“Think of that now!” said Tom. “Where’s the sea-serpents, then?”
“Oh, all about the Indian and Chinese Seas.”
“Big uns?”
“I never heard of their being more than five or six feet long, but some of them are very poisonous. People have died from their bite.”
“Have they, though?” said Tom. “And where else are there any, Mas’r Harry?”
“Oh, they swarm in the Caspian Sea. I’ve heard that they float about in knots of several together on calm, sunny days, and they come ashore in the shallow parts.”
“Caspian Sea!” said Tom; “where may that be—anywhere near Crackers?”
“No, Tom,” I said; “we’ve left that behind us in the Old World.”
“And a good job too,” said Tom; “we don’t want sea-serpents where we’re going. Why, Mas’r Harry, I shall never like to do a bathe again.”
Soon after this Tom proposed that we should try sea-fishing, but when we had borrowed lines and begun to make our preparations the weather set in so rough that we never once had a chance. In fact there were many days when we had no opportunity of coming on deck unless we were prepared to be drenched with the spray that deluged the deck as some great wave struck the steamer’s bows, and then flew in driving showers from end to end.