"But, as it is now, there is a chance he may have got to those islands. What were they? Where are they? We may find him yet."
"It's possible. There's always a chance on the sea," admitted the boatswain. "But that ain't all the story."
"No?"
"No, ma'am; the gales hadn't quite blowed theirselves out yet, an' the next day come the worst of 'em all. What become of that boat in that storm, Cod only knows. We had to scud afore it under bare poles."
"It might not have blowed so hard where the whaleboat was," said Templin sagely.
"In course; but no man can know nothin' about that."
"We got a slant of a favorin' wind arter a few days, an' ran down our northin' at a great rate. I think it was two weeks arter we sent the whaleboat away with Beekman in it, when a fire broke out in the forehold. I suppose the strainin' an' pitchin' and buckin' of the ship was the cause of it. I don't rightly know jest what we had aboard."
"About three thousand tons of the most inflammable and explosive stuff on earth," said Mr. Maynard.
"Well, it ketched afire. We knowed it was some kind of dangerous stuff without bein' aware of the partik'lers, an' we tried to git at the fire, but we couldn't. We knowed the old ship was doomed just about as soon as something that would explode got reached by the fire. There wan't no panic."
"The officers treated us like dogs, all of us," interposed Templin; "but they knowed their business, an' so did we."