“Yes, sir,” said Wolfe, “we met only about three weeks ago, but in that time your adopted son has twice saved my life at the risk of his own, and we have been in some rather tight places together. I don’t mind saying, now that it is all over with and we are standing on a good solid deck once more, that drifting around in that dory, through the fog of the last two days, was about the meanest fix of them all, and I hadn’t much hope that we were going to get out of it either. I’d go through with all its suffering and anxiety again, though, for the sake of being present at such a wonderful meeting as this. I never heard of anything like it.”
“It is truly a wonderful meeting,” replied Captain McCloud, “and there have got to be a great many explanations made before we shall understand how it was all brought about. Certainly we have been guided in marvellous ways. You said your mother was well, Breeze?”
“Yes, sir, quite well,” answered Breeze, “and looking for you to come in at any time.”
“So she hasn’t given me up yet! Bless the little woman! Well, there’s a chance of getting there now. I didn’t think there was any hope of it three days ago, when the mate died, and left Nimbus and me alone on the old brig, and I too weak to lift a rope’s end.”
“Do you mean to say, father,” exclaimed Breeze, who had not comprehended the true state of affairs before this, “that you two are the only ones left aboard?”
“Yes,” replied the captain, sadly, “we have buried all the rest, and are the only survivors of a crew of twelve souls.”
“That’s the reason, then, you’re under such short sail.”
“Yes, she was got under this canvas in a blow, two weeks ago, while the mate and two others of the crew were alive, and still able to work. Since then there has not been force enough on board to do anything with them. Nimbus is as strong as an ox, and he can manage the head-sails alone. I believe he got the course clewed up too; but the poor fellow has had a hard time trying to steer, cook, wait on me, keep a lookout, set the lights, ring the fog-bell, bury the dead, and in fact do all the work of twelve men. He fell asleep last night on the cabin floor, utterly exhausted. This morning I was going to try and shift for myself, and let him have his sleep out. I was about to look for something to eat when you came aboard. I’m feeling hungry for the first time in weeks.”
“Faith, sir!” cried Wolfe, “it must be catching. I’m so hungry myself that if starving’s any worse it would take a wiser man than I am to point out the difference. And to think, Breeze, of the elegant biscuit we left behind in the dory! If we’d only eaten them yesterday, and had the comfort of them! Never mind, we’ll have them up after a while for a dessert, like, for of all the sea-biscuit ever I tasted those have the finest flavor. But here comes breakfast now, praised be the cook!”
Nimbus was going to carry the breakfast down into the cabin, but Captain McCloud said they had better eat on deck, on account of the fever that had been in the cabin. “I tried to warn you, Breeze, against coming too close to me when I first saw you,” he added, “but you didn’t seem to pay any attention.”