“You bet!” said the American, humouring this little remaining bit of pride the old seaman had in the ship he had commanded for so many years, a pride that was mingled with a sorrow at her approaching end, which he could foresee and mourn over, as if the vessel had been a living thing—“she’s been a clipper in her time, and made a smart fit for it; but, the winds and the waves have licked her at last, same as they done me, when they squoze in my durned ribs t’other day.”
But, the captain could not laugh at what the other had said as a joke about himself, just in order to banish the poor skipper’s gloom. It seemed to him a sort of sacrilege towards the Nancy Bell to liken her mortal injuries to the mere temporary ones of the American; so he turned the conversation.
“I hope you feel better now?” he said.
“Wa-al, I ain’t downright slick and hearty agin, that’s a fact; fur my innards got a’most druv into smash! But I’m picking up, I guess, and feed reg’ler; so I s’pose I’ll do, Cap, for an old hoss, eh? Durned if I don’t feel kinder peckish now. Hullo, my lily-white friend,” added he, catching sight of Snowball, who was bustling about the galley close to him, for Mr Lathrope had gone down on the main-deck along with Captain Dinks, to inspect the damage to the ship more narrowly than he was able to do on the poop. “Ain’t it near breakfast-time? I hope you’ve got something for us as good as that lobscouse last night: it wer prime, and no mistake!”
“Golly, massa, no time for um ’scouse dis mornin’—too busy bilin’ beef; but breakfast in um brace of shakes,” replied the darkey, grinning from ear to ear and showing his white teeth and full lips to great advantage.
“I’m durned glad to hear it,” said Mr Lathrope. “Look alive, Ivories, fur I feels a kinder sinkin’ in my stummick that tells me it’s time to stow in grub. You’re a prime cook, let me tell you, darkey, and hev done me a heap of good since I’ve ben aboard!”
“Glad massa like um cookin’,” replied Snowball; and he bustled back into his galley with the intention of continuing to deserve the high encomium he had received from such an authority on eating as the steward had reported the American to be, while the latter proceeded to remount the poop ladder and join Kate. She, however, was not now alone, Frank Harness having seized the opportunity of seeing her on deck to come up and speak to her; and the two parted with some little embarrassment as soon as Mr Lathrope approached.
Towards mid-day, the Nancy Bell had closed with the land so much that its features could be distinguished. A bare, inhospitable coast it looked!
It seemed nothing but a series of abrupt cliffs and headlands, six to eight hundred feet high—as well as could be judged from the distance they were off—at the base of which the waves thundered, sending up columns of spray, without any bay or opening into which they could run the ship with any chance of getting ashore in safety.
There was, certainly, a projecting cape stretching far into the sea, like an arm, to the southward, to which point the coast-line trended, and beyond that there might probably be a harbour of some sort for it was to the lee of the island; but then, the wind was now blowing from the southward and westward—the very direction almost they ought to take to give the point a wide berth—and thus, unless it chopped round, it would be utterly impossible for the crippled vessel to round the headland, save by a miracle.