"The whole poop was one roar of laughing, when Mrs Brady's pug was found delivered of four pups inside the shark, since she went overboard, and two of 'em alive; the news ran fore and aft in a moment. 'Took short she's been, Jack!' said one. 'Beats the prophet Joney!' 'I say, mate, them whelps is born twice over. Blessed if my Sal at home, now, wouldn't give a year's 'lotment for one on 'em.'
"'Look out, all hands of ye,' cried someone, 'there's the old girl herself coming on deck; sharp's the word.' And away we scuttled right and left, some aloft, and some down one poop-ladder, as Mrs Brady, with the brigadier and his butler after her, came fuming up the other. The black made one spring over the quarter as soon as he saw her; but the Irish topman, Mick, slipped his foot amongst the shark's blood, and rolled on his back, while the old bo'sun made stand in the thick of it behind. 'Saze the villains, I charge ye, brigadier,' screamed Mrs Brady, though he and his manservant only kept dodging the boatswain round a sort of a quagmire of blood and grease, while the old vixen caught Mick by his red hair and whiskers. 'Where's my dog, ye murderous spalpeen?' said she, panting for breath; 'what have ye done with my Dianny, ye monsther? Spake, or I'll——' 'Be the holy elaven thousand, yer ladyship!' said Mick, 'an' it's lost did ye think she wor! Isn't there five of 'em back! Whisper! yer ladyship's riv'rence—she's laid in, poor craythure, an'——' 'Oh! you Irish thief!' Tug came both Mrs Brady's hands through his hair, while the butler caught a kick in the stomach from Mick's foot. 'Murther!' gasped the poor fellow, 'sure an' I dun' know she was ayven a faym'le, fur me own part; bad luck t' ye mates, give uz a hand. Och, an' is this the road ye thrate a counthryman, mim?' 'Me your countryman! ye bog-trottin' wretch ye!' screamed the old fury, her brogue getting worse the more she heated—'take that!—don't rise, if ye dare.' 'Faix thin, yer ladyship darlin',' said O'Hooney, grinning in spite of his hard usage, 'I tould a lie—och, lave some o' me hair!—murther intirely! I'm——'
"All the time none of us could stir for sheer laughing, but seeing poor Mike like to fare hard with the old vixen, who was near as big as himself, and as strong as a horse, I whispered to the men to run round and let go the poop awning—so down it came, with a few buckets of water in it, over the five of them; and you just saw Mrs Brady's sharp elbow through the canvas, lifted for the next slap, when we had her all fast, struggling like a cat in a bag, while O'Hooney and the boatswain crept out below. 'Stiff breeze that as we've had!' said the bo'sun shaking himself on the forecastle. 'Couldn't ye've bowsed over on the old jade's pitticuts, Mick?' said one of his shipmates, 'and capsized her all standing?' 'Sorra fut you'd stir, yourself, mate,' said he, wiping his face, 'wid such a shay grinnydeer! she'd man-handle ye as asy's twurl a mop!'
CHAPTER IX
"After all this, you may suppose one didn't weary so much, even of the calm. As soon as the decks were clear, most of us took tea on the poop, for fear of meeting the brigadier's lady below, everyone holding his cup ready for a start. Rollock, the planter, who had slept and swung in his cot half the day, was like to split his sides when he heard the story; by-the-way, I believe both the little pups lived and throve on goat's milk, and the men called one of them 'Young Jonah,' though he had so much of the terrier that the old lady disowned him.
"It was quite dark, and cool for a night near the Line, though not a ripple stirred, and I stayed after the rest to smoke a cigar, stopping every now and then near the aftermost bull's-eye, that shone through the deck, and thinking of Lota. 'By Jove!' thought I, 'she hasn't said a word to the judge about our having met before. Think of having a secret, almost, with her!' After all, though, I felt well enough I might as soon hope for the Emperor of China's daughter as for such a creature, unless something wonderfully strange fell out; deucedly in love as I was, I wasn't puppy enough to fancy I'd ever succeed by mere talk; 'but here's for a bold heart and a weather eye,' I thought; 'and if these can't do it, I will!' said I aloud, when someone clapped me on the shoulder.
"'Well, Tom, are you there?' said I, thinking it was Westwood. 'Why,' answered old Rollock, laughing, 'not so far wrong, my boy—but as it's thirty years since anyone called me so, I thought you were, for a moment!—Meditating, eh?' 'Only a cigar before bedtime—will you have one, sir?' 'Ah—well,' said the planter, 'I'll take a light at least—queer life this, eh? Shouldn't know this was water, now—more like train-oil! Looks junglish a little under the stars yonder.' 'Nothing but the haze come down,' said I; ''tis clear enough aloft, though—look out for squalls ere long.' 'As your friend Ford would have it,' said Rollock; 'but how a lad of your spirit can manage to stand this so well, I can't think!' 'Deyvilish dull, sir!' said I, with a lazy drawl, 'but can't be helped, you know.' 'Come, come, now, don't mend it by copying poor Winterton,' chuckled Rollock; 'you're no fool, Collins, so don't pretend to be. I say though, Collins, my boy,' continued he rather gravely, 'there is one really soft piece I begin to notice in you lately—I fear you're falling in love with that girl!' 'I, sir!' said I; 'dear me, what makes you——' 'My dear boy,' went on the kind-hearted old fellow, 'I take an interest in you; no lad of your stuff practises all this tomfoolery without something under it, and I see you've some serious meaning or other. Did you know her before?' 'Oh—why—not exactly,' I dropped out, taken rather short. 'I see, I see!' he went on; 'but I tell you what, Collins, a cadet can do nothing madder than marry at first landing; she had better be a cold-hearted flirt, after all—though, God knows, no man can say what that does but one that's—felt it!—I—I mean I knew—a young fellow that went out as ambitious as you can be, and he——'
"Here the planter's voice shook a little, and he stopped, puffing at his cheroot till the short end of it just lighted up his hook nose and part of his big white whiskers in the dark, only you saw his eye glistening, too. 'Devil take it!' thought I, 'who'd have expected the old boy to be so sharp, though?' 'Well but, Collins,' said he at last, 'just you enter heart and soul into your profession; I'd stake my life you'll rise, who knows how far—when you get captain's pay even, then you may think of it—that is, if she——' 'Why,' said I, 'd'ye suppose the judge would——' 'Judge!' exclaimed Mr Rollock—'worse and worse! Weren't we talking of pretty little Kate Fortescue? My dear boy, you don't intend to say you mean Miss Hyde! I left that to your puppy of a "first officer," as they call him! Why, that young girl will be the beauty of Calcutta.' At this I fancied someone else gave a whistle near us. 'Of course, sir,' said I, raising my voice, 'you didn't suppose me such a fool.' In fact, Miss Fortescue had never entered my head at all. 'Something strange about you, Collins!' said the planter, a little shortly; 'you puzzle me, I must say.' As we turned to go below, I heard somebody walk down the poop-ladder, and then the mate's voice sung out from the binnacle to 'strike eight bells!'
"The calm was as dead as ever next morning, and, if possible, hotter than before—not a rope changed aloft, nor a cloth in the sails moved; but it was pretty hazy round us, which made the water a sort of pale old-bottle blue, that sickened you to look at; and a long dipping and drawling heave gradually got up as if there were blankets on it; the ship, of course, shifting round and round again slowly, like a dog going to lie down, and the helm giving every now and then a sudden jolt. Near noon it cleared up with a blaze of light, as it were; the sole difference at first being, that what looked like melting lead before now turned into so many huge bright sheets of tin, every sudden bend of it as good as flashing up thousands of needles in your eyes. A good deal surprised we were, however, shortly after, to find there was a sail in sight, another square-rigged vessel, seemingly standing up on the horizon six or seven miles off. Being end on to us at the time, though every glass in the ship was brought to bear on her, 'twas hard to say what she was; then she and we went bobbing and going up and down with a long round heave between us, slowly enough, but always at cross purposes, like two fellows see-sawing on a plank over a dyke. When she was up, we were down, and we just caught sight of her royal, no bigger than a gull on the water; jerk went our rudder, and next time she seemed to have vanished out of the glasses altogether, till we walked round to the other side, and made her out again under the awning on the opposite beam. At length she lifted broad to us for a moment or two, showing a long pale sort of hull with a red streak, apparently without ports, and brig-rigged, though the space betwixt her two masts was curious for that kind of craft.