“I don’t see any thing; but we are more than a hundred feet farther from the vessel than the man on the forecastle.”
“I will go forward, then,” added O’Hara, suiting the action to the words.
Tom Speers saw Gregory and Clinch come out of the cabin, and follow the captain forward, and he concluded to remain where he was; for he was off duty, and he did not care to have the other officers of the steamer regard him as the adviser of the captain, if the commander asked him any questions.
The Ville d’Angers slowed down in obedience to the will of the assistant engineer in charge. If the lookout had been less vigilant, the steamer would have struck the vessel ahead square on the broadside, and that would have been the end of her. But Raymond, as the officer of the deck, was always exceedingly careful; and he had spent most of his time at the heel of the bowsprit since the position of the craft was clearly indicated by the sound of the bell. The whistle had been sounded on the steamer at short intervals; and, as it came nearer, the bell was rung more vigorously, so that each vessel had a clear idea of the position of the other.
Gregory and Clinch went forward behind the captain, and they could not help being considerably excited over the prospect of some sort of an adventure. But they said nothing to O’Hara; and it was evident from their actions that they were a little “disgruntled.”
“I believe O’Hara has lost his wits,” said Gregory, in a prudently low tone. “It beats me to know what he is chasing this vessel for, running some miles off the course.”
“I suppose he thought that bell belonged to one of the schooners,” added Clinch.
“It sounds more like one of the bells of the churches of Paris than it does like the Josephine’s; and he might have known that it did not belong to one of the schooners,” growled the first officer.
The captain had certainly allowed the Ville d’Angers to continue on her course to the northward after he and Tom Speers were reasonably confident that the bell did not indicate the presence of the other vessels of the fleet. Possibly O’Hara’s curiosity had been excited, and he wished to see the vessel that rang the heavy bell; but it is more likely, that, in the conversation which ensued, he had forgotten for the moment that the vessel ahead could not be either of those for which he was in search. He desired to satisfy himself, after he had gone so far to the north,—only a few miles, however,—that the bell was not on either of the vessels, and that they had not run off in this direction. By sweeping off a little to the westward, on his return, he might fall into hearing distance of their bells or horns.
“Do you make her out, Mr. Raymond?” asked O’Hara, as he ascended to the top-gallant forecastle.