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It was a sort of "lingoa geral" spoken along the seaboard of Africa, not unlike a similar Portuguese patois, current on the coasts and large rivers of tropical South America. In this language, little William, by the aid of signs and gestures, was able to keep up an occasional conversation with Lilly Lalee.
Its white victims had escaped it for the time, but it was not particular as to the colour of the skin, and Snowball might be as sweet to its palate as Ben Brace or Lilly Lalee. We are not going to assert that it reasoned after this fashion, or that any thoughts whatever passed through its huge mallet-shaped skull.
When morning dawned, Snowball and the little Lalee such was the name of the child were the only beings who appeared to have survived the catastrophe, the wretched creatures who at the last moment had escaped from the "'tween-decks" were no longer in existence.
Little William did not put such an interrogatory. All his conjectures were ended. The peril threatening his patron, and little Lalee as well, was plainly outlined before his eyes, in all its frightful reality.
For six days had Snowball been leading this sort of life, along with the little Lalee, subsisting partly on the sea-steeped biscuit found in the barrel, and partly upon other provisions which had turned up among the drift; while the precious water contained in the keg had hitherto kept them from suffering the pangs of thirst.
For this reason they yielded to his double solicitation, to remain silent and listen. At this moment, to the surprise of Ben Brace and William, and not a little to the astonishment of the negro, a tiny voice reached them from below, which they all easily recognised as that of Lilly Lalee. "O Snowball," called out the girl, addressing herself to her especial protector, "I hear people speaking.
It was to support the child who had been intrusted to him the Lilly Lalee above water as long as he should have strength; and then to go down along with her into that vast, fathomless tomb, that leaves no trace and carries no epitaph! The sea-cook and the sailor were now swimming towards each other.
They had not proceeded very far, when a cry from the girl caused them to suspend their exertions. While the others were occupied in propelling the chest, Lalee, kneeling upon the lid, had been keeping a lookout ahead. Something she saw had elicited that cry, which was uttered in a tone that betokened, if not joy, at least some sort of gratification.
Little William loved Lilly Lalee with such love as a lad may feel for one of his own age, a love perhaps the sweetest in life, if not the most lasting. Inspired by this juvenile passion, and by the apprehensions he had for its object, the boy-sailor did not sleep very soundly.
The little Lalee had also assumed a half-erect attitude; and, by the side of her sable companion, kept peering out into the darkness, in the hope that another flash of lightning might again reveal to her eyes the features of that beautiful boy, who, alone of all upon that fated ship, had made upon her mind an impression worthy of being remembered. "We've got to die!"
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