"Ach," interrupted the captain impatiently, "I haf somdings better yet dan dot alretty. No, by Yupiter, ven ve go, ve go in style. Ve go in a boat."
"In a boat!" echoed Nat. "I must be very dense, captain, but you'll have to explain this thing to me some more."
"Very veil. I explins meinself more explicitly den. Der ship's boadt hangs on davits over the stern. Ven I go py der deck dis evening I yust careless like dangle down a rope over der taffrail—dot is if I gedt it a chance. Den ven ve open der port all ve got to do is to vait our chance undt den reach out for dot rope, swarm up idt und lower der boat. Aber den ve lower ourselves, und by daybreak der schooner be miles avay undt maybe some steamer or oder vessel bick us up. Dot is goodt scheme, yah?"
"It sounds all right, captain, but it fairly bristles with difficulties."
"Mein son," admonished the old seaman softly, "difficulties vos dings made to come over alretty. Und now, as your limbs are rested, I vill tie you up again so dot if any one comes down dey suspect noddings."
It was necessary for the captain to light his candle once more to perform this office. He did it with a sailor's celerity, chattering all the while.
"Now den," he said, when it was done, "I go back py my cabins. Den I votch a chance to drop dot rope over der rail. Now keep up a goodt heart, my poy, for if Got vills it so, ve vill be oudt of dis craft py midnighds."
At these words Nat could have shouted aloud for joy. Wild as the captain's scheme would have appeared to any one in different circumstances, to the boy—in his present desperate straits—it seemed far better than it had looked at first blush. In fact, the more he thought it over, the more inclined Nat was to think that, with a measure of reasonably good luck, they might be able to carry it through.
Some time later Hicks alone came below, and holding up a lantern gave Nat a casual inspection. It was fortunate that it did not enter his lazy mind to make it a more thorough one, or he might have detected that the ropes had been cut and then reknotted. But he was in a hurry to get back to a card game he had been enjoying when Morello had ordered him below, and after bestowing a curse on Nat he left once more.
"I hope nobody else takes a fancy to come below and examine me more thoroughly," thought Nat. "I wonder how the captain is making out. If all has gone well, he ought to have carried out the first part of his program by this time."