours to effect an early start from Saint Vincent, we were not really able to weather the island that evening until many hours after our anchor was tripped and all plain sail made.

This was not due, however, either to the delay caused in hoisting the obstreperous cow on board or to the embarrassing episode that occurred after she was shipped. It was entirely owing to the failure of our moving spirit the wind; for we lay becalmed until morning under the lee of the giant Souffriere, whose dark shadow prevented the land breeze from reaching the vessel, while the next day was far advanced before we could gain an offing so as to take advantage of the light airs that then sprang up from seaward. But, then, the Josephine, bellying out her canvas, bore away on her voyage.

The wide gulf of sea which we were traversing—named after the aboriginal Caribs who ruled over its domain lang syne, and hedged in from the Atlantic Ocean by the semicircular group of the Lesser Antilles, or "Windward Islands" of the West Indies—presents great difficulties to the navigators of sailing ships; as, while the wind throughout its extent blows almost constantly in one direction, a series of cross currents set in another, making it a hard task for even experienced seamen to preserve a straight course towards any particular point when going to windward, the result of which is that "the longest way round," as in other matters pertaining to shore life, is frequently "the shortest way home!"

Taking up the chart casually, a novice would imagine that our direct route from our port of departure to the English Channel would be indicated by a line drawn between the two points and passing through the Azores; but, a sailor accustomed to tropical latitudes would know that, however feasible this might appear in theory, we could not possibly have adopted such a course. It would have presupposed, in the first case, our possessing the ability to sail straight in the teeth of the north- east trade wind, and, in the second case, that we took no account of the influence of the equatorial current, the stream of which setting westwards into the Caribbean Sea, would have drifted as so far to leeward that at the end of the day's run we must have been pretty nearly where we started from, any progress we made ahead being neutralised by the action of the stream carrying us in a lateral direction.

For these reasons, all navigators up to their work, when making the passage home from the West Indies and vice versa, instead of fighting against the forces of nature as some old seamen of the past used to do, now make both winds and tides run harmoniously in their favour by meeting them half-way, so to speak. Captain Miles, in our instance, therefore, did not wear out his crew by trying to beat to windward in order to get to the open Atlantic immediately. On the contrary, he kept his vessel well away to leeward, shaping a course for Saint Christopher's, so as to pass afterwards through the Anegada Channel, between the Virgin Islands, and reach the ocean in that way. In other words, following the example of the ready-witted Irishman who drove an obstinate pig to market by pulling him back by the tail, he deliberately steered to the north-west while really wanting to go to the north-east. But, circuitous as such a route looked, the captain was in the end a gainer by it; for, not only did he keep the wind well abeam of the ship all the way on the starboard tack, but he had the additional advantage of having the strong north-westerly current in his favour in lieu of trying to work against it.

During this portion of our voyage the weather was beautifully fine, the sky being of a clear transparent opal tint without a cloud and the sea of the purest ultramarine blue, with little merry dancing wavelets occasionally flecking its changing surface into foam.

The air, too, was balmy, and not unpleasantly warm, a fine healthy breeze blowing, which filled our good ship's sails, so that they expanded to the furthest limits of the bolt-ropes, speeding her on her way at the rate of some eight knots an hour, as rising and falling she surged through the sparkling water and left a foaming wake astern that spread out in the shape of a fan behind her track, widening until it was lost in the distance.

When I mentioned my going to visit the Josephine as she lay at anchor while taking in cargo at Grenville Bay, I think I said that I had never before been in a vessel. This, however, was not strictly accurate, for when dad came out to the West Indies from England with my mother and sisters some few years previously, I, of course, accompanied them; and as we had to cross the Atlantic in order to reach Grenada, and there was no other mode of overcoming the three thousand odd miles of ocean that lay between us and our destination except by our adventuring the passage in the ordinary way, I was then really for the first time taken on board a ship. But it must be remembered that I was only at that period a tiny baby about the size of my little sister Tot; and, therefore, my recollections of the time being rather hazy, my first real experiences of the sea and all the incidents of the voyage came upon me with all that novelty and interest which unfamiliarity alone can produce. It is, nevertheless, only right that I should make this correction of my former mis-statement, for I wish to give a true and impartial account of all that happened to me from first to last. I am not "spinning a yarn" merely, as sailor's say, but telling a true story of my life with all its haps and mishaps.

Now, therefore, as the Josephine dashed along, all was new and strange to me; the limitless expanse of blue water shimmering in the summer sun, with flocks of flying-fish rising in the air occasionally to seek refuge from their enemies of the deep, only to fall back again below the surface after a short curving flight, to avoid the grey pelicans hovering above to attack them there; the fresh bracing breeze, which blew in my face so exhilaratingly; the swaying motion of the vessel that gave a lurch now and then, heeling over when the wind took her suddenly on the quarter as she rose on the swell; the whistling of the cordage and creaking of timbers and rattling of blocks, combined with the cheery yo-ho-hoing of the sailors as they slacked a sheet here and tightened a brace there. Really, I was so pleased, excited, and delighted with the whole scene and its surroundings that it seemed as if I were in the ship of a dream sailing on an enchanted sea!

Presently there arose out of the deep on our starboard bow the Pitons of Saint Lucia, two twin conical rocks like the Needles, only ever so much bigger, being over three thousand feet in height. They were festooned from base to summit with beautiful evergreen foliage; and the entrance to the harbour of the island was to be seen within and beyond these outlying sentinels, stretching up inland towards a mass of purple mountains from a beach of yellow sand.

Next, we passed to the leeward of Martinique; and, then, towards sunset of the same day, as we approached Saint Kitts, islet after islet jumped up out of the sea in front of us, to the right hand and to the left. They were all misty at first, but changed their colours from slaty grey to green as we approached them nearer, although their shape was all pretty much the same—tall sugar-loaf peaks surrounded by verdure sloping down in graceful curves to the water's edge, the surf breaking against the shore of those to leeward in clouds of spray, while the waves washed the rocky feet of those on the windward side without a ripple.

When the sun disappeared below the western horizon, Montserrat, Redonda, Nevis, Saint Christopher, and Saint Eustatius were all in sight around us; and, just at ten o'clock at night, when the moon was at the full, lighting up the scene with its silvery beams as brightly almost as if it were day, we passed between Saint Eustatius and the island of Saba. We approached the latter within two miles, but when its north point bore west we steered for Dog Island, clearing the reefs somewhere about the middle watch.

Soon after sunrise next morning we weathered Sombrero, the last of the Antilles, and thus got fairly out into the Atlantic, leaving the West Indies behind us as we hauled our wind and bore away for the Azores— although a long stretch of ocean had to be crossed ere we might hope to reach this half-way port on our voyage.

But I have not yet described our ship and those on board.

The Josephine was an old-fashioned barque of about five hundred tons burden, built with a high poop and a topgallant forecastle, "or fo'c's'le," as seamen call it.

She was a roomy vessel, possessing great breadth of beam, which made her a staunch sea-boat in rough weather, for she could tumble about as much as she pleased without causing much damage to her timbers or risk of her stability; and this roominess, besides, allowed good accommodation aft for a large number of passengers, although in this instance I was the single solitary "landsman" aboard—that is, if a young shaver of thirteen can be dignified with such a high-sounding title!

Her officers and crew consisted of eighteen hands all told; and amongst the former Captain Miles, her master, a sturdy old sea-dog of forty-five or thereabouts, is entitled to be the first described. He had a broad honest face, with a pair of bushy, reddish-brown mutton-chop whiskers, for, unlike the sailors of to-day, the captain was always clean shaven as to his chin and upper lip, esteeming a moustache an abomination, "which only one of those French Johnny Crapaud lubbers ever think of wearing."

The next officer in rank after Captain Miles was Mr Marline, the first mate, a thin wiry north countryman, with a lot of latent fun and dry humour in him; and then came Davis, the second mate, a thick-set bull- necked dark-haired Welshman, not more than twenty-four or five years of age. He had been promoted from the foremast on account of his predecessor having died on the passage out. Davis was a very good seaman and up to his work; otherwise, his education being sadly deficient, as even I, a boy, could perceive, and his temper and disposition being none of the best, he was certainly not very well fitted to command those with whom he had formerly associated as an equal.

My old friend Moggridge, the boatswain, and Adze, the carpenter, completed the list of those in authority; and, besides these, must be enumerated Cuffee, the king of the cook's galley; Jake, who had been put on the muster-roll as an ordinary hand; Harry, the captain's tawny mulatto steward; and ten able seamen—the finest and strongest of all these being Jackson, a smart young Cornishman hailing from Plymouth, who stood some six feet two in his stockings and gloried in such a broad pair of shoulders that he was worth any three of the other hands put together.

To complete the description of our ship, the lower portion of our cargo, stowed in the ground tier of the hold above the dunnage, was sugar and coffee, with some odd bags of cocoa from my father's plantation to make weight; but our chief freight, fortunately for us, as you will learn later on, was rum. The puncheons containing this were packed as tightly as possible fore and aft the ship above the heavy produce, reaching up amidships to the level of the main hatch, all the spaces between being so compactly filled in with the lighter samples of cargo that not even a cockroach could have squeezed itself in sideways.

In the waist of the vessel on the upper deck, ranged along the inside of the bulwarks on either hand, from the entrance to the cabin under the break of the poop to right away forwards just abaft the foremast, was a row of water-casks. A couple of these had their tops sawn off lengthwise and contained several live turtle which Captain Miles was hopeful of carrying home safely in time for the next ensuing banquet at the Mansion House on lord mayor's day, an enterprising ship's chandler in the Minories having given him an order to that effect before he left England on his voyage out to the West Indies. In a similar way, against the sides of the poop were fixed what looked at first sight to be benches for sitting down upon, but which on closer inspection I discovered to be hen-coops,—their occupants projecting their long necks and heads therefrom, in much perplexity evidently at their strange fate in being thus brought to sea; for, as was the case with myself, this was their first experience of what life on board ship was like, and the exigencies of the cabin table would most probably cause it to be their last!

It was not until the fourth day after we had set sail from Grenada that I was able to note all these particulars. Up to that time I had been too much interested with the moving panorama around me to notice things inboard; and, besides, the motion of the Josephine, when she got lively in the seaway amongst the islands, produced an uneasy feeling which led me ere long to retire below and bewail my old home and those from whom I had been so ruthlessly severed with greater grief than I had felt before. I suffered from that fearful nausea which Father Neptune imposes as a penance on the majority of his votaries, and it was wonderful how very melancholy the sensation made me.

However, I struggled gallantly against the fell foe, and, one morning, I crawled out of my bunk early, just as the men began to wash down the decks, the first work of the day aboard ship. This was shortly after we had cleared the island of Sombrero, and when the Josephine was working her way out to sea.

At first I stopped in the waist, near the entrance to the cabin, but Davis, the second mate, who stood with his trousers tucked up showing his bare feet and legs, superintending the hands sluicing the water about from the hose attached to the head pump out on the forecastle, told me politely to sheer off, as they wanted no idlers in the way; so, I ascended the poop-ladder, and was commiserating the poor fowls in the hen-coops along the rails, when Captain Miles, who was standing close to the helmsman at the wheel, addressed me.

"Hallo, Master Tom," said he, "got your sea-legs again?"

"Yes, captain," I replied, "I'm all right now, thank you."

"Beginning to feel peckish, eh?"

"Not very," said I, for I was qualmish still, although the fresh air had considerably revived me even in the short time since I had come out of the close cabin.

"Ah, but you must eat, though, my boy," observed Captain Miles kindly, giving me a kindly pat on the back. "An empty stomach is the worst thing in the world to voyage on. Why, you haven't hardly eaten a bite since the other evening when that poor cow knocked our dinner all into the middle of next week! Never mind, though, breakfast will be ready at eight bells, and we'll see whether we can't get some lining upon your ribs, my little skillygalee."

"I have already asked Jake to get me a cup of coffee, sir," I said in reply to this; but, before the captain could answer me again, we both had our attention drawn to the deck below. There seemed to be some sort of commotion going on in the cook's galley away forward, for all the men had their faces turned in that direction, and they were laughing as if at some good joke.

"Waist ahoy, there!" shouted out Captain Miles, going to the edge of the break of the poop and looking down. "What's the row forward?"

"Hanged if I know, sir," answered Davis somewhat surlily, adding more gruffly still to the hands around him, "Here, you lazy lubbers, lay along to your work, or I'll give you something else to grin about!"

"You need not haze the men like that for nothing," said the captain sharply, muttering something under his breath about "setting a beggar on horseback, and he'll ride to the—"

However, his further words were cut short by a loud shout of laughter from the men all together, as if with one accord; and then the commotion in the cook's galley increased, for I could now distinguish the sound of some violent altercation, voices being raised in anger, mingled with the noise of shuffling feet and the crash of crockery-ware.

"By Jingo, they're going it!" exclaimed Moggridge, who stood in the waist immediately below us. "They'll be like the Kilkenny cats, and leave only their tails behind!"

"What's the matter?" again asked Captain Miles. "Anybody fighting, eh?"

"Yes, sir," said the boatswain, "the two niggers. They've been at it in the caboose ever since we began to wash down decks."

"Then it's high time to stop them," cried the captain darting towards the poop-ladder with the intention of ending the fray, whatever it was.

But, before he could descend two steps, the half-door of the galley burst open outwards with a crash, when two dark figures, locked in a tight embrace and pommelling one another with immense fury, came rolling out upon the deck. They then scrambled and tumbled into the lee scuppers, where they continued to struggle still, unmindful of the foot deep or more of water, into which they were suddenly plunged, that was swishing to and fro with the motion of the ship.

"You take dat now," I heard Jake's voice say excitedly. "I mash um face well."

"An' you take dat, you hangman tief," cried the other with equal earnestness. "Golly, I gib you gosh!"

Then came the thud of blows, easily distinguishable above the splashing of the refuse water that had accumulated to leeward from the sluicing of the decks, with the convulsive movements of two pairs of arms and legs mingled together in a confused mass—one woolly head being occasionally uplifted above the other and immediately as quickly dragged down again. The crew all the while screamed with laughter, enjoying the combat with the utmost relish, and without attempting to interfere in any way between the angry antagonists.

"Stop the rascals, stop them!" sang out Captain Miles, jumping down into the waist and hurrying to the scene of action. "They'll either kill or drown each other!"



CHAPTER EIGHT.

POOR JACKSON.

As soon as the seamen heard the captain's words, uttered as they were in a tone which they well knew from experience was meant to be obeyed, several of them at once rushed to where the two darkeys were still struggling in the lee scuppers; when Jackson, the tall young sailor whom I had already noticed for his smartness, stepping forward in advance of the others and stooping down at the same time, lifted up the combatants on to their feet, holding one in each hand as easily as if the two big negroes had been only little dolls.

"Be quiet, I tell 'ee," he cried, giving Cuffee, the cook, who was the most obstreperous, a shake as he clutched him by the back of his woolly head in the same way as a terrier holds a rat; "be quiet, I tell 'ee, or I'll pitch you overboard!"

So saying, and emphasising the threat by raising Cuffee at arm's length, to the level of the bulwarks, he dragged the irate pair along to where Captain Miles was standing by the mainmast bitts, there setting them down before him for judgment.

"Now, you quarrelsome black rascals!" exclaimed the captain confronting them, "what the dickens do you mean by kicking up all this bobbery? I don't allow any fighting aboard my ship."

"It ain't me, Mass' Cap'en," said Jake eagerly, "it's dat nasty niggah dere dat make all de muss 'bout nuffin' at all!"

"Dat one big lie," retorted the other scornfully. "He come 'teal de coffee out ob de coppers, an' w'en I 'peak to him like gen'leman he hit um in the eyeball, him."

"Belieb me, Mass' Cap'en, I'se no tief," said Jake indignantly, drawing himself up and looking very much as if he were going to pitch into Cuffee again. "I'se only go in de galley to get um coffee for Mass' Tom, an' I'se ax dat poor trash dere to gib um cup in de most perliteful way as um please; an' I no sooner done dis dan he catch um crack wid one big ladle on de shin—golly, um hurt now! Den, ob course, I hit um back in brace ob shakes, an' we go down in rough an' tumble togedder."

"My, what big 'tory!" exclaimed the cook in apparent amazement at Jake's mendacity. "Me go forrud to clean de fis' for breakfus, an' w'en um come back in galley, dere I see dat hangman tief takin' de coffee, an' den—"

"Then you had a scuffle together, I suppose," interposed Captain Miles, interrupting Cuffee's further harangue at this point. "Well, well, as far as I can see you were both in the wrong. Jake, you had no business to enter the cook's galley without his leave, or touch anything there, for remember he's as much captain of the caboose as I am on the poop."

"Golly, Mass' Cap'en, me no go dere afore widout Cuffee ax me," put in Jake as Captain Miles made a pause in his lecture.

"Well, don't you do it again," continued the captain. "And as for you, Cuffee, I'd advise you not to be so handy with your soup-ladle again in striking your brother darkey, before ascertaining what he wants when he comes to your galley, and who sent him. There, my fighting cocks, you'd better shake hands now and make friends, as the row's all over!"

This the two at once did, with much grinning and showing of their ivory teeth; and they then went away forwards again together on the most amicable terms, albeit arguing good-humouredly as to which of them had got the best of the fray. Jake believed that he had come off with flying colours, while Cuffee persisted that he was the conqueror, the upshot of the matter being that Jackson, to whom they referred the knotty question, decided that it was "six for one and half a dozen for the other." With this Solomon-like settlement of the difficulty both were quite satisfied and were sworn chums ever after. I, indeed, was the only loser by the little difference between the two, having to go without my coffee until the proper breakfast hour, "eight bells," when, possibly, I enjoyed my meal all the more from not getting anything before.

Towards mid-day, we had sunk the land entirely to the westwards, the ship being then on the wide-spreading ocean, with not a thing in sight but water—"water everywhere!"

In front, in rear, to right, to left, all around was one expanse of blue, like a rolling valley, as far as the eye could reach, while the sky above was cloudless and the wind blowing steadily, a little to the southward of east, right on our starboard beam as we steered north- eastwards.

We were not altogether alone, however, for the ubiquitous flying-fish were springing up every now and then from the azure deep, taking short flights from one wave crest to another, or else entangling themselves in the rigging of the ship, and then falling a gasping prey on the deck for Cuffee bye and bye to operate upon in his galley, whence they would emerge again fried into a savoury dish for the cabin table at dinner- time.

Bonitoes and albacore also played round our bows, and the many-hued dolphin could be seen disporting himself astern in our wake; while, at one time, a large grampus swam for some considerable period abreast of the vessel, as if showing how easily he could keep pace with us and outstrip us too when he pleased, for, later on in the afternoon, he darted away and was soon lost to sight. I had now got over all the effects of sea-sickness, a hearty breakfast having restored my equilibrium, thus enabling me to enjoy all that was going on around. The captain especially claimed my attention when he "took the sun" at noon, an operation which I watched with the most absorbed interest; and I found out afterwards the use of the sextant, and the way in which the difference between the ship's mean time and that of the chronometer below in the cabin—which showed what the hour was at Greenwich—enabled Captain Miles to tell almost to a mile on the chart what was our position with regard to our longitude, our latitude being "worked out" in a different fashion.

Then, there was the heaving of the log at stated intervals to ascertain the speed of the ship through the water, and the constant trimming of the sails; for more canvas was piled on as the breeze fell light during the afternoon, as we wanted everything spread that could draw in order to catch the slightest breath of wind there was.

Oh, yes, there was plenty to see for a novice like me! The Josephine was fresh out of port, and there were lots of things that had to be done to make her ship-shape for the long voyage before her; and, besides, had there been nothing else for the hands to do beyond taking their trick at the wheel and attending to the braces—the ordinary routine of their duty with a fair wind such as we had—the captain and first mate would have felt bound to find them something to keep their minds from mischief. Sailors are never allowed a minute to be idle on a vessel at sea save on Sundays, and then they find work for themselves, as a rule, in the way of mending their clothes and putting their chests in order.

I noticed this device on Captain Miles's part to provide employment for the men when he came on deck after luncheon; when, seeing some of the seamen lounging about in the waist, he immediately set them to pump out the bilge. This, however, did not occupy them very long, the ship being pretty dry; for, after a thick dirty stream of ill-smelling water, mixed with a portion of molasses, leakage from the casks of sugar below, had poured into the scuppers for a few minutes, the pumps sucked, thus showing that the hold was clear down to the well bottom.

A second washing-down decks followed, to efface the traces of the nasty bilge-water; and then, Captain Miles looked about for another task to keep the hands busy.

"How is she going?" he asked Mr Marline, who had just seen to the heaving of the log, the man assisting him having not quite yet reeled in the line.

"Six knots, sir," answered the chief mate.

"By Jingo! that'll never do with this breeze," said the captain. "We must get the starboard stunsails on her."

"All right, sir," responded Mr Marline; and thereupon a couple of men went aloft to reeve the studding-sail halliards through the jewel blocks at the end of the yard-arms, while others stood below preparing the tackle and getting the booms ready, with tacks rove for hoisting, sail after sail being speedily packed on in addition to the canvas we were already carrying.

The log was then hove again, and a couple more knots of way somewhat pleased the captain; but, a moment afterwards, seeing that the hands were out of work once more, he thought of a fresh task for them.

"Mr Marline," he sang out presently, as he paced up and down the poop, eyeing the spars aloft and then casting his eyes forward.

"Aye, aye, sir," was the prompt answer from the chief mate, who was standing by the taffrail behind the man at the wheel, looking aloft to see how the sails drew and then glancing round the ship occasionally, in a similar sailor-like way to the captain.

"What say you to getting the anchors aboard and unshackling the cables, eh? I don't think we shall want to use them again now before we get into soundings, and she seems a little down by the head."

"All right, sir," said the mate. "I'll go forwards and see to the job at once. Here, you idlers," he added as he descended the poop-ladder, "spring up there on the fo'c's'le and see about getting the anchors inboard!"

This operation, I may explain, is generally undertaken soon after a ship leaves harbour and clears the channel when outwards bound across seas; for, not only do the anchors interfere with the vessel's sailing trim from their dead weight hanging over the bows, even when properly catted and fished, but they are a great deal in the way. In addition to this, the ship is liable to take in water through the hawse-holes, which can be plugged up, of course, when the cable chains are unshackled, although not before. As we had been, however, up to this time navigating the narrow passages between the clustering islands of the Caribbean Sea and the dangerous reefs in their vicinity, where we might have had occasion possibly to anchor at any moment should the wind fail us and the cross currents near the land peril the safety of the ship, the anchors had been left still ready for instant service; but, now that we were in the open sea, we would have no necessity for having recourse to their aid until we fetched our home port, so they might just as well be stowed away till then.

"May I go, too, and see what they are doing, Captain Miles?" I asked as Mr Marline and the crew scampered forwards.

"Yes, my boy," he said kindly. "Only, mind you don't get into any danger! I promised your father, you know, to look after you."

"Oh, I'll take care," I replied with a joyous laugh at getting the permission; and, away I followed the others to the forecastle, where I had been longing to go ever since the early morning, when, it may be remembered, Davis ordered me back to the poop on my attempting to pass forwards as I first came out of the cabin.

If it was jolly watching the progress of the ship from aft, it was ever so much more delightful from my new coign of vantage; for, as she dived her head and parted the waves with her bows, the water dashed up on either side in a column of spray like a fountain. The sunlight falling on this refracted the most beautiful prismatic colours, a perfect rainbow being formed to leeward which was ever being broken up and then arching itself anew into a sort of emerald and orange halo in front of the vessel's prow.

From where I stood on the knight heads, in the centre of the forecastle, just under the shadow of the bellying sails, the sea appeared much nearer to me, swelling up to the lee-rail as the Josephine tore along through it in ploughing her course onward; and yet, the outlook conveyed a better idea of its vastness than when I was on the poop aft and more elevated above the surface level, for the immense plain of water, in constant surging motion—now flat as a meadow, now ridged with curling waves as far as the eye could reach, and then again scooped out into a wide hollow valley covered over with yeasty foam, looking as if a giant custard had been poured over it—extended to where the curving horizon met the sky-line in the distance, our ship, in comparison with the limitless expanse, being only as it were a tiny cork, floating on the ocean of blue and blown along as lightly before the wind!

The fore-staysail, which had only recently been hoisted when the studding-sails were set, being now found to be in the way of getting in the anchors, as it prevented the hands from working freely, Mr Marline ordered the downhaul to be manned as soon as the halliards were cast- off. The sail was then loosely stowed for a while, and a double- purchase block and tackle rigged up in its place on the stay.

Mr Marline then sang out to Moggridge to cast-off the shank painter securing the best bower to the starboard side of the ship, this being the easiest anchor of the two to handle, for it was to windward, clear of the sheets of the head-sails; whereupon, the lifting gear being attached, the ponderous mass of metal was soon hoisted up above the cat- head and swayed inboard by means of a guy-line fastened to one of the flukes.

The command was then given to lower away, when, the anchor being deposited on the deck of the forecastle, it was made snug close to the foremast bitts, so that it could not shift its new moorings as the vessel rolled.

The chain-cable was next unshackled from the ring in the anchor-stock and rattled down into the locker in the fore-peak; after which, the starboard hawse-hole was plugged up to prevent any water from finding its way below through the orifice. Thus, in a very little time, half the task the captain had set the men to do was accomplished, the seamen working with a will and singing cheerily as they laid on to the falls of the tackle, "yo-ho-heaving" all together, and pulling with might and main.

The other anchor, however, being to leeward, was a little more difficult to manage, for it was submerged every now and then as the ship canted over, pitching her bows into the sea and splashing the spray up over the yard-arm; but, sailors are not soon daunted when they have a job on hand, and soon the shank painter of this was also cast-off and the purchase tackle made fast.

"Hoist away, men!" cried Mr Marline.

"Run away with the falls, you lubbers," echoed Moggridge, who was as busy about the matter as the first mate and doing two men's work himself; but, although the usual chorus was raised, and the sailors tugged away with all their strength, the anchor would not budge from its resting-place on the cat-head.

"The tackle has fouled the jib-sheet," said Jackson, who had been pulling like a horse at the rope's end, and now looked over the side to see what prevented them from lifting the port bower. "Shall I get over and clear it, sir?"

"Aye, do," replied the mate; when Jackson got over the bows in a jiffey, holding on with one hand while he used the other to disentangle the purchase tackle, and not minding a bit the water, which rose up as high as his neck when the ship dipped.

"Haul away, it's all clear now!" he called out presently; and he was just stepping inboard again when, the Josephine suddenly luffing up to the wind, the jib flapped, and, the sheet knocking the poor fellow off his balance, he tumbled backwards into the sea, without having time even to utter a cry.

"Man overboard!" shouted Mr Marline at the top of his voice.

For a moment, the wildest confusion seemed to reign throughout the vessel, the hands scurrying to the side; and looking over into the sea below, where we could see Jackson's head bob up for an instant; but as we gazed down he was drifted rapidly astern and quickly lost to sight in the trough of the waves.

The hubbub, however, only lasted an instant; for almost as soon as the mate's shout had been heard aft, Captain Miles's voice rang through the vessel in brief words of command, sharp and to the point.

"Stand by, men," he cried. "Hands 'bout ship!"

The crew at once jumped toward the braces, singing out "Ready, aye, ready," as they cast them off, some going to the lee-sheets to haul in there.

"Helm's a-lee!" then came from aft, followed by the orders "Tacks and sheets!" and "Mainsail haul!" when, the Josephine's bows paying off under the influence of the tacked head-sails, the yards were swung round in a trice; and, within less than five minutes the vessel was retracing the same track she had just gone over in quest of the missing man.

A man was sent up in the foretop, while Captain Miles himself ran up the ratlines of the mizzen shrouds to look out; and, at the same time, preparations were made for lowering the gig, which fortunately was still slung from the davits astern, not having been yet housed inboard with the other boats amidships—that being the next job the captain intended seeing to after the anchors were got in.

I, of course, was as much excited as anyone, and remained on the forecastle, looking out eagerly for any sign of Jackson, although I could not see him anywhere. I believe I was so confused with the ship having gone round on the opposite tack, in order to go back on her course, that I hardly knew in which direction to look for the unfortunate man, for what had before been ahead of the ship was now necessarily astern from her reversing her position.

In another minute, however, the look out in the foretop discerned Jackson, and he hailed the deck at once.

"There he is! there he is!" he sang out.

"Where?" cried Captain Miles impatiently.

"About four cables' length off the weather bow. I can see his head quite clear above the wash of the sea; and he seems swimming towards us."

"All right then, keep your eye on him, so as to pilot us! Mr Marline," continued Captain Miles, "lower the boat at once with four hands; we can't go close enough without it to the poor fellow, for we are to leeward of him."

"Aye, aye, sir," replied the chief mate, who had gone aft and was seeing to the falls of the boat; which presently, with himself in the stern- sheets and four hands to pull the oars, was lowered down all standing, the helmsman "luffing up" at the proper moment, so that the way of the ship might be arrested to prevent the gig being upset before getting on an even keel in the sea, it being a rather ticklish thing to launch a boat from a vessel under sail.

Luckily, however, the manoeuvre was safely accomplished without any mishap, the fall tackles being unhitched the instant the gig touched the water; and then, the boat's crew shipping their oars without delay, she was pulled off to windward of us in the direction indicated by the look out man in the foretop, who with his hand extended pointed the course to be steered.

The Josephine meanwhile gathered way again slowly and followed astern of the boat, although somewhat more to leeward, the wind being almost in her teeth and the ship having to sail close-hauled.

After a little time—for we had run nearly half a mile before going about and some minutes were consumed in getting the ship round on the opposite tack—we approached the spot where the accident had occurred; then, all of us could see Jackson plainly from the deck.

He was swimming grandly; now rising up on the top of a rolling wave, and then, as he surmounted this, sinking for a moment from sight in the hollow of the next, but making steady progress towards the ship all the while. Every now and again, too, he lifted one of his hands out of the water on commencing his stroke, as if to tell us he was all right and in good heart, noticing that we were coming to his rescue. The boat, the while rowed ahead of us as fast as the men in her could pull, putting their backs into the oars with all their strength, although making for the gallant swimmer in a slanting course to that of the Josephine.

Nearer and nearer we sailed, but much more slowly than all hands on board could wish, for the breeze was very light; nearer and nearer the gig approached Jackson, until we could see the very expression of his face.

He was actually grinning, and appeared from the movement of his mouth once when on top of a roller, to shout out some chaffing exclamation to us, seeming to regard the whole thing as a huge joke; and, Captain Miles was just about issuing some order about backing the main-topsail in order to heave the ship to, so as to get him and the boat aboard again, when, all at once, our anticipated joy at welcoming the poor fellow was turned into dismay by a startled cry from Jake, who was standing up in the weather rigging near me.

"Golly, Mass' Tom!" he yelled out, loud enough for all to hear him, his black face changing nearly to a sickly sea-green colour with horror and consternation. "Dere's one big shark swimmin' right ahind de poor buckra. O Lor', O Lor', he jus' up to him now!"

At this time the ship was not quite a cable's length from the unfortunate man, who was about a point off our port bow; while the gig couldn't have been half that distance away from him; and, no sooner had Jake's startling announcement of the shark's proximity alarmed us all at the new and terrible peril threatening the swimmer, than the crew, led by Captain Miles, shouted out a concentrated cry of warning. "Ahoy! Look out! Shark!"

The words came out almost simultaneously, as it uttered by one voice, thrilling through the air with their fearful meaning, when, hardly had the sounds died away than we could see that Mr Marline and those in the gig with him heard us; for, recognising the urgency of the case, they redoubled their exertions to reach Jackson in time, so as to frustrate the intentions of his terrible antagonist. They seemed to put fresh steam in their oars, pulling all they knew against the choppy sea and wind, both of which were against them, counteracting their efforts and pressing the boat back as they urged it forwards.

From the fact, however, of our being to leeward of him and the wind bearing our shout away, Jackson unfortunately did not appear to hear us. At all events, he made no sign in response whatever, still swimming onwards in the direction of the ship, but leisurely, as if ignorant of any new source of danger.

Captain Miles grew intensely excited, as, indeed, we all were by this time; so, jumping up on the poop bulwarks and holding on to the mizzen shrouds, he repeated the cry of warning, all hands taking it up as before in one hoarse shout.

"Shark! shark! Look out, man alive! He's now close in upon you, and coming up fast astern!"

This time Jackson caught our hail, but still, evidently mistook its import. He thought we only called to him by way of encouraging him to strike out more vigourously for the ship, and he waved his hand in acknowledgment of the signal; then he breasted the waves anew in fine style, although taking it quite easy as if thoroughly confident in himself and not a bit alarmed.

The reason he made for the Josephine was that he did not perceive the boat, which he had not seen lowered; and, besides this, it was every now and then hidden from view as it sank down between the ridges of the rollers, while, in addition, his face was turned in the opposite direction to that in which the little craft was approaching him.

The captain was in a perfect agony.

"Shark! shark!" he again screamed, more than cried, out. "For heaven's sake, strike out, man, or you're lost!"

Then, all at once, Jackson appeared to grasp the meaning of the warning; and, looking behind him hurriedly, he caught sight of the cruel monster that was swimming after him, stroke by stroke and ready to sheer up alongside when it thought the proper opportunity had arrived for seizing its prey.

It must have given the poor fellow an awful sensation!

He could not but have realised the fearful doom that possibly awaited him; for we could, in a moment, even at that distance, notice his face change—a terror-stricken look coming over it in place of its previously buoyant expression. The brave fellow, however, uttered never a word, but only continued swimming on towards us in grim desperation.

"Pull, Marline, for God's sake, pull!" shouted out Captain Miles to the mate and those with him in the boat; but, although the men made the water churn up over the bows of the gig in their mad haste to urge it forwards, the relentless shark was quicker in its movements and crept up closer to poor Jackson.

It was close in his rear, while the boat was yet thirty or forty yards away; and then, like a flash of lightning, we saw the monster's gleaming white stomach as it threw itself over on its back and opened its wide maw lined with rows of serrated teeth.

"My God!" exclaimed Captain Miles, turning away his head, "they are too late!"

A sympathetic groan of anguish ran through the ship, and I could not help bursting into tears as I jumped down from the gangway, not daring to watch the end of the tragedy; but I thought I heard one agonised scream from the poor fellow, which must have escaped his lips just as the cruel teeth of the shark gripped its unresisting victim, telling that all was over.

After this, for one single moment, there was a still silence as of death around me, the men appearing to hold their very breaths in excess of emotion.



CHAPTER NINE.

A WATER-SPOUT.

Then, the next instant, a wild frenzied roar of joy echoed fore and aft the ship, making the Josephine quiver almost down to her bottom timbers.

"Hooray!"

I could scarcely believe my ears; but, as I looked up in surprise and wonder I caught sight of Jake's ebony face all aglow with delight, his eyes rolling about like a vessel in a heavy seaway and his mouth expanded from ear to ear. He was evidently about to indulge in one of his usual huge guffaws when especially highly pleased and unable to contain himself, as he evidently was now.

"Golly, dat splendiferous!" he cried out in ecstasy. "Um beat cock- fightin' nohow!"

"Bravo, well done!" I heard Captain Miles's voice exclaim also at the same time, with a joyous heartiness utterly indescribable.

"Why, what has happened, Jake?" I asked, quite puzzled.

"Wat happen', eh, Mass' Tom? I tell um sharp! De sailor man lick de shark arter all! Him dibe under de fis; as um go to grab him; an' den, dey catch de nasty debbil one big crack wid um boat-hook, an' pull Mass' Jackson into der boat. Golly, I'se so berry glad, Mass' Tom! I'se a'most cry wid joy, for true."

And then, not content with this expression of his feelings, the sympathetic darkey, sliding down from the rigging where he had been perched, looking on at the terribly exciting scene taking place a moment before in the water, tumbled himself over on the deck in paroxysms of merriment, perfectly unable to restrain himself and keep still.

When I now looked over the side of the ship, which by this time was hove-to, the gig, with Jackson seated in the stern-sheets by Mr Marline, was close under the port quarter, and the rescued swimmer with those who had saved him in the nick of time were just preparing to come on board.

Presently, Jackson and the mate mounted the side-ladder amidst a perfect ovation from the crew, all hands cheering like mad and pressing forwards to shake the fist of him whom they had never expected to see again. After this the gig was veered astern and hoisted up once more to the davits, and the Josephine, bearing round and filling her sails, again resumed her north-east course on the starboard tack. The job of making the port anchor snug inboard was completed later on, when the men had sobered down somewhat from the excitement which had reigned through the ship from the moment Jackson had first fallen overboard—it having been an awfully anxious time throughout his peril by drowning, his hairbreadth escape from the shark, and his ultimate rescue.

Later on, Moggridge told me how the poor fellow escaped from the very jaws of death.

Jackson, he said, when he became aware of being pursued by the bloodthirsty monster, instead of losing his presence of mind, as most men would have done under the circumstances, remained perfectly calm and collected, having once before had an encounter with a shark in his native element.

He swam on steadily towards the ship, apparently unmindful of his enemy; but, he carefully kept his weather eye opened, and when he saw the brute going to turn on his back in order to make a snatch at him, he at once dived under the shark's body, thus circumventing his attack. Before the monster could recover itself and make a fresh onslaught, Moggridge said, the chief mate caught it a pretty tidy whack over the head with a boat- hook, while Jackson was hauled into the gig at the same time by the other men.

It was a wonderful escape, however, and nothing else was talked of on board for days after.

Strange to say, too, the shark, as if determined not to be easily balked of its prey, followed the ship steadily; and this fact, of course, kept the incident fresh in our minds, even if we had been at all inclined to forget it, the hideous creature's bottle-like fin ever perceptible in our wake being a constant reminder!

"He's bound to hab somebody for suah," said the captain's mulatto steward Harry, who by the way was the person who had given out that agonised shriek which I had fancied to be poor Jackson's death knell. "Shark nebber follow ship for nuffin'!"

"No," observed Captain Miles grimly; "this beggar sha'n't at all events, if I know it!" and he paced up and down the poop, as if revolving the matter in his mind.

This was the third day after the affair had happened, and the captain was quite incensed at the shark's pertinacity; for, morning, noon, and night, whenever we logged over the side, there could be seen the sea- pirate's long sinewy body, floating under our stern and always keeping pace with the ship whether she was going fast or slow—although, as we had little or no wind, the latter was generally the case.

"I fancy, Mr Marline," said the captain, soon after replying to Harry's rather frightened observation, the mulatto being very timid and of a cowardly nature, as the fact of his fainting when the cow invaded the cabin would readily tell—"I say, Mr Marline, I think it's time for us to give that joker down there a lesson, eh?"

"Perhaps you'll find him too artful to take a hook, cap'en," answered the mate. "He seems to me an 'old sojer,' from the look of him and the regularity of his movements. Just see him now looking up, as if listening to what we were saying!"

"Well, we'll try him anyway," said Captain Miles, telling Moggridge to bring the shark hook aft, as he wished to attempt the capture of our unwelcome attendant.

"Aye, aye, sir," replied the boatswain, going forwards and presently returning with a large steel hook, much about the same size as those they use in butchers' shops for hanging meat on. A piece of chain was attached to this by a swivel instead of rope or a line, which, although good enough for other fish, the saw-like teeth of the monster of the deep would quickly have bitten through.

"Is the tackle all sound?" asked the captain.

"Aye, aye, sir; sound enough to catch a whale," responded Moggridge, proceeding to bait the hook with a four-pound piece of salt pork which completely concealed the barbs; and then, a stout half-inch rope having been fastened on to the end of the chain, the whole apparatus was thrown overboard close to where the shark was patrolling the water under our stern.

He sheered off a bit on hearing the splash; but afterwards soon swam up to where the baited hook was towing in our wake, smelling at it cautiously as if to see whether it was advisable for him to bolt the savoury morsel or not. Then, with a disdainful swish of his screw-like tail, he turned round in the water and resumed his station further astern, as if he saw through our attempt to entrap him, and despised it.

"I thought so," said Mr Marline. "He's too old a bird to be caught by chaff. You won't hook him in a blue moon!"

"Don't you be too cocksure of that," retorted Captain Miles. "Sharks, I have noticed, frequently resemble cats in the way they will nibble at a bait, and pretend they don't care about it, when all the while they are dying to gobble it down—just in the same manner as you'll observe pussy, if you offer her a nice bit of meat, will sniff and turn away her head as if rejecting the morsel with disdain, affecting to make you believe it beneath her notice, only the next moment to abstract it slily from your hand, glad enough to get it! You'll see presently, Mr Marline, that our friend there will go at the pork again, I'll bet anything."

"All right, cap'en," replied Mr Marline. "I only hope, I'm sure, that your anticipation will prove correct;" but, from the sly quizzical smile on his face and the dry way in which he spoke, I don't think the mate believed in our hooking the ugly brute, all the same.

After a little time, I noticed two small fishes coming up towards the bait and poking their pointed noses into it as if taking observations, and I called Captain Miles's attention to them.

"Oh, that's a good sign," said he. "Those are pilot-fish, which always accompany his majesty Mr Shark in the way of aides-de-camp, as you call those smart gentlemen in gay uniforms who are usually seen prancing about the general at a review of troops ashore. Whenever you see the little chaps, the shark himself is never far off, for they precede him as his scouts to warn him of danger as well as tell him if there's anything worth grabbing in the offing. If it wasn't for them I believe he'd fare rather badly, as his own sight is bad—fortunately for poor fellows that fall in the water in the way Jackson did t'other day!"

"But, captain," I remarked, "they must be very bad guides if they do not tell the shark about the hook."

"Aye," he replied; "something like 'the blind leading the blind,' eh? Still, you know Moggridge has taken care that the bait carefully conceals the snare within, and the pilot-fish are none the wiser. See them now!"

As I watched, I noticed first one and then the other of the little fish smell at the piece of pork, making their observations apparently, after which they swam back to the side of the shark, where they remained for a moment on either side of his snout, as if they were making their report upon the tempting object and giving their master all particulars.

Then the shark, with a fluke of his tail, also advanced closer to the bait, which just then, by a twist of the rope attached to it, the boatswain jerked away.

This was enough for Master Shark, who, thinking he was going to lose the coveted morsel, at once sheered alongside of it, turning over on his back and opening his terrible-looking cavern of a mouth in the same way I had seen him do when he tried to catch poor Jackson. The recollection of that made me shudder all over!

The next moment the monster had bolted both bait and hook, as well as a couple of feet of the chain; but when he turned to sheer off again he was "brought up with a round turn," as sailors say, by the rope tightening suddenly, the jerk almost making him turn a somersault in the water.

He was not altogether captured yet, however, and his struggles to get free were tremendous. Really, his jaws must have been pretty tough to have not given way under the furious flings and writhings he made to release himself; for the strong half-inch manilla rope that held him tethered was stretched like a fiddle-string, its strands all quivering with the strain upon it.

First to one side of the ship and then to the other the brute bounded in turns, making the sea boil around him like a whirlpool, until finally, after half an hour's fight of it, he gave in and lay quiet, although not dead yet by any means.

As soon as the shark began to flounder about, I noticed that the pilot- fish went away, leaving him alone in his extremity; and on my mentioning this to Mr Marline he took the opportunity of pointing a moral for my especial benefit.

"It's just the way in the world, Master Tom," said he. "Foolish companions lead many a young fellow into a scrape; but as soon as they see him in the mess into which they were the means of inveigling him, they scuttle off, abandoning him to his fate and probably laughing at his troubles too."

"Aye," put in Captain Miles, wishing also to improve the occasion; "and if that shark had not been so madly impetuous in rushing at the hook he would never have been caught; in the same way as somebody told me of a certain young gentleman, who, not looking before he leaped, as the proverb says, and only thinking of the end he had in view, galloped down a hill and came to grief—getting a tumble which laid him up for weeks!"

"Oh, Captain Miles," said I, "you don't think I'm a shark, do you?"

"Well, not quite so bad as that, youngster," he replied with one of his cheery laughs; "but, quite as impetuous sometimes, eh, Master Tom?"

I made no answer to this thrust, knowing there was some truth in it, my mother having frequently to call me over the coals for doing things on the spur of the moment, which, as she was aware, I always regretted afterwards.

This thoughtless impulse is a great fault, as I know to my cost; for, it has led me into many a scrape—sometimes to the danger of my life!

While we were talking the shark was still struggling in the water; but when he grew tolerably composed, only an occasional splash of his tail showing that he yet lived, the men began to make preparations for hauling him on board.

The bight of a rope was made into a running knot and hove round the body of the animal; when, the men hauling away with a will at the other end of the line, which was passed through a snatch-block hung in the rigging, the captive was soon bowsed up to the mizzen chains.

No sooner, however, was he got out of the water than the hampered monster appeared to be imbued with fresh vitality, lashing his tail about and splintering the wood-work of the bulwarks as if it had been brown paper; but when the slip-knot was drawn tighter this controlled his frantic movements a bit, and Jackson, who was allowed precedence of the rest of the sailors from his previous acquaintance with the savage brute, then advanced with a sharp butcher's knife, which he had borrowed from the cook, in order to give his old enemy his quietus.

Taking care not to get within reach of either the jaws or ponderous tail of the shark, he leaned over the side of the ship and stabbed it in the neck; after which, with two long slashing cuts he severed the head, which quickly splashed down into the sea under the counter, sinking to the bottom at once from the mere weight of the bone it contained. Jackson then proceeded, by the captain's orders, to rip open the animal's stomach; but it was found to contain nothing digestible but the piece of pork which had led to the brute's capture, the shark evidently having been lately on short allowance.

When, however, Jackson extracted the hook from the bait, he started back suddenly as if he had received a blow, clutching hold of the shrouds to steady himself.