Captain Truck had continued to pace the deck moodily and alone, during the
whole evening, and he only seemed to come to a recollection of himself
when the relief passed him on his way to the wheel, at eight bells.
Inquiring the hour, he got into the mizzen rigging, with a night-glass,
and swept the horizon in search of the Foam. Nothing could be made out,
the darkness having settled upon the water in a way to circumscribe the
visible horizon to very narrow limits.
"This may do," he muttered to himself, as he swung off by a rope, and
alighted again on the planks of the deck. Mr. Leach was summoned, and an
order was passed for the relieved watch to remain on deck for duty.
When all was ready, the first mate went through the ship, seeing that all
the candles were extinguished, or that the hoods were drawn over the
sky-lights, in such a way as to conceal any rays that might gleam upwards
from the cabin. At the same time attention was paid to the binnacle lamp.
This precaution observed, the people went to work to reduce the sail, and
in the course of twenty minutes they had got in the studding-sails, and
all the standing canvas to the topsails, the fore-course, and a forward
stay-sail. The three topsails were then reefed, with sundry urgent commands
to the crew to be active, for, "The Englishman was coming up like a horse,
all this time, no doubt.
Pages:
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161