Sail Ho! Part 15

"Better luck to you this time," said the captain, and he nodded and walked away; but Walters stayed, saying nothing, but leaning against the rail, and looking on in a sulky, ill-used way at me and my every action as I attended on Mr Denning.

"We shall never get to be friends," I thought. "He always looks as if he was so jealous that he would like to throw me overboard."

"Shall I fasten the line this time, sir?"

"No, no; not on any account," said Mr Denning. "It would take away half the excitement, and I get so little in my life. Eh, Lena?"

Miss Denning smiled at him half-pityingly, and his face looked very gentle now as he smiled back at her. Then all his attention was directed to the line where it hit the water.

"You will be ready to help if I hook a big one," he said to me; "I'm not so strong as I used to be."

"I'll catch hold directly you tell me," I replied; "but perhaps it will be a small one this time."

I turned to arrange the spare line once more so that it would run out easily, and Miss Denning went closer to her brother, while I became aware now of the fact that Walters was watching me in a sour, sneering way.

"What's the matter?" I said.

"Oh, go on," he whispered; "make much of it. You did that on purpose just now."

"What, when you went down?" I said eagerly. "I didn't, really."

"All right; I'm not blind, and I'm not a fool. Of course we're the favourite, and everything is to give way to us; but never mind, my lad, every dog has his day."

I looked at him with a feeling of wonder that any one could be so thoroughly disagreeable, so determined to look at everything from a wrong point of view, and then I laughed, for it seemed to be utterly absurd that he should misconstrue even that look, for he exclaimed viciously--

"That's right, grin away, my lad; but the day may come when you'll laugh the wrong side of your mouth."

"Why, what a chap you are, Nic!" I whispered. "I never saw such a fellow. Come, let's be friends; I'm sure I want to."

"And I don't, with a miserable sneak who is always trying to undermine me with people."

"Under-grandmother you," I said in a low voice, so that Miss Denning should not hear. "Don't talk such stuff."

"Go on. Insult me as much as you like," he whispered back: "I shan't say anything. You're setting everybody against me, so that instead of being friends, as a young officer should with his equals, I'm obliged to go and talk to the men."

I could not help laughing again at his mock-tragic and absurd way of taking things, and as I honestly felt that if matters were unpleasant it was all his own fault, he leaned toward me now with his eyes half shut and his teeth pressed together as he whispered close to my ear--

"All right. You'll be sorry for it some day, and then--"

"Here's another, Dale! Quick!" cried Mr Denning.

"Yes, yes, quick, quick," cried his sister, and I offended poor Walters again quite unintentionally by swinging one arm across his chest in my hurry and excitement to get to Mr Denning's help; and as I reached over the rail to get hold of the line, I felt sure that my messmate would think that I struck him. For the moment I felt vexed and sorry, then I could not help smiling to think how comic it was that I should keep on upsetting him. Then I forgot all about it in the excitement of righting the fish.

"It's a big one, Mr Denning," I said, as we both held on to the line-- holding on now with it across the rail. "Let's give him a chance to run, and then haul in. Then he can run over again to tire himself."

Mr Denning was too much excited to speak, but he nodded his head, and we let the line run, after I had placed one foot upon it to hold it down on the deck and check its race.

Away went the fish, with ring after ring working off beneath my foot till only about three yards were left.

"Stop it now," cried Mr Denning, and I pressed my foot down hard, feeling a curious quivering sensation run up my leg before I quite stopped the running.

And now the fish began to rush in another direction, giving us an opportunity to haul in some of the line; but we soon had to let it go again; and every time I glanced at Walters, all hot, excited, and eager as I was, I could see that he was looking on with a half-mocking scowl.

But the next minute he gave quite a start and seized the line, for the captain, Mr Brymer, and Mr Frewen had all come up on seeing that a fish had been hooked, and the former said sharply--

"Come, Walters, don't stand there with your hands in your pockets and let Dale do all the work."

And again I upset my messmate as if it were a fatality, for I cried out--

"All right, sir, we can manage. Don't touch the line, Walters."

"No; don't touch the line!" cried Mr Denning, and the lad shrank back as if the thin hemp were red-hot.

Then amidst plenty of excitement and some of the crew coming aft, I helped Mr Denning haul and haul till the fish was gradually drawn so close in that we could see its failing efforts to regain its freedom.

Apparently it was nearly five feet long, and its sides flashed in the clear water where it was not foaming with the las.h.i.+ng of the captive's vigorous widely-forked tail.

"Bonito," cried the captain.

"No, no, albicore," said Mr Brymer.

"Suppose we wait till it's fully caught," said Mr Frewen, smiling at Miss Denning, when I saw her brother give him an angry look.

But the next moment I was thinking only of the fish, which was now so exhausted that it had ceased struggling, and allowed itself to be dragged along in the wake of the s.h.i.+p, merely giving a flap with its tail from time to time which turned it from side to side.

"Now," said Mr Denning to me, "let us both haul it on board."

But I protested, saying that the weight of the fish would certainly break it away, and that we should lose it.

To save us from such a catastrophe, I unfastened the other end of the line, made a running noose round the tight line beneath Mr Denning's hands, and let it run down till the noose struck the fish on the nose, and made it give a furious plunge to escape.

But the hook held firm in spite of my dread, and after a little twitching and shaking, with the lookers-on making remarks which only fidgeted me instead of helping, I managed to make the noose glide over the slippery body.

"Now!" cried Mr Frewen, who was as interested as the rest; but before the word was well uttered, I had given the line a sharp s.n.a.t.c.h just as the running noose was in the narrow part before where the tail fin curved out above and below like a new moon.

This meant a double hold, for the noose tightened, and now in spite of a fresh set of furious struggles the fish was steadily hauled out of the water, and we nearly had it up to the p.o.o.p-rail, when the hook was torn out of its holding, and the fish hung down quivering and flapping from the noose about its tail.

The weight seemed to be tremendous, but I gave two or three sharp tugs, had the fish over the rail, and over on to the deck, whose planks it began to belabour heavily, while we gazed excitedly at the beautiful creature glistening in its splendid coat of many colours, which flashed gold, silver, orange, scarlet, and metallic blue and green at every quivering blow.

"What is it?" said Mr Denning eagerly, and I remember thinking how animated and well he looked that day.

"Well," said the captain, "many years as I've sailed these seas, I hardly know what to say. It's something like a dolphin, but it's more like a bonito, and it isn't unlike an albicore. What should you say, Brymer?"

"Quite fresh to me," said the mate. "Certainly one of the mackerel family, by its head and the great crescent moon tail."

"Yes, and the short fins on front, top, and bottom. Never mind, it looks a good one for the table, and I congratulate you, Mr Denning, upon your luck. Going to try again?"

"No," said the invalid, peevishly, as he glanced quickly from his sister to the doctor and back. "Thank you for helping me, Alison Dale. Lena, your arm; I'll go below."