"I say, Robin," said Samuel Shipton, as he encountered our hero and
Slagg that same evening in the streets of Bombay, "the government land
telegraph was reported this morning to have recovered its health."
"Well, what of that?"
"I have taken advantage of the lucid interval to send a telegram to
uncle Rik. No doubt your father has by this time received the telegram
we sent announcing our safety and arrival here, so this one won't take
them by surprise."
"But what is it about?" asked Robin.
"It is sent," replied Sam, "with the intention of converting uncle Rik
into a thief-catcher. That stupid waiter told me only this morning that
the time he followed Stumps to the harbour, he overheard a sailor
conversing with him and praising a certain tavern named the Tartar, near
London Bridge, to which he promised to introduce him on their arrival in
England; so it struck me that by telegraphing to uncle Rik to find out
the owners of the Fairy Queen and the position of the Tartar, he might
lay hold of Stumps on his arrival and recover our stolen property."
"But I hope he won't put him in limbo, sir," said Jim Slagg. "I've no
objection to recover our property, but somehow I don't like to have the
poor fellow transported. You see I can't help thinkin' he was
half-cracked when he did it."
"He must take his chance, I suppose," said Sam, thoughtfully. "However,
the telegram is off, and, if it ever reaches him, uncle Rik will act
with discretion."
"I agree with Jim," said Robin, "and should be sorry to be the means of
ruining our old comrade."
"It did not strike me in that light," returned Sam, a little troubled at
the thought. "But it can't be helped now. In any case I suppose he
could not be tried till we appear as witnesses against him."
"I ain't much of a lawyer," said Slagg, "but it do seem to me that they
couldn't very well take him up without some proof that the property
wasn't his."
"It may be so," returned Sam; "we shall see when we get home. Meanwhile
it behoves us to square up here, for the Great Eastern starts early
to-morrow and we must be on board in good time to-night."
Now, you must not imagine, good reader, that we intend to drag you a
second time through all the details of laying a deep-sea cable. The
process of laying was much the same in its general principles as that
already described, but of course marked by all the improvements in
machinery, etcetera, which time and experience had suggested. Moreover,
the laying of the Indian cable was eminently, we might almost say
monotonously, successful, and, consequently, devoid of stirring
incident. We shall therefore merely touch on one or two features of
interest connected with it, and then pass on to the more important
incidents of our story.
When Robin and his comrades drew near to the big ship, she was
surrounded by a perfect fleet of native boats, whose owners were
endeavouring to persuade the sailors to purchase bananas and other
fruits and vegetables; paroquets, sticks, monkeys, and fancy wares.
Next morning, the 14th of February 1870, the Great Eastern lifted her
mighty anchor, and spliced the end of the 2375 miles of cable she had on
board to the shore-end, which had been laid by the Chiltern. This
splice was effected in the presence of the Governor of Bombay, Sir
Seymour Fitzgerald, who, with a small party, accompanied the Great
Eastern a short distance on its way. Then, embarking in his yacht, they
bade God-speed to the expedition, gave them three ringing cheers, and
the voyage to Aden began.
Soon the cable-layers were gliding merrily over the bright blue sea at
the rate of five or six knots an hour, with the cable going quietly over
the stern, the machinery working smoothly, the electrical condition of
the cable improving as the sea deepened, and flocks of flying-fish
hovering over the crisp and curly waves, as if they were specially
interested in the expedition, and wished to bear it company.
All went well, yet were they well prepared for accident or disaster, as
Sam informed Robin on the morning of the 16th while sitting at
breakfast.
"They have got two gongs, as you've observed, no doubt," he said, "which
are never to be sounded except when mischief is brewing. The first
intimation of fault or disaster will be a note from one of these gongs,
when the ship will be instantly stepped, the brakes put on, and the
engines reversed."
"Everything is splendidly prepared and provided for," said Robin; "hand
me the sugar, Sam."
"The elasticity and good behaviour of the big ship are all that could be
desired," remarked one of the engineers, "though she carries 3000 tons
more dead-weight than when she started with the Atlantic cable in 1865."
At that moment there was a lull of consternation round the
breakfast-table, for a drumming upon metal was heard! For one instant
there was a gaze of doubt round the table. Then they rose _en masse_;
cups were upset, and chairs thrown over; the cabin was crossed at racing
speed,--Captain Halpin leading--the stair-case surmounted, and a rush
made to the testing-room.
There all was quiet and orderly; the operators placidly pursuing their
labours, working out their calculations, or watching the tell-tale spot
of light on the scale, and all looking up in silent surprise at the
sudden hubbub round their door. It was a false alarm, caused by the
steady dripping of a shower-bath on its metal bottom! That was all, but
it was sufficient to prove how intensely men were on the _qui vive_.
It was a wonderful scene, the deck of the Great Eastern--
incomprehensible by those who have not seen it. The cabins, offices,
workshops, and machinery formed a continuous line of buildings up the
centre of the vessel's deck, dividing it into two streets an eighth of a
mile long. At the end of one of these were the wheels and drums running
from the top of the aft-tank to the stern; and between them and the two
thoroughfares were wooden houses which shut them out from view. There
was a farmyard also, where cattle were regularly turned out for
exercise; there were goats which were allowed to go free about the
decks, and chickens which took the liberty of doing so, sometimes,
without leave; there were parrots being taken home by the sailors which
shrieked their opinions noisily; and there were numerous monkeys, which
gambolled in mischievous fun, or sat still, the embodiment of ludicrous
despair; while, intermingling with the general noise could be heard the
rattle of the paying-out wheels, as the cable passed with solemn dignity
and unvarying persistency over the stern into the sea, it seemed almost
unheeded, so perfect and self-acting was the machinery; but it was,
nevertheless, watched by keen sleepless eyes--as the mouse is watched by
the cat--night and day.
The perfection not only achieved but expected, was somewhat absurdly
brought out by the electrician in the cable-house at Bombay, who one day
complained to the operators on board the Great Eastern that the reply to
one of his questions had been from three to twelve seconds late! It
must be understood, however, that although the testing of the cable went
on continuously during the whole voyage, the sending of messages was not
frequent, as that interfered with the general work. Accordingly,
communication with the shore was limited to a daily statement from the
ship of her position at noon, and to the acknowledgment of the same by
the electrician at Bombay.
One of the greatest dangers in paying-out consists in changing from tank
to tank when one is emptied, and a full one has to be commenced. This
was always an occasion of great interest and anxiety.
About midnight of the 19th the change to the fore-tank was made, and
nearly every soul in the ship turned out to see it. The moon was
partially obscured, but darkness was made visible by a row of lanterns
hung at short intervals along the trough through which the cable was to
be passed, making the ship look inconceivably long. As Robin Wright
hurried along the deck he observed that both port and starboard watches
were on duty, hid in the deep shadow of the wheels, or standing by the
bulwark, ready for action. Traversing the entire length of the deck--
past the houses of the sheep and pigs; past the great life-boats; past
the half-closed door of the testing-room, where the operators maintained
their unceasing watch in a flood of light; past the captain's cabin, a
species of land-mark or half-way house; past a group of cows and goats
lying on the deck chewing the cud peacefully, and past offices and
deck-cabins too numerous to mention,--he came at last to the fore-tank,
which was so full of cable that the hands ready to act, and standing on
the upper coil, had to stoop to save their heads from the deck above.
The after-tank, on the contrary, was by that time a huge yawning pit,
twenty-five feet deep, lighted by numerous swinging lamps like a
subterranean church, with its hands, like Lilliputians, attending to the
last coil of the cable. That coil or layer was full four miles long,
but it would soon run out, therefore all was in readiness. The captain
was giving directions in a low voice, and seeing that every one was in
his place. The chiefs of the engineers and electricians were on the
alert. Every few minutes a deep voice from below announced the number
of "turns" before the last one. At last the operation was successfully
accomplished and the danger past, and the cable was soon running out
from the fore-tank as smoothly as it had run out of the other.
The tendency of one flake or coil of cable to stick to the coil
immediately below, and produce a wild irremediable entanglement before
the ship could be stopped, was another danger, but these and all other
mishaps of a serious nature were escaped, and the unusually prosperous
voyage was brought to a close on the 27th of February, when the Great
Eastern reached Aden in a gale of wind--as if to remind the cable-layers
of what _might_ have been--and the cable was cut and buoyed in forty
fathoms water.
The continuation of the cable up the Red Sea, the successful termination
of the great enterprise, and the start of our hero and his companions
for Old England after their work was done, we must unwillingly leave to
the reader's imagination.