Part 38 (1/2)
”Help him down below,” said Mark, and two of the men lifted the poor fellow to his feet and then helped him down to the place prepared for the crew close to the skipper's cabin
”He'll coain, sir,” said Toear, that's all Lucky I got to him in time, or we should have been ashore hard and fast”
”Was that on a sandbank we struck?” said Mark
”Yes, sir, twice over; and if the one it would have been all over with us But plenty of sail on and a nice breeze helped us to scrape off, though my heart was in my mouth all the time”
”The schooner must be wonderfully well-built, Tom”
”Well-built and ill built, sir First as to timbers, second as to use, sir Why, some of our merchant craft would have been shook to pieces like one o' them card houses as we used to build as little ones”
Thatand falling slowly to the gentle Atlantic swell, it seemed hard to believe that they had been so near wreck only a few hours before But Mark had only to turn his eyes eastward to where the great billows broke upon the shore,waters, to be convinced of the danger they had escaped
The blacks soon forgot the scare, and lay basking about on deck perfectly happy, and ready to s a few cuts and bruises, which did not show, apparently very little the worse for their encounters The swellings, too, on board the prize crew, to use To it, had diminished rapidly A little too rapidly, Toot no marks to show the officers and men, they won't believe we've been in so iven it to you, Mr Vandean, if you'd took us back without this craft”
Mark had plenty of anxieties to cope with So long as the weather kept fine, he had no great difficulty about the navigation There was the low-lying shore, two or three miles on their starboard bow, and as far as was possible this distance was kept to Provision on board was ample; the water-casks had been well filled, and even if the store of this prireat difficulty in running up one or other of the rivers for a fresh supply
As to the blacks, the hours glided on, and there was very little to disturb Mark's confidence The two sailors--Soup and Taters--paraded the deck forith a great show of authority, to which their unclothed fellow-countryrace; and it was evident that there was nothing to fear froars, sir,” Toood at explaining what I h to eat and drink, and plenty of sunshi+ne to lie about in, that's about all they want”
”Yes, Tom, they're soon satisfied”
”That's so, sir, and they don't seeet away ashore, and back home; but look at 'e themselvessailor appeared to be quite right, for hour by hour as the horrors of the slaver's hold grew more remote, the little crowd of blacks forward appeared to be reat trouble was the state of Mr Russell, who still lay calh either below in the Yankee skipper's cot, or under an awning the sailors had rigged up on the deck He ate and drank n when spoken to, and for his sake Mark kept every stitch of sail on that the schooner could bear, so as to reach medical assistance as soon as possible
Dance was decidedly better, but subject to fits of absence; and on these occasions Tom Fillot said he was mad as a hatter
But in spite of the anxieties and the terrible feeling of responsibility, Mark found so the captain for the ti at the slightest breath of wind There was the hot, hazy shore on his right, and the glistening sea on his left, an ample crehich he could recruit if he liked frohtest order with the greatest alacrity He felt at tiht the _Nautilus_, and so be relieved of all his cares; but, on the other hand, he could not help feeling that he would be sorry to give up and return to the h, that Bob Howlett was here,” he said to hie and position
”I don't know, though,” he said, directly after ”If Bob were here, he would not like to knuckle under and play second fiddle Well, I shouldn't either Perhaps it's best is it is, I'm captain, and can do as I like, only it isn't always nice to do as one likes, and I often feel as if it would be much nicer to have some one to order me”
But there was no one to order him, and with the whole responsibility upon his shoulders, he for the first tian to realise what it meant to be the captain of a shi+p, answerable for everything thereon
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
A HORRIBLE THOUGHT
Two days glided by, during which Tom Fillot proved himself to be invaluable The merry joker of the shi+p's company showed that he possessed plenty of sound common sense, and that he was an excellent sea officer, he never presureat a burden there was on the lad's shoulders, he did all he could to lighten the load, by setting a capital exaesting little bits of sea them seem to emanate from Mark himself The consequence was that matters went in the most orderly way on board, and they steadily kept on north, north-west, or so to the trend of the land