st to leave the hatchway where Dick Sand, from
prudent motives, had obliged them to shut themselves up during the
whole duration of that long tempest. She came to talk with the novice,
whom a truly superhuman will had rendered capable of resisting so much
fatigue. Thin, pale under his sunburnt complexion, he might well be
weakened by the loss of that sleep so necessary at his age. No, his
valiant nature resisted everything. Perhaps he would pay dearly some
day for that period of trial. But that was not the moment to allow
himself to be cast down. Dick Sand had said all that to himself. Mrs.
Weldon found him as energetic as he had ever been.

And then he had confidence, that brave Sand, and if confidence does not
command itself, at least it commands.

"Dick, my dear child, my captain," said Mrs. Weldon, holding out her
hand to the young novice.

"Ah! Mrs. Weldon," exclaimed Dick Sand, smiling, "you disobey your
captain. You return on deck, you leave your cabin in spite of
his--prayers."

"Yes, I disobey you," replied Mrs. Weldon; "but I have, as it were, a
presentiment that the tempest is going down or is going to become calm."

"It is becoming calm, in fact, Mrs. Weldon," replied the novice. "You
are not mistaken. The barometer has not fallen since yesterday. The
wind has moderated, and I have reason to believe that our hardest
trials are over."

"Heaven hears you, Dick. All! you have suffered much, my poor child!
You have done there----"

"Only my duty, Mrs. Weldon."

"But at last will you be able to take some rest?"

"Rest!" replied the novice; "I have no need of rest, Mrs. Weldon. I am
well, thank God, and it is necessary for me to keep up to the end. You
have called me captain, and I shall remain captain till the moment when
all the 'Pilgrim's' passengers shall be in safety."

"Dick," returned Mrs. Weldon, "my husband and I, we shall never forget
what you have just done."

"God has done all," replied Dick Sand; "all!"

"My child, I repeat it, that by your moral and physical energy, you
have shown yourself a man--a man fit to command, and before long, as
soon as your studies are finished--my husband will not contradict
me--you will command for the house of James W. Weldon!"

"I--I----" exclaimed Dick Sand, whose eyes filled with tears.

"Dick," replied Mrs. Weldon, "you are already our child by adoption,
and now, you are our son, the deliverer of your mother, and of your
little brother Jack. My dear