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The Water Devil
by
“Mr. Cardly,” said Mr. Harberry to the schoolmaster, “what reason can you assign why a seamonster, such as has been described to us, should neglect to seize upon several small boats filled with men who were escaping from a vessel which it held in custody?”
“I do not precisely see,” answered Mr. Cardly, “why these men should have been allowed this immunity, but I–“
“Oh, that is easily explained,” interrupted the marine, “for of course the Water-devil could not know that a lot more people were not left in the ship, and if he let go his hold on her, to try and grab a boat that was moving as fast as men could row it, the steamer might get out of his reach, and he mightn’t have another chance for a hundred years to make fast to a vessel. No, sir, a creature like that isn’t apt to take any wild chances, when he’s got hold of a really good thing. Anyway, we were held tight and fast, for at twelve o’clock the next day I took another observation, and there we were, in the same latitude and longitude that we had been in for two days. I took the captain’s glass, and I looked all over the water of that bay, which, as I think I have said before, was all the same as the ocean, being somewhere about a thousand miles wide. Not a sail, not a puff of smoke could I see. It must have been a slack season for navigation, or else we were out of the common track of vessels; I had never known that the Bay of Bengal was so desperately lonely.
“It seems unnatural, and I can hardly believe it, when I look back on it, but it’s a fact, that I was beginning to get used to the situation. We had plenty to eat, the weather was fine–in fact, there was now only breeze enough to make things cool and comfortable. I was head-man on that vessel, and Miss Minturn might come on deck at any moment, and as long as I could forget that there was a Water-devil fastened to the bottom of the vessel, there was no reason why I should not be perfectly satisfied with things as they were. And if things had stayed as they were, for two or three months, I should have been right well pleased, especially since Miss Minturn’s maid, by order of her mistress, had begun to cook my meals, which she did in a manner truly first-class. I believed then, and I stand to it now, that there is do better proof of a woman’s good feeling toward a man, than for her to show an interest in his meals. That’s the sort of sympathy that comes home to a man, and tells on him, body and soul.”
As the marine made this remark, he glanced at the blacksmith’s daughter; but that young lady had taken up her sewing and appeared to be giving it her earnest attention. He then went on with his story.
“But things did not remain as they were. The next morning, about half an hour after breakfast, I was walking up and down the upper deck, smoking my pipe, and wondering when Miss Minturn would be coming up to talk to me about the state of affairs, when suddenly I felt the deck beneath me move with a quick, sharp jerk, something like, I imagine, a small shock of an earthquake.
“Never, in all my life, did the blood run so cold in my veins; my legs trembled so that I could scarcely stand. I knew what had happened,–the Water-devil had begun to haul upon the ship!
“I was in such a state of collapse that I did not seem to have any power over my muscles; but for all that, I heard Miss Minturn’s voice at the foot of the companion-way, and knew that she was coming on deck. In spite of the dreadful awfulness of that moment, I felt it would never do for her to see me in the condition I was in, and so, shuffling and half-tumbling, I got forward, went below, and made my way to the steward’s room, where I had already discovered some spirits, and I took a good dram; for although I am not by any means an habitual drinker, being principled against that sort of thing, there are times when a man needs the support of some good brandy or whiskey.