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"I mean that in order not to endanger the vessel's safety I have had to put her about and run before the storm." "That will cause us a most lamentable delay!" said Godfrey. "Very much so," answered Captain Turcott, "but when day breaks, if the sea falls a little, I shall resume our westerly route. I should recommend you, Mr. Godfrey, to get back to your cabin.
Three seconds afterwards he was in somebody's arms, and was clasping that somebody in his own. At the same time two sailors, at the order of Captain Turcott who was in command, climbed up along the sequoia to set Tartlet free, and, with all due respect, pluck him from the branch as if he were a fruit. And then the questions, the answers, the explanations which passed! "Uncle Will! You?"
But then, Uncle Will, the wreck of the Dream?" "Sham!" replied William W. Kolderup, who had never seemed in such a good humour before. "The Dream was quietly sunk by means of her water ballast, according to the instructions I had given Turcott. You thought she sank for good, but when the captain saw that you and Tartlet had got safely to land he brought her up and steamed away.
"What?" answered Captain Turcott sharply. "If the wind has not changed?" "No, Mr. Godfrey, no. And, unfortunately, I think it will turn to a storm!" "But we now have the wind behind us!" "Wind behind us yes wind behind us!" replied the captain, visibly disconcerted at the observation. "But it is not my fault." "What do you mean?"
Almost immediately afterwards the boatswain opened the door and appeared on the threshold. "Captain!" he said. "What's up?" asked Turcott, sailor as he was, always on the alert. "Here's a Chinee!" said the boatswain. "A Chinese!" "Yes! a genuine Chinese we have just found by chance at the bottom of the hold!" "At the bottom of the hold!" exclaimed Turcott.
"Only show!" answered Captain Turcott. "We saw nothing suspicious, our men must have been deceived, but I am rather surprised at that, all the same." "We are going ahead then?" said Godfrey. "Yes, we are going on now, but I must first take an observation." "Shall we get the launch on board?" asked the mate. "No," answered the captain, "we may want it again. Leave it in tow!"
By his orders the Dream, a substantial steamer of 600 tons and 200 horse-power, was got ready. It was to be commanded by Captain Turcott, a tough old salt, who had already sailed in every latitude in every sea. A thorough sailor, this friend of tornadoes, cyclones, and typhoons, had already spent of his fifty years of life, forty at sea.
"But get off! get off!" Godfrey still hesitated to cast himself into the waves, but the water was already up to the level of the deck. Captain Turcott knowing that Godfrey swam like a fish, seized him by the shoulders, and did him the service of throwing him overboard. It was time!
Towards eleven o'clock, the wash from her bow as she tore through the waves was perfectly distinct, and behind her the long furrow of foam gradually growing wider and fainter like the tail of a comet. At a quarter-past eleven, Captain Turcott hailed and boarded the Dream. "Well, captain, what news?" asked Godfrey, shaking his hand. "Ah! Good morning, Mr. Godfrey!" "And the breakers?"
The night was to be much darker than would have been thought from the magnificent daytime. There was no rock to fear in these parts, for Captain Turcott had just fixed his exact position on the charts; but collisions are always possible, and they are much more frequent on foggy nights. The lamps were carefully put into place as soon as the sun set.
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