te, nor the little Lalee, were in a
mood for mirth. On the contrary, the curious incident that had just
occurred was yet unexplained; and the awe with which it had inspired
them still continued to hold all three in a sort of speechless control.
Snowball himself was the first to break silence.

"Good Gorramity!" he exclaimed, his teeth chattering like castanets, as
the words passed between them. "Wha's all de rumpus 'bout? Wha you
tink, Massa Ben? Wha make dat dratted fuss under de raff? De water be
plash bout so I've see nuffin, 'cepting a big black heap o' someting.
Golly! I b'lieve it war de _jumbe_,--de debbil!"

The terrified looks of the speaker, while giving utterance to these
words,--especially when pronouncing the dreaded name of the _jumbe_--
told that he was serious in what he said; and that he actually believed
the devil to have been the agent who had been causing the mysterious
commotion!

The English sailor, though not entirely free from a certain tinge of
superstition, did not share Snowball's belief. Though unable, by any
experience he had ever gone through, to account for the odd incident,
still he could not ascribe it to supernatural agency. The blow which
started the plank on which Snowball had been standing had communicated a
shock to the whole structure. It might have been given by some huge
fish, or other monster of the deep; and though unaccountable and
unexpected, might, nevertheless, be quite natural. It was the shaking
which the _Catamaran_ kept up afterwards,--almost to the spilling of the
whole crew into the water,--that most perplexed the old
man-o'-war's-man. He could not imagine why a fish, or any other
creature, having butted its head once against the "keel" of the craft,
would not instantly desist from such an idle encounter, and make off as
fast as fins could carry it.

Ben's first impression was, that a whale had by chance risen under the
raft; as he had known them to do against the sides of ships. But then
the persistence of the creature, whatever it was, in its odd attack,
argued something more than accident. On the other hand, if the attack
was designed, and had been made by a whale, of whatever species, the
sailor knew that it would not have left off after merely shaking the
raft. A whale, with a single flirt of his tail, would have sent the
whole structure flying into the air, sunk it down into the deep, or
scattered it in fifty fragments over the surface of the w