Part 80 (1/2)
”Yah!” he roared: ”vat for you ,” cried the boys together
”I com in and sink you,” roared the captain ”Go to sleep, bose of you”
”But the door's locked”
”Yais, I lock hi; but the faint creaking and grinding went on after the captain had gone back on deck, and the boys stood listening to the orders given and the hurrying to and fro of men
”She must be on a rock, Cinder,” said Mike, in a half-stifled voice
”No rocks here On a sandbank, and they're trying to get her off”
Then there was a rattling and banging noise, which ca up the hatches over the hold”
”Yes,” said Vince bitterly; ”they're thinkingthe bales than of us”
”Down vis you, and pass 'em up,” cried the captain; and, for what seemed to be quite a couple of hours, they could hear the crew through the bulkhead busy in the hold fetching out and passing up the bales on to the deck in the most orderly way, and without a bit of exciteer,” said Vince at last, ”or they wouldn't go on so quietly as this”
”I don't know,” said Mike bitterly; ”it et us at last, and we shall be drowned, shut up here”
”Don't h ”Better off here Fishes won't be able to get at us and eat us afterwards”
”Ugh! how can you talk in that horrid way at a time like this!”
”To keep up our spirits,” said Vince ”Perhaps it isn't so bad She's on a bank, I'hten her and make her float”
”They're not,” said Mike excitedly ”Why, they're bringing other things down You listen here”
Vince clapped his ear to the bulkhead and listened, and h that for every bale passed up a box seeainst the partition which separated them from the hold
”I say, what does it mean?” whispered Mike at last
”I don't know,” replied Vince; ”but for certain they're bringing in things as well as taking the and loading up again”
”Oh, Cinder! and we can't get ashore and run for it”
”No; he's too artful for us this time That's why he has locked us up
Never mind; our turn will come He can't always have his eyes open”
”Is there any way of getting out?”
”Not now,” said Vince thoughtfully; ”but we et one of those boards out ready for another tih”