The White Squall Part 24

But his alarm was quite unnecessary, Jake rising above the water in another moment and scrambling up into the main rigging, in a very hurried manner, as if something was pursuing him.

His face as he turned it towards us was almost green with fright, and we could hear his teeth chattering with fear and cold combined.

"Well," sang out Captain Miles, "I'm glad to see you out of that hole alive. But, what's the matter, my man? have you got the axe?"

"N-n-n-no, Ma.s.s' Cap'en," stuttered Jake, making his way aft again along the bulwarks, "got no axe nor nuffin'. Dere am duppy or de debbil in de fo'c's'le. Bress de Lor', dis pore n.i.g.g.ah only sabe him life an'--dat all!"

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

A GLEAM OF HOPE.

"You one big fool!" Cuffee, the cook, screamed out at hearing Jake's startling announcement, which made us all laugh in spite of our anxiety.

"How can duppy come in de daylight, hey? You only see yer own black face in water, an' tink um debbil."

"Duppy," I may explain, is the negro's common name for what they call a ghost, or anything uncanny.

However, paying no attention to his brother darkey's reasoning as to the impossibility of such a nocturnal visitor appearing under the searching rays of the sun, Jake stoutly maintained his own opinion.

"Dere was sumfin' white dere, I swar," he said, as soon as he had secured his footing on the bulwarks again, well out of the water. "I see sumfin' white an' cold, an' he grab me by um leg."

"That must have been poor Briggs's body floating about in the fo'c's'le," observed Captain Miles. "I forgot to tell him of it before he dived down. Hi, Jake," he added speaking out louder, "you needn't be afraid. I know what it was you saw."

"D'ye, ma.s.sa?" said Jake somewhat distrustfully, as if only half believing this. "Golly, it um berry mysteferious. I'se tink--; but, Jerrybosalum, look dar, Ma.s.s' Cap'en, look dar!" he suddenly exclaimed, his voice again changing to a tone of intense horror, while he looked the picture of abject terror, his eyeb.a.l.l.s rolling and his teeth chattering as before. "Duppy come catchee me, for suah! Dere he am comin' up wid him long claw--dere he am--dere he am!"

We all rose up on the side of the bulwarks, as if with one accord, looking in the direction to which Jake's trembling hand pointed, where, between the meshes of the rigging away forward in front of the mainmast we could dimly discern a long sinuous greenish-white body gradually rising to the surface of the water that covered the lower part of the deck.

The mysterious thing seemed to make after the negro, although no apparent movement was perceptible, while its colour became more luminous as it got nearer.

Jackson was closer than any of us to Jake; and, as he stood up in the main-chains to help the negro up, he perceived what the object was that had frightened him, for he could see down into the water clear of the rigging, which somewhat hampered our view.

"Why, it's a shark!" he called out. "It is a big fellow too--larger than the brute that nearly tackled me the other day."

"A shark, Ma.s.sa Jackson, for true, hey?" said Jake, turning round to a.s.sure himself of the fact; and, then, seeing his pursuer to be of no supernatural origin, as he had supposed, but only one of the ordinary, if ugly, denizens of the deep, his alarm disappeared instanter and he burst into a fit of laughing--his African nature being as susceptible as that of a child, his moods varying in a moment.

"Yah, yah," he roared, "me no 'fraid ob shark; I'se tink him ider one duppy or de debbil, for suah, when um touch me on de s.h.i.+n-bone!"

"I'se tole you so, Jake," said Cuffee with great contempt. "You'se nebber see duppy in de daylight. You'se only big fool to tink so."

"Berry well," rejoined the other, "you hab your 'pinion an' I hab mine!

If you was down dar in water jus' now, an' see dat long ting snouzle by um leg, lookin' so white an' drefful, I guess you'se frit too!"

If Jake, however, was now pleased at seeing his fancied ghost turn out to be a shark, this was more than we were. Captain Miles could hardly conceal his chagrin.

"Confound the hideous brute!" he exclaimed. "He's the very last visitor I cared to see. He will prevent any further attempt being made to get that axe out of the fo'c's'le--if it is there, as Adze says."

"It's theer sure enough, cap'en," put in the carpenter hearing this remark. "I wish I could only swim and I'd precious soon fetch it myself!"

"All right, Adze, I don't doubt your word," said the captain apologetically; "but the shark has put an embargo on it now at any rate."

"I'm afraid it just has," observed Mr Marline, to whom Captain Miles had really been speaking when the old carpenter overheard him. "You can't expect any sensible man to dive into the water when such a nasty sort of neighbour is close at hand. I wouldn't like to venture, for one, I confess; and I don't think I'm a very great coward."

"No, Marline, no; I'll answer for that," replied the captain warmly.

"Your worst enemy wouldn't accuse you of any want of pluck, and really I should not' care about undertaking the job either, for that matter."

Jake, though, wanted to make another effort to recover the axe, his courage rising with the emergency, especially as he could notice how disappointed we all were.

"Me nebber mind shark," he cried, drawing out a long clasp-knife which he carried in his belt, and opening the blade, which he now brandished about in a most ferocious way, showing how he would make mincemeat of the sea-pirate if it attacked him. "I'se not 'fraid ob him one lilly bit. I tell you wat, I'se gib him goss if um kick up any bobbery wid me!"

So saying, he was preparing to plunge again into the water, when Captain Miles ordered him to refrain, having to repeat his command twice before the brave fellow would stop from making the venture.

"No, Jake," said the captain, "I can't allow you to risk your life in such a foolhardy way for what may be only a wild-goose chase. Wait awhile and see if the brute is going to remain here. Perhaps, too, there may be some more of his comrades about; they generally hunt in couples in stormy weather."

"All right, ma.s.sa, me wait an' see," responded Jake submissively, sitting down on the bulwarks again; and then, we all watched the shark to see what he would do, and whether, as the captain had suggested, there were any more of his species about, coming up to help him in keeping us prisoners.

Unfortunately, Captain Miles's fears proved but too well founded. Very shortly afterwards, no less than three other sharks appeared, hovering about the stern of the s.h.i.+p and swimming immediately under the counter, where we were cl.u.s.tered together, as if keeping guard over us. The one that had pursued Jake took up his station within the interior part of the submerged vessel, patrolling backwards and forwards in the water that covered the deck of the p.o.o.p up to the mizzen-mast. This fellow, the first in the field, seemed to say to us grimly, "You sha'n't escape me here, at all events!"

"Oh, Captain Miles!" I cried. "The sharks are going to wait until we drop off into the sea one by one, and then they will eat us all!"

"Not a bit of it, my boy," said he hopefully, to cheer me up. "They'll soon be tired out and will then swim away and leave us to see about righting the s.h.i.+p. Don't think of them, Tom; they can't touch any of us where we are."

"But how long can we stop like this?" I asked despairingly.

"Long enough to bother the sharks," he replied. "They haven't pluck enough to wait when they see they've got no chance; for, they're born cowards at heart, as all sneaking things are!"

Jake also sidled up to me at the same time and somewhat restored my equanimity, saying in his light-hearted way, "Golly, Ma.s.s' Tom, we kill um all first wid um knife 'fore dey touch you!"

The afternoon waned on; so, as the sharks exhibited no signs of yet leaving us, and the evening was closing in, Captain Miles ordered the men to lash themselves again to the rigging for fear of their tumbling off in the night and so falling a prey to the brutes--otherwise, there was no great need of the precaution, for the sea was almost now calm, the waves having quite ceased to break. Only a heavy swell lifted the s.h.i.+p up at intervals, letting her roll down again, and swaying gently to and fro with a gentle rocking motion which would have sent us all to sleep but for the hunger which now kept us awake with a nasty, gnawing pain at the pit of our stomachs.

Our thirst was appeased, Jackson having swung himself down to the water- cask and served out another drink all round shortly after the sharks had made their appearance, as they could not approach near enough to the waist of the s.h.i.+p to interfere with his movements, the deck there being clear of water. But, oh, we did feel hungry!

"I believe I could a'most eat anything now," said Moggridge plaintively, chewing away at a piece of leather which he had torn off one of his boots.

"Only hold out and we'll get something soon," replied the captain, who tried n.o.bly to keep up the spirits of the men. "We've got water, and that is more than many a poor fellow has had when in as bad a plight as ours. Let us be thankful for what we have got and for having our lives spared so far! To-morrow, if the sea be calm, as there is every reason to hope it will be, we'll probably be able to fetch something out of the cabin; while, if the worst comes to the worst, I've no doubt we'll be able to pick up some crabs and sh.e.l.l-fish from the Gulf-weed floating around."

"Right you are, sir," said Moggridge, ashamed of having spoken. "I see lots of the stuff about us now."

"Is that the Gulf-weed you told me about, captain?" I asked, pointing to some long strings of what looked like the broken-off branches of trees, with berries on them, that were was.h.i.+ng past the hull of the _Josephine_ on the top of the rolling swell.

"Yes, Tom, we're now in the Sarga.s.so Sea, its own especial home.

Indeed, this region is especially so called on account of the 'Sarga.s.sum,' or weed, in the Portuguese tongue. You ask Mr Marline and he'll tell you all about it, being learned in such matters."

The first mate, however, did not wait for me to question him.

Taking the captain's observation as a hint to say something to occupy the attention of the men and myself, and so keep us from thinking of the sharks and our painful position, he proceeded to narrate all he knew about this curious marine fungus. He had a good deal to say, too, for Mr Marline was a well-read man and took a great interest in all matters of science.

It was certainly a very novel situation in which to give a lecture, but the sailors were glad enough to listen to anything to make the time pa.s.s. They were very attentive auditors, even Jake appearing interested, although he could not have understood much of what he heard.