him the account as he desired, and then thought that I might
venture to ask him to put Jim and me on shore, for that, as may be
supposed, was the thing uppermost in my mind.

"We will see about that, my lads," he answered. "If the wind holds as
it now does it won't cause us any delay, but I can make no promises.
Boys at your age ought to wish to see the world, and we can find
employment for you on board. You are sharp fellows, I can see, or you
would not have saved your lives. One of the apprentices isn't worth his
salt, and the other will slip his cable before long, I suspect. His
friends insisted on my taking him, fancying that the voyage would
restore him to health."

The captain spoke in so free-and-easy a way that the awe with which I
was at first inclined to regard him vanished.

The wind, I should have said, had shifted to the westward of south. We
were standing about north-west, a course which would carry us over to
the English coast before long. We were obliged to be content with the
sort of promise that the captain had made, and I hoped that when the
doctor and Mr Griffiths spoke to him, that he would not refuse to put
us on shore.

Though Jim and I were well enough to walk about the deck, we were too
weak to venture aloft, or we should have been at the masthead looking
out for land. We went forward, however, keeping our eyes over the
starboard bow, where we expected every instant to see it.

Several of the men spoke to us good-naturedly, and were as eager as the
officers had been to hear what had happened to us. While we were
standing there looking out, a lad came up and said, "So I hear you
fellows are to be our messmates. What are your names?"

I told him.

"Mine's Ned Horner," he said, "and I hope we shall be friends, for I
can't make anything of the fellow who messes with me, George Esdale.
There's no fun in him, and he won't talk or do anything when it's his
watch below but read and sing psalms."

"I shall be glad to be friends with you," I answered, "but I don't
suppose it will be for long, as I expect we shall leave the ship
to-night or to-morrow morning."

"That may or may not be," he remarked, with a laugh. "Have you been
long at sea?"

I told him that I had been brought up to it from my boyhood.

"Well, you have the advantage of me, for this is my first voyage; and
Esdale didn't know the stem from the stern when he first came on board.
Now come along to the half-deck; he and