CHAPTER XXV.
THE ADMIRAL'S OPINION.--THE REQUEST OF CHARLES.
Charles then sought the admiral, whom he found with his hands behindhim, pacing to and fro in one of the long walks of the garden, evidentlyin a very unsettled state of mind. When Charles appeared, he quickenedhis pace, and looked in such a state of unusual perplexity that it wasquite ridiculous to observe him.
"I suppose, uncle, you have made up your mind thoroughly by this time?"
"Well, I don't know that."
"Why, you have had long enough surely to think over it. I have nottroubled you soon."
"Well, I cannot exactly say you have, but, somehow or another, I don'tthink very fast, and I have an unfortunate propensity after a time ofcoming exactly round to where I began."
"Then, to tell the truth, uncle, you can come to no sort of conclusion."
"Only one."
"And what may that be?"
"Why, that you are right in one thing, Charles, which is, that havingsent a challenge to this fellow of a vampyre, you must fight him."
"I suspect that that is a conclusion you had from the first, uncle?"
"Why so?"
"Because it is an obvious and a natural one. All your doubts, andtrouble, and perplexities, have been to try and find some excuse for notentertaining that opinion, and now that you really find it in vain tomake it, I trust that you will accede as you first promised to do, andnot seek by any means to thwart me."
"I will not thwart you, my boy, although in my opinion you ought not tofight with a vampyre."
"Never mind that. We cannot urge that as a valid excuse, so long as hechooses to deny being one. And after all, if he be really wrongfullysuspected, you must admit that he is a very injured man."
"Injured!--nonsense. If he is not a vampyre, he's some otherout-of-the-way sort of fish, you may depend. He's the oddest-lookingfellow ever I came across in all my born days, ashore or afloat."
"Is he?"
"Yes, he is: and yet, when I come to look at the thing again in my mind,some droll sights that I have seen come across my memory. The sea is theplace for wonders and for mysteries. Why, we see more in a day and anight there, than you landsmen could contrive to make a wholetwelvemonth's wonder of."
"But you never saw a vampyre, uncle?"
"Well, I don't know that. I didn't know anything about vampyres till Icame here; but that was my ignorance, you know. There might have beenlots of vampyres where I've been, for all I know."
"Oh, certainly; but as regards this duel, will you wait now untilto-morrow morning, before you take any further steps in the matter?"
"Till to-morrow morning?"
"Yes, uncle."
"Why, only a little while ago, you were all eagerness to have somethingdone off-hand."
"Just so; but now I have a particular reason for waiting until to-morrowmorning."
"Have you? Well, as you please, boy--as you please. Have everything yourown way."
"You are very kind, uncle; and now I have another favour to ask of you."
"What is it?"
"Why, you know that Henry Bannerworth receives but a very small sum outof the whole proceeds of the estate here, which ought, but for hisfather's extravagance, to be wholly at his disposal."
"So I have heard."
"I am certain he is at present distressed for money, and I have notmuch. Will you lend me fifty pounds, uncle, until my own affairs aresufficiently arranged to enable you to pay yourself again?"
"Will I! of course I will."
"I wish to offer that sum as an accommodation to Henry. From me, I daresay he will receive it freely, because he must be convinced how freelyit is offered; and, besides, they look upon me now almost as a member ofthe family in consequence of my engagement with Flora."
"Certainly, and quite correct too: there's a fifty-pound note, my boy;take it, and do what you like with it, and when you want any more, cometo me for it."
"I knew I could trespass thus far on your kindness, uncle."
"Trespass! It's no trespass at all."
"Well, we will not fall out about the terms in which I cannot helpexpressing my gratitude to you for many favours. To-morrow, you willarrange the duel for me."
"As you please. I don't altogether like going to that fellow's houseagain."
"Well, then, we can manage, I dare say, by note."
"Very good. Do so. He puts me in mind altogether of a circumstance thathappened a good while ago, when I was at sea, and not so old a man as Iam now."
"Puts you in mind of a circumstance, uncle?"
"Yes; he's something like a fellow that figured in an affair that I knowa good deal about; only I do think as my chap was more mysterious by ad----d sight than this one."
"Indeed!"
"Oh, dear, yes. When anything happens in an odd way at sea, it is as oddagain as anything that occurs on land, my boy, you may depend."
"Oh, you only fancy that, uncle, because you have spent so long a timeat sea."
"No, I don't imagine it, you rascal. What can you have on shore equal towhat we have at sea? Why, the sights that come before us would make youlandsmen's hairs stand up on end, and never come down again."
"In the ocean, do you mean, that you see those sights, uncle?"
"To be sure. I was once in the southern ocean, in a small frigate,looking out for a seventy-four we were to join company with, when a manat the mast-head sung out that he saw her on the larboard bow. Well, wethought it was all right enough, and made away that quarter, when whatdo you think it turned out to be?"
"I really cannot say."
"The head of a fish."
"A fish!"
"Yes! a d----d deal bigger than the hull of a vessel. He was swimmingalong with his head just what I dare say he considered a shaving or soout of the water."
"But where were the sails, uncle?"
"The sails?"
"Yes; your man at the mast-head must have been a poor seaman not to havemissed the sails."
"All, that's one of your shore-going ideas, now. You know nothingwhatever about it. I'll tell you where the sails were, master Charley."
"Well, I should like to know."
"The spray, then, that he dashed up with a pair of fins that were closeto his head, was in such a quantity, and so white, that they looked justlike sails."
"Oh!"
"Ah! you may say 'oh!' but we all saw him--the whole ship's crew; and wesailed alongside of him for some time, till he got tired of us, andsuddenly dived down, making such a vortex in the water, that the shipshook again, and seemed for about a minute as if she was inclined tofollow him to the bottom of the sea."
"And what do you suppose it was, uncle?"
"How should I know?"
"Did you ever see it again?"
"Never; though others have caught a glimpse of him now and then in thesame ocean, but never came so near him as we did, that ever I heard of,at all events. They may have done so."
"It is singular!"
"Singular or not, it's a fool to what I can tell you. Why, I've seenthings that, if I were to set about describing them to you, you wouldsay I was making up a romance."
"Oh, no; it's quite impossible, uncle, any one could ever suspect you ofsuch a thing."
"You'd believe me, would you?"
"Of course I would."
"Then here goes. I'll just tell you now of a circumstance that I haven'tliked to mention to anybody yet."
"Indeed! why so?"
"Because I didn't want to be continually fighting people for notbelieving it; but here you have it:--"
We were outward bound; a good ship, a good captain, and good messmates,you know, go far towards making a prosperous voyage a pleasant and happyone, and on this occasion we had every reasonable prospect of all.
Our hands were all tried men--they had been sailors from infancy; noneof your French craft, that serve an apprenticeship and then become landlubbers again. Oh, no, they were stanch and true, and loved the ocean asthe slugga
rd loves his bed, or the lover his mistress.
Ay, and for the matter of that, the love was a more enduring and a morehealthy love, for it increased with years, and made men love oneanother, and they would stand by each other while they had a limb tolift--while they were able to chew a quid or wink an eye, leave alonewag a pigtail.
We were outward bound for Ceylon, with cargo, and were to bring spicesand other matters home from the Indian market. The ship was new andgood--a pretty craft; she sat like a duck upon the water, and a stiffbreeze carried her along the surface of the waves without your rocking,and pitching, and tossing, like an old wash-tub at a mill-tail, as Ihave had the misfortune to sail in more than once afore.
No, no, we were well laden, and well pleased, and weighed anchor withlight hearts and a hearty cheer.
Away we went down the river, and soon rounded the North Foreland, andstood out in the Channel. The breeze was a steady and stiff one, andcarried us through the water as though it had been made for us.
"Jack," said I to a messmate of mine, as he stood looking at the skies,then at the sails, and finally at the water, with a graver air than Ithought was at all consistent with the occasion or circumstances.
"Well," he replied.
"What ails you? You seem as melancholy as if we were about to cast lotswho should be eaten first. Are you well enough?"
"I am hearty enough, thank Heaven," he said, "but I don't like thisbreeze."
"Don't like the breeze!" said I; "why, mate, it is as good and kind abreeze as ever filled a sail. What would you have, a gale?"
"No, no; I fear that."
"With such a ship, and such a set of hearty able seamen, I think wecould manage to weather out the stiffest gale that ever whistled througha yard."
"That may be; I hope it is, and I really believe and think so."
"Then what makes you so infernally mopish and melancholy?"
"I don't know, but can't help it. It seems to me as though there wassomething hanging over us, and I can't tell what."
"Yes, there are the colours, Jack, at the masthead; they are flying overus with a hearty breeze."
"Ah! ah!" said Jack, looking up at the colours, and then went awaywithout saying anything more, for he had some piece of duty to perform.
I thought my messmate had something on his mind that caused him to feelsad and uncomfortable, and I took no more notice of it; indeed, in thecourse of a day or two he was as merry as any of the rest, and had nomore melancholy that I could perceive, but was as comfortable asanybody.
We had a gale off the coast of Biscay, and rode it out without the lossof a spar or a yard; indeed, without the slightest accident or rent ofany kind.
"Now, Jack, what do you think of our vessel?" said I.
"She's like a duck upon water, rises and falls with the waves, anddoesn't tumble up and down like a hoop over stones."
"No, no; she goes smoothly and sweetly; she is a gallant craft, and thisis her first voyage, and I predict a prosperous one."
"I hope so," he said.
Well, we went on prosperously enough for about three weeks; the oceanwas as calm and as smooth as a meadow, the breeze light but good, and westemmed along majestically over the deep blue waters, and passed coastafter coast, though all around was nothing but the apparently pathlessmain in sight.
"A better sailer I never stepped into," said the captain one day; "itwould be a pleasure to live and die in such a vessel."
Well, as I said, we had been three weeks or thereabouts, when onemorning, after the sun was up and the decks washed, we saw a strange mansitting on one of the water-casks that were on deck, for, being full, wewere compelled to stow some of them on deck.
You may guess those on deck did a little more than stare at this strangeand unexpected apparition. By jingo, I never saw men open their eyeswider in all my life, nor was I any exception to the rule. I stared, aswell I might; but we said nothing for some minutes, and the strangerlooked calmly on us, and then cocked his eye with a nautical air up atthe sky, as if he expected to receive a twopenny-post letter from St.Michael, or a _billet doux_ from the Virgin Mary.
"Where has he come from?" said one of the men in a low tone to hiscompanion, who was standing by him at that moment.
"How can I tell?" replied his companion. "He may have dropped from theclouds; he seems to be examining the road; perhaps he is going back."
The stranger sat all this time with the most extreme and provokingcoolness and unconcern; he deigned us but a passing notice, but it wasvery slight.
He was a tall, spare man--what is termed long and lathy--but he wasevidently a powerful man. He had a broad chest, and long, sinewy arms, ahooked nose, and a black, eagle eye. His hair was curly, but frosted byage; it seemed as though it had been tinged with white at theextremities, but he was hale and active otherwise, to judge fromappearances.
Notwithstanding all this, there was a singular repulsiveness about himthat I could not imagine the cause, or describe; at the same time therewas an air of determination in his wild and singular-looking eyes, andover their whole there was decidedly an air and an appearance sosinister as to be positively disagreeable.
"Well," said I, after we had stood some minutes, "where did you comefrom, shipmate?"
He looked at me and then up at the sky, in a knowing manner.
"Come, come, that won't do; you have none of Peter Wilkins's wings, andcouldn't come on the aerial dodge; it won't do; how did you get here?"
He gave me an awful wink, and made a sort of involuntary movement, whichjumped him up a few inches, and he bumped down again on the water-cask.
"That's as much as to say," thought I, "that he's sat himself on it."
"I'll go and inform the captain," said I, "of this affair; he'll hardlybelieve me when I tell him, I am sure."
So saying, I left the deck and went to the cabin, where the captain wasat breakfast, and related to him what I had seen respecting thestranger. The captain looked at me with an air of disbelief, and said,--
"What?--do you mean to say there's a man on board we haven't seenbefore?"
"Yes, I do, captain. I never saw him afore, and he's sitting beating hisheels on the water-cask on deck."
"The devil!"
"He is, I assure you, sir; and he won't answer any questions."
"I'll see to that. I'll see if I can't make the lubber say something,providing his tongue's not cut out. But how came he on board? Confoundit, he can't be the devil, and dropped from the moon."
"Don't know, captain," said I. "He is evil-looking enough, to my mind,to be the father of evil, but it's ill bespeaking attentions from thatquarter at any time."
"Go on, lad; I'll come up after you."
I left the cabin, and I heard the captain coming after me. When I got ondeck, I saw he had not moved from the place where I left him. There wasa general commotion among the crew when they heard of the occurrence,and all crowded round him, save the man at the wheel, who had to remainat his post.
The captain now came forward, and the men fell a little back as heapproached. For a moment the captain stood silent, attentively examiningthe stranger, who was excessively cool, and stood the scrutiny with thesame unconcern that he would had the captain been looking at his watch.
"Well, my man," said the captain, "how did you come here?"
"I'm part of the cargo," he said, with an indescribable leer.
"Part of the cargo be d----d!" said the captain, in sudden rage, for hethought the stranger was coming his jokes too strong. "I know you arenot in the bills of lading."
"I'm contraband," replied the stranger; "and my uncle's the great chainof Tartary."
The captain stared, as well he might, and did not speak for someminutes; all the while the stranger kept kicking his heels against thewater-casks and squinting up at the skies; it made us feel very queer.
"Well, I must confess you are not in the regular way of trading."
"Oh, no," said the stranger; "I am contraband--entirely contraband."
At this question the stranger again looked curiously up at the skies,and continued to do so for more than a minute; he then turned his gazeupon the captain.
"No, no," said the captain; "eloquent dumb show won't do with me; youdidn't come, like Mother Shipton, upon a birch broom. How did you comeon board my vessel?"
"I walked on board," said the stranger.
"You walked on board; and where did you conceal yourself?"
"Below."
"Very good; and why didn't you stay below altogether?"
"Because I wanted fresh air. I'm in a delicate state of health, you see;it doesn't do to stay in a confined place too long."
"Confound the binnacle!" said the captain; it was his usual oath whenanything bothered him, and he could not make it out. "Confound thebinnacle!--what a delicate-looking animal you are. I wish you had stayedwhere you were; your delicacy would have been all the same to me.Delicate, indeed!"
"Yes, very," said the stranger, coolly.
There was something so comic in the assertion of his delicateness ofhealth, that we should all have laughed; but we were somewhat scared,and had not the inclination.
"How have you lived since you came on board?" inquired the captain.
"Very indifferently."
"But how? What have you eaten? and what have you drank?"
"Nothing, I assure you. All I did while was below was--"
"What?"
"Why, I sucked my thumbs like a polar bear in its winter quarters."
And as he spoke the stranger put his two thumbs into his mouth, andextraordinary thumbs they were, too, for each would have filled anordinary man's mouth.
"These," said the stranger, pulling them out, and gazing at themwistfully, and with a deep sigh he continued,--
"These were thumbs at one time; but they are nothing now to what theywere."
"Confound the binnacle!" muttered the captain to himself, and then headded, aloud,--
"It's cheap living, however; but where are you going to, and why did youcome aboard?"
"I wanted a cheap cruise, and I am going there and back."
"Why, that's where we are going," said the captain.
"Then we are brothers," exclaimed the stranger, hopping off thewater-cask like a kangaroo, and bounding towards the captain, holdingout his hand as though he would have shaken hands with him.
"No, no," said the captain; "I can't do it."
"Can't do it!" exclaimed the stranger, angrily. "What do you mean?"
"That I can't have anything to do with contraband articles; I am a fairtrader, and do all above board. I haven't a chaplain on board, or heshould offer up prayers for your preservation, and the recovery of yourhealth, which seems so delicate."
"That be--"
The stranger didn't finish the sentence; he merely screwed his mouth upinto an incomprehensible shape, and puffed out a lot of breath, withsome force, and which sounded very much like a whistle: but, oh, whatthick breath he had, it was as much like smoke as anything I ever saw,and so my shipmate said.
"I say, captain," said the stranger, as he saw him pacing the deck.
"Well."
"Just send me up some beef and biscuit, and some coffee royal--be sureit's royal, do you hear, because I'm partial to brandy, it's the onlygood thing there is on earth."
I shall not easily forget the captain's look as he turned towards thestranger, and gave his huge shoulders a shrug, as much as to say,--
"Well, I can't help it now; he's here, and I can't throw him overboard."
The coffee, beef, and biscuit were sent him, and the stranger seemed toeat them with great _gout_, and drank the coffee with much relish, andreturned the things, saying,
"Your captain is an excellent cook; give him my compliments."
I thought the captain would think that was but a left-handed compliment,and look more angry than pleased, but no notice was taken of it.
It was strange, but this man had impressed upon all in the vessel somesingular notion of his being more than he should be--more than a meremortal, and not one endeavoured to interfere with him; the captain was astout and dare-devil a fellow as you would well met with, yet he seemedtacitly to acknowledge more than he would say, for he never after tookany further notice of the stranger nor he of him.
They had barely any conversation, simply a civil word when they firstmet, and so forth; but there was little or no conversation of any kindbetween them.
The stranger slept upon deck, and lived upon deck entirely; he neveronce went below after we saw him, and his own account of being below solong.
This was very well, but the night-watch did not enjoy his society, andwould have willingly dispensed with it at that hour so particularlylonely and dejected upon the broad ocean, and perhaps a thousand milesaway from the nearest point of land.
At this dread and lonely hour, when no sound reaches the ear anddisturbs the wrapt stillness of the night, save the whistling of thewind through the cordage, or an occasional dash of water against thevessel's side, the thoughts of the sailor are fixed on far distantobjects--his own native land and the friends and loved ones he has leftbehind him.
He then thinks of the wilderness before, behind, and around him; of theimmense body of water, almost in places bottomless; gazing upon such ascene, and with thoughts as strange and indefinite as the veryboundless expanse before him, it is no wonder if he should becomesuperstitious; the time and place would, indeed unbidden, conjure upthoughts and feelings of a fearful character and intensity.
The stranger at such times would occupy his favourite seat on the watercask, and looking up at the sky and then on the ocean, and betweenwhiles he would whistle a strange, wild, unknown melody.
The flesh of the sailors used to creep up in knots and bumps when theyheard it; the wind used to whistle as an accompaniment and pronouncefearful sounds to their ears.
The wind had been highly favourable from the first, and since thestranger had been discovered it had blown fresh, and we went along at arapid rate, stemming the water, and dashing the spray off from the bows,and cutting the water like a shark.
This was very singular to us, we couldn't understand it, neither couldthe captain, and we looked very suspiciously at the stranger, and wishedhim at the bottom, for the freshness of the wind now became a gale, andyet the ship came through the water steadily, and away we went beforethe wind, as if the devil drove us; and mind I don't mean to say hedidn't.
The gale increased to a hurricane, and though we had not a stitch ofcanvass out, yet we drove before the gale as if we had been shot out ofthe mouth of a gun.
The stranger still sat on the water casks, and all night long he kept uphis infernal whistle. Now, sailors don't like to hear any one whistlewhen there's such a gale blowing over their heads--it's like asking formore; but he would persist, and the louder and stronger the wind blew,the louder he whistled.
At length there came a storm of rain, lightning, and wind. We weretossed mountains high, and the foam rose over the vessel, and oftenentirely over our heads, and the men were lashed to their posts toprevent being washed away.
But the stranger still lay on the water casks, kicking his heels andwhistling his infernal tune, always the same. He wasn't washed away normoved by the action of the water; indeed, we heartily hoped and expectedto see both him and the water cask floated overboard at every minute;but, as the captain said,--
"Confound the binnacle! the old water tub seems as if it were screwed onto the deck, and won't move off and he on the top of it."
There was a strong inclination to throw him overboard, and the menconversed in low whispers, and came round the captain, saying,--
"We have come, captain, to ask you what you think of this strange manwho has come so mysteriously on board?"
"I can't tell what to think, lads; he's past thinking about--he'ssomething above my comprehension altogether, I promise you."
"Well, then, we are thinking much of the same thi
ng, captain."
"What do you mean?"
"That he ain't exactly one of our sort."
"No, he's no sailor, certainly; and yet, for a land lubber, he's aboutas rum a customer as ever I met with."
"So he is, sir."
"He stands salt water well; and I must say that I couldn't lay a top ofthose water casks in that style very well."
"Nor nobody amongst us, sir."
"Well, then, he's in nobody's way, it he?--nobody wants to take hisberth, I suppose?"
The men looked at each other somewhat blank; they didn't understand themeaning at all--far from it; and the idea of any one's wanting to takethe stranger's place on the water casks was so outrageously ludicrous,that at any other time they would have considered it a devilish goodjoke and have never ceased laughing at it.
He paused some minutes, and then one of them said,--
"It isn't that we envy him his berth, captain, 'cause nobody else couldlive there for a moment. Any one amongst us that had been there wouldhave been washed overboard a thousand times over."
"So they would," said the captain.
"Well, sir, he's more than us."
"Very likely; but how can I help that?"
"We think he's the main cause of all this racket in the heavens--thestorm and hurricane; and that, in short, if he remains much longer weshall all sink."
"I am sorry for it. I don't think we are in any danger, and had thestrange being any power to prevent it, he would assuredly do so, lest hegot drowned."
"But we think if he were thrown overboard all would be well."
"Indeed!"
"Yes, captain, you may depend upon it he's the cause of all themischief. Throw him overboard and that's all we want."
"I shall not throw him overboard, even if I could do such a thing; and Iam by no means sure of anything of the kind."
"We do not ask it, sir."
"What do you desire?"
"Leave to throw him overboard--it is to save our own lives."
"I can't let you do any such thing; he's in nobody's way."
"But he's always a whistling. Only hark now, and in such a hurricane asthis, it is dreadful to think of it. What else can we do, sir?--he's nothuman."
At this moment, the stranger's whistling came clear upon their ears;there was the same wild, unearthly notes as before, but the cadenceswere stronger, and there was a supernatural clearness in all the tones.
"There now," said another, "he's kicking the water cask with his heels."
"Confound the binnacle!" said the captain; "it sounds like short pealsof thunder. Go and talk to him, lads."
"And if that won't do, sir, may we--"
"Don't ask me any questions. I don't think a score of the best men thatwere ever born could move him."
"I don't mind trying," said one.
Upon this the whole of the men moved to the spot where the water caskswere standing and the stranger lay.
There was he, whistling like fury, and, at the same time, beating hisheels to the tune against the empty casks. We came up to him, and hetook no notice of us at all, but kept on in the same way.
"Hilloa!" shouted one.
"Hilloa!" shouted another.
No notice, however, was taken of us, and one of our number, a big,herculean fellow, an Irishman, seized him by the leg, either to make himget up, or, as we thought, to give him a lift over our heads into thesea.
However, he had scarcely got his fingers round the calf of the leg, whenthe stranger pinched his leg so tight against the water cask, that hecould not move, and was as effectually pinned as if he had been nailedthere. The stranger, after he had finished a bar of the music, rosegradually to a sitting posture, and without the aid of his hands, andlooking the unlucky fellow in the face, he said,--
"Well, what do you want?"
"My hand," said the fellow.
"Take it then," he said.
He did take it, and we saw that there was blood on it.
The stranger stretched out his left hand, and taking him by the breech,he lifted him, without any effort, upon the water-cask beside him.
We all stared at this, and couldn't help it; and we were quite convincedwe could not throw him overboard, but he would probably have nodifficulty in throwing us overboard.
"Well, what do you want?" he again exclaimed to us all.
We looked at one another, and had scarce courage to speak; at length Isaid,--
"We wish you to leave off whistling."
"Leave off whistling!" he said. "And why should I do anything of thekind?"
"Because it brings the wind."
"Ha! ha! why, that's the very reason I am whistling, to bring the wind."
"But we don't want so much."
"Pho! pho! you don't know what's good for you--it's a beautiful breeze,and not a bit too stiff."
"It's a hurricane."
"Nonsense."
"But it is."
"Now you see how I'll prove you are wrong in a minute. You see my hair,don't you?" he said, after he took off his cap. "Very well, look now."
He got up on the water-cask, and stood bolt upright; and running hisfingers through his hair, made it all stand straight on end.
"Confound the binnacle!" said the captain, "if ever I saw the like."
"There," said the stranger, triumphantly, "don't tell me there's anywind to signify; don't you see, it doesn't even move one of my greyhairs; and if it blew as hard as you say, I am certain it would move ahair."
"Confound the binnacle!" muttered the captain as he walked away. "D--nthe cabouse, if he ain't older than I am--he's too many for me andeverybody else."
"Are you satisfied?"
What could we say?--we turned away and left the place, and stood at ourquarters--there was no help for it--we were impelled to grin and abideby it.
As soon as we had left the place he put his cap on again and sat down onthe water-casks, and then took leave of his prisoner, whom he set free,and there lay at full length on his back, with his legs hanging down.Once more he began to whistle most furiously, and beat time with hisfeet.
For full three weeks did he continue at this game night and day, withoutany interruption, save such as he required to consume enough coffeeroyal, junk, and biscuit, as would have served three hearty men.
Well, about that time, one night the whistling ceased and he began tosing--oh! it was singing--such a voice! Gog and Magog in Guildhall,London, when they spoke were nothing to him--it was awful; but the windcalmed down to a fresh and stiff breeze. He continued at this game forthree whole days and nights, and on the fourth it ceased, and when wewent to take his coffee royal to him he was gone.
We hunted about everywhere, but he was entirely gone, and in three weeksafter we safely cast anchor, having performed our voyage in a good monthunder the usual time; and had it been an old vessel she would haveleaked and stinted like a tub from the straining; however, we were gladenough to get in, and were curiously inquisitive as to what was put inour vessel to come back with, for as the captain said,--
"Confound the binnacle! I'll have no more contraband articles if I canhelp it."
Varney the Vampire; Or, the Feast of Blood Page 27