PAGE 11
The Water Devil
by
“She came up again, after this, but her maid came with her, and the two walked on deck for a while. I didn’t have much to say to them that time; but just before dark Miss Minturn came on deck alone, and walked forward, where I happened to be. ‘Sir,’ said she, and her voice trembled a little as she spoke, ‘if anything should happen, will you promise me that you will try to save my father?’ You can’t imagine how these touching words from this beautiful woman affected me. ‘My dear lady,’ said I, and I hope she did not take offence at the warmth of my expression, ‘I don’t see how anything can happen; but I promise you, on the word of a sea-soldier, that if danger should come upon us, I will save not only your father, but yourself and your maid. Trust me for that.’
“The look she gave me when I said these words, and especially the flash of her eye when I spoke of my being a sea-soldier, made me feel strong enough to tear that sea-monster’s arm in twain, and to sail away with the lovely creature for whom my heart was beginning to throb.”
“It’s a pity,” said the blacksmith, “that you hadn’t jumped into the water while the fit was on you, and done the tearing.”
“A man often feels strong enough to do a thing,” said the marine, “and yet doesn’t care to try to do it, and that was my case at that time; but I vowed to myself that if the time came when there was any saving to be done, I’d attend to Miss Minturn, even if I had to neglect the rest of the family.
“She didn’t make any answer, but she gave me her hand; and she couldn’t have done anything I liked better than that. I held it as long as I could, which wasn’t very long, and then she went down to her father.”
“Glad of it,” said the blacksmith.
“When I had had my supper, and had smoked my pipe, and everything was still, and I knew I shouldn’t see anybody any more that night, I began to have the quakes and the shakes. If even I had had the maid to talk to, it would have been a comfort; but in the way of faithfully attending to her employers that woman was a trump. She cooked for them, and did for them, and stuck by them straight along, so she hadn’t any time for chats with me.
“Being alone, I couldn’t help all the time thinking about the Water-devil, and although it seems a foolish thing now that I look back on it, I set to work to calculate how long it would take him to count his feet. I made it about the same time as you did, sir,” nodding to the schoolmaster, “only I considered that if he counted twelve hours, and slept and rested twelve hours, that would make it seven days, which would give me a good long time with Miss Minturn, and that would be the greatest of joys to me, no matter what happened afterward.
“But then nobody could be certain that the monster at the bottom of the bay needed rest or sleep. He might be able to count without stopping, and how did I know that he couldn’t check off four hundred claws a minute? If that happened to be the case, our time must be nearly up.
“When that idea came into my head, I jumped up and began to walk about. What could I do? I certainly ought to be ready to do something when the time came. I thought of getting life-preservers, and strapping one on each of us, so that if the Water-devil turned over the vessel and shook us out, we shouldn’t sink down to him, but would float on the surface.
“But then the thought struck me that if he should find the vessel empty of live creatures, and should see us floating around on the top, all he had to do was to let go of the ship and grab us, one at a time. When I thought of a fist as big as a yawl-boat, clapping its fifty-two fingers on me, it sent a shiver through my bones. The fact was there wasn’t anything to do, and so after a while I managed to get asleep, which was a great comfort.”