MANUEL'S RELEASE.
BEFORE the boys left the schooner next morning, the guard they had set
over Manuel approached the captain, and by signs and gestures intimated
that the prisoner wished to speak to him.
Manuel's sullen demeanor had entirely disappeared and he looked humble
and penitent.
"I wish to make my most humble apologies to you, noble captain," he
declared. "All night long I have thought over my hasty actions with
shame and regret. You were right and I wrong. I will work hard at
whatever you set me to do, and in the future you will have no cause to
complain if you will set me at liberty."
There were tears in the fellow's eyes and his voice trembled as he
spoke.
"Stop that blubbering," said the blunt old sailor, who detested tears
in men. "I reckon, if you are sure that you've learned your lesson an'
won't try to act smart again, I'll set you free; but the minute you try
to start any trouble again, I'll put you down here for keeps."
As he removed the irons from the prisoner, the strange sailor burst
into a torrent of passionate speech.
The captain paid no attention to him for he could not understand a
word of it, but Charley, who was watching closely, saw Manuel give the
fellow a quick glance of sly triumph.
"I'm afraid you have made a mistake in setting that fellow free,
Captain," the lad said, as they returned to the deck. "I believe it
would have been wiser to have kept him in irons until we could touch
some port and put him ashore."
"I never feel like being hard on a man when he's sorry for what he has
done," the old sailor replied. "I guess it will make the crew feel
better tempered to have him set free. I'm going to put him ashore at
the first port we touch. In the meanwhile we'll keep him hard at work
an' keep a eye on him all the time."
"Perhaps we had better take him with us and put him to work at the
pump," Walter suggested. "That's good hard work."
Charley approved the suggestion, for in spite of the Greek's seeming
repentance, the lad did not trust him in the least and thought it
wisest that he and the captain should be kept separated for awhile
after their quarrel.
Manuel went at the hard labor at the air pump with a willingness and
cheerfulness which seemed to show the sincerity of his repentance. At
first, he seemed inclined to talk overmuch with the rest of the crew,
but Charley cut short his talkativeness with a curt command.
"I believe that fellow is a regular Jonah," he confided to his chum
during the noon hour rest. "Yesterday and the day before we got lots of
sponges, but we haven't taken in enough this morning to pay expenses."
"I guess this part of the ground is getting worked out, perhaps,"
Walter replied. "I've noticed several schooners pulling up anchor and
getting under way."
His surmise proved correct for during the afternoon many of the fleet
passed them headed North. Evidently others were finding the ground as
poor as they did.
Late in the afternoon the captain recalled them to the schooner with a
signal previously agreed upon,--a flag hoisted to the foremast head.
"I reckon we'd better be getting under way," the old sailor said when
they got aboard. "I want to keep with the fleet an' all the schooners
seem to be getting under sail. I've noted the course they are takin'
an' with this wind they'll be a long ways from us if we wait until
morning. I hailed one of the captains and he said they intended to sail
all night an' anchor an' get to work early in the morning."
By the time the sails were all hoisted and the anchor tripped, it had
grown quite dark so the schooner's great side-lights of red and green
were filled, lit, and lashed to the foremast shrouds, for, with so many
boats around them every caution must be taken to avoid running one
down, or being run down themselves. The crew was divided into three
watches. Of which Walter was to have charge of the first, from eight to
twelve o'clock. Charley to have command of the second, or middle watch,
from twelve to four o'clock, while the captain would take the third, or
morning watch, from four to eight A. M.
The breeze held steady and strong and the night passed away without any
exciting incident.
The boys were up again at first peep of day, expecting to have to start
out with the diving boat as soon as the sun arose. But, when they
gained the deck, they found the "Beauty" still swinging along on her
course and the captain pacing the deck greatly perplexed.
"It's mighty queer, but thar ain't one of the fleet in sight," he
exclaimed as he caught sight of the lads. "I don't understand it at
all. Go aloft, Charley, an' see if you can see any of them."
The lad swung himself into the shrouds and made his way up to the
mainmast cross trees, but, although he gazed all around, his eyes met
nothing but the broad expanse of the blue sparkling waters.
"Maybe we've run them all out of sight during the night," he suggested
when he regained the deck, but the old sailor shook his head.
"The 'Beauty's' mighty fast, but she's not speedy enough to do that,"
he declared. "Some of those schooners were ten miles ahead of us when
we started. Besides, I shortened sail as soon as I took my watch,
because I did not want to get in the lead."
"Perhaps we have dropped away behind the rest," Walter said, but the
others knew that that was impossible. The "Beauty" was far too fast a
boat to be left so far behind.
The Captain examined the log. "We have come a hundred and ten miles,"
he said. "Do you reckon either of you boys could have made a mistake in
the course during your watch?"
"We didn't vary a quarter of a point from the direction you gave during
my four hours," Charley declared. "I kept watch of the compass most of
the time and the needle held steady at North."
"I was careful about that, also," Walter said. "We were headed exactly
North during my entire watch."
"Well, that compass is true," the captain declared. "I tested it
carefully before we left port. I reckon thar's only one explanation;
the fleet must have changed their course during the night. We'd better
heave-to until noon when I can take the sun an' tell exactly where we
are at. It ain't no use trying to pick up the fleet again, now they
are out of sight--it would be like hunting for a needle in a hay stack."
The crew were immediately set to taking in sail and in a few minutes
the little ship was lying head to the wind under reefed foresail sail.
When the noon hour drew near, Captain Westfield brought his instruments
on deck and prepared to take an observation of the sun. As soon as he
secured it he went below to work out their position on the chart.
When he reappeared his face wore a very puzzled expression. "Heave the
lead and find out how deep the water is an' what kind of bottom," he
said, briefly.
Charley took the lead, a heavy cone-shaped piece of lead, slightly
hollowed at the bottom, and with a long line attached to the small
end. Filling the hollow end with soft soap, he dropped the lead over
the side and let it sink until it struck the bottom. Then he pulled it
aboard again, noting carefully the water mark on the line and examining
the soap to which some particles of the bottom had adhered.
"Depth, six fathoms, (36 feet) bottom, soft gray mud," he announced.
The captain strode back to the compass and stared at it with a puzzled
frown on his face.
"We're forty miles from where we should be," he said as the boys
gathered around him, "Sure neither of you boys made a mistake in the
course last night?"
"Sure," declared both lads positively.
The four puzzled over the strange situation in silence for several
minutes. Then the captain with his knife loosened the screws and
removed the compass' face of glass.
"I wonder how that got there," he suddenly exclaimed.
Cunningly placed, so as to draw the magnetic needle West of North was a
small bright iron nail.
"It couldn't have got there by itself," Charley declared, excitedly.
"It must have been put there by someone while we were all at supper
last night."
"I guess there is no doubt as to who that someone was," with an
inclination of his head towards Manuel who, standing a little ways off
was watching them closely. The Greek, as soon as he saw the attention
he was receiving, turned and strolled carelessly forward.
The captain pondered gravely, "I don't see what his object was," he
said, at last. "If we held on that course long it would only have
carried us further out into the Gulf, so he couldn't have been aiming
to get us wrecked."
"He planned to get us separated from the fleet," Charley declared. "Do
you think we could find it again, captain?"
The old sailor shook his head. "There's no telling where we are now,"
he said, gloomily, "we might hunt for days without coming across them.
If that fellow did put that nail there to make us lose them, he's
succeeded all right."
"What had we better do, captain?" Walter asked, anxiously.
"Well, we aint got no real proof that the fellow put that nail thar so
we can't do anything with him. It might have been in thar all the time,
though I'm willing to take an oath that the compass was true when we
left port. Thar ain't much chance of picking up the fleet again an' I
don't reckon we'd better waste time trying it. The lead shows we are
still on the sponge banks an' I reckon we'd best just get to work, say
nothing, an' keep a close watch on that oil Greek chap."
The "Beauty" was anchored accordingly, sails lowered and furled, and
everything made snug. As soon as that was done, the boys ordered their
crew into the diving boat and, running out a little ways from the
schooner, gave the signal to resume the diving operations.
By sheer accident, they had chanced upon a spot rich in sponges and the
lads watched with satisfaction the steady reappearance of the lowered
basket.