Madras, of course we had to stop; that's simple enough. That's
the way the Water-devil held us fast in one spot for two days.

"The British Government determined not to repair this broken cable, but
to take it up and lay down a better one; so they chartered a large
steamer, and fitted her up with engines, and a big drum that they use
for that sort of thing, and set her to work to wind up the Madras end
of the broken cable. She had been at this business a good while before
we were caught by the other end, and when they got near enough to us
for their engines to be able to take up the slack from the bottom
between us and them, then of course they pulled upon us, and we began
to move. And when they lay to for the night, and stopped the winding
business, of course we stopped, and the stretch of cable between the
two ships had no effect upon us, except when the big mail steamer
happened to move this way or that, as they kept her head to the wind;
and that's the way we lay quiet all night except when we got our
shocks.

"When they set the drum going again in the morning, it wasn't long
before they wound us near enough for them to see us, which they would
have done sooner if my lights hadn't gone out so early in the evening."

"And that," said the blacksmith, with a somewhat severe expression on
his face, "is all that you have to tell about your wonderful
Water-devil!"

"All!" said the marine; "I should say it was quite enough, and nothing
could be more wonderful than what really happened. A Water-devil is one
of two things: he is real, or he's not real. If he's not real, he's no
more than an ordinary spook or ghost, and is not to be practically
considered. If he's real, then he's an alive animal, and can be put in
a class with other animals, and described in books, because even if
nobody sees him, the scientific men know how he must be constructed,
and then he's no more than a great many other wonderful things, which
we can see alive, stuffed, or in plaster casts.

"But if you want to put your mind upon something really wonderful, just
think of a snake-like rope of wire, five or six hundred miles long,
lying down at the very bottom of the great Bay of Bengal, with no more
life in it than there is in a ten-penny nail.

"Then imagine that long, dead wire snake to be suddenly filled with
life, and to know that there was something far up above it, on the
surface of the water, that it wants to reach up to and touch. Think of