Chapter Seven.
Fire!
The calm continued for four days, during which time not a breath of wind came from any point of the compass to waft the ship on her way; although, of course, she could not help drifting a few miles every twenty-four hours southwards, under the influence of the great equatorial current.
However, if there was no wind, there was no lack of novelty to those of the passengers who had never been to sea before; for, from their being now within the tropical region, the ocean around, albeit so still and glassy, seemed to swarm with life. Thousands of flying-fish were to be seen fluttering on either side of the vessel, while skipjacks and bonetas also showed themselves occasionally; and the dreaded shark, with his close attendant and valet the pilot-fish, was not an absentee, for he was continually cruising about astern on the constant look-out.
“How funny those flying-fish look!” said Florry Meldrum, watching a shoal of them that rose from the water just like a covey of white larks, and which, after skimming past the Nancy Bell, again settled in the sea, quite tired out with their short flight.
“You should see them nearer,” said Frank Harness, who was between the two girls, looking out over the gangway aft—“and then you would call them funnier. Ah! here is one,” he added, catching one of the little fluttering creatures that had become entangled in the mizzen rigging; “you see, it doesn’t have wings as you think, but only a membrane between its fins, just like what a bat has.”
“Yes,” said I “I see. It is curious, though, that they should look so white at a distance, when their backs are dark and blueish, like a mackerel!”
“Ah! that is because the under part of their wings is only then visible. Look, now, at that lot there that have just risen to escape the boneta. They seem exactly like a fall of snowflakes!”
“Poor things!” said Kate. “The boneta seems to be their inveterate enemy, or rather consumer, as he appears to be in good condition on the diet. It’s a pity, though, that he’s such a glutton; for he’s a nice-looking fish, all purple and gold, and he oughtn’t to be so cruel!”