They had not proceeded very far, when a cry from the girl caused them to
suspend their exertions. While the others were occupied in propelling
the chest, Lalee, kneeling upon the lid, had been keeping a lookout
ahead. Something she saw had elicited that cry, which was uttered in a
tone that betokened, if not joy, at least some sort of gratification.
"Wha is it, Lilly Lally?" interrogated the black, with an air of
eagerness; "you see someting. Golly! am it de _Cat'maran_?"
"No,--it is not that. It's only a barrel floating on the water."
"Only a ba'l,--what sort o' a ba'l you tink 'im?"
"I think it's one of the empty water-casks we had tied to the raft. I'm
sure it is: for I see ropes upon it."
"It is," echoed Ben, who, having poised himself aloft, had also caught
sight of the cask. "Shiver my timbers! it do look like as if the Cat
had come to pieces. But no! Tain't that has set the cask adrift. I
set it all now. Little Will'm be at the bottom o' this too. He has cut
away the lashin's o' the barrel, so as to gie us one more chance, in the
case o' our not comin' across the chest. How thoughtful o' the lad!
Just like 'im, as I said it war!"
"We bess swim for de cask an' take 'im in tow," suggested the sea-cook;
"no harm hab 'im 'longside too. If de wind 'pring up, de ole chess be
no use much. De cask de berry ting den."
"You're right, Snowy! we musn't leave the cask behind us. If the kit
have served us a good turn, the other 'ud be safer in a rough sea. It
be dead ahead, so we may keep straight on."
In five minutes after, they were alongside the cask,--easily recognised
by its rope lashings, as one of those they had left attached to the
raft. The sailor at the first glance saw that some of the chords
encircling it had been cut with a knife, or other sharp instrument,--not
severed with any degree of exactitude, but "haggled," as if the act had
been hurriedly performed.
"Little Will'm again! He's cut the ropes wi' the old axe, an' it were
blunt enough to make a job for him! Huzza for the noble lad!"
"Tay!" cried Snowball, not heeding the enthusiastic outburst of the
sailor. "You hold on to de chess, Massa Brace, while I climb up on de
cask, and see what I can see. May be I may see de _Catamaran_ herseff
now."
"All right, nigger. You had better do that. Mount the barrel, an' I'll
keep a tight hold o' the kit."
Snowball, releasing his arm from the sennit loop, swam up to the
floating cask; and, after some dodging about, succeeded in getting
astride of it.
It required a good deal of dexterous manoeuvring to keep the cask from
rolling, and pitching him back into the water. But Snowball was just
the man to excel in this sort of aquatic gymnastics; and after a time he
became balanced in his seat with sufficient steadiness to admit of his
taking a fair survey of the ocean around him.
The sailor had watched his movements with a sage yet hopeful eye: for
these repeated indications of both the presence and providence of his
own _protege_ had almost convinced him that the latter would not be very
distant from the spot. It was nothing more than he had prepared himself
to expect, when the Coromantee, almost as soon as he had steadied
himself astride of the water-cask, shouted, in a loud voice--
"The _Cat'maran_!--the _Cat'maran_!"
"Where?" cried the sailor. "To leuart?"
"Dead in dat same direcshun."
"How fur, cookey? how fur?"
"Not so fur as you might hear de bos'n's whissel; not more dan tree,
four length ob a man-o'-war cable."
"Enough, Snowy! What do you think best to be done?"
"De bess ting we can do now," replied the negro, "am for me to obertake
dat ere craff. As you said, de sail am down; an' de ole Cat no go
fasser dan a log o' 'hogany wood in a calm o' de tropic. If dis child
swim affer, he soon come up; and den wif de oar an' de help ob lilly
Willy, he meet you more dan half-way,--dat fo' sartin."
"You think you can overtake her, Snowball?"
"I be sartin ob dat ere. You tay here wif Lilly Lally. Keep by de
chess and de cask boaf,--for de latter am better dan de former. No
fear, I soon bring de _Cat'maran_ long dis way, once I get 'board o'
her."
So saying, the negro gave the cask a "cant" to one side, slipped off
into the water; and, with a final caution to his comrade to keep close
to the spot where they were parting, he stretched out his muscular arms
to their full extent, and commenced surging through the water,--snorting
as he went like some huge cetacean of the tribe of the _Mysticeti_.