"'That's nothing, lad. How's the ship's head?'
"'Why,' says I, 'you might as well ask how her stern is. Both are anyhow. Not a capful o' wind. She is (again I was quoting pottery)—
"'As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean'.
"'And,' I adds, 'we may as well get the fires up, for we're precious near the Sea of Sargasso. If we gets swallowed up there with mebbe a broken screw it may be a two years' job, if ever we sees blue water again in this world.'
"'Well, well, lad. If the winds doesn't blow get steam up. Meanwhile, go and whistle for the wind. I'm tired!'
"I left the cabin slowly, only just stopping to have a tot o' rum, for there was a kind o' hincubus a-weighing me down. But little did I know of the horror to come."
CHAPTER XIX.
THE BURNING SHIP.
"At twelve o'clock," continued Goodwin, "I went below to call old Deadlight, our first mate.
"When he came up, I stopped a few minutes to talk to him and tell him what we'd seen, and the captain's orders in case of getting too near the Sargasso Sea.