strange and dreadful fish glided in upon us,
but one glimpse of Thomas drove him out in
an instant, and I didn't wonder. Nevertheless,
it was far worse when I was left in the
machine alone—with the fullest instruction,
of course, as to air tubes, but also in the
deadliest terror of forgetting them—while my
friend (the only friend I had in all the sea)
wont about his business over the wreck—a
very wondrous experience that, and not easily
forgotten. Many reflections of an original
character ought to have occurred to me,
without doubt, which I should have now described,
but, as I said before, I was far too frightened
to think of anything except air-tubes and
getting up again. After the longest half-hour
anybody ever passed in their lives, my
merman reappeared. He had fixed his hooks
and eyes round a great brass carronade, and
was extremely buoyant in consequence.

"But," said he, when we were in his snug
parlour again that evening, and he had been
congratulating me on my prowess; "but,
Master James, you must come down with a
helmet some day, and then you will see
wonders."

"Thank you, Thomas," said I, "all the
same, but enough is as good as a feast; I
have had my duck, and enjoyed it, nor do I
want another. I should like, however, to
hear of anything interesting you may have
met with under those circumstances."

"Well," said he, and he turned his quid in
his mouth, and brought his right eye to bear
steadfastly upon me, as was his wont during
compilation; "I will tell you of an occurrence
that happened to my brother within
the last few years; he has become an altered
man since, I assure you, and generally takes
a religious work down in the bell with him.

"There was a friend of his, mate to a West
Indiaman that was outward bound in a few
days from Cork, and Bill, my brother, and he
had had a difference; what the quarrel began
about I don't rightly know, but the mate
abused Bill's profession, and called him an
auiphiberous lubber, or something like that,
and Bill abused the mate and wished him
under the sea, with never an air-tube; and
the ship sailed without making it up. My
brother was very sorry when it was too
late—for amphiberous lubbers has their
feelings like other folks—and greatly shook
when news was brought, next morning, that
the vessel had gone down not three miles
from shore, with every soul on board. Just
at starting, as it might be—with all her
passengers so full of hope, agoing to join their
friends again—she struck upon a rock off Early
Point, and settled down, as it was supposed,
about midnight in a few minutes. There was
a good cargo of spice, and Bill was, of course,
sent for immediate; there was but few bodies
floated to shore, and, knowing he would see
some terrible sights, he was not over-pleased
at the job; but until they could get more
divers there was no choice, so down he goes
to the vessel, and finds her fallen betwixt
two reefs of rock, bolt upright, with masts
standing and sails set, just as she settled
down. She looked, he said, for all the world
like any ship upon the surface, except that
there was a hole broken in her side, where
she had struck; her boats were slung almost
uninjured, coils of rope were lying on the
main-deck, the hatches were open and the
door above the chief cabin stairs; the wet,
swift fishes darted in and out of it, and the
crabs were going about their work already
when my brother descended. There were
six or seven men in the cabin, gentlemen
passengers, and a card or two that floated about
showed they had been playing when the
vessel struck; some of them were even
standing upright, just as they started from
their seats when they felt the shock, and one
had a dreadful look, with pale, parted lips, as
though a cry of agony had just escaped
them; a young man and a girl—so like as to
be sworn brother and sister—were embracing
for the last time; the heaving of the sea,
scarce felt at such depth, swayed all the
figures to and fro—without a touch of decay,
and instinct with all but life, was that ship's
company. The captain, in his cabin, slept
his last sleep quite placidly. The sailors, for
the most part, were drowned within their
hammocks, only those whose duty necessitated
their being on deck were washed off
and driven ashore. The darkness had been
so deep as to render the best look futile, the
strongest swimming of no avail. All these
things were sad enough, and Bill's nerves,
iron as they were, were shaken sadly.
Wandering about that living charnel-house,
attired so unnaturally, seeking for gold in
the very heart of ocean, it was terrible, and
yet, Master James, though you look so
shocked, it was his honest business so to do,
and a far less hateful way of getting on in
the world than is practised in high places
daily; still, when he had found what he
wanted and, laden with as many bags as he
could carry, was returning to the main-deck
by another way, it seemed to him the worst
job he had been ever set to do—and, lo! at
the foot of the companion-ladder, he met the
man he knew so well, and parted with in
wrath so lately, with one hand on the round,
as if in the act of flight. The look upon the
drowned man's face seemed to reproach him
for his latest wish, so that he dared not put
him aside and pass by, but turned back and
went upon deck by the road he came; nor
ever after that dreadful sight could brother
Bill be brought to venture down into the
sunk West Indiaman."

"Dear me, Mr. Headfurst," I said, "I never
heard so frightful a tale in all my life."

"Nor I neither, Master James, but it's
true enough, and so my brother will tell you
if you ask him. I don't happen, just at present,
to remember his address, but he dives a good
deal still, off the east coast of Ireland."