"No, nor you didn't think so, either. You made that up just to have something to say. But, Ben, how do the men feel in regard to the mutiny?"
"Well, we have brought all of them to our way of thinking," replied Ben. "They say that if the captain doesn't take the ship to San Francisco they will take it themselves, and put the first mate in command."
"That will never do. I must go up and talk to them. There is not one captain in a hundred who would deal with a mutiny in the way this captain did. He would have shot some of us down and had the rest in double-irons."
Bob took just one look at his father and then went on deck and mingled with the men. As fast as he could get three or four around him he talked to them, and the consequence was that in less than half an hour he brought all the sailors to side with him. They believed that the ship was going to San Francisco, and with that they were satisfied.
Things went on in this way for thirty-six hours, and still the captain slept. Bob was attending to him when the captain awoke. He did not know it at once, for his gaze was fastened upon another part of the cabin; but when he turned to look at his father his eyes were opened, and a smile of intelligence overspread his face. The long, refreshing sleep he had enjoyed, together with the medicine the doctor at Cape Town had given him, worked wonders in his case.
"Bob, how are you?" asked the captain, and his hand came out; but it was pale and emaciated, and it shook considerably.
"Oh, father!" exclaimed Bob, with tears of gratitude in his eyes. "You have come to yourself all right, haven't you?"
"Oh, yes, I am all right," said the captain. "But it is a wonder that storm was not the death of me. How far are we away from Clifton?"
"We are quite a little distance from there yet," said Bob. "Now, father, you mustn't talk any more. You may keep still and think all you have a mind to."
"I know, but that does not hit my case," said the captain, with a smile. "I seem to think that something has been going on here—something which feels to me like a dream. I think that I am in foreign parts, and that I have got a long ways to sail in order to get home."