—They was quiet enough now. The whole ship's
company looked as if they was bewitched, and
couldn't move tongue nor hand. Such a rum
expression I never see on any men's faces yet,
and hope I shan't again. 'Twarn't fear, bless
you! you knows the sailor too well for that.
'Twas——Well, p'raps if I'd a had a gen'leman's
education, I mought have been able to explain
better what it was that made us all look as if
we was going to be strung up at the yard-arm
at a moment's notice, and without one tussle for
our lives. I've been in seventeen actions, big
and little, sir," continued old Jacobs, "and I
can't say as I ever was afraid, but, from that
long moment ('twarn't hardly more) aboard th'
old Badger brig, I learned what a coward feels,
and I've never scoffed at them poor devils
since.

"' If 'twarn't fear,' ses you, ' what were it?'

"Which are nat'ral words for any gen'leman
to utter. 'Tis just what none of us Badgers—
from Captain Willis down to the boy—couldn't
answer. Harky here. Our hands was listless
as so much flax. If the captain his very self
had said, ' Stand by, Jacobs, my man, here's
Queen Wictoria in a glass o' grog,' I couldn't
have lifted a finger towards it! Our knees was
somewheres in our shoes, our eyes was a smarting
and blinking, and our tongues was as parched
as if we hadn't had a drink for a fortnight. 'Twas
just as though the whole ship's company had
been suddenly p'isoned—Captain Willis he said
something, a'terwards, about its being whiskers*
fluid—however, none of us didn't find any
particular difference in them, though Bob Jessamy,
who was nursing a kiss curl, thought it hung
limperer than what it usually did do.
* "Viscous." (?)

"0' course it got darker as the bank began
to close us, and every second the thing, whatever
it mought have been, that made us look
like mummies that had died of spotted fever, got
worser and worser. 'Twas a sweetish kind of
smell, and yet bilge-water was vi'lets alongside
of it! Some of the men—old hands, too, they
were—turned deadly sick, dropping, all in a
lump like, on the deck. There was no mistake
now. 'Twas the smell of the monstrous snake that
was beering down upon us—p'raps without knowing—
for the mist was so thick you mought as
well have tried to see through the mainsail.

"The captain he'd got hold of the lanyard of
the port gun, and stud there just as steady as a
rock, but I caught sight of his face as the fog
began to come aboard, and 'twas just as queer
and white as any of ourn, while his eyes was as
wide open as they would go, glaring into the
coming darkness. He was trying to speak, too,
without turning his head, but it seemed as if he
was half suffocated. I think he was a telling Mr.
Commersal:

"' Wh—when he opens—f—f—fire!'

"The words warn't out of his mouth, when
there come a sound, from just ahead, as if a
clap of thunder had burst through from t' other
side of the world! The mist closed in like a
curtain, but in the very heart of it, something
green and shiny, like a line of low coast, only
at one point heaved as high as our cross-trees,
was plain to be seen rolling down upon us!
' Bang, bang!' went the two guns, almost like
one. Then down went the old brig, head first,
downder than I ever knowed as a ship could go
that was meant to come up again. What with
the noise, the darkness, the rush of water, I
almost lost my senses; but I kept a grip of
what was nearest, and 'twas well I did, for as
the brig righted, a sea broke over us that swept
the deck clear of everything loose, and left
three feet of water in the hold. For a minute
after that, th' old Badger danced and staggered
like a tipsy bear. Then it got calm again,
the fog lifted, out come the sun. There was
nothing hextrornary to be seen or heerd, except
(as some said) another thunder-roar a long ways
off. The men were picking themselves up,
rubbing their eyes as if they'd had a snooze,
and asking each other what had happened.

"The captain he was a standing by his gun,
with his face in his hat. Presently he tuk it
out, spoke aside to Leftenant Commersal, and
walked aft. Next minute the ship's company
was piped to hear a speech. Captain said,
' Harkyhere, my lads, less we talk of this here
business ashore, the better. They 'ont believe
us, they 'ont; and if so be they did, 'tan't for the
credit of the old Badger that she was amost
swallowed by a snake! Purfessor Pausitive says
there ain't no sea-snakes. Three cheers for the
purfessor, and I wish he weer aboard! Steward,
double the men's grog till we make St. Helena.
Clerk, the log.' The clerk took fever on the
passage home, and I did his duty. That's how
I come to read the captain's account of our
adventur, made smooth and reg'lar for the Lords
Commissioners of the Admiralty, and 'twas thus:
' September tenth, eighteen 'thirty-five, lat.—,
long.—, calm, with fog-banks.—Saw a curious
marine animal (having some characteristics of
the serpent) of considerable size. On our near
approach, the animal sounded. Endeavoured
to obtain the specimen; but, not wishing to delay
the voyage, proceeded.'"

So far, Mr. Jacobs. A few hours after this
narration, a favourable breeze determined my
friend to put into Catania: at which port, not
without reluctance, I abandoned the little
Kertsch, and took to the land.

  On the 1st of September will be published, bound in cloth,
                                    price 5s. 6d.,
                           THE NINTH VOLUME.