“The mischief’s all below, sir, I expect,” said the old sailor. “We shall find she’s got a lot of water in her hold.”
“But she lies immovable, I suppose,” said the doctor.
“Quite, sir; she’s fast as fast can be, and’ll lie till she rusts away, which won’t be this side o’ fifty year.”
“Then there is no immediate danger?”
“Not a bit, sir, and it’s a bad job as those boats was launched; they’d all have been better here if the skipper could have known.”
“Yes; waited till the storm had passed,” assented the doctor.
“Ay, sir, but who could tell that we were going to be floated over the reef and set down, as you may say, in dock? Besides, if the skipper hadn’t ordered the boats out when he did there’d ha’ been a mutiny.”
“I suppose so; the crew would have risen against their officers.”
“The crew, sir? Yes, and the passengers too. There’d ha’ been a panic and a rush.”
The doctor sighed, shaded his eyes, and looked out from the side where they stood at the golden lagoon.