We left the ship according to orders. Don Rafael and Marcial with the rest of the wounded officers were carefully let down into the boats by the strong-armed sailors. The violence of the sea made this a long and difficult business, but at last it was done and two boat loads were pulled off to the Rayo. The passage, though short was really frightful; but at last, though there were moments when it seemed to me that we must be swallowed up by the waves, we got alongside of the Rayo and with great difficulty clambered on board.
CHAPTER XV.
“Out of the frying-pan into the fire,” said Marcial, when they laid him down on deck. “However, when the captain commands the men must obey. Rayo is an unlucky name for this cursed ship. They say she will be in Cadiz by midnight, and I say she won’t. We shall see what we shall see.”
“What do you say, Marcial? we shall not get in?” I asked in much alarm.
“You, master Gabrielito, you know nothing about such matters,” said he.
“But when Don Alonso and the officers of the Santa Ana say that the Rayo will get in to-night.... She must get in when they say she will.”
“Do not you know, you little landlubber, that the gentlemen of the quarter-deck are far more often mistaken than we are in the fo’castle? If not, what was the admiral of the fleet about?—Mr. Corneta—devil take him! You see he had not brains enough to work a fleet. Do you suppose that if Mr. Corneta had asked my advice we should have lost the battle?”
“And you think we shall not get into Cadiz?”
“I say this old ship is as heavy as lead itself and not to be trusted either. She rides the sea badly and will not answer her helm. Why, she is as lop-sided and crippled as I am! If you try to put her to port off she goes to starboard.”