The reason, I believe, why none of these had died, is simply to be found in the fact that they kept hard at work all day long. The pores of the skin were therefore well open, and the poison eliminated as fast as it accumulated.
But the wind never came, and for three whole weeks no sail heaved in sight.
Had the anchor been let go, they would have drifted off into deep water, and so have been swirled back towards the echoless sea—never again in life to leave it.
CHAPTER XIII
SO PASSED THE LONG, BRIGHT HOURS AWAY
One day Teenie from the foretop—where she spent a great portion of her time with her monkeys and pussy—hailed the quarter-deck.
“’Tonio! O captain, there is a ship in sight.”
It was not long before both Antonio and Barclay were at the masthead.
Yes, indeed, Teenie was right. There she was, just coming over the western horizon. A steamer, too, and that a large and powerful one, though from the fact that her engines were far aft it could be seen that she was a trader, and not a passenger ship.
Nearer and nearer she came, till, even without the aid of a glass, the men could be seen on the deck.
Antonio had hoisted the ensign upside down as a flag of distress, and both he and Barclay waved their jackets from the foretop. Let us be charitable, and say that as there was no wind to float the flag, those on board could not distinguish it as a flag of distress.