"Aye," said the captain, "we're just t' th' s'uth'ard o' Skipper Ed's fishin' place. An' weren't you comin' from there when you goes adrift?"
"No, sir," explained Jimmy. "Partner and I are down at Itigailit Island with Abel Zachariah this year, and we went adrift from there."
"An' there we goes, then!" said the captain. "Another hour's sail, but time saved. Lucky for you that we sights you, an' lucky for th' sick lad, an' lucky for me—lucky all around. My eyes! 'Tis like t' be a lucky day."
And so it came about that Bobby and Jimmy were presently aboard the Good and Sure, satisfying an accumulated and vast appetite upon Captain Higgles' good hardtack and tea, while the schooner laid her course for Itigailit Island.
An hour later, as the captain had predicted, the Good and Sure came to off Abel Zachariah's fishing place, and almost before the anchor chains had ceased rattling Skipper Ed and Abel pulled alongside in a boat and were expressing their relief upon the safe return of the two lads, whose sudden and unexplained disappearance had puzzled them and caused them a deal of worry.
"I finds th' young scallawags driftin' around th' sea, and bearin' no course whatever," explained Captain Higgles, "an' I picks un up as salvage. But I don't want un. My eyes! I don't want un. I don't want any such two scallawags as they about the Good an' Sure. They'd be causin' me no end o' trouble, and you can have un free o' charge if you'll but take a look at a sick lad I has below, sir, an' tell us what t' do for un. 'Tis Hen. Blink's lad, sir. He has a wonderful rash all over he—my eyes, 'tis a wonderful rash, and it makes th' lad sick."
Skipper Ed followed the captain to the cluttered little cabin, and Abel and Jimmy and Bobby, curious to see the wonderful rash, also followed.
The lad, a boy of ten years or thereabouts, was stretched upon a bunk, and he was indeed afflicted with a wonderful rash. The moment Skipper Ed set eyes upon him his face assumed a very grave expression. He asked several questions, which the child's mother answered, and then he asked the boy:
"How you feeling, little lad?"
"Terrible sick," answered the boy, "but I'd be fine if I could go above deck, sir."