“What do you get in there for?”
“My education has been neglected, and I have to do a great deal of thinking to make up for it. I don’t like to be disturbed when I’m thinking; so I got into the boat, and covered myself with the sail.”
“Tell that to the fishes,” snuffed Wilde.
“You can, if you wish; I don’t speak their language,” laughed Ole.
“But really, Norway, what did you get into the second cutter for?” said Sanford.
“The pilot was a first cousin of mine, and I was afraid he would whip me for making faces at him when I was a baby. He never forgets anything.”
“Nonsense!”
“Well, if you know better than I, don’t ask me any more about it.”
Ole was no more inclined to explain how he came in the second cutter than he had been to solve the mystery of being in a water-logged bateau, out of sight of land. It only appeared that while the students covered the rail and crowded the rigging to see the land, he had put himself into the boat. When the hands were called to man the braces, he, having no duty to perform, had not answered the call, and was left alone in the cutter. At sea, every precaution was taken to provide for the safety of the crew in case of any calamity. Each boat was provided with a sail, a mast, a compass, and several breakers of water, and a quantity of provisions was ready to be put in when needed. Ole stowed himself beneath the sail, which lay under the middle board, extending fore and aft. Before De Forrest took his place in the stern-sheets, Stockwell had discovered the absentee, and communicated the fact of his presence to those near him. The crew of the second cutter were entirely willing to keep his secret, as they were that of any one who needed their help. Among such boys it was regarded as dishonorable in the highest degree to betray any one; and, indeed, the principal discountenanced anything like “tale-bearing,” to which the students gave a very liberal construction. Sanford had proposed that De Forrest should take a walk on shore, in order to give Ole an opportunity to escape from his confinement, which, on account of the singular obstinacy and suspicion of that officer, had threatened to be indefinitely continued, till the collision came to his aid.
“How’s this?” said Stockwell, as he seated himself by the side of the coxswain, on one of the settees on the quarter-deck of the steamer.