“ He hesitated.
"Oh!" cried Duncan, "that 'but' turns the scale, mother. Don't you ask him to stay, mother. All Englishmen have pluck if they haven't all strength. So Frank is coming."
The morning was very bright and beautiful, with just a slight "scriffen" of snow on the ground, and the sun rose over the eastern hills in a blue-gray haze, like a ball of crimson fire, and intimated his intention of shining all day long.
Duncan and Conal were up betimes, and had got everything in readiness long before Frank came down. ”

“ The wind, even as he spoke, began to roar more wildly through the rigging, but in gusts or squalls, that at times rose for a few minutes to almost hurricane pitch.
Before the storm had come on many beautiful gulls had been screaming around the barque and diving for morsels of food that Frank was throwing to them, but now they disappeared. Back they flew to the rocks that frown over the waters of their sea-girt homes. Little dark chips of stormy petrels, however, continued to dash from wave-top to wave-top, and for once in a way, they brought tempest. ”

“ They called at Zanzibar, one of the strangest cities on earth, and here, while the Flora M'Vayne lay quietly at anchor in the beautiful open roadstead, where floated ships bearing the ensigns of at least half a dozen different nations, the boys went on shore, taking Vike with them, and enjoyed most thoroughly not only rambles through the crowded streets, but out in the beautiful bush, where they could revel in the rarest and most delicious fruits the world can grow. ”

“ The storm continued for more than a week, and all that time--every hour, in fact--the Flora M'Vayne had been in peril and danger.
Gallant ship! How well she stood the squeezing, the cannonading, the battering! A vessel less strong in every timber, or one built of teak instead of Scottish oak would have collapsed and gone down in a few minutes, carrying the crew with her, or leaving them almost naked, hungry, and helpless on the pack, to die a death ten times more cruel than drowning. ”

“ We are gods to the pets we cherish, and they are content to believe in and trust us, never doubting that all is for the best. Alas! we ourselves hardly put the same trust in the good God who made us, and cares for us, as our innocent dogs do in those who own them.
"Well, Conal," said Duncan, "this is, indeed, a wild night. I wonder if we are going to Davie Jones's locker, as sailors call it?"
"I don't think so. The captain is a long-headed fellow. I guess he knows what he is up to." ”

“ Yes, but a moment after, and high above even that, across the intervening ice came the wild skirl of Duncan's Highland bagpipe.
Duncan was playing the March of the Cameron Men as he walked boldly up and down in the waist of the ship, while Frank and Conal on the ice-block could not help chiming in with just one verse of that brave old song, which has thrilled so many a heart on bank or brae or battlefield:
"Ah! proudly they march, though each Cameron knows
He may tread on the heather no more,
Yet boldly he follows his chief to the field
Where his laurels were gathered before". ”

“ Well, when Frank Trelawney had that fiddle of his under his bit of a Cockney chin, all his troubles, if, indeed, he had any that could be called real, were forgotten, including weevils, hard tack, cockroaches, and all. For the time being, indeed, there was no one else in the world save he himself and the violin. And what worlds of romance and love and beauty were thus conjured up before him!
But even at the risk of differing from Frank, I think a sailor's pleasures, if he is one who calls at many and different ports, far outbalance any grievances he may have to growl about--short of shipwreck. ”

“ There is no one to guide or navigate the ship. We must drift on till we strike reef or rock and so go to pieces.
"Never fear, sir, we'll die like true-born Britons."
"But," cried Duncan, "there need be no dying about it. I myself can navigate the ship, if sextant and chronometer still are safe."
They crowded round this brave though youthful navigator and shook him by the hand, while tears of joy streamed down many a sea-browned weather-beaten cheek. ”

“ Such poetry and such tales Duncan would often read to his brother and winsome wee Florie sitting high on a hilltop, perhaps, on some fine summer's day with the great Atlantic spreading away and away from the shore beneath them to the distant horizon.
Dibdin's splendid and racy songs, redolent as they are of the brine and the breeze, were great favourites.
But I do think there is a thread of romance in the life of every sailor. ”

“ Duncan was rated "captain of the car", so all questions were referred to him.
"It really looks a little like it," was the reply, "unless the island down yonder, with our dear friends on it, has broken adrift, and is bound for the mainland."
They could talk lightly, almost joyously now, so bracing was the air, and so delicious the sensation of floating through space.
"I say, captain," said Frank, "hadn't we better put another man to the wheel, and tack and half tack for a time. Or suppose we lie to, eh?"
"Providence is at the wheel, Frank, but we're at the mercy of every breeze that may blow." ”

“ It is like the first angry growling of a lion ere he springs upon his prey.
They pause and listen. The sound is repeated, and they will venture no farther for the present.
But here, in this vast cavern, which, when lighted up by torches which have been brought on purpose--for Talbot had expected to meet with caves--its beauty is of so extraordinary a character that it cannot be described.
A great galaxy of shining pillars that are found to be some strange form of stalactite, emitting on every side more than the light and colour and glory of a billion of diamonds! ”

“ He seemed to be unable to lift a limb, and at last he heard the howling of the wind only like sunlit waves breaking on a far-off sandy beach.
He nodded--his chin fell on his breast--he was dreaming.
Ah! but it is from a sleep like this that men, overtaken in a snow-storm, never, never arise. They simply
"Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,
Morn of toil, nor night of waking".
In a few minutes, however, Duncan starts. The sound of a dog's voice falls on his ear. Ah! there is no bark in all broad Scotland so sonorous and so sincere as that of honest Vike. ”

“ It was pitchy dark, for the horizon was close aboard of the storm-tormented ship, and the clouds may have been half a mile in depth. There were two men at the wheel, and those who had to keep watch were fain to lash themselves to rigging or shrouds.
But keeping watch is here but a figure of speech. What watch could be kept in a dark so dark? There was no thunder that could be heard, but the occasional flashes of lightning that dazzled the eyes one moment only rendered the darkness more intense the next. ”

“ South as the bird flies. And with a fair and spanking breeze too. As for birds--once past the rocky and volcanic island of Diego Alvarez, few indeed bore them company. I believe anybody might have this rocky place who had a mind to. They found it to be the home of myriads--clouds, in fact--of gulls of every sort, including the well-known Cape pigeon, the puffin, the penguin, and albatross, to say nothing of the cormorant, and that strange, strange creature on its wondrous wings, that lives in the sky most of its time, and even goes to sleep as it soars high above the clouds--the frigate-bird. ”

“ One of the savages was held aloft in a kind of sedan-chair, and was evidently the chief or king. He was the most hideous-looking savage it is possible to imagine; extremely corpulent, with a cruel, cut-throat expression of face; small deep-set eyes, and cheeks covered with parallel scars about an inch long. His hair in front hung straight down in tiny ringlets over a retreating forehead.
One should never show fear before savages. Duncan knew this, and walking boldly up to the huge travelling throne he saluted him in an off-hand way, and addressed him in English. ”

“ They were now ready for further adventures, but of course had no idea what was in store for them.
Well, the forest was soon left far behind, and, much to their astonishment, they perceived mountains ahead of them so high that snow lay white on their conical summits.
In an hour or two they were over a charming valley, and so low down that they could see the black natives running about in a great state of excitement, having evidently caught sight of the aeronauts.
"Fortune favours the brave," cried Duncan exultantly. ”

“ Vike, who had been observing him, sprang right off the bulwark and tried most energetically to head him off.
The bird and dog met face to face, and it really seemed as if a conversation somewhat as follows took place.
Old Pen: "Hullo, what's your game?"
Viking: "I'm going to rush you back to your ship."
O. P.: "Your grandmother! I won't be rushed. I can swim better than you, and dive like a fish-hawk. So don't let us quarrel. In spring, you know, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. ”

“ The sailor men crouched in fear, or hastened to make themselves fast by ropes' ends to rigging or shroud.
And now the fine vessel is struck--is wallowing in the midst of that hurricane-tossed turmoil of waters--is on her beam-ends, without any apparent hope of recovery.
But recover she did after a time, and the ocean wave swept on.
What a wreck! The half-drowned men, or those who were left alive, gasped for breath as they stared wildly around. Two masts gone by the boards, only the pitiful foremast left standing ”