Chapter 28 - Page 2

to repose full faith in the Islander.

Jarl, however, was skeptical to the last; and never could be brought
completely to credit the tale. He stoutly maintained that the
hobgoblins must have had something or other to do with the Parki.

My own curiosity satisfied with respect to the brigantine, Samoa
himself turned inquisitor. He desired to know who we were; and whence
we came in our marvelous boat. But on these heads I thought best to
withhold from him the truth; among other things, fancying that if
disclosed, it would lessen his deference for us, as men superior to
himself. I therefore spoke vaguely of our adventures, and assumed the
decided air of a master; which I perceived was not lost upon the rude
Islander. As for Jarl, and what he might reveal, I embraced the first
opportunity to impress upon him the importance of never divulging our
flight from the Arcturion; nor in any way to commit himself on that
head: injunctions which he faithfully promised to observe.

If not wholly displeased with the fine form of Samoa, despite his
savage lineaments, and mutilated member, I was much less conciliated
by the person of Annatoo; who, being sinewy of limb, and neither
young, comely, nor amiable, was exceedingly distasteful in my eyes.
Besides, she was a tigress. Yet how avoid admiring those Penthesilian
qualities which so signally had aided Samoa, in wresting the Parki
from its treacherous captors. Nevertheless, it was indispensable that
she should at once be brought under prudent subjection; and made to
know, once for all, that though conjugally a rebel, she must be
nautically submissive. For to keep the sea with a Calmuc on board,
seemed next to impossible. In most military marines, they are
prohibited by law; no officer may take his Pandora and her bandbox
off soundings.

By the way, this self-same appellative, Pandora, has been bestowed
upon vessels. There was a British ship by that name, dispatched in
quest of the mutineers of the Bounty. But any old tar might have
prophesied her fate. Bound home she was wrecked on a reef off New
South Wales. Pandora, indeed! A pretty name for a ship: fairly
smiting Fate in the face. But in this matter of christening ships of
war, Christian nations are but too apt to be dare-devils. Witness the
following: British names all--The Conqueror, the Defiance, the
Revenge, the Spitfire, the Dreadnaught, the Thunderer, and the
Tremendous; not omitting the Etna, which, in the Roads of Corfu, was
struck by lightning, coming nigh being consumed by fire from above.
But almost potent as Moses' rod, Franklin's proved her salvation.

With the above catalogue, compare we the Frenchman's; quite
characteristic of the aspirations of Monsieur:--The Destiny, the