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Updated: June 2, 2025
A moment's reflection, however, satisfied him that there was still danger both for Lalee and her brave rescuer, a danger which little William while giving utterance to that joyful "Hurrah!" had not taken into account.
William and Lalee watched the fish for a considerable time; but as no change took place either in its movements or the position it held in relation to the raft, their curiosity at length became satisfied, and their eyes were turned in a different direction.
In obedience to this impulse, it suddenly swerved from its circular course, and, heading towards the spot where Ben Brace, with Lilly Lalee clinging to his shoulder, was performing his shorter revolutions, it made a reckless and determined rush for the centre, equally regardless of the admonition of its brace of monitors and the cold steel of the Coromantee, gleaming clear under the water through which it would have to make its way.
"Westward ho!" cried Ben Brace, as he saw the sail swell out, and the craft, the product of his own skill, walking proudly away through the water like a "thing of life." "Westward ho!" simultaneously echoed Snowball and Little William; while the eyes of Lilly Lalee sparkled with joy, as she beheld the enthusiastic bearing of her companions. The wind was favourable in more senses than one.
A pair of slender sticks, standing some feet apart, and in a perpendicular position, with some white strips suspended between them, in the gleam of the lightning shone clear and conspicuous. It is not to be wondered at that the little Lalee should feel surprise at an apparition, so unexpected, in such a place, and under such circumstances.
The sailor knew that he could swim, sustaining a heavier weight than was the little Lalee. But it was evident the child could not swim a stroke, and was every moment in danger of sinking for the second time. Her rescuer perceived this danger as he started to her aid; and therefore pressed rapidly towards her, cleaving the water with all the strength that lay in his muscular arm and limbs.
For this reason he would have approached its shores with greater caution; and he was in the act of enforcing this upon his companions, when his intention was entirely frustrated by the joyous huzza uttered by Snowball; echoed by little William; and chorussed by the childish, feminine voice of Lilly Lalee.
Without further parley, the two set themselves to the task thus proposed; and one striking with his right hand, the other with his left, both buffeting the waves with equal vigour and resolution, they were soon sweeping onward with a velocity that caused the sea to surge along the sides of the chest, until the froth rose to the fingers of Lilly Lalee as she lay grasping its lid!
The early sunbeams, as they fell slantingly over the surface of the sea, told the negro that he was alone, alone with the little Lalee, alone in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, afloat upon a few sticks, without a morsel of food to eat, without a drop of water to drink! It was a terrible situation, sufficient to produce despair even in the stoutest heart.
That sable globe, rounded like a sea-hedgehog, or a Turk's-head clew, and black as a tarred tackle-block, could be nothing else than the woolly pate of Snowball, the sea-cook! A little beyond were two other objects of dark colour and founded shape; but neither so dark nor so round as that already identified. They must be the heads of the English sailor and Lilly Lalee.
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