“If you do, mates, you will go into the presence of God Almighty with another great sin unrepented of on your heads, besides those you have already committed,” said old Hixon. “Let us pray to God to help and deliver us; we have no other hope.”
His words had great effect among his late shipmates; for some time they were far more orderly and quiet than they had been hitherto.
Another day passed and the gale continued blowing furiously, and the stranger did not re-appear. Again they were on the look-out. At daybreak she was not to be seen; the wind, however, had abated. As the day drew on, Peter, who was on the look-out, caught sight of a small speck in the south-east; it grew larger and larger.
“The ship; the ship!” he shouted out. The cry was taken up by those scattered about on the rock, and passed on from one to the other. They hurried away along the island in the direction she was seen. Peter waited till he was sure there could be no mistake, and then hastened down to the captain, feeling that the good news would cheer him up. Bill and the black steward were on the opposite shore collecting mussels. Hixon stood gazing at the stranger for some minutes, and then said to himself, “I had better go too, or maybe they will not tell of the captain and the rest.”
As he neared the further end of the rock he found the ship hove-to and a boat approaching the shore. On reaching the little bay into which the boat had put, he found that the starving people had tumbled into her, and that she had already shoved off. He shouted loudly. The boat put back. The captain of the ship, who had himself come in the boat with provisions and water, having heard his account, expressed his indignation at the men who would have allowed their shipmates to be left behind. They replied that they were afraid it would come on to blow again, and that the ship might be driven off and they left behind.
“I would not desert them if I had to remain a week or a month more,” answered the captain, ordering two of his crew to accompany him, and to bring a boat-sail with two spars.
“It’s some miles from here, sir,” observed Hixon.
“Never mind; if it were ten miles we will bring your sick captain with us,” was the reply.
The men told Hixon that their ship was the Myrtle, bound out to New South Wales, and their captain’s name was Barrow.
It was nearly dark when Captain Barrow reached the hut, and was thankfully welcomed by poor Captain Hauslar.