The Castaways | Page 6

kindling with
enthusiasm, "she is a beauty, and no mistake. You have some fine,
handsome frigates in the service, Mr Conyers, but I doubt whether the
best of them will compare with the City of Cawnpore for beauty, speed,
or seagoing qualities. My word, sir, but it would have done you good to
have seen her before she was put into the water. Shapely? shapely is
not the word for it, she is absolutely beautiful! She is to other craft
what,"--here his eye rested upon Miss Onslow's unconscious face for an
instant--"a perfectly lovely woman is to a fat old dowdy. There is only
one fault I have to find with her, and that is only a fault in my eyes;
there are many who regard it as a positive and important merit."
"And pray what may that be?" I inquired. And, as I asked the question,
several of the passengers who had overheard the skipper's remark
craned forward over the table in eager anticipation of his reply.
"Why, sir," answered Dacre, "she is built of iron instead of good, sound,
wholesome heart of oak; that's the fault I find with her. I have never
been shipmates with iron before, and I confess I don't like it. Of
course," he continued--judging, perhaps, from some of the passengers'
looks that he had said something a trifle indiscreet--"it is only prejudice
on my part; I can't explain my objection to iron; everybody who ought
to know anything about the matter declares that iron is immensely
strong compared with wood, and I sincerely believe them; still, there
the feeling is, and I expect it will take me a month or two to get over it.
You see, I have been brought up and have spent upwards of forty years
of my life in wooden ships, and I suppose I am growing a trifle too old
to readily take up newfangled notions."
"Ah, Captain, I have met with men of your sort before," remarked the
general; "you are by no means the first person with a prejudice. But
you'll get over it, my dear fellow; you'll get over it. And when you have
done so you'll acknowledge that there's nothing like iron for

shipbuilding. Apropos of seafaring matters, what sort of a voyage do
you think we shall have?"
The skipper shrugged his shoulders.
"Who can tell?" he answered. "Everything depends upon the weather;
and what is more fickle than that?--outside the limits of the trade-winds
and the monsoons, I mean, of course. If we are unlucky enough to meet
with a long spell of calms on the Line--well, that means a long passage.
But give me as much wind as I can show all plain sail to, and no farther
for'ard than abeam, and I'll undertake to land you all at Calcutta within
sixty days from to-day."
We were still discussing the probability of the skipper being able to
fulfil his promise, when a howling squall swept through the taut rigging
and between the masts of the ship, causing the whole fabric to vibrate
with a barely perceptible tremor, while the swish and patter of heavy
rain resounded upon the glass of the skylights.
"Whew!" ejaculated the general, "what a lively prospect for to-night!
What are we to do after dinner to amuse ourselves; and where are we
men to go for our smoke?"
"I think," said I, "we shall find a very comfortable place for a smoke
under the overhang of the poop. The tide is ebbing strong by this time,
so the ship will be riding more or less stern-on to the wind, and we
shall find a very satisfactory lee and shelter at the spot that I have
named."
"Ay," assented the skipper. "And when you have finished smoking,
what can you wish for better than this fine saloon, in which to play
cards, or read, or even to organise an impromptu concert? There is a
capital piano abaft there; and I am sure that among so distinguished a
company there must be plenty of good musicians."
And so indeed it proved; for when, having finished our smoke, the
general and some half a dozen more of us returned to the cuddy, we
found that several of the younger ladies of the party had already

produced their music, and were doing their best to make the evening
pass pleasantly for themselves and others. Miss Onslow was one of the
exceptions; she had not produced any music, nor, apparently, did she
intend to take anything more than a passive part in the entertainment;
indeed it is going almost too far to say even so much as that, for it
appeared doubtful whether she even condescended so far as to regard
herself as one of the audience; she had provided herself with a book,