Chapter VIII: The Mystery of the Merman

It is around the unknown and the unknowable in this world that terror and superstition mostly cling. Had any one invented the telegraph, the telephone, or any other of the wonders developed by a proper knowledge of the powers of electricity, three hundred years ago, ten to one that individual would have been condemned to the stake as being in league with the Evil One.

We have all of us heard tell of or read about mermaids and mermen, but few perhaps of the cultivated believe in such beings nowadays. People in the far north of Scotland, especially those born and bred among the wild, weird mountains and glens, and the misty and awful gloom that often settles over these for days, are different. No wonder that in such localities ghosts are often said to be seen, and mournful cries are heard by night or while storms of wind and rain are raging. But it was more among the lone Hebrides that mermaids were believed in, and it is not so very long ago that an old laird lived who credited the notion that these semi-fairies had really been seen and heard.

It remained, however, for the king of the gipsies, Biffins Lee, not only to see one, not only to capture one, but to exhibit the creature in a huge tank at the Queerest Show on Earth.

It was many months before Antony Blake came north here to buy the beautiful saloon caravan 'Gipsy Queen,' and upon an evening in summer, when two fishermen were slowly pulling their boat across a rock-girt bay, that a mermaid suddenly appeared to them.

The reader must understand that two sides of this deep-water bay are entirely walled in by precipitous rocks without any shore or beach big enough for even a bird to perch upon. When it was low-tide the water was still deep all along the base of these cliffs, for it simply rose against the rocks when the tide was in and fell again at low-water.

The place where the strange being was seen to rise from the dark, watery depths was far away from any place from which a human being could have swam, except on the surface of the water. Hardly even a seal could have remained under long enough to have enabled it to swim to a distant point.

But one boatman had clutched the other. He was pale as death with the fear that grasped his heart.

'Oh--look--John! lo--ok!'

And yonder, sure enough, had suddenly come to the surface a figure all draped in dark seaweed apparently, but with the bare arms and face of a woman or mermaid. It was not more than a hundred yards from the boat, which at first it did not appear to see. When it did, after one wild, frightened glance, it uttered a strange, terrified cry like that, the men said, of a lost sea-bird. It should be remembered that a sea-gull at night, when out on the waves, utters a very plaintive cry or wail. But now, after making a few evolutions, the creature suddenly dived and disappeared, showing, as it did so--both men swore to this--a tail like that of a monster fish. They gazed and gazed again at the spot where the apparition was last seen, but it never returned. Then the fishermen rowed as perhaps they never in their life had rowed before, and in due time rounded the point into the bay, which opened out into the sandy beach where a cottage stood. As soon as they set foot on shore, it is said, both fainted or swooned.

Now, neither of these men ever drank anything stronger than water, and both were hardy young fellows, very unlikely, indeed, to be the victims of optical illusions. Moreover, they were churchgoers and highly respected. But in spite of this their story gained but little credence, and it was believed they were only trying to have a joke at other people's expense.

Yet, just three evenings afterwards, and at the self-same time and place, as a boat was coming from B---- with no less than five men on board, they were startled by seeing the apparition not seventy yards from the bows. It was precisely as the first two men had described it. After it screamed and disappeared the boat was rowed right up to the very foot of the cliff, but nothing was observed that could possibly lead to a clue to the strange mystery.

A whole week passed, and though the cliff was watched almost the whole time there was no further appearance of the mermaid. Then it suddenly appeared again; but this time it had a very much changed appearance, for its hair was not long and dark nor its face beautiful. On the contrary, it was so hideous in its grinning ugliness that some who saw it shrieked as if in a nightmare. Then the old fisher-folk shook their heads and said that the first apparition was evidently the mermaid and this the merman.

This explanation was accepted all round the coast, and soon so-called scientists got hold of the story and visited the village and the bay. They tried in vain to get the men to confess it was but a huge practical joke. Then they set themselves to watch, and were rewarded in time by a glimpse of the terrible merman. The creature even went so far as to show a dreadful mouthful of teeth, and to shake a very human-like fist at the scientists before it plunged and was seen no more.

So the scientists returned sadder, if not wiser, men, and wasted quires of paper in trying to account in a natural way for what they had seen. But no theories of theirs would sufficiently account for the dread apparitions, not even that of the manatee. This is an Arctic seal that has some semblance to a human being; but a manatee has not a real human face nor a long skinny human arm.

The people in that beach-village were now in a state of mind to believe almost anything, and the minister had his 'ain adees' trying to restore them to a state of something like equanimity. But no youngster would now venture out of doors after gloaming fell for fear of seeing or meeting anything 'uncanny.' The cry even of an innocent sea-gull flying home at night to its nest on the cliffs made them tremble with fear.

'A mermaid or merman couldna hairm ye, 'oman,' said Tammas Reid, endeavouring to allay his wife's fears, 'even if it cam' on shore.'

'Augh!' she cried, 'fat [what] ken ye? Didna that awfu' apparition wodge its neive [shake its fist] and spit fire at the hale [whole] boat's crew?'

Tammas said no more.

But one night, not long after, a late boat came in and reported terrible and fearsome doings in the bay. They had clapped on extra sail and sped homewards, and they would not go out again that night for anything in the world.

What had they seen?

'Fat [what] is't we ha'ena seen?' was the reply. And then they described blue lights and red lights gleaming against the cliffs around the bay, and things like fiery serpents running across the surface of the water, and fearful screaming and shouting and firing of guns, and a 'scomfishing' [stifling] smell of burning brimstone, followed by a silence deep and awful! And here they were alive to tell their story!

But early next morning came wonderful tidings to the little village, and it was soon spread from mouth to mouth to every place round about.

The news was brought by Skeleton himself, who was riding Renegade like, the old wives said, 'Death on a black horse.'

It was to the effect that after a tremendous battle which no tongue could describe, he himself, with Biffins Lee and Chops, had succeeded in capturing the merman, and had taken him to camp and placed him in a large tank of sea-water. The creature, Skeleton said, had made a terrible resistance, and he was now wounded and sulking in a corner under water; but as soon as he was better and became tame enough to eat fish he would be exhibited almost every night.

A whole week passed by. Neither the mermaid nor merman were again seen, so Skeleton's story was believed. It was believed also that the mermaid had either died of grief or been so frightened that she had left the coast.

Hearing the story, the scientists came back, determined not to believe even their own eyes. To them in the gloaming of a summer evening the merman was first shown. The tank was about fourteen feet deep, and electric light was flashed down from above, and there, sure enough, the awful creature could be seen crouching in a corner at the bottom.

'But,' the scientists said, 'that might be a mere doll or dummy.'

'No, Mr Biffins Lee, we can't swallow your mermaid, or rather merman.'

'Gentlemen,' replied Lee in his grandest manner, 'I should be very sorry indeed if you did swallow him. There he is, nevertheless; and if you will be kind enough not to swallow him I will have the honour and pleasure of showing him to all the crowned heads in Europe.'

'Has he ever been to the surface of the tank yet?' asked a disbeliever.

'That he was, sir, only this morning. He swam up and took down two fish, and'----

At this moment these savants were standing, confronting Biffins, about ten yards from the tank, and with their backs thereto.

Suddenly, 'See! see!' shouted Biffins. He seized the foremost scientist and wheeled him right round; and although the man evinced a strong inclination to fly, Mr Biffins Lee held him there as in a vice.

The other scientists retreated in a body many yards away, and stood staring at the tank in terrified astonishment.

And no wonder. For, above the surface, the head, shoulders, and bare arms, with fingers ending in claws, had appeared. The face was very old-looking and wrinkled, but the scream it gave would have done honour to a mountain curlew. Then it swam to the side of the tank.

The scientists were shaking with dread.

'Se--se--send him d--d--down, Mr Lee. Have you no co--co--co--control over him?'

'Not a bit,' cried Biffins. 'Serve you right if you're frightened, I say.'

But Skeleton now rushed in with a live fish and threw it towards the water. The merman caught it and disappeared. Then the scientists stood there for ten whole minutes as if turned into stone, with their watches in their hands.

'If you care to have him up again, gentlemen,' said Lee, 'I think I have only to throw in another haddock.'

'No, no--not for the world. We mean, we are perfectly satisfied, Mr Lee.' It was the mouthpiece of the party who spoke.

'I think, my friends,' he went on, 'that we must now thank Professor Lee for his great kindness, and--and retire; for verily, verily, gentlemen, there are more things in heaven and earth than--er--we dream of in our--er--philosophy.'

Biffins followed them out beyond the compound, and as he bade them good-night he said, 'You'll give me a paragraph in your papers, won't you, my friends?'

'My good fellow, we will give you a leading article. You are a benefactor to science!'

The scientists then had had the honour of the first view. The clergy came next. They said but little, were a trifle timid, but evidently satisfied.

Then Biffins Lee had set about completing the great show that he felt would draw visitors from all parts of the country. He erected a wire fence a few yards back from the tank, and surrounded the whole with a strong high wooden palisade, and placed a pay-box by the door, at which Mary sat to collect the half-crowns and shillings, and it was between the palisade and the wire fence that the onlookers had to stand.

But wise Biffins made a proviso that no batch of sightseers were to remain longer inside than a quarter of an hour, and that even if the monster did not appear on the surface during that time it was not his--Biffins Lee's--fault, so he would not return the money. However, as the merman usually appeared two or three times during the night, and as when not on the surface he could be seen at the bottom of the tank, the people were content, and the great show became a marvellous success.

But the creature, it soon turned out, would only please to appear once a week, when hungry, and so the merman's night had to be duly advertised. Beyond this, Biffins said, he could not go. Only, strangers from afar could visit the Queerest Show any time by appointment made a day before, and take their chance of seeing the 'great sight of the century,' as Lee called it.

Even in the middle of the summer, when the season was at its height, and everybody went to see the merman once at all events, there were doubters as to the genuineness of the affair. All admitted that Biffins Lee was exceedingly clever, and the show was anyhow worth the money even without the merman.

One individual from the Granite City was known to have stated at a public dinner that the merman, whoever personified it, had no doubt a tube, artfully concealed in the corner of the tank, through which it breathed air. This man was soon sorry he had spoken; because not only were there people at the dinner who had watched the sleeping monster with its face upturned for more than twenty minutes, and could swear that during all that time no tube or pipe that could conduct air was anywhere near to it. 'Besides,' they said, 'the merman and a mermaid had appeared to dozens of fishermen up from the depths of the dark sea itself.' And so the mystery of the merman remained unsolved.

Antony Blake, when he first came on the scene, was duly introduced to the merman, and was so mystified that he became, like everybody else, a believer--for a time. But before the winter passed away he fancied he had discovered a clue. He thought, moreover, that Lotty knew more than she dared reveal. But he had promised never to ask her--never, never, _never_!