“Why, we thought you had gone overboard and been drowned, or had slipped ashore and been carried off by the Indians,” he continued; “Mr McTavish and the other gentlemen were making a great ado about you. You have been playing your old trick again. For my part, I should have supposed you would have been glad enough to get out of the ship, as I understood they wished to take you with them.”
“Please sir, I hope you’ll pardon me for what has happened,” I said, an idea at that moment striking me. “I want to become a sailor, and I’ll promise to try and do my duty, and learn to be one if you’ll allow me.”
The captain, from what I said, at once took it for granted that I had again acted the stowaway, and I flattered myself that I had not spoken an untruth, while I had avoided saying anything which would offend him. I observed that old Growles had come aft, and was then within earshot. The captain seemed rather pleased than otherwise that I had not wished to leave the ship.
“Go forward,” he said, “and let me see that you do your duty.”
He was evidently in better humour than usual, having got a rich freight which he had not expected. Touching my cap, I hurried to the caboose. Caesar rolled his eyes and opened his mouth with astonishment when he saw me.
“Where you been all dis time, Dick?” he asked.
“That’s more than I can tell you, Caesar. Do in mercy give me some grub, for I’m well-nigh starved,” I answered.
He gave me part of a mess he had been cooking for himself.
“Dis curious ship,” he said, as he remarked the ravenous way in which I devoured the food. “I no ask questions, you no tell lies, dat is it. Oh you wise boy.”
I suspected from this that Caesar had observed the visits of old Growles and the boatswain to the hold, and shrewdly guessed that I had been a prisoner. I could not understand, however, how the captain didn’t make some fuss about it, unless he also was cognisant of the fact; but of that I was left in uncertainty. I had expected from the way he had first treated me that some change for the better would take place in my condition, but in this I was mistaken. I was at the beck and call of every one, having to do all the dirty work in the cabin, and being knocked about and bullied by the men just as much as before.