"I s'pose, too," continued Haines, "that as long's we're together all the observations for latitude and longitude will be made on board the Washington, as we're not near so short-handed as the Warwick is. Our captain or first mate will take the sun every day and work up all the figuring, and then we'll signal the result over to the Warwick. The second mate's a good sailor and understands navigation, but it takes time to do all these things, and he hasn't any to spare. If he gets blown out of sight of us, why, then he'll have to work up his own position, but he needn't do so as long as we're in company."
CHAPTER VI.
IN DANGER FROM A WATERSPOUT.—CAUGHT IN A GALE.—SEPARATED FROM OUR CONSORT.—A GHOST ON THE WASHINGTON!
At daylight the next morning the Warwick was about four miles ahead and a little to the south of the Washington. The night had been clear with a steady wind blowing, and each ship had laid its course perfectly. The Warwick shortened sail a little, so that about noon we came up to within hailing distance of the Warwick. Our first mate, Mr. Stevens, hailed, and asked how things were going.
"All right, sir," was the reply. "Everything all right on board, and Warwick's people getting 'on comfortably. Don't think any more of 'em will die."
Then we gave them latitude and longitude, and after that the ships steered away from each other and sailed along about a mile apart.
It was partly a feeling of humanity and partly a practical desire for making money for himself and owners that prompted our captain to reduce his own crew in order to save the Warwick and the people on board of her. The Warwick's cargo was a valuable one, and the ship was also worth quite a handsome amount of money, as she was only three years old, substantially built, and well rigged throughout. The salvage on her would be very large, at least so Bill Haines said, probably sixty or seventy per cent, and that would be distributed among the owners of the Washington, her captain, and the salvage crew that went on board the Warwick. I asked Haines if those who stayed behind on the Warwick would get anything, and he said he believed not. I intimated that it was hardly fair to leave us out, as we had to perform, in addition to our own duties, all the work that would have been done by those who had left us.
"You'll find out, sonny, as you go along in life," said Haines, "that it isn't all fair sailing and fair play. Them that does the least work gets the highest pay. They couldn't sail a ship at all without sailors before the mast; a ship has got to have a crew anyway, but they don't pay the crew nothing like what they pays the captain and mates."