“No, you don’t,” said Sam, who wanted some one on whom to vent his spleen. “You don’t think, and you never did think, and never will with that thick skull of yours. So hold your tongue.”
’Pollo held his tongue, put all the little nose he had in the air, and stalked off with great dignity to his galley.
“What do you propose doing?” said Captain Studwick.
“Lower down the jolly-boat,” said Sam, after indulging in another good scratch.
This was immediately done, and with four men at the oars, and Dutch, Mr Parkley, the captain, and Oakum for freight they pushed off from the schooner.
Oakum took his place in the bows with Dutch, and then, directing the men to row very softly as he directed, they went slowly forward over the limpid waters.
“You keep a good lookout over the side, Mr Dutch Pugh,” said Sam, “and I’ll do the same. It’s so clear that you can see seven or eight fathoms down; and if you see anything particular, give the word, and we’ll stop.”
Heedless of the blazing sun—which, however, made their task very easy, lighting up, as it did, the clear waters below—they zigzagged for hours in all directions from the schooner, seeing below groves and trees of coral of the most wondrous tints, among which darted and played fish banded with gold, vermilion, and azure, silvery-sided, olive, green, and blue of the brightest and every tint. Great shells, almost as gay in colour, were slowly kept in motion by their inhabitants as they crawled over the surface of the many-hued rocks. Shoals of fish played amongst the moving seaweeds, and then flashed away like some brilliant silver firework as the shadow of the boat approached them, its shape being plainly seen on the sand below; and on every side new objects of beauty came into sight. Treasures of natural history there were of every kind, but not the treasure they sought; and at last, worn out with heat and disappointment, Mr Parkley proposed that they should return.
“What an opportunity,” thought Dutch, as, after a growling protest, Sam Oakum seated himself in the bottom of the boat and began viciously to cut off a wedge of tobacco—“what an opportunity we have given those on board for a rising, if there are any suspicious characters there.” And then his heart leaped and his hand involuntarily sought his pistol as he thought of his wife and the danger to which she would be exposed.
“Suppose,” he thought, as he shaded his eyes with his hand, and gazed at the distant vessel, “those two scoundrels should assume the command, and set us at defiance, we could never get back on board.”