Mesmerising a Mermaid.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIII, Issue XVIII, 29 October 1904, Page 63

Mesmerising a Mermaid.

It is just forty years ago last month that I was in the heyday of my manhood. At that time I was mate on

board the Black Prince, a small brig trading to the southern seas. We carried two passengers, I remember, who journeyed with us for the benefit of their health. Our voyages then were voyages indeed, lasting two, and often three years. For the services of these sick gentlemen we carried a doctor, who, besides attending to their wants, acted as purser to the ship. He was a strange man. and was full of what the

master and I thought queer and cranky ideas. He was always experimenting. Whether he experimented upon his two patients I know not; at any rate, one of them died after we had left port some two months. Among other pursuits, equally gruesome, the doctor used to affect the mysterious study of mesmerism.

It was a calm night, when the air seemed phosphorescent, ami the sea was

one moving sheet of glowing light, bro ken only by the shimmering ripple of the flamelike waves, one of those nights known only in the tropies. It was my watch, and 1 was busy paving up ami down the deck, giving an eye to see that the gear was tight for the night. After this 1 remember looking over the rail and watching the waves plash against the side. The effect was most magical The dashing spray seemed like a thous and sparks flying from some su-bterra nean smithy. I was dreaming. 1 fancied I could hear sweet strains of music, sueh as no mortal ever heard before. The music* stopped, and 1 awoke from my reverie. The sight I saw 1 shall not forget to my dying day. By the side of the ship, there, with sweet and wonderfully unearthly face, was a strange creature. I did not feel horror struck, 1 did not feel afraid: 1 was simply spellbound.

The doctor was also on deck. I saw him standing with his face turned toward the beautiful denizen of the deep. My eyes were fastened upon him: I watched him while he seemed to he making some mysterious signs. I

caught but a passing glimpse of his face Never have 1 seen, either before or

since, such a look upon man’s face; never have I seen eyes glow as his seemed to glow. All the lurid fire of the sea seemed to be burning within their sockets. I had heard him tell of his mesmerising powers, and I knew—whether instinctively or not 1 cannot tell hut as 1 saw him there in the shadow of the ship I knew that in his madness he was mesmerising this beautiful creature, who. already under his magic spell.

gazed with a mild, imploring look, with her large black eyes opened widely, and her long tresses floating above her shonlders. With a wave of the hand the doctor disappeared below to his cabin, and when I looked again she, too, had vanished. In tin* morning 1 found that I was not alone in my observation of the doctor, and some of the crew eyed him askance as he came on deck. The next night was calm, the water almost motionless The doctor, so one of the crew reported, had his port open, and was peering over the sea. Certainiy there was something following in the wake of the ship, and I called up Ihe master to ask him if he could discern •a hat it was. He seemed much d.suirbed in his mind, and promised it to !;<• a wraith who meant the ship no good. In the morning a deputation of tin* crew waited upon the master and staled that unless the doctor was prevail c(l upon to cease his incantations and his magic the whole crew -o a man would mutiny and seize 1 lie ship. At this serious crisis the master dctei mined to lay the matter before the doctor, so that hr might appease tnc anger of tin; men. Accordingly wc repaired to his cabin door together. It was locked, (hi knocking we obtained no response, so there was nothing to do but to force the door open. this we did; but what was our surprise and horror to find that the doctor was missing! We ran to his patient's canin l<> see if he was there. Alas! our Horror was increased to find the patient a corpse. 'rhe crew looked aghast al each other when tin* master announced these two farts. The murmuring broke out afresh. At last one man stood out from Ihe rest, and said that in the dead of the night hr thought hr saw some our jump from the side, and he fancied he heard a splash, but he put it all down to his imagination, seeing that none of his watch was missing. This story made a deep impression on the minds of the crew, who persisted in believing some terrible vengeance would overtake the ship. A settled despondency came over every one after the funeral of our late passenger. At Ibis time 1 was taken ill, and was so weak that I fell into a fever, and was conveyed while in a delirious state so 1 afterwards learned—-to a hospital at the first port we touched at. <>n my recovery I found that the Black Prince had sailed without me, and 1 had not even shaken hands with the honest 'kipper at parting. Alas! I never saw him again, for the Black Prince, its captain, and all hands have never since