“Now, then, what do you want here?” exclaimed that gentleman. “Off you go. We’re going to sea at once.”
“I am glad to hear it,” replied Chase. “I want to ship.”
“Too late,” said the mate. “Got a full crew already. Lay aft, a couple of you,” he added, as a hoarse voice shouted out some orders from the quarter-deck. “If you are not ashore in half a minute, my lad, you’ll have to go with us.”
The mate hurried away to attend to his duties, and Chase, who would have tried to gain his ear a moment longer, was left to himself.
“Where are you bound?” he asked of a man who at that moment ran past him—“for the States?”
The sailor, whose actions indicated that he had no time to waste in answering foolish questions, made a motion with his head, the significance of which was very doubtful; but Chase took it for a reply in the affirmative, and his mind was made up on the instant. Here was the opportunity he had been longing for, and the only thing that prevented him from taking advantage of it, was the fact that the crew was full. But that made no difference to Chase. His circumstances were desperate, and in his opinion desperate measures were required. Instead of going ashore, as he had been ordered to do, he looked about the deck, and having made sure that all the crew, from the captain down, were too busy to pay any attention to himself, he suddenly crouched down beside one of the boats that had been stowed in the waist, and crawled under it out of sight.
“There!” panted Chase, whose heart beat violently with excitement and suspense; “if I can only stay here five minutes without being discovered, I shall be all right. They’ll not stop to put me ashore after they once get fairly started. I don’t know what the captain will say to me when he finds me here, and I don’t care, so long as he gives me plenty to eat and takes me to my own country. It is enough for me to know that I am leaving Cuba behind every minute.”
Chase was securely hidden under the boat, and not one of the crew, who were constantly passing his hiding-place, suspected his presence. The work of hoisting the sails was completed at last, and finally the vessel began to rise and fall with a slow regular motion, telling the stowaway that she had left the sheltered waters, of the harbor, and was fairly afloat on the Gulf.
And now came a task which Chase would have been glad to postpone indefinitely if he could. He must come out and show himself to the captain.