"Oh, father, have you come back to me?" asked Bob, and he was so nearly overcome that it was all he could do to keep from laying his head beside his father's and going off in a burst of tears.
"Eh?" said the captain.
"Oh, yes, this ship will take you where you want to go," said Bob. He did not dare to say any more, for fear that he would say too much.
"Well, you are here now and I will go to sleep," said the captain. "Be sure and waken me up when we touch Clifton."
So saying the captain turned over, and he put as much strength into the manœuver as a well man could, and composed himself to sleep. Bob was electrified. He did not know what to do about it. He wished that Ben Watson would come down, so that he could tell him that his father had come to in his right mind and that he had spoken to him, but while he was thinking about it the captain came down.
"Bob, this is the first time I have met you, and I am glad to see you here," said the officer, extending his hand. "You look better. Has something happened?"
"Yes, sir," said Bob, joyfully. "My father has come to and has spoken my name."
"That's what I thought he would do," said the captain, and his joy was almost as boundless as Bob's. "He hasn't slept any to speak of since he has been aboard the ship."
"Now, I want to know what made you bring him away out here when you knew he was crazy," said Bob. "You picked him up ten miles out at sea."
The captain's story was a short one, and he told it in a way that convinced Bob of its truthfulness. When he picked Captain Nellis up at sea he didn't know that he was the owner of the ship in which he sailed. The storm was so great that for three or four days he had to be on deck most of the time, and the captain, being insensible when brought aboard, was put into a bunk in the forecastle. When the storm began to abate some of the forecastle hands began telling him what the castaway said, and then he went down and looked at him.