Page:The Great Secret.djvu/203

Rh By and by these also fell off and grew uncertain as they sailed into the doldrums, and from there into the latitude of deadly calms and fiery sunbeams, when the ship lies rocking on a still blue mirror, and the pitch boils out from the seams, and sailors whistle for the wind that is so tardy in the coming. The hour for action was approaching,

"They say that petticoats are unlucky on board a ship, but I guess that you have brought us luck, ladies," said the gallant old tar, as they began to move after only ten days of stagnation. "I have lain dead still on these waters for four and five weeks at a spell before we could get a puff like this is."

Unfortunate skipper, to congratulate these she-demons who may have brought the evil wind which meant death to him and his honest crew.

In his jubilation at this good luck, he called for an extra supply of rum and insisted on having a steaming bowl of punch. How much Dr Fernandez wished that he could have had possession of the laudanum then to add an extra flavour to that potent punch bowl; however, as it stood, it was not a bad friend to him that punch, for it is potent and insidious when properly brewed, as Father Abraham could brew it.

As the captain made it, it was a glorious compound—a bottle of rum, a bottle of brandy, a bottle of the finest champagne, two glasses of cura9oa, a pint of sherry, with sugar, lemon and nutmeg, and not too much hot water. It tasted delicious and mild, yet the doctor warned Dennis and the ladies in Italian to feign the drinking of that delectable and innocent-looking compound.

He had tested the effects of curaçoa and champagne combined, with the other friendly spirits added.