Part 51 (1/2)

There was some little delay; and then a sailor of about sixty slouched aft, made a sea sc.r.a.pe, and, removing his cap entirely, awaited the captain's commands.

”My man,” said the captain, ”I want you to answer a question. Do you believe land and s.h.i.+ps have ever been seen in the sky, reflected?”

”A many good seamen holds to that, sir,” said the sailor, cautiously.

”Is it the general opinion of seamen before the mast? Come, tell us.

Jack's as good as his master in these matters.”

”Couldn't say for boys and lubbers, sir. But I never met a full-grown seaman as denied that there. Sartainly few has seen it; but all of 'em has seen them as has seen it; s.h.i.+ps, and land, too; but mostly s.h.i.+ps.

Hows'ever, I had a messmate once as was sailing past a rock they call Ailsa Craig, and saw a regiment of soldiers a-marching in the sky. Logged it, did the mate; and them soldiers was a-marching between two towns in Ireland at that very time.”

”There, you see, general,” said Captain Moreland.

”But this is all second-hand,” said General Rolleston, with a sigh; ”and I have learned how everything gets distorted in pa.s.sing from one to another.”

”Ah,” said the captain, ”we can't help that; the thing is rare. I never saw it for one; and I suppose you never saw a phenomenon of the kind, Isaac?”

”Hain't I!” said Isaac, grimly. Then, with sudden and not very reasonable heat, ”D---- my eyes and limbs if I hain't seen the Peak o' Teneriffe in the sky topsy-turvy, and as plain as I see that there cloud there”

(pointing upward).

”Come,” said Moreland; ”now we are getting to it. Tell us all about that.”

”Well, sir,” said the seaman, ”I don't care to larn them as laughs at everything they hain't seen in maybe a dozen voyages at most; but you know me, and I knows you; though you command the s.h.i.+p, and I work before the mast. Now I axes you, sir, should you say Isaac Aiken was the man to take a sugar-loaf, or a c.o.c.ked hat, for the Peak o' Teneriffe?”

”As likely as I am myself, Isaac.”

”No commander can say fairer nor that,” said Isaac, with dignity. ”Well, then, your honor, I'll tell ye the truth, and no lie. We was bound for Teneriffe with a fair wind, though not so much of it as we wanted, by reason she was a good sea-boat, but broad in the bows. The Peak hove in sight in the sky, and all the gla.s.ses was at her. She lay a point or two on our weather quarter like, full two hours, and then she just melted away like a lump o' sugar. We kept on our course a day and a half, and at last we sighted the real Peak, and anch.o.r.ed off the port; whereby, when we saw Teneriffe Peak in the sky to winnard, she lay a hundred leagues to board, s'help me G.o.d!”

”That is wonderful,” said General Rolleston.

”That will do, Isaac,” said the captain. ”Mr. b.u.t.t, double his grog for a week, for having seen more than I have.”

The captain and General Rolleston had a long discussion; but the result was, they determined to go to Easter Island first, for General Rolleston was a soldier, and had learned to obey as well as command. He saw no sufficient ground for deviating from Wardlaw's positive instructions.

This decision soon became known throughout the s.h.i.+p. She was to weigh anchor at 11 A.M. next day, by high water.

At eight next morning, Captain Moreland and General Rolleston being on deck, one of the s.h.i.+p's boys, a regular pet, with rosy cheeks and black eyes, comes up to the gentlemen, takes off his cap, and, panting audibly at his own audacity, shoves a paper into General Rolleston's hand and scuds away for his life.

”This won't do,” said the captain, sternly.

The high-bred soldier handed the paper to him unopened.

The captain opened it, looked a little vexed, but more amused, and handed it back to the general.

It was a ROUND ROBIN.

Round Robins are not ingratiating as a rule. But this one came from some rough but honest fellows, who had already shown that kindliness and tact may reside in a coa.r.s.e envelope. The sailors of the _Springbok,_ when they first boarded her in the Thames, looked on themselves as men bound on an empty cruise; and nothing but the pay, which was five s.h.i.+llings per month above the average, reconciled them to it; for a sailor does not like going to sea for nothing, any more than a true sportsman likes to ride to hounds that are hunting a red herring trailed.

But the sight of the general had touched them afar off. His gray hair and pale face, seen as he rowed out of Plymouth Harbor, had sent them to the yards by a gallant impulse; and all through the voyage the game had been to put on an air of alacrity and hope, whenever they pa.s.sed the general or came under his eye.