Dick cursed him for a skulking rat and in other terms.
Blueneck went down the hatchway to look for him; the smell of steaming soap and water still came from the dirty little hole where he had left him.
Blueneck looked in; Habakkuk was there, his arms still in the soapy water. He was singing in a high nasal voice and sniffing at frequent intervals.
He listened to Blueneck’s incoherent account of the chase in profound astonishment, but nevertheless went steadily on with his washing, and refused to leave it until Blueneck in desperation took him by the scruff of the neck and the seat of the breeches and carried him before the Captain, his arms still wet and soapy, and a dripping shirt clutched in his hand.
But the situation was too serious for Dick, or, indeed, any one else, to notice any little irregularities of this sort.
The Royal Charles was within a musket shot of the Anny’s bows and every second the mud flat in front grew nearer.
Habakkuk, however, had a very good memory, and under his guidance the Anny shot down a wide, river-like stream of water, the mud forming banks on either side.
Dick looked at it in surprise.
“I did not know that there were any creeks as wide as this on the East,” he said.
“Ah,” said Habakkuk wisely, “this ain’t no more ’an twenty foot wide—it’s very deceiving. Look over the side, Captain, there’s about six inches of water on the starboard—an’—they don’t know that, do they?” he chuckled, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to where the Royal Charles had just turned after them. “It’s only about twenty wide a bit farther along,” he announced cheerfully a little later. “I hopes I ain’t forgot where.”