The ship was now, therefore, quite ready to start as soon as the wind and her captain willed it; for, her sails were bent, with the gaskets cast-off and the topsails loose, ready to be let fall and sheeted home at the word of command. A nautical man would have noticed, too, that she was hove short, right over her anchor, so that no time should be lost in bowsing that up to the cathead and getting under weigh, when the time came to man the windlass and heave up the cable, with a “Yo-heave ho!”
Presently, Fritz observed a boat that had been towing astern of the ship hauled up alongside, and then this put off for the shore, with some one in the stern-sheets whom he did not recognise at first, on account of the person having a gilt-banded cap on; but, as soon as the boat got nearer, he saw that it was Eric, who now hailed him while yet a hundred yards away.
“Hullo!” he shouted; “how is it you’re so late? The captain is only waiting for you to set sail, for the pilot’s coming on board now!”
“I didn’t think you were going until the evening,” replied Fritz, descending the steps of the jetty, which the boat had now nearly approached.
“Nor were we, if this breeze hadn’t sprung up since morning so very suddenly, when we least expected it! I suppose it’s because of all that gunpowder firing that the air’s got stirred up a bit? But, jump in, old fellow, the skipper seems a bit impatient; and the sooner we’re all on board the better he’ll be pleased.”
With these words, Eric stretched out a hand to help his brother into the little dinghy, which could barely carry two comfortably besides the man pulling amid-ship, and then the frail little craft started on her way back to the mother ship, of which she seemed the chicken!
No sooner were they alongside and up the ladder, than Captain Brown’s voice was heard rapidly giving orders, as if no time were to be lost.
“Veer thet boat astern an’ hook on the falls,” he roared in stentorian accents. “I want her walked up to the davits ’fore I can say Jack Robinson! There, thet’s the way to do it, men. Now, get her inboard an’ secure her; we shan’t want her in a hurry ag’in, till we come back to the bay!”
“Mr Dort,” he sang out presently to Eric, who was standing by ready for the skipper’s orders and watching his eye—prepared to jump anywhere at a second’s notice, and looking so full of eagerness and attention that Fritz felt quite proud of him!
“Aye, aye, sir,” answered the lad, touching his cap; for, nowhere is deference insisted on so stringently from inferior officers to their superiors as on board ship, especially in merchantmen commanded by captains worth their salt. In no other way can proper respect be paid to authority, or the necessary orders requisite for the safety and comfort of all enforced.