“And what do you think it was?” I said eagerly.
“Not knowing, can’t say,” he replied quietly. “Our officer said, half-laughing, half-puzzled like, that he should have said it was the sea-serpent, only no one would believe him if he did.”
“Did you ever see anything else?” I asked.
“Oh, yes, my lad, I’ve seen a good many things that people wouldn’t believe. I remember once seeing a curious thing off the muddy Malay coast, a long way north of Malacca, where you have mangrove swamps right down about the mouths of the rivers, places where the crocodiles go in and out.”
“I say, how big’s a crocodile?” said Tom sharply.
“All sizes, mate,” said the sailor. “I’ve seen ’em two foot long and I’ve seen ’em twenty.”
“Oh, not bigger than that?” said Tom contemptuously.
“No, my lad, that’s the biggest I ever see, but I’ve heerd of ’em being seen five or six and twenty.”
“But tell us about the strange thing you saw off the Malay coast,” I said impatiently.
“Oh, ah! yes,” he said, “that was just as the mist was lifting that lay between us and the coast. It was in a shallow muddy sea, and three or four of us was trying to make out the trees ashore, and wondering whether there would be any chance of our getting some fresh fruit and vegetables before long; when, all at once, one of my mates claps his hand on my shoulder, and he says—‘Lookye yonder, mate.’ ‘Why, it’s the sea-sarpent!’ says another. ‘Well, that is a rum un,’ says another. And then we stood looking at what seemed to be a great snake swimming, with twenty or thirty feet of its neck outer water; and it was holding it up in a curve just like a swan, and sometimes its head was right up high and sometimes curved down close to the water with its neck in a loop, and all the time it was going along five or six knots an hour. ‘Why, it is the sea-sarpent!’ says another of our mates, ‘look all behind there; you can see its back as it swims, ’tis a hundred foot long, see if it isn’t!’ I looked, and sure enough it did seem to be a great length behind, nearly covered by the water; but, as I stood, it didn’t seem to me like a snake swimming, for it seemed more than ever as if what we saw was a great slimy slaty-coloured thing, the make of a swan, swimming with its body nearly all under water and its head out; or, as I afterwards thought, just like one of the big West Indy turtles, such as you’ll see by and by if you’re lucky.”