Part 3 (2/2)
”No, sah,” cried Manuel, with an _ex cathedra_ air, ”twenty-two shi+llings, sah Dat's what the captain of de _fanny Long_ Hobart Tohaleshi+p got fo' a piece eleven poun' weight in Sydney last June And I hear de boys sayin' dat he would hab got 1 5s only dat dere was a power of squids' beaks in it--and dere's notmore”
He explained that the pieces of black shell, which looked like broken mussel shells, were in reality the beaks of the squid, upon which the sperm whale feeds Then, for the benefit of those of the party, he and the two other ex-whalemen described the cause of the formation of this peculiar substance in the body of the sperm whale
Lester took pencil and paper and reasy-looking staff is worth only a pound an ounce--though I don't doubt that Manuel is right Well, at 1 an ounce, it coht pounds”
”Hurrah for Mrs Lester!” cried Lindley, the ht us luck from the first, and now she has luck herself”
The ain, for there was not one of theh affection for their captain's violet-eyed wife They had ade to this desolate spot, and her constant cheerfulness and her kindness and attention in nursing three of thes of devotion to her There was a happy supper party in ”Wreck House”---as Lucy had naht, and it was not until the s that the , and left Lucy and her husband to themselves
”I'm too excited to sleep now, Tom,” she said ”Come, I must show you the place where I found it It is not a bit cold And oh! Toh life, and the taoats, and the fowls, and black Manuel, and, and--oh, everything! And look, Tohthouse at Deal Island I really believe the light was never shi+ning as it is to-night Oh! all the world is bright to me”
CHAPTER III
Two days later, and after nearly fifteen weeks of arduous and unre tide, and the _Dolphin_, under a full head of stea and panting, tugged away at the giant hulk of the stranded shi+p; and the shi+p's own donkey engine and winch wheezed and groaned as it slowly brought in inch by inch a heavy coir hawserAnd then the _Braybrook Castle_ began tocheered and cheered until they were hoarse, and the second engineer of the tug and two stokers, stripped to their waists, with the perspiration strea bodies, answered with a yell--and then, lying well over on her starboard bilge, the great shi+p slid off stern first into deep water, and Tom Lester's heart leapt within him with joy and pride
Lucy, as excited as any one else, was on the bridge with hiine-rooed loudly, and the heart of the sturdy tug beat less frantically, the wrecking gang on board the shi+p under Lindley slipped their end of the coir hawser froet the shi+p on an even keel by cutting adrift the lashi+ngs of several hundred barrels of ceo) which were piled up on the starboard side of the e overboard As the shi+p righted herself inch by inch, and finally stood up on an even keel, Lesterhis whistle thrice--for Lindley to stand by his anchors, which were all ready to let go
His device of getting up the barrels of ceainst the iron deck stanchions (having previously cut away the bulwark plates) so as to give the vessel a big cant to starboard, had answered perfectly; for, high as was the tide that night, the _Dolphin_, though so powerful, could not have moved a shi+p of 1,500 tons with her keel still partly sustaining her weight on the rooks on which she had struck By canting her as he had done, she had actually floated--and no more than floated--an hour before the tide was at its full
Half an hour later the _Braybrook Castle_ had been towed round to a little bay just abreast of ”Wreck House,” and the tug's engines stopped
”All ready, Lindley?” shouted Lester
”All ready sir”
”Then let go”
At a tap froed down, and the flaked out cable roared as it flew through the hawse-pipes, drowning the loud ”Hurrah” of the men on board
”What is it, Lindley?” cried Lester, ”ten fathoms?”
”Twelve, sir”
”Give her another twenty-five It's good holding ground and there is plenty of roo Lindley!”
”Yes, sir”
”We have had a bit of good luck, eh?”
”Yes, sir That is because Mrs Lester is on the tug She brings us good luck”