“We shall have it all back again, I am afraid, sir,” observed the master, looking to windward at the horizon, which, black as pitch, served as a background to relieve the white curling tops of the seas. “Shall we have the trysails up, and bend them?”
“The boatswain is down after them now, Pearce,” said the first-lieutenant.
“The weather is indeed threatening,” replied the captain, as he turned from the weather gangway, where he had been standing, and wiped the spray from his face, with which the atmosphere was charged; “and I perceive that the glass is very low. Send the small sails down out of the tops; as soon as the staysail is on her, lower the gaff, and furl the spanker; the watch will do. When we go to quarters, we’ll double-breech the guns. Let the carpenter have his tarpaulins ready for battening down—send for the boatswain, and let the boats on the booms be well secured. Is that eight bells striking? Then pipe to supper first; and, Mr Hardy,” added Captain M—, as he descended the companion-ladder, “they may as well hook the rolling-tackles again.”
“Ay, ay, sir,” replied Hardy, as the captain disappeared. “I say, master, the skipper don’t like it—I’ll swear that by his look as he turned from the gangway. He was as stern as the figure-head of the Mars.”
“That’s just his way; if even the elements threaten him, he returns the look of defiance.”
“He does so,” replied the master, who appeared to be unusually grave (as if in sad presentiment of evil). “I’ve watched him often.—But it’s no use—they mind but one.”
“Very true—neither can you conciliate them by smiling; the only way to look is to look sharp out. Eh, master?” said the first-lieutenant, slapping him familiarly on the back.
“Come, no skylarking, Hardy—it’s easy to tell the skipper isn’t on deck. I expect as much sleep to-night as a dog vane—these south-westers generally last their three days.”
“I am glad to hear that,” said Merrick, a youngster, with an oval laughing face, who, being a favourite with both the officers, had ventured to the weather-side of the quarter-deck in the absence of the captain.
“And why, Mr Merrick?” inquired the master.