“‘I understood about that,’ said she, ’and father and I were both perfectly satisfied; for he said that if we had a good breeze we would not be long in reaching Calcutta; but we seem to have a breeze, and yet we don’t go.’  ‘You’ll notice,’ said I, ’that the sails are not all set, and for some reason the wind does not serve.  When the engines are mended, we shall probably go spinning along.’  She looked as if she was trying to appear satisfied.  ‘Thank you, sir,’ she said.  ’I hope we may shortly proceed on our way, but in the meantime I shall not say anything to my father about this detention.  I think he has not noticed it.’  ‘That would be very wise,’ I replied, and as she turned toward the companionway I was wild to say to her that it would be a lot better for her to stay on deck, and get some good fresh air, instead of cooping herself up in that close cabin; but I didn’t know her well enough for that.”

“Now that you are through with the girl,” said the blacksmith, “what did the Devil do?”

“I haven’t got to him yet,” said the marine, “but after Miss Minturn went below I began to think of him, and the more I thought of him, the less I liked him.  I think the chief officer must have told the men below about the Water-devil, for pretty soon the whole kit and boodle of them left their work and came on deck, skipper and all.  They told me they had given up the engine as a bad job, and I thought to myself that most likely they were all too nervous to rightly know what they were about.  The captain threw out the log again, but it floated alongside like a cork on a fishing-line, and at this he turned pale and walked away from the ship’s side, forgetting to pull it in again.

“It was now beginning to grow dark, and as nobody seemed to think about supper, I went below to look into that matter.  It wouldn’t do for Miss Minturn. and her father to go without their regular meal, for that would be sure to scare them to death; and if I’m to have a big scare I like to take it on a good square meal, so I went below to see about it.  But I wasn’t needed, for Miss Minturn’s maid, who was an elderly woman, and pretty sharp set in her temper, was in the cook’s galley superintending supper for her people, and after she got through I superintended some for myself.

“After that I felt a good deal bolder, and I lighted a pipe and went on deck.  There I found the whole ship’s company, officers and crew, none of them doing anything, and most of them clustered together in little groups, whispering or grunting.

“I went up to the captain and asked him what he was going to do next.  ‘Do?’ said he; ’there is nothing to do; I’ve done everything that I can do.  I’m all upset; I don’t know whether I am myself or some other man’; and then he walked away.

“I sat there and smoked and looked at them, and I can tell you the sight wasn’t cheerful.  There was the ship, just as good and sound, as far as anybody could see, as anything that floated on the ocean, and here were all her people, shivering and shaking and not speaking above their breath, looking for all the world, under the light of the stars and the ship’s lamps, which some of them had had sense enough to light, as if they expected in the course of the next half-hour, to be made to walk the plank; and, to tell the truth, what they were afraid of would come to pretty much the same thing.”