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"He was in that fit ten minutes, an’ he was no sooner out o’ that onethan he was in another. In twenty-four hours he had six full-sized fits,and I’ll allow I was fairly puzzled. What pleasure he could find intumbling down hard and stiff an’ kicking at everybody an’ everything Icouldn’t see. He’d be standing quiet and peaceable like one minute, andthe next he’d catch hold o’ the nearest thing to him and have a bad fit,and lie on his back and kick us while we was trying to force open hishands to pat ’em.

"The other chaps said the skipper’s insult had turned his brain, but Iwasn’t quite so soft, an’ one time when he was alone I put it to him.

"’Joe, old man,’ I ses, ‘you an’ me’s been very good pals.’

"’Ay, ay,’ ses he, suspicious like.

"’Joe,’ I whispers, ‘what’s yer little game?’

"’Wodyermean?’ ses he, very short.

"’I mean the fits,’ ses I, looking at ‘im very steady, ‘It’s no goodlooking hinnercent like that, ‘cos I see yer chewing soap with my owneyes.’

"’Soap,’ ses Joe, in a nasty sneering way, ‘you wouldn’t reckernise apiece if you saw it.’

"Arter that I could see there was nothing to be got out of ‘im, an’ Ijust kept my eyes open and watched. The skipper didn’t worry about hisfits, ‘cept that he said he wasn’t to let the sarpint see his face whenhe was in ’em for fear of scaring it; an’ when the mate wanted to leavehim out o’ the watch, he ses, ‘No, he might as well have fits while atwork as well as anywhere else.’

"We were about twenty-four hours from port, an’ the sarpint was stillfollowing us; and at six o’clock in the evening the officers puffectedall their arrangements for ketching the creetur at eight o’clock nextmorning. To make quite sure of it an extra watch was kept on deck allnight to chuck it food every half-hour; an’ when I turned in at teno’clock that night it was so close I could have reached it with aclothes-prop.

"I think I’d been abed about ‘arf-an-hour when I was awoke by the mostinfernal row I ever heard. The foghorn was going incessantly, an’ therewas a lot o’ shouting and running about on deck. It struck us all as ‘owthe sarpint was gitting tired o’ bread, and was misbehaving himself,consequently we just shoved our ‘eds out o’ the fore-scuttle andlistened. All the hullaballoo seemed to be on the bridge, an’ as wedidn’t see the sarpint there we plucked up courage and went on deck.

"Then we saw what had happened. Joe had ‘ad another fit while at thewheel, and, not knowing what he was doing, had clutched the line of thefoghorn, and was holding on to it like grim death, and kicking right andleft. The skipper was in his bedclothes, raving worse than Joe; and justas we got there Joe came round a bit, and, letting go o’ the line, askedin a faint voice what the foghorn was blowing for. I thought the skipper’ud have killed him; but the second mate held him back, an’, of course,when things quieted down a bit, an’ we went to the side, we found thesea-sarpint had vanished.

"We stayed there all that night, but it warn’t no use. When day brokethere wasn’t the slightest trace of it, an’ I think the men was as sorryto lose it as the officers. All ‘cept Joe, that is, which shows howpeople should never be rude, even to the humblest; for I’m sartin thatif the skipper hadn’t hurt his feelings the way he did we should nowknow as much about the sea-sarpint as w
e do about our own brothers. "