"`_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 b.u.t.ton 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage. 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 pa.s.sage. `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 m.u.f.fled 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 pa.s.sed 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 sh.e.l.ls 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 sh.o.r.e, 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, d.i.c.k," 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.