Will felt that, although the captain’s tones were reassuring, his words were startling. He was ill at ease, and clutched the seat when the billow rolled under them, raising the stern of the boat so high that it seemed as if about to be thrown completely over, but the wave passed on, and they fell back into the trough of the sea.
“Musha! but that was a wathery mountain no less,” exclaimed Larry.
“You’ve heard of Captain Bligh, Larry, I suppose?” said the captain, in a loud voice, with the intention of letting the men hear his remarks.
“May be I have,” replied Larry with caution, “but if so I misremimber.”
“He was the captain of the Bounty, whose crew mutinied and turned him adrift in an open boat in the middle of the Pacific. What I was goin’ to tell ye was, that his circumstances were a trifle worse than ours, for he was full four thousand miles from the nearest land, and with short allowance of provisions on board.”
“An’ did he make out the voyage, sur?” asked Larry.
“He did, and did it nobly too, in the face of great trouble and danger, but it’s too long a yarn to spin just now; some day when the weather’s fine I’ll spin it to ’ee. He weathered some heavy gales, too, and what one man has done another man may do; so we’ve no reason to get down-hearted, for we’re nearer land than he was, and better off in every way. I wish I could say as much for the other boats.”
The captain’s voice dropped a little in spite of himself as he concluded, for, despite the strength and buoyancy of his spirit, he could not help feeling deep anxiety as to the fate of his companions in misfortune.
Thus, talking at intervals in hopeful tones, and relapsing into long periods of silence, they spent that stormy night without refreshment and without rest. The minutes seemed to float on leaden wings, and the weary watchers experienced in its highest degree that dreary feeling—so common in the sick room—that “morning would never come.”
But morning came at length—a faint glimmer on the eastern horizon. It was hailed by Larry with a deep sigh, and the earnest exclamation—