Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 18, 2025
I thought that if I told Captain Longfleet, he would treat my statement as a cock-and-bull story, and declare I had been dreaming. Probably I should be sent off with a kick and a cuff, and the crew would hear that I had informed against them. I thought, however, that I would tell the second mate, who was better disposed, and far more sensible than the rest of the officers.
It was night when he had come near the harbour; and as he knew the boat would have returned, he formed himself a nest under a bank with some tussack grass and slept soundly till daylight. When he found that Mark had not returned, he was as eager as Mr McDonald to go in search of him, but all they could say would not move Captain Longfleet.
Then Captain Longfleet came upon the scene as I fancied him, dressed in a cocked-hat and feathers, a long sword buckled to his side, high boots, a red coat, and a waistcoat braided with gold. I fancy that I must have seen some picture of the sort of a pirate captain to cause him thus to be presented to my imagination.
Bold as Captain Longfleet was, he quailed under the eye of the determined fur trader. "Hurrah! There's our friend," cried Mr McTavish. "We must send a boat for him, and that will settle this dispute, I hope." "A boat shall not leave the ship," cried Captain Longfleet. "I can't spare the men."
I had frequently to go into the cabin to assist the steward, who, though he often gave me a slight cuff, never did so in the presence of my friends. Knowing that I had those on board interested in me, I bore my sufferings and annoyances with more equanimity than before. I one day, unknown to Captain Longfleet, had the opportunity of giving my father's address to Mr McTavish.
The commander, who was an old acquaintance of Captain Longfleet, came aboard, and spent the evening with him in the cabin. I waited eagerly till it had become dark. The lights of the other ship could be seen in the distance, and I expected every instant that the captain would come on deck ready to take his departure. The boat's crew had come aboard, and were being entertained by our men.
She had not come in; but, as I thought she might possibly make her appearance, I was afraid to go on shore, lest I should encounter Captain Longfleet or the mates or the men. I felt sure, should they see me, that I should be captured, carried on board, and punished tremendously for stealing the boat.
"I can't take you, my lad, without your captain's leave," he answered. "If he gives it, I shall be happy to do so." Captain Longfleet just then came out of the cabin. "I don't know how he came on board, but here he is and here he'll remain," he said, as the captain of the whaler spoke to him. "Go forward," he said to me, "and think yourself fortunate to escape a flogging for your impudence."
Suddenly also I remembered with painful distinctness the remarks Mr Butterfield had made respecting Captain Longfleet, the commander of the "Emu," and his ruffianly crew. Certainly their appearance was not in their favour; and old Growles, who had received me so surlily, was not a good specimen of British seamen. What if the ship should prove to be a pirate, instead of an honest trader?
"Besides this, my friends and I propose to induce Captain Longfleet to set you at liberty when we reach the Columbia River, and you can either wait at the fort till you can hear from your father, making yourself useful there as a clerk, or you can turn fur-hunter, and lead a life which I believe would be to your taste."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking