Sad was their disappointment, when our new captors found that they had fallen in with a mere bone from which the marrow had been carefully extracted. Still, however, there were some necessaries that might prove useful; and sails, cordage, water and provisions, were unceremoniously conveyed on board the schooner. Presently, a second boat pushed off from the rover’s side; and it was notified that the captain, in person, was coming on board to ascertain how a prize so promising should prove so very unproductive.
“What a cursed misfortune,” said he, in reply to the account his first officer gave him of our hwing been thoroughly plundered, and that only twenty hours before. “By Heven, I am half inclined to make sail after the privateer, and make him divide or disgorge the booty.”
“‘Twere idle,” said the lieutenant; “Heven knows what course he’s steering. And even if we overtook him, what certainty have we that he would not be able to hold his own with us? They say he carried twenty guns, and was chokeful of men. He’ll dodge the convoy while he dare, and trust to accident for a second God-send. No, no—it was a cursed chance, no doubt—the luck was all John Crapo’s—and no use crying over spilt milk, you know.”
The reasoning of his lieutenant appeared to satisfy his superior, that the misfortune he had sustained in coming upon us after the Frenchman’s visit was irretrievable, and, accordingly, he submitted to it like a Christian man; but still he could not avoid making an occasional lament over what he termed “the blackest of bad luck.”
“Thirty thousand dollars—hard silver—all one property—besides other most valuable plunder. Was ever ship so unfortunate! But who was the unlucky devil who lost the money? Did he drown himself at once, or is he still on board?”
The lieutenant pointed quietly to me; and the captain crossed the deck to the place where I was standing, with my arm leaning on the bulwark, as if nothing particular had occurred.
“So, Sir, I hear you hwe been cleaned out; and, as they tell me, to a tolerable tune?”
“I have,” I answered; “can you put me in the way of recovering the loss?”
“I!” said the stranger in surprise; “how the devil should I?”
“Then, as I am already plucked to the last feather, your honest companions have nothing to deprive me of, and you can neither serve nor injure me. Is not that a comfort, captain?”