United States or Nigeria ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The air becoming keener as night deepens, I close and secure the port-hole, and as my cabin is bolted on the outside, the best thing I can do is to get into my bunk and let myself be gently rocked to sleep by the broad Atlantic in this mysterious cradle, the Ebba. The next morning I rise at daybreak, and having performed my ablutions, dress myself and wait.
He had been lying in the bottom of the boat alongside the schooner for fully half an hour, he calculated, before he felt himself lifted, and then lowered, doubtless to the bottom of the hold. The kidnapping having been accomplished it would seem that it only remained for the Ebba to weigh anchor, descend the estuary and make her way out to sea through Pamlico Sound.
"Put him out of the way well, if it becomes absolutely necessary of course you must, but it would be better to seize him too and bring him aboard the Ebba Who knows but what he has already learned a part of Roch's secret?" "True." "Besides, Thomas Roch is used to him, and I don't propose to make him change his habitudes in any way."
It must then be In my opinion the Ebba could have struck no other group of islands but the Bermudas in this part of the Atlantic. This is clear from the distance covered from the American coast and the direction sailed in since we issued from Pamlico Sound.
All that was known about him was what was published in the papers when the arrival of the Ebba was reported in some port, and particularly in the ports of the east coast of the United States, where the schooner was accustomed to put in at regular periods to lay in provisions and stores for a lengthy voyage.
But if the mechanical power of the tug is produced by electricity the latter must be furnished by some manufactory where it is stored, and the means of procuring the batteries is not to be found on Back Cup, I suppose. And then, why does the Ebba have recourse to this submarine towing system? Why is she not provided with her own means of propulsion, like other pleasure-boats?
It is useless to expect the wind to spring up again during the night, and she will lay becalmed till morning. The Ebba, however, propelled by her mysterious motor, continues to approach her.
He is somewhat of the Grecian type, and T have no doubt that he is of Hellenic origin when I hear him called Serko Engineer Serko by the Captain of the Ebba. As to the latter, he is called Spade Captain Spade and this name has an Italian twang about it. Thus there is a Greek, an Italian, and a crew recruited from every corner of the earth to man a schooner with a Norwegian name!
Are we not going to leave this island, which appears to be isolated, to the west? It does not seem likely, since it is still broad daylight, and the hour at which the Ebba was timed to arrive. All the sailors are drawn up on deck, awaiting orders, and Boatswain Effrondat is making preparations to anchor. Ere a couple of hours have passed I shall know all about it.
Yet no preparations for departure were made. Was it not dangerous to stay where they were after their daring raid? Had the Count d'Artigas hidden his prisoners so securely as to preclude the possibility of their being discovered if the Ebba, whose presence in proximity to Healthful House could not fail to excite suspicion, received a visit from the New-Berne police?
Word Of The Day