Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 3, 2025
"Ay, in mist, or clouds," responded Nighthead, who now kept obstinately at his elbow, watching with the most jealous distrust, the smallest movement of his unknown Commander. "In the heavens, or in the sea, I care not, provided she be gone." "Most seamen would rejoice to see a strange sail, from the hull of a vessel shaved to the deck like this."
Nighthead muttered his intentions, whatever they might be, to himself; and then he walked apart, apparently to confer with the men, who already seemed but too well disposed to second any of his views, however mistaken or lawless.
At first, the spectators on the decks of the "Caroline" believed they were not seen, and some of the men called madly for lights, in order that the disasters of the night might not terminate in the dreaded encounter. "No!" exclaimed Wilder; "too many see us there already!" "No, no," muttered Nighthead; "no fear but we are seen; and by such eyes, too, as never yet looked out of mortal head!"
Hark ye, old Bill; the devil never finishes his jobs by halves: What is to happen will happen bodily; and no easing-off, as if you were lowering the Captain's lady into a boat, and he on deck to see fair play." "Mr Nighthead knows how to keep a ship's reckoning in all weathers!" said another, whose manner sufficiently announced the dependance he himself placed on the capacity of the second mate.
Not only Wilder, but Gertrude and Mrs Wyllys. had seen this startling spectacle so nigh them as to recognize the countenance of Nighthead, rendered still more stern and forbidding than ever, in the impression left by death. But neither spoke, nor gave any other evidence of their intelligence.
Their officer sprang to the deck without speaking, and immediately sought his Commander. "The skiff was too light for you, Mr Nighthead," Wilder calmly observed, as the other approached, having never moved, himself, from the place where he had been standing during the whole proceeding. "Too light, sir! Are you acquainted with the man who pulled it?"
"Yes," continued Nighthead, in a voice that sounded hoarse and powerful, even amid the fearful accessories of that scene; "yes, it is no trifling commission that can call people, that I shall not name, out upon the water in such a night as this.
"Then let us remain," said Gertrude, the blood, for the first time since her re-appearance on deck, rushing into her colourless cheeks, until they appeared charged to fulness. "I like not the wretches who would be our companions in that boat." "Away, away!" impatiently shouted Nighthead "Each minute of light is a week of life to us all, and every moment of calm, a year.
"Ay," resumed Nighthead, "I call the 'Caroline' fast for an honest trader, and few square-rigged boats are there, who do not wear the pennants of the King, that can eat her out of the wind, or bring her into their wake, with studding-sails abroad. But this is a time, and an hour, to make a seaman think.
Nighthead, to whom Wilder had now addressed himself, regarded his Commander with an oblique ind sullen eye, and then exchanged singularly intelligent glances with his comrades, before he saw fit to make the smallest motion towards compliance. But there was that, in the authoritative mien of his superior, which finally induced him to comply.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking