"Luff, Bolton, luff!" shouted Captain Hull to the helmsman; "we will at any rate lose no time in getting alongside."
"Ay, ay, sir," answered the helmsman, and the "Pilgrim" in an instant was steered according to orders.
In spite, however, of the convictions of the captain and Dick, Cousin Benedict would not be moved from his opinion that the object of their curiosity was some huge cetacean.
"It is certainly dead, then," remarked Mrs. Weldon; "it is perfectly motionless."
"Oh, that's because it is asleep," said Benedict, who, although he would have willingly given up all the whales in the ocean for one rare specimen of an insect, yet could not surrender his own belief.
"Easy, Bolton, easy!" shouted the captain when they were getting nearer the floating mass; "don't let us be running foul of the thing; no good could come from knocking a hole in our side; keep out from it a good cable's length."
"Ay, ay, sir," replied the helmsman, in his usual cheery way; and by an easy turn of the helm the "Pilgrim's" course was slightly modified so as to avoid all fear of collision.
The excitement of the sailors by this time had become more intense. Ever since the distance had been less than a mile all doubt had vanished, and it was certain that what was attracting their attention was the hull of a capsized ship. They knew well enough the established rule that a third of all salvage is the right of the finders, and they were filled with the hope that the hull they were nearing might contain an undamaged cargo, and be "a good haul," to compensate them for their ill-success in the last season.
A quarter of an hour later and the "Pilgrim" was within half a mile of the deserted vessel, facing her starboard side. Water-logged to her bulwarks, she had heeled over so completely that it would have been next to impossible to stand upon her deck. Of her masts nothing was to be seen; a few ends of cordage were all that remained of her shrouds, and the try-sail chains were hanging all broken. On the starboard flank was an enormous hole.
"Something or other has run foul of her," said Dick.