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Updated: June 8, 2025
Ben Brace was the last man to be cowed by a trifling danger, or even one of magnitude; and partly by Snowball's assistance, and using the pectoral flipper to which the raft was attached as a stirrup, he succeeded in mounting upon the back of the defunct monster of the deep.
Instead of rushing recklessly on to the attack, or even keeping up the swimming pace by which it had hitherto been making its approach, on arriving within some half-score fathoms of Snowball's face, it gradually slackened speed, until its brown, fan-like fins, gently oscillating along its sides seemed no longer to propel its body through the water.
This was properly elf-work, but no fairies had been heard of on Daurside for many a long year. The brownie, on the other hand, was already in every one's mouth only a stray one, probably, that had wandered from some old valley away in the mountains, where they were still believed in but not the less a brownie; and if it was not the brownie who plaited Snowball's mane, who or what was it?
Snowball's silent, though evidently determined, rejection of their demands had the effect of irritating those who had made them; and stimulated by their spite with more energy than ever did they bend themselves to the task of overtaking the fugitive craft. Two hundred yards still lay between pursuer and pursued. Two hundred yards of clear, unobstructed ocean.
Whip in one hand and with the skirt of her long black riding-habit in the other, the little girl stood above, looking on white and frightened. The hullabaloo had reached the house and General Dean was walking swiftly down the hill, with Snowball's mammy, topped by a red bandanna handkerchief, rushing after him and the kitchen servants following.
It was well and truly said, and there was no posing about it. Sir James Blount's problem was settled. He taught me something too, for all he did was to put out his hand. "There's an end of Tundish!" said Tiverton, grasping it firmly. "And it's the best end too, for the Highland army hasn't a snowball's chance in hell."
It seems that Snowball, while in the galley about midnight, had heard Moody talking to two or three of his especial "pals" in the port-watch; and, thinking from his knowledge of the man that he was up to some mischief, the darkey had listened thereby indulging a propensity which was Master Snowball's weak point, that of being inordinately curious about other people's business!
Thus it came to pass that the place was left "all standing," with rooms, furniture such as it was Snowball's copper and the cooking range all intact. Even the flagstaff with Kate's ensign at the peak was left hoisted, as if to show, that if deserted now, the spot had once been inhabited!
This was the loss of a large portion of their stock of provisions, consisting of the dried fish, partly those that had been half cured by Snowball previous to the union of the two rafts, and partly the flitches of shark-meat, that had been taken from the lesser raft, and added to Snowball's store.
The English sailor, though not entirely free from a certain tinge of superstition, did not share Snowball's belief. Though unable, by any experience he had ever gone through, to account for the odd incident, still he could not ascribe it to supernatural agency. The blow which started the plank on which Snowball had been standing had communicated a shock to the whole structure.
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