Macleod of Dare, page 59 by William Black
<< Return to Title Details & Download60
his that happens just as the enemy has got round the Nore? There is a cry of "Man overboard!" The spinnaker boom has caught the careless skipper and pitched him clean into the plashing waters, where he floats about, not as yet certain, probably, what course his vessel will take. She at once brings her head up to wind and puts about; but meanwhile a small boat from the lightship has picked up the unhappy skipper, and is now pulling hard to strike the course of the yacht on her new tack. In another minute or two he is on board again; and away she goes for home.
"I think you have won the sweepstakes, Miss White," Macleod said. "Your enemy has lost eight minutes."
She was not thinking of sweepstakes. She seemed to have been greatly frightened by the accident.
"It would have been so dreadful to see a man drowned before your eyes--in the midst of a mere holiday excursion."
"Drowned?" he cried. "There? If a sailor lets himself get drowned in this water, with all these boats about, he deserves it."
"But there are many sailors who cannot swim at all."
"More shame for them," said he.
"Why, Sir Keith," said Mrs. Ross, laughing, "do you think that all people have been brought up to an amphibious life like yourself? I suppose in your country, what with the rain and the mist, you seldom know whether you are on sea or shore."
"That is quite true," said he, gravely. "And the children are all born with fins. And we can hear the mermaids singing all day long. And when we want to go anywhere, we get on the back of a dolphin."
But he looked at Gertrude White. What would she say about that far land that she had shown such a deep interest in? There was no raillery at all in her low voice as she spoke.
"I can very well understand," she said, "how the people there fancied they heard the mermaids singing--amidst so much mystery, and with the awfulness of the sea around them."
"But we have had living singers," said Macleod, "and that among the Macleods, too. The