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Updated: September 13, 2025
Sakr-el-Bahr alone, a solitary figure, resplendent in caftan and turban that were of cloth of silver, leaned upon the bulwarks of the larboard quarter of the poop-deck, and looked moodily back upon the receding city of Algiers which by now was no more than an agglomeration of white cubes piled up the hillside in the morning sunshine.
She had been dreaming of the deed she was about to do, and was flushed and feverish; but, mindful of the consequences which hung upon the success or failure of the enterprise, she rallied herself, bathed her face and hands, and ascended with as calm an air as she could assume to the poop-deck. Nothing was changed since yesterday.
Above was the lofty poop-deck, with one of the rudder-windlasses on it, and the mizzen-mast, fifty feet long, and placed on one side, in order to allow the tiller to work when in shallow water. The main-mast was ninety-five feet in length, and ten feet in circumference at the bottom. It was one spar of teak, and just as the tree grew with merely the bark taken off.
A great hulk of a man was lounging over the rail of the poop-deck, looking down over the dock. I started aft. "Hist!" the cook motioned me back mysteriously. "Be sure you say 'Sir' to him frequently." "Beg pardon, sir. But are you Captain Schantze, sir?" "Yes. What do you want?" "I've heard you needed a cabin boy." "Are you of German descent?" "No, sir." "What nationality are you, then?"
I glanced back from the stern seat, and at that moment the Speedwell went to her doom. There was a sound of creaking planks, her bow dipped under and her stern rose high the air, and then the waves closed over the poop-deck and blotted out the swinging lantern. We were beyond the reach of the vortex, and our men pulled hard away from the fatal spot.
And in that moment from without and above there came a cry which sent the skipper to the cabin door. He flung it open, and so let out the smoke and let in the sunshine. He passed out on to the poop-deck, and Sir Oliver conceiving himself at liberty to do so followed him.
He showed them too his own cabin, where he had lived with three more officers, and the upper poop-deck where Drake would sit hour after hour with his spy-glass, ranging the horizons for treasure-ships.
"Ran foul of the big end of a handspike," answered Captain Benson, quietly; "he'll carry his arm in splints all the way home, I think. His name is Gunner Meagher. I don't know how they got their names, but they signed them and will answer to them. They are unique. Look at that outlaw down there by the bitts. That is Poop-deck Cahill. Looks like a prize-fighter, doesn't he?
As they cleared the old transport docks they made out the Nuestra well off the breakwater, her brown, bare masts rising like spires from her black hull, and the morning sun glinting from a strip of brass on her taffrail. They could see busy figures aboard, and as they drew nearer Captain Jarrow appeared on the poop-deck smoking a cigar.
"Mighty hard to open," said Doc, down on his knees, struggling with the straps. It was hot in the room, and rather dark, as the deadlight to the poop-deck was fogged by sea water. "You're new to the schooner, aren't you?" asked Trask. "Yassir. I jus' shipped fo' the roun' trip." "How long have you known Mr. Peth?" Trask kept his voice low, and bent down to Doc. "Yassir. I know Mr. Peth.
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