“Well, Dan Hogan, you seem to have forgotten me.”
“No, I haven’t, now you speak, though I do not know what I might have done if you had not opened your lips.”
Though the two were old shipmates, they did not even shake hands, but sat eagerly talking together for some time, regardless of the rest of us. I could scarcely make out what they said. Sam, at last getting up, came towards me, and said—
“This ’ere old shipmate of mine has given me some news which you will be glad to hear for one thing, though not for another. The schooner has got safe into port, and is not far off from this.”
“Safe!” I exclaimed, my heart bounding with joy, and I shouted the news to Charlie and the rest.
“Safe into port, but I did not say she was safe,” said Sam. “In the first place, from what he tells me, she’s carried away her mainmast, and seeing that she cannot put to sea, some of his black friends have made a plot to get hold of her, and if they do, they’ll not leave any of those aboard alive. The captain, I know, keeps a sharp look-out; but they’re cunning rascals, and will try, if they can, to circumvent him.”
“How far off is she? How soon can we get there?” I asked eagerly. I could feel my heart beating as I spoke.
“He says about thirty miles, more or less, round the coast, though it is little more than a quarter of that distance across country.”
“Then couldn’t we go over land, and warn my brother?” I asked anxiously.
“Why, bless you, we should be knocked on the head by the first black fellows we might meet,” answered Sam. “Our only chance is to go round by water, and I hope we may get there before any mischief is done.”