I did not tell of my military salute, that was so involuntary, having betrayed me, but of course I can see it was the reason of the Captain's quick statement.
It was pitch-dark down in our dank, bilge-smelling hole, and long after we stopped talking I could not fall asleep. The ridges of the cable worked into my flesh, and the muttered complaints of the others as they tried to make themselves comfortable and found they could not, mingled with the light-headed ramblings of poor Mackie, and a sound suspiciously like weeping from the corner in which lay one of the young landsmen, all combined to add to the misery.
Mr. Vyse had failed to carry out his superior's instructions, and there had been no one to look after the wounded man, nor had we been given so much as a pannikin of water, and we were all suffering from thirst.
Morning came slowly down to us after an apparent year of night, and with it some relief, for we were given something to eat and drink. Weevilly bread, greenish salt-horse, and water that smelt unhealthy do not make a meal that is inviting, but we ate it. After it had been passed in to us through the entrance we heard a banging and clattering, and found they were nailing up this mode of ingress. Our next meal was lowered to us through the circular opening overhead. It was but a foot or so in diameter, and thus we were bottled up, as it were, like flies in a jug. On this day Mackie was very low, and we all thought like to die. I doubt very much if any of us could have lived many days in that foul, close place, but we had to stand it some time longer, and the way out of it was like this: The third day, at about noon, we heard the stirring and trampling of feet and the confused muttering of voices. I swarmed up the cable until my head was close to the opening, and there I listened. They were casting loose a gun and dealing out powder and shot—I could make that clearly out. But now I heard the sounds of conversation close to me.
"It's the Constitution," said a voice; "at least they say so up on deck."
"Then we're in for it," was the reply. "I've heard tell, messmate, that she's a sixty-gun ship in disguise."
"How far off is she?" was the question.
"About six miles off the larboard bow. Here, you can see her from the port."
"What's going on up there?" asked Sutton from below.
"They say we have sighted a ship, the Constitution; and they're clearing decks for action," I answered.