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Mr Southcott must have seen this too, for he wheeled round upon Farmer and exclaimed: "Surely, Farmer, you are not mad enough to entertain the idea of fighting the Mermaid? Why, man, you could not stand up before her for five minutes with the men in their present undisciplined state and no one but yourself to direct operations.
At length the westering sun approached the horizon; and Mr Douglas and Mr Southcott retired to their cabins in anticipation of Captain Pigot's appearance on deck to watch the nightly operation of reefing topsails, leaving Mr Reid and Mr Maxwell to slowly pace the quarter-deck side by side.
"Well, what think you of her?" asked Farmer impatiently, after the master had been silently working away with the glass for some two or three minutes. "One moment, please," answered Southcott with his eye still glued to the tube; "I think but I am not quite sure if she would only keep just the merest trifle more away so as to permit of my catching a glimpse "
"Very curious, though rather larcenous," observed the young man, laughing. "And this good lady over the mantel-piece, who is she?" "That's Joanna Southcott. But, my good young gentleman, I will answer all your questions another time. Your mother and I will have enough to do to arrange matters before your father comes home. You will excuse my freedom, Sir."
"Seize him, you two," he continued to the men who had charge of the prisoner, "and if he offers to speak again to the men clap a belaying-pin between his teeth. My lads, you now know the truth; yonder frigate is our old acquaintance the Mermaid. Mr Southcott proposes that I should surrender the command of this ship to him; and if I do so we all know what will follow.
"Mr Southcott," said the mutineer, turning toward the individual addressed, and perceptibly shrinking as their glance met, "be good enough to take this glass, and let me know wha' you think of the stranger yonder." "Stranger!" ejaculated Southcott. "Where away? Ah, I see her!" and he took the glass from Farmer's extended hand.
Our new friend seated himself alongside Mr Southcott, and, first informing that gentleman that the company in which we found ourselves were the crews of sundry British merchantmen which had been captured by the Spaniards, and that he was the ex-chief mate of a tidy little Liverpool barque called the Sparkling Foam, proceeded to inquire into the circumstances which had led to our captivity.
Accordingly, no sooner had the skipper left the deck than I was despatched by Mr Reid to apprise Mr Douglas, Mr Maxwell, and Mr Southcott of the fact, and to state that the first lieutenant awaited them on the quarter-deck.
This is by no means the first remarkable trick that the spirits have performed upon the human organization. Here is what they did at High Rock, in Massachusetts, a number of years ago. It beats Joanna Southcott in funny absurdity, if not in blasphemy. At High Rock, in the year 1854 or thereabouts, certain spiritualist people were building some mysterious machinery.
He was absent about a quarter of an hour; and on his return he informed us in horrified accents that, out of all the officers of the ship, there remained alive only Mr Southcott the master, the gunner, the carpenter, Courtenay, myself and Farmer, the master's mate, who, it appeared, had taken a leading part in the mutiny, and had been elected to the command of the ship.
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