and the Sea-Serpent._

Mr. Simon Softleigh had spent most of his life between Tooting Bec and
Fenchurch Street. His knowledge of the sea was therefore very limited.
So, as he was taking a holiday on the south coast, he thought this was a
splendid opportunity for picking up a little useful information. He
therefore proceeded to "draw" the natives.

[Illustration]

"I suppose," said Mr. Softleigh one morning to a jovial, weather-beaten
skipper, "you have seen many wonderful sights on the rolling seas?"

"Bless you, sir, yes," said the skipper. "P'raps you've never seen a
vanilla iceberg, or a mermaid a-hanging out her things to dry on the
equatorial line, or the blue-winged shark what flies through the air in
pursuit of his prey, or the sea-sarpint----"

"Have you really seen a sea-serpent? I thought it was uncertain whether
they existed."

"Uncertin! You wouldn't say there was anything uncertin about a
sea-sarpint if once you'd seen one. The first as I seed was when I was
skipper of the _Saucy Sally_. We was a-coming round Cape Horn with a
cargo of shrimps from the Pacific Islands when I looks over the port side
and sees a tremenjus monster like a snake, with its 'ead out of the water
and its eyes flashing fire, a-bearing down on our ship. So I shouts to
the bo'sun to let down the boat, while I runs below and fetches my
sword--the same what I used when I killed King Chokee, the cannibal chief
as eat our cabin-boy--and we pulls straight into the track of that there
sea-sarpint. Well, to make a long story short, when we come alongside o'
the beast I just let drive at him with that sword o' mine, and before you
could say 'Tom Bowling' I cut him into three pieces, all of exactually
the same length, and afterwards we hauled 'em aboard the _Saucy Sally_.
What did I do with 'em? Well, I sold 'em to a feller in Rio Janeiro. And
what do you suppose he done with 'em? He used 'em to make tyres for his
motor-car--takes a lot to puncture a sea-sarpint's skin."

"What was the length of the creature?" asked Simon.

"Well, each piece was equal in length to three-quarters the length of a
piece added to three-quarters of a cable. There's a little puzzle for you
to work out, young gentleman. How many cables long must that there
sea-sarpint 'ave been?"

Now, it is not at all to the discredit of Mr. Simon Softleigh that he
never succeeded in working out the correct answer to that little puzzle,
for it may confidently be said that