“Them’s the first words you’ve spoke, sir. Now let me pour a little whiskey down your throat.”
The whiskey must have done me good, for I began to get my senses back after a while and became conscious of a terrible throbbing in my head. Putting my hand to my forehead where the pain was, my fingers came in contact with blood. That brought me round more than anything else, and I shut my eyes and tried hard to remember where I was.
“Mr. Morgan, it won’t do to give up like this. We can’t be over sixty miles from the coast, and right in the track of the coal fleet at that.”
The voice sounded familiar now, and I knew it was the carpenter speaking.
“How did we come here, and where are the rest? Where is the ship?” I asked, still a good deal bewildered.
There was a groan and a short pause before the answer came.
“No mortal man will ever set eyes on the St. Lawrence again, Mr. Morgan, nor on any of her crew but you and me.”
It took me some minutes to realize those awful words.
“But Captain Fairley and his family—they escaped?”
“All gone, sir; all but us two.”