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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Battery and the Boiler, by R.M. Ballantyne
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Battery and the Boiler
+       Adventures in Laying of Submarine Electric Cables
+
+Author: R.M. Ballantyne
+
+Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21716]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BATTERY AND THE BOILER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+THE BATTERY AND THE BOILER, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+IN WHICH THE HERO MAKES HIS FIRST FLASH AND EXPLOSION.
+
+Somewhere about the middle of this nineteenth century, a baby boy was
+born on the raging sea in the midst of a howling tempest.  That boy was
+the hero of this tale.
+
+He was cradled in squalls, and nourished in squalor--a week of dirty
+weather having converted the fore-cabin of the emigrant ship into
+something like a pig-sty.  Appreciating the situation, no doubt, the
+baby boy began his career with a squall that harmonised with the
+weather, and, as the steward remarked to the ship's cook, "continued for
+to squall straight on end all that day and night without so much as ever
+takin' breath!"  It is but right to add that the steward was prone to
+exaggeration.
+
+"Stooard," said the ship's cook in reply, as he raised his eyes from the
+contemplation of his bubbling coppers, "take my word for it, that there
+babby what has just bin launched ain't agoin' to shovel off his mortal
+coil--as the play-actor said--without makin' his mark some'ow an'
+somew'eres."
+
+"What makes you think so, Johnson?" asked the steward.
+
+"What makes me think so, stooard?" replied the cook, who was a huge
+good-natured young man.  "Well, I'll tell 'ee.  I was standin' close to
+the fore hatch at the time, a-talkin' to Jim Brag, an' the father o' the
+babby, poor feller, he was standin' by the foretops'l halyards holdin'
+on to a belayin'-pin, an' lookin' as white as a sheet--for I got a
+glance at 'im two or three times doorin' the flashes o' lightnin'.
+Well, stooard, there was lightnin' playin' round the mizzen truck, an'
+the main truck, an' the fore truck, an' at the end o' the flyin'
+jib-boom, an' the spanker boom; then there came a flash that seemed to
+set afire the entire univarse; then a burst o' thunder like fifty great
+guns gone off all at once in a hurry.  At that identical moment,
+stooard, there came up from the fore-cabin a yell that beat--well, I
+can't rightly say what it beat, but it minded me o' that unfortnit pig
+as got his tail jammed in the capstan off Cape Horn.  The father gave a
+gasp.  `It's born,' says he.  `More like's if it's basted,' growled Jim
+Brag.  `You're a unfeelin' monster, Brag,' says I; `an' though you _are_
+the ship's carpenter, I _will_ say it, you 'aven't got no more sympathy
+than the fluke of an anchor!'  Hows'ever the poor father didn't hear the
+remark, for he went down below all of a heap--head, legs, and arms--
+anyhow.  Then there came another yell, an' another, an' half a dozen
+more, which was followed by another flash o' lightnin' an' drownded in
+another roar o' thunder; but the yells from below kep' on, an' came out
+strong between times, makin' no account whatever o' the whistlin' wind
+an' rattlin' ropes, which they riz above--easy.--Now, stooard, do you
+mean for to tell me that all that signifies nothink?  Do you suppose
+that that babby could go through life like an or'nary babby?  No, it
+couldn't--not even if it was to try--w'ich it _won't_!"
+
+Having uttered this prophecy the cook resumed the contemplation of his
+bubbling coppers.
+
+"Well, I suppose you're right, John Johnson," said the steward.
+
+"Yes, I'm right, Tom Thomson," returned the cook, with the nod and air
+of a man who is never wrong.
+
+And the cook _was_ right, as the reader who continues to read shall find
+out in course of time.
+
+The gale in which little Robin Wright was thus launched upon the sea of
+Time blew the sails of that emigrant ship--the Seahorse--to ribbons.  It
+also blew the masts out of her, leaving her a helpless wreck on the
+breast of the palpitating sea.  Then it blew a friendly sail in sight,
+by which passengers and crew were rescued and carried safe back to Old
+England.  There they separated--some to re-embark in other emigrant
+ships; some to renew the battle of life at home--thenceforward and for
+ever after to vilify the sea in all its aspects, except when viewed at a
+safe distance from the solid land!
+
+Little Robin's parents were among the latter.  His father, a poor
+gentleman, procured a situation as accountant in a mercantile house.
+His mother busied herself--and she was a very busy little creature--with
+the economics of home.  She clothed Robin's body and stored his mind.
+Among other things, she early taught him to read from the Bible.
+
+As Robin grew he waxed strong and bold and lively, becoming a source of
+much anxiety, mingled with delight, to his mother, and of considerable
+alarm, mixed with admiration and surprise, to his father.  He possessed
+an inquisitive mind.  He inquired into everything--including the antique
+barometer and the household clock, both of which were heirlooms, and
+were not improved by his inquiries.  Strange to say, Robin's chief
+delight in those early days was a thunderstorm.  The rolling of heaven's
+artillery seemed to afford inexpressible satisfaction to his little
+heart, but it was the lightning that affected him most.  It filled him
+with a species of awful joy.  No matter how it came--whether in the
+forked flashes of the storm, or the lambent gleamings of the summer
+sky--he would sit and gaze at it in solemn wonder.  Even in his earliest
+years he began to make inquiries into that remarkable and mysterious
+agent.
+
+"Musser," he said one day, during a thunderstorm, raising his large eyes
+to his mother's face with intense gravity,--"Musser, what is
+lightenin'?"
+
+Mrs Wright, who was a soft little unscientific lady with gorgeous eyes,
+sat before her son, perplexed.
+
+"Well, child, it is--it--really, I don't know what it is!"
+
+"Don't know?" echoed Robin, with surprise, "I sought you know'd
+everysing."
+
+"No, not everything, dear," replied Mrs Wright, with a deprecatory
+smile; "but here comes your father, who will tell you."
+
+"Does _he_ know everysing?" asked the child.
+
+"N-no, not exactly; but he knows many things--oh, _ever_ so many
+things," answered the cautious wife and mother.
+
+The accountant had barely crossed his humble threshold and sat
+down, when Robin clambered on his knee and put the puzzling
+question.--"Fasser, what is lightenin'?"
+
+"Lightning, my boy?--why, it's--it's--let me see--it's fire, of course,
+of some sort, that comes out o' the clouds and goes slap into the
+earth--there, don't you see it?"
+
+Robin did see it, and was so awestruck by the crash which followed the
+blinding flash that he forgot at the moment to push his inquiries
+further, much to his father's satisfaction, who internally resolved to
+hunt up the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ that very evening--letter L--and
+study it.
+
+In process of time Robin increased in size.  As he expanded in body he
+developed in mind and in heart, for his little mother, although
+profoundly ignorant of electricity and its effects, was deeply learned
+in the Scriptures.  But Robin did not hunger in vain after scientific
+knowledge.  By good fortune he had a cousin--cousin Sam Shipton--who was
+fourteen years older than himself, and a clerk at a neighbouring railway
+station, where there was a telegraphic instrument.
+
+Now, Sam, being himself possessed of strongly scientific tendencies,
+took a great fancy to little Robin, and sought to enlighten his young
+mind on many subjects where "musser's" knowledge failed.  Of course he
+could not explain all that he himself knew about electricity--the child
+was too young for that,--but he did what he could, and introduced him
+one day to the interior of the station, where he filled his youthful
+mind with amazement and admiration by his rapid, and apparently
+meaningless, manipulation of the telegraph instrument.
+
+Cousin Sam, however, did a good deal more for him than that in the
+course of time; but before proceeding further, we must turn aside for a
+few minutes to comment on that wonderful subject which is essentially
+connected with the development of this tale.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+REFERS TO A NOTABLE CHARACTER.
+
+Sparks, as a rule, are looked upon as a race of useless and disreputable
+fellows.  Their course is usually erratic.  They fly upward, downward,
+forward, and backward--here, there, and everywhere.  You never know when
+you have them, or what will be their next flight.  They often create a
+good deal of alarm, sometimes much surprise; they seldom do any good,
+and frequently cause irreparable damage.  Only when caught and
+restrained, or directed, do sparks become harmless and helpful.
+
+But there is one Spark in this world--a grand, glowing, gushing fellow--
+who has not his equal anywhere.  He is old as the hills--perhaps older--
+and wide as the world--perchance wider.  Similar to ordinary sparks in
+some respects, he differs from them in several important particulars.
+Like many, he is "fast," but immeasurably faster than all other sparks
+put together.  Unlike them, however, he submits to be led by master
+minds.  Stronger than Hercules, he can rend the mountains.  Fleeter than
+Mercury, he can outstrip the light.  Gentler than Zephyr, he can assume
+the condition of a current, and enter our very marrow without causing
+pain.  His name is Electricity.  No one knows what he is.  Some
+philosophers have said that he is a fluid, because he flows.  As well
+might they call him a wild horse because he bolts, or a thief because he
+lurks!  We prefer to call him a Spark, because in that form only is he
+visible--at least when handled by man.
+
+Talking of that, it was not until the last century that master minds
+found out how to catch and handle our Spark.  In all the previous
+centuries he had been roaming gaily about the world in perfect freedom;
+sometimes gliding silently to and fro like an angel of light; sometimes
+leaping forth with frightful energy in the midst of raging tempest, like
+a destructive demon--ripping, rending, shattering all that attempted to
+arrest his course.  Men have feared and shunned him since the beginning
+of time, and with good reason, for he has killed many of the human race.
+
+But although uncaught and untamed by them, our Spark was not altogether
+unknown to the ancients.  So far back as the year 600 before the
+Christian era, Thales, one of the Greek sages, discovered that he hid
+himself in amber, a substance which in Greek is named _electron_--hence
+his name Electricity; but the ancients knew little about his character,
+though Thales found that he could draw him from his hiding-place by
+rubbing him with silk and some other substances.  When thus rubbed he
+became attractive, and drew light creatures towards him--not unlike
+human sparks!  He also showed himself to be fickle, for, after holding
+these light creatures tight for a brief space, he let them go and
+repelled them.
+
+It was not till the days of good Queen Bess, towards the end of the
+sixteenth century, that a Dr Gilbert discovered that the wild fellow
+lay lurking in other substances besides amber--such as sulphur, wax,
+glass, etcetera.  It is now known that Electricity permeates all
+substances more or less, and only waits to be roused in order to exhibit
+his amazing powers.  He is fond of shocking people's feelings, and has
+surprised his pursuers rather frequently in that way.  Some of them,
+indeed, he has actually shocked to death!
+
+It would take a huge volume to give a detailed account of all the
+qualities, powers, and peculiarities of this wild Spark.  We will just
+touch on a few facts which are necessary to the elucidation of our tale.
+
+A great event in the world's history happened in the year 1745.  It was
+nothing less than the capture and imprisonment of wild, daring, dashing
+Electricity.  To the Dutch philosophers belongs the honour of catching
+him.  They caught him--they even bottled him, like ordinary spirits, and
+called his prison a _Leyden Jar_.
+
+From that date our Spark became the useful and obedient slave of man.
+Yet is he ever ready, when the smallest conceivable door, hole, or chink
+is left open, to dash out of the prison-house man has made for him, and
+escape into his native earth.
+
+He has no hope now, however, of escaping altogether, for he cannot
+resist the allurement of rubbing, by which, as well as by chemical
+action and other means, we can summon him, like the genii of Aladdin's
+lamp, at any moment, from the "vasty deep," and compel him to do our
+work.
+
+And what sort of work, it may be asked, can this volatile fellow
+perform?  We cannot tell all--the list is too long.  Let us consider a
+few of them.  If we fabricate tea-pots, sugar-basins, spoons, or
+anything else of base metal, he can and will, at our bidding, cover the
+same with silver or yellow gold.  If we grow dissatisfied with our
+candles and gas, he will, on being summoned, and properly directed by
+the master minds to whom he owns allegiance, kindle our lamps and fill
+our streets and mansions with a blaze of noonday splendour.  If we grow
+weary of steam, and give him orders, he will drive our tram-cars and
+locomotives with railway speed, _minus_ railway smoke and fuss.  He is a
+very giant in the chemist's laboratory, and, above all, a swift
+messenger to carry the world's news.  Even when out and raging to and
+fro in a wild state, more than half-disposed to rend our mansions, and
+split our steeples, and wreck our ships, we have only to provide him
+with a tiny metal stair-case, down which he will instantly glide from
+the upper regions to the earth without noise or damage.  Shakespeare
+never imagined, and Mercury never accomplished, the speed at which he
+travels; and he will not only carry our news, or express our sentiments
+and wishes far and wide over the land, but he will rush with them, over
+rock, sand, mud, and ooze, along the bottom of the deep deep sea!
+
+And this brings us to a point.  Some of the master minds before
+mentioned, having conceived the idea that telegraphic communication
+might be carried on under water, set about experimenting.  Between the
+years 1839 and 1851 enterprising men in the Old World and the New
+suggested, pondered, planned, and placed wires under water, along which
+our Spark ran more or less successfully.
+
+One of the difficulties of these experiments consisted in this, that,
+while the Spark runs readily along one class of substances, he cannot,
+or will not, run along others.  Substances of the first class,
+comprising the metals, are called conductors; those of the second class,
+embracing, among other things, all resinous substances, are styled
+non-conductors.  Now, water is a good conductor.  So that although the
+Spark will stick to his wires when insulated on telegraph-posts on land,
+he will bolt from them at once and take to flight the moment he gets
+under water.  This difficulty was overcome by coating the wires with
+gutta-percha, which, being a non-conductor, imprisoned the Spark, and
+kept him, as it were, on the line.
+
+A copper wire covered in this manner was successfully laid between
+England and France in 1850.  When tested, this cable did not work well.
+Minute imperfections, in the form of air-holes in the gutta-percha,
+afforded our Spark an opportunity to bolt; and he did bolt, as a matter
+of course--for electricity has no sense of honour, and cannot be trusted
+near the smallest loop-hole.  The imperfections were remedied; the door
+was effectually locked, after which the first submarine cable of
+importance was actually laid down, and worked well.  French and English
+believers turned up hands and eyes in delighted amazement, as they held
+converse across the sea, while unbelievers were silenced and confounded.
+
+This happy state of things, however, lasted for only a few hours.
+Suddenly the intercourse ceased.  The telegraphists at both ends
+energised with their handles and needles, but without any result.  The
+cable was dumb.  Our Spark had evidently escaped!
+
+There is no effect without a cause.  The cause of that interruption was
+soon discovered.
+
+Early that morning a French fisherman had sauntered down to the port of
+Boulogne and embarked in his boat.  A British seaman, having nothing to
+do but smoke and meditate, was seated on a coil of rope at the time,
+enjoying himself and the smells with which that port is not unfamiliar.
+He chanced to be a friend of that French fisherman.
+
+"You're early afloat, Mounseer," he said.
+
+"Oui, monsieur.  Vill you com'?  I go for feesh."
+
+"Well, _wee_; I go for fun."
+
+They went accordingly and bore away to the northward along the coast
+before a light breeze,--past the ruined towers which France had built to
+guard her port in days gone by; past the steep cliffs beyond Boulogne;
+past the lovely beach of Wimereux, with its cottages nestled among the
+sand-hills, and its silted-up harbour, whence Napoleon the First had
+intended to issue forth and descend on perfidious Albion--but didn't;
+past cliffs, and bays, and villages further on, until they brought up
+off Cape Grisnez.  Here the Frenchman let down his trawl, and fished up,
+among other curiosities of the deep, the submarine cable!
+
+"Behold! fat is dis?" he exclaimed, with glaring eyes, uplifted brows,
+shoulders shrugged, hands spread out, and fingers expanded.
+
+"The sea-sarpint grow'd thin," suggested the Englishman.
+
+"Non; c'est seaveed--veed de most 'strordinair in de vorld.  Oui,
+donnez-moi de hache, de hax, mon ami."
+
+His friend handed him the axe, wherewith lie cut off a small portion of
+the cable and let the end go.  Little did that fisherman know that he
+had also let our Spark go free, and cruelly dashed, for a time at least,
+the budding hopes of two nations--but so it was.  He bore his prize in
+triumph to Boulogne, where he exhibited it as a specimen of rare seaweed
+with its centre filled with gold, while the telegraph clerks at both
+ends sat gazing in dismay at their useless instruments.
+
+Thus was the first submarine electric cable destroyed.  And with the
+details of its destruction little Robin was intimately acquainted, for
+cousin Sam had been a member of the staff that had worked that
+telegraph--at least he had been a boy in the office,--and in after years
+he so filled his cousin's mind with the importance of that cable, and
+the grandeur and difficulty of the enterprise, that Robin became
+powerfully sympathetic--so much so that when Sam, in telling the story,
+came to the point where the Frenchman accomplished its destruction,
+Robin used to grieve over it as though he had lost a brother, or a
+kitten, or his latest toy!
+
+We need scarcely add that submarine cable telegraphy had not received
+its death-blow on that occasion.  Its possibility had been demonstrated.
+The very next year (1851) Mr T.R. Crampton, with Messrs. Wollaston,
+Kuper, and others, made and laid an improved cable between Dover and
+Calais, and ere long many other parts of the world were connected by
+means of snaky submarine electric cables.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+EARLY ASPIRATIONS.
+
+One pleasant summer afternoon, Mr Wright, coming in from the office,
+seated himself beside his composed little wife, who was patching a pair
+of miniature pantaloons.
+
+"Nan," said the husband, with a perplexed look, "what _are_ we to do
+with our Robin when he grows up?"
+
+"George," answered the composed wife, "don't you think it is rather soon
+to trouble ourselves with that question?  Robin is a mere child yet.  We
+must first give him a good education."
+
+"Of course, I know that," returned the perplexed husband, "still, I
+can't help thinking about what is to be done after he has had the good
+education.  You know I have no relation in the world except brother
+Richard, who is as poor as myself.  We have no influential friends to
+help him into the Army or the Navy or the Indian Civil Service; and the
+Church, you know, is not suitable for an imp.  Just look at him _now_!"
+
+Mrs Wright looked through the window, over one of those sunny
+landscapes which are usually described as "smiling," across a winding
+rivulet, and at last fixed her gorgeous eyes on a tall post, up which a
+small black object was seen to be struggling.
+
+"What can he be up to?" said the father.
+
+"He seems to be up the telegraph-post," said the mother, "investigating
+the wires, no doubt.  I heard him talking about telegraphy to Madge this
+morning--retailing what cousin Sam tries to teach him,--and I shouldn't
+wonder if he were now endeavouring to make sure that what he told her
+was correct, for you know he is a thorough investigator."
+
+"Yes, I know it," murmured the father, with a grim pursing of his lips;
+"he investigated the inside of my watch last week, to find out, as he
+said, what made the noise in its `stummick,' and it has had intermittent
+fever ever since.  Two days ago he investigated my razor,--it is now
+equal to a cross-cut saw; and as to my drawers and papers, excepting
+those which I lock up, there is but one word which fully describes the
+result of his investigations, and that is--chaos."
+
+There was, in truth, some ground for that father's emotions, for Master
+Robin displayed investigative, not to say destructive, capacities far in
+advance of his years.
+
+"Never mind, George," said Mrs Wright soothingly, "we must put up with
+his little ways as best we may, consoling ourselves with the reflection
+that Robin has genius and perseverance, with which qualities he is sure
+to make his way in the world."
+
+"He has at all events made his way up the telegraph-post," said Mr
+Wright, his smile expanding and the grimness of it departing; "see! the
+rascal is actually stretching out his hand to grasp one of the wires.
+Ha! hallo!"
+
+The composed wife became suddenly discomposed, and gave vent to a
+scream, for at that moment the small black object which they had been
+watching with so much interest was seen to fall backward, make a wild
+grasp at nothing with both hands, and fall promptly to the ground.
+
+His father threw up the window, leaped out, dashed across the
+four-feet-wide lawn, cleared the winding rivulet, and cut, like a hunted
+hare, over the smiling landscape towards the telegraph-post, at the foot
+of which he picked up his unconscious though not much injured son.
+
+"What made you climb the post, Robin?" asked his cousin Madge that
+evening as she nursed the adventurous boy on her knee--and Madge was a
+very motherly nurse, although a full year younger than Robin.
+
+"I kimed it to see if I could hear the 'trissity," replied the injured
+one.
+
+"The lek-trissity," said Madge, correcting.  "You must learn to
+p'onounce your words popperly, dear.  You'll never be a great man if you
+are so careless."
+
+"I don't want to be a g'eat man," retorted Robin.  "I on'y want
+t'understand things whats puzzlesum."
+
+"Well, does the telegraph puzzle you?"
+
+"Oh! mos' awfully," returned Robin, with a solemn gaze of his earnest
+eyes, one of which was rendered fantastic by a yellow-green ring round
+it and a swelling underneath.  "I's kite sure I's stood for hours beside
+dat post listin' to it hummin' an hummin' like our olianarp--"
+
+"Now, Robin, _do_ be careful.  You know mamma calls it an olian _harp_."
+
+"Yes, well, like our olian _h_arp, only a deal louder, an' far nicer.
+An' I's often said to myself, Is that the 'trissity--?"
+
+"Lek, Robin, lek!"
+
+"Well, yes, _lek_-trissity.  So I thought I'd kime up an' see, for, you
+know, papa says the 'trissity--lek, I mean--runs along the wires--"
+
+"But papa also says," interrupted Madge, "that the sounds you want to
+know about are made by the vi--the vi--"
+
+"Bratin'," suggested the invalid.
+
+"Yes, vibratin' of the wires."
+
+"I wonder what vi-bratin' means," murmured Robin, turning his lustrous
+though damaged eyes meditatively on the landscape.
+
+"Don'no for sure," said Madge, "but I think it means tremblin'."
+
+It will be seen from the above conversation that Robert Wright and his
+precocious cousin Marjory were of a decidedly philosophical turn of
+mind.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+EXTRAORDINARY RESULT OF AN ATTEMPT AT AMATEUR CABLE-LAYING.
+
+Time continued to roll additional years off his reel, and rolled out
+Robin and Madge in length and breadth, though we cannot say much for
+thickness.  Time also developed their minds, and Robin gradually began
+to understand a little more of the nature of that subtle fluid--if we
+may venture so to call it--under the influence of which he had been
+born.
+
+"Come, Madge," he said one day, throwing on his cap, "let us go and play
+at cables."
+
+Madge, ever ready to play at anything, put on her sun-bonnet and
+followed her ambitious leader.
+
+"Is it to be land-telegraphs to-day, or submarine cables?" inquired
+Madge, with as much gravity and earnestness as if the world's welfare
+depended on the decision.
+
+"Cables, of course," answered Robin, "why, Madge, I have done with
+land-telegraphs now.  There's nothing more to learn about them.  Cousin
+Sam has put me up to everything, you know.  Besides, there's no mystery
+about land-lines.  Why, you've only got to stick up a lot o' posts with
+insulators screwed to 'em, fix wires to the insulators, clap on an
+electric battery and a telegraph instrument, and fire away."
+
+"Robin, what _are_ insulators?" asked Madge, with a puzzled look.
+
+"Madge," replied Robin, with a self-satisfied expression on his pert
+face, "this is the three-hundred-thousandth time I have explained that
+to you."
+
+"Explain it the three-hundred-thousand-and-first time, then, dear Robin,
+and perhaps I'll take it in."
+
+"Well," began Robin, with a hypocritical sigh of despair, "you must know
+that everything in nature is more or less a conductor of electricity,
+but some things conduct it so well--such as copper and iron--that they
+are called _conductors_, and some things--such as glass and
+earthenware--conduct it so _very_ badly that they scarcely conduct it at
+all, and are called _non-conductors_.  D'ee see?"
+
+"Oh yes, I see, Robin; so does a bat, but he doesn't see well.  However,
+go on."
+
+"Well, if I were to run my wire through the posts that support it, my
+electricity would escape down these posts into the earth, especially if
+the posts were wet with rain, for water is a good conductor, and Mister
+Electricity has an irresistible desire to bolt into the earth, like a
+mole."
+
+"Naughty fellow!" murmured Madge.
+
+"But," continued Robin impressively, "if I fix little lumps of glass
+with a hole in them to the posts, and fix my wires to these, Electricity
+cannot bolt, because the glass lumps are non-conductors, and won't let
+him pass."
+
+"How good of them!" said Madge.
+
+"Yes, isn't it?  So, you see," continued Robin, "the glass lumps are
+insulators, for they cut the electricity off from the earth as an island
+is, or, at all events, appears to be, cut off from it by water; and
+Mister Electricity _must_ go along the wires and do what I tell him.  Of
+course, you know, I must make my electricity first in a battery, which,
+as I have often and often told you, is a trough containing a mixture of
+acid and water, with plates or slices of zinc and copper in it, placed
+one after the other, but not touching each other.  Now, if I fix a piece
+of wire to my first copper slice or plate, and the other end of it to my
+last zinc slice or plate, immediately electricity will begin to be made,
+and will fly from the copper to the zinc, and so round and round until
+the plates are worn out or the wire broken.  D'ee see?"
+
+"No, Robin, I don't see; I'm blinder than the blindest mole."
+
+"Oh, Madge, what a wonderful mind you must have!" said Robin, laughing.
+"It is _so_ simple."
+
+"Of course," said Madge, "I understand what you mean by troughs and
+plates and all that, but what I want to know is _why_ that arrangement
+is necessary.  Why would it not do just as well to tempt electricity out
+of its hiding-hole with plates or slices of cheese and bread, placed one
+after the other in a trough filled with a mixture of glue and melted
+butter?"
+
+"What stuff you do talk, Madge!  As well might you ask why it would not
+do to make a plum-pudding out of nutmegs and coal-tar.  There are some
+things that no fellow can understand, and of course I don't know
+_everything_!"
+
+The astounding modesty of this latter remark seemed to have furnished
+Madge with food for reflection, for she did not reply to it.  After a
+few minutes' walk the amateur electricians reached the scene of their
+intended game--a sequestered dell in a plantation, through which brawled
+a rather turbulent stream.  At one part, where a willow overhung the
+water, there was a deep broad pool.  The stream entered the pool with a
+headlong plunge, and issued from it with a riotous upheaval of wavelets
+and foam among jagged rocks, as if rejoicing in, and rather boastful
+about, the previous leap.
+
+The game was extremely simple.  The pool was to be the German Ocean, and
+a piece of stout cord was to serve as a submarine cable.
+
+The boy and girl were well-matched playmates, for Madge was ignorant and
+receptive--in reference to science,--Robin learned and communicative,
+while both were intensely earnest.
+
+"Now, this is the battery," said Robin, when he had dug a deep hole
+close to the pool with a spade brought for the purpose.
+
+"Yes, and the muddy water in it will do for the mixture of acid and
+water," said Madge.
+
+As she spoke, Robin's toe caught on a root, and he went headlong into
+the battery, out of which he emerged scarcely recognisable.  It was a
+severe, though not an electric, shock, and at first Robin seemed
+inclined to whimper, but his manhood triumphed, and he burst into a
+compound laugh and yell, to the intense relief of Madge, who thought at
+first that he had been seriously injured.
+
+"Never mind, Madge," said Robin, as he cleansed his muddy head; "cousin
+Sam has often told me that nothing great was ever done except in the
+face of difficulties and dangers.  I wonder whether this should be
+counted a difficulty or a danger?"
+
+"At first I thought it a danger," said Madge, with a laugh, "but the
+trouble you now have with the mud in your hair looks like a difficulty,
+doesn't it?"
+
+"Why, then, it's both," cried Robin.  "Come, that's a good beginning.
+Now, Madge, you get away round to the opposite side of the pool, and
+mind you don't slip in, it's rather steep there."
+
+"This is England," cried Robin, preparing to throw the line over to his
+assistant, who stood eager to aid on the other side, "and you are
+standing on--on--what's on the other side of the German Ocean?"
+
+"I'm not sure, Robin.  Holland, I think, or Denmark."
+
+"Well, we'll say Denmark.  Look-out now, and be ready to catch.  I'm
+going to connect England and Denmark with a submarine cable."
+
+"Stay!" cried Madge, "is that the way submarine cables are laid, by
+throwing them over the sea?"
+
+"N-no, not exactly.  They had a steamboat, you know, to carry over the
+telegraph from England to France; but we haven't got a steamer--not even
+a plank to make-believe one.  Cousin Sam says that a good workman can do
+his work with almost any tools that come to hand.  As we have no tools
+at all, we will improve on that and go to work without them.  Now,
+catch!"
+
+Robin made a splendid heave--so splendid indeed that it caused him to
+stagger backward, and again he stumbled into his own _battery_!  This
+time, however, only one leg was immersed.
+
+"Another danger!" shouted Madge in great glee, "but I've caught the
+cable."
+
+"All right.  Now make fast the shore-end to a bush, and we'll commence
+telegraphing.  The first must be a message from the Queen to the King of
+Denmark--Or is it the President?"
+
+"King, I think, Robin, but I'm not sure."
+
+"Well, it won't matter.  But--I say--"
+
+"What's wrong now?"
+
+"Why, the cable won't sink.  It is floating about on the top of the
+pool, and it can't be a submarine cable, you know, unless it sinks."
+
+"Another difficulty, Robin."
+
+"We will face and overcome it, Madge.  Cast off the shore-end and I'll
+soon settle that."
+
+Having fastened a number of small stones to the cable, this persevering
+electrician would certainly have overcome the difficulty if the line had
+not, when thrown, unfortunately caught on a branch of the willow, where
+it hung suspended just out of Madge's reach.
+
+"How provoking!" she said, stretching out her hand to the utmost.
+
+"Take care--you'll--ha!"
+
+The warning came too late.  The edge of the bank gave way, and Madge
+went headlong into the pool with a wild shriek and a fearful plunge.
+
+Robin stood rooted to the spot--heart, breath, blood, brain, paralysed
+for the moment--gazing at the spot where his playmate had disappeared.
+
+Another moment and her head and hands appeared.  She struggled bravely
+for life, while the circling current carried her quickly to the lower
+end of the pool.
+
+Robin's energies returned, as he afterwards said, like an electric
+shock, but accompanied with a terrible sinking of the heart, for he knew
+that he could not swim!  His education in this important particular had
+been neglected.  He sprang round to the lower end of the pool just in
+time to hold out his hand to the drowning girl.  He almost touched her
+outstretched hand as she swept towards the turbulent waters below, but
+failed to grasp it.
+
+For the first time in his life our little hero was called on to face
+death voluntarily.  Another moment and Madge would have been caught in
+the boiling stream that rushed towards the fall below.  He was equal to
+the occasion.  He sprang right upon Madge and caught her in his arms.
+There was no need to hold on to her.  In the agony of fear the poor
+child clasped the boy in a deadly embrace.  They were whirled violently
+round and hurled against a rock.  Robin caught it with one hand, but it
+was instantly torn from his grasp.  The waters overwhelmed them, and
+again sent them violently towards the bank.  This time Robin caught a
+rock with both hands and held on.  Slowly, while almost choked with the
+water that splashed up into his face, he worked his right knee into a
+crevice, then made a wild grasp with the left hand at a higher
+projection of the rock.  At the same moment his left foot struck the
+bottom.  Another effort and he was out of danger, but it was several
+minutes ere he succeeded in dragging Madge from the hissing water of the
+shallows to the green sward above, and after this was accomplished he
+found it almost impossible to tear himself from the grasp of the now
+unconscious girl.
+
+At first poor Robin thought that his companion was dead, but by degrees
+consciousness returned, and at last she was able to rise and walk.
+
+Drenched, dishevelled, and depressed, these unfortunate electricians
+returned home.
+
+Of course they were received with mingled joy and reproof.  Of course,
+also, they were forbidden to go near the pool again--though this
+prohibition was afterwards removed, and our hero ultimately became a
+first-rate swimmer and diver.
+
+Thus was frustrated the laying of the first submarine cable between
+England and Denmark!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+PROSPECTS OF REAL CABLE-LAYING--ROBIN MEETS WITH HIS FIRST ELECTRICAL
+ACQUAINTANCES.
+
+Circumstances require that we should shift the scene and the date pretty
+frequently in this tale.  We solicit the reader's attendance at an
+office in London.
+
+The office is dingy.  Many offices are so.  Two clerks are sitting in it
+making faces at each other across their desk.  They are not lunatics.
+They are not imbeciles or idlers.  On the contrary, they have frequent
+spells of work that might throw the toils of an Arab ass into the shade.
+They are fine strapping young fellows, with pent-up energies equal to
+anything, but afflicted with occasional periods of having nothing
+particular to do.  These two have been sitting all morning in busy
+idleness.  Their muscular and nervous systems rebelling, have induced
+much fidgeting and many wry faces.  Being original, they have turned
+their sorrows into a game, and their little game at present is to see
+which can make a face so hideous that the other shall be compelled to
+laugh!  We have deep sympathy with clerks.  We have been a clerk, and
+know what it is to have the fires of Vesuvius raging within, while under
+the necessity of exhibiting the cool aspect of Spitzbergen without.
+
+But these clerks were not utterly miserable.  On the contrary, they
+were, to use one of their own familiar phrases, rather jolly than
+otherwise.  Evening was before them in far-off but attainable
+perspective.  Home, lawn-tennis, in connection with bright eyes and
+pretty faces, would compensate for the labours of the day and let off
+the steam.  They were deep in their game when a rap at the door brought
+their faces suddenly to a state of nature.
+
+"Come in," said the _first_ clerk.
+
+"And wipe your feet," murmured the second, in a low tone.
+
+A gentleman, with an earnest countenance, entered.
+
+"Is Mr Lowstoft in his office?"
+
+"He is, sir," said the first clerk, descending from his perch with an
+air of good-will, and requesting the visitor's name and business.
+
+The visitor handed his card, on which the name Cyrus Field was written,
+and the clerk, observing it, admitted the owner at once to the inner
+sanctum where Mr Lowstoft transacted business.
+
+"There's _something_ up," murmured the clerk, with a mysterious look at
+his comrade, on resuming his perch.
+
+"Time's up, or nearly so," replied the comrade, with an anxious look at
+the clock:
+
+  "The witching hour which sets us free
+  To saunter home and have our tea--
+
+"approaches."
+
+"D'you know that that is Cyrus Field?" said the first clerk.
+
+"And who is Cyrus Field?" demanded the second clerk.
+
+"O ignoramus!  Thy name is Bob, and thou art not worth a `bob'--
+miserable snob!  Don't you know that Cyrus Field is the man who brought
+about the laying of the great Atlantic Cable in 1858?"
+
+"No, most learned Fred, I did not know that, but I am very glad to know
+it now.  Moreover, I know nothing whatever about cables--Atlantic or
+otherwise.  I am as blind as a bat, as ignorant as a bigot, as empty as
+a soap-bubble, and as wise as Solomon, because I'm willing to be
+taught."
+
+"What a delicious subject to work upon!" said Fred.
+
+"Well then, work away," returned Bob; "suppose you give _me_ a discourse
+on Cables.  But, I say--be merciful.  Don't overdo it, Frederick.
+Remember that my capacity is feeble."
+
+"I'll be careful, Bob.--Well then, you must know that from the year 1840
+submarine cables had been tried and laid, and worked with more or less
+success, in various parts of the world.  Sir W. O'Shaughnessy, I
+believe, began it.  Irishmen are frequently at the root of mischief!
+Anyhow, he, being Superintendent of Electric Telegraphs in India in
+1839, hauled an insulated wire across the Hooghly at Calcutta, and
+produced what they call `electrical phenomena' at the other side of the
+river.  In 1840 Mr Wheatstone brought before the House of Commons the
+project of a cable from Dover to Calais.  In 1842 Professor Morse of
+America laid a cable in New York harbour, and another across the canal
+at Washington.  He also suggested the possibility of laying a cable
+across the Atlantic Ocean.  In 1846 Colonel Colt, of revolver notoriety,
+and Mr Robinson, laid a wire from New York to Brooklyn, and from Long
+Island to Correy Island.  In 1849--"
+
+"I say, Fred," interrupted Bob, with an anxious look, "you are a walking
+dictionary of dates.  Haydn was nothing to you.  But--couldn't you give
+it me without dates?  I've got no head for dates; never could stomach
+them--except when fresh off the palm-tree.  Don't you think that a
+lecture without dates would be pleasantly original as well as
+instructive?"
+
+"No, Bob, I don't, and I won't be guilty of any such gross innovation on
+time-honoured custom.  You must swallow my dates whether you like them
+or not.  In 1849, I say, a Mr Walker--"
+
+"Any relation to Hookey?"
+
+"No, sir, none whatever--he laid a wire from Folkestone to a steamer two
+miles off the shore, and sent messages to it.  At last, in 1851.  Mr
+Brett laid down and successfully wrought the cable between Dover and
+Calais which had been suggested by Wheatstone eleven years before.  It
+is true it did not work long, but this may be said to have been the
+beginning of submarine telegraphy, which, you see, like your own
+education, Bob, has been a thing of slow growth."
+
+"Have you done with dates, now, my learned friend?" asked Bob,
+attempting to balance a ruler on the point of his nose.
+
+"Not quite, my ignorant chum, but nearly.  That same year--1851,
+remember--a Mr Frederick N. Gisborne, an English electrician, made the
+first attempt to connect Newfoundland with the American continent by
+cable.  He also started a company to facilitate intercourse between
+America and ireland by means of steamers and telegraph-cables.  Gisborne
+was very energetic and successful, but got into pecuniary difficulties,
+and went to New York to raise the wind.  There he met with Cyrus Field,
+who took the matter up with tremendous enthusiasm.  He expanded
+Gisborne's idea, and resolved to get up a company to connect
+Newfoundland with Ireland by electric cable.  Field was rich and
+influential, and ultimately successful--"
+
+"Ah! would that you and I were rich, Fred," interrupted Bob, as he let
+fall the ruler with a crash on the red-ink bottle, and overturned it;
+"but go on, Fred, I'm getting interested; pardon the interruption, and
+never mind the ink, I'll swab it up.--He was successful, was he?"
+
+"Yes, he was; eminently so.  He first of all roused his friends in the
+States, and got up, in 1856, the `New York, Newfoundland, and London
+Telegraph Company,' which carried a line of telegraph through the
+British Provinces, and across the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to Saint
+John's, Newfoundland--more than 1000 miles--at a cost of about 500,000
+pounds.  Then he came over to England and roused the British Lion, with
+whose aid he started the `Atlantic Telegraph Company,' and fairly began
+the work, backed by such men as Brett, Bidden, Stephenson, Brunel,
+Glass, Eliot, Morse, Bright, Whitehouse, and a host of others.  But all
+this was not done in a day.  Cyrus Field laboured for years among
+preliminaries, and it was not until 1857 that a regular attempt was made
+to lay an Atlantic cable.  It failed, because the cable broke and was
+lost.  A second attempt was made in 1858, and was successful.  In that
+year, my boy, Ireland and Newfoundland were married, and on the 5th of
+August the first electric message passed between the Old World and the
+New, through a small wire, over a distance of above 2000 miles.  But the
+triumph of Field and his friends was short-lived, for, soon after,
+something went wrong with the cable, and on the 6th September it ceased
+to work."
+
+"What a pity!" exclaimed Bob; "so it all went off in smoke."
+
+"Not quite that, Bob.  Before the cable struck work about 400 messages
+had been sent, which proved its value in a financial point of view, and
+one of these messages--sent from London in the morning and reaching
+Halifax the same day--directed that `the 62nd Regiment was not to return
+to England,' and it is said that this timely warning saved the country
+an expenditure of 50,000 pounds.  But the failure, instead of damping,
+has evidently stimulated the energies of Mr Field, who has been going
+about between America and England ever since, stirring people up far and
+near, to raise the funds necessary for another attempt.  He gives
+himself no rest; has embarked his own fortune in the affair, and now, at
+this moment, in this year of grace 1865, is doing his best, I have no
+doubt, to induce our governor, Mr Lowstoft, to embark in the same boat
+with himself."
+
+It would seem as if Fred had been suddenly endowed with the gift of
+second-sight, for at that moment the door of his employer's room opened,
+and Mr Lowstoft came out, saying to his visitor, in the most friendly
+tones, that he had the deepest sympathy with his self-sacrificing
+efforts, and with the noble work to which he had devoted himself.
+
+Bob, in a burst of sudden enthusiasm, leaped off his stool, opened the
+office-door, and muttered something as the distinguished visitor passed
+him.
+
+"I beg pardon," said Mr Field, checking himself, "what did you say?"
+
+"I--I wish you good luck, sir, with--with the new cable," stammered the
+clerk, blushing deeply.
+
+"Thank you, lad--thank you," said Mr Field, with a pleasant smile and
+nod, as he went away.
+
+"Mr Sime," said Mr Lowstoft to Bob, turning at the door of his room,
+"send young Wright to me."
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the obedient Bob, going to a corner of the room and
+applying his lips to a speaking-tube.
+
+Now young Wright was none other than our hero Robin grown up to the
+mature age of fifteen.
+
+He was perched on the top of a three-legged stool, and, from the slow
+and intensely earnest manner in which his head turned from side to side
+as he wrote, it was quite evident that he dotted all his _i's_ and
+stroked all his _t's_ with conscientious care.  As he sat there--a
+sturdy little broad-shouldered fellow, so deeply engrossed with his work
+that he was oblivious of all around--he seemed the very _beau-ideal_ of
+a painstaking, hard-working clerk.  So deeply was he engrossed in his
+subject--the copying of an invoice--that he failed to hear the voice of
+his fellow-clerk, although the end of the speaking-tube was not far,
+from where he sat.  After listening a few seconds at the other end of
+the tube, Bob Sime repeated the summons with such vigour that Robin
+leaped from his stool as though he had received one of his favourite
+electric shocks.  A minute later he stood in the presence of the Head of
+the House.
+
+"Robert Wright," said the Head, pushing his spectacles up on his brow,
+"I shall be sorry to lose your services, but--"
+
+He paused and turned over the papers before him, as if searching for
+something, and Robin's heart sank.  Was he going to be dismissed?  Had
+he done anything wrong, or had he unwittingly neglected some duty?
+
+"Ah! here it is," resumed Mr Lowstoft, "a letter from a friend who has
+come by a slight injury to his right hand, and wants a smart amanuensis
+and general assistant.  Now I think of sending _you_ to him, if you have
+no objection."
+
+As the Head again paused while glancing over the letter, Robin ventured
+timidly to state that he had very strong objections; that he was very
+much satisfied with his situation and work, and had no desire to change.
+
+Mr Lowstoft did not appear to listen to his remarks, but said
+suddenly--"You've studied the science of electricity, I believe?"
+
+"Yes, sir--to some extent," answered the lad, with a look of surprise.
+
+"I know you have.  Your father has told me about your tastes and
+studies.  You've heard of Mr Cyrus Field, I presume?"
+
+"Indeed I have," said Robin, brightening up, "it was through his efforts
+that the Atlantic Cable was laid in 1858--which unfortunately went
+wrong."
+
+"Well, my boy, it is through his efforts that another cable is to be
+laid in this year 1865, which we all hope sincerely won't go wrong, and
+my friend, who wants an assistant, is one of the electricians connected
+with the new expedition.  Would you like to go?"
+
+Robin's eyes blazed, and he could scarcely find breath or words to
+express his willingness--if his father did not object.
+
+"Go home at once, then, and ask leave, for the Great Eastern is almost
+ready for sea, and you have to hasten your preparations."
+
+Robin stroked no more _t's_ and dotted no more _i's_ that day.  We fear,
+indeed, that he even left the invoice on his desk unfinished, with the
+last _i_ imperfect.
+
+Bursting into his father's house, he found Madge--now become a pretty
+little slip of feminine thread-paper--seated at the piano agonising over
+a chord which her hand was too small to compass.
+
+"Madge, Madge, cousin Madge!" he shouted, seizing both the extended
+little hands and kissing the musical wrinkles from her brow, "why am I
+like a magnet?  You'll never guess."
+
+"Because you attract everybody to you," said Madge promptly.
+
+"Pooh! not at all.  A magnet doesn't attract _every_ body.  It has two
+poles, don't you know, and repels some bodies.  No, Madge, it's because
+I have been electrified."
+
+"Indeed? and what has electrified you, Robin?"
+
+"The Atlantic Cable, Madge."
+
+"Well, that ought to be able to do it powerfully," returned Madge, with
+a laugh; "but tell me all about it, and don't make more bad conundrums.
+I'm sure something has happened.  What is it?"
+
+Mrs Wright, entering at the moment, her son calmed himself as well as
+he could, and sat down to tell his tale and talk the matter over.
+
+"Now, what think you, mother?  Will father consent?"
+
+"I think he will, Robin, but before going into the matter further, I
+will lay it before our Father in heaven.  He must show us the way, if we
+are to go right."
+
+According to invariable custom, Robin's mother retired to her own room
+to consider the proposal.  Thereafter she had a long talk with her
+husband, and the result was that on the following day our hero found
+himself in a train with a small new portmanteau by his side, a new
+billy-cock hat on his head, a very small new purse in his pocket, with a
+remarkably small sum of money therein, and a light yet full heart in his
+breast.  He was on his way to the Nore, where the Great Eastern lay,
+like an antediluvian macaroni-eater, gorging itself with innumerable
+miles of Atlantic Cable.
+
+To say truth, Robin's breast--capacious though it was for his size--
+could hardly contain his heart that day.  The dream of his childhood was
+about to be realised!  He had thirsted for knowledge.  He had acquired
+all that was possible in his father's limited circumstances.  He had,
+moreover, with the valuable assistance of Sam Shipton, become deeply
+learned in electrical science.  He had longed with all his heart to
+become an electrician--quite ready, if need were, to commence as sweeper
+of a telegraph-office, but he had come to regard his desires as too
+ambitious, and, accepting his lot in life with the quiet contentment
+taught him by his mother, had entered on a clerkship in a mercantile
+house, and had perched himself, with a little sigh no doubt, yet
+cheerfully, on the top of a three-legged stool.  To this stool he had
+been so long attached--physically--that he had begun to regard it almost
+as part and parcel of himself, and had made up his mind that he would
+have to stick to it through life.  He even sometimes took a quaint view
+of the matter, and tried to imagine that through long habit it would
+stick to him at last, and oblige him to carry it about sticking straight
+out behind him; perhaps even require him to take it to bed with him, in
+which case he sometimes tried to imagine what would be the precise
+effect on the bedclothes if he were to turn from one side to the other.
+Thus had his life been projected in grey perspective to his mental eye.
+
+But now--he actually was an electrician-elect on his way to join the
+biggest ship in the world, to aid in laying the greatest telegraph cable
+in the world, in company with some of the greatest men in the universe!
+It was almost too much for him.  He thirsted for sympathy.  He wanted to
+let off his feelings in a cheer, but life in a lunatic asylum presented
+itself, and he refrained.  There was a rough-looking sailor lad about
+his own age, but much bigger, on the seat opposite, (it was a third
+class).  He thought of pouring out his feelings on him--but prudence
+prevented.  There is no saying what might have been the result,
+figuratively speaking, to his boiler if the sailor lad had not of his
+own accord opened a safety-valve.
+
+"You seems pretty bobbish this morning, young feller," he said, after
+contemplating his _vis-a-vis_, for a long time in critical silence.
+"Bin an' took too much, eh?"
+
+"I beg your pardon," said Robin, somewhat puzzled.
+
+"You're pritty considerable jolly, I say," returned the lad, who had an
+honest, ugly face; and was somewhat blunt and gruff in manner.
+
+"I am indeed very jolly," said Robin, with a bland smile, "for I'm going
+to help to lay the great Atlantic Cable."
+
+"Wot's that you say?" demanded the lad, with sudden animation.
+
+Robin repeated his remark.
+
+"Well, now, that _is_ a go!  Why, _I'm_ goin' to help lay the great
+Atlantic Cable too.  I'm one the stooard's boys.  What may _you_ be,
+young feller?"
+
+"Me?  Oh!  I'm--I--why, I'm on the electrical staff--I'm--" he thought
+of the word _secretary_, but a feeling of modesty induced him to
+say--"assistant to one of the electricians."
+
+"Which 'un?" demanded the lad curtly.
+
+"Mr Smith."
+
+"Mr Smith, eh?  Well--it ain't an unusual name--Smith ain't.  P'r'aps
+you'll condescend on his first name, for there's no less than three
+Smiths among the electricians."
+
+"Ebenezer Smith, I believe," said Robin.
+
+"Ebbysneezer Smith--eh? well, upon my word that's a Smith-mixtur that
+I've never heerd on before.  I don't know 'im, but he's all right, I
+dessay.  They're a rum lot altogether."
+
+Whether this compliment was meant for the great Smith family in general,
+or the electrical branch in particular, Robin could not guess, and did
+not like to ask.  Having thus far opened his heart, however, he began to
+pour out its contents, and found that the ugly sailor lad was a much
+more sympathetic soul than he had been led to expect from his looks.
+Having told his own name, he asked that of his companion in return.
+
+"My name--oh! it's Slagg--Jim Slagg; James when you wants to be
+respeckful--Slagg when familiar.  I'm the son o' Jim Slagg, senior.  Who
+_he_ was the son of is best known to them as understands the science of
+jinnylology.  But it don't much matter, for we all runs back to Adam an'
+Eve somehow.  They called me after father, of course; but to make a
+distinction they calls him Jimmy--bein' more respeckful-like,--and me
+Jim.  It ain't a name much to boast of, but I wouldn't change it with
+you, young feller, though Robert ain't a bad name neither.  It's pretty
+well-known, you see, an' _that's_ somethin'.  Then, it's bin bore by
+great men.  Let me think--wasn't there a Robert the Great once?"
+
+"I fear not," said Robin; "he is yet in the womb of Time."
+
+"Ah, well, no matter; but there should have bin a Robert the Great
+before now.  Anyhow, there was Robert the Bruce--he was a king, warn't
+he, an' a skull-cracker?  Then there was Robert Stephenson, the great
+engineer--he's livin' yet; an' there was Robert the--the Devil, but I
+raither fear he must have bin a bad 'un, _he_ must, so we won't count
+him.  Of course, they gave you another name, for short; ah, Robin!  I
+thought so.  Well, that ain't a bad name neither.  There was Robin Hood,
+you know, what draw'd the long-bow a deal better than the worst
+penny-a-liner as ever mended a quill.  An' there was a Robin Goodfellow,
+though I don't rightly remember who he was exactly."
+
+"One of Shakespeare's characters," interposed Robin.
+
+"Jus' so--well, he couldn't have bin a bad fellow, you know.  Then, as
+to your other name, Wright--that's all right, you know, and might have
+bin writer if you'd taken to the quill or the law.  Anyhow, as long as
+you're Wright, of course you can't be wrong--eh, young feller?"
+
+Jim Slagg was so tickled with this sudden sally that he laughed, and in
+so doing shut his little eyes, and opened an enormous mouth, fully
+furnished with an unbroken set of splendid teeth.
+
+Thus pleasantly did Robin while away the time with his future shipmate
+until he arrived at the end of his journey, when he parted from Jim
+Slagg and was met by Ebenezer Smith.
+
+That energetic electrician, instead of at once taking him on board the
+Great Eastern, took him to a small inn, where he gave him his tea and
+put him through a rather severe electrical examination, out of which our
+anxious hero emerged with credit.
+
+"You'll do, Robin," said his examiner, who was a free-and-easy yet
+kindly electrician, "but you want instruction in many things."
+
+"Indeed I do, sir," said Robin, "for I have had no regular education in
+the science, but I hope, if you direct me what to study, that I shall
+improve."
+
+"No doubt you will, my boy.  Meanwhile, as the big ship won't be ready
+to start for some time, I want you to go to the works of the Telegraph
+Construction and Maintenance Company, see the making of the cable, learn
+all you can, and write me a careful account of all that you see, and all
+that you think about it."
+
+Robin could not repress a smile.
+
+"Why, boy, what are you laughing at?" demanded Mr Smith, somewhat
+sternly.
+
+Robin blushed deep scarlet as he replied--
+
+"Pardon me, sir, but you said I am to write down all that I _think_
+about it."
+
+"Well, what then?"
+
+"I--I'm afraid, sir," stammered Robin, "that if I write down all I
+_think_ about the Atlantic Cable, as well as all that I see, I shall
+require a very long time indeed, and a pretty large volume."
+
+Mr Smith gazed at our hero for some time with uplifted brows, then he
+shook his head slowly and frowned, then he nodded it slightly and
+smiled.  After that he laughed, or rather chuckled, and said--
+
+"Well, you may go now, and do what I have told you--only omitting most
+of what you think.  A small portion of that will suffice!  Don't hurry
+back.  Go home and make a fair copy of your observations and thoughts.
+I'll write when I require you.  Stay--your address?  Ah!  I have it in
+my note-book.  What's your first name, Mister Wright?"
+
+Robin grew two inches taller, or more, on the spot; he had never been
+called Mister before, except in jest!
+
+"Robert, sir," he replied.
+
+"Robert--ha! h'm!  I'll call you Bob.  I never could stand ceremony, so
+you'll accustom yourself to the new name as quickly as you can--but
+perhaps it's not new to you?"
+
+"Please, sir, I've been used to Robin; if you have no objection, I
+should--"
+
+"No objection--of course not," interrupted Mr Smith; "Robin will do
+quite as well, though a little longer; but that's no matter.  Good-bye,
+Robin, and--and--don't think too hard.  It sometimes hurts digestion;
+good-bye."
+
+"Well, what d'ee think of Ebbysneezer Smith, my electrical toolip?"
+asked Jim Slagg, whom Robin encountered again at the station.  "He's a
+wiry subject, I s'pose, like the rest of 'em?"
+
+"He's a very pleasant gentleman," answered Robin warmly.
+
+"Oh, of coorse he is.  All the Smiths are so--more or less.  They're a
+glorious family.  I knows at least half a dozen of 'em in what superfine
+people call the `slums' of London."
+
+"And I know _more_ than half a dozen of 'em," retorted Robin, somewhat
+sharply, "in what unrefined people call the _h_aristocracy of London."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Mister Slagg, gazing at Robin in silent surprise.
+
+What the whistle implied was not explained at that time, because the
+locomotive whistle took up the tune with intense violence, causing a
+rush to the train, in which the two lads--like many other friends--were
+abruptly parted for a season.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+TELLS OF OUR HERO'S VISIT TO THE GREAT CABLE.
+
+Robin Wright returned home with a bounding heart.  Since his electrical
+appointment he had become, figuratively speaking, an indiarubber ball--a
+sort of human "squash."  His heart bounded; his feet bounded; if his
+head had fallen off, it also would have bounded, no doubt.
+
+On arriving he found his father's elder brother--a retired sea-captain
+of the merchant service--on a visit to the family.
+
+There was not a more favourite uncle in the kingdom than uncle Rik--thus
+had his name of Richard been abbreviated by the Wright family.  Uncle
+Rik was an old bachelor and as bald as a baby--more so than many babies.
+He was good-humoured and liberal-hearted, but a settled unbeliever in
+the world's progress.  He idolised the "good old times," and quite
+pleasantly scorned the present.
+
+"So, so, Robin," he said, grasping our hero by both hands (and uncle
+Rik's grasp was no joke), "you're goin' in for batteries--galvanic
+batteries an' wires, are you?  Well, lad, I always thought you more or
+less of a fool, but I never thought you such a born idiot as that comes
+to."
+
+"Yes, uncle," said Robin, with a pleasant laugh, for he was used to the
+old captain's plain language, "I'm going to be an electrician."
+
+"Bah! pooh!--an electrician!" exclaimed uncle Rik with vehemence, "as
+well set up for a magician at once."
+
+"Indeed he won't be far short of that," said Mrs Wright, who was seated
+at the tea-table with her husband and Madge--"at least," she added, "if
+all be true that we hear of this wonderful science."
+
+"If only half of it be true," interjected Mr Wright.
+
+"But it _ain't_ true," said Captain Rik firmly.  "They talk a deal of
+stuff about it, more than nine-tenths of which is lies--pure fable.  I
+don't believe in electricity; more than that, I don't believe in steam.
+Batteries and boilers are both bosh!"
+
+"But, uncle, you can't deny that they exist," said Robin.
+
+"Of course not," replied the captain.  "I know as well as you do--maybe
+better--that there's a heap o' telegraph-wires rove about the world like
+great spiders' webs, and that there are steamboats hummin' an' buzzin'--
+ay, an' bu'stin' too--all over the ocean, like huge wasps, an' a pretty
+mess they make of it too among them!  Why, there was a poor old lady the
+other day that was indooced by a young nephy to send a telegraphic
+message to her husband in Manchester--she bein' in London.  She was very
+unwillin' to do it, bein' half inclined to regard the telegraph as a
+plant from the lower regions.  The message sent was, `Your lovin' wife
+hopes you'll be home to-morrow.'  It reached the husband, `Your lowerin'
+wife hopes you'll be hung to-morrow.'  Bad writin' and a useless
+flourish at the _e_ turned _home_ into _hung_.  The puzzled husband
+telegraphs in reply, `Mistake somewhere--all right--shall be back three
+o'clock--to-morrow--kind love.'  And how d'ye think this reached the old
+lady?--`Mistake somewhere--all night--stabbed in back--through cloak--
+two more rows--killed, love.'  Now, d'you call _that_ successful
+telegraphing?"
+
+"Not very," admitted Robin, with a laugh, "but of the thousands of
+messages that pass to and fro daily there cannot be many like these, I
+should think."
+
+"But what did the poor wife do?" asked Madge anxiously.
+
+"Do?" repeated Rik indignantly, as though the misfortune were his own--
+for he was a very sympathetic captain--"do?  Why, she gave a yell that
+nigh knocked the young nephy out of his reason, and fell flat on the
+floor.  When she came to, she bounced up, bore away for the railway
+station under full sail, an' shipped for Manchester, where she found her
+husband, alive and hearty, pitchin' into a huge beefsteak, which he very
+properly said, after recovering from his first surprise, was big enough
+for two."
+
+"But what objection have you to steamers, uncle Rik?" asked Mrs Wright;
+"I'm sure they are very comfortable and fast-going."
+
+"Comfortable and fast-goin'!" repeated the old sailor, with a look of
+supreme contempt, "yes, they're comfortable enough when your berth ain't
+near the paddles or the boilers; an' they're fast-goin', no doubt,
+specially when they bu'st.  But ain't the nasty things made of iron--
+like kitchen kettles? and won't that rust? an' if you knock a hole in
+'em won't they go down at once? an' if you clap too much on the
+safety-valves won't they go up at once?  Bah! pooh!--there's nothin'
+like the wooden walls of old England.  You may take the word of an old
+salt for it,--them wooden walls will float and plough the ocean when all
+these new-fangled iron pots are sunk or blowed to atoms.  Why, look at
+the Great Eastern herself, the biggest kettle of 'em all, what a
+precious mess _she_ made of herself!  At first she wouldn't move at all,
+when they tried to launch her; then they had to shove her off sidewise
+like a crab; then she lost her rudder in a gale, an' smashed all her
+cabin furniture like a bad boy with his toys.  Bah!  I only hope I may
+be there when she bu'sts, for it'll be a grand explosion."
+
+"I'm sorry you have so bad an opinion of her, uncle, for I am appointed
+to serve in the Great Eastern while layin' the Atlantic Cable."
+
+"Sorry to hear it, lad; very sorry to hear it.  Of course I hope for
+your sake that she won't blow up on _this_ voyage, though it's nothin'
+more or less than an absurd ship goin' on a wild-goose chase."
+
+"But, uncle, submarine cables have now passed the period of experiment,"
+said Robin, coming warmly to the defence of his favourite subject.
+"Just consider, from the time the first one was laid, in 1851, between
+Dover and Calais, till now, about fifteen years, many thousands of miles
+of conducting-wire have been laid along the bottom of the sea to many
+parts of the world, and they are in full and successful operation at
+this moment.  Why, even in 1858, when the first Atlantic Cable was laid,
+the Gutta-percha Company had made forty-four submarine cables."
+
+"I know it, lad, but it won't last.  It's all sure to bu'st up in course
+of time."
+
+"Then, though the attempt to lay the last Atlantic Cable proved a
+failure," continued Robin, "the first one, the 1858 one, _was_ a success
+at the beginning, no one can deny that."
+
+"Ay, but how long did it last?" demanded the skipper, hitting the table
+with his fist.
+
+"Oh, please, have pity on the tea-cups, uncle Rik," cried the hostess.
+
+"Beg pardon, sister, but I can't help getting riled when I hear younkers
+talkin' stuff.  Why, do you really suppose," said the captain, turning
+again to Robin, "that because they managed in '58 to lay a cable across
+the Atlantic, and exchange a few messages, which refused to travel after
+a few days, that they'll succeed in layin' down a permanent speakin'
+trumpet between old England and Noof'nland--2000 miles, more or less--in
+spite o' gales an' currents, an' ships' anchors, an' insects, an'
+icebergs an' whales, to say nothing o' great sea-sarpints an' such
+like?"
+
+"Uncle Rik, I do," said Robin, with intensely earnest eyes and glowing
+cheeks.
+
+"Bravo!  Robin, you'll do it, I do believe, if it is to be done at all;
+give us your hand, lad."
+
+The old sailor's red countenance beamed with a huge smile of kindness as
+he shook his enthusiastic nephew's hand.
+
+"There," he added, "I'll not say another word against iron kettles or
+Atlantic cables.  If you succeed I'll give batteries and boilers full
+credit, but if you fail I'll not forget to remind you that I _said_ it
+would all bu'st up in course of time."
+
+With note-book and pencil in hand Robin went down the very next day to
+the works of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, where
+the great cable was being made.
+
+Presenting his letter of introduction from Mr Smith, Robin was
+conducted over the premises by a clerk, who, under the impression that
+he was a very youthful and therefore unusually clever newspaper
+correspondent, treated him with marked respect.  This was a severe trial
+to Robin's modesty; nevertheless he bore up manfully, and pulling out
+his note-book prepared for action.
+
+The reader need not fear that we intend to inflict on him Robin's
+treatise on what he styled the "Great Atlantic Cable," but it would be
+wrong to leave the subject without recording a few of those points which
+made a deep impression on him.
+
+"The cable when completed, sir," said the clerk, as he conducted his
+visitor to the factory, "will be 2300 nautical miles in length."
+
+"Indeed," said Robin, recording the statement with solemn gravity and
+great accuracy; "but I thought," he added, "that the exact distance from
+Ireland to Newfoundland was only 1600 miles."
+
+"You are right, sir, but we allow 700 miles of `slack' for the
+inequalities of the bottom.  Its cost will be 700,000 pounds, and the
+whole when finished will weigh 7000 tons."
+
+Poor Robin's mind had, of course, been informed about ton-weights at
+school, but he had not felt that he realised what they actually
+signified until the thought suddenly occurred that a cart-load of coals
+weighed one ton, whereupon 7000 carts of coals leaped suddenly into the
+field of his bewildered fancy.  A slightly humorous tendency, inherited
+from his mother, induced 7000 drivers, with 7000 whips and a like number
+of smock-frocks, to mount the carts and drive in into the capacious hold
+of the Great Eastern.  They turned, however, and drove instantly off his
+brain when he came into the august presence of the cable itself.
+
+The central core of the cable--that part by which the electric force or
+fluid was to pass from the Old World to the New, and _vice versa_, was
+made of copper.  It was not a solid, single wire, but a strand composed
+of seven fine wires, each about the thickness of a small pin.  Six of
+these wires were wound spirally round the seventh.  This was in order to
+prevent what is termed a "breach of continuity," for it will be at once
+perceived that while a single wire of the core might easily break in the
+process of laying the cable, and thereby prevent the flow of
+electricity, the probability of the seven small wires all breaking at
+the same spot was so remote as to be almost impossible, and if even one
+wire out of the seven held, the continuity would remain.  Nay, even all
+the seven might break, but, so long as they did not all break at the
+same place, continuity would not be lost, because copper would still
+continue to touch copper all throughout the cable's length.
+
+In the process of construction, the central wire of the copper core was
+first covered with a semi-liquid coating of gutta-percha, mixed with
+tar--known as "Chatterton's Compound."  This was laid on so thick that
+when the other wires were wound round it all air was excluded.  Then a
+coating of the same compound was laid over the finished conductor, and
+thus the core was solidified.  Next, the core was surrounded with a
+coating of the purest gutta-percha--a splendid non-conductor, impervious
+to water--which, when pressed to it, while in a plastic state, formed
+the first insulator or tube to the core.  Over this tube was laid a thin
+coat of Chatterton's Compound for the purpose of closing up any small
+flaws or minute holes that might have escaped detection.  Then came a
+second coating of gutta-percha, followed by another coating of compound,
+and so on alternately until four coats of compound and four of
+gutta-percha had been laid on.
+
+This core, when completed, was wound in lengths on large reels, and was
+then submerged in water and subjected to a variety of severe electrical
+tests, so as to bring it as near as possible to a state of perfection,
+after which every inch of it was examined by hand while being unwound
+from the reels and re-wound on the large drums, on which it was to be
+forwarded to the covering works at East Greenwich, there to receive its
+external protecting sheath.
+
+All this, and much more besides, did Robin Wright carefully note down,
+and that same evening went home and delivered a long and luminous
+lecture, over which his mother wondered, Madge rejoiced, his father
+gloried, and uncle Rik fell asleep.
+
+Next day he hastened to the covering works, and, presenting his
+credentials, was admitted.
+
+Here he saw the important and delicate core again carefully tested as to
+its electrical condition, after which it received a new jacket of tanned
+jute yarn to protect it from the iron top coat yet to come.  Its jute
+jacket on, it was then coiled away in tanks full of water, where it was
+constantly kept submerged and continuously tested for insulation.  Last
+of all the top coat was put on.  This consisted of ten wires of
+peculiarly fine and strong iron.  Each of these ten wires had put on it
+a special coat of its own, made of tarred Manilla yarn, to protect it
+from rust as well as to lighten its specific gravity.  The core being
+brought from its tank, and passed round several sheaves, which carried
+it below the factory floor, was drawn up through a hole in the centre of
+a circular table, around the circumference of which were ten drums of
+the Manilla-covered wire.  A stout iron rod, fastened to the
+circumference of the table, rose from between each drum to the ceiling,
+converging in a cone which passed through to the floor above.  Our core
+rose in the middle of all, and went through the hollow of the cone.
+When all was put in noisy and bewildering motion, the core which rose
+from the turning-table and whirling drums as a thin jute-clad line, came
+out in the floor above a stout iron-clad cable, with a Manilla
+top-dressing, possessing strength sufficient to bear eleven miles of its
+own length perpendicularly suspended in water--or a margin of strength
+more than four and a half times that required,--and with a breaking
+strain of seven tons fifteen hundredweight.
+
+When thoroughly charged and primed, Robin went off home to write his
+treatise.
+
+Then he received the expected summons to repair on board the Great
+Eastern, and bade adieu to his early home.
+
+It was of no use that Robin tried to say good-bye in a facetious way,
+and told Madge and his mother not to cry, saying that he was only going
+across the Atlantic, a mere fish-pond, and that he would be home again
+in a month or two.  Ah! these little efforts at deception never avail.
+Himself broke down while urging Madge to behave herself, and when his
+mother gave him a small Bible, and said she required no promise, for she
+_knew_ he would treasure and read it, he was obliged hastily to give her
+a last fervent hug, and rush from the house without saying good-bye at
+all.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+THE BIG SHIP--FIRST NIGHT ABOARD.
+
+When our hero at last reached the Great Eastern, he soon found himself
+in what may be termed a lost condition.  At first he was disappointed,
+for he saw her at a distance, and it is well-known that distance lends
+deception as well as "enchantment to the view."  Arrived alongside,
+however, he felt as if he had suddenly come under the walls of a great
+fortress or city.
+
+Presently he stood on the deck of the Big Ship, as its familiars called
+it, and, from that moment, for several days, was, as we have said, in a
+lost condition.  He was lost in wonder, to begin with, as he gazed at
+the interminable length and breadth of planking styled the deck, and the
+forest of funnels, masts, and rigging, and the amazing perspective,
+which caused men at the further end from where he stood to look like
+dolls.
+
+Then he was lost in reality, when he went below and had to ask his way
+as though he were wandering in the labyrinths of a great city.  He
+felt--or thought he felt--like a mere mite in the mighty vessel.  Soon
+he lost his old familiar powers of comparison and contrast, and ere long
+he lost his understanding altogether, for he fell down one of the
+hatchways into a dark abyss, where he would probably have ended his
+career with electric speed if he had not happily fallen into the arms of
+a human being, with whom he rolled and bumped affectionately, though
+painfully, to the bottom of the stair.
+
+The human being, growled intense disapprobation during the process, and
+Robin fancied that the voice was familiar.
+
+"Come, I say," said the being, remonstratively, "this is altogether too
+loving, you know.  Don't squeeze quite so tight, young 'un, whoever you
+be."
+
+"Oh, I _beg_ your pardon," gasped Robin, relaxing his grasp when they
+stopped rolling; "I'm _so_ sorry.  I hope I haven't hurt you."
+
+"Hurt me!" laughed Jim Slagg, for it was he; "no, you small electrician,
+you 'aven't got battery-power enough to do _me_ much damage; but what
+d'ye mean by it?  Is this the way to meet an old friend?  Is it right
+for a Wright to go wrong at the wery beginnin' of his career?  But come,
+I forgive you.  Have you been introdooced to Capting Anderson yet?"
+
+"No!  Who is he?"
+
+"Who is he, you ignorant crokidile! why, he's the capting of the Great
+Eastern, the commander o' the Big Ship, the Great Mogul o' the
+quarter-deck, the king o' the expedition.  But, of course, you 'aven't
+bin introdooced to him.  He don't associate much with small fry like
+us--more's the pity, for it might do 'im good.  But come, I'll take you
+under my wing for the present, because your partikler owner, Ebbysneezer
+Smith, ain't come aboard yet--ashore dissipatin', I suppose,--an'
+everybody's so busy gettin' ready to start that nobody will care to be
+bothered with you, so come along."
+
+There was same truth in this eccentric youths' remarks, for in the
+bustle of preparation for an early start every one on board seemed to be
+so thoroughly engrossed with his own duty that he had no time to attend
+to anything else, and Robin had begun to experience, in the absence of
+his "partikler owner," an uneasy sensation of being very much in
+people's way.  As he felt strangely attracted by the off-hand
+good-humoured impudence of his new friend, he consented to follow him,
+and was led to a small apartment, somewhere in the depths of the mighty
+ship, in which several youths, not unlike Slagg, were romping.  They
+had, indeed, duties to perform like the rest, but the moment chanced to
+be with them a brief period of relaxation, which they devoted to
+skylarking.
+
+"Hallo who have you got here?" demanded a large clumsy youth, knocking
+off Slagg's cap as he asked the question.
+
+"Come, Stumps, don't you be cheeky," said Slagg, quietly picking up his
+cap and putting it on; "this is a friend o' mine--one o' the
+electricians,--so you needn't try to shock _his_ feelin's, for he can
+give better than he gets.  He's got no berth yet, so I brought 'im here
+to show him hospitality."
+
+"Oh, indeed," said Mr Stumps, bowing with mock respect; then, turning
+to the comrade with whom he had been skylarking, "Here, Jeff, supply
+this _gentleman_ with food."
+
+Jeff, entering into Stumps' humour, immediately brought a plate of
+broken ship-biscuit with a can of water, and set them on the table
+before Robin.  Our hero, who had never been accustomed to much jesting,
+took the gift in earnest, thanked Jeff heartily, and, being hungry, set
+to work with a will upon the simple fare, while Stumps and Jeff looked
+at each other and winked.
+
+"Come, I can add something to improve that feast," said Slagg, drawing a
+piece of cheese from his pocket, and setting it before his friend.
+
+Robin thanked him, and was about to take the cheese when Stumps snatched
+it up, and ran out of the room with it, laughing coarsely as he went.
+
+"The big bully," growled Slagg; "it's quite obvious to me that feller
+will have to be brought to his marrow-bones afore long."
+
+"Never mind," said Jeff, who was of a more amiable spirit than Stumps,
+"here's more o' the same sort."  He took another piece of cheese from a
+shelf as he spoke, and gave it to Robin.
+
+"Now, my young toolip," said Slagg, "havin' finished your feed, p'r'aps
+you'd like to see over the big ship."
+
+With great delight Robin said that he should like nothing better, and,
+being led forth, was soon lost a second time in wonderment.
+
+Of what use was it that Slagg told him the Great Eastern was 692 feet
+long by 83 feet broad, and 70 feet deep?  If he had said yards instead
+of feet it would have been equally instructive to Robin in his then
+mentally lost condition.  Neither was it of the slightest use to be told
+that the weight of the big ship's cargo, including cable, tanks, and
+coals, was 21,000 tons.
+
+But reason began to glimmer again when Slagg told him that the two
+largest vessels afloat could not contain, in a convenient position for
+passing out, the 2700 miles then coiled in the three tanks of the Great
+Eastern.
+
+"This is the main tank," said Slagg, leading his friend to a small
+platform that hung over a black and apparently unfathomable gulf.
+
+"I see nothing at all," said Robin, stretching his head cautiously
+forward and gazing down into darkness profound, while he held on tight
+to a rail.  "How curious!--when I look down everything in this wonderful
+ship seems to have no bottom, and when I look up, nothing appears to
+have any top, while, if I look backward or forward things seem to have
+no end!  Ah!  I see something now.  Coming in from the light prevented
+me at first.  Why, it's like a huge circus!"
+
+"Yes, it on'y wants hosses an' clowns to make it all complete," said
+Slagg.  "Now, that tank is 58 feet 6 inches in diameter, and 20 feet 6
+inches deep, an' holds close upon 900 miles of cable.  There are two
+other tanks not much smaller, all choke-full.  An' the queer thing is,
+that they can telegraph through all its length _now_, at this moment as
+it lies there,--an' they are doing so continually to make sure that
+all's right."
+
+"Oh!  I understand _that_," said Robin quickly; "I have read all about
+the laying of the first cable in 1858.  It is the _appearance_ of things
+in this great ship that confounds me."
+
+"Come along then, and I'll confound you a little more," said Slagg.
+
+He accordingly led his friend from one part of the ship to another,
+explaining and commenting as he went, and certainly Robin's wonder did
+not decrease.
+
+From the grand saloon--which was like a palatial drawing-room, in size
+as well as in gorgeous furniture--to the mighty cranks and boilers of
+its engines, everything in and about the ship was calculated to amaze.
+As Slagg justly remarked, "It was stunnin'."
+
+When our hero was saturated with the "Big Ship" till he could hold no
+more, his friend took him back to his berth, and left him there for a
+time to his meditations.
+
+Returning soon after, he sat down on a looker.
+
+"I say, Robin Wright," he began, thrusting his hands into his
+trousers-pockets, "it looks a'most as if I had smuggled you aboard of
+this ship like a stowaway.  Nobody seems to know you are here, an'
+what's more, nobody seems to care.  Your partikler owner ain't turned up
+yet, an' it's my opinion he won't turn up to-night, so I've spoke to the
+stooard--he's _my_ owner, you know--an' he says you'd better just turn
+into my berth to-night, an' you'll get showed into your own to-morrow."
+
+"But where will _you_ sleep?" asked Robin, with some hesitation.
+
+"Never you mind that, my young electrician.  That's _my_ business.  What
+you've got to do is to turn in."
+
+Jeff and another lad, who were preparing to retire for the night at the
+time, laughed at this, but Robin paid no attention, thanked his friend,
+and said that as he was rather tired he would accept his kind offer.
+
+Thereafter, pulling out the small Bible which he had kept in his pocket
+since leaving home, he went into a corner, read a few verses, and then
+knelt down to pray.
+
+The surprise of the other lads was expressed in their eyes, but they
+said nothing.
+
+Just then the door opened, and the lad named Stumps entered.  Catching
+sight of Robin on his knees he opened his eyes wide, pursed his mouth,
+and gave a low whistle.  Then he went up to Robin and gave him a slight
+kick.  Supposing that it was an accident, Robin did not move, but on
+receiving another and much more decided kick, he rose and turned round.
+At the same moment Stumps received a resounding and totally unexpected
+slap on the cheek from Jim Slagg, who planted himself before him with
+clenched fists and flashing eyes.
+
+"What d'ye mean by interferin' wi' _my_, friend at his dewotions, you
+monkey-faced polypus?" he demanded fiercely.
+
+The monkey-faced polypus replied not a word, but delivered a
+right-hander that might have felled a small horse.  Jim Slagg however
+was prepared for that.  He turned his head neatly to one side so as to
+let the blow pass, and at the same moment planted his knuckles on the
+bridge of his opponent's nose and sent him headlong into Jeff's bunk,
+which lay conveniently behind.  Jumping furiously out of that, and
+skinning his shins in the act, Stumps rushed at Slagg, who, leaping
+lightly aside, tripped him up and gave him a smack on the left ear as he
+passed, by way of keeping him lively.
+
+Unsubdued by this, Stumps gathered himself up and made a blind rush at
+his adversary, but was abruptly stopped by what Jeff called a "dab on
+the nose."  Repeating the rush, Stumps was staggered by a plunging blow
+on the forehead, and he paused to breathe, gazing the while at his foe,
+who, though a smaller youth than himself, was quite as strong.
+
+"If you've had enough, monkey-face," said Slagg, with a bland smile,
+"don't hesitate to say so, an' I'll shake hands; but if you'd prefer a
+little more before goin' to bed, just let me know, and--"
+
+Slagg here performed some neat and highly suggestive motions with his
+fists by way of finishing the sentence.
+
+Evidently Stumps wanted more, for, after a brief pause, he again rushed
+at Slagg, who, stepping aside like a Spanish matador, allowed his foe to
+expend his wrath on the bulkhead of the cabin.
+
+"You'll go through it next time, Stumps, if you plunge like that," said
+Jeff, who had watched the fight with lively interest, and had encouraged
+the combatants with sundry marks of applause, besides giving them much
+gratuitous advice.
+
+Regardless alike of encouragement and advice, the angry youth turned
+round once more and received a buffet that sent him sprawling on the
+table, off which he fell and rolled under it.  There he lay and panted.
+
+"Now, my sweet polypus," said the victor, going down on one knee and
+patting the vanquished on his shoulder, "next time you feels tempted to
+kick a gentleman--specially a electrician--at his dewotions, think of
+Jim Slagg an' restrain yourself.  I bear you no ill-will however--so,
+good-night."
+
+Saying this, Robin's champion left the room and Stumps retired to his
+berth growling.
+
+Before passing from the subject, we may add that, the next night,
+Robin--whose owner was still absent--was again hospitably invited to
+share the cabin of his friend and protector.  When about to retire to
+rest he considered whether it was advisable to risk the repetition of
+the scene of the previous, night, and, although not quite easy in his
+conscience about it, came to the conclusion that it would be well to say
+his prayers in bed.  Accordingly, he crept quietly into his berth and
+lay down, but Jim Slagg, who was present, no sooner saw what he was
+about than he jumped up with a roar of indignation.
+
+"What are you about?" he cried, "ain't you goin' to say your prayers,
+you white-livered electrician?  Come, git up!  If _I'm_ to fight, _you_
+must pray!  D'ye hear?  Turn out, I say."
+
+With that he seized Robin, dragged him out of bed, thrust him on his
+knees, and bade him "do his dooty."
+
+At first Robin's spirit rose in rebellion, but a sense of shame at his
+moral cowardice, and a perception of the justice of his friend's remark,
+subdued him.  He did pray forthwith, though what the nature of his
+prayer was we have never been able to ascertain, and do not care to
+guess.  The lesson, however, was not lost.  From that date forward Robin
+Wright was no longer ashamed or afraid to be seen in the attitude of
+prayer.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+LAYING THE CABLE--"FAULTS" AND FAULT-FINDING--ANXIETIES, ACCIDENTS, AND
+OTHER MATTERS.
+
+Come with us now, good reader, to another and very different scene--out
+upon the boundless sea.  The great Atlantic is asleep, but his breast
+heaves gently and slowly like that of a profound sleeper.
+
+The Great Eastern looks like an island on the water--steady as a rock,
+obedient only to the rise and fall of the ocean swell, as she glides
+along at the rate of six knots an hour.  All is going well.  The
+complicated-looking paying-out machinery revolves smoothly; the
+thread-like cable passes over the stern, and down into the deep with the
+utmost regularity.
+
+The shore-end of the cable--twenty-seven miles in length, and much
+thicker than the deep-sea portion--had been laid at Valentia, on the
+22nd of July, amid prayer and praise, speech-making, and much
+enthusiasm, on the part of operators and spectators.  On the 23rd, the
+end of the shore cable was spliced to that of the main cable, and the
+voyage had begun.
+
+The first night had passed quietly, and upwards of eighty miles of the
+cable had gone out of the after-tank, over the big ship's stern, and
+down to its ocean-bed, when Robin Wright--unable to sleep--quietly
+slipped into his clothes, and went on deck.  It was drawing near to
+dawn.  A knot of electricians and others were chatting in subdued tones
+about the one subject that filled the minds of all in the ship.
+
+"What! unable to sleep, like the rest of us?" said Ebenezer Smith,
+accosting Robin as he reached the deck.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Robin, with a sleepy smile, "I've been thinking of the
+cable so much that I took to dreaming about it when I fell asleep, and
+it suddenly turned into the great sea-serpent, and choked me to such an
+extent that I awoke, and then thought it better to get up and have a
+look at it."
+
+"Ah! my boy, you are not the only one whom the cable won't let sleep.
+It will be well looked after during the voyage, for there are two sets
+of electricians aboard--all of them uncommonly wide awake--one set
+representing the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, under
+Monsieur de Sauty; the other set representing the Atlantic Telegraph
+Company, under Mr Varley and Professor Thomson.  The former are to test
+the electrical state of the cable, and to keep up signals with the shore
+every hour, night and day, during the voyage, while the latter are to
+watch and report as to whether the cable fulfils her conditions, as
+specified in the contract.  So you see the smallest fault or hitch will
+be observed at once."
+
+"Do you mean, sir," asked Robin in surprise, "that telegraphing with the
+shore is to be kept up continually _all_ the voyage!"
+
+"Yes, my boy, I do," answered Smith.  "The lengths of the cable in the
+three tanks are joined up into one length, and telegraphing--for the
+purpose of testing it--has been kept up with the shore without
+intermission from the moment we left Ireland, and began to pay out.  It
+will be continued, if all goes well, until we land the other and in
+Newfoundland.  The tests are threefold,--first, for insulation, which,
+as you know, means the soundness and perfection of the gutta-percha
+covering that prevents the electricity from escaping from the wires,
+through the sea, into the earth; secondly, for continuity, or the
+unbroken condition of the conductor or copper core throughout its whole
+length; and, thirdly, to determine the resistance of the conductor, by
+which is meant its objection to carry our messages without vigorous
+application of the spur in the form of increased electrical power in our
+batteries.  You see, Robin, every message sent to us from the shore, as
+well as every message sent by us in reply, has to travel through the
+entire length of the cable, namely about 2400 miles, and as every mile
+of distance increases this unwillingness, or resistance, we have to
+increase the electrical power in the batteries, in proportion to the
+distance to which we want to send our message.  D'you understand?"
+
+"I think I do, sir; but _how_ is the exact amount of resistance tested?"
+
+Mr Smith smiled as he looked at the earnest face of his young
+questioner.
+
+"My boy," said he, "you would require a more fully educated mind to
+understand the answer to that question.  The subtleties of electrical
+science cannot be explained in a brief conversation.  You'll have to
+study and apply to books for full light on that subject.  Nevertheless,
+although I cannot carry you _into_ the subject just now, I can tell you
+something _about_ it.  You remember the testing-room which I showed you
+yesterday--the darkened room between the captain's state-room and the
+entrance to the grand saloon?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I remember it well," responded Robin,--"the room into which
+the conducting-wires from the ends of the cable are led to the
+testing-tables, on which are the curious-looking galvanometers and other
+testing machines."
+
+"Just so," returned Smith, pleased with his pupil's aptitude.  "Well, on
+that table stands Professor Thomson's delicate and wonderful
+galvanometer.  On that instrument a ray of light, reflected from a tiny
+mirror suspended to a magnet, travels along a scale and indicates the
+resistance to the passage of the current along the cable by the
+deflection of the magnet, which is marked by the course of this speck of
+light.  Now, d'you understand that, Robin?"
+
+"I--I'm afraid not quite, sir."
+
+"Well, no matter," rejoined Smith, with a laugh.
+
+"At all events you can understand that if that speck of light keeps
+within bounds--on its index--all is going well, but if it travels beyond
+the index--bolts out of bounds--an escape of the electric current is
+taking place somewhere in the cable, or what we call a _fault_ has
+occurred."
+
+"Ah, indeed," exclaimed Robin, casting a serious look at the cable as it
+rose from the after-tank, ran smoothly over its line of conducting
+wheels, dropped over the stern of the ship and glided into the sea like
+an an endless snake of stealthy habits.  "And what," he added, with a
+sudden look of awe, "if the cable should break?"
+
+"Why, it would go to the bottom, of course," replied Smith, "and several
+hearts would break along with it.  You see these two gentlemen
+conversing near the companion-hatch?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"One is the chief of the electricians; the other the chief of the
+engineers.  Their hearts would probably break, for their position is
+awfully responsible.  Then my heart would break, I know, for I feel it
+swelling at the horrible suggestion; and your heart would break, Robin,
+I think, for you are a sympathetic donkey, and couldn't help yourself.
+Then you see that stout man on the bridge--that's Captain Anderson--
+well, _his_ heart would--no--perhaps it wouldn't, for he's a sailor, and
+you know a sailor's heart is too tough to break, but it would get a
+pretty stiff wrench.  And you see that gentleman looking at the
+paying-out gear so earnestly?"
+
+"What--Cyrus Field?" said Robin.
+
+"Yes; well, his heart and the Atlantic Cable are united, so as a matter
+of course the two would snap together."
+
+Now, while Smith and his young assistant were conversing thus
+facetio-scientifically, the electricians on duty in the testing-room
+were watching with silent intensity the indications on their
+instruments.  Suddenly, at 3:15 a.m., when exactly eighty-four miles of
+cable had been laid out, he who observed the galvanometer saw the speck
+of light glide to the end of the scale, and vanish!
+
+If a speck of fire had been seen to glide through the key-hole of the
+powder-magazine it could scarcely have created greater consternation
+than did the disappearance of that light!  The commotion in the
+testing-room spread instantly to every part of the ship; the whole staff
+of electricians was at once roused, and soon afterwards the engines of
+the Great Eastern were slowed and stopped, while, with bated breath and
+anxious looks, men whispered to each other that there was "a fault in
+the cable."
+
+A fault!  If the cable had committed a mortal sin they could scarcely
+have looked more horrified.  Nevertheless there was ground for anxiety,
+for this fault, as in moral faults, indicated something that _might_ end
+in destruction.
+
+After testing the cable for some time by signalling to the shore,
+Monsieur de Sauty concluded that the fault was of a serious character,
+and orders were at once given to prepare the picking-up apparatus at the
+bow for the purpose of drawing the cable back into the ship until the
+defective portion should be reached and cut out.
+
+"O _what_ a pity!" sighed Robin, when he understood what was going to be
+done, and the feeling, if not the words, was shared by every one on
+board with more or less intelligence and intensity; but there were
+veterans of submarine telegraphy who spoke encouragingly and treated the
+incident as a comparatively small matter.
+
+Two men-of-war, the Terrible and the Sphinx, had been appointed to
+accompany and aid the Great Eastern on her important mission.  A gun was
+fired, and signals were made, to acquaint these with what had occurred
+while the fires were being got up in the boilers of the picking-up
+machinery.
+
+Electricians as well as doctors differ, it would seem, among themselves,
+for despite their skill and experience there was great difference of
+opinion in the minds of those on board the big ship as to the place
+where the fault lay.  Some thought it was near the shore, and probably
+at the splice of the shore-end with the main cable.  Others calculated,
+from the indications given by the tests, that it was perhaps twenty or
+forty or sixty miles astern.  One of the scientific gentlemen held that
+it was not very far from the ship, while another gentleman, who was said
+to be much experienced in "fault"-finding, asserted that it was not more
+than nine or ten miles astern.
+
+While the doctors were thus differing, the practical engineers were busy
+making the needful preparations for picking-up--an operation involving
+great risk of breaking the cable, and requiring the utmost delicacy of
+treatment, as may be easily understood, for, while the cable is being
+payed out the strain on it is comparatively small, whereas when it is
+being picked up, there is not only the extra strain caused by stoppage,
+and afterwards by hauling in, but there is the risk of sudden risings of
+the ship's stern on the ocean swell, which might at any moment snap the
+thin line like a piece of packthread.
+
+The first difficulty and the great danger was to pass the cable from the
+stern to the bow, and to turn the ship round, so as to enable them to
+steam up to the cable while hauling it in.  Iron chains were lashed
+firmly to the cable at the stern, and secured to a wire-rope carried
+round the outside of the ship to the picking-up apparatus at the bows.
+The cable was down in 400 fathoms of water when the paying-out ceased,
+and nice management was required to keep the ship steady, as she had now
+no steerage-way; and oh! with what intense interest and curiosity and
+wonder did Robin Wright regard the varied and wonderful mechanical
+appliances, with which the whole affair was accomplished!
+
+Then the cable was cut, and, with its shackles and chains, allowed to go
+plump into the sea.  Robin's heart and soul seemed to go along with it,
+for, not expecting the event, he fancied it was lost for ever.
+
+"Gone!" he exclaimed, with a look of horror.
+
+"Not quite," said Jim Slagg, who stood at Robin's elbow regarding the
+operations with a quiet look of intelligence.  "Don't you see, Robin,
+that a wire-rope fit a'most to hold the big ship herself is holdin' on
+to it."
+
+"Of course; how stupid I am!" said Robin, with a great sigh of relief;
+"I see it now, going round to the bows."
+
+At first the rope was let run, to ease the strain while the ship swung
+round; then it was brought in over the pulley at the bow, the paddles
+moved, and the return towards Ireland was begun.  The strain, although
+great, was far from the breaking-point, but the speed was very slow--not
+more than a mile an hour being considered safe in the process of
+picking-up.
+
+"Patience, Robin," observed Mr Smith, as he passed on his way to the
+cabin, "is a virtue much needed in the laying of cables.  We have now
+commenced a voyage at the rate of one mile an hour, which will not
+terminate till we get back to Owld Ireland, unless we find the fault."
+
+Patience, however, was not destined to be so severely tried.  All that
+day and all night the slow process went on.  Meanwhile--as the cable was
+not absolutely unworkable, despite the fault--the chief engineer, Mr
+Canning, sent a message to Mr Glass in Ireland, asking him to send out
+the Hawk steamer, in order that he might return in her to search for the
+defect in the shore-end of the cable, for if that were found he purposed
+sacrificing the eighty odd miles already laid down, making a new splice
+with the shore-end, and starting afresh.  A reply was received from Mr
+Glass, saying that the Hawk would be sent out immediately.
+
+Accordingly, about daybreak of the 25th the Hawk appeared, but her
+services were not required, for, about nine that morning, when the cable
+was coming slowly in and being carefully examined foot by foot--nay,
+inch by inch--the fault was discovered, and joy took the place of
+anxiety.  Ten and a quarter miles of cable had been picked up when the
+fault came inboard, and a strange unaccountable fault it turned out to
+be--namely, a small piece of wire which had been forced through the
+covering of the cable into the gutta-percha so as to injure, but not
+quite to destroy, the insulation.  How such a piece of wire could have
+got into the tank was a mystery, but the general impression was that it
+had been carried there by accident and forced into the coil by the
+pressure of the paying-out machinery as the cable flew through the
+jockey-wheels.
+
+Signals were at once made to the fleet that the enemy had been
+discovered.  Congratulatory signals were returned.  The fault was cut
+out and a new splice made.  The Hawk was sent home again.  The big
+ship's bow was turned once more to the west, and the rattling of the
+machinery, as the restored and revived cable passed over the stern, went
+merrily as a marriage bell.
+
+The detention had been only about twelve hours; the great work was going
+on again as favourably as before the mishap occurred, and about half a
+mile had been payed out, when--blackness of despair--the electric
+current suddenly ceased, and communication with the shore was ended
+altogether.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+IN WHICH JOYS, HOPES, ALARMS, GHOSTS, AND LEVIATHANS TAKE PART.
+
+That man who can appreciate the feelings of one who has become suddenly
+bankrupt may understand the mental condition of those on board the Great
+Eastern when they were thus tossed from the pinnacle of joyous hope to
+the depths of dark despair.  It was not, however, absolute despair.  The
+cable was utterly useless indeed--insensate--but it was not broken.
+There was still the blessed possibility of picking it up and bringing it
+to life again.
+
+That, however, was scarcely an appreciable comfort at the moment, and
+little could be seen or heard on board the Great Eastern save elongated
+faces and gloomy forebodings.
+
+Ebenezer Smith and his _confreres_ worked in the testing-room like
+Trojans.  They connected and disconnected; they put in stops and took
+them out; they intensified currents to the extent of their anxieties
+they reduced them to the measure of their despair--nothing would do.
+The cable was apparently dead.  In these circumstances picking-up was
+the only resource, and the apparatus for that purpose was again rigged
+up in the bows.
+
+In the meantime the splice which had been made to connect the tanks was
+cut and examined, and the portions coiled in the fore and main tanks
+were found to be perfect--alive and well--but the part between ship and
+shore was speechless.
+
+So was poor Robin Wright!  After Mr Field--whose life-hope seemed to be
+doomed to disappointment--the blow was probably felt most severely by
+Robin.  But Fortune seemed to be playfully testing the endurance of
+these cable-layers at that time, for, when the despair was at its worst,
+the tell-tale light reappeared on the index of the galvanometer, without
+rhyme or reason, calling forth a shout of joyful surprise, and putting
+an abrupt stoppage to the labours of the pickers-up!
+
+They never found out what was the cause of that fault; but that was a
+small matter, for, with restored sensation in the cable-nerve, renewed
+communication with the shore, and resumed progress of the ship towards
+her goal, they could afford to smile at former troubles.
+
+Joy and sorrow, shower and sunshine, fair weather and foul, was at first
+the alternating portion of the cable-layers.
+
+"I can't believe my eyes!" said Robin to Jim Slagg, as they stood next
+day, during a leisure hour, close to the whirling wheels and
+never-ending cable, about 160 miles of which had been laid by that time.
+"Just look at the Terrible and Sphinx; the sea is now so heavy that
+they are thumping into the waves, burying their bows in foam, while we
+are slipping along as steadily as a Thames steamer."
+
+"That's true, sir," answered Slagg, whose admiration for our hero's
+enthusiastic and simple character increased as their intimacy was
+prolonged, and whose manner of address became proportionally more
+respectful, "She's a steady little duck is the Great Eastern! she has
+got the advantage of length, you see, over other ships, an' rides on two
+waves at a time, instead of wobblin' in between 'em; but I raither think
+she'd roll a bit if she was to go along in the trough of the seas.
+Don't the cable go out beautiful, too--just like a long-drawn eel with
+the consumption!  Did you hear how deep the captain said it was
+hereabouts?"
+
+"Yes, I heard him say it was a little short of two miles deep, so it has
+got a long way to sink before it reaches its oozy bed."
+
+"How d'ee know what sort o' bed it's got to lie on?" asked Slagg.
+
+"Because," said Robin, "the whole Atlantic where the cable is to lie has
+been carefully sounded long ago, and it is found that the ocean-bed
+here, which looks so like mud, is composed of millions of beautiful
+shells, so small that they cannot be distinguished by the naked eye.  Of
+course, they have no creatures in them.  It would seem that these
+shell-fish go about the ocean till they die, and then fall to the bottom
+like rain."  See note one.
+
+"You _don't_ say so!" returned Slagg, who, being utterly uneducated,
+received suchlike information with charming surprise, and regarded Robin
+as a very mine of knowledge.  "Well now, that beats cock-fighting.  But,
+I say, how is it that the electricity works through the cable?  I heerd
+one o' your electrical fellers explaining to a landlubber t'other
+evenin' that electricity could only run along wires when the _circuit
+was closed_, by which he meant to say that it would fly from a battery
+and travel along a wire ever so far, if only that wire was to turn right
+round and run back to the same battery again.  Now, if that's so, seems
+to me that when you've got your cable to Newfoundland you'll have to run
+another one back again to Ireland before it'll work."
+
+"Ah, Slagg, that would indeed be the case," returned Robin, "were it not
+that we have discovered the important fact that the earth--the round
+globe on which we stand--itself acts the part of a grand conductor.  So
+we have only to send down _earth-wires_ at the two ends--one into the
+earth of Ireland, the other into the earth of Newfoundland, and
+straightway the circuit is closed, and the electricity generated in our
+batteries passes through the cable from earth to earth."
+
+"Robin," said Slagg doubtingly, "d'you expect me for to believe _that_?"
+
+"Indeed I do," said Robin simply.
+
+"Then you're greener than I took you for.  No offence meant, but it's my
+opinion some o' these 'cute electricians has bin tryin' the width of
+your swallow."
+
+"No, you are mistaken," returned Robin earnestly; "I have read the fact
+in many books.  The books differ in their opinions as to the causes and
+nature of the fact, but not as to the fact itself."
+
+It was evident that Robin looked upon this as an unanswerable argument,
+and his friend seemed perplexed.
+
+"Well, I don' know how it is," he said, after a pause, "but I do believe
+that this here wonderful electricity is fit for a'most anything, an'
+that we'll have it revoloosionising everything afore long--I do indeed."
+
+The intelligent reader who has noted the gigantic strides which we have
+recently made in electric lighting of late will observe that Slagg,
+unwittingly, had become almost prophetic at this time.
+
+"We're going along splendidly now," said Mr Smith, coming up to Robin
+that evening while he was conversing with Slagg, who immediately
+retired.--"Who is that youth?  He seems very fond of you; I've observed
+that he makes up to you whenever you chance to be on deck together."
+
+"He is one of the steward's lads, sir; I met him accidentally in the
+train; but I suspect the fondness is chiefly on my side.  He was very
+kind to me when I first came on board, and I really think he is an
+intelligent, good fellow--a strange mixture of self-confidence and
+humility.  Sometimes, to hear him speak, you would think he knew
+everything; but at the same time he is always willing--indeed anxious--
+to listen and learn.  He is a capital fighter too."
+
+Here Robin related the battle in the boys' berth, when Slagg thrashed
+Stumps, whereat Mr Smith was much amused.
+
+"So he seems a peculiar lad--modest, impudent, teachable, kindly, and
+warlike!  Come below now, Robin, I have some work for you.  Did you make
+the calculations I gave you yesterday?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and they corresponded exactly with your own."
+
+"Good.  Go fetch my little note-book: I left it in the grand saloon on
+the furthest aft seat, port side."
+
+Robin found the magnificent saloon of the big ship ringing with music
+and conversation.  Joy over the recent restoration to health of the
+ailing cable, the comfortable stability of the ship in rough weather,
+and the satisfactory progress then being made, all contributed to raise
+the spirits of every one connected with the great work, so that, while
+some were amusing themselves at the piano, others were scattered about
+in little groups, discussing the profounder mysteries of electric
+science, or prophesying the speedy completion of the enterprise, while a
+few were speculating on the probability of sport in Newfoundland, or
+planning out journeys through the United States.
+
+"There's lots of game, I'm told, in Newfoundland," said one of the
+youthful electricians, whose ruling passion--next to the subtle fluid--
+was the gun.
+
+"So I've been told," replied an elder and graver comrade.  "Polar bears
+are quite common in the woods, and it is said that walrus are fond of
+roosting in the trees."
+
+"Yes, I have heard so," returned the youthful sportsman, who, although
+young, was not to be caught with chaff, "and the fishing, I hear, is
+also splendid.  Salmon and cod are found swarming in the rivers by those
+who care for mild occupation, while really exciting sport is to be had
+in the great lakes of the interior, where there are plenty of
+fresh-water whales that take the fly."
+
+"The swan, you mean," said another comrade.  "The fly that is most
+killing among Newfoundland whales is a swan fastened whole to a shark
+hook--though a small boat's anchor will do if you haven't the right
+tackle."
+
+"Come, don't talk nonsense, but let's have a song!" said a brother
+electrician to the sporting youth.
+
+"I never sing," he replied, "except when hurt, and then I sing out.  But
+see, our best musician has just seated himself at the instrument."
+
+"I don't talk shop, Nimrod; call it the piano."
+
+Most of those present drew towards the musical corner, where Ebenezer
+Smith, having just entered the saloon in search of Robin, had been
+prevailed on to sit down and enliven the company.  Robin, who had been
+delayed by difficulty in finding the note-book, stopped to listen.
+
+Smith had a fair average voice and a vigorous manner.
+
+"You wouldn't object to hear the cook's last?" asked Smith, running his
+fingers lightly over the keys.
+
+"Of course not--go on," chorused several voices.
+
+"I had no idea," lisped a simple youth, who was one of a small party of
+young gentlemen interested in engineering and science, who had been
+accommodated with a passage,--"I had no idea that our cook was a poet as
+well as an admirable _chef de cuisine_."
+
+"Oh, it's not _our_ cook he means," explained the sporting electrician;
+"Mr Smith _refers_ to a certain sea-cook--or his son, I'm not sure
+which--who is _chef des horse-marines_."
+
+"Is there a chorus?" asked one.
+
+"Of course there is," replied Smith; "a sea-song without a chorus is
+like a kite without a tail--it is sure to fall flat, but the chorus is
+an old and well-known one--it is only the song that is new.  Now then,
+clear your throats, gentlemen."
+
+  Song--The Loss of the Nancy Lee.
+
+  I.
+
+  'Twas on a Friday morning that I went off,
+  An' shipped in the Nancy Lee,
+  But that ship caught a cold and with one tremendous cough
+  Went slap to the bottom of the sea, the sea, the sea,
+  Went slap to the bottom of the sea.
+
+  Chorus.--Then the raging sea may roar,
+  An' the stormy winds may blow,
+  While we jolly sailor boys rattle up aloft,
+  And the landlubbers lie down below, below, below
+  And the landlubbers lie down below.
+
+  II.
+
+  For wery nigh a century I lived with the crabs,
+  An' danced wi' the Mermaids too,
+  An' drove about the Ocean in mother o' pearl cabs,
+  An' dwelt in a cavern so blue, so blue, so blue,
+  An' dwelt in a cavern so blue.
+  Chorus.--Then the raging sea, etcetera.
+
+  III.
+
+  I soon forgot the sorrows o' the world above
+  In the pleasures o' the life below;
+  Queer fish they made up to me the want o' human love,
+  As through the world o' waters I did go, did go, did go;
+  As through the world o' waters I did go.
+  Chorus.--Then the raging sea, etcetera.
+
+  IV.
+
+  One day a horrid grampus caught me all by the nose,
+  An' swung me up to the land,
+  An' I never went to sea again, as everybody knows,
+  And as everybody well may understand, 'derstand, 'derstand,
+  And as everybody well may understand.
+  Chorus.--Then the raging sea, etcetera.
+
+The plaudits with which this song was received were, it need scarcely be
+remarked, due more to the vigour of the chorus and the enthusiasm of the
+audience than to intrinsic merit.  Even Robin Wright was carried off his
+legs for the moment, and, modest though he was, broke in at the chorus
+with such effect--his voice being shrill and clear--that, he
+unintentionally outyelled all the rest, and would have fled in
+consternation from the saloon if he had not been caught and forcibly
+detained by the sporting electrician, who demanded what right he had to
+raise his steam-whistle in that fashion.
+
+"But I say, young Wright," he added in a lower tone, leading our hero
+aside, "what's this rumour I hear about a ghost in the steward's cabin?"
+
+"Oh! it is nothing to speak of," replied Robin, with a laugh.  "The lad
+they call Stumps got a fright--that's all."
+
+"But that's enough.  Let us hear about it."
+
+"Well, I suppose you know," said Robin, "that there's a ghost in the
+Great Eastern."
+
+"No, I don't know it from personal experience, but I have heard a report
+to that effect."
+
+"Well, I was down in Jim Slagg's berth, having a chat with him about the
+nature of electric currents--for he has a very inquiring mind,--and
+somehow we diverged to ghosts, and began to talk of the ghost of the
+Great Eastern.
+
+"`I don't believe in the Great Eastern ghost--no, nor in ghosts of any
+kind,' said Stumps, who was sitting near us eating a bit of cheese.
+
+"`But I believe in 'em,' said the boy Jeff, who was seated on the other
+side of the table, and looked at us so earnestly that we could scarce
+help smiling--though we didn't feel in a smiling humour at the time, for
+it was getting dark, and we had got to talking in low tones and looking
+anxiously over our shoulders, you know--
+
+"`Oh yes, I know,' replied the sportsman, with a laugh; `I have
+shuddered and grue-oo-ed many a time over ghost-stories.  Well?'
+
+"`_I_ don't believe in 'em, Jeff.  Why do _you_?' asked Stumps, in a
+scoffing tone.
+
+"`Because I hear one every night a'most when I go down into the dark
+places below to fetch things.  There's one particular spot where the
+ghost goes tap-tap-tapping continually.'
+
+"`Fiddlededee,' said Stumps.
+
+"`Come down, and you shall hear it for yourself,' said Jeff.
+
+"Now, they say that Stumps is a coward, though he boasts a good deal--"
+
+"You may say," interrupted the sportsman, "that Stumps is a coward
+_because_ he boasts a good deal.  Boasting is often a sign of
+cowardice--though not always."
+
+"Well," continued Robin, "being ashamed to draw back, I suppose, he
+agreed to accompany Jeff.
+
+"`Won't you come too, Slagg?' said Stumps.
+
+"`No; I don't care a button for ghosts.  Besides, I'm too busy, but
+Wright will go.  There, don't bother me!' said Jim.
+
+"I noticed, as I went last out of the room, that Slagg rose quickly and
+pulled a sheet off one of the beds.  Afterwards, looking back, I saw him
+slip out and run down the passage in the opposite direction.  I
+suspected he was about some mischief, but said nothing.
+
+"It was getting dark, as I have said, though not dark enough for
+lighting the lamps, and in some corners below it was as dark as
+midnight.  To one of these places Jeff led us.
+
+"`Mind how you go now,' whispered Jeff; `it's here somewhere, and
+there's a hole too--look-out--there it is!'
+
+"`What! the ghost?' whispered Stumps, beginning to feel uneasy.  To say
+truth, I began to feel uneasy myself without well knowing why.  At that
+moment I fell over something, and came down with a crash that shook
+Stumps's nerves completely out of order.
+
+"`I say, let's go back,' he muttered in a tremulous voice.
+
+"`No, no,' whispered Jeff seizing Stumps by the arm with a sudden grip
+that made him give a short yelp, `we are at the place now.  It's in this
+dark passage.  Listen!'
+
+"We all held our breath and listened.  For a few seconds we heard
+nothing, but presently a slight tapping was heard.
+
+"`I've heard,' whispered Jeff in a low tone, `that when the big ship was
+buildin', one o' the plate-riveters disappeared in some hole between the
+two skins o' the ship hereabouts, and his comrades, not bein' able to
+find him, were obliged at last to rivet him in, which they did so tight
+that even his ghost could not get out, so it goes on tappin', as you
+hear, an' is likely to go on tappin' for ever.'
+
+"`Bosh!' whispered Stumps; thus politely intimating his disbelief, but I
+felt him trembling all over notwithstanding.
+
+"At that moment we saw a dim shadowy whitish object at the other end of
+the dark passage.  `Wha'--wha'--what's that?' said I.
+
+"Stumps gasped.  I heard his teeth chattering, and I think his knees
+were knocking together.  Jeff made no sound, and it was too dark to see
+his face.  Suddenly the object rushed at us.  There was no noise of
+footsteps--only a muffled sound and a faint hissing.  I stood still,
+unable to move.  So did Jeff.  I felt the hair of my head rising.
+Stumps gasped again--then turned and fled.  The creature, whatever it
+was, brushed past us with a hideous laugh.  I guessed at once that it
+was Jim Slagg, but evidently Stumps didn't, for he uttered an awful yell
+that would have roused the whole ship if she had been of an ordinary
+size; at the same moment he tripped and fell on the thing that had upset
+me, and the ghost, leaping over him, vanished from our sight.
+
+"To my surprise, on returning to our cabin, we found Slagg as we had
+left him, with both hands on his forehead poring over his book.  I was
+almost as much surprised to see Jeff sit down and laugh heartily.--Now,
+what _do_ you think it could have been?"
+
+"It was Slagg, of course," answered the sporting electrician.
+
+"Yes, but what causes the tapping?"
+
+"Oh, that is no doubt some little trifle--a chip of wood, or bit of wire
+left hanging loose, which shakes about when the ship heaves."
+
+A sudden tramping of feet overhead brought this ghostly discussion to an
+abrupt close, and caused every man in the saloon to rush on deck with a
+terrible feeling in his heart that something had gone wrong.
+
+"Not broken?" asked an electrician with a pale face on reaching the
+deck.
+
+"Oh no, sir," replied an engineer, with an anxious look, "not quite so
+bad as that, but a whale has taken a fancy to inspect us, and he is
+almost _too_ attentive."
+
+So it was.  A large Greenland whale was playing about the big ship,
+apparently under the impression that she was a giant of his own species,
+and it had passed perilously close to the cable.
+
+A second time it came up, rolling high above the waves.  It went close
+past the stern--rose again and dived with a gentle flop of its great
+tail, which, if it had touched the cable, would have cut it like a
+thread.  At that trying moment, as they saw its huge back glittering in
+the moonlight, the hearts of the helpless spectators appeared absolutely
+to stand still.  When the monster dived its side even touched the cable,
+but did not damage it.  Being apparently satisfied by that time that the
+ship was not a friend, the whale finally disappeared in the depths of
+its ocean home.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Those who visited the Crystal Palace at Sydenham during the recent
+Electrical Exhibition had an opportunity of seeing the shells here
+referred to under a powerful microscope.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+TELLS OF GREAT EFFORTS AND FAILURES AND GRAND SUCCESS.
+
+Thus happily and smoothly all things went, with little bursts of anxiety
+and little touches of alarm, just sufficient, as it were, to keep up the
+spirits of all, till the morning of the 30th July.  But on that morning
+an appearance of excitement in the testing-room told that something had
+again gone wrong.  Soon the order was given to slow the engines, then to
+stop them!
+
+The bursting of a thunder-clap, the explosion of a powder-magazine,
+could not have more effectually awakened the slumberers than this abrupt
+stoppage of the ship's engines.  Instantly all the hatchways poured
+forth anxious inquirers.
+
+"Another fault," was the reply to such.
+
+"O dear!" said some.
+
+"Horrible!" said others.
+
+"Not so bad as a break," sighed the hopeful spirits.
+
+"It is bad enough," said the chief electrician, "for we have found dead
+earth."
+
+By this the chief meant to say that insulation had been completely
+destroyed, and that the whole current of electricity was escaping into
+the sea.
+
+About 716 miles had been payed out at the time, and as signals had till
+then been regularly received from the shore, it was naturally concluded
+that the fault lay near to the ship.
+
+"Now then, get along," said an engineer to one of the cable-men; "you'll
+have to cut, and splice, and test, while we are getting ready the tackle
+to pick up."
+
+"I don't like that cuttin' o' the cable, Bill," said one of the sailors,
+as he went forward, "it seems dangerous, it do."
+
+"No more do I, Dick," replied his mate; "I feel as if it never could be
+rightly spliced again."
+
+"Why, bless you, boys," said a cable-man near them, "cables is used to
+that now, like eels to bein' skinned; and so are we, for that matter.
+We think nothin' of it."
+
+Clearly the cable-man was right, for, while the picking-up apparatus was
+being got ready, the cable was cut in no fewer than three places, in
+order to test the coils that lay in the tanks.  These being found all
+right, the picking-up was begun with anxious care.  The moment of
+greatest danger was when the big ship was swinging round.  For a few,
+but apparently endless, moments the cable had to bear the strain, and
+became rigid like a bar of steel.  Then it was got in over the bows,
+where all was bustle, and noise, and smoke, as the picking-up machinery
+panted and rattled.
+
+All day the work went on.  Night descended, but still the cable was
+coming in slowly, unwillingly,--now jerkily, as if half inclined to
+yield, anon painfully, as if changing its mind, until the strain was
+equal to two and a half tons.  A row of lanterns lighted it, and the men
+employed watched and handled it carefully to detect the "fault," while
+the clattering wheels played harsh music.
+
+"We'll never find it," growled an impatient young electrician.
+
+As if to rebuke him for his want of faith, the "fault" came in then and
+there--at 9:50 p.m., ship's time.
+
+"Ah!" said Mr Field, whose chief characteristic was an unwavering faith
+in ultimate success, "I knew we should find it are long.  I have often
+known cables to stop working for two hours, no one knew why, and then
+begin again."
+
+"Well now, Mr Wright, it floors me altogether, does this here talkin'
+by electricity."
+
+The man who made this remark to our hero was one who could not have been
+easily "floored" by any other means than electricity.  He was a huge
+blacksmith--a stalwart fellow who had just been heaving the
+sledge-hammer with the seeming powers of Vulcan himself, and who chanced
+to be near Robin when he paused to rest and mop the streaming
+perspiration from his brow, while a well-matched brother took his place
+at the anvil.
+
+"You see," he continued, "I can't make out nohow what the electricity
+does when it gits through the cable from Ireland to Noofun'land.  Of
+course it don't actooally speak, you know--no more does it whistle, I
+suppose; an' even if it did I don't see as we'd be much the wiser.  What
+_do_ it do, Mr Wright?  You seem to be well up in these matters, an'
+not above explainin' of 'em to the likes o' us as ha'n't got much
+edication."
+
+Few things pleased Robin more than being asked to impart what knowledge
+he possessed, or to make plain subjects that were slightly complex.  He
+was not always successful in his attempts at elucidation, partly because
+some subjects were too complex to simplify, and partly because some
+intellects were obtuse, but he never failed to try.
+
+"You must know," he replied, with that earnest look which was apt to
+overspread his face when about to explain a difficulty, "that a piece of
+common iron can be converted into a magnet by electrifying it, and it
+can be unconverted just as fast by removing the electricity.  Well,
+suppose I have a bit of iron in America, with an electric battery in
+Ireland, or _vice versa_--"
+
+"W'ot's wicey wersa, Mr Wright?"
+
+"Oh, it means the terms being changed--turned the other way, you know--
+back to the front, as it were--in short, I mean the battery being in
+America and the bit of iron in Ireland."
+
+"Well, well, who'd a thought there was so much in wicey wersa; but go
+on, Mr Wright."
+
+"Now, you must suppose," continued Robin, "that a needle, like the
+mariner's compass needle, hangs beside my bit of iron, close to it, and
+that a wire, or conductor of electricity, connects the iron with my
+electric battery in Ireland.  Well, that makes a magnet of it, and the
+suspended needle, being attracted, sticks to it.  Then I disconnect the
+wire from my battery by touching a handle, the bit of iron ceases to be
+a magnet, and the needle was free.  Again I connect the battery, and the
+needle flies to the remagnetised bit of iron.  Thus, as fast as I
+choose, I can make the needle wag, and by a simple arrangement we can
+make it wag right or left, so many beats right or left, or alternately,
+representing letters.  By varying the beats we vary the letters, and
+thus spell out our messages.  Now, do you understand it?"
+
+"I ain't quite sure that I does," replied Vulcan; "I've got a hazy
+notion that by touchin' and removin' the touch from a conductor,
+connecting and disconnecting wires and batteries, you can make
+electricity flow just as you let on or stop water by turnin' a
+stopcock--"
+
+"Not exactly," interrupted Robin, "because, you see, electricity does
+not really flow, not being a substance."
+
+"Not a substance, sir! w'y, w'ot is it then?"
+
+"Like light and sound, it is merely an effect, an influence, a result,"
+answered Robin.  "We only use the word _flow_, and talk of electricity
+as a fluid, for convenience' sake."
+
+"Well, w'otever it is or isn't," continued the puzzled Vulcan, gazing at
+vacancy for a few seconds, "when you've set it agoin'--or set agoin' the
+things as sets it agoin'--you make a suspended needle wag, and when you
+stop it you make the needle stop waggin', and by the way in which that
+there needle wags you can spell out the letters o' the alphabit--so many
+wags to the right bein' one letter, so many wags to the left bein'
+another letter, an' so on,--so that, what between the number o' wags an'
+the direction o' the waggin's, you--you come for to--there, I'm lost
+again, an' I must go in for another spell wi' the sledge, so we'll have
+to tackle the subject another time, Mr Wright."
+
+Thus speaking, Vulcan seized the ponderous hammer in his powerful grasp
+and proceeded to beat form into a mass of glowing metal with much
+greater ease than he had been able to thump telegraphy into his own
+brain.
+
+In the discovery of the "fault" and the cutting out of the injured part
+of the cable, twenty-six hours were lost.  During all the time Captain
+Anderson was obliged to remain on deck, while the minds and bodies of
+the engineers and electricians were subjected to a severe strain for the
+same period.  They had scarcely begun to breathe freely again, and to
+congratulate each other on being able to continue the voyage, when they
+received another shock of alarm by the cable suddenly flying off the
+drum, while it was being transferred from the picking-up machinery in
+the bow to the paying-out arrangements in the stern.  Before the
+machinery could be stopped, some fathoms of cable had become entangled
+among the wheels and destroyed.  This part having been cut out, however,
+and new splices made, the paying-out process was resumed.
+
+"I'll turn in now and have a snooze, Robin," said Ebenezer Smith, "and
+you had better do the same; you look tired."
+
+This was indeed true, for not a man or boy in the ship took a more
+anxious interest in the cable than did our little hero; he had begun to
+regard it as a living creature, and to watch over it, and dream about
+it, as if it were a dear friend in extreme danger.  The enthusiastic boy
+was actually becoming careworn and thin, for he not only performed all
+the duties required of him with zealous application, but spent his
+leisure, and much of the time that should have been devoted to rest, in
+the careful study of his idol--intensely watching it, and all that was
+in the remotest way connected with it.
+
+"You're a goose," said Stumps, in passing, when he heard Robin decline
+to retire as Smith had advised him.
+
+"It may be so, and if so, Stumps, I shall continue to cackle a little
+longer on deck while they are examining the fault."
+
+That examination, when finished, produced a considerable sensation.  The
+process was conducted in private.  The condemned portion was cut in
+junks and tested, until the faulty junk was discovered.  This was
+untwisted until the core was laid bare, and when about a foot of it had
+been so treated, the cause of evil was discovered, drawing from the
+onlookers an exclamation of horror rather than surprise, as they stood
+aghast, for _treachery_ seemed to have been at work!
+
+"An enemy in the ship!" murmured one.
+
+"What ship without an enemy?" thought another.
+
+That mischief had been intended was obvious, for a piece of iron wire,
+bright as if cut with nippers at one end and broken off short at the
+other, had been driven right through the centre of the cable, so as to
+touch the inner wires--thus forming a leak, or conductor, into the sea.
+There could be no doubt that it had not got there by accident; neither
+had it been driven there during the making or shipping of the cable, for
+in that case the testings for continuity would have betrayed its
+presence before the starting of the expedition.  The piece of wire, too,
+was the same size as that which formed the protecting cover, and it was
+of the exact diameter of the cable.  There was also the mark of a cut on
+the Manilla hemp, where the wire had entered.  It could have been done
+only by one of the men who were at work in the tank at the time the
+portion went over, and, strange to say, this was the same gang which had
+been at work there when the previous "fault" occurred.
+
+"Call all the men aft," was the order that quickly followed this
+discovery.
+
+The piece of cable was handed to them, and they were allowed to examine
+it in silence.  They did so in great surprise, mingled with indignation.
+
+"It's bin done a'purpose, an' driven in by a skilful hand," said one.
+
+"You're right, Joe," said another.
+
+"I knows," whispered a third, "that _one_ of the men expressed
+satisfaction when the last fault occurred, an' I've heard say that we've
+got enemies to the makers o' the cable aboard."
+
+The man thus darkly referred to, whoever he was, of course looked as
+innocent and as indignant as the most virtuous among them; the guilt,
+therefore, could not be brought home to him.  Woe betide him if it had
+been, for there was a serious talk of lynching some one among the
+wrathful men, each of whom was now subject to suspicion.
+
+In these trying circumstances, the chief engineer accepted an offer made
+by the gentlemen in the ship, to take turn about in superintending the
+men at work in the tank paying-out the cable.
+
+"It's not pleasant, of course," replied one of the men, speaking for the
+rest, "but we feel it to be justifiable, as well as necessary, and are
+very glad the plan has been adopted."
+
+Once more the big ship went merrily on her way, and the great cable went
+down to its ocean-bed so smoothly and regularly, that men began to talk
+of speedy arrival at Heart's Content--their destination in
+Newfoundland--which was now only about 600 miles distant; but their
+greatest troubles still lay before them.  About eight o'clock in the
+morning of 2nd August another bad fault was reported, and they had once
+again to resort to the wearisome process of picking-up.
+
+At first all seemed about to go well.  A gale was indeed blowing at the
+time, but that did not much affect the colossal ship.  The cable was
+cut, fastened to its iron rope, passed to the bow, and got in over the
+pulleys.  Then, and very slowly, it was drawn on board.  When a mile or
+so had been recovered, the gearing of one of the engines got a little
+out of order, and the process had to be temporarily stopped; then
+something went wrong with the boilers, but soon these difficulties were
+removed.  Immediately after, the Great Eastern drifted, so that it was
+impossible to prevent the cable from chafing against her bows.  Equally
+impossible was it to go astern, lest the strain should be too great.
+Then the wind suddenly shifted, making matters worse.  Suddenly the
+chain shackle and wire-rope attached to the cable came in over the wheel
+at the bows with considerable violence.  Another moment and the cable
+parted, flew through the stoppers, and, with one bound, flashed into the
+sea and disappeared!
+
+Now, at last, the fatal climax so much dreaded had arrived.  The days
+and nights of anxious labour had been spent in vain.  The cable was
+lost, and with it went not only hundreds of thousands of pounds, but the
+hopes of hundreds of thousands of people, whose sanguine expectations of
+success were thus rudely dispelled.
+
+Need it be said that something very like despair reigned for the moment
+on board the Great Eastern?
+
+Most of the gentlemen on board--never dreaming of catastrophe--were at
+luncheon, when Mr Canning entered the saloon with a look that caused
+every one to start.
+
+"It is all over!--it is gone!" he said, and hastened to his cabin.
+
+Mr Field, with the composure of faith and courage, though very pale,
+entered the saloon immediately after, and confirmed the chief engineer's
+statement.
+
+"The cable has parted," he said, "and has gone overboard."
+
+From the chiefs down even to Stumps and his fraternity all was blank
+dismay!  As for our hero Robin Wright, he retired to his cabin, flung
+himself on his bed, and sobbed as though his heart would break.
+
+But such a state of things could not last.  Men's spirits may be stunned
+and crushed, but they are seldom utterly overwhelmed so long as life
+endures.
+
+Recovering from the shock, Mr Canning set about the process of
+grappling for the lost cable with persistent energy.  But fishing in
+water two and a half miles deep is no easy matter.  Nevertheless, it was
+done.  Again and again, and over again, were two monster hooks in the
+shape of grapnels let down to the bottom of the sea, with an iron rope
+for a line, and the Great Eastern for a float!
+
+The plan, of course, was to go back a few miles on their course and then
+drag across the known position of the lost treasure.
+
+We say known, because good observations had fortunately been obtained by
+Captain Anderson just before the accident.
+
+Two hours did the grapnels descend before they reached the bottom of the
+sea!  All night did the cable-layers fish, with the characteristic
+patience of fishermen, but did not get a nibble.  Towards morning,
+however, there was a decided bite, and the line became taut.
+
+"Got him!" exclaimed an enthusiast eagerly.
+
+"Don't be too sure," replied a philosopher cautiously.
+
+"It may be a bit of wreck," suggested Ebenezer Smith, who was a natural
+doubter.
+
+"Or a whale, or the great sea-serpent," said the sporting electrician,
+who was everything by turns and nothing long.
+
+"We shall very soon know," remarked a matter-of-fact engineer.  "If it
+is a loose object the strain will decrease as it nears the surface, but
+if it be the cable the strain will certainly increase, because its
+weight will be greater the more of it we lift off the bottom."
+
+Earnestly did every one regard the dynamometer which told the exact
+amount of strain on the iron fishing-line, and to their joy the strain
+_increased_ until the object caught had been raised three-quarters of a
+mile from the bottom.  Then a swivel gave way, and the cable went back
+to its ocean-bed.
+
+But those plucky engineers were not to be overcome by a first failure.
+Having started with five miles of fishing-line, they proceed at once to
+make a second attempt.
+
+"Oh, I _do_ hope they will hook it again!" said Robin Wright.
+
+"And so they will," said Ebenezer Smith.
+
+And so they did.  Late in the afternoon of the Monday following, their
+fish was again hooked and raised a full mile from the bottom, when
+another swivel gave way, and down it went a second time!
+
+The fishing-line was now getting short.  It behoved them to act with
+more caution.  New bolts were put in each shackle and swivel, and the
+capstan was increased in diameter, being belted with thick plates of
+iron.  To effect these alterations the forges had to be erected on deck,
+and at night these cast a lurid glare on the busy workers, bringing out
+every near object in vivid relief against the ebony background of space
+behind, while they made preparations for a third cast of the
+fishing-line.  The cast was made successfully, it was thought, but one
+of the grapnels had caught the line with one of its flukes, so that it
+could not catch anything else, and the result was--nothing.
+
+A fourth attempt was then made.  It was to be the last.  The
+fishing-line seemed too weak, and its frequent breakings had reduced it
+so much that other chains had to be attached to it.  With this thing of
+shreds and patches the cable was once more hooked and brought up nearly
+eight hundred fathoms, when the line gave way once more, and the cable
+went down for the last time.
+
+Nothing more could be done.  The Great Eastern turned her large bows to
+the east and steered grandly though sadly, away for old England.
+
+But don't imagine, good reader, that these cable-layers were beaten.
+They were baffled, indeed, for that year (1865), but not conquered.
+Cyrus Field had resolved that the thing should be done--and done it was
+the following year; for the laying of the cable had been so nearly a
+success, that great capitalists, such as Brassey, Gooch, Barclay,
+Campbell, Pender, and others, at once came forward.  Among these were
+the contractors, Glass and Elliot, who agreed not only to make and lay a
+new cable, but to pick up and complete the old one.  Cyrus Field
+himself, besides energising like Hercules to push the matter on, was one
+of ten subscribers who each contributed 10,000 pounds.  Thus 230,500
+pounds were privately subscribed before a prospectus was issued.
+
+Our little hero was at the laying of that (1866) cable, when the same
+great ship, with the same captain and most of the engineers and
+electricians who had gone out on the previous voyage, landed the end of
+the 1820-mile rope on the shores of Newfoundland, on Friday, 27th July.
+He cheered with the rest in wild enthusiasm when the Great Eastern
+dropped anchor in "Heart's Content."  He accompanied Captain Anderson
+and the officers of the fleet when they went in a body to the little
+church there, to thank God for the successful completion of the great
+enterprise.  He was present when the big ship, having received from
+other ships 8000 tons of coal, and some six hundred miles of the old
+cable, went back to mid-ocean to grapple for the lost cable of 1865.  He
+assisted and watched with the deepest interest the amazing efforts of
+scientific and mechanical power put forth in the mere matter of dragging
+for the cable from the bottom, and observed with reverence, amounting
+almost to awe, the great moving spirit of the whole affair, the
+indomitable Mr Field, as he went to the bow and sat on the rope to feel
+the quiver which told him it was dragging the bottom of the sea two
+miles below.  He was present, with blazing cheeks and eyes and bated
+breath, when, on the 17th of August, the cable was caught, dragged to
+the surface, and actually seen, and broke and sank again as deep as
+ever--though not so deep as the hearts of those who saw it go!  He
+shared in the weary delays that followed, and in the final triumph when
+the cable was fairly caught and at last brought on board, and carried to
+the testing-room, amid intense excitement, lest it should prove to have
+been damaged by its rough treatment; and his voice helped to swell the
+roar of enthusiastic cheering that greeted the announcement that the old
+cable was still alive!
+
+But all this we must leave, and carry the reader back to old England
+faster than the Great Eastern could have rushed--ay, faster than the
+message on the flashing cable itself could have sped, for mind is more
+subtle than matter, and thought is swifter than even the Atlantic
+Telegraph.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+HOME!
+
+"At last!" exclaimed Robin, bursting into his old home and seizing his
+mother in his arms.
+
+Robin had just returned home after the laying of the 1866 Atlantic
+Cable, as briefly narrated in the last chapter.
+
+It may be said with some truth that the old home became, during the next
+few days, a private lunatic asylum, for its inmates went mildly mad with
+joy.
+
+Chief among the lunatics was uncle Rik, the retired sea-captain.  That
+madman's case, however, was not temporary derangement, like the others'.
+It was confirmed insanity, somewhat intensified just then by the
+nephew's return.
+
+"So, young man," he said, one evening at supper, when the family
+traveller was dilating to open-eyed-and-mouthed listeners, "you actually
+believe that these cables are goin' to work?"
+
+"Of course I do, uncle.  They are working now, and have been working for
+many years."
+
+"Well, now, the gullibility o' some people is stupendous!" returned Rik.
+"Don't you know, Robin, that everything a'most works for a time, and
+then, sooner or later--usually sooner--the ridiculous thing bursts up?"
+
+"But, uncle, you beg the question in classing submarine cables among
+ridiculous things.  Besides, have not dozens of cables been working
+satisfactorily for many years, without showing signs of bursting up as
+yet?"
+
+"Pooh! bah! boh!" replied uncle Rik, by which he meant to say that
+though convinced against his will he was of the same opinion still.
+
+At that moment cousin Sam Shipton entered with an eager, excited look.
+
+"It's all settled," he said, taking Robin by the hand.
+
+"What is settled?" asked Mrs Wright, somewhat anxiously.
+
+"Mother, don't be angry," said Robin, laying his hand on his mother's
+shoulder, and speaking tenderly, "I meant to have told you the moment I
+came in to-day, but uncle Rik with his argumentative spirit drove it and
+everything else except cables out of my head--"
+
+"Well, but what is it?" interrupted Madge impatiently; "why do you keep
+us in suspense?"
+
+"I have some prospect, mother, of being appointed to go with a
+telegraph-laying party to the East, but Sam is wrong when he says it is
+all settled.  Whatever he may have to tell us, it is by no means settled
+until I have your and father's opinion."
+
+"Well, you horribly good but ungrateful boy," returned Sam, "it is at
+least settled as far as I have do with it.  I have made application at
+head-quarters, and they are willing to take you on my recommendation.
+Moreover, I am myself going."
+
+"You're joking, Sam!" exclaimed Robin, with a flush of joy; "I thought
+you had neither intention nor desire to go far from home."
+
+"You thought wrong, Robin.  I always had desire, and now have
+intention--and I go as second in command.  So, Miss Mayland," he
+continued, turning to Madge, "I shan't be able to continue those
+electrical lectures which you were so fond of once, but have lately
+seemed to grow tired of."
+
+Madge was at that tender age of budding womanhood when sensitive girls
+are apt to misunderstand a jest.  She blushed, stammered something, then
+forced a laugh, and turned to speak to Robin; but Sam perceived that
+tears rose to her eyes, and he instantly sank in his own estimation to
+the condition of a loathsome reptile.
+
+"Well, now, that is good news," cried Robin, applying himself to the
+viands on the table with renewed zest.  "You cannot have the smallest
+objection or anxiety, mother, I should think, when you know I shall be
+under so able a guide."
+
+"I have not yet thought it over, Robin."
+
+"And you, father?"
+
+"Go, my boy, and my blessing go with you," said Mr Wright, all but
+choking the blessing with a huge oyster.
+
+"Are any labourers to go with us?" asked Robin.
+
+"One or two picked ones."
+
+"Then you must allow me to pick one, Sam.  My friend Jim Slagg is at
+present cast adrift with a considerable part of the Great Eastern's
+crew.  He will be delighted to go, I know, and is a first-rate,
+hard-working, willing, conscientious youth."
+
+"He ought to be proud of having so warm a friend and advocate," said
+Sam, "but I have no power to choose the men."
+
+"O yes, you have, Sam.  If you could get me appointed, you can get him
+appointed; and you must, for, if you don't, I won't go."
+
+"You are hard on me, Robin, but I'll try."
+
+"But you have not yet told us where it is that they are going to send
+you," said Mrs Wright.
+
+"Ah! that's not fixed," replied Sam; "they are laying down lines in
+Turkey; and Egypt is talked of, and telegraph to India itself is even
+hinted at.  All I know is that we shall be sent to the East somewhere."
+
+"Bah! boo!  Why does nobody ask for _my_ opinion on the matter?" said
+uncle Rik, as he gazed at the company over a goose drumstick, which was
+obviously not tender.
+
+"Your opinion, brother," said Mr Wright, "is so valuable, that no doubt
+your nephew has been keeping it to the last as a sort of tit-bit--eh,
+Robin?"
+
+"Well, uncle; come, let us have it," said Robin.
+
+"You don't deserve it," returned Rik, with a wrench at the drumstick,
+"but you shall have it all the same, free, gratis.  Was this bird fed on
+gutta-percha shavings, sister Nan?"
+
+"Perhaps--or on violin strings, I'm not sure which," replied Mrs Wright
+blandly.
+
+"Well," continued the captain, "you youngsters will go off, I see, right
+or wrong, and you'll get half-drowned in the sea, roasted in the East,
+smothered in the desert, eaten alive by cannibals, used-up by the
+plague, poisoned by serpents, and tee-totally ruined altogether.  Then
+you'll come home with the skin of your teeth on--nothing more."
+
+"I sincerely hope it will be summer at the time," said Sam, laughing;
+"but we are grateful to you for prophesying that we shall return, even
+though in such light clothing."
+
+"That's what'll happen," continued the captain, regarding the other
+drumstick with some hesitation; "you may take the word of an old salt
+for it.  I've lived in the good old times, lads, and I know that all
+these new-fangled notions are goin' to burst up--and _that's_ what'll
+come of it."
+
+Whether that was what came of it remains to be seen.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+A GREAT DYNAMO-ELECTRIC SEA-FIGHT.
+
+A few weeks after the utterance of Captain Rik's famous prophecy, Robin,
+Sam, Stumps, and Slagg found themselves on board of a large submarine
+cable steam-ship, named the Triton, ploughing the billows of the
+Southern Ocean.
+
+A few weeks later and they were drawing near to that great concourse of
+islands known as the Malay Archipelago, where nature is exceptionally
+beautiful, but man is rather vile.  At all events, that region of the
+ocean lying to the south of China has been long infamous for the number
+and ferocity of its pirates, who, among the numerous islands, with their
+various channels, creeks, and rivers, have found a suitable field for
+their bloody and remorseless game.
+
+"D'you know, I don't believe in pirates?" said Robin to Sam, as they
+stood at the bow of the cable-ship, conversing about these sea-robbers.
+
+"They believe in _you_ nevertheless, as you'd find out to your cost if
+we came across one just now."
+
+The voice that replied was not Sam's, but that of the captain, who had
+come forward to get a clearer sweep of the horizon ahead with his glass.
+
+"Do you think it likely, sir, that we may meet with any of the rascals?"
+asked Sam.
+
+"Not at all unlikely," replied the captain, fixing his glass and putting
+it to his eye, "though I don't think it likely that we shall be
+attacked, as we are large and don't look like a richly freighted
+merchant-man.  However, there is no saying.  These scoundrels fear
+nothing, and when hard up will attack anything but a man-of-war, I half
+suspect that I am looking at one of them now."
+
+This latter announcement, calmly uttered, threw all who heard it into
+quite a flutter of excitement.
+
+The captain was a big, dark-skinned, bearded man, with a quiet,
+half-humorous, half-sarcastic expression of countenance.
+
+"Do you really think it is a pirate?" asked Robin, eagerly.
+
+"I really do," replied the captain, "and I fear we may have to run out
+of our course to avoid her.  You see, I am a man of peace, and abhor
+bloodshed, therefore I won't fight if I can help it."
+
+Saying this he gave orders to have the course of the steamer changed.
+
+Just then there occurred one of those _contretemps_ which don't often
+happen, but which, when they do, are often prolific of disaster; an
+important part of the machinery broke down, and the engine, for the
+moment, was rendered useless.  It was most unfortunate, for the
+suspicious craft lay to windward, and a light breeze was blowing carried
+it steadily towards them, although all the sail the steamer possessed
+was crowded on her.
+
+"Come aft here, Mr Shipton, and tell your chief to come with you.  I
+want to hold a council of war," said the captain.
+
+Summoning the first mate and chief engineer, as well as the
+electricians, the captain went to the after part of the quarter-deck,
+where, seated on the taffrail, he deliberated with the extemporised
+council measures for repelling an expected attack.
+
+What these deliberations tended to, those not of the council could not
+tell, but from the energy of the members, and an occasional burst of
+laughter from the group, it was obvious, as Jim Slagg remarked, that
+"mischief o' some sort was in the wind."
+
+Presently the council broke up, and the members went actively below, as
+men do who have a purpose to carry out promptly.
+
+Meanwhile the pirate vessel came within range and fired a shot which
+missed them.  The fire was not repeated.  Evidently they meant to get
+within easy range before trying another shot.
+
+In a few minutes the electricians came on deck with several large coils
+of copper wire, which they uncoiled and distributed mysteriously about
+the sides of the vessel.  At the same time several lengths of leathern
+pump hose were laid along the deck, and fire-branches or nozzles
+attached to them.
+
+"Run out our stern-guns now," said the captain, with a grim smile, "and
+give it 'em hot.  It won't do to seem to give in too easy.  Run up the
+Union Jack.  Don't take aim.  I want more noise and smoke than
+mischief--d'ye understand?"
+
+The officer to whom this was addressed, said, "Ay, ay, sir," in the
+usual tone of ready obedience, adding, however, in an undertoned growl,
+"but I _don't_ understand, for all that!"
+
+He obeyed the orders literally, being well disciplined, and the result
+was a sudden and most furious cannonade, for the pirate replied with
+vigour, using all the guns he could bring to bear; but no damage was
+done on either side for some time, until at last a ball from the enemy
+went crash through the smoke funnel of the Triton with a most sonorous
+bang!
+
+"That'll do now," cried the captain, "cease firing and haul down the
+colours."
+
+If the captain had said, "Cut away the rudder and heave the boilers
+overboard," he could scarcely have caused more surprise in his crew,
+who, by his orders, had assembled on deck, every man being armed with
+musket, cutlass, and revolver.  His orders were strictly and promptly
+obeyed, however.
+
+By this time the light breeze had fallen and a dead calm prevailed, so
+that the sails of the pirate flapped idly against her masts, and her
+crew were seen busily lowering her boats.
+
+"We could have soon got out of her way if our engines had not broke
+down," growled the captain, as he went toward the front of the
+quarter-deck and looked down on the armed men in the waist.  "My lads,"
+he said, "the blackguards are Malay pirates.  They are lowering their
+boats, and will be alongside in less than half an hour.  I don't need to
+tell you what you'll have to expect if they take us.  We must beat 'em
+off or _die_; for it's better to die sword in hand than to be tortured
+or strangled.  Those of you, however, who prefer the latter modes of
+going under may show the white feather and enjoy yourselves in your own
+way.  Now, lads, you know me.  I expect obedience to orders to the
+letter.  I hate fighting and bloodshed--so don't kill unless you can't
+help it.  Also, take care that you don't touch these copper wires on the
+sides with either finger or foot.  If you do you'll repent it, for
+electricians don't like their gear handled."
+
+Turning abruptly round, for the oars of the approaching boats could now
+be distinctly heard, the captain asked Sam if his batteries were well
+charged.
+
+"Chock-full, sir," replied Sam with a broad grin; "there's not a bit of
+iron all round the ship that a man could lay hold of without receiving
+his due!"
+
+"Good," said the captain, turning to the chief engineer; "are the hose
+attached and the boilers hot?"
+
+"Bubblin' up fit to burst, sir.  I've weighted the safety-valves to give
+it force?"
+
+Without another word the captain stepped to the port gangway, and took
+off his hat to the advancing pirates.  The pirate captain, not to be
+outdone in civility, took off his fez and bowed as the boat ranged
+alongside.  The captain carefully held out one of the man-ropes to his
+enemy.  He grasped it and seized the other.
+
+An instantaneous yell of the most appalling nature issued from his
+mouth, and never before, since ship-building began, were a couple of
+man-ropes thrown off with greater violence!  The pirate captain fell
+back into his boat, and the captain of the steamer stepped promptly back
+to avoid the storm of bullets that were let fly at his devoted head.  At
+the starboard gangway the chief mate performed the same ceremony to
+another boat with a like result.
+
+The pirates were amazed and enraged, but not cowed.  With a wild cheer
+they made a simultaneous dash at the ship's sides all round.  With a
+wilder yell they fell back into their boats,--shocked beyond expression!
+A few of them, however, chanced to lay hold of ropes or parts of the
+vessel that were not electrified.  These gained the bulwarks.
+
+"Shove in some more acid," said the chief electrician in suppressed
+excitement to Sam Shipton, who stood beside the batteries below.
+
+"Stir up the fires, lads," cried the chief engineer to his men at the
+boilers beneath, as he stood holding a fire-nozzle ready.
+
+Intensified yells all round told that chemical action had not been
+applied in vain, while the pirates who had gained the bulwarks were met
+with streams of boiling water in their faces.  Heroes may and do face
+shot and shell coolly without flinching, but no hero ever faced boiling
+water coolly.  The pirates turned simultaneously and received the
+streams in rear.  Light cotton is but a poor defence in such
+circumstances.  They sloped over the sides like eels, and sought refuge
+in the sea.  Blazing with discomfiture and amazement, but not yet
+dismayed, these ferocious creatures tried the assault a second time.
+Their fury became greater, so did the numbers that gained a footing on
+the bulwarks, but not one reached the deck!  The battery and the boiler
+played a part that day which it had never before entered into the brain
+of the wildest scientist to conceive.  The hissing of the hot shower and
+the vigour of the cold shock were only equalled by the unearthly yelling
+of the foe, whose miraculous bounds and plunges formed a scene that is
+altogether indescribable.
+
+The crew of the steamer stood spell-bound, unable to fight even if there
+had been occasion for so doing.  The dark-skinned captain became
+Indian-red in the face from suppressed laughter.
+
+Suddenly a tremor ran through the steamer, as if she too were unable to
+restrain her feelings.  During the fight--if we may so call it--the
+engineers had been toiling might and main in the buried depths of their
+engine-room; the broken parts of the engine had been repaired or
+refitted, and a throb of life had returned to the machinery.  In its
+first revolution the screw touched the stern of a pirate-boat and turned
+it upside down.  Another boat at the bow was run over.  The crews of
+both swam away like ducks, with their long knives between their teeth.
+The other boats hauled off.
+
+"Now, captain," cried Robin Wright, who, during the whole time, had
+stood as if transfixed, with a cutlass in one hand, a pistol in the
+other, and his mouth, not to mention his eyes, wide open; "Now, captain,
+we shall get away without shedding a drop of blood!"
+
+"Yes," replied the captain, "but not without inflicting punishment.
+Port your helm--hard a port!"
+
+"Port it is, sir--hard over," replied the man at the wheel, and away
+went the steamer with a grand circular sweep which speedily brought her,
+bow-on, close to the pirate vessel.
+
+"Steady--so!" said the captain, at the same time signalling "full steam"
+to the engine-room.
+
+The space between the two vessels quickly decreased.  The part of the
+pirate crew which had been left on board saw and understood.  With a
+howl of consternation, every man sprang into the sea.  Next moment their
+vessel was cut almost in two and sent fathoms down into the deep, whence
+it rose a limp and miserable remnant, flattened out upon the waves.
+
+"Now," observed the captain, with a pleasant nod, "we'll leave them to
+get home the best way they can.  A boat voyage in such fine weather in
+these latitudes will do them good."
+
+Saying which, he resumed his course, and steamed away into the regions
+of the far East.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+TELLS OF A SUDDEN AND UNLOOKED-FOR EVENT.
+
+How often it has been said, "Good for man that he does not know what
+lies before him."  If he did we fear he would face his duty with very
+different feelings from those which usually animate him.  Certain it is
+that if Robin Wright and Sam Shipton had known what was before them--
+when they stood one breezy afternoon on the ship's deck, casting glances
+of admiration up at the mountain waves of the southern seas, or taking
+bird's-eye views of the valleys between them--their eyes would not have
+glistened with such flashes of delight, for the fair prospects they
+dreamed of were not destined to be realised.
+
+What these prospects were was made plain by their conversation.
+
+"Won't it be a splendid opportunity, Sam, to become acquainted with all
+the outs and ins of telegraphy, this laying of lines from island to
+island in the China Seas?"
+
+"It will, indeed, Robin,--a sort of compound or alternating
+land-and-submarine line.  At one time we shall be using palm-trees for
+posts and carrying wires through the habitations of parrots and monkeys,
+at another we shall be laying them down among the sharks and coral
+groves."
+
+"By the way," said Robin, "is it true that monkeys may prove to be more
+troublesome to us in these regions than sparrows and crows are at home?"
+
+"Of course it is, my boy.  Have you never heard that on some of our
+Indian lines, baboons, vultures, and other heavy creatures have
+sometimes almost broken down the telegraphs by taking exercise and
+roosting on the wires?"
+
+"Indeed, I hope it won't be so with us.  At all events, sharks won't be
+much tempted, I should fancy, by submarine cables."
+
+"There's no saying, Robin.  They are not particular when hungry.  By the
+way, I saw you talking with unusual earnestness this morning to Jim
+Slagg; what was the matter with him?"
+
+"Poor fellow! you'd scarcely believe it, to look at him," replied Robin,
+"but the lad is actually home-sick."
+
+"Home-sick!  Why, how's that?  If we were only a few days out from port,
+or even a week or two, I could understand it, but seeing that we are now
+drawing near to the China Seas, I should have thought--"
+
+"Oh, that's easily explained," interrupted Robin.  "This is his mother's
+birthday, it seems, a day that has always been kept with much rejoicing,
+he tells me, by his family, and it has brought back home and home-life
+with unusual force to him.  With all his rough off-handedness, Slagg is
+a tender-hearted, affectionate fellow.  Somehow he has taken it into his
+head that this voyage will be disastrous, and that he will never see his
+mother again.  I had great difficulty in showing him the
+unreasonableness of such a belief."
+
+"No doubt you had.  It is unreasonable beliefs that people usually hold
+with greatest tenacity," replied Sam, with a touch of sarcasm.  "But
+tell me, have he and Stumps never once quarrelled since leaving
+England?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"I'm amazed--they are so unlike in every way."
+
+"You would not be surprised if you knew them as I do," returned Robin.
+"Ever since Slagg gave him that thrashing on board the Great Eastern in
+1865, Stumps has been a changed man.  It saved him from himself, and he
+has taken such a liking to Slagg that nothing will part them.  It was
+that made me plead so hard for Stumps to be taken with us, because I
+felt sure Slagg would not go without him, and although we might easily
+have done without Stumps, we could not have got on so well without
+Slagg."
+
+"I'm not so sure of that, my boy.  Your opinion of him is too high,
+though I admit him to be a first-rate youth.  Indeed, if it were not so,
+he should not be here.--Was that a shark's fin alongside?"
+
+"Yes, I think so.  Cook has been throwing scraps overboard, I suppose.--
+See, there goes an empty meat-tin."
+
+As he spoke the article named rose into the air, and fell with a splash
+in the water.  At the same time Jim Slagg was seen to clamber on the
+bulwarks and look over.
+
+"Come here--look alive, Stumps!" he shouted.
+
+Stumps, whose proper name, it is but fair to state, was John Shanks,
+clambered clumsily to his friend's side just in time to see a shark open
+its horrid jaws and swallow the meat-tin.
+
+"Well now, I never!" exclaimed Slagg.  "He didn't even smell it to see
+if it was to his taste."
+
+"P'r'aps he's swallowed so many before," suggested Stumps, "that he
+takes for granted it's all right."
+
+"Well it's on'y flavour; and he has caught a Tartar this time," returned
+the other, "unless, maybe, tin acts like pie-crust does on human
+vitals."
+
+The low deep voice of the captain was heard at this moment ordering a
+reef to be taken in the top-sails, and then it began to strike Robin and
+Sam that the breeze was freshening into something like a gale, and that
+there were some ominous-looking clouds rising on the windward horizon.
+Gazing at this cloud-bank for a few minutes, the captain turned and
+ordered the top-sails to be close-reefed, and most of the other sails
+either furled or reduced to their smallest size.
+
+He was in good time, and the vessel was ready for the gale, when it
+rushed down on them hissing like a storm-fiend.
+
+The good ship bent before the blast like a willow, but rose again, and,
+under the influence of able seamanship, went bravely on her course,
+spurning the billows from her swelling bows.
+
+"What a thing it is to know that there is a good hand at the helm in
+times of danger!" remarked Sam as he and our hero stood under the
+shelter of the starboard bulwarks, holding on with both hands to the
+rigging, while the rushing waves tossed them on high or let them drop in
+the troughs of the seas; "I should feel safe with our captain in any
+circumstances."
+
+"So should I," said Robin with enthusiasm, his eyes glistening with
+delight as he gazed on the angry ocean.
+
+There was no thought of danger in the mind of any one at that moment.  A
+good ship, ably commanded, well manned, and with plenty of sea-room,--
+what more could be desired?  Nevertheless, deadly peril was close at
+hand.
+
+That marvellous little creature--which, in the southern seas, builds its
+little cell, works its little day and dies, leaving to succeeding
+generations of its kind to build their little cells and die, each using
+its predecessor's mansion as a foundation for its own, until pile on
+pile forms a mass, and mass on mass makes a mountain--the coral insect,
+had reared one of its submarine edifices just where the cable-ship
+Triton had to pass that day.  For ages man had traversed that sea
+without passing exactly over that mountain, and even if he had, it would
+not have mattered, for the mountain had been always many fathoms below
+the surface.  But now the decree had gone forth.  The conjunction of
+events predestined had come about.  The distance between the mountain
+summit and the ocean surface had been reduced to feet.  The Triton rose
+on the top of a mighty billow as she reached the fated spot.  The coral
+peak rose near the bottom of the water-hollow beyond, and down on it the
+doomed ship went with an awful crash!
+
+Her speed was checked only an instant, for the top of the rock was
+knocked off by the force of the blow, and the ship passed swiftly on,
+but there could be no mistaking the significance of that shock.  An
+involuntary shout of alarm from some,--a gasp, halt of surprise, half of
+horror, from others,--then a rush of active effort when the captain gave
+orders to man the pumps.
+
+There was urgent need for haste.  The mass of coral rock had stuck in
+the hole it had made, else had they gone down in a few minutes.  As it
+was, the water rushed in furiously, so much so that the captain detailed
+a party of men to construct a raft, while the rest relieved each other
+at the pumps.  No doubt he was partly urged to this course by the
+consideration that a vessel weighted with telegraph-cables and other
+heavy material connected therewith could not float long in a leaky
+condition.
+
+"Keep close to me, Robin; we must sink or swim together."
+
+It was Sam who spoke.  He was very pale, but his firmly-compressed lips
+showed no sign of unmanly fear.  Robin, on the contrary, taken by
+surprise, and too inexperienced to correctly estimate sudden danger, was
+flushed with the feeling that now was the time to do and dare whatever
+should be required of him!  They went to the pumps together, where
+Stumps and Slagg were already at work with many others.
+
+It is surprising how fast and hard men will toil when life depends on
+the result.  There was a cat-like activity about the carpenter and his
+mates as they cut, sawed, lashed, and bolted together the various spars
+and planks which formed the raft.  In a marvellously short space of time
+it was ready and launched over the side, and towed astern by the
+strongest cable on board, for the danger of parting from it in such
+weather was very great.  Knowing this they had lashed some casks of pork
+and other provisions to it before launching.
+
+Still they laboured with unflagging resolution at the pumps, for many of
+those on board were picked men, whose sense of honour urged them to
+strive to the uttermost to save the ship, for it was no ordinary
+merchant-man, freighted with an ordinary cargo, which could easily be
+replaced as well as insured, but a vessel freighted with those magic
+wires which couple continents and unite humanity, whose loss might
+delay, though it could not ultimately arrest, the benign and rapid
+intercourse of man with man in all parts of the globe.
+
+"Keep your eye on Sam and me," whispered Robin to Jim Slagg, finding
+himself alongside that worthy during a spell of rest.  "Let us keep
+together, whatever happens."
+
+Robin did not quite believe that anything serious was going to happen.
+Some spirits find it as difficult to believe in impending disaster as
+others find it to believe in continued safety.  It seemed so impossible
+to Robin, in his inexperience, that the strong and still buoyant vessel
+which had borne them so long and bravely should sink!  Nevertheless,
+like the rest, he laboured with a will.
+
+Slagg took the opportunity to give a similar caution to his friend
+Stumps.
+
+"She's sinking, sir," said the carpenter, who had been sounding the
+well, to the captain, about an hour later.
+
+"I know it; stand by to have the raft hauled alongside.  Knock off now,
+lads, there's no use in pumping any more."
+
+The men ceased, with a deep sigh, and by that act the death-warrant of
+the cable-ship was signed.
+
+During the next quarter of an hour the crew were busy slipping down the
+cable that held the raft.  A few ran below to fetch small articles that
+they valued, but by that time the vessel was so low in the water, that
+there was little time to spare, and the captain began to urge haste.
+
+"Now then, lads, over the side with you," he said, chancing to look at
+Sam Shipton as he spoke!
+
+That spirit of heroism which induces men to resolve to be the last to
+quit a sinking ship, came over Sam just then, and he shrank back.  He
+and his chief were in charge of the telegraph apparatus.  It would be
+disgraceful to quit until all on board had left.  He laid his hand on
+the strong cable that held the raft and said, "I'll stay to the last,
+sir, and cast off the rope, if you'll allow me."
+
+"We don't cast off ropes in such circumstances," replied the captain;
+"we cut 'em."
+
+Sam was silenced, but not the less resolved to hold to his point, if
+possible.  He still held back, while the captain, being busy with the
+others, some of whom were rather too eager to go, paid no further
+attention to him.  Robin, Slagg, and Stumps, recognising Sam as their
+leader, fell behind him and kept close.
+
+At last all were on the raft except the captain and the four friends.
+
+"Now, then, come along," said the former, somewhat impatiently.
+
+"After you, sir," said Sam, with a polite bow.
+
+"Overboard, sir!" shouted the captain, in a voice that would brook no
+denial, and Sam at once stepped on the bulwark, for he was not naturally
+rebellious.
+
+Just as he spoke the rope broke, and the raft fell astern.
+
+"Jump! jump! it's your only chance," cried the captain, at the same
+moment springing into the sea.
+
+Sam was on the point of following, when an exclamation from Slagg
+checked him.  Looking quickly back, he saw that Robin was not there.
+
+Our hero, while modestly standing behind his comrades, had suddenly
+remembered that the small bible given him by his mother was lying on the
+shelf at the side of his berth.  He would have lost anything rather than
+that.  There was yet time to fetch it, so, without a word, he turned and
+sprang below, supposing that he had ample time.
+
+"Robin!  Robin!" shouted Sam and Slagg together, at the top of their
+voices.
+
+"Coming! coming!" reached them faintly from below, but Robin did not
+come.  The hasty summons induced him to leap over a chest in returning.
+He struck his head violently against a beam, and fell back stunned.
+
+With another wild shout his friends rushed down the companion-hatch to
+hasten his movements by force.  They found him almost insensible.
+Lifting him quickly, they carried, him on deck, and bore him to the
+stern of the vessel.
+
+"Robin!  Robin!" cried Sam, in an agony of impatience--for the raft was
+by that time far astern, besides which the shades of evening were
+beginning to descend--"_do_ try to rally.  We must swim.  We're almost
+too late.  Can you do it?"
+
+"Yes, yes, I can swim like a duck," cried Robin, rising and staggering
+towards the bulwarks.
+
+"But _I_ can't swim at all!" cried Stumps in a voice of horror.
+
+Sam stopped as if suddenly paralysed.  Then, laying hold of Robin, held
+him back.  He felt, as he looked at the dark heaving sea and the now
+distant raft, that it was not possible for him and Slagg to save both
+their injured and their helpless comrade.
+
+"Too late!" he said in a voice of despair, as he sat down and for a
+moment covered his face with his hands.  Slagg looked at him with a
+bewildered rather than a despairing expression.
+
+"So, we'll have to sink together since we can't swim together," he said
+at last, with a touch of reckless vexation, as he gazed at the naturally
+stupid and by that time imbecile face of his friend Stumps.
+
+"Come, only cowards give way to despair," cried Sam, starting up.  "We
+have one chance yet, God be praised, but let's work with a will, boys,
+for the time is short."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+THE RAFT.
+
+Sam Shipton's one chance did not seem a bright one, but, with
+characteristic energy, he proceeded to avail himself of it at once.
+
+When the raft was launched over the side, as described, the carpenters
+had embarked upon it with the rest of the ship's crew, dropping their
+tools on the deck beside the mass of unused material of ropes, spars,
+planks, etcetera, as they left.  Four of the spars were pretty equal in
+length.  Sam selected them hastily and laid them on the deck in the form
+of a square, or oblong frame.  Then he seized an axe.
+
+"Unravel some of the ropes, Robin," he cried.  "You two select some
+planks as near ten feet long as possible.  Quick--ask no questions, but
+do what I tell you."
+
+Sam Shipton was one of those who hold the opinion that every man born
+into the world, whether gentle or simple, should learn a trade.  He had
+acted on his belief and taught himself that of a carpenter, so that he
+wielded the axe with skill, and gave his orders with the precision of
+one who knows what he is about.  His comrades, although not trained to
+any special trade, were active handy fellows, with the exception,
+indeed, of John Shanks, whose fingers were usually described as
+"thumbs," and whose general movements were clumsy; but Stumps had a
+redeeming quality to set against defects--he was willing.
+
+With a few powerful well-directed blows, Sam cut four deep notches into
+the two longest of the selected spars, near their ends, at equal
+distances from each other.  Into these he laid the ends of the two
+shorter spars, thus forming a frame-work.
+
+"Twelve feet by ten, not a bad raft," he muttered, as if to himself,
+while he snatched a rope from the bundle of those disentangled by Robin.
+"Take a rope of same size, you two, and lash the opposite corners as
+you see me doing.  Stumps will go on selecting the planks."
+
+Sam jerked out his words with as much rapidity and force as he applied
+to the labour of his hands.  There was something quite tremendous in his
+energy, and little wonder--for, as he glanced now and then along the
+deck he saw that the ship was rapidly settling down to her final dive,
+and that the closing scene would be sudden.
+
+Powerfully impressed by his example, the others worked in total silence
+and with all their might, for Sam's conduct, far more than the
+appearance of things, convinced them of their danger.
+
+"The planks now, Stumps!  Drive in as many of these clamps as you can
+find, Slagg--so," (he set the example)--"we've no time to bore holes for
+bolts.  A plank now; that's it!  Hand some nails--no, the biggest nails
+and the big hammer.  Mind your fingers!"
+
+Down came the heavy hammer on a four-inch nail, which went half through
+the thick plank.  Two more such blows and the iron head was buried in
+the wood.  Six planks sufficed to cover the frame.  They were laid
+lengthwise with nails just sufficient to hold them.  A piece of thick
+rope passed four times round the entire fabric still further secured
+them in position.
+
+"Tie a lot of these nails in a bit of sail-cloth, Slagg, and fix 'em to
+the raft--to one of the spars, not the planks.  Do the same with a saw,
+hammer, axe, and cask of biscuit,--water, too; don't forget water.  Make
+a belt of a bit of rope, Robin, and stick that small axe in it.  Have it
+handy."
+
+While he spoke Sam did not look up, but gave all his attention to the
+tightening, with a hand-spike, of the knot on the thick rope that bound
+the raft together; for we may as well inform those who don't know it,
+that the tying of a knot on a cable is not managed in the same way or
+with the same ease that a similar operation is performed on a piece of
+twine.
+
+"But how shall we lift it over the side?" asked Stumps, becoming
+suddenly alive to a difficulty.
+
+"Help me to haul on this rope and you shall see," said Sam.
+
+He ran to the side, lifted a coil of rope off its belaying-pin, threw it
+on the deck, cut the rope clear, and hauled it to the raft, to one end
+of which he made it fast.
+
+It was the strong rope, by means of which one of the mizzen yards was
+braced, and was rove through a block attached to the outward end of the
+yard.
+
+"Hoist away now--with a will!"
+
+"Hold on," cried Slagg, stuffing a mass of sail-cloth violently, by
+means of a hand-spike, underneath the binding rope of the raft.
+
+"There now--yo ho! heave ho-o!"
+
+Up went the end of the little ark of safety, and when one end was raised
+very little force was required to push it over.
+
+"Hold on! hold on! hold o-o-on!" yelled Stumps, straining to prevent the
+raft from leaving the ship.
+
+"No, no.--Let go! let go! let go-o-o!" roared Sam.
+
+Stumps did let go and almost fell from the combined effect of his
+efforts and despair, as the raft swung off, splashed into the sea far
+out of reach, and hung half suspended from the yard-arm.
+
+"It's all up with us," gasped Stumps.
+
+"Not yet, but it will be all up with us in two minutes," returned Sam,
+unable to repress a smile even at that moment.
+
+"What d'ye mean?" said Stumps in amazement.  "How can we ever git at it
+_now_?"
+
+"Why, stoopid," said Slagg, "don't you see that we've only to go up the
+mast, out on the yard-arm, and slip down the rope."
+
+While he was speaking, Robin, by Sam's orders, was performing the feat
+referred to.
+
+"Look sharp!" he cried, turning to the others.
+
+A heavy lurch of the ship caused their breasts to leap almost as fast as
+their bodies, for they were all more or less aware of the danger of the
+ship sinking before they could get clear of her.  The darkness, too,
+was, as we have said, increasing by that time, though it was still light
+enough to enable them to see what they were about.
+
+In a few minutes they all had gained the end of the yard-arm, slipped
+down the rope, and got upon the raft, but it was difficult to hold on,
+because at each heave of the ship, the fore-end of the raft was raised
+quite out of the sea, and then let fall with considerable violence.  As
+soon as Sam reached it, he bade Robin cut adrift with his axe, so great
+was the heave; but at the moment the raft hung almost perpendicularly in
+the air, and Robin could do nothing but cling to the rope that bound it.
+Next instant it again fell flat on the sea.
+
+"Now--cut!" cried Sam.
+
+The rope was severed with one blow; almost at the same instant the stern
+of the Triton flew up with a degree of violence that no wave could
+account for.  It was her last fling.  Instantly after she went down head
+foremost.  The masts, by good fortune, leaned away from the raft at the
+time, else they would have been struck by the yards, or involved in the
+rigging.  As it was they did not escape.  The vast whirlpool caused by
+the sinking ship drew them in with irresistible power.  For one moment
+the horrified youths saw a dark green vortex towards which they rushed.
+Another moment, and they beheld a green funnel whirling round them as
+they sank into midnight darkness, while an ocean of roaring water filled
+their ears.
+
+Who shall attempt to describe, the feelings or sensations of that
+moment!  The one absorbing idea of self-preservation was of course
+dominant, coupled with an intolerable feeling that the upper air could
+never be regained.
+
+It was reached, however, by all of them.  First by Sam Shipton, who shot
+waist-high above the sea with a loud gasp, and struck out wildly.  Then,
+recovering presence of mind, he swam more gently, and looked eagerly
+round.  He was immediately followed by Robin and Slagg.  Last of all by
+Stumps, who came up legs foremost, and, on turning other end up, saluted
+them with a roar that would not have shamed a monster of the deep.  But
+the roar was cut short by a gurgle, as, in his frantic struggles, he
+sank himself again.
+
+Observing this, and seeing that the others were comparatively
+self-possessed, Sam made towards his drowning comrade.  The poor fellow,
+catching sight of him as he came near, made a clutch at him, but Sam was
+well aware of the danger of being grasped by a drowning man.  He swerved
+aside, and Stumps sank with a gurgle of despair.  Twice again did he
+rise and sink.  Once more he rose.  With a rapid stroke Sam swam behind
+him and caught him under the armpits.  Violently did the poor fellow
+strive to turn round and clasp his preserver, but Sam, treading water,
+held him easily at arm's-length with his head just above the surface.
+As long as he struggled nothing more could be done for him; Sam
+therefore put his mouth as near to his ear as possible and shouted:--
+
+"Stop struggling!--else I'll let you go!"
+
+It was probably as much the tone of Sam's voice as the sense of these
+words that calmed Stumps.  At all events he instantly lay, or rather
+hung, perfectly limp and still.
+
+"Now," continued Sam, "you are quite safe if you do what I tell you.  If
+you don't you're a dead man!  D'you understand?"
+
+"Yes," gasped Stumps.
+
+"Let your hands and arms lie flat on the water!  Don't try to raise your
+head farther than I let you!  Keep your feet _still_!  Let yourself hang
+helpless while I hold you and look round for the raft."
+
+It was obvious that Stumps had regained self-command, for as each of
+these orders was shouted in his ear, in the tones of a sergeant-major,
+he obeyed with eager, almost ludicrous, promptitude.
+
+"The raft is here, close at hand," said a voice close to Sam's ear.
+
+It was Robin who had discovered him at that moment.
+
+"Is Slagg safe?" asked Sam.
+
+"Here he is, all right," said the worthy referred to, puffing and
+choking as he swam up.
+
+"Keep off--don't get in front of him," said Sam, in a warning voice.
+"He mayn't have recovered self-restraint enough yet to refrain from
+grasping you.  Guide me to the raft, Robin, while I swim on my back, and
+see that you don't let it hit me on the head when I come close.  You and
+Slagg help each other on, and then help me with Stumps."
+
+Nothing could have calmed Stumps more than the cool, firm way in which
+these orders were given, so that he allowed himself to lie like a log
+while his deliverer drew him gently backwards until the back of his head
+rested on his bosom.  Sam then struck out gently with his legs; Robin
+turned him with a push in the right direction, and thus, swimming on his
+back, he reached the raft.  Slagg and Robin having already helped each
+other upon it, grasped his hair.  At once he freed one hand and caught
+the rope that bound the raft.  Stumps naturally slewed round, so that
+his mouth and nose went for a moment under water.  Fancying that he was
+forsaken, he caught Sam round the neck, drew himself up, and gave a
+terrific yell.
+
+"Ha! you may choke me now, if you can," muttered Sam, as he grasped the
+rope with both hands, "only, the longer you hold on to me the longer you
+will be of getting out of the water."
+
+The terrified lad still retained sufficient sense to appreciate the
+force of the remark.  Looking up as well as he could through his
+dishevelled hair, he held out one hand to Slagg, who grasped it firmly.
+Releasing Sam, with some hesitation he made a convulsive grasp at Robin
+with the other hand.  Robin met him half-way.  A loud "heave ho!" and a
+mighty pull brought him out of the sea, and sent him with a squash on
+the boards of the raft, where he lay gripping the ropes with his hands
+as with a vice.
+
+Before his rescuers could turn to aid Sam, he stood panting beside them.
+
+"Thank God," said Sam, "for this deliverance!"
+
+"Amen!" was the earnest and prompt response from the others.
+
+Yet it seemed but a temporary deliverance, for when these castaways
+looked around them, they saw nothing but a heaving ocean and a darkening
+sky, with the tiny raft as the only visible solid speck in all the
+watery waste.  Compared, however, with the extremity of danger though
+which they had just passed, the little platform on which they stood
+seemed to them an ample refuge--so greatly do circumstances alter our
+estimate of facts!
+
+But they had not time to think much, as may be easily understood, for a
+great deal still remained to be done.  Their little ark was by no means
+secure.  We have said that only enough of nails had been driven into it
+to hold the planks to the frame-work, but not to withstand rough
+treatment.  Indeed, during the plunge two of the planks had been torn
+off, but the binding rope held them to their places, as Sam had
+foreseen.
+
+Very little daylight now remained, so that not a moment was to be lost.
+
+"No sign of the big raft," said Sam, stooping to unfasten the hammer and
+packet of nails, after taking one quick, anxious glance round the
+horizon.
+
+"But it may be not far-off after all," said Slagg, kneeling down to aid
+his comrade, while Stumps, by that time recovered, assisted Robin to
+tighten the ropes that held the pork-barrel.  "With such poor light it
+'ud be hard to make out a flat thing like that a-kickin' in the hollows
+of the seas."
+
+"But you forget," returned Sam, "that it must be a-kickin' on the top o'
+the sea as well as in the hollows.  Another nail--thanks.  However, I
+don't expect to see it again."
+
+"Well, now, I expects to see it in the mornin' not far-off," said Slagg.
+"Is the water-cask fast, Robin?"
+
+"All right--and the pork too."
+
+"And the sail.  Just give it an extra shove under the ropes, Robin.
+We'd be badly off if we lost it."
+
+"I don't see what good a sail can do us," said Stumps, who had now quite
+recovered.
+
+"Not _as_ a sail, Stumpy," replied Slagg, whose spirit soon recovered
+elasticity, "though even in that way it may help us, but as a blanket we
+shall appreciate it before long."
+
+Slagg was right.  After the planking had been secured and the rope
+refastened, those unfortunates found themselves in an unenviable
+position.  The gale had indeed abated somewhat, though the heaving of
+the great waves was little less tremendous, but the night had settled
+down into a state of pitchy darkness, so that they could barely see each
+other's faces, while the seas continually washed over them, obliging
+them to hold on to the ropes for fear of being washed away.
+
+In such circumstances sleep was out of the question, yet they stood
+sorely in need of rest.
+
+"Now we'll see what's to be done wi' the sail," said Slagg, after they
+had been seated some time doing nothing.  "Sleep I want, an' sleep I'll
+have, so lend a hand, boys."
+
+He drew out the sail with some trouble, so well had it been stuffed in,
+and bade the others hold and prevent it from flapping while he fastened
+the corners down.  He did not arrange it like a tent, but spread it as
+flat as possible, doubling the superfluous edges inward, so that it
+presented little or no obstruction to the free passage of wind or water
+over them.
+
+This done, they all crept underneath, and found it to be a much snugger
+den than they had expected, for the two casks prevented their heads from
+being pressed down when a few tons of water rolled over them--as
+occasionally happened.
+
+Still they did not dare to sleep until each had fastened a rope round
+his waist and bound himself to the flooring.  Having done so, each laid
+himself alongside of a turn of the binding-cable, and, embracing that
+affectionately with both arms, laid his head on the planks and shut his
+eyes.
+
+Many and varied are the conditions under which healthy members of the
+human family seek and find repose, but we venture to think that few
+conditions have ever been found which were more unfavourable to sleep
+than that which has just been described.
+
+Nevertheless, they were met promptly by slumber most profound, as they
+lay wet and weary on the little raft that disastrous night, on the dark
+and surging breast of the Southern Sea.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+LIFE ON THE RAFT.
+
+To awake "all at sea"--in other words, ignorant of one's locality--is a
+rather common experience, but to awaken both at and in the sea, in a
+similar state of oblivion, is not so common.
+
+It was the fortune of Robin Wright to do so on the first morning after
+the day of the wreck.
+
+At first, when he opened his eyes, he fancied, from the sound of water
+in his ears, that it must have come on to rain very heavily, but, being
+regardless of rain, he tried to fall asleep again.  Then he felt as if
+there must be a leak in his berth somewhere, he was so wet; but, being
+sleepy, he shut his eyes, and tried to shut his senses against moisture.
+Not succeeding, he resolved to turn on his other side, but experienced
+a strange resistance to that effort.  Waxing testy, he wrenched himself
+round, and in so doing kicked out somewhat impatiently.  This, of
+course, woke him up to the real state of the case.  It also awoke Slagg,
+who received the kick on his shins.  He, delivering a cry of pain
+straight into Sam Shipton's ear, caused that youth to fling out his
+fist, which fell on Stumps's nose, and thus in rapid succession were the
+sleepers roused effectually to a full sense of their condition.
+
+"It's cold," remarked Stumps, with chattering teeth.
+
+"You should be thankful that you're alive to feel the cold, you
+ungrateful creetur," said Slagg.
+
+"I _am_ thankful, Jim," returned the other humbly, as he sought to undo
+the rope that held him fast; "but you know a feller can scarcely express
+thanks or--or--otherwise half asleep, an' his teeth goin' like a pair o'
+nut-crackers."
+
+"The wind is evidently down," remarked Sam, who had already undone his
+lashings.  "Here, Robin, help me to untie this corner of the sail.  I
+had no idea that sleeping with one's side in a pool of water would make
+one so cold and stiff."
+
+"If it had bin a pool, Mr Shipton," said Slagg, "it wouldn't have made
+you cold; 'cause why? you'd have made it warm.  But it was the sea
+washin' out and in fresh that kep' the temperater low--d'ee see?"
+
+"What a cargo o' rheumatiz we've been a-layin' in this night for old
+age," said Stumps ruefully, as he rubbed his left shoulder.
+
+Throwing off the sail, Sam stood up and looked round, while an
+exclamation of surprise and pleasure broke from him.  The contrast
+between the night and morning was more than usually striking.  Not only
+had darkness vanished and the wind gone down, but there was a dead calm
+which had changed the sea into a sheet of undulating glass, and the sun
+had just risen, flooding the sky with rosy light, and tipping the summit
+of each swell with gleaming gold.  The gentle, noiseless heaving of the
+long swell, so far from breaking the rest of nature, rather deepened it
+by suggesting the soft breathings of slumber.  There were a few gulls
+floating each on its own image, as if asleep, and one great albatross
+soared slowly in the bright sky, as if acting the part of sentinel over
+the resting sea.
+
+"How glorious!" exclaimed Robin, as, with flashing eyes, he gazed round
+the scarce perceptible horizon.
+
+"How hard to believe," said Sam, in a low voice, "that we may have been
+brought here to die."
+
+"But surely you do not think our case so desperate?" said Robin.
+
+"I hope it is not, but it may be so."
+
+"God forbid," responded Robin earnestly.
+
+As he spoke his arm pressed the little bible which he had rescued from
+the wreck.  Thrusting his hand into his bosom he drew it out.
+
+"Darling mother!" he said, "when she gave me this she told me to consult
+it daily, but especially in times of trouble or danger.  I'll look into
+it now, Sam."
+
+He opened the book, and, selecting the verse that first met his eye,
+read: "In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his
+presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and
+he bare them and carried them all the days of old."
+
+"That's a grand word for us, isn't it?--from Isaiah," said Robin.
+
+"Well, what do you make of it?" asked Sam, whose religious education had
+not been attended to as well as that of his friend.
+
+"That our God is full of love, and pity, and sympathy, so that we have
+nothing to fear," said Robin.
+
+"But surely you can't regard that as a message to us when you know that
+you turned to it by mere chance," said Sam.
+
+"I do regard it as a special message to us," returned Robin with
+decision.
+
+"And what if you had turned up an entirely unsuitable or inapplicable
+verse?" said Sam.
+
+"Then I should have concluded that God had no _special_ message for us
+just now, but left us to that general comfort and instruction contained
+throughout the whole word.  When, however, special comfort is sought and
+found, it seems to me ungrateful to refuse it."
+
+"But I don't refuse it, Robin," returned Sam; "I merely doubt whether it
+is sent to us or not."
+
+"Why, Sam, _all_ the bible was sent to us for comfort and instruction."
+
+"True--true.  I have not thought much on that subject, Robin, but I'll
+try to believe at present that you are right, for we stand much in need
+of strong hope at all events.  Here we are, none of us knows how far
+from the nearest land, with little food and less water, on a thing that
+the first stiff breeze may knock to pieces, without shelter and without
+compass!"
+
+"Without shelter and compass, Mr Shipton!" said Jim Slagg, who had
+hitherto listened in silence to the conversation; "why, what d'ye call
+this?"  (taking hold of the sail).  "Ain't that shelter enough, and
+won't the sun guide us by day and the stars by night.  It seems to me
+that you are too despondin', Mr Shipton."
+
+"Don't `mister' me any more, Slagg.  It was all very well aboard ship
+where we had our relative positions, but now we are comrades in
+distress, and must be on an equal footing."
+
+"Very good," replied Slagg, looking round in his comrades' faces, and
+raising his voice as if making a speech.  "Bein' equal, as you say, I
+takes the liberty o' callin' a general meetin' o' this free and--if I
+may be allowed the expression--easy Republic.  Moreover, I move myself
+into the chair and second the motion, which, nobody objectin', is
+carried unanimously.  Gentlemen, the business of this here meetin' is to
+appoint a commander to this here ship, an' what could be more in
+accordance with the rule o' three--not to mention the rules o' four and
+common sense--than a Shipton takin' command.  Who's goin' to make the
+first reslootion?"
+
+Entering into the spirit of the thing, Robin moved that Samuel Shipton
+be appointed to command the ship and the party, with the title of
+captain.
+
+"And without pay," suggested Slagg.
+
+"And _I_ move," said Stumps, who was just beginning to understand the
+joke, though a little puzzled by the fact that it was done in earnest,
+"I move that Robin Wright be first leftenant."
+
+"Brayvo, Stumps!" cried Slagg, "your intellec' _is_ growin'.  It on'y
+remains to appoint you ship's monkey and maid-of-all-work--specially
+dirty work--and, then, with a hearty vote o' thanks to myself for my
+conduct in the chair, to vacate the same an' dissolve the meetin'."
+
+These matters having been satisfactorily settled, the castaways
+proceeded to prepare breakfast, and while this was being done the
+recently appointed captain looked once more anxiously round in the hope
+of seeing the large raft with their late shipmates on it, but it was not
+to be seen.  Neither raft, ship, nor any other sign of man wos visible
+on all the glittering sea.
+
+Breakfast was not a tempting meal.  The biscuits were, indeed, as good
+as ship's biscuits ever are, and when moistened with sea water formed a
+comparatively pleasant as well as strengthening food; but the barrel of
+pork was raw; they had no means of cooking it, and had not yet
+experienced those pangs of hunger which induce men to luxuriate in
+anything that will allay the craving.  They therefore breakfasted
+chiefly on biscuit, merely making an attempt, with wry faces, to swallow
+a little pork.
+
+Observing this, Sam said, in a half-jocular manner:--
+
+"Now, my lads, it is quite clear to me that in taking command of this
+ship, my first duty is to point out the evils that will flow from
+unrestrained appetite for biscuit;--also to insist on the cultivation of
+a love for raw pork.  You have no notion how good it is when fairly
+believed in.  Anyhow you'll have to try, for it won't do to eat up all
+the biscuit, and have to feed at last on pure pork."
+
+"I calls it impure pork," said Slagg; "hows'-ever, capting, you've on'y
+to give the word and we obey.  P'r'aps the best way'll be to put us on
+allowance."
+
+This suggestion was at once acted on, and a considerable part of that
+bright day was spent by Sam and Robin in calculating how much pork
+should go to a biscuit, so that they should diminish in an equal ratio,
+and how much of both it would be safe to allow to each man per diem,
+seeing that they might be many days, perhaps even weeks, at sea.  While
+the "officers" were thus engaged, Slagg and his friend Stumps busied
+themselves in making a mast and yard out of one of the planks--split in
+two for the purpose--and fitting part of their sail to the same.
+
+Evening found them with the work done, a small sail hoisted on the rude
+mast, the remaining part of the canvas fitted more securely as a
+covering, and the apportioned meal before them.  But the sail hung idly
+from its yard and flapped gently to and fro as the little ark rose and
+sank on the swell, for the calm still prevailed and the gorgeous sunset,
+with its golden clouds and bright blue sky, was so faithfully reflected
+in the sea, that they seemed to be floating in the centre of a crystal
+ball which had been dipped in the rainbow.
+
+When night descended, the scene was, if possible, still more impressive,
+for although the bright colours had vanished, the castaways still
+floated in the centre of a dark crystal universe, whose unutterable
+depths were radiant with stars of varied size and hue.
+
+Long they sat and gazed in solemn admiration at the scene, talking in
+subdued tones of past, present, and future, until their eyes refused to
+do their office and the heavy lids began to droop.  Then, reluctantly,
+they crept beneath the sail-cloth covering and lay down to rest.
+
+The planks were hard, no doubt, but our castaways were hardy; besides, a
+few folds of the superfluous portions of the large sail helped to soften
+the planks here and there.
+
+"Now, boys," said Slagg, as he settled himself with a long-drawn sigh,
+"the on'y thing we wants to make us perfectly happy is a submarine
+telegraph cable 'tween this an' England, to let us say good-night to our
+friend, ashore, an' hope they won't be long in sending out to search for
+us."
+
+It is sad to be obliged to record that, Slagg's companions being already
+asleep, this tremendous and original piece of pleasantry was literally
+cast upon the waters, where it probably made no impression whatever on
+the inhabitants of the slumbering sea.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+IN WHICH WILL BE FOUND MORE SURPRISES THAN ONE.
+
+Events of the most singular description are often prefaced by incidents
+of the most commonplace character.  Who is so inexperienced in the
+vicissitudes of life as not to know this!
+
+Early in the morning that succeeded their second night on the raft,
+Robin Wright awoke with a very commonplace, indeed a vulgar, snore; we
+might almost call it a snort.  Such as it was, however, it proved to be
+a most important link in the chain of events which it is our province to
+narrate.
+
+To explain: It must be understood that John Shanks, or Stumps, among
+other eccentricities, practised sprawling in his sleep, spreading
+himself abroad in inconceivable attitudes, shooting out an arm here, or
+a leg there, to the alarm or indignation of bedfellows, insomuch that,
+when known, bedfellows refused to remain with him.
+
+Aware of Stumps's propensity, Slagg had so arranged that his friend
+should lie at the stern of the raft with two strands of the
+binding-cable between him and Robin, who lay next to him.  During the
+first part of the night, Stumps, either overcome by weariness or subdued
+by his friends' discourses on the stellar world, behaved pretty well.
+Only once did he fling out and bestow an unmerited blow on the
+pork-barrel.  But, about daybreak, he began to sprawl, gradually working
+his way to the extreme edge of the raft, where a piece of wood, nailed
+there on purpose, prevented him from rolling off altogether.  It did
+not, however, prevent his tossing one of his long legs over the edge,
+which he accordingly did.  The leg and foot were naked.  He preferred
+to sleep so, even when bedless, having been brought up in
+shoe-and-stockingless society.  With his foot dipping lightly in the
+wave, he prolonged his repose.
+
+They were slipping quietly along at the time under the influence of a
+steady though gentle breeze, which had sprung up and filled their sail
+soon after they lay down to rest.  An early shark, intent on picking up
+sea-worms, observed Stumps's foot, and licked his lips, no doubt.  He
+sank immediately for much the same reason that little boys retire to
+take a race before a leap.  Turning on his back, according to custom, he
+went at the foot like a submarine thunderbolt.
+
+Now, it was at that precise moment that Robin Wright snored, as
+aforesaid.  The snore awoke Stumps, who had another sprawl, and drew up
+his leg gently--oh, how gently compared with what he would have done had
+he known what you know, reader!  Nevertheless, the action was in time,
+else would he have had, for the rest of his life, a better title than
+heretofore to his nickname.  As it was, the nose and lips of the slimy
+monster struck the youth's foot and slid up the side of his leg.
+
+Hideous was the yell with which Stumps received the salute.  Acrobatic
+was the tumble with which he rolled over his comrades, and dire was the
+alarm created in all their hearts as they bounced from under the
+respective corners of their covering, and stood up, aghast!
+
+"You twopenny turnip," said Slagg, "why did you screech like--"
+
+He stopped.  There was no need to finish the question, for the fin of
+the disappointed shark, describing angry zig-zags in the water close by,
+furnished a sufficient answer.
+
+"He has only grazed me," said Stumps, feeling his leg anxiously.
+
+"Only grazed you! rather say crazed you," returned Sam, "for a cry like
+that could only come from a madman.  What were you doing?--washing your
+feet in the sea?"
+
+"No, not exactly," replied Stumps, somewhat abashed, "but one of my legs
+got over the end of the raft somehow, and was trailing in the water."
+
+"Hallo!  I say, look there, Sam!" said Robin, with sudden animation,
+pointing to the horizon straight ahead of them; "is that the big raft or
+a ship?"
+
+"Neither, Robin," replied Sam, after a prolonged and earnest gaze; "it
+must be an island.  What do you think, Slagg?"
+
+The incident of the shark was almost totally forgotten in the excitement
+caused by this new discovery.  For some time Slagg and all the others
+gazed intently without uttering a word.  Then Slagg looked round with a
+deep sigh.
+
+"Yes, it's a island," he said; "no doubt about that."
+
+"What a blessing!" exclaimed Robin, with heartfelt emotion.
+
+"Well, that depends," said Sam, with a shake of the head.  "Islands in
+the China seas are not always places of refuge--at least for honest
+people."
+
+"By no means," added Slagg; "I've heard say that the pirates there are
+about the wust set o' cut-throats goin'--though I don't myself believe
+there's much difference atween one set and another."
+
+The light wind which had carried the raft slowly over the sea, while
+they were asleep, now freshened into a stiff breeze, and tested the
+qualities of their craft, severely; but, with a little strengthening--an
+extra turn of a rope or an additional nail--here and there, it held
+pretty well together.  At breakfast, which was served according to
+regulation, they discussed their situation.
+
+"You see," said Sam, "this may turn out to be a small barren island, in
+which case we shall have to leave it and trust to falling in with some
+vessel; or it may be inhabited by savages or pirates, in which case we
+shall have to leave it from prudential motives, if they will allow us to
+do so.  In any case, we won't begin by being extravagant with the
+provisions to-day."
+
+As they drew near to the island, the probability of its being inhabited
+became greater, because, although solitary, and, according to Sam's
+amateur calculations, far remote from other lands, it presented a bold
+and fertile aspect.  It was not, indeed, large in circumference, but it
+rose to a considerable height, and was covered with rich vegetation,
+above which waved numerous groups of the cocoa-nut palm.  A band of
+light yellow sand fringed the shore, on which the waves roiled in a
+still lighter fringe of foam, while two or three indentations seemed to
+indicate the existence of creeks or openings into the interior.
+
+With eager gaze the castaways watched this island as they slowly
+approached it--the minuter beauties of rock and dell and leafy copse
+brightening into view as the sun mounted the clear blue sky.
+
+"What I have thought or dreamed of sometimes, when dear mother used to
+speak of heaven," murmured Robin, as if communing with himself.
+
+"Well, I have not thought much of heaven," said Sam, "but I shouldn't
+wonder if it's something like the paradise, from which Adam and Eve were
+driven."
+
+"There's no sign o' natives as yet," said Slagg, who, regardless of
+these remarks, had been gazing at the island with eyes shaded by his
+hand.
+
+"Yes there is; yonder is one sitting on the rocks," said Stumps; "don't
+you see him move?"
+
+"That's not a native," returned Slagg, "it's too long in the back for a
+human being.  It's a big monkey--a gorilla, maybe.  Did you ever hear
+tell of gorillas being in them regions?"
+
+"I rather think not," said Sam; "and to my mind it looks more like a
+rock than anything else."
+
+A rock it proved to be, to the discomfiture of Slagg and Stumps; but the
+rock was not without interest, for it was soon seen that a rope was
+attached to it, and that the rope, stretching across the entrance to a
+creek, was lost in the foliage on the side opposite to the rock.
+
+"Why, I do believe," said Sam, suddenly, in an impressive whisper, "that
+there is a vessel of some sort at the other end of that rope, behind the
+point, partly hid by the trees.  Don't you see the top of her masts?"
+
+After long and earnest gazing, and much whispered conversation--though
+there was no occasion for caution at such a distance from the land--they
+came to the conclusion that a vessel lay concealed just within the mouth
+of the creek towards which the wind was driving them, and that, as they
+apparently had not been discovered by those who owned the vessel, their
+wisest course would be to land, if possible without attracting
+attention, somewhat farther along the coast.
+
+"But how is that to be done," asked Robin, "as we have neither oar nor
+rudder?"
+
+"Nothing easier," returned Slagg, seizing the axe and wrenching up the
+plank that had prevented Stumps from finding a watery grave, "I've on'y
+got to cut a handle at one end, an' we've got an oar at once."
+
+In a few minutes the handy youth converted the piece of plank into a
+rude oar, with which he steered the raft, so that it gradually drew to
+the southward of the creek where the strange vessel lay, and finally
+took the land in another inlet not far distant.
+
+It was evident, from the silence around, that no one was stirring in the
+vessel, and that their approach had not been perceived.  Congratulating
+themselves on this piece of good fortune, they lowered their sail, drew
+the raft under the bushes, which in some parts of the inlet came close
+down to the sea, and then hurried stealthily through a palm-grove
+towards the vessel.  They reached the margin of the grove in a few
+minutes, and there discovered that the stranger was apparently a Chinese
+craft, but whether a trading-vessel, or smuggler, or pirate, they had no
+means of knowing.
+
+As they lay flat on their faces in the rank grass, peeping through the
+luxuriant undergrowth, they could see that two men paced the deck with
+musket on shoulder as if on guard, but no other human beings were
+visible.
+
+"Shall we go forward and trust them as honest traders?" asked Sam in a
+whisper.
+
+"I think not," replied Slagg; "if all's true that one hears, there is
+not much honesty afloat in them seas.  My advice is to stay where we are
+and see what turns up."
+
+"What think you, Robin?"
+
+Robin was of opinion that they should trust the strangers and go
+forward.  Stumps agreed with him, but Sam thought with Slagg.  Their
+indecision, however, was cut short by a most startling occurrence.
+
+While they were yet whispering together, the sound of voices was heard
+in the distance.  Our castaways at once sank flatter into the grass, and
+became mute.
+
+In a few minutes the voices drew gradually nearer, until they were quite
+close to the alarmed watchers.  Suddenly, from among the bushes on the
+other side of an open space just in front of them, there issued a band
+of men, walking in single file.  Their appearance might have aroused
+grave anxiety in the most unsuspecting breast, for, besides possessing
+faces in which the effects of dissipation and evil passions were plainly
+stamped, they were armed--as the saying is--to the teeth, with short
+swords, cavalry pistols, and carbines.  They were dressed in varied
+Eastern costume, and appeared to be of Malay origin, though some bore
+closer resemblance to the Chinese.
+
+The man who marched in advance--evidently the leader of the band--was
+unusually tall and powerful, with a remarkably stern, but not altogether
+forbidding, countenance.
+
+"Pirates!" whispered Slagg.
+
+"Looks like them, but may be smugglers," replied Sam in the same
+cautious tone.
+
+Even Robin's unsuspecting and inexperienced nature would not permit him
+to believe that they were honest traders.  Had any doubts on the subject
+lingered in their minds, these would have been effectually cleared away
+by the scenes which immediately followed.
+
+While the pirates were still at some distance from the shore, sudden
+shouts and yells came from the vessel, which had, up to that time, been
+lying so peacefully at anchor, and it was at once clear that a furious
+hand-to-hand fight was taking place upon her deck.
+
+"It must be the poor slaves who have risen," whispered Sam.
+
+The pirates had drawn their swords and pistols at the first sound of the
+fight, and rushed to the rescue.  They well knew that, while they had
+been on shore, the unfortunate captives chained in the vessel's hold had
+succeeded in freeing themselves, and were endeavouring to overcome the
+few men left to guard them.
+
+Slaves captured at various times by the scoundrels who infest those
+seas, are sometimes made to work at the oars--which are much used during
+calm weather--until they die, or become so worn out as to be useless,
+when they are mercilessly thrown overboard.  That the slaves referred to
+on this occasion, animated probably by despair, had effected their
+release, and plucked up heart to assault the armed guard, was a matter
+of some surprise to the pirates: not so, however, to our adventurers,
+when they saw, foremost among the mutineers, a man clad in the garb of a
+European sailor.
+
+"That's the boy as has put 'em up to it," said Jim Slagg, in a
+suppressed but eager voice, "they'd never have had the pluck to do it of
+themselves."
+
+"We'd better go an' help 'em," said Stumps, whose usually stupid face
+was lighted up with excitement.
+
+"Right, lad," exclaimed Slagg, starting up; but Sam laid his hand firmly
+on his arm.
+
+"Too late," he said; "don't you see that the guard have prevailed.
+Besides, the pirate crew are in their boats--almost at the vessel.  See,
+they swarm up the side."
+
+"Poor, poor sailor!" said Robin Wright, in a voice of the deepest pity.
+
+"You may well say that; no doubt he is killed by this time," said Slagg;
+"but no--he is fightin' still!"
+
+This was indeed true.  Some of the slaves, rendered desperate no doubt,
+were still maintaining the hopeless fight with handspikes and such arms
+as they had succeeded in wresting from the guard at the first onset, and
+the stalwart figure of the European sailor was seen swaying aloft a
+clubbed musket and felling a pirate at every blow.  Animated by his
+example, the other slaves fought with resolute bravery, but when the
+rest of the pirate crew joined the guard and surrounded them, they were
+instantly overpowered.  Then those who had not been already slain were
+led hastily to the side, a sword was drawn across their throats, or
+thrust through them, and the bodies were tossed into the sea.  Among
+those led thus to the side was the brave sailor.  Although his features
+could not be distinguished at such a distance by those in ambush, it
+could be clearly seen that he came boldly forward, resolved, no doubt,
+to meet his fate like a man.
+
+"Oh, God, spare him!" burst in a voice of agony from Robin, who sprang
+up as if with the intention of rushing to the rescue, regardless of
+consequences, but a second time Sam Shipton's restraining hand was
+ready.
+
+"What could we do, with the sea between us and the ship?  Even if we
+were on the deck could we four deliver him from a hundred?"
+
+Robin sank down again with a groan, but his fascinated eyes still gazed
+at the pirate vessel.  To his great surprise, the sailor at that moment
+uttered a long and ringing cheer!  The act seemed to overawe even the
+bloodstained pirates, for they hesitated an instant.  Then one of them
+pointed his sword at the sailor's back, but at the same moment the
+leader of the band was seen to strike up the sword and give some hurried
+directions.  A rope was instantly brought, with which the arms and legs
+of the seaman were secured, and he was carried below.
+
+"Our prayer has been answered!" exclaimed Robin with renewed excitement;
+"they _are_ going to spare him."
+
+Sam shook his head.  "I fear not, Robin; at least, if I may judge from
+what I have read of these villains, they have only spared him for a time
+for the purpose of torturing him."
+
+Robin shuddered.  "Well, I don't know," he said, "whatever they may do,
+God _has_ answered our prayer, for they _have_ spared him; and if God
+could deliver him thus at the last moment, surely He can deliver him
+altogether.  But was it not remarkable that he should give such a cheer
+when--as he must have thought--at the point of death, for it sounded
+more like a cheer of triumph than defiance?"
+
+"It was strange indeed.  The effect of strong excitement, I fancy."
+
+While they were conversing, the pirates were busily engaged in getting
+up the anchor and hoisting the sails of their craft.  At the same time
+the long oars or sweeps were manned by such of the slaves as remained
+alive, and the vessel slowly glided out of the creek, and put to sea.
+Fortunately the fight had engrossed the attention of those on board so
+much that they had failed to observe the little raft, which, although
+partially concealed by bushes, might not otherwise have escaped
+detection.
+
+Our voyagers were still congratulating themselves on their good fortune
+in this respect, when the pirate-ship was observed to change her course,
+turn completely round and return towards the land!
+
+"They've seen us!" ejaculated Robin in consternation.
+
+"Our doom is fixed," said Sam in a tone of bitter despair.
+
+Slagg and his friend were so much overwhelmed that they could not speak.
+
+On came the vessel--under oars--straight for the creek where the raft
+lay.  There could be no doubt now that they had been seen.
+
+While they gazed in blank dismay, utterly unable to decide on any course
+of action, an event occurred which totally altered the aspect of
+affairs.  Suddenly, as if by magic, the pirate-ship was converted into a
+great black-and-white cloud, from out of which there shot an
+indescribable mass of broken spars and wreckage which fell in all
+directions in a heavy shower into the sea.  Two seconds later and there
+came a roar as if a crash of the loudest thunder had rent the sky.  The
+powder-magazine had been fired, and the pirate-ship had been blown
+literally to atoms!
+
+When the last of the terrible shower had fallen, nothing whatever of the
+vessel was to be seen save the floating morsels of the wreck.  It was,
+we might say, a tremendous instance of almost absolute annihilation.
+
+Recovering from the shock of horror and surprise, Sam Shipton ran
+swiftly down to the spot where the raft lay, followed by his companions.
+
+"There may be some left alive!" he cried.  "Quick--shove her off.
+Yonder's a pole, Robin, fetch it."
+
+Another minute and they were afloat.  Pushing with the pole, sculling
+with the rude oar, and paddling with a plank torn off, they made for the
+scene of the explosion.
+
+"I see something moving," said Stumps, who, having no implement to work
+with, stood up in front and directed their course.
+
+Soon they were in the midst of the _debris_.  It was an awful sight, for
+there, mingled with riven spars and planks and cabin furniture, and
+entangled in ravelled cordage, lay the torn lifeless remains of the
+pirates.  Sharks were already swimming about in anticipation of a feast.
+
+"Did you not see symptoms of life somewhere?" asked Sam, as he stood
+beside Stumps, and looked earnestly round.
+
+"Yes, I did, but I don't now--O yes! there it is again.  Give way,
+Slagg, give way.  There!"
+
+The raft was soon alongside of the moving object.  It was the body of
+the gallant sailor who had fought so well that day.  His limbs were
+still fast bound, excepting one arm, with which now and then he struck
+out feebly, as if trying to swim.  Lying on his back his mouth and nose
+were above water.
+
+"Gently, gently, boys," said Robin, as they lifted the head out of the
+water and slowly drew the shoulders up; "now, a good heave and--that's
+it."
+
+The body slid heavily on the raft, and the motion seemed to rouse the
+seaman's spirit, for he uttered a faint cheer, while they knelt round
+him, and tried in various ways to restore him to consciousness.
+
+"Hurrah for old England!" he cried presently, in an imbecile manner,
+making an abortive effort to lift his loose arm; "never say die--
+s'long's there's--a shok in th' lotter."
+
+"Well done, old saltwater!" cried Slagg, unable to restrain a laugh;
+"you'll live to fight yet, or I'm mistaken."
+
+There was indeed some prospect that the poor fellow would recover, for,
+after a short time, he was able to gaze at his rescuers with an
+intensity of surprise that betokened the return not only of
+consciousness but of reason.
+
+"Well, well," he said, after gazing around for some time in silence as
+he lay with his head supported on the sail, "I s'pose it's all right,
+and I'll wake up all square in the mornin', but it's out o' sight the
+most comical dream I've had since I was a babby.  I only hope it'll take
+a pleasanter turn if it's agoin' to continue."
+
+With this philosophical reflection the sailor shut his eyes, and
+disposed himself to sleep until the period of real waking should arrive.
+
+Thinking this the best thing he could do in the circumstances, his
+rescuers turned to examine whether any of the others had survived the
+explosion, but, finding that all were dead or had sunk, they returned to
+the land.
+
+Here, after securing the raft, they made a sort of litter, with the sail
+spread on the oar and a plank, on which they carried the sailor to the
+sheltered spot whence they had witnessed the fight.  As the poor man had
+by that time fallen into a genuine slumber--which appeared to be
+dreamless--he was left under the care of Stumps and Slagg, while Sam and
+Robin went off to ascertain whether or not the island was inhabited.
+
+"We will go straight up to the highest point at once, so as to get a
+bird's-eye view of it," said Sam.  "I can't help thinking that it must
+be inhabited, for these scoundrels would not care to land, I should
+fancy, unless there was some one to rob."
+
+"It may be so, Sam.  But if they had come to rob, don't you think they
+would not have returned to their ship without captives or booty?"
+
+"There is something in that, Robin.  Come; we shall see."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+STRANGE DISCOVERIES ON PIRATE ISLAND.
+
+On reaching the first rising-ground that lay before them, Robin and his
+friend received a great disappointment, for, instead of a richly wooded
+country, which the coast scenery where they landed had led them to
+expect, they found an exceedingly barren region, as far, at least, as
+the next ridge in advance.
+
+"No use to go further," said Sam, despondingly; "nothing but barren
+rocks and a few scrubby bushes here.  Evidently there are no
+inhabitants, for it would be almost impossible to live on such a place."
+
+"But it may be better further inland," said Robin.  "I can't think that
+the pirates would come here for nothing.  At all events let us go to the
+next ridge."
+
+Without replying, Sam followed Robin, but the next ridge revealed
+nothing more hopeful.  Indeed the prospect thence was, if possible, more
+depressing, for it was seen that the island was small, that its sides
+were so steep all round, as far as the eye could reach, that there was
+apparently no landing-place except at the spot where they had been
+driven on shore.  The elevated interior seemed as barren as the
+circumference, and no neighbouring island was to be seen in all the wide
+field of vision.  The only living creatures visible were innumerable
+sea-birds which circled round the cliffs, and which, on espying the
+intruders, came clamouring overhead, as if to order them angrily away.
+
+"Having come thus far we may as well go to the top and have a look all
+round," said Robin, "and see--here is something like a track worn on the
+rock."  Sam's drooping spirits revived at once.  He examined the track
+carefully and pronounced it a "human" track.  "The sea-gulls could not
+make it, Robin.  Goats, sheep, and cows cannot live without grass,
+therefore it was not made by them.  A track is not usually worn on hard
+rock by the passage of pirates only once or twice over them.  There is
+mystery here, Robin.  Come on!"
+
+It will be observed that Robin's spirit was more hopeful than that of
+his friend, nevertheless Sam being physically more energetic, was, when
+not depressed, prone to take the lead.  He walked smartly forward
+therefore, followed humbly by his friend, and they soon reached what
+proved to be the summit of the island.
+
+Here supreme astonishment was the chief ingredient in their feelings,
+for they stood on the edge of a slope, at the foot of which, as in a
+basin, lay what seemed to be a small cultivated garden in the midst of a
+miniature valley covered with trees and shrubs, through which a tiny
+rivulet ran.  This verdant little gem was so hemmed in by hills that it
+could not be seen from the sea or any low part of the island.  But what
+surprised the discoverers most was the sight of an old woman, bent
+nearly double, who was busily at work in the garden.  Not far from her
+was an old man, who, from his motions while at work, appeared to be
+blind.  Their costume being nondescript, besides ragged, did not betoken
+their nationality.
+
+Sam and Robin glanced at each other in silence, then turned to have
+another gaze at the scene.
+
+"We've found," said Sam, slowly and impressively, "a robber's nest!"
+
+"D'you think so, Sam?"
+
+"Think so!  I'm sure of it.  Just think.  There is nothing on such an
+island as this to attract any one at all--much less robbers or pirates--
+except the fact that it _is_ unattractive, and, apparently, far removed
+from the haunts of honest men.  Depend upon it, Robin, that the pirates
+whom we saw have made this their head-quarters and place of deposit for
+their booty--their bank as it were, for it's too small for their home;
+besides, if it were such, we should see a colony of women and children.
+No--this is the great Pirate Bank of the Southern Seas, and yonder we
+behold the secretary and cashier!"
+
+"And what," said Robin with a laugh, "if there should be a few clerks in
+the bank?  We might perhaps find them troublesome fellows to deal with."
+
+"We might, Robin.  Would it not be wise to return and let Slagg and
+Stumps know what we have discovered, and take counsel together before we
+act."
+
+"Agreed," said Robin.  "Isn't it strange though," he added, as they
+turned to retrace their steps, "that there are no buildings of any
+kind--only a little garden."
+
+"It is somewhat puzzling, I confess, but we shall--"
+
+He stopped abruptly, and stood rooted to the ground, for there, on a
+rock in front of him, with her light, graceful figure, and flowing
+golden hair, pictured against the blue sky, stood a little girl,
+apparently about six or seven years of age--an angel as it seemed to the
+amazed youths!
+
+She had caught sight of the strangers at the very moment they had
+observed her, and stood gazing at them with a half eager, half terrified
+look in her large lustrous eyes.
+
+With a sudden and irresistible impulse Robin extended his arms towards
+her.  She made a little run towards him, then stopped, and the look of
+fear again came over her beautiful face.  Robin was afraid to advance
+lest he should frighten her.  So, with an earnest look and smile, he
+said, "Come here, little one."
+
+She answered the invitation by bounding towards our hero and clasping
+him round the neck, causing him to sit down rather abruptly on a rock
+which lay conveniently behind.
+
+"Oh!  I'm so glad you've come at last!" said the child, in English so
+good that there could be no question as to her nationality.  "I was
+quite sure mamma would send to fetch me away from this tiresome place,
+but you've been so long of coming--so very _very_ long."
+
+The thought of this, and perhaps the joy of being "sent for" at last,
+caused her to sob and bury her face in Robin's sympathetic bosom.
+
+"Cheer up, little one, and don't cry," said Robin, passing his hand over
+her sunny hair, "your Father, at all events, has sent for you, if not
+your mother."
+
+"I have no father," said the child, looking up quickly.
+
+"Yes you have, little one; God is your father."
+
+"Did _He_ send you to fetch me?" she asked in surprise.
+
+"I have not the smallest doubt," answered Robin, "that He sent us to
+take care of you, and take you to your mother if that be possible.  But
+tell me, little one, what is your name?"
+
+"Letta."
+
+"And your surname?"
+
+"My what!" exclaimed Letta, opening her large eyes to their widest,
+causing both Sam and Robin to laugh.
+
+"Your other name, dear," said Sam.
+
+"I have no other name.  Mamma always called me Letta--nothing else."
+
+"And what was mamma's name?" asked Robin.
+
+"It was mamma, of course," replied Letta, with a look of wonder that so
+silly a question should be asked.
+
+Sam and Robin exchanged looks, and the former shook his head.  "You'll
+not get much information out of her, I fear.  Ask her about the
+pirates," he whispered.
+
+"Letta," said Robin, settling the child more comfortably on his knee--an
+attention which she received with a sigh of deep contentment,--"are the
+people here kind to you?"
+
+"Yes, very kind.  Old Meerta is as kind to me almost as mamma used to
+be, but I don't love her so much--not nearly so much,--and blind Bungo
+is a dear old man."
+
+"That's nice.  And the others--are they kind to you?"
+
+"What others?  Oh, I suppose you mean the men who come and stay for a
+time, and then go off again.  O no!  They are not kind.  They are bad
+men--very naughty; they often fight, and I think call each other bad
+names, but I don't understand their language very well.  They never hurt
+me, but they are very rough, and I don't like them at all.  They all
+went away this morning.  I was _so_ glad, for they won't be back again
+for a good long while, and Meerta and Bungo won't get any more hard
+knocks, and whippings, till they come back."
+
+"Ha! they won't come back in a hurry--not these ones at least," said Sam
+in a voice that frightened Letta, inducing her to cling closer to Robin.
+
+"Don't be afraid, little one," said the latter, "he's only angry with
+the bad men that went away this morning.  Are there any of them still
+remaining here?"
+
+"What, in the caves?"
+
+"Ay, in the caves--or anywhere?"
+
+"No they're all away.  Nobody left but me and Meerta and blind Bungo."
+
+"Is it a long time since you came here?"
+
+"O yes, very _very_ long!" replied the child, with a sad weary look; "so
+long that--that you can't think."
+
+"Come, dear; tell us all about it," said Robin in a coaxing tone,--"all
+about mamma and how you came here."
+
+"Very well," said Letta, quite pleased with the request.  Clearing her
+little throat with the emphasis of one who has a long story to tell, she
+began with the statement that "mamma was a darling."
+
+From this, as a starting-point, she gave an amazing and rambling account
+of the joys and toys of infancy, which period of life seemed to have
+been spent in a most beautiful garden full of delicious fruits and
+sunshine, where the presiding and ever present angel was mamma.  Then
+she told of a dark night, and a sudden awaking in the midst of flames
+and smoke and piercing cries, when fierce men seized her and carried her
+away, put her into a ship, where she was dreadfully sick for a long long
+time, until they landed on a rocky island, and suddenly she found
+herself "there,"--pointing as she spoke to the little garden below them.
+While she was yet describing her feelings on arrival, a voice shouting
+Letta was heard, and she instantly struggled from Robin's knee.
+
+"O let me go!" she cried.  "It's Meerta calling me, and I never let her
+call twice."
+
+"Why?  Would she be angry?"
+
+"No, but she would be sorry.  Do let me go!"
+
+"But won't you let us go too?" asked Sam.
+
+"O yes, if you want to come.  This is the road," she added, as she took
+Robin by the hand; "and you must be very careful how you go, else you'll
+fall and hurt yourselves."
+
+Great was the amazement, and not slight the alarm of Meerta, when she
+beheld her little charge thus piloting two strangers down the hill.  She
+spoke hurriedly to her blind companion, and at first seemed disposed to
+hide herself, but the man evidently dissuaded her from such a course,
+and when Letta ran forward, seized her hard old hands and said that God
+had sent people to take her back to mamma, she dismissed her fears and
+took to laughing immoderately.
+
+It soon became evident to our adventurers that the woman was in her
+dotage, while the old man was so frail that only a few of the sands of
+life remained to run.  They both understood a little English, but spoke
+in such a remarkably broken manner, that there was little prospect of
+much additional information being obtained from them.
+
+"You hungry--hungry?" asked the old woman, with a sudden gleam of
+hospitality.  "Come--come--me gif you for heat."
+
+She took Robin by the hand and led him towards a cavern, the mouth of
+which had not been visible higher up the mountain.  Sam followed, led by
+Letta.
+
+The interior of the cavern was lofty and the floor level.  Besides this,
+it was sumptuously furnished in a fashion singularly out of keeping with
+the spot and its surroundings.  Pictures hung on the walls, Persian rugs
+lay on the floors.  Ottomans, covered with silk and velvet, were strewn
+about here and there, among easy-chairs of various kinds, some formed of
+wicker-work--in the fantastic shapes peculiar to the East--others of
+wood and cane, having the ungainly and unreasonable shapes esteemed by
+Western taste.  Silver lamps and drinking-cups and plates of the finest
+porcelain were also scattered about, for there was no order in the
+cavern, either as to its arrangement or the character of its decoration.
+In the centre stood several large tables of polished wood, on which
+were the remains of what must have been a substantial feast--the dishes
+being as varied as the furniture--from the rice and egg messes of
+Eastern origin, to the preserved sardines of the West.
+
+"Ha! ha!" laughed the weird old creature who ushered the astonished
+youths into this strange banqueting hall, "the rubberts--rubbers--you
+calls dem?"
+
+"Robbers, she means; that's the naughty men," explained Letta, who
+seemed to enjoy the old woman's blunders in the English tongue.
+
+"Yis, dats so--roberts an' pyrits--ha! ha! dems feed here dis mornin'.
+You feed dis afternoons.  Me keeps house for dem.  Dey tinks me alone
+wid Bungo an' Letta, ho! ho! but me's got cumpiny dis day.  Sit down an'
+grub wat yous can.  Doo you good.  Doo Letta and Bungo good.  Doos all
+good.  Fire away!  Ha! ha-a!  Keep you's nose out o' dat pie, Bungo, you
+brute.  Vous git sik eff you heat more."
+
+Regardless of this admonition, the poor old man broke off a huge mass of
+pie-crust, which he began to mouth with his toothless gums, a quiet
+smile indicating at once his indifference to Meerta and consequences,
+while he mumbled something about its not being every day he got so good
+a chance.
+
+"Das true," remarked the old woman, with another hilarious laugh.  "Dey
+go hoff awful quick dis day."
+
+While Sam and Robin sat down to enjoy a good dinner, or rather
+breakfast, of which they stood much in need, Letta explained in a
+disjointed rambling fashion, that after a feed of this kind the naughty
+men usually had a fight, after which they took a long sleep, and then
+had the dishes cleaned up and the silver things locked away before
+taking their departure from the cave for "a long, long time," by which,
+no doubt, she indicated the period spent on a pilfering expedition.  But
+on this particular occasion, she added, while the naughty men were
+seated at the feast, one of their number from their ship came hastily in
+and said something, she could not tell what, which caused them at once
+to leap up and rush out of the cave, and they had not come back since.
+
+"And they're not likely to come back, little one," said Robin through a
+mouthful of rice.
+
+"Ha! ha-a!" laughed Sam through a mouthful of pie-crust.
+
+"Ho! ho!" cried the old woman, with a look of surprise, "yous bery brav
+boy, I dessay, but if dem roberts doos kum back, you soon laugh on wrong
+side ob de mout', for dey screw yous limbses off, an' ho! skrunch yous
+teeth hout, an' roast you 'live, so you better heat w'at yous can an' go
+hof--fast as you couldn't."
+
+"I say, Robin," said Sam, unable to restrain a smile at the expression
+of Letta's face, as she listened to this catalogue of horrors, "that
+speech might have taken away our appetites did we not know that the
+`roberts' are all dead."
+
+"Dead!" exclaimed the old woman with a start and a gleam of serious
+intelligence, such as had not before appeared on her wrinkled visage;
+"are de roberts _all_ dead?"
+
+"All," replied Sam, who thereupon gave the old pair a full account of
+what had been witnessed on the shore.
+
+Strange to say, the old man and woman were much depressed by the news,
+although, from what they afterwards related, they had been very cruelly
+treated by the pirates, by whom they had been enslaved for many years.
+Nay, old Meerta even dropped a tear or two quietly to their memory, for,
+as she remarked, by way of explanation or excuse, "dey wasn't all so bad
+as each oder."
+
+However, she soon recovered her composure, and while Sam Shipton
+returned to the shore to fetch their comrades to the cave, she told
+Robin, among other things, that the pirates had brought Letta to the
+island two years before, along with a large quantity of booty, but that
+she did not know where she came from, or to whom she belonged.
+
+Sam Shipton resolved to give his comrades the full benefit of the
+surprise in store, therefore, on returning to them, he merely said that
+he had left Robin in a rather curious place in the interior, where they
+had discovered both food and drink in abundance, and that he had come to
+conduct them to it.
+
+By that time the seaman whom they had rescued had recovered
+considerably, and was able to walk with assistance, though still rather
+confused in his mind and disposed to be silent.  At first he expressed a
+desire to be left to sleep where he was, but on being told that the
+place they were going to was not far-off and that he would be able to
+rest longer and much more comfortably there than where he was, he braced
+himself up and accompanied them, leaning on Sam and Jim Slagg as he
+staggered along.
+
+Need it be said that both Slagg and Stumps shouted with surprise when
+they came suddenly in sight of the garden; that they lost the power of
+utterance on beholding Robin holding familiar converse with an old hag,
+a blind man, and a small angel; and that they all but fell down on
+entering the pirate's cave?
+
+No, it need not be said; let us pass, therefore, to the next scene in
+this amazing drama.
+
+Of course Robin had prepared the inhabitants of the garden for the
+arrival of his friends.  He had also learned that the pirates, in the
+hurry of departure, had not only left everything lying about, but had
+left the key of their treasure-cave in the lock.  Old Meerta offered to
+show him the contents, but Robin determined to await the arrival of his
+friends before examining the place.
+
+When Slagg and Stumps had breakfasted, and the sailor had been laid on a
+comfortable couch, where he immediately fell fast asleep, Robin pulled
+the key of the treasure-cave out of his pocket and asked his comrades to
+follow him.  Wondering at the request, they did so.
+
+The cave referred to lay at the inner extremity of the banqueting
+cavern, and was guarded by a massive door of wood.  Opening this, Robin
+allowed the old woman to enter first and lead the way.  She did so with
+one of her wild "ho! ho's!" being obviously much excited at the
+opportunity of showing to the visitors the contents of a cavern which
+she had never before been permitted to enter, save in the company of the
+pirates.  Entering the small doorway, through which only a subdued light
+penetrated, she went to a ledge or natural shelf of rock and took down a
+silver lamp of beautiful workmanship, which had probably belonged to a
+church or temple.  Lighting it, she ushered them through a natural
+archway into an inner cavern, round the walls of which were heaped in
+piles merchandise and wealth of all kinds in great profusion and
+variety.  There were bales of broadcloth and other fabrics from the
+looms of Tuscany; tweeds from the factories of Scotland; silks, satins
+and velvets in great rolls, mingled with lace, linen, and more delicate
+fabrics.  Close beside these piles, but not mixed with them, were boxes
+of cutlery and other hardware, and, further on, chests of drawers
+containing spices from the East, chests of tea and coffee, barrels of
+sugar, and groceries of all kinds.
+
+These things were not thrown together in confusion, but arranged in
+systematic order, as if under the management of an expert store-keeper,
+and a desk with business-books on it seemed to indicate that a careful
+record was kept of the whole.
+
+Among the miscellaneous merchandise stood several large and massive
+chests of ancient material and antique form.  Taking a bunch of small
+keys from a nail on the wall, the old woman proceeded to open these and
+exhibit their contents with much of the interest and simple delight
+exhibited by a child in displaying her treasures to new companions.
+
+Handing the silver lamp to Robin, who with his comrades looked on in
+silent surprise, she opened the first chest.  It was loaded to the lid
+with jewellery of all kinds, which sparkled in the light with dazzling
+brilliancy, for even to the inexperienced eyes of the observers, many of
+the gems were obviously of the finest quality, and almost priceless in
+value.  There was no order in the arrangement of these--bracelets,
+ear-rings, watches, etcetera, of European manufacture lying side by side
+with the costly golden wreaths and tiaras of India, and the more massive
+and gorgeous brooches, nose-rings, neck-rings, and anklets peculiar to
+semi-barbaric lands.
+
+The next chest was filled with gold, silver, and bronze drinking-cups
+and goblets, lamps, vases, and urns, that had been gathered from the
+ships of many countries.  Then there were chests which contained little
+barrels full of gold and silver coin of every realm, from the huge
+golden doubloon of Spain to the little silver groschen of Germany.
+Besides all this varied wealth, there were piles of arms of all
+nations--richly chased scimitars of Eastern manufacture, the clumsy
+cutlasses of England, long silver-handled pistols of Oriental form,
+bluff little "bull-dog" revolvers, cavalry sabres, breech-loading
+rifles, flint-lock muskets, shields, spears, bows and arrows--in short,
+a miscellaneous armoury much too extensive to be described.
+
+It was interesting to observe the monkey-like countenance of old Meerta
+as she watched the effect produced on her visitors, her little black
+eyes sparkling in the lamp-light more brightly than the finest gems
+there; and not less interesting was it to note the half-amused, more
+than half-amazed, and partially imbecile gaze of the still silent
+visitors.  Little Letta enjoyed their looks quite as much as Meerta.
+
+"Haven't we got lots of pretty things here?" she said, looking up into
+Robin's face.
+
+"Yes, little one,--wonderful!"
+
+Robin revived sufficiently to make this reply and to glance at Sam,
+Slagg, and Stumps, who returned the glance.  Then he relapsed.
+
+Snatching the lamp from his hand, old Meerta now led the party to a
+remote corner of the cave, where a number of large casks were ranged at
+one end, and covered with a sheet of leather.
+
+"Ha! ha!" laughed their wild guide, in a sort of screech, "here be de
+grandest jools, de finest dimunds of all, what buys all de rest!"
+
+She lifted a corner of the skin, removed the loose head of a cask, and
+holding the lamp close over the opening, bade them look in.  They did
+so, and the effect was powerful as well as instantaneous, for there,
+only a few inches below the flaring light, lay an open barrel of
+gunpowder!
+
+The senses of Sam Shipton returned like a flash of lightning--interest,
+surprise, admiration vanished like smoke, as he uttered a shout, and,
+with one hand seizing the wrist of the withered arm that held the lamp,
+with the other he hastily drew the leathern cover over the exposed
+powder and held it down.
+
+"You old curmudgeon!" he cried; "here, Robin, take the lamp from her,
+and away with it into the outer cave."
+
+Our hero promptly obeyed, while the other two, under an instinct of
+self-preservation, had already fled in the same direction, followed by a
+shrill and half-fiendish laugh from the old woman.
+
+"Well, I never had such a narrow escape," said Sam, as he issued from
+the cave, still holding Meerta firmly, though not roughly, by the wrist.
+
+"Why, there's enough powder there, I do believe," said Jim Slagg, "to
+split the whole island in two."
+
+"There, it's all safe now," said Sam, as he locked the heavy door and
+thrust the key in his pocket; "and I will take care of your treasures
+for you in future, old lady."
+
+"Wass you frighted?" asked the old woman with a low laugh, in which even
+Letta joined.
+
+"Frighted, you reckless old thing," replied Sam, seizing a tankard of
+water and draining it, "of course I was; if a spark had gone down into
+that cask, you would have been considerably frighted too."
+
+"I'm not so sure of that," said Stumps; "she wouldn't have had time to
+get a fright."
+
+"O no!" said Meerta; "I's niver frighted.  Many time me stan' by dat
+keg, t'inkin', t'inkin', t'inkin' if me stuff de light in it, and blow
+de pyrits vid all dere tings to 'warsl smash; but no--me tinks dat some
+of dem wasn't all so bad as each oder."
+
+This thought seemed to have the effect of quieting the roused spirit of
+the poor old woman, for thereafter a softened expression overspread her
+wrinkled face as she went silently about clearing away the debris of the
+recent feast.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+THE PIRATE'S ISLAND--CONTINUED.
+
+Next morning Sam Shipton awoke from a sound and dreamless slumber.
+Raising himself on the soft ottoman, or Eastern couch, on which he had
+spent the night, he looked round in a state of sleepy wonder, unable at
+first to remember where he was.  Gradually he recalled the circumstances
+and events of the preceding day.
+
+The forms of his companions lay on couches similar to his own in
+attitudes of repose, and the seaman still slept profoundly in the
+position in which he had been laid down when brought in.
+
+Through the mouth of the cavern Sam could see the little garden, glowing
+like an emerald in the beams of the rising sun, and amongst the bushes
+he observed the old couple stooping quietly over their labour of
+gathering weeds.  The warm air, the bright sunshine, and the soft cries
+of distant sea-birds, induced Sam to slip into such of his garments as
+he had put off, and go out quietly without rousing his companions.
+
+In a few minutes he stood on the summit of the islet and saw the wide
+ocean surrounding him, like a vast sparkling plain, its myriad wavelets
+reflecting now the dazzling sun, now the azure vault, the commingling
+yellow and blue of which resulted in a lovely transparent green, save
+where a few puffs of wind swept over the great expanse and streaked it
+with lines of darkest blue.
+
+"Truly," murmured Sam, as he gazed in admiration at the glorious expanse
+of sea and sky, "Robin is right when he says that we are not half
+sufficiently impressed with the goodness of the Almighty in placing us
+in the midst of such a splendid world, with capacity to appreciate and
+enjoy it to the full.  I begin to fear that I am a more ungrateful
+fellow than I've been used to think."
+
+For some time he continued to gaze in silence as if that thought were
+working.
+
+From his elevated position he could now see that the islet was not quite
+so barren as at first he had been led to suppose.  Several little
+valleys and cup-like hollows lay nestling among the otherwise barren
+hills, like lovely gems in a rough setting.  Those, he now perceived,
+must have been invisible from the sea, and the rugged, almost
+perpendicular, cliffs in their neighbourhood had apparently prevented
+men from landing and discovering their existence.  One of the valleys,
+in particular, was not only larger than the others, but exceptionally
+rich in vegetation, besides having a miniature lake, like a diamond, in
+its bosom.
+
+Descending the hill and returning to the cave, Sam found his comrades
+still asleep.  Letta was assisting old Meerta in the preparation of a
+substantial breakfast that would not have done discredit to a
+first-class hotel.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad you've come!" said Letta, running up, to him and giving
+him both hands to shake, and a ready little mouth to kiss, "for I didn't
+like to awaken your friends, and the sailor one looks so still that I
+fear he may be dying.  I saw one of the naughty men die here, and he
+looked just like that."
+
+Somewhat alarmed by this, Sam went at once to the sailor and looked
+earnestly at him.
+
+"No fear, Letta," he said, "the poor fellow is not dying; he is only in
+a very profound sleep, having been much exhausted and nearly killed
+yesterday.  Hallo, Robin! awake at last?"
+
+Robin, who had been roused by the voices, rubbed his eyes, yawned
+vociferously, and looked vacantly round.
+
+"Well, now, that's most extraordinary; it isn't a dream after all!"
+
+"It's an uncommon pleasant dream, if it is one," remarked Jim Slagg,
+with a grave stare at Robin, as he sat up on his couch.  "I never in all
+my born days dreamt such a sweet smell of coffee and fried sausages.
+Why, the old 'ooman's a-bringin' of 'em in, I do declare.  Pinch me,
+Stumps, to see if I'm awake!"
+
+As Stumps was still asleep, Slagg himself resorted to the method
+referred to, and roused his comrade.  In a few minutes they were all
+seated at breakfast with the exception of the sailor, whom it was
+thought best to leave to his repose until nature should whisper in his
+ear.
+
+"Well now," said Slagg, pausing to rest for a few seconds, "if we _had_
+a submarine cable 'tween this and England, and we was to give 'em an
+account of all we've seen an' bin doin', they'd never believe it."
+
+"Cer'nly not.  They'd say it wos all a passel o' lies," remarked Stumps;
+"but I say, Mr Sam--"
+
+"Come now, Stumps, don't `Mister' me any more."
+
+"Well, I won't do it any more, though 'tain't easy to change one's
+'abits.  But how is it, sir, that that there electricity works?  That's
+what I wants to know.  Does the words run along the cable,--or 'ow?"
+
+"Of course they do, Stumpy," interrupted Slagg, "they run along the
+cable like a lot o' little tightrope dancers, an' when they come to the
+end o't they jumps off an' ranges 'temselves in a row.  Sometimes, in
+coorse, they spells wrong, like bad schoolboys, and then they've to be
+walloped an' set right."
+
+"Hold your noise, Slagg, an' let your betters speak," returned Stumps.
+
+"Well, if they don't exactly do that," said Sam Shipton, "there are
+people who think they can do things even more difficult.  I remember
+once, when I was clerk at a country railroad station and had to work the
+telegraph, an old woman came into the ticket office in a state of wild
+despair.  She was about the size and shape of Meerta there, but with
+about an inch and a half more nose, and two or three ounces less brain.
+
+"`What's wrong, madam?'  I asked, feeling quite sorry for the poor old
+thing.
+
+"`Oh! sir,' said she, clasping her hands, `I've bin an' left my
+passel,--a brown paper one it was,--on the seat at the last station, an'
+there was a babby's muffler in it--the sweetest thing as ever was--an'
+f-fi' pun t-ten, on'y one sh-shillin' was b-bad--boo-hoo!'
+
+"She broke down entirely at this point, so, said I, `Madam, make your
+mind quite easy, sit down, and I'll telegraph at once,' so I
+telegraphed, and got a reply back immediately that the parcel had been
+found all right, and would be sent on as soon as possible.  I told this
+to the old lady, who seemed quite pleased, and went on to the platform
+to wait.
+
+"I was pretty busy for the next quarter of an hour, for it was market
+day at the next town, but I noticed through the window that the old lady
+was standing on the platform, gazing steadily up at the sky.
+
+"`Broxley--third class,' said a big farmer at that moment, with a head
+like one of his own turnips.
+
+"I gave him his ticket, and for five minutes more I was kept pretty
+busy, when up came the train; in got the struggling crowd; whew! went
+the whistle, and away went the whole affair, leaving no one on the
+platform but the porter, and the old woman still staring up at the sky.
+
+"`What's the matter, madam?'  I asked.
+
+"`Matter!' she exclaimed, `a pretty telegraph _yours_ is to be sure!
+wuss than the old carrier by a long way.  Here 'ave I bin standin' for
+full 'alf-an-hour with my neck nigh broke, and there's no sign of it
+yet.'
+
+"`No sign of what, madam?'
+
+"`Of my brown paper passel, to be sure.  Didn't you tell me, young man,
+that they said they'd send it by telegraph as soon as possible?'
+
+"`No, madam,' I replied, `I told you they had telegraphed to say they
+would send it on as soon as possible--meaning, of course, by rail, for
+we have not yet discovered the method of sending parcels by telegraph--
+though, no doubt, we shall in course of time.  If you'll give me your
+address I'll send the parcel to you.'
+
+"`Thank you, young man.  Do,' she said, giving me an old envelope with
+her name on it.  `Be sure you do.  I don't mind the money much, but I
+couldn't a-bear to lose that muffler.  It was _such_ a sweet thing,
+turned up with yaller, and a present too, which it isn't many of 'em
+comes my way.'
+
+"So you see, Stumps, some people have queer notions about the powers of
+the telegraph."
+
+"But did the old lady get the parcel all right?" asked Stumps, who was a
+sympathetic soul.
+
+"Of course she did, and came over to the station next day to thank me,
+and offer me the bad shilling by way of reward.  Of course I declined it
+with many expressions of gratitude."
+
+While they were thus adding intellectual sauce to the material feast of
+breakfast, the rescued sailor awoke from his prolonged sleep, and
+stretched himself.
+
+He was a huge, thick-set man, with a benign expression of countenance,
+but that phase of his character was somewhat concealed at the time by
+two black eyes, a swollen nose, a cut lip, and a torn cheek.  Poor
+fellow, he had suffered severely at the hands of the pirates, and
+suddenly checked the stretch in which he was indulging with a sharp
+groan, or growl, as he sat up and pressed his hand to his side.
+
+"Why, what's the matter with me, an' where am I?" he exclaimed, gazing
+round the cave, while a look of wonder gradually displaced the
+expression of pain.
+
+"You're all right--rescued from the pirates at all events," answered Sam
+Shipton, rising from table and sitting down beside the seaman's couch.
+
+"Thank God for that!" said the man earnestly, though with a troubled
+look; "but how did I escape--where are the rascals?--what--"
+
+"There, now, don't excite yourself, my man; you're not quite yourself in
+body.  Come, let me feel your pulse.  Ah, slightly feverish--no wonder--
+I'll tell you all about it soon, but at present you must be content
+merely to know that you are safe in the hands of friends, that you are
+in the pirates' cave, and that the pirates and their vessel are now at
+the bottom of the sea."
+
+"That's hardly c'rect, Mr Shipton," murmured Slagg; "I would have said
+they was blow'd to hatoms."
+
+The seaman turned and looked at the speaker with what would have been a
+twinkle if his swelled visage would have permitted, but the effort
+produced another spasm of pain.
+
+"I must examine you, friend," said Sam; "you have been severely handled.
+Help me to strip him, Robin."
+
+The poor man at once submitted.
+
+"You're a doctor, sir, I suppose?" he asked.
+
+"No," said Sam, "only an amateur; nevertheless I know what I'm about.
+You see, I think that every man in the world, whatever his station or
+profession, should be at least slightly acquainted with every subject
+under the sun, in connection with which he may be called on to act.  In
+other words, he should know at least a little about surgery, and physic,
+and law, and carpentering, blacksmithing, building, cooking, riding,
+swimming, and--hallo! why, two of your ribs are broken, my man!"
+
+"Sorry to hear it, sir, but not surprised, for I feels as if two or
+three o' my spines was broken also, and five or six o' my lungs bu'sted.
+You won't be able to mend 'em, I fear."
+
+"Oh, yes, I shall," said Sam cheerily.
+
+"Ah! that's well.  I'd thowt that p'r'aps you wouldn't have the tools
+'andy in these parts for splicin' of 'em."
+
+"Fortunately no tools are required," returned Sam.  "I'll soon put you
+right, but you'll have to lie still for some time.  Here, Robin, go into
+the store-cave and fetch me a few yards of that white cotton, you
+remember, near the door.  And, I say, mind you keep well clear of the
+powder."
+
+When the cotton was brought, Sam tore it up into long strips, which he
+wound somewhat tightly round the sailor's huge chest.
+
+"You see," he observed, as he applied the bandages, "broken ribs are not
+necessarily displaced, but the action of breathing separates the ends of
+them continually, so that they can't get a chance of re-uniting.  All we
+have to do, therefore, is to prevent your taking a full breath, and this
+is accomplished by tying you up tight--so.  Now, you can't breathe fully
+even if you would, and I'd recommend you not to try.  By the way--what's
+your name?"
+
+"Johnson, sir,--John Johnson."
+
+"Well, Johnson, I'll give you something to eat and drink now, after
+which you'll have another sleep.  To-morrow we'll have a chat on things
+in general."
+
+"I say," asked Robin that night, as he and Sam stood star-gazing
+together beside a small fire which had been kindled outside the
+cavern-mouth for cooking purposes, "is it true that you have studied all
+the subjects you mentioned to Johnson this morning?"
+
+"Quite true.  I have not indeed studied them long or profoundly, but I
+have acquired sufficient knowledge of each to enable me to take
+intelligent action, as I did this morning, instead of standing
+helplessly by, or, what might be worse, making a blind attempt to do
+something on the chance that it might be the right thing, as once
+happened to myself when a bungling ignoramus gave me a glass of brandy
+to cure what he called mulligrumps, but what in truth turned out to be
+inflammation."
+
+"But what think you of the saying that `a little knowledge is a
+dangerous thing,' Sam."
+
+"I think that, like most of the world's maxims, it is only partially, or
+relatively, true.  If Little Knowledge claims the position and attempts
+to act the part of Great Knowledge, it becomes dangerous indeed; but if
+Little Knowledge walks modestly, and only takes action when none but
+Ignorance stands by, it is, in my opinion, neither dangerous nor liable
+to be destructive."
+
+While they were speaking, little Letta came out of the cavern and ran
+towards them.
+
+"It is like a dream of the Arabian Nights to meet such a little angel
+here," murmured Robin; "what a dreadful blow the loss of her must have
+been to her poor mother!"
+
+"O! come to Johnson, please," she said, taking Sam by the hand with a
+very trustful look and manner.
+
+"Why; he's not worse, is he?"
+
+"O no! he has just awakened, and says he is _very_ much better, and _so_
+peckish.  What does he mean by that?"
+
+"Peckish, my dear, is hungry," explained Robin, as they went into the
+cave together.
+
+They found that Johnson was not only peckish but curious, and thirsting
+for information as well as meat and drink.  As his pulse was pronounced
+by Dr Shipton to be all right, he was gratified with a hearty supper, a
+long pull at the tankard of sparkling water, and a good deal of
+information and small-talk about the pirates, the wreck of the Triton,
+and the science of electricity.
+
+"But you have not told us yet," said Sam, "how it was that you came to
+fail into the hands of the pirates."
+
+"I can soon tell 'ee that," said the seaman, turning slowly on his
+couch.
+
+"Lie still, now, you must not move," said Sam, remonstratively.
+
+"But that not movin', doctor, is wuss than downright pain, by a long
+way.  Hows'ever, I s'pose I must obey orders--anyhow you've got the whip
+hand o' me just now.  Well, as I was sayin', the yarn ain't a long 'un.
+I sailed from the port o' Lun'on in a tea-clipper, of which I was the
+cook; got out to Hong-Kong all right, shipped a cargo, and off again for
+old England.  We hadn't got far when a most horrible gale blew us far
+out of our course.  When it fell calm, soon arter, we was boarded by a
+pirate.  Our captain fought like a hero, but it warn't of no use.  They
+was too many for us; most of my shipmates was killed, and I was knocked
+flat on the deck from behind with a hand-spike.  On recoverin', I found
+myself in the ship's hold, bound hand and futt, among a lot of
+unfortunits like myself, most of 'em bein' Chinese and Malays.  The
+reptiles untied my hands and set me to an oar.  They thrashed us all
+unmercifully to make us work hard, and killed the weak ones to be rid of
+'em.  At last we came to an anchor, as I knew by the rattlin' o' the
+cables, though, bein' below, I couldn't see where we was.  Then I heard
+the boats got out, an' all the crew went ashore, as I guessed, except
+the guard left to watch us.
+
+"That night I dreamed a deal about bein' free, an' about former
+voyages--specially one when I was wrecked in the Atlantic, an' our good
+ship, the Seahorse, went down in latitude--"
+
+"The Seahorse!" echoed Robin, with an earnest look at the sailor; "was
+she an emigrant ship?"
+
+"Ay, that's just what she was."
+
+"Was she lost in the year 1850?" continued Robin, with increasing
+excitement.
+
+"Jus' so, my lad."
+
+"And you were cook?"
+
+"You've hit the nail fair on the head," replied the sailor, with a look
+of surprise.
+
+"Well, now, that _is_ most remarkable," said Robin, "for I was born on
+board of that very ship."
+
+"You _don't_ mean it," said Johnson, looking eagerly at our hero.  "Was
+you really the babby as was born to that poor miserable sea-sick
+gentleman, Mr Wright--you'll excuse my sayin' so--in the middle of a
+thunder-clap an' a flash o' lightnin' as would have split our main-mast
+an' sent us to the bottom, along wi' the ship, if it hadn't bin for the
+noo lightnin' conductor that Mr Harris, the inventor, indooced our
+skipper to put up!"
+
+"Yes, I am that very baby," said Robin, "and although, of course, I
+remember nothing about the thunder and lightning, or anything else.  My
+father and mother have often told me all about it, and the wonderful
+deliverance which God mercifully sent when all hope had been given up.
+And many a time did they speak of you, Johnson, as a right good fellow
+and a splendid cook."
+
+"Much obleedged to 'em," said Johnson, "an' are they both alive?"
+
+"They were both alive and well when I left England."
+
+"Come now, this _is_ pleasant, to meet an old shipmate in such pecooliar
+circumstances," said the sailor, extending his hand, which Robin shook
+warmly; "quite as good as a play, ain't it?"
+
+"Ay," observed Jim Slagg, who with the others had witnessed this meeting
+with deep interest, "an' the babby has kep' the lighten' goin' ever
+since, though he's dropped the thunder, for he's an electrician no
+less--a manufacturer of lightnin' an' a director of it too."
+
+The sailor wass good deal puzzled by this remark, but when its purport
+was explained to him, he gave vent to a vigorous chuckle,
+notwithstanding Sam's stern order to "lie still."
+
+"Didn't I say so?" he exclaimed.  "Didn't I say distinctly, that night,
+to the stooard--Thomson was his name--`Stooard,' said I, `that there
+babby what has just bin born will make his mark some'ow an'
+somew'eres.'"
+
+"Well, but I have not made my mark yet," said Robin, laughing, "so
+you're not a true prophet, at least time has not yet proved your title."
+
+"Not yet proved it!" cried Johnson with vehemence, "why, how much proof
+do you want?  Here you are, not much more than a babby yet--any'ow
+hardly a man--and, besides havin' bin born in thunder, lightnin', wind,
+an' rain, you've laid the Atlantic Cable, you've took up lightnin' as a
+profession--or a plaything,--you've helped to save the life of John
+Johnson, an' you've got comfortably located in a pirate's island!  If
+you on'y go on as you've begun, you'll make your mark so deep that it'll
+never be rubbed out to the end of time.  A prophet, indeed!  Why, I'm
+shuperior to Mahomet, an' beat Nebuchadnezzar all to sticks."
+
+"But you haven't finished your story, Johnson," said Jim Slagg.
+
+"That's true--where was I?  Ah, dreamin' in the hold of the pirate-ship.
+Well, I woke up with a start all of a suddent, bent on doin' suthin', I
+scarce knew what, but I wriggled away at the rope that bound me till I
+got my hands free; then I freed my legs; then I loosed some o' the
+boldest fellows among the slaves, and got handspikes and bits o' wood to
+arm 'em with.  They was clever enough to understand signs, an' I
+couldn't speak to 'em, not knowin' their lingo, but I signed to 'em to
+keep quiet as mice.  Then I crep' to the powder-magazine, which the
+reckless reptiles fastened very carelessly, and got a bit paper and made
+a slow match by rubbin' some wet powder on it, and laid it all handy,
+for I was determined to escape and put an end to their doin's all at
+once.  My plan was to attack and overpower the guard, free and arm all
+the slaves, blow up the ship, escape on shore, an' have a pitched battle
+with the pirate crew.  Unfortunately there was a white-livered traitor
+among us--a sort o' half-an'-half slave--very likely he was a spy.
+Anyhow, when he saw what I was about, he slipped over the side and swam
+quietly ashore.  Why he didn't alarm the guards I don't know--p'r'aps he
+thought we might be too many for 'em, and that if we conquered he stood
+but a small chance.  Anyhow he escaped the sharks, and warned the crew
+in good time, for we was in the very middle of the scrimmage when they
+suddintly turned up, as you saw, an' got the better of us.  Hows'ever I
+managed to bolt below and fire the slow match, before they saw what I
+was after.  Then I turned and fought my way on deck again, so that they
+didn't find out.  And when they was about to throw me overboard, the
+thought of the surprise in store for 'em indooced me to give vent to a
+hearty cheer.  It warn't a right state o' mind, I confess, and I was
+properly punished, for, instead o' killin' me off quick an' comfortable,
+they tied me hand and futt, took me below, an' laid me not two yards
+from the slowly burnin' match.  I felt raither unhappy, I assure you;
+an' the reptiles never noticed the match because o' the smoke o' the
+scrimmage.  I do believe it was being so near it as saved me, for when
+the crash came, I was lifted bodily wi' the planks on which I lay, and,
+comin' down from the sky, as it appeared to me, I went clean into the
+sea without damage, except the breakin' o' one o' the ropes, which,
+fortunately, set my right arm free."
+
+"Come now, Johnson, you must go to sleep after that," said Sam.  "You're
+exciting yourself too much; remember that I am your doctor, and
+obedience is the first law of nature--when one is out of health."
+
+"Very good, sir," returned the seaman; "but before I turn over Mr
+Wright must read me a few verses out o' that bible his mother gave him."
+
+"Why, how do you know that my mother gave me a bible?" asked Robin in
+great surprise.
+
+"Didn't I know your mother?" replied the sailor with a flush of
+enthusiasm; "an' don't I know that she would sooner have let you go to
+sea without her blessing than without the Word of God?  She was the
+first human bein' as ever spoke to me about my miserable soul, and the
+love of God in sendin' His Son to save it.  Many a one has asked me
+about my health, and warned me to fly from drink, and offered to help me
+on in life, but she was the first that ever asked after my soul, or
+tried to impress on me that Eternity and its affairs were of more
+importance than Time.  I didn't say much at the time, but the seed that
+your mother planted nigh twenty years ago has bin watered, thank God an'
+kep' alive ever since."
+
+There was a tone of seriousness and gratitude in this off-hand seaman's
+manner, while speaking of his mother, which touched Robin deeply.
+Without a moment's hesitation he pulled out his bible and read a chapter
+in the Gospel of John.
+
+"Now you'll pray," said the sailor, to Robin's surprise and
+embarrassment, for he had never prayed in public before, though
+accustomed from a child to make known his wants to God night and
+morning.
+
+But our hero was morally as well as physically courageous--as every hero
+should be!  He knelt at once by the sailor's couch, while the others
+followed his example, and, in a few simple sentences, asked for pardon,
+blessing, help, and guidance in the name of Jesus Christ.
+
+Thus peculiarly was bible-reading and family worship established on the
+pirates' island in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-eight.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+AN EXPLORATION AND AN ACCIDENT.
+
+For the first few days of their stay on what they styled Pirate Island,
+our castaways were too much taken up with the wondrous and varied
+contents of the robbers' cave, and the information Meerta and Letta had
+to give, to pay much regard to the island itself, or the prospect they
+had of quitting it.  But when their interest and curiosity began to
+abate, and the excitement to decrease, they naturally bethought them of
+the nature and resources of their now home.
+
+Of course they did not for a moment regard it in the light of _home_.
+It was merely a resting-place,--a refuge, where, after their escape from
+the sea, they should spend a few weeks, perhaps months, until a passing
+vessel should take them off.  They did not know, at that time, that the
+islet was far removed from the usual track of ships, and that, like the
+Pitcairn Islanders, they might be doomed to spend many years, perchance
+a lifetime, on it.  Indeed, a considerable time elapsed before they
+would admit to themselves that there was a possibility of such a fate,
+although they knew, both from Meerta and Letta, that no ship of any
+kind, save that of the pirates, had been seen for the last eighteen
+months, and the few sails that did chance to appear, were merely seen
+for a few hours like sea-gulls on the horizon, from which they arose and
+into which they vanished.
+
+Having then, as we have said, bethought them of examining the resources
+and nature of the island, they one morning organised an expedition.  By
+that time the sailor, although by no means fit for it, insisted that he
+was sufficiently restored to accompany them.  Letta, who was active and
+strong like a small gazelle, besides being acquainted with the whole
+region, agreed to act as guide.  Stumps, having sprained his ankle
+slightly, remained at the cave, for the purpose, as he said, of helping
+Meerta with the garden, but Jim Slagg gave him credit for laziness.
+
+"You see," said Sam Shipton, as Letta led them down the rugged
+mountain-side, "we may as well make ourselves comfortable while we
+remain here, and I'm inclined to think that a hut, however rough, down
+in one of these charming valleys, will be more agreeable than the gloomy
+cavern on the mountain-top."
+
+"Not so sure o' that, doctor," said Johnson; "the cave is at all events
+dry, and a good stronghold in case of a visit from pirates."
+
+"But pirates what have bin blow'd to atoms," said Slagg, "ain't likely
+to turn up again, are they?"
+
+"That's so, lad; but some of their friends might pay us a visit, you
+know."
+
+"I think not," rejoined Sam; "there is honour among thieves here, no
+doubt, as elsewhere.  I daresay it is well-known among the fraternity
+that the island belongs to a certain set, and the rest will therefore
+let it alone.  What think you, Robin?"
+
+"I'm inclined to agree with you, Sam, but perhaps Letta is the best
+authority on that point.  Did you ever see any other set of pirates land
+here, little one, except your--your own set?"
+
+"Only once," answered the child, "another set came, but they only stayed
+one day.  They looked at everything, looked at me an' Meerta an' laughed
+very much.  An' they ate and drank a good deal, and fought a little; but
+they took nothing away, and never came back."
+
+"I thought so," rejoined Sam; "now, all we've got to do is to hoist a
+flag on the highest peak of the mountain, and when a vessel comes to
+take us off, load her with as much of the booty as she can carry--and
+then, hurrah for old England!"
+
+"Hooray!" echoed Jim Slagg, "them's exactly my sentiments."
+
+"But the booty is not ours to take," objected Robin.
+
+"Whose is it, then?" asked Sam; "the rightful owners we don't know, and
+the wrongful owners are defunct."
+
+"I tell 'ee what it is, mates," said Johnson, "the whole o' the booty is
+mine, 'cause why? it was me as blowed up the owners, so I'm entitled to
+it by conquest, an' you needn't go to fightin' over it.  If you behave
+yourselves, I'll divide it equally among us, share an' share alike."
+
+"It seems to me, Johnson," said Robin, "that in strict justice the booty
+belongs to Letta, Meerta, and blind Bungo, as the natural heirs o' the
+pirates."
+
+"But they're not the heirs, they are part of the booty," said the
+seaman, "and, as sitch, falls to be divided among us."
+
+"If that's so," said Slagg, "then I claim Letta for my share, and you,
+Johnson, can have your pick of Meerta and blind Bungo."
+
+"Nay, Letta is mine, because I was the first to discover her," said
+Robin.  "Whom will you go with, Letta?"
+
+"With you, of course," replied the child quite earnestly.  "Haven't you
+promised to take me back to mamma?"
+
+"Indeed I have, little one, and if I ever get the chance, assuredly I
+will," said Robin, with equal earnestness.
+
+"I say, doctor," said Johnson to Sam, sitting down on a mossy bank,
+"I'll stop here and wait for you.  That rib ain't all square yet."
+
+"Wilful man," said Sam, "didn't I advise you not to come?  There, lie
+down and take it easy.  We'll bring you some fruit on our return."
+
+By this time the party had reached the valley in which the lakelet lay,
+and beautiful indeed was the scene which presented itself as they passed
+under the grateful shade of the palm-trees.  Everywhere, rich tropical
+vegetation met their gaze, through the openings in which the sunshine
+poured like streams of fire.  On the little lake numerous flocks of
+ducks and other fowl were seen swimming in sportive mood, while an
+occasional splash told of fish of some sort below the surface.
+
+Leaving the sailor in a position whence he could observe them for a long
+distance, the rest of the party pushed on.  During their rambles they
+found the valley to be much richer in vegetation, and more beautiful,
+than the distant view from the mountain-top had led them to expect.
+Small though the valley was, it contained, among other trees, the
+cocoa-nut palm, the bread-fruit, banana, and sandal-wood.  There were
+also pine-apples, wild rice, and custard-apples, some of which latter
+delicious fruit, being ripe, was gathered and carried back to Johnson,
+whom they found sound asleep and much refreshed on their return.
+
+The expedition proved that, barren though the island appeared from the
+sea, it contained quite enough of the good things of this life to render
+it a desirable abode for man.
+
+On the coast, too, where the raft had been cast ashore, were discovered
+a variety of shell-fish, some of which, especially the oysters, were
+found to be excellent food.  And some of the sea-fowl turned out to be
+very good eating, though a little fishy, while their eggs were as good
+as those of the domestic fowl.
+
+"It seems to me," said Robin to Letta one day when they were out on a
+ramble together, "that this is quite a little paradise."
+
+"I don't know what paradise is like," said the child.
+
+"Well, no more do I," returned Robin, with a laugh, "but of course
+everybody understands that it is the place where everything is perfect,
+and where happiness is complete."
+
+"It cannot be like paradise without mamma," said Letta, shaking her
+pretty head sadly.  "I would not go to heaven unless mamma was there."
+
+Robin was silent for some time, as he thought of his own mother and the
+talks he used to have with her on this same subject.
+
+"Letta," he said at length, earnestly, "Jesus will be in heaven.  It was
+His Spirit who taught you to love mamma--as you do, so you are sure to
+meet her there with Him."
+
+"Nobody _taught_ me to love mamma," returned the child quietly; "I
+couldn't help it."
+
+"True, little one, but it was God who made you to--`couldn't help it.'"
+
+Letta was puzzled by this reply.  She raised her bright eyes inquiringly
+into Robin's honest face, and said, "But you've promised to take me to
+her, you know."
+
+"Yes, dear little one, but you must not misunderstand me," replied the
+youth somewhat sadly.  "I promise that, God helping me, I will do the
+best I can to find out where your mother is; but you must remember that
+I have very little to go on.  I don't even know your mother's name, or
+the place where you were taken from.  By the way, an idea has just
+occurred to me.  Have you any clothes at the cave?"
+
+"Of course I have," answered Letta, with a merry laugh.
+
+"Yes; but I mean the clothes that you had on when you first came here."
+
+"I don't know; Meerta knows.  Why?"
+
+"Because your name may be marked on them.  Come, let us go back at once
+and see.  Besides, we are wasting time, for you know I was sent out to
+shoot some ducks for dinner."
+
+Rising as he spoke, Robin shouldered the shotgun which had been supplied
+from the robbers' armoury, and, descending with his little companion
+towards the lake, soon began to stalk the birds as carefully as if he
+had been trained to the work by a Red Indian.  Stooping low, he glided
+swiftly through the bushes, until he came within a hundred yards of the
+margin of the lakelet, where a group of some thirty or forty fat ducks
+were feeding.  Letta had fallen behind, and sat down to watch.
+
+The distance being too great for a shot, and the bushes beyond the spot
+which he had reached being too thin to conceal him, Robin lay flat down,
+and began to advance through the long grass after the fashion of a
+snake, pushing his gun before him.  It was a slow and tedious process,
+but Robin's spirit was patient and persevering.  He screwed himself, as
+it were, to within sixty yards of the flock, and then fired both barrels
+almost simultaneously.  Seven dead birds remained behind when the
+affrighted flock took wing.
+
+"It is not very scientific shooting," said Robin, apologetically, to his
+fair companion, as she assisted him to tie their legs together; "but our
+object just now is food, not sport."
+
+On the way back to the cavern they had to pass over a narrow ledge, on
+one side of which a precipice descended towards the valley, while the
+other side rose upwards like a wall.  It was not necessarily a dangerous
+place.  They had passed it often before in safety, none of the party
+being troubled with giddiness; but at this time Robin had unfortunately
+hung his bundle of ducks on the side which had to brush past the rocky
+wall.  As he passed, the bunch struck a projection and threw him off his
+balance.  In the effort to recover himself he dislodged a piece of rock
+under his left foot, and, without even a cry, went headlong over the
+precipice!
+
+Poor Letta stood rooted to the spot, too horrified to scream.  She saw
+her friend, on whom all her hopes were built, go crashing through the
+foliage immediately below the precipice edge, and disappear.  It was the
+first terrible shock she had ever received.  With a convulsive shudder
+she ran by a dangerously steep route towards the foot of the precipice.
+
+But Robin had not yet met his doom, although he had descended full sixty
+feet.  His fall was broken by several leafy trees, through which he went
+like an avalanche; and a thick solid bush receiving him at the foot,
+checked his descent entirely, and slid him quietly off its boughs on to
+the grass, where he lay, stunned, indeed, but otherwise uninjured.
+
+Poor Letta of course was horrified, on reaching the spot, to find that
+Robin could not speak, and was to all appearance dead.  In an agony of
+terror she shrieked, and shook him and called him by name--to awaken
+him, as she afterwards said; but Robin's sleep was too deep at that
+moment to be dispelled by such measures.  Letta therefore sprang up and
+ran as fast as she could to the cavern to tell the terrible news and
+fetch assistance.
+
+Robin, however, was not left entirely alone in his extremity.  It so
+chanced that a remarkably small monkey was seated among the boughs of a
+neighbouring tree, eating a morsel of fruit, when Letta's first scream
+sounded through the grove.  Cocking up one ear, it arrested its little
+hand on the way to its lesser mouth, and listened.  Its little black
+face was corrugated with the wrinkles of care--it might be of fun, we
+cannot tell.  The only large features of the creature were its eyes, and
+these seemed to blaze, while the brows rose high, as if in surprise.
+
+On hearing the second scream the small monkey laid hold of a bough with
+its tail, swung itself off, and caught another with its feet, sprang
+twenty feet, more or less, to the ground, which it reached on its hands,
+tumbled a somersault inadvertently, and went skipping over the ground at
+a great rate in the direction of the cries.
+
+When it reached the spot, however, Letta had fled, but Robin still lay
+motionless on his back.  It was evident that the small monkey looked on
+the prostrate youth with alarm and suspicion, yet with an intense
+curiosity that no sense of danger could restrain.  It walked slowly and
+inquiringly round him several times, each time drawing closer, while its
+crouched back and trailing tail betokened abject humility.  Then it
+ventured to put out a small black hand and touch him, drawing it back
+again as if it had got an electric shock.  Then it ventured to touch him
+again, with less alarm.  After that it went close up, and gazed in his
+face.
+
+Familiarity, says the proverb, breeds contempt.  The truth of proverbs
+can be verified by monkeys as well as men.  Seeing that nothing came of
+its advances, that small monkey finally leaped on Robin's chest, sat
+down thereon, and stared into his open mouth.  Still the youth moved
+not, whereupon the monkey advanced a little and laid its paw upon his
+nose!  Either the touch was more effective than Letta's shaking, or time
+was bringing Robin round, for he felt his nose tickled, and gave way to
+a tremendous sneeze.  It blew the monkey clean off its legs, and sent it
+shrieking into a neighbouring tree.  As Robin still lay quiet, the
+monkey soon recovered, and returned to its former position, where,
+regardless of consequences, it again laid hold of the nose.
+
+This time consciousness returned.  Robin opened his eyes with a stare of
+dreamy astonishment.  The monkey replied with a stare of indignant
+surprise.  Robin's eyebrows rose still higher.  So did those of the
+monkey as it leaped back a foot, and formed its mouth into a little O of
+remonstrance.  Robin's mouth expanded; he burst into an uncontrollable
+fit of laughter, and the monkey was again on the eve of flight, when
+voices were heard approaching, and, next instant, Letta came running
+forward, followed at some distance by Sam and the others.
+
+"Oh! my dear, sweet, exquisite darling!" exclaimed Letta.
+
+It did much for the poor youth's recovery, the hearing himself addressed
+in such endearing terms, but he experienced a relapse when the monkey,
+responding to the endearments, ran with obvious joy into the child's
+bosom, and submitted to a warm embrace.
+
+"Oh, you darling!" repeated Letta; "where have you been? why did you go
+away?  I thought you were dead.  Naughty thing!"
+
+Recollecting Robin with a shock of self-reproach, she dropped the monkey
+and ran to him.
+
+"It is an old friend, I see," he said with a languid smile, as she came
+up.
+
+"Yes, yes; an old pet.  I had lost him for a long time.  But you're not
+killed?  Oh!  I'm _so_ glad."
+
+"Killed!" repeated Sam, who was down on his knees carefully examining
+the patient; "I should think not.  He's not even bruised--only stunned a
+little.  Where did you fall from, Robin--the tree top?"
+
+"No; from the edge of the precipice."
+
+"What! from the ledge sixty or seventy feet up there?  Impossible!  You
+would certainly have been killed if you had fallen from that."
+
+"So I certainly should," returned Robin, "if God had not in his mercy
+grown trees and shrubs there, expressly, among other purposes, to save
+me."
+
+In this reply Robin's mind was running on previous conversations which
+he had had with his friend on predestination.
+
+The idea of shrubs and trees having been expressly grown on an island of
+the Southern Seas to save an English boy, seemed doubtful to Sam.  He
+did not, however, express his doubts at the time, but reserved the
+subject for a future "theological discussion."
+
+Meanwhile, Slagg, Stumps, and Johnson, having spread some palm branches
+on a couple of stout poles, laid our hero thereon, and bore him in
+safety to the pirates' cave, where, for several days, he lay on one of
+the luxurious couches, tenderly nursed by Letta and the old woman, who,
+although she still pathetically maintained that the "roberts an pyrits
+wasn't all so bad as each oder," was quite willing to admit that her
+present visitors were preferable, and that, upon the whole, she was
+rather fond of them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+VARIOUS SUBJECTS TREATED OF, AND A GREAT FIGHT DETAILED.
+
+It was the habit of Robin and his friends at this time, the weather
+being extremely fine and cool, to sit at the mouth of their cavern of an
+evening, chatting about the events of the day, or the prospects of the
+future, or the experiences of the past, while old Meerta busied herself
+preparing supper over a fire kindled on the ground.
+
+No subject was avoided on these occasions, because the friends were
+harmoniously minded, in addition to which the sweet influences of
+mingled star-light and fire-light, soft air, and lovely prospect of land
+and sea--to say nothing of the prospect of supper--all tended to induce
+a peaceful and forbearing spirit.
+
+"Well, now," said Robin, continuing a subject which often engaged their
+intellectual powers, "it seems to me simple enough."
+
+"Simple!" exclaimed Johnson, with a half-sarcastic laugh, "w'y, now, you
+an' the doctor 'ave tried to worrit that electricity into my brain for
+many months, off an' on, and I do believe as I'm more muddled about it
+to-night than I was at the beginnin'."
+
+"P'r'aps it's because you hain't got no brains to work upon," suggested
+Slagg.
+
+"P'r'aps it is," humbly admitted the seaman.  "But look here, now,
+doctor," he added, turning to Sam with his brow knotted up into an agony
+of mental endeavour, and the forefinger of one hand thrust into the palm
+of the other,--"look here.  You tells me that electricity ain't a
+substance at all."
+
+"Yes, that's so," assented Sam with a nod.
+
+"Wery good.  Now, then, if it ain't a substance at all, it's nothin'.
+An' if it's nothin', how can you go an' talk of it as somethin' an' give
+it a name, an' tell me it works the telegraph, an' does all manner of
+wonderful things?"
+
+"But it does not follow that a thing must be nothing because it isn't a
+substance.  Don't you see, man, that an idea is something, yet it is not
+a substance.  Thought, which is so potent a factor in this world, is not
+a substance, yet it cannot be called nothing.  It is a condition--it is
+the result of brain-atoms in action.  Electricity is sometimes described
+as an `invisible imponderable fluid,' but that is not quite correct,
+because a fluid is a substance.  It is a better definition to say that
+electricity is a _manifestation of energy--a result of substance in
+action_."
+
+"There, I'm muddled again!" said Johnson, with a look of hopeless
+incapacity.
+
+"Small blame to you, Johnson," murmured Slagg who had done his best to
+understand, while Stumps sat gazing at the speakers with an expression
+of blank complacency.
+
+"Look here, Johnson," said Sam, "you've often seen men shaking a carpet,
+haven't you?"
+
+"In coorse I have."
+
+"Well, have you not observed the waves of the carpet that roll along it
+when shaken!"
+
+"Yes, I have."
+
+"What are these waves?"
+
+"Well, sir, I should say they was the carpet," replied Johnson.
+
+"No, the waves are not the carpet.  When the waves reach the end of the
+carpet they disappear.  If the waves were the carpet, the carpet would
+disappear.  The same waves in a whip, soft and undulating though they
+be, result in a loud crack, as you know."
+
+"Muddled again," said Johnson.
+
+"Ditto," said Slagg.
+
+"Why, I'm not muddled a bit!" suddenly exclaimed Stumps, with a
+half-contemptuous laugh.
+
+"Of coorse you're not," retorted Slagg.  "Brainless things never git
+into that state.  You never heard of a turnip bein' muddled, did you?"
+
+Stumps became vacant, and Sam went on.
+
+"Well, you see, the waves are not substance.  They are a condition--a
+result of atoms in motion.  Now, when the atoms of a substance are
+disturbed by friction, or by chemical action, they get into a state of
+violent commotion, and try wildly to fly from, or to, each other.  This
+effort to fly about is energy.  When the atoms get into a very intense
+state of commotion they have a tendency to induce explosion, unless a
+way of escape is found--escape for the energy, not for the atoms.  Now,
+when you cause chemical disturbance in an electric battery, the energy
+thus evolved is called electricity, and we provide a conductor of escape
+for it in the shape of a copper or other metal wire, which we may carry
+to any distance we please, and the energy runs along it, as the wave
+runs along the carpet, as long as you keep up the commotion in the
+battery among the excited atoms of copper and zinc."
+
+"Mud--no, not quite.  I have got a glimmer o' su'thin'," said Johnson.
+
+"Ditto," said Slagg.
+
+"Supper," said old Meerta.
+
+"Ha! that's the battery for me," cried Stumps, jumping up.
+
+"Not a bad one either," said Robin, as they entered the cave; "alternate
+plates of beef and greens, steeped in some such acid as lemonade, cause
+a wonderful commotion in the atoms of the human body."
+
+"True, Robin, and the energy thereby evolved," said Sam, "sometimes
+bursts forth in brilliant sparks of wit--to say nothing of flashes of
+absurdity."
+
+"An' thunderin' stoopidity," added Slagg.
+
+Further converse on the subject was checked at that time by what Sam
+termed the charging of the human batteries.  The evening meal went on in
+silence and very pleasantly for some time, but before its close it was
+interrupted in an alarming manner by the sudden entrance of Letta with
+wild excitement in her eyes.
+
+"Oh!" she cried, pointing back to the entrance of the cave, "a ship!--
+pirate-ship coming!"
+
+A bombshell could scarcely have produced greater effect.  Each
+individual leaped up and darted out, flushing deep red or turning pale,
+according to temperament.  They were not long in verifying the
+statement.  A ledge of rocks concealed the entrance to the cavern from
+the sea.  Over its edge could be seen the harbour in which they had
+found the vessel whose total destruction has been described; and there,
+sure enough, they beheld a similar vessel, though considerably smaller,
+in the act of furling her sails and dropping anchor.  There could be no
+doubt as to her character, for although too distant to admit of her crew
+being distinguished by star-light, her rig and general appearance
+betrayed her.
+
+"Not a moment to be lost, Robin," said Sam Shipton hurriedly, as he led
+the way back to the tavern, where old Meerta and blind Bungo, aided by
+Letta, had already cleared away all evidence of the late feast, leaving
+only three tin cups and three pewter plates on the table, with viands
+appropriate thereto.
+
+"Ha! you're a knowing old lady," exclaimed Sam, "you understand how to
+help us, I see."
+
+"Me tink so!" replied Meerta, with an intelligent nod.  "On'y us t'ree
+here.  All de pyrits gone away.  Dem sinners on'y come here for a feed--
+p'r'aps for leetil poodre.  Soon go away."
+
+"Just so," said Sam, "meanwhile we will hide, and return after they are
+gone, or, better still, if you, Letta, and Bungo will come and hide with
+us, I'll engage to lay a train of powder from the barrels inside to
+somewhere outside, and blow the reptiles and the whole mountain into the
+sea!  There's powder enough to do it."
+
+"You tink me one divl?" demanded the old woman indignantly.  "No, some
+o' dem pyrits not so bad as each oder.  You let 'em alone; me let you
+alone."
+
+This gentle intimation that Meerta had their lives in her hand, induced
+Sam to ask modestly what she would have him do.
+
+"Go," she replied promptly, "take rifles, swords, an' poodre.  Hide till
+pyrits go 'way.  If de finds you--fight.  Better fight dan be skin
+alive!"
+
+"Unquestionably," said Sam, with a mingled laugh and shudder, in which
+his companions joined--as regards the shudder at least, if not the
+laugh.
+
+Acting promptly on the suggestion, Sam armed himself and his comrades
+each with a good breech-loading rifle, as much ammunition as he could
+conveniently carry, and an English sword.  Then, descending the mountain
+on the side opposite to the harbour they disappeared in the dark and
+tangled underwood of the palm-grove.  Letta went a short distance with
+them.
+
+"They won't kill Meerta or blind Bungo," she said, on the way down.
+"They're too useful, though they often treat them badly.  Meerta sent me
+away to hide here the last time the strange bad men came.  She thinks I
+go hide to-night, but I won't; so, good-night."
+
+"But surely you don't mean to put yourself in the power of the pirates?"
+said Robin.
+
+"No, never fear," returned the child with a laugh.  "I know how to see
+them without they see me."
+
+Before further remonstrance could be made, the active child had bounded
+up the pathway and disappeared.
+
+Not long after Sam and his comrades had taken their departure, the
+pirates came up to the cavern in a body--about forty of them--well armed
+and ready to fight if need be.  They were as rascally a set of
+cut-throats as one could desire to see--or, rather, not to see--of
+various nationality, with ugly countenances and powerful frames, which
+were clothed in more or less fantastic Eastern garb.  Their language,
+like themselves, was mixed, and, we need scarcely add, unrefined.  The
+little that was interchanged between them and Meerta we must, however,
+translate.
+
+"What! alive still!" cried the ruffian, who appeared to be the leader of
+the band, flinging himself down on a couch with the air of a man who
+knew the place well, while his men made themselves at home.
+
+Meerta merely smiled to the salutation; that in to say, she grinned.
+
+"Where are they?" demanded the pirate-chief, referring of course to
+those who, the reader is aware, were blown up.
+
+"Gone away," answered Meerta.
+
+"Far away?" asked the pirate.
+
+"Yes, _very_ far away."
+
+"Goin' to be long away?"
+
+"Ho! yes, _very_ long."
+
+"Where's the little girl they took from Sarawak?"
+
+"Gone away."
+
+"Where away?"
+
+"Don't know."
+
+"Now, look here, you old hag," said the pirate, drawing a pistol from
+his belt and levelling it, "tell the truth about that girl, else I'll
+scatter your brains on the floor.  Where has she gone to?"
+
+"Don't know," repeated Meerta, with a look of calm indifference, as she
+took up a tankard and wiped it out with a cloth.
+
+The man steadied the pistol and pressed the trigger.
+
+"You better wait till she has given us our grub," quietly suggested one
+of the men.
+
+The leader replaced the weapon in the shawl which formed his girdle, and
+said, "Get it ready quick--the best you have, and bring us some wine to
+begin with."
+
+Soon after that our friends, while conversing in low tones in the grove,
+heard the unmistakeable sounds of revelry issue from the cave.
+
+"What think you, boys," said Sam suddenly, "shall we go round to the
+harbour, surprise and kill the guard, seize the pirate-ship, up anchor
+and leave these villains to enjoy themselves as best they may?"
+
+"What! and leave Letta, not to mention Meerta and Bungo, behind us?
+Never!"
+
+"I forgot them for the moment," said Sam.  "No, we can't do that."
+
+As he spoke the noise of revelry became louder and degenerated into
+sounds of angry disputation.  Then several shots were heard, followed by
+the clashing of steel and loud yells.
+
+"Surely that was a female voice," said Robin, rising and rushing up the
+steep path that led to the cavern, closely followed by his comrades.
+
+They had not gone a hundred yards when they were arrested by hearing a
+rustling in the bushes and the sound of hasty footsteps.  Next instant
+Letta was seen running towards them, with glaring eyes and streaming
+hair.  She sprang into Robin's arms with a convulsive sob, and hid her
+white face on his breast.
+
+"Speak, Letta, dear child!  Are you hurt?"
+
+"No, O no; but Meerta, darling Meerta, she is dead!  They have shot her
+and Bungo."
+
+She burst again into convulsive sobbing.
+
+"Dead!  But are you sure--quite sure?" said Sam.
+
+"Quite.  I saw their brains scattered on the wall.--Oh, Meerta!--"
+
+She ended in a low wail, as though her heart were broken.
+
+"Now, boys," said Johnson, who had hitherto maintained silence, "we must
+go to work an' try to cut out the pirate-ship.  It's a good chance, and
+it's our only one."
+
+"Yes, there's nothing to prevent us trying it now," said Robin, sadly,
+"and the sooner the better."
+
+"Lucky that we made up the parcels last night, warn't it?" said Jim
+Slagg as they made hasty arrangements for carrying out their plan.
+
+Jim referred to parcels of rare and costly jewels which each of them had
+selected from the pirate store, put into separate bags and hid away in
+the woods, to be ready in case of any sudden occasion arising--such as
+had now actually arisen--to quit the island.  Going to the place where
+these bags were concealed, they slung them over their shoulders and set
+off at a steady run, or trot, for the harbour, each taking his turn in
+carrying Letta, for the poor child was not fit to walk, much less to
+run.
+
+Stealthy though their movements were, however, they did not altogether
+escape detection.  Two bright eyes had been watching Letta during all
+her wanderings that night, and two nimble feet had followed her when she
+ran affrighted from the pirates' stronghold.  The party was overtaken
+before half the distance to the harbour had been gained, and at length,
+with a cry of satisfaction.
+
+Letta's favourite--the small monkey--sprang upon her shoulder.  In this
+position, refusing to move, he was carried to the coast.
+
+As had been anticipated, the pirate vessel was found lying in the pool
+where the former ship had anchored.  Being considerably smaller,
+however, it had been drawn close to the rocks, so that a landing had
+been effected by means of a broad plank or gangway instead of a boat.
+Fortunately for our friends, this plank had not been removed after the
+pirates had left, probably because they deemed themselves in a place of
+absolute security.  As far as they could see, only one sentinel paced
+the deck.
+
+"I shouldn't wonder if the guard is a very small one," whispered Sam to
+Robin, as they crept to the edge of the shrubs which lined the harbour,
+and surveyed their intended prize.  "No doubt they expected to meet only
+with friends here--or with nobody at all, as it has turned out,--and
+have left just enough to guard their poor slaves."
+
+"We shall soon find out," returned Sam.  "Now, boys," he said, on
+rejoining the others in the bush, "see that your revolvers are charged
+and handy, but don't use them if you can avoid it."
+
+"A cut over the head with cold steel will be sufficiently effective, for
+we have no desire to kill.  Nevertheless, don't be particular.  We can't
+afford to measure our blows with such scoundrels; only if we fire we
+shall alarm those in the cave, and have less time to get under weigh."
+
+"What is to be done with Letta while we attack?" asked Robin.
+
+"I'll wait here till you come for me," said Letta, with a sad little
+smile on her tear-bedewed face; "I'm quite used to see fighting."
+
+"Good, keep close, and don't move from this spot till we come for you,
+my little heroine," said Sam.  "Now, boys, follow me in single file--
+tread like mice--don't hurry.  There's nothing like keeping cool."
+
+"Not much use o' saying that to a feller that's red-hot," growled Slagg,
+as he stood with a flushed face, a revolver in one hand and a cutlass in
+the other.
+
+Sam, armed similarly, glided to the extreme verge of the bushes, between
+which and the water there was a space of about thirty yards.  With a
+quiet cat-like run he crossed this space, rushed up the plank gangway,
+and leaped upon the deck, with his comrades close at his heels.  The
+sentinel was taken completely by surprise, but drew his sword
+nevertheless, and sprang at Sam with a shout.
+
+The latter, although not a professional warrior, had been taught
+single-stick at school, and was an expert swordsman.  He parried the
+pirate's furious thrust, and gave him what is technically termed cut
+Number 1, which clove his turban to the skull and stretched him on the
+deck.  It was a fortunate cut, for the shout had brought up seven
+pirates, five from below and two from the fore-part of the vessel, where
+they had been asleep between two guns.  With these his comrades were now
+engaged in mortal combat--three of them having simultaneously attacked
+Johnson, while two had assailed Jim Slagg.
+
+When Sam turned round the stout sailor had cut down one of his foes, but
+the other two would probably have proved too much for him if Sam had not
+instantly engaged one of them.  He was a powerful, active man, so that
+for nearly a minute they cut and thrust at each other without advantage
+to either, until Sam tried a feint thrust, which he followed up with a
+tremendous slash at the head.  It took effect, and set him free to aid
+Slagg, who was at the moment in deadly peril, for poor Slagg was no
+swordsman, and had hitherto foiled his two antagonists by sheer activity
+and the fury of his assaults.  He was quite collected, however, for,
+even in the extremity of his danger, he had refrained from using his
+revolver lest he should thereby give the alarm to the pirates on land.
+With one stroke Sam disposed of one of the scoundrels, and Slagg
+succeeded in cutting down the other.
+
+Meanwhile our hero, Robin, and Stumps had attacked the two pirates who
+chanced to be nearest to them.  The former thought of Letta and her
+wretched fate if this assault should fail.  The thought filled his
+little body, with such a gush of what seemed to him like electric fire,
+that he leaped on his opponent with the fury of a wild cat, and bore him
+backward, so that he stumbled over the combings of a hatchway and was
+thrown flat on the deck--_hors de combat_.
+
+But Stumps was not so fortunate.  Slow in all his movements, and not too
+courageous in spirit, he gave way before the villain who assailed him.
+It was not indeed much to his discredit, for the man was much larger, as
+well as more active and fierce, than himself.  A cut from the pirate's
+sword quickly laid him low, and his antagonist instantly turned on
+Robin.  He was so near at the moment that neither of them could
+effectively use his weapon.  Robin therefore dashed the hilt of his
+sword into the man's face and grappled with him.  It was a most unequal
+struggle, for the pirate was, as we have said, a huge fellow, while
+Robin was small and slight.  But there were several things in our hero's
+favour.  He was exceedingly tough and wonderfully strong for his size,
+besides being active as a kitten and brave as a lion.  The way that
+Robin Wright wriggled in that big man's embrace, hammered his nose and
+eyes with the iron hilt of his cutlass, stuck his knees into the pit of
+his stomach, and assaulted his shins with the toes of boots, besides
+twisting his left hand into his hair like a vice, was wonderful to
+behold.
+
+It was all Letta's doing!  The more hopeless the struggle felt, the more
+hapless did Letta's fate appear to Robin, and the more furious did the
+spirit within rise above its disadvantages.  In the whirl of the fight
+the pirate's head chanced for one moment to be in proximity to a large
+iron block.  Robin observed it, threw all his soul and body into one
+supreme effort, and launched his foe and himself against the block.
+Both heads met it at the same moment, and the combatants rolled from
+each other's grasp.  The pirate was rendered insensible, but Robin,
+probably because of being lighter, was only a little stunned.
+
+Recovering in a moment, he sprang up, glanced round, observed that the
+pirates were almost, if not quite, overpowered, and leaped over the
+bulwarks.  A few moments later and he had Letta in his arms.  Just then
+a pistol shot rang in the night air.  The last of the pirates who was
+overpowered chanced to use his fire-arm, though without success.  It was
+fortunate the fight was over, for, now that the alarm had been given,
+they knew that their chance of escaping was greatly lessened.
+
+"Cut the cable, Slagg.  Out with a boat-hook, Johnson, ready to shove
+off.  I'll fetch Letta," cried Sam, springing to the side.
+
+He was almost run down, as he spoke, by Robin with the child in his
+arms.
+
+"Ha!  Robin--well done, my boy.  Here, Letta, you understand the
+language, tell the slaves below to out oars and pull for their lives.
+It's their only chance."
+
+The poor creatures, who were bound to the thwarts below deck, had been
+listening with dull surprise to the fighting on deck--not that fighting
+was by any means unusual in that vessel, but they must have known that
+they were in harbour, and that the main body of the pirates were on
+shore.  Still greater was their surprise when they received the above
+order in the sweet gentle tones of a child's voice.
+
+Whether they deemed her an angel or not we cannot tell, but their belief
+in her right to command was evinced by their shoving the oars out with
+alacrity.
+
+A few seconds sufficed to cut the cable, and the gangway fell into the
+sea with a loud splash as the vessel moved slowly from the land, while
+Johnson, Robin, and Slagg thrust with might and main at the boat-hooks.
+The oars could not be dipped or used until the vessel had been separated
+a few yards from the land, and it was during the delay caused by this
+operation that their greatest danger lay, for already the pirates were
+heard calling to each other among the cliffs.
+
+"Pull, pull now for life, boys," shouted Sam as he seized the helm.
+
+"Pull, pull now for life, boys," echoed the faithful translator in her
+silvery tones.
+
+The oars dipped and gurgled through the water.  There was no question as
+to the energy of the poor captives, but the vessel was heavy and
+sluggish at starting.  She had barely got a couple of hundred yards from
+the shore, when the pirates from the cavern came running tumultuously
+out of the woods.  Perceiving at once that their vessel had been
+captured, they rushed into the water and swam off, each man with his
+sword between his teeth.
+
+They were resolute villains, and swam vigorously and fast.  Sam knew
+that if such a swarm should gain the side of the vessel, no amount of
+personal valour could prevent recapture.  He therefore encouraged the
+slaves to redoubled effort.  These responded to the silvery echo, but so
+short had been the distance gained that the issue seemed doubtful.
+
+"Give 'em a few shots, boys," cried Sam, drawing his own revolver and
+firing back over the stern.  The others followed his example and
+discharged all their revolvers, but without apparent effect, for the
+pirates still came on.
+
+One of the sails had fortunately been left unfurled.  At this moment a
+light puff of air from the land bulged it out, and sensibly increased
+their speed.
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted Johnson, "lend a hand, boys, to haul taut."
+
+The sail was trimmed, and in a few minutes the vessel glided quickly
+away from her pursuers.
+
+A loud British cheer announced the fact alike to pirates and slaves, so
+that the latter were heartened to greater exertion, while the former
+were discouraged.  In a few minutes they gave up the chase with a yell
+of rage, and turned to swim for the shore.
+
+About a hundred yards from the mouth of the harbour there lay a small
+islet--a mere rock.  Here Sam resolved to leave the pirate guard, none
+of whom had been quite killed--indeed two of them had tried
+unsuccessfully to rise during the fight.
+
+"You see," said Sam, as he steered for the rock, "we don't want to have
+either the doctoring or the killing of such scoundrels.  They will be
+much better with their friends, who will be sure to swim off for them--
+perhaps use our raft for the purpose, which they will likely find,
+sooner or later."
+
+They soon ranged up alongside of the island, and in a few minutes the
+bodies of the pirates were landed and laid there side by side.  While
+they were being laid down, the man who had fought with Robin made a
+sudden and furious grasp at Johnson's throat with one hand, and at his
+knife with the other, but the seaman was too quick for him.  He felled
+him with a blow of his fist.  The others, although still alive, were
+unable to show fight.
+
+Then, hoisting the mainsail, and directing their course to the
+northward, our adventurers slipped quietly over the sea, and soon left
+Pirate Island far out of sight behind them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+DEPARTURE FROM PIRATE ISLAND AND HOPEFUL NEWS AT SARAWAK.
+
+The vessel of which Robin and his friends had thus become possessed, was
+one of those numerous native pirate-ships which did, and we believe
+still do, infest some parts of the Malay Archipelago--ships which can
+assume the form and do the work of simple trading-vessels when
+convenience requires, or can hoist the black flag when circumstances
+favour.  It was not laden with anything valuable at the time of its
+capture.  The slaves who wrought at the oars when wind failed, were
+wretched creatures who had been captured among the various islands, and
+many of them were in the last stage of exhaustion, having been worked
+almost to death by their inhuman captors, though a good many were still
+robust and fresh.
+
+These latter it was resolved to keep still in fetters, as it was just
+possible that some of them, if freed, might take a fancy to seize the
+ship and become pirates on their own account.  They were treated as well
+as circumstances would admit of, however, and given to understand that
+they should be landed and set free as soon as possible.  Meanwhile, no
+more work would be required of them than was absolutely necessary.
+Those of them who were ill were freed at once from toil, carefully
+nursed by Letta and doctored by Sam.
+
+At first Robin and his comrades sailed away without any definite purpose
+in view, but after things had been got into order, a council was held
+and plans were discussed.  It was then that Letta mentioned what the
+pirates in the cavern had said about her having been taken from Sarawak.
+
+"Sarawak!" exclaimed Robin, "why, that's the place that has been owned
+and governed for many years by an Englishman named Brooke--Sir James
+Brooke, if I remember rightly, and they call him Rajah Brooke.  Perhaps
+your mother lives there, Letta."
+
+"Where is Sarawak?" asked Stumps, whose injuries in the recent fight
+were not so severe as had at first been supposed.
+
+"It's in the island of Borneo," replied Sam; "you're right, Robin--"
+
+"No, he's Robin Wright," interrupted Slagg.
+
+"Be quiet, Jim.  I think it is highly probable that your parents are
+there, Letta, and as we have no particular reason for going anywhere
+else, and can't hope to make for England in a tub like this, we will
+just lay her head for Sarawak."
+
+This was accordingly done, their new course being nor'-east and by east.
+
+It would extend our tale to undue proportions were we to give in detail
+all the adventures they experienced, dangers they encountered, and
+hairbreadth escapes they made, between that point on the wide southern
+ocean and the Malay Archipelago.  The reader must be content to skip
+over the voyage, and to know that they ultimately arrived at the port of
+Sarawak, where they were kindly treated by a deputy, the Rajah himself
+being absent at the time.
+
+During the voyage, the subject of finding Letta's parents became one of
+engrossing and increasing interest,--so much so, indeed, that even
+electricity and telegraph-cables sank into secondary importance.  They
+planned, over and over again, the way in which they would set about
+making inquiries, and the various methods which they would adopt in
+pursuit of their end.  They even took to guessing who Letta's parents
+would turn out to be, and Sam went so far as to invent and relate
+romantic stories, in which the father and mother of Letta played a
+conspicuous part.  He called them Colonel and Mrs Montmorenci for
+convenience, which Slagg reduced to Colonel and Mrs Monty, "for short."
+
+In all this Letta took great delight, chiefly because it held the
+conversation on that source of undying interest, "mamma," and partly
+because she entered into the fun and enjoyed the romance of the thing,
+while, poor child, her hopeful spirit never for a moment doubted that in
+some form or other the romance would become a reality through Robin, on
+whom she had bestowed her highest affections--next, of course, to mamma.
+
+On landing at Sarawak, Sam Shipton went direct to the Government offices
+to report the capture of the pirate vessel and to make inquiries as to
+Letta's parents, leaving Robin and the others to watch the vessel.
+
+"Isn't it strange," said John Johnson to Robin, as they leaned over the
+side and looked down into the clear water, "that a Englishman should
+become a Rajah, and get possession o' this here country?"
+
+"I can give you only a slight reply to that question," replied Robin,
+"but Sam will enlighten you more than I can; he seems to be acquainted
+with the Rajah's strange career.  All I know is, that he is said to
+govern the country well."
+
+"Coorious," said Johnson; "_I_ shouldn't like to settle down in sitch a
+nest o' pirates.  Hows'ever, every man to his taste, as Jack said when
+the shark swallowed his sou'-wester.  D'ee think it's likely, sir, that
+we'll find out who the parents o' poor Miss Letta is?"
+
+Robin shook his head.  "I'm not very hopeful.  We have so little
+information to go upon--just one word,--Sarawak!  Nevertheless, I don't
+despair, and I'll certainly not be beat without trying hard.  But here
+comes Sam; he looks pleased.  I think--I hope, he has good news for us."
+
+"I've got something, but not much," replied Sam to the eager inquiries
+with which he was assailed.  "The gentleman whom I saw knew nothing
+about a little girl having been kidnapped from this region within the
+last two or three years, but an old clerk or secretary, who heard us
+talking about it, came up scratching his nose with the feather of his
+quill, and humbly said that he had heard something about a girl
+disappearing at a fire somewhere, though he couldn't recollect the name
+of the place, as he was ill at the time, besides being new to the
+country, but he thought there was a Malay, a drunken old fellow, living
+some five miles inland, who used to talk about something of the sort,
+and who had, he fancied, been in the service of the people whose house
+had been burned.  But, altogether, he was very hazy on the subject."
+
+"Then we must go and ferret out this old man instantly," said Robin,
+buttoning up his coat, as if about to commence the journey at once.
+
+"Too late to-night, Robin," said Sam; "restrain your impatience, my boy.
+You forget that it sometimes gets dark in these latitudes, and that
+there are no street lamps on the country roads."
+
+"True, true, Sam.  And what said they about our capture?"
+
+"That we must leave it in their hands at present; that they did not know
+exactly what the Rajah might have to say about it, but that he would be
+there himself in a few weeks, and decide the matter."
+
+"'Pon my word, that's cool," said Slagg, who came up at the moment; "an'
+suppose we wants to continue our voyage to England, or Indy, or Chiny?"
+
+"If we do we must continue it by swimming," returned Sam; "but it
+matters little, for there is a steamer expected to touch here in a few
+days on her way to India, so we can take passage in her, having plenty
+of funds--thanks to the pirates!"
+
+"It's all very well for you to boast of bein' rich," growled Stumps,
+"but _I_ won't be able to afford it."
+
+"Oh! yes you will," returned Robin with a laugh.  "The Jews will advance
+you enough on your jewellery to pay your passage."
+
+"Sarves you right for bein' so greedy," said Slagg.
+
+The greed which Slagg referred to had been displayed by Stumps at the
+time the parcels of coin and precious stones were made up in the cavern
+for sudden emergency, as before mentioned.  On that occasion each man
+had made up his own parcel, selecting such gems, trinkets, and coin from
+the pirate horde as suited his fancy.  Unfortunately, the sight of so
+much wealth had roused in the heart of Stumps feelings of avarice, which
+heretofore had lain dormant, and he stuffed many glittering and superb
+pieces of jewellery into his bag in a secretive manner, as if half
+ashamed of his new sensations, and half afraid that his right to them
+might be disputed.
+
+Afterwards, on the voyage to Borneo, when the bags were emptied and
+their costly contents examined, it was discovered that many of Stumps's
+most glittering gems were mere paste--almost worthless--although some of
+them, of course, were valuable.  Stumps was much laughed at, and in a
+private confabulation of his comrades, it was agreed that they would
+punish him by contrasting their own riches with his glittering trash,
+but that at last they would give him a share which would make all the
+bags equal.  This deceptive treatment, however, wrought more severely on
+Stumps than they had expected, and roused not only jealous but
+revengeful feelings in his breast.
+
+Next morning, Sam and Robin set off with Letta to search for the old
+Malay, leaving their comrades in charge of the vessel.
+
+There is something inexpressibly delightful to the feelings in passing
+through the glades and thickets of tropical forests and plantations
+after a long sea voyage.  The nostrils seem to have been specially
+prepared, by long abstinence from sweet smells, to appreciate the scents
+and odours of aromatic plants and flowers.  The soft shade of foliage,
+the refreshing green, and the gay colours everywhere, fill the eye with
+pleasure, not less exquisite than that which fills the ears from the
+warblings and chatterings of birds, the gentle tones of domestic
+animals, and the tinkling of rills.  The mere solidity of the land,
+under foot, forms an element of pleasure after the tossings of the
+restless sea, and all the sweet influences put together tend to rouse in
+the heart a shout of joy and deep gratitude for a world so beautiful,
+and for powers so sensitively capable of enjoying it.
+
+Especially powerful were the surrounding influences on our three friends
+as they proceeded, mile after mile, into the country, and little wonder,
+for eyes, and nostrils, and ears, which had of late drunk only of the
+blue heavens and salt sea and the music of the wind, naturally gloated
+over a land which produces sandal-wood, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger,
+benzoin, camphor, nutmeg, and a host of other gums and spices; a land
+whose shades are created by cocoa-nut palms, ebony, banana, bread-fruit,
+gutta-percha, upas, sesamum, and a vast variety of other trees and
+shrubs, the branches of which are laden with fruits, and flowers, and
+paroquets, and monkeys.
+
+Little Letta's heart was full to overflowing, so much so that she could
+scarcely speak while walking along holding Robin's hand.  But there was
+more than mere emotion in her bosom--memory was strangely busy in her
+brain, puzzling her with dreamy recognitions both as to sights and
+sounds.
+
+"It's _so_ like home!" she murmured once, looking eagerly round.
+
+"Is it?" said Robin with intense interest.  "Look hard at it, little
+one; do you recognise any object that used to be in your old home?"
+
+The child shook her head sadly.  "No, not exactly--everything is _so_
+like, and--and yet not like, somehow."
+
+They came just then upon a clearing among sugar-cane, in the midst of
+which stood a half-ruined hut, quite open in front and thatched with
+broad leaves.  On a bench near the entrance was seated an old
+grey-haired Malay man with a bottle beside him.  Nearer to the visitors
+a young girl was digging in the ground.
+
+"That's the old Malay, for certain," said Sam; "see, the old rascal has
+gone pretty deep already into the bottle.  Ask the girl, Letta, what his
+name is."
+
+Sam did not at first observe that the child was trembling very much and
+gazing eagerly at the old man.  He had to repeat the question twice
+before she understood him, and then she asked the girl, without taking
+her eyes off the old man.
+
+"Who is he?" responded the girl in the Malay tongue, "why, that's old
+Georgie--drunken Georgie."
+
+She had scarcely uttered the words when Letta uttered a wild cry, ran to
+the old man, leaped into his arms, and hugged him violently.
+
+The man was not only surprised but agitated.  He loosened the child's
+hold so as to be able to look at her face.
+
+"Oh, Georgie, Georgie!" she cried almost hysterically, "don't you know
+me--don't you know Letta?"
+
+Georgie replied by uttering a great shout of mingled astonishment and
+joy, as he clasped the child in his arms.  Then, setting her down and
+holding her at arm's-length, he cried in remarkably broken English--
+
+"Know you!  W'at?  Vous hold nuss--hold Georgie--not know Miss Letty.
+Ho!  Miss Letty! my hold 'art's a-busted a'most!  But you's come back.
+T'ank do Lor'!  Look 'ere, Miss Letty."  (He started up, put the child
+down, and, with sudden energy seized the bottle of ruin by the neck.)
+"Look ere, yous oftin say to me afore you hoed away, `Geo'gie, do, _do_
+give up d'inkin','--you 'members?"
+
+"No, I don't remember," said Letta, smiling through her tears.
+
+"Ho! yes, but you said it--bery often, an' me was used to say, `Yes,
+Miss Letty'--de hold hippercrit!--but I didn't gib 'im up.  I d'ink away
+wuss dan ebber.  But now--but now--but now," (he danced round, each time
+whirling the bottle above his head), "me d'ink no more--nebber--
+nebber--_nebber_ more."
+
+With a mighty swing the old man sent the rum-bottle, like a rocket, up
+among the branches of an ebony-tree, where it was shattered to atoms,
+and threw an eaves-dropping monkey almost into fits by raining rum and
+broken glass upon its inquisitive head.
+
+When the excitement of the meeting had somewhat subsided, Letta suddenly
+said, "But where is mamma?  Oh! take me to mamma, Georgie."
+
+The old man's joy instantly vanished, and Letta stood pale and trembling
+before him, pressing her little hands to her breast, and not daring,
+apparently, to ask another question.
+
+"Not dead?" she said at length in a low whisper.
+
+"No--no--Miss Letty," replied the man hastily, "Ho! no, not dead, but
+goed away; nigh broked her heart when she losted you; git berry sick;
+t'ought she was go for die, but she no die.  She jis turn de corner and
+come round, an' when she git bedder she hoed away."
+
+"Where did she go to?" asked Robin, anxiously.
+
+"To Bumby," said old George.
+
+"To where?"
+
+"Bumby."
+
+"I suppose you mean Bombay?" said Sam.
+
+"Yes, yes--an' me _say_ Bumby."
+
+"Is she alive and well?" asked Robin.
+
+"Don' know," replied old George, shaking his head; "she no write to hold
+Geo'gie.  Nigh two years since she goed away."
+
+When the excitement of this meeting began to subside, Sam Shipton took
+the old Malay aside, and, after prolonged conversation, learned from him
+the story, of which the following is the substance.
+
+Mrs Langley was the widow of a gentleman who had died in the service of
+Rajah Brooke.  Several years before--he could not say exactly how many--
+the widow had retired with her only child, Letta, to a little bungalow
+on a somewhat out-of-the-way part of the coast which Mr Langley used to
+be fond of going to, and called his "shooting-box."  This had been
+attacked one night by Labuan pirates, who, after taking all that was
+valuable, set fire to the house.  Mrs Langley had escaped by a back
+door into the woods with her old man-servant, George.  She had rushed at
+the first alarm to Letta's bed, but the child was not there.  Letta had
+been awake, had heard the advance of the pirate crew, and had gone into
+a front room to see who was coming.  Supposing that old George must have
+taken charge of the child, and hearing him calling to her to come away
+quickly, the widow ran out at the back door as the pirates entered by
+the front.  Too late she found that George had not the child, and she
+would have returned to the house, regardless of consequences, if George
+had not forcibly restrained her.  When George returned at daybreak, he
+found the house a smouldering ruin, the pirates gone, and Letta nowhere
+to be found.
+
+The shock threw Mrs Langley into a violent fever.  She even lost her
+reason for a time, and when at last she was restored to some degree of
+health, she went away to Bombay without saying to any one what were her
+intentions.  She could never entirely forgive old George for having
+prevented her returning to the house to share the fate of her child, and
+left Sarawak without bidding him farewell, though, as old George himself
+pathetically remarked, "Me couldn't 'elp it, you knows.  De scoundrils
+kill missis if she goed back, an' dat doos no good to Miss Letty."
+
+This was all the information that could be obtained about Mrs Langley,
+and on the strength of it Sam and Robin resolved to proceed to Bombay by
+the first opportunity.  But their patience was severely tried, for many
+months elapsed ere they obtained berths in a vessel bound direct to
+Bombay.
+
+Of course Jim Slagg determined to go with them, and so did Stumps,
+though a slight feeling of coldness had begun to manifest itself in that
+worthy's manner ever since the episode of the division of jewels.  John
+Johnson, however, made up his mind to take service with the Rajah, and
+help to exterminate the nests of pirates with which those seas were
+infested.
+
+"Depend upon it, sir," said Johnson to Robin at parting, "that you'll
+turn out somethin' or other afore long.  As I said to our stooard on the
+night that you was born, `Stooard,' says I, `take my word for it, that
+there babby what has just been launched ain't agoin' under hatches
+without makin' his mark somehow an' somewheres,' an' you've begun to
+make it, sir, a'ready, an' you'll go on to make it, as sure as my name's
+John Johnson."
+
+"I'm gratified by your good opinion," replied Robin, with a laugh.  "All
+I can say is, that whatever mark I make, I hope may be a good one."
+
+Poor Robin had little ambition at that time to make any kind of mark for
+himself on the world.  His one desire--which had grown into a sort of
+passion--was to find Letta's mother.  Nearly all his thoughts were
+concentrated on that point, and so great was his personal influence on
+his comrades, that Sam and Slagg had become almost as enthusiastic about
+it as himself, though Stumps remained comparatively indifferent.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+BOMBAY--WHERE STUMPS COMES TO GRIEF.
+
+Once again we must beg the patient reader to skip with us over time and
+space, until we find ourselves in the great city of Bombay.
+
+It is a great day for Bombay.  Natives and Europeans alike are unusually
+excited.  Something of an unwonted nature is evidently astir.  Down at
+the sea the cause of the excitement is explained, for the Great Eastern
+steam-ship has just arrived, laden with the telegraph cable which is to
+connect England with her possessions in the East.  The streets and quays
+are crowded with the men of many nations and various creeds, to say
+nothing of varied costume.  Turbans and chimney-pots salaam to each
+other, and fezzes nod to straw hats and wide-awakes.  Every one is more
+than usually sympathetic, for all have their minds, eyes, and hopes,
+more or less, centred on the "big ship," with her unique and precious
+cargo.
+
+But it is with neither the Great Eastern nor the people--not even with
+the cable--that we have to do just now.  Removing our eyes from such, we
+fix them and our attention on a very small steamer which lies alongside
+one of the wharves, and shows evidence of having been severely handled
+by winds and waves.
+
+At the time we direct attention to her, a few passengers were landing
+from this vessel, and among them were our friends, Sam Shipton, Robin
+Wright, Jim Slagg, John Shanks, _alias_ Stumps, and Letta Langley.  Most
+of the passengers had luggage of some sort, but our friends possessed
+only a small bag each, slung over their shoulders.  A letter from the
+authorities of Sarawak certified that they were honest men.
+
+"Now, Robin," said Sam, as they pushed through the crowds, "there seems
+to me something auspicious in our arriving about the same time with the
+Great Eastern, and I hope something may come of it, but our first
+business is to make inquiries for Mrs Langley.  We will therefore go
+and find the hotel to which we have been recommended, and make that our
+head-quarters while we are engaged in our search."
+
+"Can I lend you a hand, Mr Shipton?" asked Slagg, who had become, as it
+were, irresistibly more respectful to Robin and Sam since coming among
+civilised people.
+
+"No, Slagg; our mission is too delicate to admit of numbers.  If we
+require your services we'll let you know."
+
+"Ah!  I see--too many cooks apt to spoil the broth.  Well, my mission
+will be to loaf about and see Bombay.  You and I will pull together,
+Stumps."
+
+"No," said Stumps, to the surprise of his companions, "I've got a
+private mission of my own--at least for this evening."
+
+"Well, please yourself, Stumpy," said Slagg with a good-humoured laugh,
+"you never was the best o' company, so I won't break my heart."
+
+At the hotel to which they had been recommended two rooms were
+engaged,--a small single room for Letta, and one with two beds and a
+sofa for themselves.
+
+Having breakfasted and commended Letta to the landlady's care, Sam and
+Robin sallied forth together, while Slagg and Stumps went their separate
+ways, having appointed to meet again in the evening for supper.
+
+We will follow the fortunes of Mr John Shanks.  That rather vacant and
+somewhat degenerate youth, having his precious bag slung from his
+shoulders, and his left arm round it for further security, sauntered
+forth, and began to view the town.  His viewing it consisted chiefly in
+looking long and steadily at the shop windows of the principal streets.
+There was a slight touch of cunning, however, in his expression, for he
+had rid himself, cleverly as he imagined, of his comrades, and meant to
+dispose of some of the contents of his bag to the best advantage,
+without letting them know the result.
+
+In the prosecution of his deep-laid plans, Stumps attracted the
+attention of a gentleman with exceedingly black eyes and hair, a hook
+nose, and rather seedy garments.  This gentleman followed Stumps with
+great care for a considerable time, watched him attentively, seemed to
+make up his mind about him, and finally ran violently against him.
+
+"Oh!  I do beg your pardon, sir.  I am so sorry," he said in a slightly
+foreign accent, with an expression of earnest distress on his not
+over-clean countenance, "so very, very, sorry; it was a piece of orange
+peel.  I almost fell; but for your kind assistance I should have been
+down and, perhaps, broke my legs.  Thank you, sir; I do hope I have not
+hurt you against the wall.  Allow me to dust your sleeve."
+
+"Oh! you've done _me_ no damage, old gen'l'man," said Stumps, rather
+flattered by the man's attention and urbanity.  "I'm all right; I ain't
+so easy hurt.  You needn't take on so."
+
+"But I cannot help take on so," returned the seedy man, with an
+irresistibly bland smile, "it is so good of you to make light of it, yet
+I might almost say you saved my life, for a fall to an elderly man is
+always very dangerous.  Will you not allow me to give my benefactor a
+drink?  See, here is a shop."
+
+Stumps chanced to be very hot and thirsty at the time; indeed he had
+been meditating some such indulgence, and fell into the trap at once.
+Accepting the offer with a "well, I don't mind if I do," he entered the
+drinking saloon and sat down, while his new friend called for brandy and
+water.
+
+"You have come from a long voyage, I see," said the seedy man, pulling
+out a small case and offering Stumps a cigar.
+
+"How d'ee know that?" asked Stumps bluntly.
+
+"Because I see it in your bronzed face, and, excuse me, somewhat
+threadbare garments."
+
+"Oh! as to that, old man, I've got tin enough to buy a noo rig out, but
+I'm in no hurry."
+
+He glanced unintentionally at his bag as he spoke, and the seedy man
+glanced at it too--intentionally.  Of course Stumps's glance let the cat
+out of the bag!
+
+"Come," said the stranger, when the brandy was put before them, "drink--
+drink to--to the girls we left behind us."
+
+"I left no girl behind _me_," said Stumps.
+
+"Well then," cried the seedy man, with irresistible good humour, "let us
+drink success to absent friends and confusion to our foes."
+
+This seemed to meet the youth's views, for, without a word of comment,
+he drained his glass nearly to the bottom.
+
+"Ha! that's good.  Nothin' like brandy and water on a hot day."
+
+"Except brandy and water on a cold day, my dear," returned the Jew--for
+such he was; "there is not much to choose between them.  Had you not
+better take off your bag? it incommodes you in so narrow a seat.  Let me
+help--No?"
+
+"You let alone my hag," growled Stumps angrily, with a sudden clutch at
+it.
+
+"Waiter! bring a light.  My cigar is out," said the Jew, affecting not
+to observe Stumps's tone or manner.  "It is strange," he went on, "how,
+sometimes, you find a bad cigar--a _very_ bad cigar--in the midst of
+good ones.  Yours is going well, I think."
+
+"Well enough," answered Stumps, taking another pull at the brandy and
+water.
+
+The seedy man now launched out into a pleasant light discourse about
+Bombay and its ways, which highly interested his poor victim.  He made
+no further allusion to the bag, Stumps's behaviour having betrayed all
+he required to know, namely, that its contents were valuable.
+
+Soon the brandy began to take effect on Stumps, and, as he was
+unaccustomed to such potent drink besides being unused to
+self-restraint, he would speedily have made himself a fit subject for
+the care of the police, which would not have suited his new friend at
+all.  When, therefore, Stumps put out his hand to grasp his tumbler for
+another draught, his anxious friend inadvertently knocked it over, and
+then begged his pardon profusely.  Before Stumps could decide whether to
+call for another glass at the risk of having to pay for it himself, the
+Jew pointed to a tall, sallow-faced man who sat in a corner smoking and
+reading a newspaper.
+
+"Do you see him!" he asked, in a low mysterious whisper.
+
+"Yes; who is he? what about him?" asked the youth in a similar whisper.
+
+"He's an opium-smoker."
+
+"Is he?" said Stumps with a vacant stare.  "What's that?"
+
+Upon this text the seedy man delivered a discourse on the pleasures of
+opium-smoking, which quite roused the interest and curiosity of his
+hearer.
+
+"But is it so very nice to smoke opium?" he asked, after listening for
+some time.
+
+"Nice, my dear?  I should think it is--very nice, but very wrong--oh!
+very wrong.  Perhaps we ought not even to speak about it."
+
+"Nonsense!" said the now half-tipsy lad with an air of determination.
+"I should like to try it.  Come, you know where I could have a pipe.
+Let's go."
+
+"Not for worlds," said the man with a look of remonstrance.
+
+"Oh, yes you will," returned Stumps, rising.
+
+"Well, you are a wilful man, and if you will I suppose you must," said
+the Jew.
+
+He rose with apparent reluctance, paid the reckoning, and led his
+miserable victim into one of the numerous dens of iniquity which exist
+in the lowest parts of that city.  There he furnished the lad with a
+pipe of opium, and, while he was in the state of semi-stupor resulting
+therefrom, removed his bag of treasure, which he found, to his delight,
+contained a far richer prize than he had anticipated, despite the
+quantity of trash with which it was partly filled.
+
+Having secured this, he waited until Stumps had partially recovered, and
+then led him into one of the most crowded thoroughfares.
+
+"Now, my boy," he said affectionately, "I think you are much better.
+You can walk alone."
+
+"I should think I could," he replied, indignantly shaking off the man's
+grasp.  "Wh-what d'ee take me for?"
+
+He drew his hand across his eyes, as if to clear away the cloud that
+still oppressed him, and stared sternly before him, then he stared, less
+sternly, on either side, then he wheeled round and stared anxiously
+behind him.  Then clapping his left hand quickly to his side, he became
+conscious that his bag was gone, and that his late friend had taken an
+abrupt departure without bidding him farewell.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+STUMPS IN DESPAIR--AND BOMBAY IN RAPTURES.
+
+When Mr John Shanks realised the full extent of his loss, his first
+impulse was to seize hold of the nearest passer-by and strangle him; his
+next, to dash down a narrow street close beside him in pursuit of some
+one; his next, to howl "stop thief!" and "murder!" and his next, to
+stare into a shop window in blank dismay, and meditate.
+
+Of these various impulses, he gave way only to the last.  His
+meditations, however, were confused and unsatisfactory.  Turning from
+them abruptly, he hurried along the street at a furious walk, muttering,
+"I'll go an' tell Slagg."  Then, pausing abruptly, "No, I won't, I'll go
+an' inform the pleece."
+
+Under this new impulse he hurried forward again, jostling people as he
+went, and receiving a good deal of rough-handling in return.  Presently
+he came to a dead halt, and with knitted brows and set teeth, hissed,
+"I'll go and drown myself."
+
+Full of this intention he broke into a run, but, not being acquainted
+with the place, found it necessary to ask his way to the port.  This
+somewhat sobered him, but did not quite change his mind, so that when he
+eventually reached the neighbourhood of the shipping, he was still going
+at a quick excited walk.  He was stopped by a big and obviously
+eccentric sea-captain, or mate, who asked him if he happened to know of
+any active stout young fellow who wanted to ship in a tight little craft
+about to sail for old England.
+
+"No, I don't," said Stumps, angrily.
+
+"Come now, think again," said the skipper, in no degree abashed, and
+putting on a nautical grin, which was meant for a winning smile.  "I'm
+rather short-handed; give good wages; have an amiable temper, a good
+craft, and a splendid cook.  You're just the active spirited fellow that
+I want.  You'll ship now, eh?"
+
+"No, I won't," said Stumps, sulkily, endeavouring to push past.
+
+"Well, well, no offence.  Keep an easy mind, and if you should chance to
+change it, just come and see me, Captain Bounce, of the Swordfish.
+There she lies, in all her beauty, quite a picture.  Good-day."
+
+The eccentric skipper passed on, but Stumps did not move.  He stood
+there with his eyes riveted on the pavement, and his lips tightly
+compressed.  Evidently the drowning plan had been abandoned for
+something else--something that caused him to frown, then to smile, then
+to grow slightly pale, and then to laugh somewhat theatrically.  While
+in this mood he was suddenly pushed to one side by some one who said--
+
+"The track's made for walkin' on, not standin', young--Hallo!"
+
+It was Slagg who had thus roughly encountered his mate.
+
+"Why, Stumps, what's the matter with yon?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"Where 'ave you bin to?"
+
+"Nowhere."
+
+"Who's bin a-frightenin' of you!"
+
+"Nobody."
+
+"Nothin', nowhere, an' nobody," repeated his friend; "that's what I
+calls a coorious combination for a man who's as white as a sheet one
+moment, and as red as a turkey-cock the next."
+
+"Well, Slagg," said Stumps, recovering himself a little, "the fact is,
+I've been taken in and robbed."
+
+Hereupon he related all the circumstances of his late adventure to his
+astonished and disgusted comrade, who asserted roundly that he was a big
+booby, quite unfit to take care of himself.
+
+"Hows'ever, we must do the best we can for you," he continued, "so come
+along to the police-office."
+
+Information of the robbery was given, and inquiries instituted without
+delay, but without avail.  Indeed the chief officer held out little hope
+of ultimate success; nevertheless, Slagg endeavoured to buoy up his
+friend with assurances that they must surely get hold of the thief in
+the long-run.
+
+"And if we don't," he said to Robin and Sam, during a private
+conversation on the subject that same night, "we must just give him each
+a portion of what we have, for the poor stoopid has shared our trials,
+and ought to share our luck."
+
+While Stumps was being thus fleeced in the lower part of the city, Robin
+and Sam had gone to make inquiries about Mrs Langley, and at the
+Government House they discovered a clerk who had formerly been at
+Sarawak, and had heard of the fire, the abduction of the little girl,
+and of Mrs Langley having afterwards gone to Bombay; but he also told
+them, to their great regret, that she had left for England six months
+before their arrival, and he did not know her address, or even the part
+of England to which she had gone.
+
+"But," continued the clerk, who was a very friendly fellow, "I'll make
+inquiries, and let you know the result, if you leave me your address.
+Meanwhile you can amuse yourself by paying a visit to that wonderful
+ship, the Great Eastern, which has come to lay a submarine telegraph
+cable between this and Aden.  Of course you have heard of her arrival--
+perhaps seen her."
+
+"O yes," replied Robin.  "We intend to visit her at once.  She is an old
+acquaintance of mine, as I was in her when she laid the Atlantic cable
+in 1865.  Does Captain Anderson still command her?"
+
+"No," answered the clerk, who seemed much interested in what Robin said.
+"She is now commanded by Captain Halpin."
+
+That evening Robin tried to console poor Letta in her disappointment at
+not finding her mother, and Sam sought to comfort Stumps for the loss of
+his treasure.  Neither comforter was very successful.  Letta wept in
+spite of Robin, and Stumps absolutely refused to be comforted!
+
+Next day, however, the tears were dried, and Letta became cheery again
+in the prospect of a visit to the Great Eastern.
+
+But Stumps was no better.  Indeed he seemed worse, and flatly refused to
+accompany them on their trip, although all the world of Bombay was
+expected to go.
+
+  "Stumps, Stumps,
+  Down in the dumps!
+  Down in the dumps so low--O!"
+
+Sang Jim Slagg as he waved his hand in farewell on quitting the hotel.
+"Good-bye, my boy, and get your spirits up before we return, if you
+can."
+
+"I'll try," replied Stumps with a grim smile.
+
+The event which stirred the city of Bombay to its centre at this time
+was indeed a memorable one.  The connecting of India with England direct
+by a deep-sea cable was a matter of the greatest importance, because the
+land telegraph which existed at the time was wretchedly worked, passing,
+as it did, through several countries, which involved translation and
+re-translation, besides subjecting messages to needless delay on the
+part of unbusiness-like peoples.  In addition to the brighter prospects
+which the proposed cable was opening up, the presence of the largest
+ship that had ever yet been constructed was a point of overwhelming
+attraction, and so great were the crowds that went on board to see the
+marine wonder, that it was found somewhat difficult to carry on the
+necessary work of coaling and making preparations for the voyage.
+
+"Robin," said Sam, an they walked along with Letta between them, "I've
+just discovered that the agent of the Telegraph Construction and
+Maintenance Company is an old friend of mine.  He has been busy erecting
+a cable landing-house on the shores of Back Bay, so we'll go there first
+and get him to accompany us to the big ship."
+
+"Good," said Robin, "if it is not too far for Letta to walk."
+
+The landing-house, which they soon reached, stood near to the "green"
+where the Bombay and Baroda Railway tumbled out its stream of cotton
+until the region became a very sea of bales.  It was a little edifice
+with a thatched roof and venetian blinds, commanding a fine view of the
+whole of Back Bay, with Malabar Point to the right and the governor's
+house imbedded in trees.  Long lines of surf marked the position of ugly
+rocks which were visible at low water, but among these there was a
+pathway of soft sand marked off by stakes, along which the shore-end of
+the cable was to lie.
+
+For the reception of the extreme end of the cable there was provided, in
+the cable-house, a testing table of solid masonry, with a wooden top on
+which the testing instruments were to stand; the great delicacy of these
+instruments rendering a fixed table indispensable.
+
+When our friends reached the cable-house, native labourers, in
+picturesque Oriental costume, were busy thatching its roof or painting
+it blue, while some were screwing its parts together; for the house,
+with a view to future telegraphic requirements, was built so as to come
+to pieces for shipment to still more distant quarters of the globe.
+
+Sam's friend could not go with him, he said, but he would introduce him
+to a young acquaintance among the working engineers who was going on
+with a party in half an hour or so.  Accordingly, in a short time they
+were gliding over the bay, and ere long stood on the deck of the big
+ship.
+
+"Oh, Letta!" said Robin, with a glitter of enthusiasm in his eyes, as he
+gazed round on the well-remembered deck, "it feels like meeting an old
+friend after a long separation."
+
+"How nice!" said Letta.
+
+This "how nice" of the child was, so to speak, a point of great
+attraction to our hero.  She always accompanied it with a smile so full
+of sympathy, interest, and urbanity, that it became doubly significant
+on her lips.  Letta was precocious.  She had grown so rapidly in
+sympathetic capacity and intelligence, since becoming acquainted with
+her new friends, that Robin had gradually come to speak to her about his
+thoughts and feelings very much as he used to speak to cousin Madge when
+he was a boy.
+
+"Yes," he continued, "I had forgotten how big she was, and she seems to
+me actually to have grown bigger.  There never was a ship like her in
+the world.  Such huge proportions, such a vast sweep of graceful lines.
+The chief difference that I observe is the coat of white paint they have
+given her.  She seems to have been whitewashed from stem to stern.  It
+was for the heat, I fancy."
+
+"Yes, sir, it wor," said a bluff cable-man who chanced to overhear the
+remark, "an' if you wor in the tanks, you'd 'ave blessed Capt'n Halpin
+for wot he done.  W'y, sir, that coat o' whitewash made a difference o'
+no less than eight degrees in the cable-tanks the moment it was putt on.
+Before that we was nigh stooed alive.  Arter that we've on'y bin
+baked."
+
+"Indeed?" said Robin, but before he could say more the bluff cable-man
+had returned to his bakery.
+
+"Just look here," he continued, turning again to Letta; "the great ships
+around us seem like little ones, by contrast, and the little ones like
+boats,--don't they?"
+
+"Yes, and the boats like toys," said Letta, "and the people in them like
+dolls."
+
+"True, little one, and yonder comes a toy steamer," said Sam, who had
+been contemplating the paying-out gear in silent admiration, "with some
+rather curious dolls on it."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Letta, with great surprise, "look, Robin, look at the
+horses--just as if we were on shore!"
+
+Among the many surprising things on board of the big ship, few were more
+striking for incongruity than the pair of grey carriage-horses, to which
+Letta referred, taking their morning exercise composedly up and down one
+side of the deck, with a groom at their heads.
+
+The steamer referred to by Sam was one which contained a large party of
+Hindu and Parsee ladies and children who had come off to see the ship.
+These streamed into her in a bright procession, and were soon scattered
+about, making the decks and saloons like Eastern flower-beds with their
+many-coloured costumes--of red, pink, white, and yellow silks and
+embroideries, and bracelets, brooches, nose-rings, anklets, and other
+gold and silver ornaments.
+
+The interest taken by the natives in the Great Eastern was naturally
+great, and was unexpectedly illustrated in the following manner.
+Captain Halpin, anticipating difficulties in the matter of coaling and
+otherwise carrying on the work of the expedition, had resolved to
+specify particular days for sight-seers, and to admit them by ticket, on
+which a small fee was charged--the sum thus raised to be distributed
+among the crew at the end of the voyage.  In order to meet the
+convenience of the "upper ten" of English at Bombay, the charge at first
+was two rupees (about 4 shillings), and it was advertised that the ship
+would afterwards be thrown open at lower rates, but to the surprise of
+all, from an early hour on the two-rupee day the ship was beset by
+Parsees, Hindus, and Mohammedans, so that eventually, on all sides--on
+the decks, the bridge, the paddle-boxes, down in the saloon, outside the
+cable-tanks, mixed up with the machinery, clustering round the huge red
+buoys, and at the door of the testing-room--the snowy robes, and strange
+head-dresses, bright costumes, brighter eyes, brown faces, and turbans
+far outnumbered the stiff and sombre Europeans.  These people evidently
+regarded the Great Eastern as one of the wonders of the world.  "The
+largest vessel ever seen in Bombay," said an enthusiastic Parsee, "used
+to be the Bates Family, of Liverpool, and now there she lies alongside
+of us looking like a mere jolly-boat."
+
+While Sam and his friends were thus standing absorbed by the
+contemplation of the curious sights and sounds around them, one of the
+engineer staff, who had served on board during the laying of the 1866
+Atlantic cable, chanced to pass, and, recognising Robin as an old
+friend, grasped and shook his hand warmly.  Robin was not slow to return
+the greeting.
+
+"Frank Hedley," he exclaimed, "why, I thought you had gone to
+California!"
+
+"Robin Wright," replied the young engineer, "I thought you were dead!"
+
+"Not yet," returned Robin; "I'm thankful to report myself alive and
+well."
+
+"But you ought to be dead," persisted Frank, "for you've been mourned as
+such for nigh a couple of years.  At least the vessel in which you
+sailed has never been heard of, and the last time I saw your family, not
+four months since, they had all gone into mourning for you."
+
+"Poor mother!" murmured Robin, his eyes filling with tears, "but, please
+God, we shall meet again before long."
+
+"Come--come down with me to the engine-room and have a talk about it,"
+said Frank, "and let your friends come too."
+
+Just as he spoke, one of the little brown-faced Mohammedan boys fixed
+his glittering eyes on an opening in the bulwarks of the ship, through
+which the water could be seen glancing brightly.  That innate spirit of
+curiosity peculiar to small boys all the world over, induced him to
+creep partly through the opening and glance down at the sparkling fluid.
+That imperfect notion of balance, not infrequent in small boys, caused
+him to tip over and cleave the water with his head.  His Mohammedan
+relatives greeted the incident with shrieks of alarm.  Robin, who had
+seen him tip over, being a good swimmer, and prompt to act, went through
+the same hole like a fish-torpedo, and caught the brown boy by the hair,
+as he rose to the surface with staring eyes, outspread fingers, and a
+bursting cry.
+
+Rope-ends, life-buoys, and other things were flung over the side; oars
+were plunged; boats darted forward; fifty efforts at rescue were made in
+as many seconds, for there was wealth of aid at hand, and in a
+wonderfully brief space of time the brown boy was restored to his
+grateful friends, while Robin, enveloped in a suit of dry clothes much
+too large for him, was seated with his friend the engineer down among
+the great cranks, and wheels, and levers, of the regions below.
+
+"It's well the sharks weren't on the outlook," said Frank Hedley, as he
+brought forward a small bench for Letta, Sam, and Jim Slagg.  "You won't
+mind the oily smell, my dear," he said to Letta.
+
+"O no.  I rather like it," replied the accommodating child.
+
+"It's said to be fattening," remarked Slagg, "even when taken through
+the nose."
+
+"Come now, let me hear all about my dear mother and the rest of them,
+Frank," said Robin.
+
+Frank began at once, and, for a considerable time, conversed about the
+sayings and doings of the Wright family, and of the world at large, and
+about the loss of the cable-ship; but gradually and slowly, yet surely,
+the minds and converse of the little party came round to the
+all-absorbing topic, like the needle to the pole.
+
+"So, you're actually going to begin to coal to-morrow?" said Sam.
+
+"Yes, and we hope to be ready in a few days to lay the shore-end of the
+cable," answered the young engineer.
+
+"But have they not got land-lines of telegraph which work well enough?"
+asked Robin.
+
+"Land-lines!" exclaimed Frank, with a look of contempt.  "Yes, they
+have, and no doubt the lines are all right enough, but the people
+through whose countries they pass are all wrong.  Why, the Government
+lines are so frequently out of order just now, that their daily
+condition is reported on as if they were noble invalids.  Just listen
+to this," (he caught up a very much soiled and oiled
+newspaper)--"`Telegraph Line Reports, Kurrachee, 2nd February, 6 p.m.--
+Cable communication perfect to Fao; Turkish line is interrupted beyond
+Semawali; Persian line interrupted beyond Shiraz.'  And it is constantly
+like that--the telegraphic disease, though intermittent, is chronic.
+One can never be sure when the line may be unfit for duty.  Sometimes
+from storms, sometimes from the assassination of the operators in wild
+districts, through which the land wires pass, and sometimes from the
+destruction of lines out of pure mischief, the telegraph is often beaten
+by the mail."
+
+"There seems, indeed, much need for a cable direct," said Sam, "which
+will make us independent of Turks, Persians, Arabs, and all the rest of
+them.  By the way, how long is your cable?"
+
+"The cable now in our tanks is 2375 nautical miles long, but our
+companion ships, the Hibernia, Chiltern, and Hawk, carry among them 1225
+miles more, making a total of 3600 nautical miles, which is equal, as
+you know, to 4050 statute miles.  This is to suffice for the
+communication between Bombay and Aden, and for the connecting of the
+Malta and Alexandria lines.  They are now laying a cable between
+England, Gibraltar, and Malta, so that when all is completed there will
+be one line of direct submarine telegraph unbroken, except at Suez."
+
+"Magnificent!" exclaimed Robin, "why, it won't be long before we shall
+be able to send a message to India and get a reply in the same day."
+
+"In the same day!" cried Sam, slapping his thigh; "mark my words, as
+uncle Rik used to say, you'll be able to do that, my boy, within the
+same hour before long."
+
+"Come, Sam, don't indulge in prophecy.  It does not become you," said
+Robin.  "By the way, Frank, what about uncle Rik?  You have scarcely
+mentioned him."
+
+"Oh! he's the same hearty old self-opinionated fellow as ever.  Poor
+fellow, he was terribly cut up about your supposed death.  I really
+believe that he finds it hard even to smile now, much less to laugh.  As
+for Madge, she won't believe that you are lost--at least she won't admit
+it, though it is easy to see that anxiety has told upon her."
+
+"I wonder how my poor old mother has took it," said Slagg, pathetically.
+"But she's tough, an' can't be got to believe things easy.  She'll hold
+out till I turn up, I dessay, and when I present myself she'll say, `I
+know'd it!'"
+
+"But to return to the cable," said Sam, with an apologetic smile.  "Is
+there any great difference between it and the old ones?"
+
+"Not very much.  We have found, however, that a little marine wretch
+called the teredo attacks hemp so greedily that we've had to invent a
+new compound wherewith to coat it, namely, ground flint or silica,
+pitch, and tar, which gives the teredo the toothache, I suppose, for it
+turns him off effectually.  We have also got an intermediate piece of
+cable to affix between the heavy shore-end and the light deep-sea
+portion.  There are, of course, several improvements in the details of
+construction, but essentially it is the same as the cables you have
+already seen, with its seven copper wires covered with gutta-percha, and
+other insulating and protecting substances."
+
+"It's what I calls a tremendious undertakin'," said Slagg.
+
+"It is indeed," assented Frank, heartily, for like all the rest of the
+crew, from the captain downwards, he was quite enthusiastic about the
+ship and her work.  "Why, when you come to think of it, it's
+unbelievable.  I sometimes half expect to waken up and find it is all a
+dream.  Just fancy.  We left England with a freight of 21,000 tons.  The
+day is not long past when I thought a ship of 1000 tons a big one; what
+a mite that is to our Leviathan, as she used to be called.  We had 5512
+tons of cable, 3824 tons of fuel, 6499 tons of coal and electric
+apparatus and appliances when we started; the whole concern, ship
+included, being valued at somewhere about two millions sterling.  It may
+increase your idea of the size and needs of our little household when I
+tell you that the average quantity of coal burned on the voyage out has
+been 200 tons a day."
+
+"It's a positive romance in facts and figures," said Sam.
+
+"A great reality, you should have said," remarked Robin.
+
+And so, romancing on this reality of facts and figures in many a
+matter-of-fact statement and figurative rejoinder, they sat there among
+the great cranks, and valves, and pistons, and levers, until the
+declining day warned them that it was time to go ashore.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+SHOWS THE DREADFUL DEPRAVITY OF MAN, AND THE AMAZING EFFECTS OF
+ELECTRICAL TREATMENT ON MAN AND BEAST.
+
+Meanwhile Stumps went back to the hotel to brood over his misfortunes,
+and hatch out the plan which his rather unfertile brain had devised.
+
+Seated on a chair, with his elbows on his knees, his chin in his hands,
+and his nails between his teeth, he stared at a corner of the room,
+nibbled and meditated.  There was nothing peculiar about the corner of
+the room at which he stared, save that there stood in it a portmanteau
+which Sam had bought the day before, and in which were locked his and
+Robin's bags of treasure.
+
+"If I could only manage to get away by rail to--to--anywhere, I'd do
+it," he muttered.
+
+Almost simultaneously he leaped from his chair, reddened, and went to
+look-out at the window, for some one had tapped at the door.
+
+"Come in," he said with some hesitation.
+
+"Gen'l'man wants you, sir," said a waiter, ushering in the identical
+captain who had stopped Stumps on the street that day.
+
+"Excuse me, young man," he said, taking a chair without invitation, "I
+saw you enter this hotel, and followed you."
+
+"Well, and what business had you to follow me?" demanded Stumps, feeling
+uneasy.
+
+"Oh, none--none at all, on'y I find I must sail this afternoon, an' I've
+took a fancy to you, an' hope you've made up your mind to ship with me."
+
+Stumps hesitated a moment.
+
+"Well, yes, I have," he said, with sudden resolution.  "When must I be
+on board?"
+
+"At four, sharp," said the captain, rising.  "I like promptitude.  All
+right.  Don't fail me."
+
+"I won't," said Stumps, with emphasis.
+
+When the captain was gone, Stumps went nervously to the door and peeped
+out.  Nothing was visible, save the tail of a waiter's retiring coat.
+Cautiously shutting and bolting the door, he took up a strong
+walking-cane, and, after some difficulty, forced the lock of the
+portmanteau therewith.  Abstracting from it the two bags containing the
+treasures of his mates Robin and Sam, he wrapped them in a handkerchief,
+and put them into a canvas bag, which he had purchased for the reception
+of his own wardrobe.  Taking this under his arm he went quietly out of
+the hotel into the street and disappeared.
+
+He was closely followed by a waiter who had taken the liberty of peeping
+through the key-hole when he committed the robbery, and who never lost
+sight of him till he had seen him embark in a vessel in the harbour,
+named the Fairy Queen, and heard him give his name as James Gibson.
+Then he returned to the hotel, giving vent to his sentiments in the
+following soliloquy--"Of course it is no business of yours, John Ribbon,
+whether men choose to open their comrades' portmantys with keys or
+walkin'-sticks, but it is well for you to note the facts that came under
+your observation, and to reveal them to them as they concern--for a
+consideration."
+
+But the waiter did not at that time obtain an opportunity to reveal his
+facts to those whom they concerned, for Sam, Robin, Slagg, and Letta did
+not return to the hotel, but sent a pencil note to Stumps instead, to
+the effect that they had received an invitation from a telegraph
+official to pay him a visit at his residence up country; that, as he was
+to carry them off in his boat to the other side of the bay, they would
+not have an opportunity of calling to bid him, Stumps, a temporary
+farewell; that he was to make himself as happy as he could in Bombay
+during their absence, keep on the rooms at the hotel, and settle the
+bills, and that all expenses would be paid by them on their return.
+
+As the youth by whom this message was sent knew nothing about the
+senders or whither they had gone, and as Stumps did not again make his
+appearance, the landlord seized the few things that had been left by the
+supposed runaways.
+
+The invitation that had thus suddenly been given and accepted, was
+received from a gentleman named Redpath, an official in the Indian
+telegraph service.  They had been introduced to him on board of the
+Great Eastern by Sam's friend, Frank Hedley, and he became so interested
+in their adventurous career that he begged them to visit his bungalow in
+a rather out-of-the-way part of the country, even if only for a few
+days.
+
+"It won't take us long to get there," he said, "for the railway passes
+within thirty miles of it, and I'll drive you over as pretty a piece of
+country as you could wish to see.  I have a boat alongside, and must be
+off at once.  Do come."
+
+"But there are so many of us," objected Sam Shipton.
+
+"Pooh!  I could take a dozen more of you," returned the hospitable
+electrician; "and my wife rejoices--absolutely rejoices--when I bring
+home unexpected company."
+
+"What a pattern she must be," said Slagg; "but excuse me, sir, since you
+are so good as to invite us all, may I make so bold as to ax if you've
+got a servants'-'all?"
+
+"Well, I've not got exactly that," replied Redpath, with an amused look;
+"but I've got something of the same sort for my servants.  Why do you
+ask?"
+
+"Because, sir, I never did sail under false colours, and I ain't agoin'
+to begin now.  I don't set up for a gentleman, and though
+circumstances has throwed me along wi' two of 'em, so that we've bin
+hail-feller-well-met for a time, I ain't agoin' to condescend to consort
+wi' them always.  If you've got a servants'-'all, I'll come and thank
+'ee; if not, I'll go an' keep company wi' Stumps till Mr Shipton comes
+back."
+
+"Very well, my good fellow, then you shall come, and we'll find you a
+berth in the servants'-hall," said Redpath, laughing.
+
+"But what about Stumps?" said Robin; "he will wonder what has come over
+us.  Could we not return to the hotel first?"
+
+"Impossible," said the electrician; "I have not time to wait.  My leave
+has expired.  Besides, you can write him a note."
+
+So the note was written, as we have shown, and the party set out on
+their inland journey.
+
+Before starting, however, Frank Hedley, the engineer, took Sam and Robin
+aside.
+
+"Now, think over what I have mentioned," he said, "and make up your
+minds.  You see, I have some influence at head-quarters, and am quite
+sure I can get you both a berth on board to replace the men who have
+left us.  I think I can even manage to find a corner for Slagg, if he is
+not particular."
+
+"We shall only be too happy to go if you can manage it," replied Robin;
+"but Stumps, what about him?  We can't leave Stumps behind, you know."
+
+"Well.  I'll try to get Stumps smuggled aboard as a stoker or something,
+if possible, but to say truth, I don't feel quite so sure about that
+matter," replied Frank.
+
+"But shall we have time for this trip if you should prove successful?"
+asked Sam.
+
+"Plenty of time," returned his friend; "coaling is a slow as well as a
+dirty process, and to ship thousands of tons is not a trifle.  I daresay
+we shall be more than a week here before the shore-end is fixed and all
+ready to start."
+
+"Well then, Frank," said Sam; "adieu, till we meet as shipmates."
+
+The railway soon conveyed our adventurers a considerable distance into
+the interior of the country.
+
+At the station where Redpath and his guests got out, a vehicle was
+procured sufficiently large to hold them all, and the road over which
+they rapidly passed bore out the character which the electrician had
+given to it.  Every species of beautiful scenery presented itself--from
+the low scrubby plain, with clumps of tropical plants here and there, to
+undulating uplands and hills.
+
+"You must have some difficulties in your telegraph operations here,"
+said Robin to Redpath, "with which we have not to contend in Europe."
+
+"A few," replied his friend, "especially in the wilder parts of the
+East.  Would you believe it," he added, addressing himself to Letta,
+"that wild animals frequently give us great trouble?  Whenever a wild
+pig, a tiger, or a buffalo, takes it into his head to scratch himself,
+he uses one of our telegraph-posts if he finds it handy.  Elephants
+sometimes butt them down with their thick heads, by way of pastime, I
+suppose, for they are not usually fond of posts and wire as food.  Then
+bandicoots and porcupines burrow under them and bring them to the
+ground, while kites and crows sit on the wires and weigh them down.
+Monkeys, as usual, are most mischievous, for they lay hold of the wires
+with tails and paws, swinging from one to another, and thus form living
+conductors, which tend to mix and confuse the messages."
+
+"But does not the electricity hurt the monkeys?" asked Letta.
+
+"O no!  It does them no injury; and birds sitting on the wires are never
+killed by it, as many people suppose.  The electricity passes them
+unharmed, and keeps faithfully to the wire.  If a monkey, indeed, had a
+tail long enough to reach from the wire to the ground, and were to wet
+itself thoroughly, it might perhaps draw off some of the current, but
+fortunately the tails of monkeys are limited.  We often find rows of
+birds lying dead below our telegraph lines, but these have been killed
+by flying against them, the wires being scarcely visible among trees."
+
+"And what about savages, sir?" asked Jim Slagg, who had become deeply
+interested in the telegraphist's discourse; "don't they bother you
+sometimes?"
+
+"Of course they do," replied Redpath, with a laugh, "and do us damage at
+times, though we bother them too, occasionally."
+
+"How do you manage that, sir?" asked Jim.
+
+"Well, you must know we have been much hindered in our work by the
+corruptness and stupidity of Eastern officials in many places, and by
+the destructive propensities and rapacity of Kurds and wandering Arabs
+and semi-savages, who have found our posts in the desert good for
+firewood and our wires for arrow-heads or some such implements.  Some of
+our pioneers in wild regions have been killed by robbers when laying the
+lines, while others have escaped only by fighting for their lives.
+Superstition, too, has interfered with us sadly, though sometimes it has
+come to our aid."
+
+"There was one eccentric Irishman--one of the best servants I ever had,"
+continued Redpath, "who once made a sort of torpedo arrangement which
+achieved wonderful success.  The fellow is with me still, and it is a
+treat to hear Flinn, that's his name, tell the story, but the fun of it
+mostly lies in the expressive animation of his own face, and the
+richness of his brogue as he tells it.
+
+"`I was away in the dissert somewheres,' he is wont to say, `I don't
+rightly remimber where, for my brain's no better than a sive at
+geagraphy, but it was a wild place, anyhow--bad luck to it!  Well, we
+had sot up a line o' telegraph in it, an' wan the posts was stuck in the
+ground not far from a pool o' wather where the wild bastes was used to
+dhrink of a night, an' they tuk a mighty likin' to this post, which they
+scrubbed an' scraped at till they broke it agin an' agin.  Och! it's me
+heart was broke intirely wi' them.  At last I putt me brains in steep
+an' got up an invintion.  It wouldn't be aisy to explain it, specially
+to onscientific people.  No matter, it was an electrical arrangement,
+which I fixed to the post, an' bein' curious to know how it would work,
+I wint down to the pool an' hid mesilf in a hole of a rock, wid a big
+stone over me an ferns all round about.  I tuk me rifle, av coorse, just
+for company, you know, but not to shoot, for I'm not bloodthirsty, by no
+means.  Well, I hadn't bin long down whin a rustle in the laves towld me
+that somethin' was comin', an' sure enough down trotted a little deer--
+as purty a thing as you could wish to see.  It took a dhrink, tremblin'
+all the time, an' there was good cause, for another rustlin' was heard.
+Off wint the deer, just as a panther o' some sort jumped out o' the
+jungle an' followed it.  Bad luck go wid ye says I; but I'd scarce said
+it whin a loud crashing in the jungle towld me a buffalo or an elephant
+was comin'.  It was an elephant.  He wint an' took a long pull at the
+pool.  After that he goes straight to the post.  Ha! says I, it's an
+owld friend o' yours, I see.  When he putt his great side agin' it, for
+the purpose of scratchin', he got a shock from my electrical contrivance
+that caused his tail to stand upon end, and the hairs at its point to
+quiver.  Wid a grunt he stood back an' gave the post a look o' surprise,
+as much as to say, Did ye do that a-purpose, ye spalpeen?  Then he tried
+it again, an' got another shock that sot up his dander, for he twisted
+his long nose round the post, goin' to pull it down, no doubt, but he
+got another shock on the nose that made him squeal an' draw back.  Then
+he lowered his great head for a charge.  It's all over wid ye now, me
+post, says I; but the baste changed its mind, and wint off wid its tail
+an' trunk in the air, trumpetin' as if it had got the toothache.  Well,
+after that nothin' came for some time, and I think I must have gone off
+to slape, for I was awoke by a most tremendious roar.  Lookin' up I saw
+a tiger sprawlin' on his back beside the post!  Av coorse the shock
+wasn't enough to have knocked the baste over.  I suppose it had tripped
+in the surprise.  Anyhow it jumped up and seized the post with claws an'
+teeth, whin av coorse it got another shock that caused it to jump back
+about six yards, with its tail curled, its hair all on end, all its
+claws out, an' its eyes blazin'.  You seem to feel it, says I--into
+meself, for fear he'd hear me.  He didn't try it again, but wint away
+into the bush like a war-rocket.  After that, five or six little wild
+pigs came down, an' the smallest wan wint straight up to the post an'
+putt his nose to it.  He drew back wid a jerk, an' gave a scream that
+seemed to rend all his vitals.  You don't like it, thinks I; but, faix,
+it looked as if I was wrong, for he tried it again.  Another shock he
+got, burst himself a'most wid a most fearful yell, an' bolted.  His
+brothers didn't seem to understand it quite.  They looked after him in
+surprise.  Then the biggest wan gave a wriggle of his curly tail, an'
+wint to the post as if to inquire what was the matter.  When _he_ got it
+on the nose the effect was surprisin'.  The curl of his tail came
+straight out, an' it quivered for a minute all over, wid its mouth wide
+open.  The screech had stuck in his throat, but it came out at last so
+fierce that the other pigs had to join in self-defence.  I stuck my
+fingers in my ears and shut me eyes.  When I opened them again the pigs
+were gone.  It's my opinion they were all dissolved, like the zinc
+plates in a used-up battery; but I can't prove that.  Well, while I was
+cogitatin' on the result of my little invintion, what should walk out o'
+the woods but a man!  At first I tuk him for a big monkey, for the light
+wasn't very good, but he had a gun on his shoulder, an' some bits o'
+clothes on, so I knew him for a human.  Like the rest o' them, he wint
+up to the post an' looked at it, but didn't touch it.  Then he came to
+the pool an' tuk a dhrink, an' spread out his blanket, an' began to
+arrange matters for spendin' the rest o' the night there.  Av coorse he
+pulled out his axe, for he couldn't do widout fire to kape the wild
+bastes off.  An' what does he do but go straight up to my post an' lift
+his axe for a good cut.  Hallo! says I, pretty loud, for I was a'most
+too late.  Whew!  What a jump he gave--six futt if it was an inch.  Whin
+he came down he staggered with his back agin the post.  That was enough.
+The jump he tuk before was nothin' to what he did after.  I all but
+lost sight of him among the branches.  When he returned to the ground it
+was flat on his face he fell, an', rowlin' over his head, came up on his
+knees with a roar that putt the tigers and pigs to shame.  Sarves you
+right, says I, steppin' out of my hole.  Av coorse he thought I was a
+divil of some sort, for he turned as white in the face as a brown man
+could, an' bolted without so much as sayin' farewell.  The way that
+nigger laid his legs along the ground was a caution.  Ostriches are a
+joke to it.  I picked up his blanket an' fetched it home as a keepsake,
+an' from that day to this the telegraph-posts have been held sacred by
+man an' baste all over that part of the country.'"
+
+"I'd like to meet wi' the feller that told that yarn," said Jim Slagg.
+
+"So should I," said Letta, laughing.
+
+"You shall both have your wish, for there he stands," said Redpath, as
+they dashed round the corner of a bit of jungle, on the other side of
+which lay as pretty a bungalow as one could wish to see.  A man-servant
+who had heard the wheels, was ready at the gate to receive the reins,
+while under the verandah stood a pretty little woman to receive the
+visitors.  Beside her was a black nurse with a white baby.
+
+"Here we are, Flinn," said Redpath, leaping to the ground.  "All well,
+eh?"
+
+"Sure we're niver anything else here, sor," replied Flinn, with a modest
+smile.
+
+"I've just been relating your electrical experiences to my friends,"
+said the master.
+
+"Ah! now, it's drawin' the long bow you've been," returned the man; "I
+see it in their face."
+
+"I have rather diluted the dose than otherwise," returned Redpath.  "Let
+me introduce Mr Slagg.  He wishes to see Indian life in the
+`servants'-hall.'  Let him see it, and treat him well."
+
+"Yours to command," said Flinn, with a nod as he led the horses away.
+"This way, Mr Slug."
+
+"Slagg, if you please, Mr Flinn," said Jim.  "The difference between a
+a an' a u ain't much, but the results is powerful sometimes."
+
+While Slagg was led away to the region of the bungalow appropriated to
+the domestics, his friends were introduced to pretty little Mrs
+Redpath, and immediately found themselves thoroughly at home under the
+powerful influence of Indian hospitality.
+
+Although, being in the immediate neighbourhood of a veritable Indian
+jungle, it was natural that both Sam and Robin should wish to see a
+little sport among large game, their professional enthusiasm rose
+superior to their sporting tendencies, and they decided next day to
+accompany their host on a short trip of inspection to a neighbouring
+telegraph station.  Letta being made over to the care of the hostess,
+was forthwith installed as assistant nurse to the white baby, whom she
+already regarded as a delicious doll--so readily does female nature
+adapt itself to its appropriate channels.
+
+Not less readily did Jim Slagg adapt himself to one of the peculiar
+channels of man's nature.  Sport was one of Slagg's weaknesses, though
+he had enjoyed very little of it, poor fellow, in the course of his
+life.  To shoot a lion, a tiger, or an elephant, was, in Slagg's
+estimation, the highest possible summit of earthly felicity.  He was
+young, you see, at that time, and moderately foolish!  But although he
+had often dreamed of such bliss, he had never before expected to be
+within reach of it.  His knowledge of sport, moreover, was entirely
+theoretic.  He knew indeed how to load a rifle and pull the trigger, but
+nothing more.
+
+"You haven't got many tigers in these parts, I suppose?" he said to
+Flinn as they sauntered towards the house after seeing the electrical
+party off.  He asked the question with hesitation, being impressed with
+a strange disbelief in tigers, except in a menagerie, and feeling nearly
+as much ashamed as if he had asked whether they kept elephants in the
+sugar-basin.  To his relief Flinn did not laugh, but replied quite
+gravely--"Och! yes, we've got a few, but they don't often come nigh the
+house.  We have to thravel a bit into the jungle, and camp out, whin we
+wants wan.  I heard master say he'd have a try at 'em to-morrow, so
+you'll see the fun, for we've all got to turn out whin we go after
+tigers.  If you're fond o' sport in a small way, howiver, I can give ye
+a turn among the birds an' small game to-day."
+
+"There's nothing I'd like better," said Slagg, jumping at the offer like
+a hungry trout at a fly.
+
+"Come along, then," returned the groom heartily; "we'll take shot-guns,
+an' a spalpeen of a black boy to carry a spare rifle an' the bag."
+
+In a few minutes the two men, with fowling-pieces on their shoulders,
+and a remarkably attenuated black boy at their heels carrying a large
+bore rifle, entered the jungle behind the electrician's bungalow.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+A GREAT FIELD-DAY, IN WHICH SLAGG DISTINGUISHES HIMSELF.
+
+Now, although we have said that Jim Slagg knew how to pull a trigger, it
+does not follow that he knew how to avoid pulling that important little
+piece of metal.  He was aware, of course, that the keeping of his
+forefinger off the trigger was a point of importance, but how to keep it
+off when in a state of nervous expectation, he knew not, because his
+memory and the forefinger of his right hand appeared to get disconnected
+at such times, and it did not occur to him, just at first, that there
+was such an arrangement in gun-locks as half-cock.
+
+Flinn reminded him of the fact, however, when, soon after entering the
+jungle, his straw hat was blown off his head by an accidental discharge
+of Slagg's gun.
+
+"Niver mention it," said Flinn, picking up his riven headpiece, while
+poor Slagg overwhelmed him with protestations and apologies, and the
+black boy stood behind exposing his teeth, and gums and the whites of
+his eyes freely; "niver mention it, Mr Slagg; accidents _will_ happen,
+you know, in the best regulated families.  As for me beaver, it's better
+riddled than whole in this warm weather.  Maybe you'd as well carry your
+gun at what sodgers call `the showlder,' wid the muzzle pintin' at the
+moon--so; that's it.  Don't blame yoursilf, Mr Slagg.  Sure, it's worse
+than that I was when I begood, for the nasty thing I carried wint off
+somehow of its own accord, an' I shot me mother's finest pig--wan barrel
+into the tail, an' the other into the hid.  You see, they both wint off
+a'most at the same moment.  We must learn by exparience, av coorse.
+You've not had much shootin' yet, I suppose?"
+
+Poor, self-condemned Slagg admitted that he had not, and humbly attended
+to Flinn's instructions, after which they proceeded on their way; but it
+might have been observed that Flinn kept a corner of his eye steadily on
+his new friend during the remainder of that day, while the attenuated
+black kept so close to Slagg's elbow as to render the pointing of the
+muzzle of his gun at him an impossibility.
+
+Presently there was heard among the bushes a whirring of wings, and up
+flew a covey of large birds of the turkey species.  Flinn stepped
+briskly aside, saying, "Now thin, let drive!" while the attenuated black
+fell cautiously in rear.
+
+Bang! bang! went Slagg's gun.
+
+"Oh!" he cried, conscience-stricken; "there, if I haven't done it
+again!"
+
+"Done it! av coorse ye have!" cried Flinn, picking up an enormous bird;
+"it cudn't have bin nater done by a sportin' lord."
+
+"Then it ain't a tame one?" asked Slagg eagerly.
+
+"No more a tame wan than yoursilf, an' the best of aitin' too," said.
+Flinn.
+
+Jim Slagg went on quietly loading his gun, and did not think it
+necessary to explain that he had supposed the birds to be tame turkeys,
+that his piece had a second time gone off by accident, and that he had
+taken no aim at all!
+
+After that, however, he managed to subdue his feelings a little, and
+accidentally bagged a few more birds of strange form and beautiful
+plumage, by the simple process of shutting his eyes and firing into the
+middle of flocks, to the immense satisfaction of Flinn, who applauded
+all his successes and explained away all his failures in the most
+amiable manner.
+
+If the frequent expanding of the mouth from ear to ear, the exposure of
+white teeth and red gums, and the shutting up of glittering eyes,
+indicated enjoyment, the attenuated boy must have been in a blissful
+condition that day.
+
+"Why don't ye shoot yerself, Mister Flinn?" asked Slagg on one occasion
+while reloading.
+
+"Bekaise it shuits me better to look on," answered the self-denying man.
+"You see, I'm used to it; besides, I'm a marciful man, and don't care
+to shoot only for divarshion."
+
+"What's that?" cried Slagg, suddenly pointing his gun straight upwards
+at two brilliant black eyes which were gazing straight down at him.
+
+"Howld on--och! don't--"
+
+Flinn thrust the gun aside, but he was too late to prevent the
+explosion, which was followed by a lamentable cry, as a huge monkey fell
+into Slagg's arms, knocked him over with the shock, and bounded off his
+breast into its native woods, shrieking.
+
+"Arrah! he's niver a bit the worse," cried Flinn, laughing, in spite of
+his native politeness, "it was the fright knocked him off the branch.
+If you'd only given him wan shot he might have stud it, but two was too
+much for him.  But plaise, Mister Slagg, don't fire at monkeys again.  I
+niver do it mesilf, an' can't stand by to see it.  It's so like murther,
+an' the only wan I iver shot in me life was so like me own owld
+gran'mother that I've niver quite got over it."
+
+Slagg willingly promised never again to fire at monkeys, and they
+proceeded on their way.
+
+They had not gone far, when another whirring of wings was heard, but
+this time the noise was greater than on other occasions.
+
+"What is it?" asked Slagg eagerly, preparing for action.
+
+"Sure it's a pay-cock," said Flinn.
+
+"A what-cock?" asked Slagg, who afterwards described the noise to be
+like the flapping of a mainsail.
+
+"A pay-cock.  Splendid aitin'.  Fire, avic!"
+
+"What! fire at _that_?" cried Slagg, as a creature of enormous size and
+gorgeous plumage rose above the bushes.  "Ye must be jokin'.  I
+_couldn't_ fire at that."
+
+"Faix, an' ye naidn't fire at it _now_," returned Flinn with a quiet
+smile, "for it's a mile out o' range by this time.  Better luck--och! if
+there isn't another.  Now, thin, don't be in a hurry.  Be aisy.
+Whatever ye do, be aisy."
+
+While he spoke another huge bird appeared, and as Slagg beheld its size
+and spreading wings and tail, he took aim with the feelings of a
+cold-blooded murderer.  That is to say, he shut both eyes and pulled
+both triggers.  This double action had become a confirmed habit by that
+time, and Flinn commended it on the principle that there was "nothin'
+like makin' cocksure of everything!"
+
+Re-opening his eyes and lowering his gun, Slagg beheld the peacock
+sailing away in the far distance.
+
+"Sure ye've missed it, but after all it's a most awkward bird to hit--
+specially when ye don't pint the gun quite straight.  An' the tail, too,
+is apt to throw even a crack-shot out--so it is.  Niver mind; there's
+plenty more where that wan came from."
+
+Thus encouraged, our sportsman reloaded and continued his progress.
+
+It is said that fortune favours the brave, and on that occasion the
+proverb was verified.  There can be no question that our friend Jim
+Slagg was brave.  All Irishmen are courageous, therefore it is equally
+certain that Flinn was brave, and the attenuated black could not have
+been otherwise than brave, else he would not have continued to enjoy
+himself in the dangerous neighbourhood of Slagg's gun.  As a
+consequence, therefore, fortune did favour the sportsmen that day, for
+it brought them unexpectedly into the presence of the king of India's
+forests--a royal Bengal tiger--tawny skin, round face, glaring eyes, and
+black stripes complete from nose to tail!
+
+There was no doubt in Flinn's mind about it, as his actions proved, but
+there were considerable doubts in Slagg's mind, as was evinced by his
+immediate petrifaction--not with fear, of course, but with something or
+other remarkably similar.
+
+Slagg chanced to be walking in advance at the time, making his way with
+some trouble through a rather dense bit of jungle.  He had by that time
+recovered his self-possession so much that he was able to let his mind
+wander to other subjects besides sport.
+
+At the moment when the _rencontre_ occurred he chanced to be wandering
+in spirit among the groves of Pirate Island.  On turning sharp round a
+bend in the track, he found himself face to face with the tiger, which
+crouched instantly for a spring.  As we have said, the sportsman was
+instantly petrified.  He could not believe his eyes!  He must have
+believed something, however, else he would not have gazed with such
+dreadful intensity.  Yes, there, a few feet before him, crouched the
+tenant of the menagerie, without the cage--the creature of picture
+story-books endued with life!
+
+Had Slagg's life depended on his putting his gun to his shoulder he
+would have lost it, for he could not move.  His fingers, however, were
+gifted with independent action.  They gave a spasmodic jerk, and both
+barrels, chancing to be levelled correctly, sent their charges full into
+the tiger's face.
+
+Small shot may tickle a tiger but it cannot kill.  With a roar like
+thunder the brute sprang on its audacious enemy.  Fortunately Slagg made
+an _in_voluntary step to the rear at the moment, and fell on his back,
+so that the animal, half-blinded by shot and smoke, went over him, and
+alighted almost at the feet of Flinn.
+
+That worthy was equal to the occasion.  At the sound of his friend's
+double shot he had seized the large rifle and leaped forward in time to
+meet the baffled tiger.  Quick as light his practised hand discharged
+the heavy bullet, which, passing over the animal's head, went into its
+spine near the haunches, so that when it tried a second spring its hind
+legs refused their office, and it rolled over fuming and struggling in
+an agony of pain and rage.
+
+Flinn ran a few paces backward so as to reload in comparative safety,
+while Slagg followed his example, but in desperate haste.  Before he had
+half charged the first barrel, a second shot from the heavy rifle laid
+the royal monster dead on the ground.
+
+"Well done!" cried Flinn, seizing his friend's hand and wringing it.
+"It's Nimrod you are, no less.  I niver saw a purtier shot.  An', faix,
+it's not every man that kills a tiger his first day out."
+
+"But I _didn't_ kill it," said Slagg modestly.
+
+"Sure but ye drew first blood, me boy, so the tiger's yours, an' I wish
+you joy.  Come, we'll go home now an' git help to fetch the carcass.
+Won't they open their two eyes aich of them whin they see it!  Here, ye
+black spalpeen, take the rifle an' give me the gun."
+
+In a few minutes the fortunate hunters were wending their way rapidly
+homeward, and that night the whole party, while enjoying their supper,
+feasted their eyes on the magnificent form of the royal Bengal tiger as
+it lay on the verandah, in front of the electricians' bungalow.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+BEGINS WITH A DISAPPOINTMENT, CONTINUES WITH A GREAT RECEPTION, AND ENDS
+WITH A SERIES OF SURPRISES.
+
+At the breakfast-table next morning a telegram was handed to Redpath.
+There was nothing unusual in this.  On the contrary, it seemed
+peculiarly natural that telegrams should be frequent visitors at the
+house of a telegraphist, but it was not so natural that Redpath should
+first look at the missive with surprise, and then toss it across the
+table to Sam.
+
+"It is for you, Mr Shipton."
+
+"For me?  Impossible!  I am supposed to be dead at home," exclaimed Sam,
+tearing it open.  "Oh, it's from Frank Hedley, and--well, he _has_ been
+successful after all!  Listen, Robin.  Excuse me, Mrs Redpath.  May I
+read it aloud?"
+
+"By all means," answered the pretty little woman, who would probably
+have answered the same if he had asked leave to go to bed in his boots.
+
+"`Your affair settled'"--continued Sam, reading.
+
+"`Great Eastern starts almost immediately.  Come without delay.'"
+
+"How provoking!" exclaimed the pretty little woman.  "I had counted on
+having you a fortnight at least."
+
+"And I had counted on showing you some capital sport in our jungles,
+where we have all sorts of large game.  But of course you cannot do
+otherwise than obey the summons at once."
+
+"Of course not," said Sam and Robin together.
+
+Flinn left the room and entered the servants' quarters with something
+like a groan.
+
+"Sure it's bad luck has followed me iver since I left owld Ireland."
+
+"What's wrong with you?" asked Slagg, looking up from the slice of
+peacock breast with which he was regaling himself.
+
+"The matter?  Och, it's bad luck's the matter.  Hasn't our frindship
+only just begood, an' isn't it goin' to be cut short all of a suddint,
+niver more to be renewed?"
+
+In pathetic tones, and with many Hibernian comments, the poor man
+communicated the news brought by the telegram.  But regrets were of no
+avail; the orders were peremptory; the chance of returning to England in
+such circumstances too good to be lightly thrown away; so that same
+forenoon saw the whole party, with the skin of the royal tiger, on their
+way back to the city of Bombay.
+
+It is easier to imagine than to describe the state of mind into which
+they were thrown when, on returning to their hotel, they discovered the
+perfidy of Stumps.  Fortunately, they had enough of money left to
+discharge the hotel bill, and redeem their property.
+
+"You're quite sure of the name of the vessel he sailed in?" asked Sam of
+the waiter who had so cleverly obtained, and so cautiously retained, his
+information as to the proceedings of Stumps.
+
+"Quite sure, sir," replied the waiter.  "The ship's name was Fairy
+Queen, bound for the port of London, and the thief--the gen'lem'n, I
+mean--shipped in the name of James Gibson."
+
+Having received the "consideration" which he had anticipated, and had
+afterwards given up as lost, the waiter retired, and Sam, with his
+friends, went to inquire after the great cable with which they now felt
+themselves to be specially connected.
+
+"Letta," said Robin, as they went along, "you and I must part for a
+time."
+
+"Oh! must we?" asked the child, with a distressed look.
+
+"Yes, but only for a _very_ short time, dear," returned Robin.  "You
+know we cannot get you a berth on board the Great Eastern.  They won't
+even take you as chief engineer or captain!"
+
+"But why not as the captain's daughter--or his wife?" said Letta, who
+thoroughly understood and enjoyed a joke.
+
+"Because, Letta, you are engaged to me," replied Robin, with an offended
+look.
+
+"O, yes; I forgot that.  Well?"
+
+Well, what we have arranged is this.  I have met with many kind people
+here, some of whom have been greatly interested in your story, and one
+of them--a very nice lady, who is going home--has offered to take you
+with her, and deliver you safely to my mother in England, there to wait
+till I come home and marry you.
+
+"How nice!" exclaimed Letta; "and you'll be sure to come home soon?"
+
+"Yes, quite sure, and very soon."
+
+This arrangement, being deemed satisfactory, was afterwards carried into
+effect, and Letta sailed a few days later in one of the regular steamers
+for England _via_ the Suez Canal.
+
+Meanwhile the Great Eastern still lay at her moorings, completing the
+arrangements for her voyage.
+
+During this period our hero lived in a whirl of excitement.  It seemed
+to himself as if he were the subject of an amazing but by no means
+unpleasant dream, the only dark spots in which were the departure of
+Letta and the depravity of John Shanks, _alias_ James Gibson, _alias_
+Stumps.
+
+"Oh!  Stumps, Stumps," he soliloquised, sadly, one day while standing on
+"the green" in the unromantic shade of a huge bale of cotton, "how could
+you behave so after being our trusted comrade so long!"
+
+"Never mind Stumps just now," said Sam Shipton, making his appearance at
+the moment, "but come along with me at once, for we have received an
+invitation, through my good and remarkable friend Frank Hedley, to the
+grand entertainment to be given to-night at the palace of the chief and
+Bahee Sahib of Junkhundee."
+
+"And who may that be?" asked Robin, with an incredulous smile.
+
+"What! know you not the great chief whose praise is in the mouths of
+all--Hindu, Mohammedan, Jew, and Gentile, because he feeds and
+entertains them all like a prince?"
+
+"He is the creation of your own brain, Sam.  I fancy."
+
+"No, indeed," protested Sam, earnestly, "I do not jest.  The Bahee Sahib
+is a wealthy young Mahratta chieftain, who has been consistently loyal
+to us, and who entertains mixed parties of Englishmen and natives in
+European style, and does his best to break down the barriers of
+prejudice and caste.  He has been hospitably received on board the Great
+Eastern, it seems, and is now getting up a grand affair in honour of
+Captain Halpin and his officers.  So, come along."
+
+"But, my dear Sam, you forget, we have not a dress suit between us, and
+in the present condition of our finances it would be folly to--"
+
+"Fiddlesticks, Robin.  We have only to make a couple of turbans out of
+bath-towels and a few peacock feathers; turn Persian shawls, which we
+can borrow, into kilts, put on slippers, bare our legs and paint them
+with red and blue stripes crossed, to indicate something of Scottish
+Highland origin, anoint our noses with blue bear's-grease, and--"
+
+"Nonsense, Sam; be serious if you can, and consider what we are really
+to do."
+
+"You're so impatient, Robin.  The thing has all been considered for us.
+We have nothing to do but accept our fate.  Frank Hedley, who is exactly
+your size, has a dress suit which he will lend you, and a friend of his,
+who happens to be exactly and conveniently my size, has also a suit, and
+is equally accommodating.  Come now, for time presses, and I am told the
+Bahee's wife loves punctuality--but she's liberal-minded like her
+husband, and makes allowance for laziness, especially in hot weather.
+She is a regular trump, it seems, and quite amazed our electricians,
+during her visit to the big ship, by her intelligent comprehension of
+all they explained to her.  She is an accomplished equestrian, and
+dresses as a native princess, with a huge ornament in her nose, but does
+not disdain to mingle with English ladies in the Bombay Rotten Row, and
+uses a European saddle."
+
+The account which Sam had thus slightly sketched was more than borne out
+by the facts that evening.  The young Rajah's reception-rooms, blazing
+with light, were decorated with all that the wealth of fancy could
+suggest or the wealth of precious metal procure, while music and perfume
+filled the air and intoxicated the senses.
+
+For some time Sam and Robin moved slowly about in the crowded rooms,
+finding themselves rubbing shoulders, now with Eastern aristocrats in
+richest costume and glittering jewels, now with England's warriors in
+scarlet and blue; sometimes with Parsees, Hindus, Mohammedans, and Jews
+in their characteristic garbs; at other times with European civilians,
+like themselves, in sober black.
+
+It was a bewildering scene, and the loud continuous murmur of many
+voices, chattering in many tongues, did not tend to decrease the
+bewilderment.
+
+"What are they about over there?" said Robin, directing his companion's
+attention to a room in which the people appeared to be observing
+something with great attention.
+
+"I don't know.  Let's go and see," said Sam.
+
+A little polite pushing brought them into an apartment in which an
+English professor of conjuring, who had been engaged for the occasion,
+was exhibiting his tricks.  They were poor enough, and would not have
+commanded much applause from any audience, except one that had met to
+enjoy whatever chanced to be provided.
+
+In another room, however, they found a performer of much greater
+capacity--a man who possessed considerable powers as a musician, low
+comedian, and local satirist; he was noted for his delineations of
+native character, and succeeded in making the Parsees laugh heartily at
+his caricature of the Hindus, while he convulsed the Hindus with his
+clever skits on the Parsees.  He also made effective reference to the
+Great Eastern and her work, bringing out the humorous aspects of
+telegraphy and of quick communication between India and England.
+
+"Come, let's go and see if we can find anything to eat," said Sam, when
+tired of this man.
+
+"Who is that?" asked Robin, as they moved through the crowd.
+
+"Why, that's the Bahee himself.  See, he has got hold of Captain Halpin,
+and seems greatly pleased to lead him about."
+
+The Rajah did indeed exhibit much satisfaction in his beaming brown face
+at having got hold of so noted a character as the commander of the
+monster ship, and it was pleasant to see the almost childlike glee, with
+which, taking the captain by the hand, he threaded his way through the
+crowd, introducing him right and left to his friends.  Not less pleasant
+was it to observe the lively interest, with which the natives regarded
+the captain when they learned who he was.
+
+At this point in the evening's proceedings, a gentleman in civilian
+costume came up to Sam Shipton, and asked him if he were acquainted with
+Mr Davis--one of the petty officers of the Great Eastern.
+
+"I know him slightly," said Sam.
+
+"He has got into trouble, sir," said the stranger, "and begged me to
+find you, if possible, and take you to him.  I have been on board the
+Great Eastern looking for you, and was directed here."
+
+"That's strange," returned Sam, "I have seldom spoken to the man.  Are
+you sure he did not send you for some one else--one of his mess-mates?"
+
+"Quite sure, sir.  And he bade me urge you to go quickly, else you may
+be too late."
+
+"Well--lead the way.  Come, Robin, I'm sorry to quit this gay and
+festive scene--especially before supper--but it can't be helped.  You'll
+go with me, and we can return together."
+
+The stranger seemed to hesitate a moment, as if annoyed at Robin being
+thus asked to go, but, as if quickly making up his mind, led them out of
+the Rajah's residence, and, after a smart walk, conducted them into one
+of the poorer districts of the city.
+
+"What sort of trouble has the man got into?" asked Sam as they went
+along.
+
+"I really do not know.  He will tell you when you see him, I suppose.  I
+am only a casual acquaintance of his, and came on this errand to oblige
+him, solely because he seemed in great mental distress and was very
+urgent."
+
+Soon the conversation turned upon cable-laying, and, finding that Robin
+had been at the laying of the Atlantic cable of 1856, the stranger
+inquired about the attempts that had been made to injure that cable.
+
+"Tell me, now, would you think it a sin," he said, with a peculiar look
+at Sam, "to drive a nail into the cable so as to destroy it, if you were
+offered the sum of ten thousand pounds?"
+
+"Of course I would," said Sam, looking at his conductor with surprise.
+"I wonder that you should ask the question."
+
+"Why should you wonder," returned the man with a smile, "at any question
+which aims at the investigation of that great enigma styled the human
+mind?  I am fond of the study of character, and of those principles of
+good and evil which influence men.  Under given circumstances and
+conditions, the commission of a certain sin is greatly more blameworthy
+than the commission of the same sin under different conditions and
+circumstances.  Do you not think so?"
+
+"Of course I do," said Sam.  "The man who, having been born and brought
+up among pickpockets, and under strong temptation commits a theft, is
+not nearly so guilty as the man would be who, having been trained under
+refined and Christian influences, should commit a similar theft; but I
+do not see the application of your argument, for your question did not
+refer to the relative depth of guilt, but to the sinfulness or innocence
+of a certain dastardly act for a tempting sum of money."
+
+"I may not have put my question very philosophically," returned the
+stranger, "but I would like to have your opinion as to whether you
+think, under _any_ circumstances of distress--poverty, for instance,
+with those dependent on one dying of hunger--a man would be justified in
+destroying the power of a telegraph cable for a sum of money--part, let
+us suppose, paid in advance, and the remainder after the deed had been
+accomplished."
+
+"My opinion is that no circumstances whatever would justify such an
+act," said Sam with indignation.  "Don't you agree with me, Robin?"
+
+"Of _course_ I do," said Robin with even greater indignation.
+
+"And _I_ quite agree with you, gentlemen," said the stranger, with a
+wider smile than before; "but I like to have my opinions corroborated or
+combated by other minds.  We have now reached our destination; please
+follow me, and stoop a little, for the ceiling of the passage is rather
+low, and the poor people here cannot afford to light it."
+
+The recent discussion had diverted Sam's mind from the character of the
+place into which he had been led, but a suspicion which had been growing
+now assailed him forcibly.
+
+"Keep your stick handy," he whispered to Robin, at the same time
+grasping more firmly a stout cudgel which he carried.
+
+These precautions seemed needless, however, for the stranger, opening
+with a latch-key a door at the further end of the dark passage, ushered
+them into a dimly lighted room, where about a dozen men were seated
+round a table drinking and smoking.
+
+The men rose on the entrance of the visitors and received them with
+courtesy.
+
+"Mr Davis will be glad to see you, sir," said one; "he has been in much
+anxiety, but here he comes and will speak for himself."
+
+A door at the other end of the room opened, and a tall slightly-built
+man entered.  Sam saw at once that he was not Davis.
+
+"Fool!" growled the man, with a savage look at the stranger who had
+conducted them there, "you have brought the _wrong man_!"
+
+"I had already begun to suspect as much," returned the other, with a
+light laugh.
+
+Swallowing his disgust, apparently with an effort, the slim man turned
+to Sam and said, "A mistake has been made, sir.  One or two of my
+friends here will conduct you to any part of the city you may wish to go
+to."
+
+"I require no assistance," said Sam, flushing with sudden indignation.
+"I believe that you are conspirators, and will take particular note of
+your dwelling, in order that I may spoil your game."
+
+He was about to turn and quit the room, when he was suddenly seized from
+behind by two powerful men, who seemed to have come on the scene by
+rising through the floor!  At the same moment Robin was similarly
+secured.  They did not, however, submit tamely.  Both were strong-bodied
+as well as high-spirited, and Sam was large as well as strong.
+
+But what were their powers against such odds!  For a few seconds they
+struggled furiously.  Then, feeling that their efforts were fruitless,
+they ceased.
+
+"It is as well to go quietly, my fine fellows," said the slim man in a
+slightly sarcastic tone.  "We are not only more than a match for you,
+but we happen to belong to a class of gentlemen who don't allow trifles
+to stand in their way.  At the same time we object to murder when we can
+get along without it.  Some of us will therefore conduct you to another
+part of the city.  Now, I give you fair warning, if you struggle or try
+to make a noise on the way, we will silence you in a manner that will
+effectually keep you quiet for ever.  Just have your knives handy, men,
+and don't exercise forbearance if these gentlemen turn out to be fools."
+
+A prick in their necks by the point of some sharp instrument emphasised
+these words to Robin and Sam, and, at the same time, proved that the
+subordinates were quite ready, perhaps even anxious, to obey their
+superior.  They suffered themselves, therefore, to be blindfolded, and
+led out of the house.
+
+Of course once or twice they both thought of making a sudden struggle
+and endeavouring to throw off their captors, but the vice-like strength
+of the fingers that held them, and the recollection of the sharp
+instruments near their necks induced discretion; besides, the absence of
+the sound of footsteps told them that they could not count on aid from
+passers-by, even if the dwellers in such a region had been willing to
+assist them, which was not probable.
+
+After passing quickly along several streets, the men who led them
+stopped and relaxed their hold.
+
+"Now, you stand quiet for half a minute," said one of them gruffly;
+"there's a knife close to each of your spines at this moment."
+
+Thus warned, the captives stood still for nearly a minute.  Then Sam
+lost patience.
+
+"Well," he said, angrily, "how long do you mean to keep us here?"
+
+Receiving no reply, he suddenly pulled the handkerchief from his eyes
+and assumed the pugilistic attitude with the celerity of one whose life
+may depend on his action, but the only enemy to be seen was Robin, who,
+having also pulled down the handkerchief, stood staring at his comrade
+in mute surprise.
+
+"They're gone!" cried Sam, bursting into a fit of laughter.  "The
+villains!  The scoundrels!  But who can they be?  I fear there can be
+little doubt as to what mischief they are up to."
+
+"We have not the smallest clue to trace them by," said Robin, with a
+vexed expression.
+
+"Not the smallest.  I don't even know what quarter of the town we are in
+now," returned Sam.
+
+"The handkerchiefs!" exclaimed Robin with sudden animation.
+
+"Well, what of them?"
+
+"They--they may have names in the corners."
+
+Again the risible Sam burst into a loud laugh, as the idea of scoundrels
+possessing any handkerchiefs of their own at all, much less having their
+names marked in the corners; and poor Robin, whose memories of maternal
+care had prompted the thought, felt some degree of confusion, which was
+deepened when he discovered that the kerchiefs, with which their eyes
+had been bound, were their own.
+
+They were startled by a gruff voice demanding to know what they were
+laughing at, and kicking up such a row at that time of the morning!
+
+It was one of the guardians of the night, who became very polite on
+drawing nearer and being informed, in a mild voice, by Sam that they had
+lost their way and would be much indebted for guidance, for Sam thought
+it best to say nothing about their adventure until they had had ample
+time to think it over and decide what was best to be done.
+
+Having been directed how to go, having lost themselves a second time,
+and been directed again by another guardian, they found themselves at
+last in the neighbourhood of the port, and here the sound of loud
+voices, as if engaged in some nocturnal orgies, was heard in the
+distance.
+
+"As we seem in for a night of adventure," said Sam, "we may as well
+accept our fate, and go see what it's all about."
+
+"Agreed," said Robin.
+
+Hurrying forward, they came upon a remarkable and picturesque scene.
+The engineers of the Great Eastern had chosen the previous day for the
+laying of the mile of land-line, with which the cable was to be
+connected.  The burying of it in its appointed home had commenced at
+half-past six in the evening and had continued all through the night.
+It was about 2 a.m. when our adventurers came upon the scene.  The
+trench was cut through ground on which a number of soldiers were
+encamped, whose white tents looked ghostlike in the feeble star-light,
+and lines of naked natives were seen, waving lanterns, pushing along the
+mysterious cable, or, with hands and feet busily pressing down the loose
+soil that covered the buried portion.
+
+The whole operation was conducted with a superabundance of noise, for
+the burying of a rope in a trench three feet deep was in itself such a
+tremendous joke to the coolies, that they entered upon it with much
+excitement as a sort of unusual piece of fun.  That they were in some
+degree also impressed with the mysterious and important object of their
+work might have been gathered from their chant:--"Good are the
+cable-wallahs, great are their names; good are the cable-wallahs, wah!
+wah! wah! great are the cable-wallahs, wah!" which they continued
+without intermission all through the night, to their own intense delight
+and to the annoyance no doubt of the military unfortunates who were
+encamped on the ground.
+
+Besides the naked fellows who, in their excitement and activity,
+resembled good-humoured, brown demons, there were many other figures in
+English dress moving about, directing and encouraging, running from
+point to point, flitting to and fro like wills-o'-the-wisp, for all bore
+lights, and plunged ever and anon out of sight in the trench.  Between
+three and four o'clock the work was completed; tests were taken, the
+portion of cable was pronounced perfect, and communication was thus
+established between the cable-house and Rampart Row.  This was the first
+link in the great chain of submarine telegraphy between India and
+England.
+
+"Now, Robin," said Sam, with a tremendous yawn, "as we've seen the first
+act in the play, it is time, I think, to go home to bed."
+
+With a yawn that rivalled that of his comrade, Robin admitted the
+propriety of the proposal, and, half an hour later, they turned in, to
+sleep--"perchance to dream!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+DESCRIBES SEVERAL IMPORTANT EVENTS.
+
+The laying of this thick shore-end of the cable was an important point
+in the great work.
+
+By that time Robin and cousin Sam had been regularly installed as
+members of the expedition, and were told off with many others to assist
+at the operation.
+
+The Chiltern carried the great coil in her tanks.  After rounding Colaba
+Point into Back Bay, she found a barge waiting to receive some
+two-and-a-half miles of the cable, with which she was to proceed to the
+shore.  The barge resembled a huge Noah's Ark, having a canvas awning to
+protect the cable, which was very sensitive to heat.
+
+A measure of anxiety is natural at the beginning of most enterprises,
+and there were some who dreaded a "hitch" with superstitious fear, as if
+it would be a bad omen.  But all went well.
+
+"Now then, boys--shove her along; push her through," said an experienced
+leader among the cable-hands, who grasped the great coil and guided it.
+The men took up the words at once, and, to this species of spoken
+chorus, "shove her along, push her through," the snaky coil was sent
+rattling over the pulley-wheels by the tank and along the wooden gutter
+prepared for it, to the paying-out wheel at the Chiltern's stern, whence
+it plunged down into the barge, where other experienced hands coiled it
+carefully round and round the entire deck.
+
+It is difficult to describe the almost tender solicitude with which all
+this was done.  The cable was passed carefully--so carefully--through
+all the huge staples that were to direct its course from the fore-tank
+to the wheel at the stern.  Then it was made to pass over a wheel here
+and under a wheel there, to restrain its impetuosity, besides being
+passed three times round a drum, which controlled the paying-out.  A man
+stood ready at a wheel, which, by a few rapid turns, could bring the
+whole affair to a standstill should anything go wrong.  In the fore-tank
+eight men guided each coil to prevent entanglement, and on deck men were
+stationed a few feet apart all along to the stern, to watch every foot
+as it passed out.  Three hours completed the transfer.  Then the barge
+went slowly shoreward, dropping the cable into the sea as she went.
+
+It was quite a solemn procession!  First went a Government steam-tug,
+flaunting flags from deck to trucks as thick as they could hang.  Then
+came the barge with her precious cargo.  Then two boats full of
+cable-hands, and an official gig pulled by a Chinaman, while the
+steam-launch Electric kept buzzing about as if superintending all.
+
+When the tug had drawn the barge shoreward as far as she could with
+safety, the smaller "Electric" took her place.  When she also had
+advanced as far as her draught allowed, a boat carried to the shore a
+hawser, one end of which was attached to the cable.  Then the
+cable-hands dropped over the sides of the barge up to waist, chest, or
+neck, (according to size), and, ranging themselves on either side of the
+rope and cable, dragged the latter to the shore, up the trench made for
+its reception, and laid its end on the great stone table, where it was
+made fast, tested by the electricians, as we have said, and pronounced
+perfect.
+
+A few more days had to pass before the insatiable Great Eastern was
+filled with coal and reported ready for sea.  Then, as a matter of
+course, she wound up with a grand feast--a luncheon--on board, at which
+many of the leading authorities and merchants of Bombay were present,
+with a brilliant company which entirely filled the spacious saloons.
+
+"Owing to circumstances," said Sam to Robin that day, "over which we
+have no control, you and I cannot be included among the guests at this
+approaching feast."
+
+"I'm sorry for that, Sam," said our hero.
+
+"Why so, Robin?  Does a morbid devotion to chicken and ham, or sweets,
+influence you?"
+
+"Not at all, though I make no pretence of indifference to such things,
+but I should so much like to hear the speeches."
+
+"Well, my boy, your desire shall be gratified.  Through the influence of
+our, I might almost say miraculous, friend, Frank Hedley, we shall be
+permitted to witness the proceedings from a retired corner of the
+saloon, in company with crockery and waiters and other _debris_ of the
+feast."
+
+At the appointed time the company assembled, and enjoyed as good a
+luncheon as money could procure.
+
+"How some people do eat!" murmured Robin from his corner to Sam, who sat
+beside him.
+
+"Yes, for it is their nature to," replied Sam.
+
+After the first toast was drunk the company braced themselves to the
+mental work of the afternoon, and although, as a matter of course, a
+good deal of twaddle was spoken, there was also much that threw light on
+the subject of ocean telegraphy.  One of the leading merchants said, in
+his opening remarks: "Few of those present, I daresay, are really
+familiar with the history of ocean telegraphy."
+
+"Ah!" whispered Robin to Sam, "that's the man for me.  He's sure to tell
+us a good deal that we don't know, and although I have been ransacking
+Bombay ever since I arrived, for information, I don't yet feel that I
+know much."
+
+"Hold your tongue, Robin, and listen," said Sam.
+
+"Mind your foot, sir," remonstrated one of the steward's assistants, who
+had a lugubrious countenance.
+
+Robin took his foot out of a soup tureen, and applied himself to listen.
+
+"When I reflect," continued the merchant, "that it is now fourteen years
+since the first ocean telegraph of any importance was laid,--when I
+remember that the first cable was laid after an infinity of personal
+effort on the part of those who had to raise the capital,--when I
+mention that it was really a work of house-to-house visitation, when
+sums of 500 pounds to 1000 pounds, and even 10,000 pounds were raised by
+private subscription, with a view to laying a telegraph cable between
+England and America, when I reflect that the Queen's Government granted
+the use of one of its most splendid vessels, the Agamemnon (_Hear! hear!
+and applause_), and that the American Government granted the use of an
+equally fine vessel, the Niagara--" (_Hear! hear_! and another round of
+applause, directed at the American Consul, who was present.)
+
+("Five glasses smashed _that_ round," growled the lugubrious waiter.)
+
+"When I reflect," continued the merchant, "that the expedition set out
+in 1857 with the greatest hopefulness, but proved a total failure--that
+the earnest men (_Hear! hear_!) connected with it again set to work the
+following year, and laid another cable (_Applause_), which, after
+passing through it a few messages of great importance to England and
+America (_Hear_!) also ceased communication, which so damped the courage
+of all concerned, that for seven or eight weary years nothing was
+attempted--no, I should not say nothing, for during that period Mr
+Cyrus Field," (thunders of long-continued applause, during which the
+lugubrious waiter counted the demolition of six glasses and two dessert
+plates), "without whose able and persevering advocacy it is a question
+whether to this day we should have had ocean telegraphy carried out at
+all--during that period, I say, Mr Cyrus Field never gave himself rest
+until he had inspired others with some of the enthusiasm that burned so
+brightly in himself, which resulted in the renewed effort of 1865, with
+its failure and loss of 1213 miles of cable,--when I think of the
+indomitable pluck and confidence shown by such men as Thomas Brassey,
+Sir Samuel Canning, Sir James Anderson, Sir Daniel Gooch, Sir Richard
+Glass, Mr George Elliot.  Mr Fender, Captain Sherard Osborn, and
+others--men of mind, and men of capital, and men who could see no
+difficulties--and I like men who can see no difficulties," (_Hear! hear!
+and loud applause_.)
+
+("You'll see more difficulties than ye bargain for, if ye go through
+life makin' people smash crockery like that," growled the lugubrious
+waiter.)
+
+"When I think of these men, and of the formation of the Telegraph
+Construction and Maintenance Company (_Applause_), and the successful
+laying of the 1866 cable, and the picking-up and completion of the old
+cable," (_Loud cheers_),--("Hm! a decanter gone this time.  _Will_ you
+take your foot out of the soup tureen, sir," from the lugubrious man,
+and an impatient "hush!" from Robin.)
+
+"When I think of all these things, and a great deal more that I cannot
+venture to inflict on the indulgent company (_Go on_!)  I feel that the
+toast which I have the honour to propose deserves a foremost place in
+the toasts of the day, and that you will heartily respond to it, namely,
+Success to the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, for that
+Company has laid scores of cables since its formation, and has now
+successfully commenced, and will doubtless triumphantly complete, the
+laying of the cable which we have met to celebrate to-day--the fourth
+great enterprise, I may remark, which the Company has undertaken--the
+cable that is soon to connect India with England."
+
+The merchant sat down amid thunders of applause, during which the
+reckoning of breakages was lost, and finally abandoned by the lugubrious
+waiter.
+
+At first Robin and Sam listened with great interest and profound
+attention, and the former treasured in his memory, or made pencil notes
+of, such facts and expectations as the following:--That only nine months
+previously had they commenced the construction of the cable which was
+now about to be laid; that Captain Halpin in the Great Eastern had laid
+the French Atlantic cable; that in a few weeks they hoped to connect
+Bombay with Malta, and two months later with England; that, a few months
+after that, England would be connected with the Straits of Malacca and
+Singapore.  "In short," said one gentleman at the close of his speech,
+"we hope that in 1871 India will be connected, chiefly, by submarine
+telegraph, with China, Australia, Europe, and America, and that your
+morning messages will reach home about the same hour at which they are
+sent from here, allowing, of course, for the difference in time; and
+that afternoon and evening messages from Europe will be in your hands at
+an early hour next morning."
+
+At this point the heat and unpleasant fumes around him began to tell
+upon Robin, and he suggested that they had better go on deck for a
+little fresh air.
+
+"I'll not budge," said Sam, positively.  "Why, the best is yet to come."
+
+Saying this, to the surprise of Robin, Sam rose, went forward to the
+table, and asked permission to make a few remarks.
+
+"Who is he?--what? eh!" exclaimed the chairman.  "Turn him out," cried
+one.  "Sit down," cried another.  "No, no, let him speak," cried a
+third.  "Don't you know it is Samuel Shipton, the great electrician?"
+
+"Bravo! go on! speak out!" cried several voices, accompanied by loud
+applause.
+
+"Gentlemen," began Sam in his softest voice, "I regard this as one of
+the greatest occasions of--of--my life," (_Hear! hear_! from a fussy
+guest; and _Hush! hush! and then we shall hear here better_, from an
+angry one).  "I little thought," continued Sam, warming apparently with
+his subject--or the heat, "little thought that on this great occasion I
+could--could--I could--" (_would or should; go on, man_, from an
+impatient guest).
+
+"Oh, Sam, don't stick!" cried Robin, in an agony of anxiety.
+
+"Who's that?  Put him out!" chorused several voices indignantly.
+
+"There, sir, you've put your foot in it at last," said the lugubrious
+waiter.
+
+Robin thought he referred to the interruption, but the waiter's eyes and
+forefinger directed his attention to the soup tureen, which, in his
+eagerness, he had sacrificed with a stamp.  Finding that no further
+notice was taken of the interruption, he listened, while Sam
+continued:--
+
+"Yes, gentlemen, I have some difficulty in starting, but, once set
+agoing, gentlemen, I can keep on like an alarum clock.  What nonsense
+have some of you fellows been talking!  Some of you have remarked that
+you shall be able to exchange messages with England in a few hours.
+Allow me to assure you that before long you will accomplish that feat in
+a few minutes."
+
+"Pooh! pooh!" ejaculated an irascible old gentleman with a bald head.
+
+"Did you say `pooh!' sir?" demanded Sam, with a terrible frown.
+
+"I did, sir," replied the old gentleman, with a contemptuous smile.
+
+"Then, sir, take that."
+
+Sam hurled a wine decanter at the old gentleman, which, missing its
+mark, fell with a loud crash at the feet of Robin, who awoke with a
+start to find Sam shaking him by the arm.
+
+"Wake up, Robin," he said; "man, you've lost the best speech of the
+evening.  Come--come on deck now, you've had quite enough of it."
+
+"Yes, an' done enough o' damage too," growled the lugubrious waiter.
+
+So Robin became gradually aware that Sam's speech was a mere fancy,
+while the smashing of the soup tureen was a hard fact.
+
+It may not, however, be out of place to remark here that the prophecy
+made by Sam in Robin's dream, did afterwards become a great reality.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+THE CABLE LAID.
+
+"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.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+UNCLE RIK'S ADVENTURES.
+
+Uncle Rik seated in Mr Wright's drawing-room; Mr Wright in an
+easy-chair near the window; Mrs Wright--with much of the lustre gone
+out of her fine eyes--lying languidly on the sofa; Madge Mayland at work
+on some incomprehensible piece of netting beside her aunt,--all in deep
+mourning.
+
+Uncle Rik has just opened a telegram, at which he stares, open eyed and
+mouthed, without speaking, while his ruddy cheeks grow pale.
+
+"Not bad news, I trust, brother," said poor Mrs Wright, to whom the
+worst news had been conveyed when she heard of the wreck of the Triton.
+Nothing could exceed that, she felt, in bitterness.
+
+"What is it, Rik?" said Mr Wright, anxiously.
+
+"Oh! nothing--nothing.  That is to say, not bad news, certainly, but
+amazing news.  Boh!  I'm a fool."
+
+He stopped short after this complimentary assertion, for uncle Rik had
+somewhere read or heard that joy can kill, and he feared to become an
+accomplice in a murder.
+
+"Come, Rik, don't keep us in suspense," said his brother, rising;
+"something _has_ happened."
+
+"O yes, something has indeed happened," cried Rik, "for this telegram is
+from Sam Shipton."
+
+"Then Robin is alive!" cried Mrs Wright, leaping up, while Madge turned
+perfectly white.
+
+"No--that is to say--yes--it may be so--of course _must_ be so--for,--
+bah! what an ass I am!  Listen."
+
+He proceeded to read Sam's telegram, while Mrs Wright covered her face
+with her hands and sank trembling on the sofa.
+
+The telegram having suffered rather severe mutilation at the hands of
+the foreigners by whom it was transmitted, conveyed a very confusing
+idea of the facts that were intended, but the puzzling over it by the
+whole party, and the gradual, though not perfect, elucidation of its
+meaning, had perhaps the effect of softening the joyful intelligence to
+a bearable extent.
+
+"Now," said uncle Rik, while the perspiration of mental effort and
+anxiety stood on his bald forehead, "this is the outcome of it all.  Sam
+clearly says `all well,' which means, of course, that Robin is alive--
+thank God for that!  Then he refers to a previous telegram, which, of
+course, must be lost, for it hasn't come to hand.  Bah!  I wonder the
+nasty things ever do come to hand.  Anyhow, that telegram must have been
+meant to announce their safe arrival at Bombay, undoubtedly."
+
+"Of course--I see it now," said Mrs Wright, with a deep sigh.
+
+"Of course," echoed Rik.  "Then there's some queer reference to a ship
+and a Fiery Queen, and a Stamps and a Shunks, and a Gibson, and a thief,
+and three bags, and the port of London, which of course means London,
+and a public-house named, apparently, Torture--"
+
+"Tartar, I think, uncle," said Madge.
+
+"Well, Tartar if you like, it's much the same if you catch him.  And it
+winds up with a girl--which is not surprisin'--who is to be
+expectorated--"
+
+"Expected, surely," said Madge, with a rather hysterical laugh, for the
+conflicting feelings within her tended rather to tears.
+
+"So be it, Madge--expected, with an unreadable name beginning with an
+L,--and that's all; and a pretty penny he must have paid to send us such
+a lot o' rubbish."
+
+"It has brought the oil of gladness to our hearts, brother," said Mr
+Wright, "and is worth its cost.  But, now, what do you intend to do?"
+
+"Do!" exclaimed Rik, who was never happier than when he could explode
+his feelings in action.  "I'll go this moment to the port of London,
+find out the owners of the Fiery Queen, make particular inquiries about
+the Stampses, Shunkses, and Gibsons, visit Torture public-houses--though
+they're all that, more or less--and see if I can hear anything about
+girls to be expectorated, with names beginning with L.  There--these are
+my sailing directions, so--up anchor and away!"
+
+Uncle Rik immediately obeyed his own commands, and spent the remainder
+of that day in what he styled cruising.  And he cruised to some purpose,
+for although he failed to obtain any information as to the girl, he
+discovered the owners of the Fairy--not Fiery--Queen, who said that she
+was expected home in a few weeks, but that they knew nothing whatever
+about the rather remarkable names which he submitted for their
+consideration.  With this amount of information he was fain to rest
+content, and returned in an elevated state of mind to his brother's
+house.
+
+Some weeks after these events, the Wright family was again seated round
+the social board, as uncle Rik called it, when two visitors were
+announced.  The social meal happening to be tea, and the drawing-room at
+that time in dishabille, owing to carpet disturbances, the visitors were
+shown into the dining-room--a lady, accompanied by a pretty little girl.
+
+"Excuse my calling at an unusual hour," said the lady, "but I trust the
+occasion of my visit will be a sufficient excuse.  I have just arrived
+from Bombay, and hasten to present a letter from your son, and to
+deliver over my interesting charge, this dear child, Letta Langley,
+whom--"
+
+"The expectorated girl!" shouted uncle Rik, leaping up, "begins with an
+L,--two L's indeed.  Bah, I'm an idiot!  Excuse my excitement, madam--
+pray go on."
+
+Slightly surprised, but more amused, the lady went on to tell all she
+knew about Robin and his friends, while the happy mother read snatches
+of Robin's letter through her tears, and Mr Wright and Madge plied the
+lady with questions and tea, and Letta, taking at once to uncle Rik,
+ecstatified, amazed and horrified that retired sea-captain with her
+charming earnest little ways, her wonderful experiences, and her
+intimate acquaintance with pirates and their habits.
+
+A letter from Robin to his mother, and another from Sam to Mr Wright,
+arrived next morning, and proved to be those which had been written
+immediately after their landing at Bombay, and had been posted, so the
+writers thought, at the time their first telegram was despatched.  But
+the letters had been given to Stumps to post, and Stumps was not blessed
+with a good memory, which may account for the delay in transmission.
+These letters corroborated all the lady had said.  Thus was Letta
+formally installed in the Wright family, and uncle Rik solemnly charged
+himself with the discovery of her mother!
+
+"Depend upon it, my dear," he said, with an amount of self-sufficient
+assurance and indomitable resolution that carried sweet consolation to
+the child's heart, "that I'll find your mother if she's above ground,
+though the findin' of her should cost me the whole of my fortune and the
+remainder of my life."
+
+And nobly did Rik redeem his promise.  He obtained special introduction
+to the British Museum, consulted every Directory in existence, hunted up
+every widow of the name of Langley in the kingdom, and found the right
+one at last, not three miles distant from his own door in London.
+Captain Rik, it must be known, had a room in London furnished like a
+cabin, which he was wont to refer to as his "ship" and his "bunk," but
+he paid that retreat only occasional visits, finding it more agreeable
+to live with his brother.
+
+It was a fine Sabbath morning when Rik took Letta's hand and led her
+into the presence of her mother.  He would not let himself be announced,
+but pushed the child into the drawing-room and shut the door.
+
+With similar delicacy of feeling we now draw a curtain over the meeting
+of the mother and the long-lost child.
+
+"It's almost too much for me, tough old sea-dog though I am, this
+perpetual cruisin' about after strange runaway craft," said uncle Rik,
+as he and Letta walked hand in hand along the streets one day some weeks
+later.  "Here have I been beatin' about for I don't know how long, and
+I'm only in the middle of it yet.  We expect the Fairy Queen in port
+to-night or to-morrow."
+
+"But you won't hurt poor Stumps when you catch him, will you?" pleaded
+Letta, looking earnestly up into her companion's jovial face.  "He was
+very nice and kind to me, you know, on Pirate Island."
+
+"No, I'll not hurt him, little old woman," said Rik.  "Indeed, I don't
+know yet for certain that Stumps _is_ a thief; it may be Shunks or it
+may be Gibson, you see, who is the thief.  However, we'll find out
+before long.  Now then, good-bye, I'll be back soon."
+
+He shook hands with Letta at Mr Wright's house, she and her mother
+having agreed to reside there until Robin's return home.
+
+Wending his way through the streets until he reached one of the great
+arteries of the metropolis, he got into a 'bus and soon found himself on
+the banks of the Thames.  Arrived at the docks, one of the first vessels
+his eyes fell on was the Fairy Queen.
+
+Going on board, the first man he met was the captain, to whom he said,
+touching his hat--
+
+"Excuse me, captain; may I ask if you have a man in your crew named
+Stumps?"
+
+"No, sir, no such name on my books."
+
+"Nor one named Shunks?"
+
+"No, not even Shunks," replied the captain, with a sternly-humorous
+look, as if he thought the visitor were jesting.
+
+"Nor Gibson?" continued Rik.
+
+"Yes, I've got one named Gibson.  What d'ye want with him?"
+
+"Well, I have reason to believe that he is--or was--a friend of a friend
+of mine, and I should like to see him."
+
+"Oh! indeed," responded the captain, regarding his visitor with a
+doubtful look.  "Well, Gibson has just got leave to go ashore, and I
+heard him say to one of his mates he was going to the Tartar
+public-house, so you'll see him there, probably, for he is not invisible
+or'narily.  But I don't know where the Tartar is."
+
+"But I know," returned Captain Rik; "thank you.  I'll go seek him
+there."
+
+Stumps sat alone in one of the boxes of the Tartar public-house, which
+at that hour chanced to be nearly empty.  His face was buried in his
+hands, and a pot of untasted beer stood at his elbow.  Poor Stumps!
+Conscience had been remarkably busy with him on the voyage home.  He
+would have given worlds to have got back to Bombay, return the
+ill-gotten bags, and confess his guilt, but it was too late--too late.
+
+There is something very awful in these words, too late!  We read of and
+hear them often, and we use them sometimes, lightly it may be, but it is
+only when they can be used by ourselves with reference to something very
+serious, that we have a glimmering of their terrible significance.
+There is a proverb, "It is never too late to mend," which is misleading.
+When the dream of life is over, and the doom is fixed, it _is_ too late
+to mend.  No doubt the proverb is meant to refer to our condition while
+this life lasts, but even here it is misleading.  When the murderer
+withdraws the knife and gazes, it may be, horror-struck at the
+expressionless face of his victim, it is too late.  He cannot mend the
+severed thread of life.  When the reckless drunkard draws near the end
+of his career, and looks in the mirror, and starts to see the wreck of
+his former self, it is too late.  Health will never more return.  Not
+too late, blessed be God, for the salvation of the soul, but too late
+for the recovery of all that was held dear in the life of earth.
+
+Yes, Stumps had many a time while on the sea muttered to himself, "Too
+late!"  He did so once again in that low public-house near the docks.
+Uncle Rik overheard him, and a feeling of profound pity arose within
+him.
+
+"I beg pardon," he said, and at the first word Stumps looked quickly,
+almost fiercely, up, "your name, I believe, is Gibson."
+
+"No, it isn't--I, that is to say--Well, yes it is.  Sailors has got
+aliases, you know, sometimes.  What d'ye want wi' me?"
+
+"You were acquainted in Bombay," resumed Captain Wright, very quietly,
+as he sat down opposite to Stumps, "with a young man named Wright--Robin
+Wright?"
+
+Stumps's face became deadly pale.
+
+"Ah!  I see you were," resumed the captain; "and you and he had
+something to do, now, with bags of some sort?"
+
+The captain was, as the reader knows, profoundly ignorant of everything
+connected with the bags except their existence, but he had his
+suspicions, and thought this a rather knowing way of inducing Stumps to
+commit himself.  His surprise, then, may be imagined when Stumps,
+instead of replying, leaped up and dashed wildly out of the room,
+overturning the pot of beer upon Captain Rik's legs.
+
+Stumps shot like an arrow past the landlord, a retired pugilist, who
+chanced to be in the doorway.  Captain Rik, recovering, darted after
+him, but was arrested by the landlord.
+
+"Not quite so fast, old gen'l'man!  As you've had some of your mate's
+beer, you'd better pay for it."
+
+"Let me go!--stop him!" cried the captain, struggling.
+
+As well might he have struggled in the grasp of Hercules.  His reason
+asserted itself the instant the fugitive was out of sight.  He silently
+paid for the beer, went back to the Fairy Queen to inform the captain
+that his man Gibson was a thief--to which the captain replied that it
+was very probable, but that it was no business of his--and then wandered
+sadly back to tell the Wright family how Gibson, _alias_ Stumps, _alias_
+Shunks, had been found and lost.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+THE WRIGHT FAMILY REUNITED, AND SAM BECOMES HIGHLY ELECTRICAL.
+
+That much-abused and oft-neglected meal called tea had always been a
+scene of great festivity and good-fellowship in the Wright family.
+Circumstances, uncontrollable of course, had from the beginning
+necessitated a dinner at one o'clock, so that they assembled round the
+family board at six each evening, in a hungry and happy frame of body
+and mind, (which late diners would envy if they understood it), with the
+prospect of an evening--not bed--before them.
+
+In the earlier years of the family, the meal had been, so to speak, a
+riotous one, for both Robin and Madge had uncontrollable spirits, with
+tendencies to drop spoons on the floor, and overturn jugs of milk on the
+table.  Later on, the meal became a jolly one, and, still later, a
+chatty one--especially after uncle Rik and cousin Sam began to be
+frequent guests.
+
+But never in all the experience of the family had the favourite meal
+been so jolly, so prolific of spoony and porcelain accidents, so chatty,
+and so generally riotous, as it was on a certain evening in June of the
+year 1870, shortly after the return home of Robin and his companions.
+
+Besides the original Wright family, consisting of father, mother, Robin,
+and Madge, there were assembled uncle Rik, Sam Shipton, Mrs Langley,
+Letta, and--no--not Jim Slagg.  The circle was unavoidably incomplete,
+for Jim had a mother, and Jim had said with indignant emphasis, "did
+they suppose all the teas an' dinners an' suppers, to say nothin' o'
+breakfasts, an' mess-mates an' chums an' friends, crammed and jammed
+into one enormous mass temptation, would indooce him to delay his return
+to that old lady for the smallest fraction of an hour?"  No, Jim Slagg
+was not at the table, but the household cat was under it, and the
+demoralising attentions that creature received on that occasion went far
+to undo the careful training of previous years.
+
+The occasion of the gathering was not simple.  It was compound.  First,
+it was in commemoration of Robin's birthday; second, it was to celebrate
+the appointment of Sam Shipton to an influential position on the
+electrical staff of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company,
+and Sam's engagement to Marjory Mayland; third, to celebrate the
+appointment of Robin Wright to a sufficiently lucrative and hopeful post
+under Sam; and, lastly, to enjoy the passing hour.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," said uncle Rik, getting on his feet with some
+difficulty, when the tea, toast, muffins, eggs, and other fare had
+blunted the appetites, "I rise to propose the toast of the evening, and
+mark you, I don't mean to use any butter with this toast," (_Hear_, from
+Sam), "unless I'm egged on," (_Oh_!), "to do it--so I charge you to
+charge your cups with tea, since we're not allowed grog in this
+tee-total ship--though I'm free to confess that I go in with you there,
+for I've long since given, up the use o' that pernicious though pleasant
+beverage, takin' it always neat, now, in the form of cold water, varied
+occasionally with hot tea and coffee.  My toast, ladies and gentlemen,
+is Rob--" (Rik put his hand to his throat to ease off his necktie), "is
+Robin Wright, whom I've known, off an' on, as a babby, boy, an' man,
+almost ever since that night--now twenty years ago, more or less--when
+he was launched upon the sea in thunder, lightning, and in rain.  I've
+known him, I say--ever since--off an' on--and I'm bound to say that--"
+
+The captain paused.  He had meant to be funny, but the occasion proved
+too much for him.
+
+"Bless you, Robin, my lad," he gasped, suddenly stretching his large
+hand across the table and grasping that of his nephew, which was quickly
+extended.  After shaking it with intense vigour he sat promptly down and
+blew his nose.
+
+The thunders of applause which burst from Sam and Mr Wright were joined
+in even by the ladies, who, in the excess of their sympathy, made use of
+knife-handles and spoons with such manly vigour that several pieces of
+crockery went "by the board," as the captain himself remarked, and the
+household cat became positively electrified and negatively mad,--
+inasmuch as it was repelled by the horrors around, and denied itself the
+remaining pleasure of the tea-table by flying wildly from the room.
+
+Of course, Robin attempted a reply, but was equally unsuccessful in
+expressing his real sentiments, or the true state of his feelings, but
+uncle Rik came to the rescue by turning sharply on Sam and demanding--
+
+"Do you really mean to tell me, sir, that, after all your experience,
+you still believe in telegraphs and steamboats?"
+
+Sam promptly asserted that he really did mean that.
+
+"Of course," returned the captain, "you can't help believing in their
+existence--for facts are facts--but are you so soft, so unphilosophical,
+so idiotical as to believe in their continuance?  That's the point,
+lad--their continuance.  Are you not aware that, in course o' time, rust
+they must--"
+
+"An' then they'll bu'st," interpolated Robin.
+
+"Hee! hee! ha!" giggled Letta, who, during all this time, had been
+gazing with sparkling eyes and parted lips, from one speaker to another,
+utterly forgetful of, and therefore thoroughly enjoying, her own
+existence.
+
+"Yes, then they'll bu'st," repeated Rik, with an approving nod at Robin;
+"you're right, my boy, and the sooner they do it the better, for I'm
+quite sick of their flashings and crashings."
+
+"I rather suspect, Sam," said Mr Wright, "that the gentlemen with whom
+you dined the other day would not agree with uncle Rik."
+
+"Whom do you refer to, George?" asked Mrs Wright.
+
+"Has he not yet told you of the grand `inaugural fete,' as they call it,
+that was given at the house of Mr Fender, chairman of the Telegraph
+Construction and Maintenance Company, to celebrate the opening of direct
+submarine telegraphic communication with India?"
+
+"Not a word," replied Mrs Wright, looking at Sam.
+
+"You never mentioned it to _me_," said Madge, with a reproachful glance
+in the same direction.
+
+"Because, Madge, we have been so busy in talking about something else,"
+said Sam, "that I really forgot all about it."
+
+"Do tell us about it now," said Mrs Langley, who, like her daughter,
+had been listening in silence up to this point.
+
+"A deal o' rubbish was spoken, I daresay," observed the captain,
+commencing to another muffin, and demanding more tea.
+
+"A deal of something was spoken, at all events," said Sam, "and what is
+more to the point, an amazing deal was done.  Come, before speaking
+about it, let me propose a toast--Success to Batteries and Boilers!"
+
+"Amen to that!" said Robin, with enthusiasm.
+
+"If they deserve it," said the captain, with caution.
+
+The toast having been drunk with all the honours, Sam began by saying
+that the fete was a great occasion, and included brilliant company.
+
+"There were present, of course," he said, "nearly all the great
+electrical and engineering lights of the day, also the Prince of Wales
+and the Duke of Cambridge, with a lot of aristocrats, whom it is not
+necessary to mention in the presence of a democratic sea-dog like uncle
+Rik."
+
+"Don't yaw about to defame me, but keep to your course, Sam."
+
+"Well, you have no idea what an amount of interest and enthusiasm the
+affair created.  You all know, of course, that the Indian cable, which
+Robin and I had a hand in laying, is now connected with the lines that
+pass between Suez, Alexandria, Malta, Gibraltar, Lisbon, and England;
+and the company assembled at Mr Pender's house witnessed the sending of
+the first messages direct from London to Bombay; and how long, do you
+think, it took to send the first message, and receive a reply?--only
+five minutes!"
+
+"You don't mean it, Sam!" exclaimed Rik, getting excited, in spite of
+his professed unbelief.
+
+"Indeed I do," replied Sam, warming with his subject.  "I tell you the
+sober truth, however difficult it may be for you to believe it.  You may
+see it in the papers of the 24th or 25th, I suppose.  Here is my
+note-book, in which I jotted down the most interesting points.
+
+"The proceedings of the evening were opened by the managing director in
+London sending a telegram to the manager at Bombay.
+
+"`_How are you all_?' was the brief first telegram by Sir James
+Anderson.  `_All well_,' was the briefer first reply from Bombay.  The
+question fled from London at 9:18 exactly--I had my watch in my hand at
+the time--and the answer came back at 9:23--just five minutes.  I can
+tell you it was hard to believe that the whole thing was not a practical
+joke.  In fact, the message and reply were almost instantaneous, the
+five minutes being chiefly occupied in manipulating the instruments at
+either end.  The second message between the same parties occupied the
+same time.  After that Sir Bartle Frere sent a telegram to Sir Seymour
+Fitzgerald, the Governor of Bombay, as follows:--`_Sir Bartle Frere
+wishes health and prosperity to all old friends in Bombay_.'  This was
+received by the Company's superintendent at Bombay, and the
+acknowledgment of its receipt sent back in four minutes and fifty
+seconds!  But the reply from the Governor, `_Your old friend returns
+your good wishes_,' did not come to us for thirty-six minutes, because
+the message had to be sent to the Governor's house, and it found his
+Excellency in bed.
+
+"Next, a message was sent by Lady Mayo in London to Lord Mayo at Simla,
+which, with the acknowledgment of it, occupied 15 minutes in
+transmission.  Of course time was lost in some cases, because the
+persons telegraphed to were not on the spot at the moment.  The Prince
+of Wales telegraphed to the Viceroy of India, `_I congratulate your
+Excellency on England and India being now connected by a submarine
+cable.  I feel assured this grand achievement will prove of immense
+benefit to the welfare of the Empire.  Its success is thus matter_ _of
+imperial interest_,' which telegram passed out, and the acknowledgment
+of its receipt in India was returned to London, all within eleven
+minutes, but, as in the former case, the Viceroy was in bed, so that his
+reply was not received till forty-five minutes had elapsed.  Had the
+Viceroy been at the Indian end of the wire, he and the Prince could have
+conversed at an average rate of five minutes a sentence.
+
+"Many other messages were sent to and fro," continued Sam, turning over
+the leaves of his note-book, "not only from London to India, but to each
+of the intermediate stations on the cable line, so that we had direct
+intercourse that night with the King of Portugal, the Governors of
+Gibraltar, Malta, and Aden, and the Khedive of Egypt.  But that was not
+all.  We put the old and the new world into communication, so that the
+`press of India sent salaam to the press of America.'  Sir James
+Anderson also telegraphed to Cyrus W. Field, Esquire, the father of
+submarine telegraphy in my estimation," (_Hear, hear_, from Robin), "and
+he sent a reply, which began, `_Your message of this evening received by
+me before five o'clock this afternoon_.'  Mark that, Captain Rik, the
+message received _before_ it was sent, so to speak!"
+
+"Ay, ay, lad--I know--difference of longitude,--fire away."
+
+"Well, I have fired away most of my ammunition now," returned Sam, "and
+if you don't haul down your colours, it must be because you have nailed
+them to the mast and are blind to reason.  I may add, however, that the
+Viceroy of India sent a telegram to the President of the United States,
+to which he got a reply in seven hours and forty minutes, but the
+slowness of this message was accounted for by the fact of accidental and
+partly unavoidable delay in transmission both in Washington and London.
+At 1:30 a.m. of the 24th the traffic of the line became pressing, and
+all complimentary messages ceased with one from Bombay, which said, `Sun
+just risen; delightfully cool; raining.'"
+
+"Doesn't it seem as if the Baron Monkhausen's tales were possible after
+all?" remarked Mrs Wright, looking as if her mind had got slightly
+confused.
+
+"The Baron's tales are mere child's-play, mother," said Robin, "to the
+grand facts of electricity."
+
+"That's so, Robin," said Sam, still turning over the leaves of his
+note-book, "and we had some magnificent experiments or illustrations at
+the fete, which go far to prove the truth of your remark--experiments
+which were so beautiful that they would have made the eyes of Letta
+sparkle even more gorgeously than they are doing at present, if she had
+seen them."
+
+Letta blushed, returned to self-consciousness for a moment, looked down,
+laughed, looked up as Sam proceeded, and soon again forgot herself in a
+fixed and earnest gaze.
+
+"The two telegraph instruments communicating with India and America,
+which stood on two tables, side by side, in Mr Pender's house, were
+supplied by two batteries in the basement of the building.  Eighty cells
+of Daniel's battery were used upon the Penzance circuit for India, and
+100 cells on the Brest circuit for America.  The ordinary water-pipes of
+the house served to connect the batteries with the earth, so as to
+enable them to pump their electricity from that inexhaustible
+reservoir."
+
+"I was not aware that electricity had to be pumped up through pipes like
+water," interrupted Mrs Wright, on whose mild countenance a
+complication of puzzled expressions was gradually gathering.
+
+"It is not so pumped up," said Sam.  "The pipes were used, not because
+they were pipes, but because they were metal, and therefore good
+conductors."
+
+"But you haven't told us about the beautiful experiments yet," murmured
+Letta, a little impatiently.
+
+"I'm coming to them, little one," said Sam.  "One battery exhibited the
+power as well as the beauty of that mysterious force which we call
+electricity.  It was the large Grove battery.  A current passed from it
+to copper wires, in a certain manner, produced a dazzling green light,
+and the copper melted like wax.  With silver a still brighter and purer
+green flame was the result.  With platinum an intense white light was
+given off, and the molten metal fell in globules of exceeding
+brilliancy.  With iron lovely coruscations were exhibited, the boiling
+vapour flying and burning in all directions; and a platinum wire three
+feet long was in an instant melted into thousands of minute globules.
+All this showed the power of electricity to produce intense heat when
+resistance is opposed to its passage."
+
+"It is remarkably human-like in that respect," said Captain Rik, in an
+under-tone.
+
+"Then its power to produce magnetism," continued Sam, "was shown by Lord
+Lindsay's huge electro-magnet.  This magnet, you must know, is nothing
+but a bit of ordinary metal until it is electrified, when it becomes a
+most powerful magnet.  But the instant the current is cut off from it,
+it ceases to be a magnet.  If you understood much about electricity,"
+said Sam, looking round on his rapt audience, "I might tell you that it
+is upon this power of making a piece of iron a magnet or not at
+pleasure, that depend the Morse and Digne telegraph instruments; but as
+you don't understand, I won't perplex you further.  Well, when a piece
+of sheet copper was passed between the poles of Lord Lindsay's giant
+magnet, it was as difficult to move as if it had been sticking in
+cheese--though it was in reality touching nothing!--influenced only by
+attraction."  ("That beats your power over Sam, Madge," whispered Robin.
+"No it doesn't," whispered Madge in reply.) "Then, one most beautiful
+experiment I could not hope to get you to understand, but its result
+was, that a ten-gallon glass jar, coated inside and out with perforated
+squares of tinfoil, was filled with tens of thousands of brilliant
+sparks, which produced so much noise as completely to drown the voices
+of those who described the experiment.  A knowledge of these and other
+deep things, and of the laws that govern them, has enabled Sir William
+Thomson and Mr Cromwell F. Varley to expedite the transmission of
+messages through very long submarine cables in an enormous degree.  Then
+the aurora borealis was illustrated by a large long exhausted tube--"
+
+"I say, Sam," interrupted Rik, "don't you think there's just a
+possibility of our becoming a large long-exhausted company if you don't
+bring this interesting lecture to a close?"
+
+"Shame! shame! uncle Rik," cried Robin.
+
+As the rest of the company sided with him, the captain had to give way,
+and Sam went on.
+
+"I won't try your patience much longer; in fact I have nearly come to an
+end.  In this long exhausted tube, ten feet in length and three inches
+in diameter, a brilliant and beautiful crimson stream was produced, by
+means of an induction coil.  In short, the occasion and, the proceedings
+altogether, made it the most interesting evening I have ever spent in my
+life, e-except--"
+
+Sam paused abruptly, and looked at Madge.  Madge blushed and looked down
+under the table,--presumably for the cat,--and the rest of the company
+burst into an uproarious fit of laughter, in which condition we will
+leave them and convey the reader to a very different though not less
+interesting scene.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
+
+DESCRIBES A HAPPY HOME AND A HAPPIER MEETING.
+
+In a small wayside cottage in the outskirts of one of those picturesque
+villages which surround London, an old woman sat at the head of a small
+deal table, with a black teapot, a brown sugar-basin, a yellow milk jug,
+and a cracked tea-cup before her.
+
+At the foot of the same table sat a young man, with a large knife in one
+hand, a huge loaf of bread in the other, and a mass of yellow butter in
+a blue plate in front of him.
+
+The young man was James Slagg; the old woman was his mother.  Jim had no
+brothers or sisters, and his father chanced to be absent at market, so
+he had the "old lady" all to himself.
+
+"Well, well, Jim," said Mrs Slagg, with a loving look at her son's
+flushed face, "you've told me a heap o' wonderful tales about
+telegrumphs, an' tigers, an' electricity an' what not.  If you was as
+great a liar as you was used to be, Jim, I tell 'ee plain, lad, I
+wouldn't believe one word on it.  But you're a better boy than you was,
+Jim, an' I do believe you--indeed I do, though I must confess that some
+on it is hard to swallow."
+
+"Thank 'ee, mother," said Jim, with a pleasant nod, as he cut an
+enormous slice from the loaf, trowelled upon it a mass of the yellow
+butter, and pushed in his cup for more tea.
+
+"It was good of ye, Jim," said the old woman, "to leave all yer fine
+friends and come straight away here to see your mother."
+
+"Good o' me!" ejaculated Jim, with his mouth full--too full, we might
+say--"what goodness is there in a feller goin' _home_, eh?  Who's finer,
+I should like to know, than a feller's mother?"
+
+"Well, you _are_ a good boy, Jim," said the old woman, glancing at a
+superannuated clock, which told of the moments in loud, almost absurd
+solemnity; "but if you don't stop talkin' and go on wi' your eatin',
+you'll lose the train."
+
+"True, mother.  Time and tide, they say, wait for no man; but trains is
+wuss than time or tide, they won't even wait for a woman."
+
+"But why go at all to-day, Jim; won't to-morrow do?"
+
+"No, mother, it won't do.  I didn't mean to tell 'ee till I came back,
+for fear it should be a mistake; but I can't keep nothin' from you, old
+lady, so I may as well ease my mind before I go.  The fact is, I've just
+heard of the whereabouts of John Shanks--Stumps, you know--my old mate,
+that I've told you bolted with all our treasure from Bombay.  Ah!
+mother, if I'd only brought that treasure home wi' me, it's a lady you'd
+have bin to-day.  I had all sorts o' plans for you--a coach an' six
+was--"
+
+"Never mind your plans, Jim, but tell me about poor Stumps."
+
+"Well, mother, a tramp came past here, an' had a bit of a talk wi' me
+yesterday.  You know I ginerally have a bit of a chat wi' tramps now,
+ever since that city missionary--God bless him--pulled me up at the
+docks, an' began talkin' to me about my soul.  Well, that tramp came
+here early this mornin', sayin' he'd bin in a poor woman's house in the
+city, where there was a man dyin' in a corner.  While he was talkin'
+with some o' the people there he chanced to mention my name, an'
+observed that the dyin' man got excited when he heard it, and called to
+the tramp and asked him about me, and then begged him, for love and for
+money, which he offered him, to come and fetch me to him as fast as he
+could, sayin' that his name was Stumps, and he knew me.  So, you see, as
+the next train is the first that--you needn't look at the clock so
+often, old lady; it's full ten minutes yet, and I'll back my legs to do
+it in three."
+
+"Don't forget to take your Bible wi' you, dear boy."
+
+Jim Slagg rose with a pleasant nod, slapped the breast of his coat, on
+which the oblong form of a small book in the pocket could be traced,
+said "Good-day, mother," and left the cottage.
+
+It was not long before he stood in the dark passage which led to the
+room described to him by the tramp.  The old woman who rented it gave
+him her unasked opinion of her lodger before admitting him.
+
+"You've got no notion, sir, what a strange character that young man is."
+
+"O yes, I have; let me see him," said Slagg.
+
+"But, sir," continued the landlady, detaining him, "you must be careful,
+for he ain't hisself quite.  Not that he's ever done anythink wiolent to
+me, poor young man, but he's strong in his fits, an' he raves terribly."
+
+"Has no doctor bin to see him?" asked Slagg.
+
+"No; he won't let me send for one.  He says it's o' no use, an' he
+couldn't afford to pay for one.  An' oh! you've no notion what a miser
+that poor young man is.  He must have plenty of money, for the box as he
+takes it out on--an' it's at his head he keeps it, day and night,
+ginerally holdin' it with one hand--seems full o' money, for it's
+wonderful heavy.  I could see that when he brought it here, an' there's
+no clo'es in it, that I can see, when he opens it, to get at the few
+pence he wants now an' again.  An' he starves hisself, an' says he's not
+fit to live, an' calls hisself sitch awful names, an'--"
+
+"Well, well, show me his room," said Slagg, with as much decision in his
+tone as compelled immediate obedience.
+
+In the corner of a small room, on a truckle-bed, with scant bedding, lay
+the emaciated form of John Shanks, _alias_ Stumps, _alias_ James Gibson.
+He had raised himself on one elbow, and was gazing with great lustrous
+invalid eyes at the door, when his old comrade entered, for he had been
+watching, and heard the first sound of footsteps in the passage.
+
+"Oh!  Jim Slagg," he cried, extending a hand which bore strong
+resemblance to a claw, it was so thin.  "Come to me, Jim, How I've
+wished an' longed, an'--"
+
+He stopped and burst into tears, for he was very weak, poor fellow, and
+even strong men weep when their strength is brought low.
+
+"Come now, Stumps," said Slagg, in a serious voice, as he sat down on
+the bed, put an arm round his old comrade's thin shoulders, and made him
+lie down, "if you go to excite yourself like that, I'll--I'll--quit the
+room, an' I won't come back for an hour or more."
+
+"No!  O no!" exclaimed the sick man; clutching Slagg's arm with a
+trembling grip, "don't leave me, Jim--don't, don't!  I shall die if you
+do!  I'm dyin' anyhow, but it will kill me quicker if you go."
+
+"Well, I won't go.  There, keep quiet, my poor old Stumps."
+
+"Yes, that's it--that's it--I like to hear the old name," murmured the
+sick man, closing his eyes.  "Say it again, Jim--say it again."
+
+"Stumps," said Slagg, getting down on his knees, the better to arrange
+and grasp his former comrade, "don't be a fool now, but listen.  I have
+come to look after you, so make your mind easy."
+
+"But I've been such a beast to you, Jim; it was so awful shabby," cried
+Stumps, rousing himself again, "and I've been _so_ sorry ever since.
+You can't think how sorry.  I have repented, Jim, if ever a man did.
+An' I'd have come back and confessed long ago, if I'd had the chance,
+but I can get no rest--no peace.  I've never spent a rap of it, Jim,
+except what I couldn't help--for you know, Jim, body an' soul wouldn't
+stick together without a little o' suthin' to eat an' drink; an' when I
+was ill I couldn't work, you know.  See, it's all here--all here--except
+what little--"
+
+He stopped abruptly, having raised himself to open the lid of the box at
+his elbow, but his strength failed, and he sank on the pillow with a
+groan.
+
+"Stumps," said Slagg, "come, old boy, you an' me will have a bit of
+prayer together."
+
+The sick man opened his great eyes in astonishment.  It was so unlike
+his old friend's brusque rollicking character to propose prayer, that he
+fancied he must be dreaming, and the possibility of the visit turning
+out unreal, induced an expression of distress on his haggard
+countenance.  On being ordered, however, in the peremptory and familiar
+tones of former days, to shut his eyes, he felt reassured and became
+calm, while his friend prayed for him.
+
+It was not a set or formal prayer by any means.  It sounded strangely
+like a man asking a friend, in commonplace terms, but _very_ earnestly,
+to give him what he stood in great need of; and what Jim asked for was
+the salvation of his friend's soul and his restoration to health.  The
+petition, therefore, was remarkably brief, yet full of reverence, for
+Jim, though naturally blunt and straightforward, felt that he was
+addressing the great and blessed God and Saviour, who had so recently
+rescued his own soul.
+
+After saying "Amen!" which the sick man echoed, Slagg pulled out his
+Bible and read through the fourteenth chapter of John's gospel,
+commenting quietly as he went along, while his comrade listened with
+intense earnestness.  At the first verse Jim paused and said, "This
+wasn't written to holy and sinless men.  `Let not your heart be
+troubled,' was said to the disciples, one o' them bein' Peter, the man
+who was to deny Jesus three times with oaths and curses, and then
+forsake Him.  The Lord came to save _sinners_.  It would be a poor
+look-out for you, Stumps, if you thought yourself a good man."
+
+"But I don't--oh!  I don't, and you _know_ I don't!" exclaimed the sick
+man vehemently.
+
+"Then the Lord says, `Let not your heart be troubled,' and tells you to
+believe in God and Himself."
+
+At the second verse Slagg remarked that it would be a sad, sad thing if
+the mansion prepared, among the many mansions, for his friend were to be
+left empty.
+
+"But how am I to get to it, Jim; how am I ever to find the way?"
+
+"Just what the disciple named Thomas asked--an' he _was_ a very doubting
+follower of Jesus, like too many of us.  The Master said to him what He
+says to you and me, `_I_ am the way and the truth and the life; no one
+cometh unto the Father but by _me_.'"
+
+At the ninth verse the sailor-missionary said, "Jesus is God, you see,
+so we're safe to trust Him," and, at the thirteenth verse, "Whatsoever
+ye shall ask in my name that will I do," he said.  "Now, we have asked
+Jesus to save you, and He will do it, by His Holy Spirit, as He has
+saved me--has saved millions in time past, and will save millions more
+in time to come.  Why, you see, in the sixteenth verse He tells you He
+will pray the Father to send you a Comforter, who will stay with you for
+ever.  Has He not reason then for beginnin' with `let not your heart be
+troubled'?  And that same Comforter, the Holy Spirit, is to `teach us
+all things,' so, you see, every difficulty is taken out of our way.
+`Arise, let us go hence.'  Now, my old messmate, I have arisen.  Will
+you not arise and go with me, both of us looking unto Jesus?"
+
+"I _will_--God helping me!" cried the sick man, literally arising from
+his couch and raising both arms to heaven.
+
+"There, now--thank the Lord; but you must lie down again and keep
+quiet," said Jim, gently and kindly forcing his friend backward.
+
+Stumps did not resist.  He closed his eyes, and the restful feeling that
+had suddenly arisen in his heart when he said the momentous words, "_I
+will_," coupled with exhaustion, resulted almost instantaneously in a
+quiet slumber.
+
+"When did he eat last?" asked Slagg of the old woman, in a low voice,
+for he had been taught, or had learned intuitively, that few things are
+more disheartening in a sick-room than a whisper.
+
+"This morning he breakfasted at six, but it was on'y a hap'orth o' bread
+and a drink o' cold water."
+
+"And how dare you starve your lodger in that way?" demanded Slagg,
+leading the astonished woman into the passage and closing the door.
+"Don't you know that starving a man is equal to murdering him, and that
+you'll be liable to be hung if he dies?  There, take this half-sov, and
+be off to the nearest shop, an' buy--let me see--sassengers and steaks
+and--oh, _you_ know better than me what a sick man wants.  Get along
+with you, and be back sharp.  Stay! where are your matches?  Ah!  Any
+coals?  Good, now away with you and fetch a doctor too, else I'll fetch
+a policeman, you bolster of bones."
+
+Thus ordered, threatened, and adjured, the landlady, half-amused, and
+more than half-frightened at the visitor's gushing energy, hurried from
+the house, while Slagg returned to the miserable room, and did his best
+to render it less miserable by kindling a splendid fire.
+
+It is, perhaps, unnecessary to add, that a breakfast soon filled that
+room with delicious odour, such as had not been felt in that lowly
+neighbourhood for many years; that Stumps, after a refreshing sleep,
+partook of the feast with relish; that Jim Slagg also partook of it--of
+most of it, indeed--and enjoyed it to the full; that the old landlady
+was invited to "fall to," and did fall to with alacrity; that the
+domestic cat also managed to fall to, surreptitiously, without
+invitation, and not the less enjoyably on that account; that a miserable
+semi-featherless but unconquerable canary in a cage in the window took
+care that it was not forgotten; and that several street boys, smelling
+the viands from afar, came round the outer door, became clamorous, and
+were not sent empty away.
+
+It may, however, be advisable to add, that Stumps did not die; that joy
+of heart, good feeding, and--perhaps--the doctor, brought him round, and
+that he afterwards went to the country to spend the period of
+convalescence in the cottage by the roadside, with Slagg's mother.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
+
+IN WHICH THE STORY FINDS A "FAULT," AND THE ELECTRICAL CURRENT ENDS.
+
+Now, it is not in the nature of things that man, in his present state,
+should attain to full satisfaction.  He may, indeed he should, attain to
+contentment, but as long as there are higher and better things within
+his reach, he must of necessity remain in some degree unsatisfied.
+
+Some such idea must have been passing through Robin Wright's brain one
+fine morning, as he slowly paced the deck of a small schooner with his
+friend Sam Shipton, for he suddenly broke a prolonged silence with the
+following remark:--
+
+"I don't know how it is, Sam, but although I am surrounded with
+everything that should make a fellow happy, I'm--I'm _not_ happy.  In
+fact, I'm as miserable as it is possible to be!"
+
+"Come now, Robin, don't exaggerate," said Sam in a remonstrative tone.
+"Hyperbole is very objectionable, especially in young men.  You know
+that if you were tied to a huge gridiron over a slow fire, you would be
+more miserable than you are at present."
+
+Robin smiled and admitted the truth of this, but nevertheless reiterated
+his assertion that he was decidedly unhappy.
+
+This conversation, we may remark, took place on board of Sam Shipton's
+yacht, off the west coast of Scotland, several years after the events
+narrated in the previous chapter.
+
+"Well, now, it is strange," said Sam, with an earnestly sympathetic air
+and tone of voice, but with the faintest possible twinkle in the extreme
+corner of one of his eyes.  "Let me see--everything, as you justly
+remark, ought to make you happy here.  The weather, to begin with--
+people always begin with the weather, you know--is splendid, though
+there is a thundery look about the horizon to the west'ard.  Then our
+yacht, the Gleam, is a perfect duck, both as to her sea-going and
+sailing qualities, and Captain James Slagg is a perfect seaman, while
+Stumps is a superlative steward and cook.  Our time is our own, and the
+world before us where to choose.  Then, as to our companionship, what
+female society could be more agreeable than that of my wife Madge, and
+her bosom friend Letta, who, since she has grown up, has become one of
+the most beautiful, fascinating, charming,--but why go on, when, in the
+language of the poet, `adequate words is wantin'!'  And Letta's mother
+is second only to herself.  Then as to the men, could there be found
+anywhere finer fellows than uncle Rik and Ebenezer Smith, and Frank
+Hedley--to say nothing of myself and our splendid little boy Sammy?  I
+can't understand it, Robin.  You're not ill, are you?"
+
+"Ill? no.  Never was better in my life."
+
+"Well, then, what is it?  Be confidential, my boy.  The witching hour of
+sunrise is fitted for confidential communications.  You're not in love,
+are--"
+
+"Hush, Sam! the skylight is open.  Come forward to the bows.  Yes, Sam,
+I _am_ in love."
+
+"Well, Robin, I can't pretend ignorance, for I know it--at least I have
+seen it."
+
+"Seen it!" echoed Robin, "how is that?  I have never by word or look
+given the slightest indication to any one, of the state of my feelings."
+
+"True, Robin, as regards words, but there are other modes of indication,
+as must be well-known to a celebrated electrician like yourself.  The
+fact is, my dear boy, that you and Letta have been rubbing your
+intellects together for so many years, that you have electrified each
+other--the one positively, the other negatively; and even a Manx cat
+with an absent mind and no tail could hardly fail to observe the
+telegraphic communication which you have established by means of that
+admirable duplex instrument, a pair of eyes."
+
+"You distress me very much, Sam," returned Robin, seriously.  "I assure
+you I have never consciously done anything of the sort, and I have never
+opened my lips to Letta on the subject--I dare not."
+
+"I believe you as to your consciousness; but, to be serious, Robin, why
+should being in love make you miserable?"
+
+"Because it makes me doubt whether Letta cares for me."
+
+"Nonsense, Robin.  Take my advice, put an end to your doubts, and make
+sure of your ground by taking heart and proposing to Letta."
+
+"I dare not, Sam.  It is all very well for a fine manly fellow like you
+to give such advice, but I am such a poor, miserable sort of--"
+
+"Hallo, fasser!" cried a merry voice at that moment, "how red de sun
+am!"
+
+The owner of the voice--a mere chip of a child, in perfect miniature
+middy costume--ran up to its father and was hoisted on his shoulder.
+
+"Yes, the sun is very red, like your own face, Sammy, my boy, to say
+nothing of cousin Robin's.  Where is mamma?"
+
+The question was answered by mamma herself, our old friend Madge
+Mayland, coming up the companion-hatch,--tall, dark, beautiful, like the
+spirit of departed night.  She was followed by Letta,--graceful, fair,
+sunny, like the spirit of the coming morn.
+
+"Sunbeam, ahoy!" came up through the cabin skylight at that moment, like
+the sonorous voice of Neptune.
+
+"Well, grunkle Rik, w'at is it?" shouted Sammy, in silvery tones, from
+his father's shoulder.
+
+"Grunkle" was the outcome of various efforts made to teach Sammy to call
+the old captain grand-uncle.
+
+"Where have you stowed away my hair-brush, you rascal?" cried the voice
+of thunder.
+
+"It's under my bunk, grunkle; I was bracking yous boots with it."
+
+The thunder subsided in tempestuous mutterings, and Sammy, feeling that
+he had begun the day well, struggled out of his father's arms and went
+careering round the deck into every possible position of danger.  He
+kept them all lively until Stumps caught him and extinguished him, for a
+time, with breakfast.
+
+"Uncle Rik," said Sam, while that meal was being discussed in the
+snuggest little cabin that could be imagined, "did you hear of the
+extraordinary manner in which a whale was caught by a telegraph cable
+lately?"
+
+"No, I didn't, Sam, an' what's more, I wouldn't believe it if I did."
+
+"It is true, nevertheless," said Sam, breaking his fifth egg--sea
+breezes being appetising.
+
+"How did it happen, Sam?" asked Madge.
+
+"In a very curious manner Madge.  It will amuse Letta, for I know she
+takes a deep interest in cables."
+
+"Indeed it will," said Letta, who was the soul of earnest simplicity; "I
+delight in electric cables."
+
+Robin looked at Letta, and wished that he were an electric cable!
+
+"It happened to the Persian Gulf cable, quite recently," continued Sam,
+addressing himself to Letta.  "The cable between Kurrachee and Gwadur, a
+distance of 300 miles, suddenly failed one evening.  Now, you must know
+that electrical science has advanced with such rapid strides of late,
+that we have the power to discover pretty nearly the exact position of a
+fault in a cable.  Of course I cannot expect a young lady to understand
+the technical details of the mode, in which this is done, but you will
+understand that by tests taken at either end the damage appeared to be
+about 118 miles from Kurrachee, and a telegraph steamer was sent with an
+electrical and engineering staff to repair it.  The steamer reached the
+supposed locality early on the morning of the second day out, and
+proceeded at once to grapple for the cable, though a thick fog prevailed
+at the time, and a heavy sea was running.
+
+"The soundings at the place were very irregular, implying a rugged
+bottom of submarine mountain-tops and valleys.  On winding in the cable
+unusual resistance was experienced, as if it were foul of rocks, and
+when, after great difficulty, they drew it up they found that this was
+caused by the body of an immense whale, with two and a half turns of the
+cable round it immediately above the tail."
+
+"Pooh! boh!" exclaimed uncle Rik, "I don't believe it."
+
+"But I do, uncle," returned Sam, as he opened his sixth egg, "for I read
+the account of it in one of the engineering journals, in which dates and
+names were given.  The steamer was the Amber Witch, commanded by Captain
+Bishop, and the staff of operators were under Mr Harry Mance.  The body
+of the huge creature was found to be rapidly decomposing, the jaws
+falling away as it reached the surface, and sharks had evidently been
+devouring it.  The tail, which measured twelve feet across, was covered
+with barnacles at the extremities."
+
+"But how could it have entangled itself so?" asked Mrs Langley.
+
+"They suppose that at the time the whale had found a part of the cable
+hanging in a deep loop over a submarine precipice, and, thinking the
+chance a good one no doubt for scraping off the barnacles and other
+parasites that annoy whales very much, had probably twisted the cable
+round him with a flip of his tail.  Anyhow, the fact is unquestionable
+that it held him fast until he was fished up dead by the electricians
+and engineers."
+
+"How strange!" murmured Letta.
+
+"It is indeed," responded Robin, "the most extraordinary case I ever
+heard of, though cables are subject to many singular accidents.  I
+remember one case of accident to the cable across the river Yar, in the
+Isle of Wight.  A bullock fell from the deck of a vessel, and, in its
+struggles, caught the cable and broke it."
+
+"I have read of several very singular cases," said Sam, "in which cables
+have been attacked and damaged by inhabitants of the sea.  The Cuba and
+Florida cable was once damaged by the bite of some large fish, and a
+similar accident happened to the China cable.  In the Malta-Alexandria
+cable, a piece of the core from which the sheathing had been worn was
+found to have been bitten by a shark, and pieces of the teeth were found
+sticking in the gutta-percha."
+
+"I thought it was to the Singapore cable that that happened," said
+Robin.
+
+"No, but something similar happened to it.  That cable was laid in
+December.  In the following March a stoppage occurred.  The fault was
+spotted at 200 miles from Singapore.  When hauled up, the cable was
+found to have been pierced, and bits of crushed bone were sticking in
+the hole.  The piece was cut out and sent to Mr Frank Buckland, who,
+after long and careful examination, came to the conclusion that it had
+been the work of a saw-fish."
+
+"Dear me, Mr Shipton," said Mrs Langley, "you speak as if every part
+of the world were connected by electric cables."
+
+"And such is the case," said Sam; "we have now direct communication by
+submarine cable and land telegraph with every part of Europe; with
+Canada and the United States; down South America, nearly to Cape Horn;
+with Africa from Algiers to the Cape of Good Hope; with India from
+Afghanistan to Ceylon; with China from Pekin to Hong-Kong; and down
+through the Malacca Archipelago, Australia, and Tasmania."
+
+"I say, Sam, are you a member of the Royal Geographical Society, or a
+walking atlas?" asked uncle Rik.
+
+"In short," continued Sam, not heeding the interruption, "there isn't a
+civilised quarter of the globe which is not tied to us by telegraph, and
+from which we might not hear any morning of the events of the preceding
+day."
+
+"Always excepting Central Africa and the two poles," said the captain.
+
+"I said civilised quarters," retorted Sam, "and, as far as I know, the
+poles are inhabited only by bears."
+
+"True, I forgot, the poles are barely civilised," said uncle Rik.
+
+"Now, Master Sammy," growled a deep voice from the adjoining galley,
+"you keep your hands out o' that copper."
+
+"Fasser," shouted a silvery voice from the same region, "'Tumps is
+naughty.  I wants to wass my hands in de soup, an' he won't let me."
+
+"Quite right.  Keep him in order, Stumps," said the unfeeling Sam,
+senior.
+
+"Dere--pa says I's kite right, an' to keep you in order, 'Tumps," said
+the silvery voice.  (Then, after a few minutes), "Grunkle Rik, is you
+finish bekfist?"
+
+"Ay, ay, Sunbeam, quite finished."
+
+"Den come on deck an' p'ay vid me."
+
+Uncle Rik rose with a laugh, and obediently went on deck to play.  But
+the play did not last long, for that day ominous clouds rose in the
+west, and, overspreading the sky, soon drenched the little yacht with
+rain.  Towards evening the rain ceased, but the wind increased to a
+gale, and the weather showed signs of becoming what is known among
+seamen, we believe, as dirty.  Ere long the low mutterings of thunder
+increased to mighty peals, and the occasional gleams of lightning to
+frequent and vivid flashes, that lit up the scene with the brilliancy of
+full moonlight.
+
+"I wish we were nearer shore," said Letta, timidly, to Robin, as they
+stood looking over the bulwarks; "what is the land we see far away on
+our left?"
+
+"The Island of Mull," returned Robin.
+
+"Better if it was further away," growled Captain Rik, who overheard the
+remark.  "We want plenty of sea-room on a night like this."
+
+"We've got sea-room enough," observed "Captain" Slagg, with the
+confidence of a man who knows well what he is about, as he stood by the
+tiller, balancing himself with his legs well apart.
+
+"You've got a lightning conductor on the mast, of course?" observed
+Captain Rik to Sam.
+
+"No," replied Sam.
+
+"Sam!" exclaimed the captain in a tone of intense surprise, "you, of all
+men, without such a safeguard."
+
+"Well, uncle Rik," replied Sam with a laugh, "yachts are not always
+fitted with conductors.  But I'm not so bad as you think me.  I had
+ordered a special conductor with some trifling novelties of construction
+for the yacht, but it was not ready when we started, so we had to sail
+without it.  However, it is not once in a thousand times that a vessel
+is struck by lightning."
+
+While Sam was yet speaking, a flash of lightning almost blinded them,
+and the little schooner received a shock which told of disaster.  Next
+moment the roar of reverberating thunder drowned the crash of timber as
+the topmast went overboard, carrying the bowsprit and its gear along
+with it.
+
+Fortunately no one was hurt, but the schooner became unmanageable, owing
+to the mass of wreckage which hung to her.
+
+Jim Slagg, seizing an axe, sprang to the side to cut this away, ably
+seconded by all the men on board, but before it could be accomplished
+the Gleam had drifted dangerously near to the rocks on the coast of
+Mull.  To add to the confusion, the darkness became intense.
+
+Captain Rik, forgetting or ignoring his years, had thrown off his coat
+and was working like a hero with the rest.  The ladies, unable to remain
+below, were clinging to the stern rails, Madge holding her little boy
+tightly in her arms, and the spray dashing wildly over all.
+
+Another moment and the Gleam struck on the rocks with tremendous
+violence.  Only by the lightning could they see the wild rocky shore, on
+which they had drifted.
+
+Instinctively each member of the little crew drew towards those nearest
+and dearest.
+
+"Get out the boat!" shouted Captain Slagg; but the men could not obey,
+for a heavy sea had anticipated them, and the little dinghy was already
+careering shoreward, bottom up.
+
+The next wave lifted the Gleam like a cork, and let her down on the
+rocks like fifty-six tons of lead.  A flash of lightning revealed for a
+moment a range of frowning cliffs, as if to add horror to a scene that
+was already sufficiently appalling.  Then all was again dark as Erebus.
+
+In a frenzy of resolution Captain Rik seized an axe with the view of
+extemporising a raft, when the Gleam parted amidships, and we might
+almost say went out, leaving her crew struggling in the waves.
+
+Sam had seized his wife with his strong left arm--he happened to be
+left-handed--and buffeted the waves with his right.  Madge held on to
+Sammy with the power of maternal love.  Sam was aware of that, and felt
+comparatively at ease in regard to his first-born.
+
+Robin's arm had been round Letta's waist--unknown to himself or her!--
+when the Gleam struck.  It did not relax when he felt that they were
+afloat.  Frank Hedley gallantly offered to take charge of Mrs Langley.
+
+Ebenezer Smith, being unable to swim, confessed the fact, with something
+of a gasp, to Captain Rik, who considerately told him never to mind.
+
+"I can swim for both," he said, tying a piece of rope-yarn tight round
+his waist, for he had long before cast off coat, vest, and braces; "but
+you ought to be ashamed of yourself, a man come to your time o' life,
+an' not able to swim!"
+
+"I never lived near the sea, and had no one to teach me," pleaded
+Ebenezer in a tremblingly apologetic voice, for the roar of united wind,
+waves, and thunder was really tremendous even to those who _could_ swim.
+
+"What o' that?" returned Captain Rik, sternly.  "Was there no river or
+pond nigh?  Even a horse-trough or a washing-tub would have sufficed to
+make a man of you.  As for teaching--what teaching did you want?
+Swimmin' ain't Latin or Greek.  It ain't even mathematics--only
+aquatics.  All the brute beasts swim--even donkeys swim without
+teaching.  Boh! bah!  There, lay hold o' me--so.  Now, mind, if you try
+to take me round the neck with your two arms I'll plant my fist on the
+bridge of your nose, an' let you go to Davy Jones's locker."
+
+A flash of lightning revealed Captain Rik's face in such a way that
+Ebenezer Smith resolved to obey him to the letter.
+
+It was at this point of their conversation that the Gleam went down--or
+out--and they sank with a gurgle, coming up next moment, however, with a
+gasp.
+
+Strange to say, after the first plunge and overthrow amid the boiling
+waves, the swimmers found themselves in almost still water.
+
+"You'd better let me take Sammy, ma'am," said Captain Slagg, swimming
+quietly alongside of Madge, and speaking in the calm tone of a man
+taking an evening stroll.
+
+"Is that you, Slagg?" asked Sam, who was striking out vigorously.
+
+"Yes, sir, it is," said Slagg.  "You've no need to exert yourself, sir,
+so violently.  I know the spot well.  We've bin washed clean over the
+reef by the wave that sank us, into a sort o' nat'ral harbour, an' we
+ain't far from shore.  I can feel bottom now, sir, which, bein' a
+six-footer, you'll touch easy."
+
+"So I do!" exclaimed Sam, letting down his feet.  "Madge, darling, cheer
+up, we've got soundings.  Give Sammy to Slagg.  There, we'll do famously
+now."
+
+Only those who have been for a few moments in deadly peril can
+understand the feeling of intense relief that came to Sam Shipton's
+heart when he felt his toes touch ground on that eventful night.  The
+feeling was expressed in his tone of voice as he asked Slagg whether he
+had seen any of the others.
+
+"No, sir, I ain't seen 'em for want o' light, but I've heerd 'em.
+Stumps is splutterin' behind us like a grampus.  If you'll hold on a bit
+an' listen you'll hear him.  He's a bad swimmer, and it's all he can do
+to save hisself.  If he only knowed he could reach bottom with his long
+legs, he'd find it easier.  Not quite so tight, Sammy, my boy, and keep
+off the wind-pipe--so; you're quite safe, my lad.  As for the rest of
+'em, sir, they all swim like ducks except Mr Ebbysneezer Smith, but
+he's took charge on by Captin Rik, so you may keep your mind easy.
+There's a bit o' flat beach hereabouts, an' no sea inside the reef, so
+we'll git ashore easy enough--let's be thankful."
+
+Jim Slagg was right.  They got ashore without difficulty, and they
+_were_ thankful--profoundly so--when they had time to think of the
+danger they had escaped.
+
+After a few minutes' rest and wringing of salt water from their
+garments, they proceeded inland to search for shelter, and well was it
+for the shipwrecked party that the captain of the lost yacht was
+acquainted with the lie of the land, for it was a rugged shore, with
+intermingled fields and morasses, and wooded rocky heights, among which
+it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to thread one's way in
+the dark without severe damage to the shins.  But Jim Slagg led them to
+a cottage not far from the sea, where they received from the family
+resident there at the time a warm and hearty Scottish welcome.
+
+It is not uncommon, we suspect, for eccentric natures to undertake the
+most important matters at the most unsuitable times and in the most
+ridiculous manners.  At all events Robin Wright, while stumbling among
+the rocks and rugged ground of that midnight march in Mull, dripping wet
+and with the elements at war around him, conceived the idea of declaring
+his unalterable, not to say unutterable, attachment to Letta Langley,
+who leant heavily on the arm of her preserver.  But Robin was intensely
+sensitive.  He shrank from the idea, (which he had only got the length
+of conceiving), as if it had been a suggestion from beneath.  It would
+be unfair, mean, contemptible, he thought, to take advantage of the
+darkness and the elemental noise to press his suit at such a time.  No,
+he would wait till the morrow.
+
+He did wait for the morrow.  Then he waited for the morrow afterwards,
+and as each morrow passed he felt that more morrows must come and go,
+for it was quite obvious that Letta regarded him only as a brother.
+
+At last, unable to bear it, our unhappy hero suddenly discovered that
+one of the morrows was the last of his leave of absence, so he said
+good-bye in despair, and parted from his companions, who could not
+resist the genial hospitality of their new friends in the cottage on the
+west of Mull.
+
+Ten days later Sam got a letter from Robin, telling him that he had
+received a cable-telegram from India, from their friend Redpath,
+offering him a good situation there, and that, having reached the lowest
+depths of despair, he had resolved to accept it, and was sorry he should
+not have an opportunity of saying good-bye, as he was urged to start
+without a day's delay.
+
+Sam was staying with his friends at the Oban Hotel at the time, having
+at last managed to tear himself away from the cottage in Mull.
+
+He instantly ran out and telegraphed--
+
+"Don't accept on any account."
+
+Then he sought Mrs Langley, and opened Robin's case to her.  Mrs
+Langley listened with a smile of intelligence, and soon after went to
+her daughter's room, the window of which commanded a splendid view of
+the western sea.
+
+"Letta, dear, are you moralising or meditating?"
+
+"Both, mamma."
+
+"Well, I will try to help you," said Mrs Langley, seating herself by
+the window.  "By the way, did you hear that Mr Wright has been offered
+a lucrative appointment in the Telegraph Department of India, and is
+going off at once;--has not time even to say good-bye to his old friend
+Sam Shipton?"
+
+Letta turned very pale, then extremely red, then covered her face with
+both hands and burst into tears.
+
+"So, Letta, you love him," said her mother, gently.  "Why did you not
+let me know this sooner?"
+
+"Oh, mamma!" said poor Letta, "why do you put it so--so--suddenly.  I
+don't love him--that is--I don't _know_ that I love him.  I've never
+thought about it seriously.  He has never opened his lips to me on the
+subject--and--and--"
+
+"Letta, dear," said her mother, tenderly, "would you wish to prevent his
+going away if you could?  Open your heart to your mother, darling."
+
+Letta laid her head on her mother's shoulder, but spoke not.
+
+A few minutes later Mrs Langley went to Sam and said--
+
+"Robin must not go to India."
+
+Sam instantly went by the shortest conceivable route to London, where he
+found Robin in his room feverishly packing his portmanteau, and said--
+
+"Robin, you must not go to India."
+
+From that text he preached an eloquent lay-sermon, which he wound up
+with the words, "Now, my boy, you must just propose to her at once."
+
+"But I can't, Sam.  I haven't got the pluck.  I'm such a miserable sort
+of fellow--how could I expect _such_ a creature to throw herself away on
+_me_?  Besides, it's all very well your saying you have good ground for
+believing she cares for me; but how can you know?  Of course you have
+not dared to speak to her?"
+
+Robin looked actually fierce at the bare idea of such a thing.
+
+"No, I have not dared," said Sam.
+
+"Well, then.  It is merely your good-natured fancy.  No, my dear fellow,
+it is my fate.  I must bow to it.  And I know that if I were to wait
+till I see her again, all my courage would have oozed away--"
+
+"But I don't intend that you shall wait, Robin," interrupted Sam.  "You
+need not go on talking so selfishly about yourself.  You must consider
+the girl.  I'm not going to stand by and see injustice done to _her_.
+You have paid _marked_ attention to her, and are bound in honour to lay
+yourself at her feet, even at the risk of a refusal."
+
+"But how, Sam?  I tell you if I wait--"
+
+"Then don't wait,--telegraph."
+
+Robin gazed at his friend in stupefied amazement.  "What! make a
+proposal of marriage by telegraph?"
+
+"Even so, Robin.  You began life with electricity, so it is quite in
+keeping that you should begin a new departure in life with it."
+
+Sam rose, sought for paper, and with pencil wrote as follows:--"From Mr
+R. Wright, London, to Miss Letta Langley, --- Hotel, Oban.--I can stand
+it no longer.  May I come to see you?"
+
+Presenting this to his friend, Sam said, "May I despatch it?"
+
+Robin nodded, smiled, and looked foolish.
+
+An hour later Mrs Langley, sitting beside her daughter, took up a pen,
+and wrote as follows:--
+
+"From Miss Letta Langley, Oban, to R. Wright, London.--Yes."
+
+Presenting this to her daughter, she said.  "May I send it?"
+
+Letta once more covered her face with her hands, and blushed.
+
+Thus it came to pass that our hero's fate in life, as well as his
+career, was decided by the electric telegraph.
+
+But the best of it was that Robin _did_ go to India after all--as if to
+do despite to his friends, who had said he must not go.  Moreover, he
+took Letta with him, and he hunted many a day through the jungles of
+that land in company with his friend Redpath, and his henchman Flinn.
+And, long afterwards, he returned to England, a sturdy middle-aged man,
+with a wife whose beauty was unabated because it consisted, chiefly, in
+that love of heart to God and man which lends never-fading loveliness to
+the human countenance.
+
+Awaiting them at home was a troop of little ones--the first
+home-instalment of a troop of lesser ones who accompanied the parent
+stems.  All of these, besides being gifted with galvanic energy and
+flashing eyes, were impressed with the strong conviction, strange to
+say, that batteries, boilers, and submarine cables, were the most
+important things in the whole world, and the only subjects worth being
+played at by reasonable human children.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Battery and the Boiler, by R.M. Ballantyne
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