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"’I’m afraid we’re encouraging it,’ ses the skipper, looking at it as itswam alongside with an eye as big as a saucer cocked on the ship.

"’P’raps it’ll go away soon if we don’t take no more notice of it,’ sesthe mate.’Just pretend it isn’t here.’

"Well, we did pretend as well as we could; but everybody hugged the portside o’ the ship, and was ready to bolt down below at the shortestnotice; and at last, when the beast got craning its neck up over theside as though it was looking for something, we gave it some more grub. We thought if we didn’t give it he might take it, and take it off thewrong shelf, so to speak. But, as the mate said, it was encouraging it,and long arter it was dark we could hear it snorting and splashingbehind us, until at last it ‘ad such an effect on us the mate sent oneo’ the chaps down to rouse the skipper.

"’I don’t think it’ll do no ‘arm,’ ses the skipper, peering over theside, and speaking as though he knew all about sea-sarpints and theirways.

"’S’pose it puts its ‘ead over the side and takes one o’ the men,’ sesthe mate.

"’Let me know at once,’ ses the skipper firmly; an’ he went below aginand left us.

"Well, I was jolly glad when eight bells struck, an’ I went below; an’if ever I hoped anything I hoped that when I go up that ugly brute wouldhave gone, but, instead o’ that, when I went on deck it was playingalongside like a kitten a’most, an’ one o’ the chaps told me as theskipper had been feeding it agin.

"’It’s a wonderful animal,’ ses the skipper, ‘an’ there’s none of younow but has seen the sea-sarpint; but I forbid any man here to say aword about it when we get ashore.’

"’Why not, sir?’ ses the second mate.

"’Becos you wouldn’t be believed,’ said the skipper sternly.’You mightall go ashore and kiss the Book an’ make affidavits an’ not a soul ‘udbelieve you. The comic papers ‘ud make fun of it, and the respectablepapers ‘ud say it was seaweed or gulls.’

"Why not take it to New York with us?’ ses the fust mate suddenly.

"’What?’ ses the skipper.

"’Feed it every day,’ ses the mate, getting excited, ‘and bait a coupleof shark hooks and keep ’em ready, together with some wire rope. Git ‘imto foller us as far as he will, and then hook him. We might git him inalive and show him at a sovereign a head. Anyway, we can take in hiscarcase if we manage it properly.’

"’By Jove! if we only could,’ ses the skipper, getting excited too.

"’We can try,’ ses the mate.’Why, we could have noosed it this mornin’if we had liked; and if it breaks the lines we must blow its head topieces with the gun.’

"It seemed a most eggstraordinary thing to try and catch it that way;but the beast was so tame, and stuck so close to us, that it wasn’tquite so ridikilous as it seemed at fust.

"Arter a couple o’ days nobody minded the animal a bit, for it was aboutthe most nervous thing of its size you ever saw. It hadn’t got the soulof a mouse; and one day when the seco
nd mate, just for a lark, took theline of the foghorn in his hand and tooted it a bit, it flung up its’ead in a scared sort o’ way, and, after backing a bit, turned cleanround and bolted.

"I thought the skipper ‘ud have gone mad. He chucked over loaves o’ bread, bits o’ beef and pork, an’ scores o’ biskits, and by-and-bye, when the brute plucked up heart an’ came arter us again, he fairly beamed with joy. Then he gave orders that nobody was to touch the horn for any reason whatever, not even if there was a fog, or chance of collision, or anything of the kind; an’ he also gave orders that the bells wasn’t to be struck, but that the bosen was just to shove ‘is ‘eadin the fo’c’s’le and call ’em out instead.