"Aye," said the Captain. "She"s bound to go to pieces, now, fast enough."
"So I"ve reported to the commander, sir, this very morning," continued h.e.l.lyer; "and, he"s sent down word as I"m to keep men stationed along the sh.o.r.e so as to pick up any wreckage that mebbe washed out on her."
"Quite right," was the Captain"s comment on this. "There are a lot of light-fingered gentry about here, whom it is just as well to be on guard against. When will it be flood-tide to-night, h.e.l.lyer, eh?"
"Nigh upon nine o"clock, sir," answered he. "Just afore the moon rises."
"Humph!" muttered Captain Dresser, as if cogitating the matter and speaking his thoughts aloud. "I think I"ll come down then. The sea seems inclined to get up a bit?"
He raised his voice when uttering the last words, as if asking a question; so, the coastguardsman answered it at once.
"That it do, sir," he said with decision; "and, if the wind freshen more, as is more"n likely, considerin" it"s been backin" all the mornin", I "spects it"ll be pretty rough by night-time!"
"Ah, well, so I think, too, h.e.l.lyer. Good-day to you, my man; I will come down again this evening when the tide makes. I fancy she"ll break up then. Come on, boys!" sang out the old sailor in a higher key to Bob and d.i.c.k, who had been amusing themselves by trying to walk round the hull of the stranded steamer, now nearly high and dry on the beach; although the venturesome fellows had to clamber over all sorts of obstacles in the way of chain-cables and hawsers and other gear, besides wading through various pools of water to seaward, before they could congratulate themselves on effecting their object. "Come on now, my boys! There"s nothing more to see at present; and I"ve promised Miss Nell to help her put those actinea we got yesterday at Seaview into her new aquarium."
"But, you will come down again with us to see the wreck, won"t you?"
eagerly asked Bob, running after the Captain, who on giving this explanation of his desire of not wasting any more time on the beach just then, had started off already on his way back to the south parade, and was hobbling off at a fine rate across the common. "I do so want to see the poor vessel once more before they take her away, Captain!"
"Humph!" grunted out the old sailor as he puffed and panted onward like a steam-engine, turning the services of his trusty old malacca cane to good account. "I don"t think, my boy, you need have any fear on that score. The only shape in which she"s likely to be taken away from her present berth will be--in pieces!"
"By Jove, ma"am!" he exclaimed later on, when Mrs Gilmour and Nell met him at the gate of "the Moorings," "I might just as well board with you at once. Dined with you on Monday, to lunch Tuesday; at breakfast yesterday, and again this morning. Why, I"ll eat you out of house and home!"
"Never fear, Captain," said Mrs Gilmour smiling. "Sure, I"ll take the risk of that."
"But your servants, ma"am," he argued, as Nell took away his hat and cane. "I"m afraid I give them a lot of trouble, and they"ll be springing a mutiny on you."
"I don"t know what poor Sarah"ll do, sure; you"ve taised her so!"
replied Mrs Gilmour jokingly. "But, Molly the cook"s your friend, I know. She says you"re the only one in the house that properly appreciates her curries."
"Faith and she turns them out well, ma"am; and you can tell her so, with my compliments," said the old sailor with much heartiness as he winked to Nellie. "As for "that good Sarah," ma"am, I shall have to make my peace with her by and by, with your permission."
After breakfast, the Captain and Nellie, with the a.s.sistance of Bob and d.i.c.k, even "the good Sarah," too, being pressed into the service, set about preparing the sea-anemones and other specimens they had collected the previous day for their new home in the aquarium which Mrs Gilmour had bought for the purpose shortly before.
This aquarium was in appearance somewhat like an inverted dish-cover of gla.s.s--one of the best shapes to be had. This sort being free from those leaky joints that are the invariable accompaniment of all-square cisterns; while globular ones have not got sufficient s.p.a.ce at the bottom for rock-work, or those little hiding-places that delight the hearts of the denizens of the deep when they are free agents and in their own waters.
Presently, under the active superintendence of the old sailor, the whilom empty gla.s.s receptacle began to a.s.sume a more picturesque aspect.
To commence with, a groundwork was constructed of fine white sand and sh.e.l.ls, each of the latter being washed in repeated baths of clear and fresh sea-water, which had been brought up from the beach in the morning, before being introduced into the aquarium; where, if success be desired, cleanliness is as essential to the well-being of its little tenants as it is deemed to be amongst human beings.
The Captain said something to this effect while making Nellie wash the different sh.e.l.ls, which he then arranged along the sandy bottom, which was made to slope from the back of the structure down to the centre, forming a sort of hollow there; and then rising again in front.
"So far, so good," said the Captain, placing some bits of rock in the background, which, leaning against each other, formed so many small caverns. "These will do for those crabs, which Master Bob insists on having, to retreat to when some of the other fry pay them too much attention."
On the right and left of the aquarium the old sailor dexterously built up larger pieces of rock-work, intermixed with bits of red seaweed that grows in the form of a feathery plume, called by naturalists the "bryopsis plumosa," than which no more graceful marine plant can be found.
Close to this and serving as a contrast, the Captain placed the green laver he had made Nell pick up at the last moment when they were leaving Seaview and running to catch the steamer.
"This chap, styled the "ulva latissima" by the scientific gentlemen who manufacture such t.i.tles, is a capital thermometer," said the Captain on putting in the laver. "You"ll find he"ll always rise to the surface when the weather is bright and sunny; while he sinks back to the bottom, as I"ve put him now, on its being damp and overcast."
In the more immediate foreground, a number of little starfish squatted about on the miniature strand that shelved down from the rocks, arranged with much care to the general spectacular effect by Nellie, who was most painstaking in the matter.
To be introduced into this very select marine retreat, the anemones had to go through similar ablutions to the sand and the sh.e.l.ls, as well as other things, all of them being at the outset cleansed with the greatest care. When, however, this was done and the actinea put into their future home, the aquarium blossomed out into a garden of live flowers, whose tentacles of various colours resembled so many chrysanthemums, dahlias, and daisies, of the most gorgeous hues ever seen on Nature"s palette!
Of course, the actinea did not make themselves at home in their new lodgings and disclose their beauties all at once; but, in a few days, none of them having been hurt by Bob"s knife, they seemed to have become acclimatised, putting out the petals of their flower-like bodies as freely as when in their native pools at Seaview. So, too, did a beautiful rose and white dianthus, which d.i.c.k had picked up adhering to an ugly old oyster-sh.e.l.l; and, the even rarer anthea, whose long hanging filaments were never altogether withdrawn into its body when disturbed, as was the case with the other sea-anemones, and which were thus a constant source of alarm to Bob"s little crabs; for, it was ever listlessly waving perilously near these nervous creatures, making them hurry out of their way in such frantic haste as their lateral conformation permitted.
It was a long job arranging the aquarium, engrossing the attention of all engaged and taking up the entire morning; aye, and all midday, too!
"Good gracious me!" exclaimed Mrs Gilmour, coming into the room when they had just completed the task. "What a long time you"ve been at it, to be sure! I believe I could have made an aquarium by now, let alone fit it up."
"Ah, ma"am, "more haste, worse speed,"" retorted the old sailor. ""Rome wasn"t built in a day," you know."
"I thought you had enough of the Romans yesterday," said Mrs Gilmour, giving him this little cut in return for his brace of proverbs. "But, come, Sarah, you must see about getting luncheon now. I want it ready as soon as possible. You"ll stop, Captain Dresser, I suppose?"
"Oh yes, ma"am, if you"ll allow me," he replied with a chuckle. "I know when I"m well off. You recollect, ma"am, you said just now the cook was my friend."
"Do you know why I wanted to have lunch especially early to-day?" she asked him anon, when they were seated at the table. "Can you guess?"
"No, by Jove, I can"t!" he snorted out indignantly. "I"m not a clairvoyant, or whatever else you call those people who pretend to read other people"s thoughts."
"Sure, then, I"ll tell you," she said, laughing at his quaint manner, "I"m going to see Mrs Craddock."
"I"m just as much in the dark as ever," he retorted. "Who the d.i.c.kens is the woman, eh?"
Nell saved her aunt the trouble of answering.
"Why, don"t you remember the old lady at the station whom Rover tumbled down and broke her eggs?" she cried out eagerly. "You must recollect, for you sent her some port wine for her poor daughter, which auntie and I took the second time we went to see her.--You must remember her!"
"Ah, yes, I remember now," said the Captain, scratching his head reflectively. "So that"s her name, eh--Craddock, Craddock. Where have I heard it before? By Jove, I"ve got it now! Why, ma"am, there was a Craddock who was boatswain of the old _Bucephalus_ on the West Coast."
"What!" cried Mrs Gilmour. "My poor dear Ted"s ship?"
"The same, ma"am," he answered. "I recollect the man very well now. He was a tall, spare, intellectual-looking chap, more like a longsh.o.r.e man than a sailor. He was delicate, too, suffering from a weak chest; and, Ted told me, now I come to think of it, that he volunteered for a second term of service on the African station in order to be in a warm climate.
It didn"t do him much good, though, for he died on the commission."
"How strange!" said Mrs Gilmour pensively. "I don"t remember poor Ted writing me anything about it, but I"ve no doubt the man was our Mrs Craddock"s husband, and, if so, that will make me take an additional interest in her. Run upstairs, Nell, and get ready at once, my dear.
As soon as you come down we"ll start, for I have only got to put on my bonnet."
"Do you want me to come, too?" faltered the Captain, who, unless visiting a sick-bed on an errand of mercy, dreaded going to see any one whom he had been kind to, the old sailor doing all his good deeds, and they were many, by stealth. Indeed, the very idea of being thanked made him always inclined to run away, a thing he had never done from an enemy.
"Well, if you"d rather not, or if you"ve somewhere else to go, I won"t insist."
"Why, I did promise to go down to the Club," he replied, still speaking in a half-hesitating way. "I--I--I--"
"I know," said Mrs Gilmour, interrupting him, and looking very knowing--"you don"t want to go to Mrs Craddock"s, because you sent her poor daughter some port wine, and are afraid of being thanked for it-- that"s the reason, I know." The Captain blushed.
"I a.s.sure you, ma"am," he began timidly to remonstrate against her conclusion, when suddenly some little recollection gave him renewed courage. "By Jove, I declare I nearly forgot all about it! I"ve got to meet Sponson at the Club to see when that ship is going out for her trials; I mean the one which I"m going to take Bob on board of."
"Well, be off with you to your Club," she rejoined laughing, giving him a little push in joke. "Away with you at once!"