“I have been ready for work if you had any for me.”
“That’s all right. You shall have a chance to work in due time. We couldn’t do any work on the ship.”
Bernard had to be content with this. He reflected that if the professor carried out his promise, and gave him half a month’s salary on reaching Liverpool, that would be as soon as he would have any use for it.
As the voyage drew nearer and nearer the end, Bernard grew excited. A new life lay before him. What would be the result of his efforts to make his own living, after he had left the professor?
CHAPTER XVII. BERNARD’S PERIL.
One evening Bernard was standing at the side of the vessel, looking out over the waste of waters, and wondering what was to be his future. It was quite dark, so that he was unable to see far.
He felt that this symbolized his own life. He could not see far ahead of him, and what he could see was obscure. He didn’t dream that he was in great peril, and yet the greatest danger of his life hung over him. Whence did it come? The night was still, and the waves were calm. Nature was kind, but the peril came from a human source.
All at once he felt himself lifted in a pair of powerful arms—lifted to a level with the rail, so that his startled eyes looked down in helpless fear upon the cruel waves beneath. He uttered a sharp cry, and this saved his life.