“It will be very shabby if you do go before I’m dressed. If ever two fellows were bound to stick together it’s us now. Oh dear, how awkward everything is! I say, there’s no danger, is there?” cried Mike, as the lugger gave a tremendous plunge and then seemed to wallow down among the waves.
“No, I don’t see what danger there can be. Seems a beautifully built boat, and I daresay Jacques is a capital sailor.”
“A scoundrel!” said Mike bitterly.
“Now, mes enfans, get up,” cried the skipper’s voice; and this was followed by a smart banging at the door, which was opened and a head thrust in.
“If you sall bose be ill you can stay in bed to-day; but you vill be better up. Vell, do you feel vairy seek?”
“No, we’re all right,” said Vince; and soon after the two boys climbed on deck and had to shelter themselves from the spray, which was flying across the deck in a sharp shower.
It was a black-looking morning, and the gloom of the clouds tinged the surface of the sea, whose foaming waves looked sooty and dingy to a degree, while the boys found now how much more severe the storm was than they had supposed when below. The men were all in their oilskins, very little canvas was spread, and they were right out in a heavy, chopping sea, with no sign of land on any hand.
They had to stagger to the lee bulwarks and hold on, for the lugger every now and then indulged in a kick and plunge, while from time to time a wave came over the bows, deluging the deck from end to end.
But before long the slight feeling of scare which had attacked the boys passed off, as they saw the matter-of-fact, composed manner in which the men stood at their various stations, while the captain was standing now beside the helmsman, and appeared to be giving him fresh directions as to the course he was to steer, with the result that, as the lugger’s head paid off a trifle, the motion became less violent, while her speed increased.
“Aha!” shouted the captain, as he found them—“not seek yet? Vait till ve have ze déjeuner, and zen ve sall see.”