"Is that Parang, that dim light out yonder, captain?" said the major,
pointing to what looked like a cloud touching the water.
"Oh, no," was the reply. "That is part of Sumatra. Our destination
lies off the other bow, due east from where we are lying now."
It was a glorious morning, and the sun at that early hour had not yet
attained to its greater power. The ladies were on deck, enjoying the
morning air; the soldiers were having morning parade, and looked clean
and smart in their white clothes and puggarees. The sailors were giving
the last touches to brass rails and cabin windows, and were coiling
ropes into neat rings; and altogether the deck of the "Startler," with
its burnished guns, presented a bright and animated spectacle, every one
seeming to have some business on hand.
There was a little bit bustle about the steerage ladder, where four
sailors were hauling a sick man up on deck; and as soon as they had him
lying in the sunshine upon a mattress, the doctor bustled up--Bob
Roberts, seeing Ensign Long at hand, going up and looking on, after the
two youths had exchanged a short distant nod.
"Well, Sim," said the doctor, briskly, "how are you this morning?"
"Very--very bad, sir," replied the invalid, a big bony-faced man, who
looked very yellow.
"Put out your tongue," said the doctor.
Private Sim put out such an enormously long tongue that Bob Roberts gave
his trousers a hitch, and made believe to haul it forth by the yard,
very much to the ensign's disgust.
"That'll do," said the doctor, feeling the patient's pulse, and then
dropping the hand, "Now what am I to prescribe for you, Sim, eh? You
feel a terrible sense of sinking, don't you?"
"Yes, sir; terrible."
"As if you needed strengthening food?"
"Yes, sir."
"And some kind of stimulating drink--say wine?"
"Yes, sir," said the patient, rolling his eyes. "I feel as if a little
wine would do me good."
"Has the buzzing sensation left your head?"
"Very nearly, sir."
"And you don't feel so much pressure on your chest?"
"Well, sir, not just now."
"Less pain too, under your left shoulder?"
The major walked up just now.
"Yes, sir; it's not quite so painful."
"But you slept well?"
"Pretty well, sir, for me; I should think I had quite an hour's sleep
last night."
"A whole hour, eh?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, doctor," said the major, "what do you think of your patient? I
hope you are better, Sim?"
"Thanky kindly, sir," said Private Sim, screwing up a terrible face.
"I was thinking which I ought to prescribe," said the doctor, very
seriously. "Sim's is a peculiar case. There's pressure on the brain,
and also congestion of the vascular system of the spinal column."
"Indeed!" said the major.
"Yes, sir," replied the doctor, pursing up his lips, "and I'm hesitating
between two courses."
"Try 'em both, doctor," said Bob Roberts, laughing with his eyes.
"Right, youngster," said the doctor, clapping him on the shoulder, "I
will. We'll have the moist application first, and the warm dry
application after."
Private Sim screwed up his face a little tighter.
"If I might make so bold, sir," he said in a whining voice, "I think
what you've given me's done me ever so much good, and all I want now is
rest."
"Rest, my man!" said the doctor. "Nonsense man! You want the most
brisk and active treatment. Yours is a sluggish system, but we'll soon
put you right. Here, my lads," he continued to the sailors, "bring a
stout rope, and lash it round his chest. We'll give him four dips
overboard for the head pressure, and then four dozen on the back to
increase the circulation."
"Oh, doctor!" groaned the man, looking round for sympathy; but only to
see everyone within hearing on the grin.
"Don't you be afraid, Sim; I'll soon put you right," said the doctor
kindly. "I'll make a man of you."
"I don't think I could bear it, doctor. I mean I do really feel better,
sir."
"Let's see if you can stand, Sim," said the doctor.
The man rose groaning, and held on by one of the sailors, who, at a word
from the doctor, slipped away, and left the invalid standing.
"You are better, decidedly, Sim. You couldn't have done that two days
ago."
"No, sir."
"There, now walk across the deck."
"If I'm able to walk, sir, shall I have to be dipped?"
"Walk away, and go below to your mess, you idle, shamming scoundrel,"
cried the doctor.
Private Sim opened his lips to speak, but the look he received was too
much for him, and he slowly walked off, trying hard to appear ill-used,
till he reached the companion ladder, down which he shuffled to the
intense delight of the men.
There was no land in sight, but the sea was glorious in the brilliant
sunshine--so clear and blue that the darting fish could be seen far
below; and before long, Bob Roberts had borrowed a fishing-line from
Dick, the old sailor, baited the hooks, and was trailing it behind the
vessel, in the hope of catching enough fish for a dinner for his mess.
At first his sport was not very good; but after a time he captured a
large glistening fish, evidently, from its silvery skin, belonging to
the mackerel family; and this so excited Ensign Long, who had been
looking on rather contemptuously, that he borrowed a line of the
boatswain, and was also soon at work fishing.
The lads had such good sport that the officers looked on quite amused,
and the ladies under the awning asked from time to time to be shown the
glistening captives that had been taken.
Soon after the doctor joined the party, to discourse learnedly about the
various fishes, which he classified as he pointed out their
peculiarities, assuring his fair hearers that far more beautiful
specimens might yet be taken.
Rachel Linton, a fair, very intelligent looking girl, was much
interested in the doctor's descriptions, as was also her cousin, Mary
Sinclair, a dark, handsome, but delicate, brunette, of nineteen, full of
questions, which the doctor took great delight in answering.
Bob Roberts and the young ensign vied one with the other in hurrying up
with their fish, as they were successful, Ensign Long looking hopelessly
disgusted as he saw the middy catch and carry three fish in succession
beneath the awning, while he could not get a bite.
Soon, however, his turn came, and with a look of triumph he bore a long
silvery fish with bars of azure blue across its scaly armour, to where
the ladies were seated, Bob Roberts biting his lips as he heard the
exclamations of pleasure uttered by each of the cousins in turn.
"Never mind," he muttered, "I shall have a startler directly, see if I
don't," and he fished away, changing his bait, or replacing it as it was
lost in consequence of the rapid motion of the steamer through the
water; but all in vain; not a single fish came to his side, while on the
other side Ensign Long was having tremendous luck.
Wearied out with trying, the lad sat at last holding his line in one
hand, but paying no heed to it, for his eyes were directed beneath the
awning, where all looked dim as compared with the sun-glare outside; and
here from time to time he saw Long enter with some new prize, which the
doctor took, and held up to the ladies, the more brilliantly coloured
being consigned to one or the other of a couple of buckets of water,
which one of the soldiers in undress uniform, whom the middy recognised
as the sentry of the previous night, kept replenishing with fresh water
dipped from the sea.
"He isn't a bad-looking chap," said the young midshipman, as he sat on
the bulwarks in a very insecure position. "I wish I was filling the
buckets and holding up the fish for the ladies to see."
He glanced once at his trailing line, and saw the bait flash in the
water, then he glanced back at the party beneath the awning.
"How black Captain Smithers looks," he said. "That soldier must have
splashed him, or something, for he looks as if he was going to have him
tried by court-martial. Here I think I shall drop it. Hang it all! if
that fellow Long hasn't caught another. What did she say?" he cried,
drawing in his breath with a hiss. "`You are ever so much more
fortunate than Mr Roberts.' Oh, I'd give something to have her say
that to me, and--murder! I've got him this time--"
He made a convulsive grasp at a rope, and just saved himself from
falling overboard, for a vigorous snatch made by a large fish at his
bait had been quite sufficient to disturb his equilibrium, his activity
alone saving him from a terrible ducking, if not from being drowned.
He recovered himself though, and thought no more of his escape in the
excitement of finding that he had hooked a heavyish fish, and which took
a good deal of playing; for just as it seemed exhausted, there was a
fierce, furious snatch at the line, and the captive appeared to have
grown heavier.
"He's almost too heavy to lift out, Dick," he cried to the old sailor
who came up.
"Ease him then, sir, and take it easy," said Dick; "tire him quite out,
and then haul in quickly."
Bob Roberts obeyed, and to his intense delight, gradually hauled his
fish to the surface, where he could not make out what it was by its
shape, only that it was a blaze of blue, and gold, and silver, flashing
in the sun.
"Hi, doctor! I've got such a beauty!" he shouted, dragging at the stout
line, till with a rush he hoisted his fish on to the deck.
"Well, that's a rum 'un, sir," cried the sailor. "Why it's a young sea
sarpent."
"What have you got?" said the doctor eagerly, as the lad hurried
excitedly beneath the awning with his prize.
"I don't know, doctor," said the lad. "But look, Miss Linton--Miss
Sinclair, isn't it curious?"
The lad's cheeks flushed, and his eyes sparkled with delight, as he held
up by the line what seemed to be a good-sized fish, of five or six
pounds' weight, with a very long brilliantly-coloured eel twined tightly
round and round it, in a perfect spiral, several feet in length.
"Why, you've caught a fish, boy," said the doctor, examining the prize
through his glasses, "and it has been seized and constricted by a sea
snake. Dear me! bliss my soul! that's very curious. Look here, Captain
Smithers, and ladies. Gray, a fresh bucket of water. Most singular
thing!"
"I thought he got precious heavy all at once, doctor," said the lad,
looking from one to the other. "That chap darted at him then."
"Ye-es, I suppose so," said the doctor. "Lovely colouring, to be sure!
See how tightly it has constricted the fish, ladies. Just like a piece
of woodbine round a stick, only the coils are more close."
"It is very beautiful," said Miss Linton, approaching more closely, so
that she could feast her eyes on the vivid colouring of the water-snake,
which was about five feet in length, but whose coils seemed to grow more
close as the fish ceased to flap as it was held up by the middy.
"I'm glad you like it, Miss Linton," he said, darting a triumphant
glance at where Ensign Long was now fishing in vain. "He didn't catch
two at once," the boy muttered to himself.
"I wouldn't go too close, Miss Linton," said the doctor, "for some of
these sea snakes are reputed to be poisonous. Lovely thing, isn't it,
Smithers?"
"Very," said the young captain drily; "but pray take care, Miss Linton."
"I am not afraid," said the lady, looking up at him with a quiet air of
confidence, just as Private Gray bore in a fresh bucket of limpid sea
water, and set it down at her feet.
"Now then," said the doctor; "hold still, Roberts."
"All right, sir; but it's jolly heavy," said the boy.
"Then give the line a shake, and the snake will fall into the bucket.
Or stop; I will."
But he was too late, for the lad had already given the line a quick
shake, with the result that the snake uncoiled like lightning, and
darted at the nearest object, that object being Miss Linton's arm, round
which it coiled with the rapidity of the thong of a whip round a stick.
The resident's daughter was brave and strong minded, but as she felt the
contact of the creature's cold scales upon her bare arm she could not
forbear from shrieking aloud; but even as she uttered the cry, the young
soldier, Gray, had caught the snake round the neck, causing it to loosen
its hold, but only to coil round his own bare arm, round which it
twisted, and twice seized the wrist with its little mouth.
"The snake has bitten me," said the young man, hoarsely, as he dashed
its head rapidly against one of the chairs, and then cast it, broken but
writhing, upon the white deck.
All this took but a few moments, and then Private Gray stood, gazing
with a strange wild longing look at Miss Linton, as the doctor
exclaimed,--
"Quick, Roberts, to my cabin; the ammonia. Ladies, go away, please,
quickly."
He caught the young soldier, and forced him back in one of the chairs as
he spoke, for already a ghastly pallor was overspreading his
countenance.
"Is it--is it poisonous, doctor?" whispered Miss Linton, as she darted a
horrified look at Gray.
"Deadly! my dear young lady," he replied hastily. "The poor fellow has
saved your life. And only last night," he thought, "I said he was a
coward."