Part 29 (1/2)

All eyes turned in the direction of the poor fellow's hand. There stood Pipe the Boatswain! A chorus of mingled groans, shrieks and cries arose from the company. The sailors scattered into the ferns and bushes. The officers stood their ground, but there was not one among them who would not have run had he dared.

The figure slowly advanced. The eyes were sunken, the face pale, the hair hung damp and matted around the face and brow. The clothes were ragged and clung closely to the body. The eyes had, or seemed to have, an unnatural brightness. They were fixed steadily upon the officers.

Step by step, nearer and nearer the figure came. But it spoke no word.

There could be no mistake about it. It was Pipe the drowned boatswain!

Now Sergeant True, like most sensible persons, knew that if there were such things as ghosts they must be harmless creatures. He had often said that; and declared that he would like to meet a ghost. But if the truth were known, he would rather have been excused just then. However, he spoke at last.

”Speak! whatever you be! Spirit, ghost, or living flesh,--tell us what you are, and why you are come here!”

The figure stopped. A strange, familiar light played upon the pale face, and glimmered around the corner of the eyes. Then into the death-like silence the image spoke with a husky voice:

”Well, s.h.i.+pmates, this is a rather tough greeting on one's return from a long voyage! What's i' the wind, that you all run from your old comrade, and stand staring at me as though I were a ghost? Hey, my boy, don't you know Sophie's daddy?”

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 105.--”A Colony of Youngling Orbweavers as Snugly Tented Under a Jack-in-the-Pulpit.”]

”Pipe, Pipe! it is Pipe himself!” exclaimed True, and he rushed forward and took the dear old sailor in his arms.

”There, there,” said the boatswain, ”that'll do for the present. Cast off grapnels, please, and save your hugging for some one who likes it better. h.e.l.lo, you lubbers!”--addressing the sailors,--”get up, here!

I'm ashamed of the cloth, I am. Yes, it's Pipe--who else? Want proof of it, do you?” The sailors were sitting upon the ground staring, dumb and incredulous, upon their old officer. ”Well, here goes then. You know the sound of pipe to quarters, I'll be bound.” So saying he put his whistle to his lips, and sounded the old familiar note.

It was enough. The frightened foragers rose and shook hands with Pipe.

The scattered runaways came back. An eager crowd surrounded the boatswain to hear him explain this marvelous resurrection from the deep.

”Well, it's easily enough explained. Come to think of it now, I don't wonder that you took me for a ghost. In sooth, it is not often that a Brownie stays under water for a whole day, and comes up again, unless, may be, as a ghost.”

”What! Under water a whole day?” cried Help. ”You don't mean that seriously, do you?”

”Aye, aye, s.h.i.+pmate, that I do. It has not been half an hour since I left the depths of the lake there. I went down with the rest under the keel of that infernal old pot that the Pixies set afloat. I supposed my time had come at last. But no one seems to be willing to die even when his time has come; so you see, I struck out pretty lively, so as to get clear of the wreck and the drowning crews as I came up, and then allowed myself to rise. First thing I knew I was diving straight through the door of a water pixie's nest! You know there are some of those creatures who make a kind of hollow globe or diving bell under the water.”

”Yes,” said True eagerly, ”the Argyroneta pixies.”

”Aye, those are the fellows. Well, they stay and balance their nest with cables, which they fasten to stems of water plants; then they mount to the surface, catch a bubble of air in the little hairs of their legs and hands, sink with it and shoot it up into the nest. When it is filled they have a water-tight house filled with air, down in the very midst of the lake. It is a cunning thing even if it is made by a Pixie.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 106.--Pipe's Escape from the Water Pixie's Den.]

”Well there I was, snug and comfortable enough. The housekeeper didn't happen to be at home, and I had full possession of the premises. I couldn't make up my mind what to do. Of course, I knew that I couldn't stay there always; but I feared to crawl out and mount to the surface.

Either way my chance seemed pretty slim for life. I concluded to wait a while anyhow, and stretched myself upon a sort of web hammock that hung from the sides. I looked every moment for the landlady to report, and loosened my knife to welcome her home. However, she didn't come, and after a long waiting I fell asleep. How long I slept I don't know. I was aroused by a slight swaying of the diving bell nest. The proprietor was coming in, sure as the world! She was already half way through the port-hole. I clutched my knife and got ready to cut away. But a thought struck me. Think's I, can't I lay hold of the old lady, and get her to tow me out of this, and may be ash.o.r.e? I put my knife between my teeth and waited quietly until Mrs. Argyroneta had got fairly into her cabin.

Then I leaped from my hammock, grabbed her by a hind leg, and yelled at the top of my lungs. Whew! you ought to have seen that Pixie get. She turned and made through the port, mounted to the surface, and flew across it like the flying Dutchman. I found it a little hard to hold on to her leg. But the creature had cast out of her spinnerets a good stout cable as she turned to leave her nest, which I seized with both hands.[AV]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BOY'S ILl.u.s.tRATION.

FIG. 107.--Pipe and the Pixie.]

”I should hate to say how many knots an hour we rated. The Pixie went so fast that my head was kept above water by the swiftness of the motion.

She made straight for the island, and upon my word, I believe she would have towed me clear ash.o.r.e if it hadn't been for an accident. In doubling the edge of a cl.u.s.ter of water lilies my tug struck a snag and capsized. The rope slackened and I had to swim for it. Mrs. Argyroneta dived. Not relis.h.i.+ng a second journey to the bottom of the lake, I cut the cable with my knife and clambered on top of a lily leaf. After some trouble I managed to cut the leaf loose, and as the wind and current set in toward the island, I drifted ash.o.r.e just below here. I had scarcely landed when I met these hearties here, who broke off into the woods at a livelier rate than even my Pixie tug had made. That is the whole of my yarn. And now if you please, give me something to eat for I'm mortal hungry.”