“All right, then,” he replied; but, before proceeding, he had to load up a fresh pipe, and while performing this interesting little operation he informed me, en passant, that the Dolphin he afterwards heard had succeeded in capturing the second dhow, and her first prize the Fatima had safely reached Zanzibar; and, consequently, that his prize-money for both seizures was safe, the sum accrueing to him amounting to over £50, being subsequently paid over to him when he rejoined his ship some time afterwards—“and spent, too, long since,” as he said.
These little matters, relevant and irrelevant, being thus disposed of, Ben continued his narrative as follows.
Volume Two--Chapter Three.
In the Mozambique Channel.
“Where was I, sir?”
“You had just been turned adrift from the ship, I think,” said I, “and left to cruise on your own account—wasn’t that so?”
“Ah! yes, I remember now, sir. Well, then, when the Dolphin had got well away from us, leaving us poor chaps to our own resources, we in the pinnace, now well under her canvas, were sailing along on a course almost at right angles to that taken by our old ship, which somewhat took away from the nasty feeling of being sort of left behind, you know; but, we could not help watching her with longing eyes as she sped away northward under full steam and with all her fore-and-aft sails set that could draw, going fourteen knots at the least!
“It was a lovely morning that there—the loveliest I ever saw on the African coast; for there was no mist, and the rain having ceased, the strong sou’-westerly breeze that was blowing right offshore from the mainland tempered down the heat of the broiling sun, which only those who have been on the coast can have an idea of as to how intense it can be, while the pinnace was moving quickly through the water; and it was not long before the Dolphin was hull down on the horizon, the white gleam of her upper canvas vanishing soon after. But, for a long time succeeding that, we could still see the smoke from her funnel spread out in the shape of a fan to leeward, where it was blown by the following wind right across the sky and was clearly apparent in the clear blue air above as well as reflected in the sea below. Then, too, that disappeared at length, and we were left alone in our little boat on the waste of waters!