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The battle there was over. Schmidt and Momulla and two others alone remained alive of all the company of the Cowrie, for they had found sanctuary in the forecastle.
My heart sank within me. Could he be among the slain? A midshipman hurried past me. "Where is Braithwaite, my brother?" I asked, in a trembling voice. "There; don't you see him on the forecastle?" I looked in the direction to which he pointed. My heart bounded up again as I saw him directing the men engaged in bending a fresh foresail, which had before concealed him from my sight.
"I suspect not," replied Newton, who had his glass to his eye, looking upon the decks of the French vessel. "They are preparing to board, and will be round again in five minutes. Cutlasses and pikes ready forward, my lads, all of us! We must beat them off!" "And will, too," cried the seamen, as in obedience to their orders, they collected on the forecastle.
The cloud of smoke or steam, rising from the crater and which they had first seen that afternoon, was now illuminated and shot through with rays of light evidently reflected from the bowels of the hill. "The volcano is surely alive!" cried the young man. The crew, loafing on the forecastle, saw the phenomenon, and their chattering voices rose in a chorus of excitement.
"Self-convicted," said Sampson, quietly. Then, for a matter of ten minutes, the air in the close compartment might have smelled sulphurous to one strange to forecastle discourse. Forsythe, his back toward them, listened quietly while they called him all the names, printable and unprintable, which angry and disgusted men may think of.
Lawyer, turn to and ask the boy to teach you an A. B's duties." He walked back to the cabin; and the new cook was slowly pushed toward the galley by the second officer, the new A. B., under the same gentle guidance, being conducted back to the forecastle. Fortunately for the new seamen the weather continued fine, but the heat of the galley was declared by the new cook to be insupportable.
She was the Laocoon, and her figurehead was twined with serpents. The line of her ports was of a dull yellow colour, and as all her ports were open, the port-lids made scarlet marks all along it. Her great lower studdingsail swept out from her side for all the world like a butterfly-net, raking the top of the sea for us. An officer stood on the forecastle with a speaking-trumpet in his hand.
"Ay, ay, sir!" responded French, as Graines extinguished the lantern on the forecastle; and Christy directed him to do the same with the cabin lamp. He looked at his watch before he put it out, and found it was quarter-past three.
He fell a-sniffing again, quickly and vehemently, and stepped to the side, sending a thirsty look into the white blindness ahead, whilst I heard him mutter, "There 's ice close aboard, there 's ice close aboard!" As he spoke the words, there arose a loud and fearful cry from the forecastle. "Ice right ahead, sir!" "Ice right ahead, sir!" repeated the chief mate, whipping round upon the captain.
He was not in a smelly forecastle, but in a bunk in a cabin that must open off the main room of the schooner. Why had they treated him with such consideration? He dozed off, for all his wretchedness, exhausted by his efforts to untangle the snarl. When he awoke again his mouth was glued together with thirst.
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