During the forenoon watch, the deck was in charge of Mr Adams, the
second mate--a plain, steady-going, matter-of-fact sort of man, with
none of that buoyant spirit and keen sense of humour which characterised
hid senior shipmate McCarthy, although he was a thorough sailor to the
backbone, and believed the human race to be divided into two classes,
those who were seamen and those who weren't. The wind now took a more
favourable turn, settling itself in the south-east quarter as if it
meant to remain there, thus enabling the ship to steer a better course;
and, meanwhile, the sky clearing up a bit, the threatening clouds
drifted to leeward and the sun shone out again just as it did when the
captain first came on deck in the early morning.
Taking advantage of the change, the reefs were shaken out of the
topsails, the courses let fall again, the jib and flying-jib hoisted,
and the topgallants set; and soon, with her head steering south-west and
a half south, the _Nancy Bell_ was bounding over the waves under all
plain sail, as if anxious to make up for the time she had lost in
tacking about against the head-wind that had barred her southward
progress ever since she took her departure from the Lizard Point on the
previous day when she hauled out from the Channel.
The breeze was freshening, and there was a nasty sort of chopping sea,
when the captain came on the poop at noon to take the sun, in order to
ascertain his longitude--an operation which would have been much more
difficult in the hazy weather that had prevailed some few hours
previous, with the zenith every now and then overcast by the fleecy
storm wrack and flying scud that came drifting across the sky as the
wind veered; but the ship was making good running, and everything bade
fair for her soon crossing the boisterous Bay of Biscay, on whose
troubled waters she had now entered.
"She's slipping along!" said Captain Dinks to Adams, rubbing his hands
together gleefully, as he put down his sextant on the top of the saloon
skylight for a moment and gave a glance aloft and then over the side to
windward.
"Yes, sir," replied the second mate. "Going fine--eleven knots last
heave of the lead."
"Ah, nothing can beat her on a bowline!" said the captain triumphantly.
"She's a clipper and no mistake when she has the wind abeam: bears her
canvas well, too, for a little un!" he added, with another glance aloft,
where the sails could be seen distended to their utmost extent and
tugging at the bolt-ropes, while the topgallant-masts were bent almost
into a curve with the strain upon them and the stays aft were stretched
as tight as fiddle-strings.
"Yes, sir; she does," agreed Adams; "but, don't you think, sir, she's
carrying on too much now that the wind has got up? I was just going to
call the hands to take in sail when you came on deck."
"Certainly not," replied Captain Dinks, struck aghast by the very
suggestion of such a thing. "I won't have a stitch off her! Why, man
alive, you wouldn't want me to lose this breeze with such a lot of
leeway as we have to make up?"
"No, sir; but--"
"Hang your `buts'!" interrupted the captain with some heat. "You are a
bit too cautious, Adams. When you have sailed the _Nancy Bell_ as long
as I have you'll know what she's able to carry and what she isn't!"
With these pregnant words of wisdom, the captain resumed possession of
his sextant and proceeded to take the altitude of the sun, shouting out
occasional unintelligible directions the while through the skylight to
Mr McCarthy, who was in his cabin below, so that he might compare the
position of the solar orb with Greenwich time as marked by the
chronometer. Then telling Adams at the end of the operation to "make it
eight bells," whereupon the tinkling sounds denoting twelve o'clock were
heard through the ship, he himself also hurried below, to "work out his
reckoning."
On Captain Dinks coming up again, he reported that the _Nancy Bell_ had
done better than he expected for her "first day out," considering the
adverse circumstances she had had to contend with, for she had logged
more than a hundred and fifty miles; but he did not look quite so
jubilant as he had done before going below, nor did McCarthy, who now
accompanied him on deck to relieve the second mate, whose watch had
expired.
"What's the matter, captain?" asked Mr Meldrum, with a smile, "are you
not satisfied; or, did you expect the ship to have done more?"
The passenger was patrolling the poop, in company with his two
daughters, Kate and Florry--the latter a rompish little girl, some
twelve years old, with long golden-brown hair which the wind was making
wild havoc of, dashing it across her face as she turned, and streaming
it out to leeward behind her in picturesque confusion. The girls had
some little difficulty in walking along the deck, as it was inclined to
a considerable angle from the vessel's heeling over; but, by dint of
clutching hold of their father, which they did with much joking and
merriment and silvery laughter, each taking an arm on either side, they
managed to preserve their equilibrium, keeping pace in regular quarter-
deck fashion.
"No," replied Captain Dinks to Mr Meldrum's chaffing question, "I can't
say that I am satisfied, for I'm sorry to tell you that the barometer is
going down."
"Indeed!" said the other, "and with the wind from the south-east! I'd
advise you, captain, to take in sail at once."
"Why, you're as bad as Adams," returned Captain Dinks rather huffily; "I
suppose you'd like me to strip the ship just when we're getting the
first fair breeze we've had since leaving Plymouth! Excuse me, Mr
Meldrum, I know my business; and, I presume, you'll allow a sailor to be
better acquainted with his duties than any landsman can possibly be."
"Oh, certainly, Captain Dinks," said Mr Meldrum with a bow, "and I'm
sure I beg your pardon for interfering! Of course, as you say, a
landsman has no knowledge of these things and has no right to speak."
"Oh, papa!" exclaimed Kate Meldrum reproachfully, "how could you say
that?" while Florry pinched his arm and seemed convulsed with laughter,
which she endeavoured to choke down in vain, at some secret joke or
other; but Captain Dinks, quite restored to his usual good-humour and
politeness by Mr Meldrum's apology, did not notice the girls, and
presently all were chatting together with the utmost cordiality, the
captain enlarging on the excellent run he hoped to make to New Zealand,
and promising the young ladies that they should see Madeira ere the week
was out, for he anticipated that the south-easterly breeze they now had
would carry them well past the Spanish coast and into the north-east
trades, when their voyage would be all plain sailing down to the
Equator.