"You are green, my lad. By the time you can take your trick at the wheel, and parcel a stay, you will know all about it. But batten down your peepers, and go to sleep, Phil."
It was not so easy for me to go to sleep after the excitement of the evening, and I wasted half of my watch below in thinking over the events of the day. Certainly I had enough to reflect upon, enough to regret, and enough to dread in the future. I was completely in the power of my enemy. I could only submit, and suffer. It was possible that Captain Farraday, after he was sober, would save me from absolute abuse; but I did not expect anything from him. I went to sleep at last, because I could think of nothing to mitigate my hard lot.
"All the port watch!" rang through the forecastle before I was ready to hear the call, for I had not slept two hours.
However, I was one of the first to hear the summons, because I had no drunken debauch to sleep off. I turned out instantly, and shook Jack Sanderson till he came out of his drunken stupor. He leaped briskly from his bunk, and we were the first to report ourselves on deck. The chief mate had not yet appeared, and I wondered whether he had discovered the loss of a part of his specie. I expected a tremendous storm when he ascertained that his ill-gotten gold had disappeared. He could not unlock his trunk without the use of the pick-lock; but, as he had found no difficulty in opening mine, I did not think he would in opening his own. The only thing that troubled me was the insecurity of the hiding-place I had chosen for my treasure. I was looking for a better place, and I hoped the storm would not come till I had found it.
The bark was still under all sail, with the wind from the south-west. I noticed a change in the sails, and that the vessel rolled now, instead of pitching. Either the wind had changed, or the course of the bark had been altered; I could not tell which. I liked the motion of the vessel; and, as she sped over the waves, I could have enjoyed the scene if I had not been in the power of an enemy. While I was looking at the sails and the sea, the chief mate came on deck. By this time the starboard watch had roused their sleepy shipmates, and the whole port watch were at their stations.
"Phil Farringford!" called the mate.
"Here, sir," I replied, stepping up to the quarter-deck; and I observed that Jack Sanderson followed me as far as it was proper for him to go.
"You are an able seaman, Phil; take your trick at the wheel."
"Ay, ay, sir," I replied, using the language I had heard others use when ordered by an officer to do anything.
"Beg your pardon, sir; but Phil does not pretend to be an able seaman," interposed my salt friend.