Having read his youthful companion a lecture upon the necessity of keeping his own counsel, Captain Afleck proceeded to lay out the course of action he proposed to follow.
"We've got to stay by this ship for the present, Terry, that's clear. But I don't mean to go into action with her if I can any way help myself. So I'll just keep a sharp look-out for a chance to get ashore as soon as we make Hampton Roads. There'll be sure to be some shore-boats coming off to us, and I'll get a passage in one of them."
"And leave me here?" cried Terry, laying hold of his arm with both hands, as though he thought he were about to go at once.
"No, you young rogue," responded the captain, taking him by the collar and shaking him just for fun; "of course not. I won't go without you, seein' that I'm mainly to blame for your being here."
Greatly relieved in his mind, and putting implicit faith in his big friend's ability to get them both out of their present complications, Terry, with the volatility of his race, dismissed all further concern on that point from his mind, and stood ready for the next thing that might turn up.
His was a happy nature in many ways. He liked the idea that "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." He was not given to taking much thought for the morrow. To do this was one of the lessons in life he had to learn. In the meantime he lived in the present hour, getting the most out of it he knew how, and leaving the future to take care of itself.
That night he had nothing better than a coil of rope for a bed and a bit of tarpaulin for a coverlet; but he slept as soundly as if on his straw mattress at home, and woke up in the morning with an appetite that many a millionaire might envy.
Awaking at dawn next morning, he hastened on deck to find the powerful Minnesota steaming at full speed southward, with the coast hardly visible on the right. His heart sank as he realized that every minute was taking him further from home, and nearer the indefinite dangers which he must share so long as he remained on board the war-ship.
He had gone up to the bow, and was leaning over the bulwarks lost in perplexing thought, when a voice behind him said tauntingly,—
"Well, young 'un, have you been thinkin' over what I said about taking service with us?"