"You are just in time, mate; for we are off to the river's mouth in a twinkling. Here, why, look alive! he's awful bad."
With Jack's help they got Dick Colley on board and down below, where the ship's surgeon bandaged the swollen ankle, and Jack stood by with Toby.
In the general hurry of departure, when the captain gave the word, no one noticed Jack, or if they noticed him, concluded that he was aboard the Galatea as a passenger, of which there were a few.
It was not till they were well out to sea that the captain, coming down into the mate's berth, said—
"Hallo, Colley! who's the youngster aboard with the curly hair? What's he about?"
"He wants to work his way out, captain; set him to it. I promised I'd say a word for him. He just helped me across the sand, when I was pretty near dying of the pain. You'll let him stay?"
The captain turned on his heel, somewhat sulkily.
"Do you suppose he's to do the work of your lame foot, eh? Well, he hasn't come here to eat the bread of idleness. I'll soon show him that."
And the captain kept his word.
Long before the sun—which had risen in a cloudless sky that morning—had set behind a bank of clouds, Jack was put to work.