“Well,” Captain Mansfield said, as the first one, a bushy-whiskered man, who appeared to be the leader, came over the rail; “you don’t seem to be in as desperate straits as I fancied would be the case when I found the gull.”
“So you got the writin’, eh?” the man replied, with a laugh. “I thought Johnson was wastin’ his time when he laid ’round a couple of days tryin’ to catch the bird; but it has turned out mighty lucky for us, after all.”
“What vessel are you from?” [See page 32].
“The brig Mary and Jane, from Savannah for Nassau, with an assorted cargo. There must have been a fire in the hold when we left port, for we fought it from the second day out until it got the best of us, and we had to leave the old hooker.”
“Were you the captain?”
“Not much. He and the mates took the only boat that would swim, and left us to shirk for ourselves.”
“Do you mean to say that they deserted the crew?” Captain Mansfield asked, watching the man sharply:
“That’s jest the size of it. My mates and I made shift to get to the key, an’ there we’ve been ever since.”