“No, no,” I cried eagerly, “the man could not help it. He was innocent enough. It was that scoundrel who did the mischief.”
“All right, sir; have it your own way. I’m willing.”
“Then we have one friend on deck.”
“Yes, sir, and s’pose he’ll doctor the lot of ’em this next time and have us all up on deck again. Good luck to him. I hope he’ll look sharp about it.”
“Hist! What’s that?”
It was the three knocks again plainly heard from forward somewhere, and plain proof that we had other friends who would gladly join us in a combination against our common enemy.
Chapter Thirty Three.
We answered the knocks, which were repeated, and we soon found that we could signal to or talk to our friends forward, for we had pretty well made out now which was fore and which aft, though it was evidently a dead calm again, and the ship was rolling slowly from side to side.