ht for the far-distant Cape of Storms.

CHAPTER NINE.

WE SIGHT A STRANGE SAIL.

Having secured possession of the brig, and succeeded in coercing me to
become their navigator to some island in the Pacific, the locality of
which they had as yet kept secret, upon an errand the nature of which
they had not seen fit to divulge to me, the crew at once went
industriously to work, under O'Gorman, to put the vessel all ataunto
once more, by routing out and sending aloft spare topgallant-masts and
yards, bending new sails, overhauling and making good the rigging, and,
in short, repairing all damage of every description; and with such
goodwill did they work that in ten days from the date of their seizure
of the brig everything had been done that it was possible to do, and, so
far as the outward appearance of the craft was concerned, there was
nothing to show that anything had ever been wrong with her.

Meanwhile, during the progress of this renovating process, the steward
had made it his business to give the lazarette a thorough stock-taking
overhaul, of the result of which I was kept ignorant. But I gathered
that the examination was not altogether satisfactory; for when it was
over, and the steward had made his report to O'Gorman, the latter came
to me and anxiously demanded to know what our distance then was from the
Horn. This was on the afternoon of the third day after the seizure of
the brig, and upon carefully measuring off the distance from our
position at noon on that day, I found that it amounted to three thousand
seven hundred and some odd miles. The distance seemed to be a staggerer
to the fellow, and when, in reply to a further question, I informed him
that he might reckon upon the brig taking nearly or quite a month to
cover it, he made no attempt to conceal his dismay. That something was
radically wrong at once became apparent, for there were long conclaves
in the forecastle, the object of which, presumably, was to determine how
to meet the emergency. I shrewdly suspected that this emergency arose
out of the unexpected discovery that the brig's stock of provisions, or
water, or both, was insufficient to carry us to our destination; and I
fervently hoped that my conjecture might prove correct, as in that case
we should be compelled to touch somewhere to renew our stock; and I felt
that if in such a case I failed to secure the arrest of the whole party
for piracy I should richly deserve to remain their too