“What do you expect to do, now that you have lost your schooner?” asked Lord Seabright, at length.
“I don’t know, sir,” replied Breeze. “If I knew of any way to find her again I’d try it; but I can’t seem to think of any.”
“Neither can I, and I don’t see that there is anything for you to do but to come with us to Reykjavik and see what offers when you get there. Perhaps there will be some vessel in port bound for America, on which you can engage a passage.”
“Well, sir,” said Breeze, “I suppose that will be the best thing for us to do, and we’ll be very glad to work our passage if you’ll let us. Nimbus is a good cook, and as yours got drowned, perhaps you can make him useful in that way. I am willing to do anything I can. At any rate,” he added, brightening at the thought, “if you’d take ambergris, we might pay for our passage in that.”
Both the gentlemen were highly amused at this suggestion, and as soon as he could control his voice, Lord Seabright said,
“My dear fellow, yachts are not allowed to receive payment for carrying passengers. Even if they were, you must not think so meanly of us as to fancy that we would consider the aiding of distressed mariners any less of a pleasure than it is a duty. I shall be only too glad to employ your black friend, and if he proves a good cook will pay him liberal wages. As for yourself, it is a pleasure to have your company, and I am especially glad to have somebody on board who has been at least once into Reykjavik harbor, and can give us some information as to the channel and the place itself.”
“I shall be only too glad to do anything I can to earn my passage, and will give you all the information I have,” replied Breeze, “but I am afraid it won’t amount to very much.”
“Whatever it is, I feel certain it will be worth the having,” said the other, politely, “and now I move that we all turn in, and prepare by a good sleep for our grand entrance into the capital to-morrow.”
After Breeze had gone, Lord Seabright remarked to his friend, “I like that fellow, Whyte. He seems to be an uncommonly bright and manly sort of a chap.”
“Oh yes,” replied the other, indifferently. “He’s not half bad for a Yankee.”