The steamer started her wheels again after the cutter had been secured and made fast astern. The captain spoke only a few words of English, and Sanford found it quite impossible to hold a conversation with him. But Ole Amundsen was at hand in this emergency.
“Tell him he needn’t stop for us, Ole,” said the coxswain.
“Don’t you want to return to the ship?” asked the astonished waif.
“No, no,” replied Sanford, in a low tone, so that some of the doubtful members of his crew might not hear him. “Where is the steamer going, Ole?”
“To Christiania, stopping at all the ports on the coast,” answered Ole, when he had obtained the information from the captain.
“All right; we will go to the first place where she stops,” added Sanford. “Don’t say a word to the rest of the fellows, Ole.”
“The first port she stops at is Lillesand,” said Ole.
“Very well; we will go there.”
Ole explained to the captain that the boys he had picked up wished to go to Lillesand, where they could join their ship. This plan exactly suited the young Norwegian, for he did not like the idea of being landed at Christiansand, or taken back to the ship.
“Where are we going? Why don’t he put us on shore, or on board of the ship?” demanded Burchmore.