“I say, old chap,” he remarked, “you look awfully cool and comfy. Been under the head pump, as usual, I suppose. Upon my word, if it were not for the possibility—not to say the extreme probability—of being snapped up by a shark, I should like to go overboard in a bowline and be towed for half an hour. And—talking of sharks—have you noticed how often we have seen the beggars following us since we have been in this ship? I suppose her timbers have become saturated, as it were, with the odour of the slaves she has carried, and so—but, hillo! what has happened to the barometer?”
I glanced at the instrument, which, together with a tell-tale compass, swung from the skylight transoms, and saw that the mercury had sunk in the tube to the extent of nearly an inch since the last setting of the vernier; and, as it was our custom in the Slave Squadron at that time to set the instrument at 8 o’clock a.m. and 8 o’clock p.m., it meant that the mercury had fallen to that extent during the night! What was about to happen? I had observed nothing portentous in the aspect of the weather, while on deck, unless, indeed, the softening away of the trade-wind and the hazy condition of the atmosphere might be regarded as portents. Yet that could hardly be, for I had observed the same phenomena before, yet nothing particular had come of it. I decided to have a talk with Tasker, the gunner’s mate, and get his views on the matter; he was a man of very considerable experience, having been a sailor before I was born; I therefore at once entered my cabin, and proceeded to dress; after which I returned to the deck, where Tasker was officer of the watch. I found him sitting aft on the stern grating, replacing his socks and shoes, which he had removed from his feet at four bells in order to take a leading part in the matutinal ceremony of washing decks. I had already seen him a little earlier that morning, and exchanged greetings with him; I therefore at once, and without any circumlocution, plunged into the subject by asking:
“What do you think of the look of the weather, Mr Tasker; is there anything unusual about it, in your opinion?”
Tasker rose to his feet and cast a prolonged glance at the sky before replying. Then he said slowly:
“I can’t say as I sees anything much out of the common about it, so far, Mr Fortescue. The wind’s dropped a bit more than’s quite usual, certainly; but I don’t know as there’s very mich in that. And then there’s this here thickness o’ the hatmosphere—well, that may or may not mean somethin’, but I don’t see anything alarmin’ about it just yet. Why d’ye ask the question, sir? Is the glass droppin’ at all?”
“It has dropped nearly an inch since it was set last night,” I answered.
“Phew! Nearly an inch since eight bells last night!” ejaculated the old salt, with an air of concern. “That means, sir, that it have fallen that little lot since midnight; for I looked at it then, when Mr Keene relieved me, and it hadn’t dropped nothin’ then.”
“Then what is going to happen?” I demanded. “Are we going to have a hurricane?”
“I should say yes, Mr Fortescue, most decidedly,” answered Tasker. “And yet,” he continued, again carefully scanning the sky, “I must confess I don’t see nothin’ very alarmin’ up there at present. I s’pose the mercury bag haven’t sprung a leak, by no chance, have it? This here sudden drop reminds me of a yarn a shipmate of mine once told me about a scare he had when he was in the sloop Pyramus in the Indian Ocean, outward bound to the China station. The scare started with a sudden fall of the barometer, just as it might be in this here present case, and it went on droppin’ until the skipper began to think he was booked for the biggest blow as ever come away out o’ the ’eavens. He started by sendin’ down royal and t’gallan’ yards and housin’ the t’gallan’ masts. Then, as the mercury still went on droppin’, he shortened sail to close-reefed fore and main taups’ls, sent the t’gallan’ masts down on deck, and housed the topmasts. While this work was goin’ on the mercury kept fallin’ until it sank out o’ sight altogether; and the skipper had actually given the order to furl the taups’ls and send the yards and masts down when the cabin steward happened to make the discovery that the mercury bag had busted and the mercury from the barometer was rollin’ in little balls all over the cabin floor! My mate told me that the time in which they got that there Pyramus ataunto again, that day, and the royals upon her, was never a’terwards beaten!”
I could not avoid a good hearty laugh at this quaint story of a phenomenal fall of the mercury in a barometer; for it was easy to conjure up a picture of the rapidly growing alarm and dismay of the captain as he watched the steady and speedy shrinkage of the metallic column, and of the feverish anxiety and haste with which he would proceed with his preparations to meet the swoop of the supposedly approaching typhoon, as also of his disgust at the discovery that all his alarm and anxiety had been brought about by the unsuspected leakage of a leather bag! But the story served as a hint to me; what had happened once might happen again; and I forthwith retired to the cabin and carefully examined our own instrument to discover whether, haply, such an accident had occurred in our case. But no, the bag into which the base of the glass tube was plunged was perfectly sound and intact; and, meanwhile, during my brief colloquy with Tasker a further fall of a full tenth had occurred. I lost no time in returning to the deck.