'Below, there!' I cried through it, and thrice did I utter this summons before I received a response.
'What you wantchee?' floated up a reply—thin, reed-like, unreal, a tone not to be distinguished.
'I am hailing to let you know that we shall keep you liberally supplied with food and fresh water,' I shouted. 'Plenty of fresh air will blow down to you through this chimney. Take notice: you are securely imprisoned. There is no possibility of your escaping. At the same time, if you make the least effort to release yourselves we will leave you to starve below and to perish miserably with thirst.'
'What do you mean to do with us?' was the faint cry that followed my speech.
'That is our business,' I roared back. 'Keep you quiet, and you shall be well used!'
I waited for the voice to speak again, but all remained hushed, and I came away very well satisfied to know that Nakier, at all events, would understand my language and translate it to the others.
This plot had been so carefully prepared that we knew exactly what to do. Our first business was to shift the barque's helm and trim sail for the Canaries—the land that lay nearest to us—where, at Santa Cruz, we might count upon getting all the help we required. We briefly arranged that Jacob should keep watch at the hatch. At the first sound of disturbance below he was to call us. There was small need for such sentinelling, yet our fears seemed to find it necessary, at the outset at all events, for they were eleven to three, and we could not forget that, securely imprisoned as we knew them to be.
I went aft with Abraham. My brave little Helga, on my approach, let go the wheel, and extended her hands. My love for her, that had been held silent in my heart by the troubles, the worries, the anxieties, the perils which had been pressing heavily upon us for many days, now leapt in me, a full and abounding emotion, and, taking her in my arms, I held her to me, and kissed her once, and yet again. Abraham, grasping a spoke of the wheel, swung off from it, giving us, with 'longshore modesty, his back, as he gazed steadfastly over the stern. She struggled for a moment, and was then quiet, trying to hide her blushing face against my shoulder.
'It must have come to this,' I whispered, 'sooner or later; and what is soonest is always best, my love, in such matters. You are mine by right of the poor old Anine; you are mine, Helga, by right of your father's commands to me.'
I kissed her again, released her, and she went to the rail and overhung it for a few minutes, while I waited, watching her.