American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, American
"Quiet, you dog!" he said jokingly. "You're a Skye terrier now, and
I'll soon make you a fox terrier--just as soon as I get that fur off
your face."
He shaved him clumsily but quickly, then stood back.
"Now, Devlin," he said, still carrying on the good-natured raillery,
"you're as handsome a dog as I ever saw. Let's hear you bark."
To our astonishment, Devlin emitted a series of canine sounds, and
ended with a menacing growl. He still sat quietly on the hatch,
however, without a sign or a smile on his face to indicate that he
fell in with the joke. Then came a shout from the mate, calling us to
halyards, clewlines, and buntlines, to shorten down for the squall.
We answered, and it was not until the squall had passed and sail made
again that we noticed that Devlin still sat on the hatch, occasionally
giving voice to barks and growls. We spoke to him, but received only
growls.
The skipper and mates came forward, and commanded him; he answered by
louder barks and deeper growls. We continued for an hour, and at last
he became violent. He was put into his berth, voted crazy from some
cause inherent in his nature, and ministered unto by all hands.
He grew quiet in a few days, but never regained his senses. We would
talk to him, coax him to answer, and even sing the old forecastle songs
to him; but all we received in answer were barks and growls, and soon
we perceived that he had forgotten the use of his pan, pannikin, and
spoon. We sorrowfully taught him to eat.
And we mourned also for another good fellow, from the time of that
squall that followed the barbering. Andrus, the Australian, had been
lost overboard. At a time when royals and topgallant sails were
flapping and fluttering, the ship laid over by the squall until the
lee rail was buried, and, with wind abeam, making twelve knots, Andrus
had floundered down into the water in the waist to rescue the ship's
cat, old Tom, that had been caught unawares and was in danger of
floating overboard.
No one knew just how it happened. We only knew that the ship righted
for a moment, then sagged back to a farther angle, and, when next she
righted, Andrus and the cat were gone.
We let the canvas flap and carry away, while we strove to back the main
yards, and the skipper threw over life-buoys and gratings. But in that
furious wind we could not gain an inch on the main-brace, and by the
time we realized this Andrus and the cat, life-buoys, and gratings must
have been a mile astern. There was a ship on the horizon, following in
our wake, but it was past all reason that Andrus, who we knew could not
swim, should reach a life-buoy or grating and be picked up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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