The Wreck of the Nancy Bell | Page 6

his ribs are stove in, besides a heavy box having fallen on his leg.
He hasn't got such a chape passage this toime as he expected; for he has
been more'n half suffocated in the flour hogshead where he first stowed
himself away; and, begorrah, to look at him now, with his black face all
whitened, like a duchess powthered for a ball, and 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