THE NOVELIST

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 53, 17 September 1881, Page 9

THE NOVELIST

BEWITCHED IN MID-OCEAN: By J. Maclaeen" Cobban, Author of " Plague Smitten" Sfc.

CHAPTER II

'"Down, you brute!'" I cried, pushing at it. Grod ! how it clawed into the wood ! " Down,, you wretch ! you devil!" 'It meawed terribly, held on with every claw, but — yes, yes ! with furious, half -terrified hands — I tore it away and flung it out. I had not noticed that the'mcn had come about me. ' " Ah ! save and deliver us, sir !" said Dick at my elbow. " You've done for us now ! Lord knows what'll happen !" ' In the feeble light I saw his and his companions' faces staring on me with ghastly terror. I felt now like a fool a criminal. Dick had barely done speaking, and I had just turned round, when a little white figure appeared. It was my little Maggie. * " Father," she whispered, " where are you ? I heard my pussy meaw, and I can't find her. Where is she ? Have you seen my pussy, father ?" ' " Your father has her thrown into the sea, missy," said one of the men. "And what'll come o't, Grod knows." ' How exasperated I was with that man ! " You better go for'ard, you men," was all I said, however. But before any of us had time to stir, the crest of a wave, like a great white flying . mane, flung itself over and drenched us. I caught Maggie in my arms all dripping, and carried her ry\ below. She said nothing, but looked at me in a J" "* way that cut me to the heart : her gaze was \f) frightened and half turned away. I had no word v to say for myself. I changed her night-gown and put her back in her berth. She shivered and smuggled down with her head under the bedclothes. After a little she peeped out and said to xne. ' " When you are some day angry with me, will you maybe throw me into the sea ?" ' I could not bear it. " Oh, Maggie, my child, my darling !" I cried, taking her in my arms ; " don't talk and look like that. The cat was a bad cat, and brought us ill-luck and bad weather." '" I thought," said Maggie simply, "It was Grod made the weather." I was silent. After a pause she cried, " I want my pussy back, father. G-et me it back. It was not bad and I liked it." • < " I -wish, my dear," I said " I could bring you it back." ' Was it a ineaw I hcaj d, and a scratching, or •was it only the wind above, and the dash of the water at the port-hole ? Maggie heard it, too ; she sat up and her eyes were fixed on the porthole. With some difficulty I pulled it open, and in scrambled the cat ! ' I was never more delighted by the sight of any living thing than I was by the return of the poor,half-drowned cat. Such a weight of guilt was lifted off me ! I felt almost like a little boy again, there, with my little girl beside me. The to-do Maggie and I made over the poor, out-raged creature ! I confess to you truly the tears came to my eyes. Maggie kissed and cuddled it, all wet "and shivering as it was, the brave little .swimmer ! I went to the cook and got some hot mess for it to cat, and prepared a snug little bed before the cabin stove, and poor grateful pussy !*jj.licked my hand. PO ' " Captain ! Captain !" I heard eagerly whisfrom the top of the cabin steps. I should ' have been on deck, and I was turning to go — after f\ a glance at Maggie with a shawl about her sitting /*»• down by her recovered pussy — when the cook f*. .-stumbled hurriedly down into the cabin, whis>J per ing in terror, "They've got at the spirits, captain, and they're mad ! They've knocked Dick down for standing up for you, and they're sure, as you threw the cat overboard, the only vay to save the ship is to throw you after it ! They're coming I" 'And before another word, could be said, or anything done, they were come. I suppose they .at once suspected the cook of being informer : in a moment he was gagged and bound. I stood before them with what calmness I had ; though I felt my cheek pale and my blood tingle to see all the desperate crew crowded in before me. They were not drunk ; they were only primed to the Dutchcourage point: their faces were bloodshot .and resolute. ' " What's the meaning of this, my men ?" I masked firmly. " Mutiny ?" 'At the dreaded, word they quailed a little ; but Bill Bowser — he who had told Maggie I had •drowned the cat, and who seemed the ringleader — made a step forward and said (he was an ugly -slab of a man, with something like a squint, but he could speak to the point) ' "No mutiny, captain, only self-preservation, the first law 'o nature. That darned cat has been thrown overboard, and to save the ship and all }t the rest on us you must follow it, captain, 'cause Si you done it." » * ' I was about to speak, when Maggie, who —L. looked very much surprised, but not in the least jT frightened, said (standing up in her sweet childish M . beauty, with the shawl slipping from her " Look ! pussy was in the sea, but ■ she's come back again ; and she showed them the cat in her arms. ' They were dumb -founded, and smitten with •confusion. They stared at me, and at Maggie and the cat, and they shouldered towards the stah 1 . Bill Bpwser again made himself spokesman. '" I'm blest," said he, "but that cat has the •divel in her, as sure as David ! But look-a-here, •captain, we must just set her adrift again, and tie her in this time." ' " No," said I, " I won't allow a hair of that cat to be touched again. And I advise all you Tnen to clear out of this at once, or I shall take notes of it and reckon it an attempt at mutiny." I spoke in a loud, commanding tone, to rouse Jack, who was in his berth close by. ' "Oh, you will, will you ?" said Bowser, now • snarling out the rebellious spirit natural to him, . and suggestively lowering his head and drawing up his sleeve from his right wrist : I felt sure he. had his knife handy. "If it's to be reckoned' mutiny, it may as well be made worth the reekboning. Down with him, mates!" ' I caught the gleam of the knife ; I had no

weapon; I threw my cap in bis face, -and next' instant floored him with my fist. At, this juncture, as if in answer to little Maggie?s.cryV'out burst Jack, half-dressed, revolver in hand.- - ; < ' " Holloa ! Eh ?'. What's this ?" hecried. , ' I took the revolver from his hand and pointed it among the men, who looked some sulky , ; some bewildered, but none, inclined to follow Bowser's initiative. ' " Now," said I, " I will give you another chance. Be off at once to the fo'c'sle, or " I clicked the trigger of the revolver. ' " Ay, ay, captain," they murmured, and tumbled up to the deck as fast as they could. " We didn't mean no harm, sir." pleaded those who were nearest me, and who were forced to linger. ' No, the lubbers ! no harm ! But if Bill Bowser had struck me down with his knife, they would not have moved a finger or a tongue to save me, or to keep themselves from the crimes of mutiny and nrurder on the high seas. Yes ; that's what your merchant-seamen have come to nowadays ! As for Bill Bowser, he was of course put in irons. Now, soon after daylight, with a nasty sea still running and the wind in south-east, the man at the look-out sighted a barque Avitli signals of distress flying. She was about two miles off our larboard quarter. By-and.by we signalled what was the matter. " Leaking," was the answer ; " all hands at the pumps." Then he set the ship's letters, and we made out the name — what do you think ? — the " Lily " ! Could, it be the same " Lily "—the " Lily "of Plymouth— as we had passed on our other quarter nearly a week ago ? It might be ; for, ye see, these hurricanes often, maybe always, work in a circle. Ci/clone, d'ye say ? Ah, yes ; that's what we call them when met in the tropics. Well, we bore down on each other, and I took the oppurtunity of having a word or two with the men, to set myself right with them, and to make them, if I could, throw off the superstition about the cat. I called them aft. ' " Now," said I, " You needn't look frightened ;

I'm not going to say anything about last night's affair. I agree to call it all a mistake, if you will give up your foolish, old-wives' notion about my cat here. I say my cat, because lam determined to take it home with me and leave it with my little girl here. Now, look at it ; hasn't it the nicest little face a cat ever had ? How can ye believe there is a devil in the creature ?" ' " The devil," said one, " often hangs out the prettiest figure-heads, sir." '"Well," said I, "that's true. But now, you're sailors ; you can't refuse shelter, and you can't surely think ill of a poor dumb creature that was twice thrown into the sea, and twice came back to the old ship, and that after all licked the hand that threw her out — ay, and — look ye ! licks it now." ' " Hooray for the captain !" ' " But, my hearties," said I, " there's another thing." And this was my strong point. " You see that barque out there ? She's called the ' Lily,' and I believe she's the same as smuggled this cat aboard of us. Now, has she gained anything by losing the cat ? When she's been caught in the same hurricane as avc have, and she's come Avorse out of it ; she's driven far from her course, and she's leaking dangerously." • They turned and looked at each other and nodded ; they evidently thought there Avas something in it. ' " "We keep the cat, then," said I, " whether the ' Lily ' would like it back or no. Is that agreed ?" ' " A 7» ay, sir." ' It was a bad sea, but we lowered a boat as Aye and the ' Lily ' approached ; I particularly wanted to go aboard her. I got the basket out in which pussy had come to us, replaced her as Aye had found her, and put the empty champagne bottles on top. * The crew of the " Lily " Avere dropping with fatigue when we went aboard, but, Lord! to see how the skipper and them about him woke up

when tlfey saw us. Astonishment is no -word for it. ' " Good Q-od !".he exclaimed. " And you are the ' Seamew ' !" ' " And yon are the ' Lily,' " said I. " That was a nice present you sent me. I have brought back the bottles and the basket ; " and so saying, I uncovered pussy, who, to my amazement, jumped out at once and bounded off. I had only intended to show the skipper she was there. •The poor man stared, his jaw dropped, and he sank down on a coil of rope with his head in his hands, uttering a long hopeless groan. ' " Come, my friend, cheer up," I said. ' " We've almost nothing to eat," said he ; " we've been at the pumps two days, and now that brute lias come back ! There's no use standing by them any more ; our voyage comes to an end here, and down, down we go. We might as well have kept the beast ; the old wretch's words have come true, and we finish in the middle, as she said." ' I doubted his mind was wandering. " Come," said I, " bestir yourself and give orders. There's no use staying by the ship any longer ; you must abandon her and come with me." ' " What ! Leave the ' Lily ' ? She's a good old ship, and she's my own ; no, I'll go down with her and that cursed cat. Take off the crew, sir, however, and I'll thank you." ' I could not make up my mind to think him deranged, and yet — Just then the cat came bounding along the deck with something in her mouth, and all the hands paused and stared. She put it in the basket at my feet where she herself had lain, and again bounded away. It was a kitten ! and alive ! The skipper stared stupidly. Presently pussy returned with another. That's what's done it !" cried the skipper with gathering fury ; " after I got rid of her, they were here, and I never knew it !" He rose in his rage, and, seizing a crowbar, would have smashed basket and all, but he was easily restrained and disarmed.

' " Let me have them," said I ; "my little girl ■will like them." ' " What !" he cried in something like an ecstasy of gladness. " And yon will take the mother too !" Then, becoming again despondent, " but it's of no use now. I feel we are going down." ' Pussy had returned with her third kitten, which was dead, and had began to purr with delight and to rub herself round my leg, when he roused himself and ordered all hands to take to the boats. We stood by them in our own boat (with pussy and her brood in the basket on the stern-seat) waiting to give them a towlinc to our ship. When all the hands were in the boats, there was a pause. Was not the skipper coming ? Jfo. " Cast off." The " Lily" was settling down rapidly, .and the crew cast off with little concern. The skipper's last act was to launch with a curse a broken pulley-block at the basket in our stern, as we rowed off. It just missed the boat, and splashed into the sea. The "Lily" went down before we reached the Seamew." ' Next day we had a fair wind, and our crowded ship crowded all sail and went merrily racing, dipping, and splashing for home. In our new, bright hopes of our voyage we all, I think, felt rather ashamed of our dreadful suspicions of pussy. At any rate, everyone showed the utmost tenderness and solicitation for her and her two kittens. ' How had the kittens been kept alive on the " Lily " all that week ? you ask. I don't know ; but I have heard of a rat playing the part of mother under similar circumstances, and lam certain there were rats in the " Lily. " '

THE END

— Am eric Aii Wal/Tham Watcher were Awarded the Only Two First Prizes at tlie Melbourne International Exhibition, 1880-81, being Higher Awards than any other Exhibitor received for watches.