The Wreck of the Nancy Bell | Page 6

his woolly hid, and the blood all over him, as if he had been basted wid a shillelagh at Donnybrook Fair, why, his own mother wouldn't know him. It's small blame to that fool of a steward to be afther taking him for somethin' onnatural, sure!"
While the mate had been giving this explanation of the stowaway's condition Captain Dinks had not been idle.
With an agility of which none would have thought him capable, looking at his thick-set and rather stout figure, he had rushed in a second to his own cabin, which was near aft; and, dragging out a couple of railway rugs and a coil of rope had pitched them below to the Irishman, concluding his operations by jumping down alongside him, to aid in releasing the injured man from his perilous position--telling the passenger as he quitted him to "sing out" for assistance.
"Steward!" shouted Mr Meldrum up the companion, in obedience to the captain's injunction; but never a bit did that worthy stir in response, nor did the ringing of a hand-bell, which the passenger saw in one of the swing-trays above the cuddy table expedite the recalcitrant functionary's movements, albeit it brought others to Mr Meldrum's aid.
"What is the matter, papa dear?" said a tall, graceful, nice-looking girl, of some eighteen summers, as she emerged from the state-room on the starboard side of the saloon and came towards Mr Meldrum. "Florry and I heard a heavy crash which woke us up, and then a cry of alarm, and a rush of feet along the deck which frightened us, for we could not tell what had happened. I dressed as fast as I could, but I wouldn't have come out if I had not heard your voice. As for poor Florry, she says she won't get up, and is now hiding her head under the clothes, as she thinks there's a mutiny going on or something dreadful!" and the girl laughed merrily as she spoke, disclosing the while a set of pearly teeth that were beautifully regular, and coral lips that would have put a rosebud to the blush; but, when she came up beside her father, who looked very young to be her parent, for he barely seemed forty years of age, she placed her hand on his arm in a caressing way, looking up into his face with a more serious expression, as if she had merely assumed the laugh to disguise a fear that she really felt.
"Oh, there's nothing very dreadful happening, Kate," replied Mr Meldrum; "only a stowaway in the hold whom the steward took for a ghost, to the serious detriment of the breakfast things which you heard being smashed; so, pray go back to your cabin, my dear, and soothe `poor Florry's' alarms. We are just getting our unexpected guest up from his temporary quarters under the saloon, and I'll call you when the coast is clear." This he said that she might not be shocked at the sight of the wounded man; and he felt far more comfortable when she had retired into her state-room and shut the door of communication that opened from it into the cuddy.
His comfort, however, was not of very long duration.
"I'd like to know what all this terrible hullabaloo is about?" exclaimed a gaunt and elderly female with sharp features and a saffron-hued complexion, coming out from the cabin on the opposite side of the deck, where she had previously appeared for an instant when in deshabille, as her night-capped head had evidenced. "It is positively scandalous, disturbing first-class passengers like this in the middle of the night and frightening them out of their wits!"
"My dear madam," said Mr Meldrum blandly; "why, it is just on the stroke of eight o'clock, and we'll be soon having breakfast."
"Don't `my dear madam' me, sir," returned the lady indignantly; "my name is Mrs Major Negus, and I insist on being treated with proper respect. Where is the captain of the vessel, sir?"
"Down there," said Mr Meldrum laconically, pointing to the open hatchway.
"And why is he not at his post, looking after the welfare of his passengers?" demanded the lady sternly, with the voice of a merciless judge.
"Really I think you had better ask him," replied Mr Meldrum laughing; "it strikes me he is now looking after the welfare of one of his passengers, unexpected though the sable gentleman may be!"
What Mrs Major Negus might have rejoined to this, cannot unfortunately be told, for at that moment, just as she had drawn herself up to her full height of some five feet ten inches, or thereabouts, and appeared prepared to demolish Mr Meldrum for his temerity in laughing at her--in laughing at her, forsooth; the wife of the deputy assistant comptroller- general of Waikatoo, New Zealand--the captain called out to