ends, the dame remained perdu; silent and invisible
as a spirit. But in her own good time, she would mysteriously emerge;
or be suddenly espied lounging quietly in the forecastle, as if she
had been there from all eternity.

Useless to inquire, "Where hast thou been, sweet Annatoo?" For no
sweet rejoinder would she give.

But now the problem was solved. Here, in this silent cask in the
hold, Annatoo was wont to coil herself away, like a garter-snake
under a stone.

Whether-she-thus stood sentry over her goods secreted round about:
whether she here performed penance like a nun in her cell; or
was moved to this unaccountable freak by the powers of the air; no
one could tell. Can you?

Verily, her ways were as the ways of the inscrutable penguins in
building their inscrutable nests, which baffle all science, and make
a fool of a sage.

Marvelous Annatoo! who shall expound thee?

CHAPTER XXXII
Xiphius Platypterus

About this time, the loneliness of our voyage was relieved by an
event worth relating.

Ever since leaving the Pearl Shell Islands, the Parki had been
followed by shoals of small fish, pleasantly enlivening the sea, and
socially swimming by her side. But in vain did Jarl and I search
among their ranks for the little, steel-blue Pilot fish, so long
outriders of the Chamois. But perhaps since the Chamois was now high
and dry on the Parki's deck, our bright little avant-couriers were
lurking out of eight, far down in the brine; racing along close to
the keel.

But it is not with the Pilot fish that we now have to do.

One morning our attention was attracted to a mighty commotion in the
water. The shoals of fish were darting hither and thither, and
leaping into the air in the utmost affright. Samoa declared, that
their deadly foe the Sword fish must be after them.

And here let me say, that, since of all the bullies, and braggarts,
and bravoes, and free-booters, and Hectors, and fish-at-arms, and
knight-errants, and moss-troopers, and assassins, and foot-pads, and
gallant soldiers, and immortal heroes that swim the seas, the Indian
Sword fish is by far the most remarkable, I propose to dedicate this
chapter to a special description of the warrior. In doing which, I
but follow the example of all chroniclers and historians, my
Peloponnesian friend Thucydides and others, who are ever mindful of
devoting much space to accounts of eminent destroyers; for the
purpose, no doubt, of holding them up as e