FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163  
164   >>  
es the skipper, peering over the side, and speaking as though he knew all about sea-sarpints and their ways. "'S'pose it puts its 'ead over the side and takes one o' the men,' ses the mate. "'Let me know at once,' ses the skipper firmly; an' he went below agin and left us. "Well, I was jolly glad when eight bells struck, an' I went below; an' if ever I hoped anything I hoped that when I go up that ugly brute would have gone, but, instead o' that, when I went on deck it was playing alongside like a kitten a'most, an' one o' the chaps told me as the skipper had been feeding it agin. "'It's a wonderful animal,' ses the skipper, 'an' there's none of you now but has seen the sea-sarpint; but I forbid any man here to say a word about it when we get ashore.' "'Why not, sir?' ses the second mate. "'Becos you wouldn't be believed,' said the skipper sternly. 'You might all go ashore and kiss the Book an' make affidavits an' not a soul 'ud believe you. The comic papers 'ud make fun of it, and the respectable papers 'ud say it was seaweed or gulls.' "Why not take it to New York with us?' ses the fust mate suddenly. "'What?' ses the skipper. "'Feed it every day,' ses the mate, getting excited, 'and bait a couple of shark hooks and keep 'em ready, together with some wire rope. Git 'im to foller us as far as he will, and then hook him. We might git him in alive and show him at a sovereign a head. Anyway, we can take in his carcase if we manage it properly.' "'By Jove! if we only could,' ses the skipper, getting excited too. "'We can try,' ses the mate. 'Why, we could have noosed it this mornin' if we had liked; and if it breaks the lines we must blow its head to pieces with the gun.' "It seemed a most eggstraordinary thing to try and catch it that way; but the beast was so tame, and stuck so close to us, that it wasn't quite so ridikilous as it seemed at fust. "Arter a couple o' days nobody minded the animal a bit, for it was about the most nervous thing of its size you ever saw. It hadn't got the soul of a mouse; and one day when the second mate, just for a lark, took the line of the foghorn in his hand and tooted it a bit, it flung up its 'ead in a scared sort o' way, and, after backing a bit, turned clean round and bolted. "I thought the skipper 'ud have gone mad. He chucked over loaves o' bread, bits o' beef and pork, an' scores o' biskits, and by-and-bye, when the brute plucked up heart an' came a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163  
164   >>  



Top keywords:
skipper
 

animal

 

ashore

 

excited

 

couple

 
papers
 
chucked
 

breaks

 
loaves
 

mornin


noosed

 

manage

 
sovereign
 

plucked

 
Anyway
 

properly

 
carcase
 
scores
 

biskits

 

thought


minded

 

tooted

 

nervous

 

ridikilous

 

foghorn

 

bolted

 

eggstraordinary

 

pieces

 

scared

 

turned


backing

 
playing
 

alongside

 

struck

 

kitten

 
wonderful
 

feeding

 
sarpints
 

peering

 
speaking

firmly
 

sarpint

 
forbid
 
suddenly
 

foller

 

seaweed

 
respectable
 

wouldn

 
believed
 

affidavits