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If, therefore, the people ashore happened to be specially handy with their tools they might yet get their boat repaired in time to give us trouble; for, smart ship as the Barracouta undoubtedly was, the small amount of sail which we now had set was only sufficient to put her along at about two knots in the hour, or barely to give her steerage way.
The Barracouta started at nine o'clock. At about the same time the yacht catted her anchor, fired a farewell gun, and proceeded eastward, her passengers first lining up and giving three cheers for their guests of the night before, and receiving a similar salute in return.
Side-steps were lowered and an immaculate toy boat swung out; a sailor occupied the rowing-thwart, while one of the yachtsmen stepped into the stern and took the rudder-lines. The boat sped straight toward the Barracouta, which grew dingy and mean by contrast. Presently the strangers were near. The yachtsman touched his cap.
"Glad I didn't know you heard me go out," he remarked. "If I had I might not have had the courage to come back. Well, I've learned my lesson. From now on I'll try not to give you fellows any reason to find fault with me." Medrick Shoal yielded a good harvest. About eighteen hundred pounds of hake lay in the pens on the Barracouta when they started for home at ten o'clock.
Ah, you turn pale, I see; and well you may when I inform you that your true character is by this time known to probably every British commander on the coast; you are known as a bare-faced traitor to the cause that you have pretended so zealously to serve, and I don't mind mentioning to you, in confidence, that, if this ship had happened to be the Barracouta instead of the Felicidad you would now in all probability have been dangling from one of that ship's yard-arms, as a wholesome warning and example to all betrayers Nay, keep your seat, man; there is a sentry outside the door, and you are a prisoner beyond all possibility of escape.
With regard to supplying me with men, he promised to do the best that he could; and at Young's suggestion he being one of the rather large party that the captain had invited to meet me at breakfast it was arranged that I should have a dozen; and as he fully agreed with me that there was just a chance that the Francesca, might be at no great distance to the northward, still actively pursuing her search for us, it was further arranged that I should crowd sail for Sierra Leone, in the hope of turning the tables upon Mendouca by overtaking him, in which case we were to do our best to detain him until the arrival of the Barracouta upon the scene, it being the captain's plan to follow us at a distance of some fifteen or twenty miles.
In bad humor with himself and things in general, he scrambled up and took his place back of the empty tub. Jim sheered the Barracouta off. "Put on your nippers! If you don't your hands will be raw in a little while." Percy thrust his fingers through the white woolen doughnuts, grasped the trawl, and began dragging it in over the roller. He made slow, awkward work of it.
"I have an impression that I have seen her before, and it seems to me that she bears a very striking resemblance to the Spanish brig that was lying off Lobo's factory on the day of our first arrival in the Congo," said I; the happy idea suggesting itself to me, as I began to speak, that I might safely make this statement without any breach of the truth, all of us on board the Barracouta having observed and remarked upon the striking resemblance between the two craft.
All the others were aboard the Barracouta, at work on the fish. Spurling hailed Percy. "Want to lend a hand, Whittington?" "No!" refused Percy, shortly. Entering the cabin, he made a dry lunch on cold biscuit and soda-crackers, then threw himself on his bunk and began reading. The afternoon dragged on.
Shaping their course carefully by the chart, and keeping on the alert to avoid passing vessels and steamers, they drove the Barracouta at top speed. Ten miles from Tarpaulin the increased height of the ocean swells told that they were crossing the shoal rocky ground of Snippershan.
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