Jack at Sea Part 16

"I do not grudge it, Instow, if we can bring him back well. We'll be off as soon as I can get the preliminaries settled."

"These things don't take long when a man has the money."

"Hus.h.!.+" said Sir John; "here he is. Don't say anything to upset him."

Jack came in, looking sad and dispirited.

"Ah, Jack, my boy, ready for dinner?"

"No, father."

"Hah! chance for the doctor," cried that gentleman merrily. "Let me administer an appetiser."

"No, no, Doctor Instow; I'm sure it would do no good."

"Wait till you hear what it is, O man of wisdom, and be more modest.

You don't know everything yet. Now then: prescription--take a walk as far as the kitchen door, wait till it is opened, and then take four sniffs quickly, and come back. That will give you an appet.i.te, my boy, if you want one; but I don't believe you do, for you have a lean and hungry look, as Shakespeare calls it. It's the sea-air, Jack; I'm savage."

"Some one coming," said Sir John, and a minute later the waiter showed in the two guests.

Jack did not notice it himself, but others did: he ate about twice as much as he was accustomed to, and all the while, after looking upon the dinner and the visitors as being an infliction, he found himself listening attentively to Captain Bradleigh, who was set going by a few questions from the doctor, and proved to be full of observation.

"Oh no," he said, "I'm no naturalist, but I can't help noticing different things when I am at sea, and ash.o.r.e, and if they're fresh to me, I don't forget them. Let me say now, though, Sir John Meadows, how glad I am that you will buy the yacht and go on this cruise. The lads are half wild with excitement, for we've all been, as the Irishmen call it, spoiling for something to do. It has seemed to be clean and polish for no purpose, but I told them they ought to feel very glad to have had the yacht in such a state. I trust, Sir John, that you will never have cause to regret this day's work."

"I have no fear," said that gentleman. "I shall be glad, though, as soon as you receive notice of the transfer to me, if you will do everything possible toward getting ready for sea."

"Getting ready for sea, sir? She is ready for sea. Fresh water on board, coal-bunkers full. Nothing wanted but the provisions--salt, preserved, and fresh--to be seen to, and that would take very little time. As soon as you have done your business with the owner, send me my orders, and there'll be no time lost, I promise you."

Jack bent over his plate, and was very silent, but he revived and became attentive when the doctor changed the subject, and began to question the captain about some of his experiences, many of which he related in a simple, modest way which spoke for its truth.

"I suppose," said Sir John merrily, after glancing at his son, "you have never come across the sea serpent?"

The captain looked at him sharply, then at the mate, and ended by raising his eyebrows and frowning at his plate.

"That's a sore point for a s.h.i.+p captain, sir," he said at last, "one which makes him a bit put out, for no man likes to be laughed at. You see, we've all been so bantered about that sea serpent, that when a mariner says he has seen it, people set him down for a regular Baron Munchausen, so now-a-days we people have got into the habit of holding our tongues."

"Why, you don't mean to say that you have ever seen it, captain?" cried the doctor.

"Well, sir, I've seen something more than once that answered its description pretty closely."

"I always thought it was a fable," said Sir John.

"No, sir, I don't think it is," said the captain quickly. "As I tell you, I've seen a great reptile sort of creature going along through the sea just after the fas.h.i.+on of those water-fowl that are shot in some of the South American rivers."

"The darters," said Sir John; "_Plotius_."

"Those are the fellows, sir; they swim with nearly the whole of their body under the surface, and look so much like little serpents that people call them snake birds. Well, sir, twice over I've seen such a creature--not a bird but a reptile."

"And they are wonderfully alike in some cases," said the doctor quietly.

"So I've heard, sir, from people who studied such things. Mine was going along six or seven knots an hour, with its snake-like head and neck carried swan-fas.h.i.+on, and raised fifteen or twenty feet out of the water as near as I could judge, for it was quite half-a-mile away. It was flat-headed, and as I brought my spy-gla.s.s to bear upon it, I could see that it had very large eyes. I kept it in sight for a good ten minutes, and could not help thinking how swan-like it was in its movements. Then it stretched out its neck, laid it down upon the water, and went out of sight."

"And you think it was a sea serpent?"

"Something of that kind, gentlemen. Bartlett saw it too, and he was sure it was a great snake."

"Yes, I feel sure it was," said the mate quietly.

"Very strange," said Sir John, who noted how Jack was drinking it all in.

"Strange, sir, because we don't often see such things. That was in my last long voyage, a year before I was introduced to Mr Ensler, but I don't look upon it as particularly strange. Why, I hope that before very long we shall be sailing through bright clear waters where I can show you snakes single, in pairs, and in knots of a dozen together basking at the surface in the suns.h.i.+ne."

"What, huge serpents?" said Jack shortly.

"No," replied the captain, turning upon him with a pleasant smile, while the doctor kicked at Sir John's leg under the table, but could not reach him. "They are mostly quite small--four, five, or six feet. The biggest I ever saw was seven feet long, but I've heard of them being seen eight feet."

"Yes, I saw one once seven feet nine. It was shot by a pa.s.senger on his way to Rangoon, and they got it on board," said the mate quietly.

"Oh, but that's nothing of a size," said Jack.

"No, Mr Meadows," replied the captain; "but we know it as a fact that there are plenty of sea serpents of that size, just as we know that there are adders and rattlesnakes on land."

"Yes, poisonous serpents," said Jack.

"So are these, sir, very dangerously poisonous. I have known of more than one death through the bite of a sea snake. But, as I was going to say, we know of adders and rattlesnakes, and we know too that there are boas and pythons and anacondas running up to eight-and-twenty and thirty feet long on land. There's a deal more room in the sea for such creatures to hide, so why should there not be big ones as well as small there?"

"That's a good argument," said Sir John, "and quite reasonable."

"And you think then," said the doctor, "that yours which you saw were great serpents swimming on the surface?"

"No, sir, I thought they were something else."

"What?" said Jack, with a certain amount of eagerness.

"They struck me as being those great lizard things which they find turned into fossils out Swanage and Portland way. I dare say you've seen specimens of them in the British Museum."

"No," said Jack, colouring a little, "I have never taken any interest in such things."

"No?" said the captain wonderingly. "Ah, well, perhaps you will. Now it struck me that these things were--were--Do either of you gentlemen remember the name of them?"

"Plesiosaurus. Lizard-like," said Sir John.

"That's it, sir," cried the captain, glancing at the speaker, and then looking again at Jack. "And I tell you how it struck me, and how I accounted for their being so seldom seen."

"Yes!" said Jack, who had laid down his knife and fork, and was leaning forward listening attentively. "How did you judge that?"

"From its large eyes."

"What had that to do with it?"