"Will we go aboard of her, Mr. Gale?" asked one of the crew.
"Certainly, just as straight as we can go. We belong to her, don't we?"
The men said nothing in reply, but their actions told what was passing in their minds. Some seemed delighted, while others beat their open palms with their clenched hands, and banged the oars violently down on the thwarts. It was plain that Captain Barclay had some men in his ship's company who would give him serious trouble if they ever found the opportunity.
"There's something wrong with her," continued the mate, still gazing earnestly at the ship, which Frank had at last been able to discover.
"So I was thinking," said the latter. "She's close in shore and has her topsails aback. She can't be lying-to in there."
"No, she's aground," replied the mate, "and they are trying to work her off."
All eyes were now turned toward the ship which came rapidly into view as the boat approached the shore. It was plain that she was hard and fast aground. The crew were running about the deck, pulling the yards first one way and then the other, in the hope of getting the sails full enough to work her off; but the breeze was not sufficiently strong, and besides the tide was running out, so that the ship was every moment sinking more firmly into her bed on the sand bar. Presently one of the crew discovered the approaching boat. It was one of the Kanakas. He gazed at it a moment, then jumped up and clapped his hands, calling out "Galickhee!" or some such tongue-twisting name which he and his people had bestowed upon the third officer. That brought all the crew to the side, where they stood waving their hats and shouting out words of welcome. Frank and the rest were astonished at this reception. Where were Captain Barclay and his mates that they permitted the crew to act in this way?
"O, Mr. Gale, you're just in time," cried one of the men, who answered to the name of Boson, "only I wish you had come a little sooner. We're up to our necks in trouble."
"Not an officer aboard—all gone—the ship a thousand miles from water—or she might as well be, she's so hard a-ground, six men dead and the niggers thicker than blackberries," chimed in Tully, another of the crew, stamping about the deck and swinging his arms wildly in the air.
The men in the whale-boat were greatly amazed. They clambered over the side with all possible haste, each one demanding to know what was the matter. The crew shook each of them by the hand as if they were overjoyed to meet them once more, and then silently directed their attention to different parts of the deck, as if telling them to see for themselves what was the matter. Frank stood speechless while he looked. The deck was in the greatest confusion. Harpoons, spades, lances and handspikes were scattered about, and with them were mingled curious weapons and ornaments that he had never seen before, and blubber-knives, cutlasses and muskets with the bayonets attached. These last came from the ship's armory, and their presence on deck was enough to prove that there had been a fight, even had other indications been wanting.