“I reckon the storm’ll blow itself out by mornin’.”
[CHAPTER X]
A LITTLE LUNCHEON ON THE ELIAS WARD
One could almost hear the creaking of knee and elbow joints when the five boys turned out the next morning. Despite Hal’s prediction, this was at an early hour. For, while the sea was yet running before the remnant of the wind, the sun came up on a cloudless sky. Captain Joe’s clothes dryer had worked splendidly, and by seven thirty o’clock, the rescuing crew was itself again—refreshed and reclothed.
Before breakfast, Captain Joe and Tom visited both the captain and the owner of the steamer’s cargo. They reported these facts: The vessel was the Elias Ward, of Charleston, South Carolina—800 tons gross, and commanded by Captain Martin Hobson, of St. Augustine. It had been chartered by W. L. Hawkins, a lumber dealer from Michigan, for a trading cruise in the West Indies, mainly to secure San Domingo mahogany in Hayti. In this, it had been wholly successful.
“Captain Hobson,” explained Tom, “don’t know what’s happened—he’s wanderin’ in his head. We gave him some water, but we don’t know whether he ought to be fed. Mr. Hawkins can’t get out o’ his bunk. But he’s takin’ medicine.”
“Well,” asked Mac, “since we’ve got two sick ones aboard, what’s next? Are you kids goin’ on to the Anclote Club house?”
The other boys looked about with puzzled expressions. Captain Joe answered by shaking his head.
“Not dis week,” he announced positively. “We make breakfast, then work. There is plenty coal. Get up steam, and start de pumps. In half hour, in the Three Sisters, I go to Pensacola. To-night, I return with tug. We tow de steamer to Pensacola.”