“Ah! if that’s the way, all right. Come along, Mr. Officer, a little
farther down. There, that’s my boat. Get in, now steady!”
Daniel followed his directions; but he was so much struck by the man’s
awkwardness in getting the boat off, that he could not help saying to
him,--
“Ah, my boy, you are not a boatman, after all!”
“I beg pardon, sir; I used to be one before I came to this country.”
“What is your country?”
“Shanghai.”
“Nevertheless, you will have to learn a great deal before you will ever
be a sailor.”
Still, as the boat was very small, a mere nutshell, in fact, Daniel
thought he could, if needs be, take an oar himself. Thereupon, sitting
down, and stretching out his legs, he was soon once more plunged in
meditations. The unfortunate man was soon roused, however, by a terrible
sensation.
Thanks to a shock, a wrong movement, or any other accident, the boat
upset, and Daniel was thrown into the river; and, to fill the measure of
his mishaps, one of his feet was so closely jammed in between the seat
and the boat itself, that he was paralyzed in his movements, and soon
under water.