It was plain that he liked the quick and handy way with which Sam followed his directions, for he said:
"I've known a young lubber like you, green as grass, turn out to be a right good foremast hand. Tie it tight and swing it out. That's it. Let it go down. There! Pull!"
"I've struck something!" said Sam, breathlessly; but even as he did so he was thinking.
Wrecks? He had heard all sort of things concerning wrecks. What if a sunken ship should be away down there? The Captain said this was a topsail. He must know. Then there were lower sails. There were masts. Every ship had a hull. What about drowned people? What if he were about to pull up somebody that had been drowned?
It made a kind of cold chill run all over him, but he tugged upon his line, and something at the end of it slowly yielded and came nearer. Meantime the Captain plied his long-handled boat-hook, and now he suddenly exclaimed:
"I've hitched on a hawser! Here she comes! Look out for the boat, Pete."
"Guess I'd better," said Pete, for the Elephant was tipping around in a most disorderly way, and the water was a trifle rough with waves.
"Only a rope," thought Sam, as the Captain's catch came in sight, but the old sailor's eyes twinkled, and he said to himself,
"There's something at the other end of it."
"Sam!" exclaimed Pete. "You've struck a bundle! Haul it in!"