Presently, Adze called out that he had made the pumps act at last.
This brought down Captain Miles from the poop; when, a party of the sailors at once setting to work, the bilge-water soon rose from below and flowed in a stream in the scuppers.
Half an hour’s spell served to make the pumps suck dry, showing that the main hold of the ship was clear; and, seeing this, the captain turned round and hailed Mr Marline with a triumphant shout.
“There, Marline,” he cried, “what do you think of that, eh? Who was right and who was wrong?”
“Well, sir, you were a true prophet this time,” replied the first mate equally well pleased at the result, although it went against his own prognostication; “I only hope you’ll get the fore-peak free as easily; for, then, we’ll float on an even keel.”
“All right, my boy, so we will,” said Captain Miles; and he then ordered the hands to bend the end of the hose down into the forepart of the ship below that part of the forecastle where the men bunked, the other end of the hose being attached to the pump cylinder.
This job was a heavier one than that of clearing the main hold, the men having to be relieved in spells; but, after several hours’ hard work, the bows of the ship were sensibly lightened of the extra water ballast we had carried here, and by the afternoon this part of the vessel was also clear.
Meanwhile, however, Jake had announced that breakfast was ready and on the cabin table. This was the first hot meal we had had the chance of partaking of now for four days, and it may be imagined with what gusto we all enjoyed it I should add that, Captain Miles, liking good living himself, took care that the men all round had an equally good spread, sharing his own private stores liberally, so that those in the forecastle fared as sumptuously as we did.
The captain did this out of his own innate good nature; but, had he been generous merely as an act of policy, it could not have served him in better stead, the sailors working all the afternoon and far into the night with all the greater willingness in setting the ship to rights as a return for the kindness he had displayed. None wanted driving to make them stick to their several tasks.
Mr Marline had believed that when the fore-peak was clear of water the Josephine, which until then had her bows almost level with the sea, would have recovered her proper floatation; but, although her head now rose, she displayed a decided list to starboard that became the more apparent as her head became elevated more and more.