The Rover's Secret: A Tale of the Pirate Cays and Lagoons of Cuba

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

  THE SPANISH TREASURE-SHIP.

  Suddenly, with a distinct jerk, the downward dragging sensation ceased;the gear with which I was entangled had broken adrift from the sinkinghull; and just as I was upon the point of being suffocated from my longsubmersion I found myself once more upon the surface. Though scarcelyconscious, I still had sense enough to take a long inhalation and sofill my lungs afresh with air; and it was well that I did so, for myhead had not been above water more than a few seconds before I was againoverwhelmed. I quite gave myself up for lost; for, as I have alreadysaid, I was so completely enmeshed by the raffle of loose gear which hadwrapped itself about my body and limbs that I was quite powerless tohelp myself. On emerging the second time, however, somebody seized meby the hair, and in another moment I felt myself being drawn up by thearms upon a spar.

  "Blest if I don't believe this is Mr Lascelles that I've just been andfished up," I heard Tom Collins say. "Ay, and it is too," he continued,as he hoisted me still higher on the spar. "Lend a hand here, somebody,to clear the young skipper; he's wrapped up in enough stuff to make anew set of running gear for a seventy-four."

  I opened my eyes, and found that I was with a number of others on thewreck of the foremast, which, with all attached, had fortunately brokenadrift from the wreck as it foundered, and was now floating, with theyards underneath it, just as it had originally gone over the bows.

  "Is that Collins?" I asked, when I had at length recovered breathenough to speak.

  "Ay, ay, sir; it's me, safe enough, thank God!" was the answer. "Gladto find as you're alive and hearty, sir."

  "Thank you, Collins; how many do we muster here? there's such a net-workof raffle across my face that I can scarcely see."

  "Don't know exactly, sir; it's too dark to count, but we seem to musterpretty strong, all things considered. We'll soon have you clear, sir.Now then, Bill, you stand by to haul Mr Lascelles out of the thick ofthese bights and turns whilst I holds 'em up. Now then--haul! Is thatbetter, sir?"

  "Very much better, thank you," said I, as they dragged me out clear ofthe thickest of the raffia. "If you are seated firmly enough for me toput my arm round your neck I think I can work myself free altogether.That's it, capital! Now, I'm all clear."

  "Is that Mr Lascelles' voice I hear?" asked somebody who was clingingto the topmast, some twenty feet away.

  "It is," said I; "who are you?"

  "I'm Tompion, sir," was the reply. "Very glad to find you among us, MrLascelles. I was afraid you were among the missing at first."

  "No, I am here, all right," said I, "and sound, I think, with theexception of a few bruises. Are there any other officers among us?"

  "I'm here," replied Pottle.

  "And I," said Woodford.

  "And I," added Marchmont, the younger of the two midshipmen.

  "Well done!" thought I, "this is better than I dared hope." I invitedthe speakers to join me in my comparatively sheltered position in thecrosstrees; and when they had done so an effort was made to ascertainthe extent of our loss. This, after a great deal of difficulty, wefound consisted of the surgeon, the boatswain, the senior mid, and fiftymen, leaving thirty-two clinging to the foremast. This was a very heavyloss; and I felt it so bitterly that for the first half-hour after itwas ascertained I almost regretted my own preservation. This feeling,however, was nothing short of impious ingratitude, and so, onreflection, I recognised it to be; with an unspoken prayer, therefore,for pardon to that great Being who had so mercifully preserved me, Istrove to divert my thoughts from the melancholy reflections whichassailed me, by an endeavour to devise some means for our continuedpreservation. After a long consultation with Woodford respecting ourprobable position, it was agreed between us that, as soon as the weathermoderated and the sea went down sufficiently, an endeavour should bemade to construct some sort of a raft out of the wreckage which was thensupporting us, and on it to make our way, if possible, to the southward,hoping to be fallen in with and picked up by the _Dido_; failing whichwe would try to reach the mainland, and either seize a small vessel orgive ourselves up to the Spaniards, according as circumstances turnedout.

  We had just come to the above-mentioned conclusion when Collinsremarked, hopefully:

  "The gale seems to have broken, sir; it is certainly not blowing sohard; and the seas don't seem to be breaking quite so heavily; and--look, sir--look, lads, the sky is breaking away overhead; I can see astar. Ah! it's gone again--but there's another. Hurrah, my hearties!keep up your spirits and hold on to the spar like grim death; we'llweather upon old Davy yet, this bout."

  It was quite true; the sky was rapidly clearing, and half an hour laterit was a brilliant starlight night; the wind, too, was dropping rapidly,and the sea no longer broke so heavily or so incessantly over us as ithad done at first. Fortunately for us the water was quite warm; wetherefore suffered no inconvenience whatever from the immersion.

  At length, after what seemed to us an endless night, day broke; theatmosphere was gloriously bright and clear, the wind had dropped to afine topgallant breeze, and the sea had gone down sufficiently to allowof our commencing operations; as, therefore, we had no breakfast to getor anything else to detain us, we started at once; and all hands weresoon busy cutting adrift the spars, knotting and splicing cordage, andin other ways forwarding the work as actively as possible under thecircumstances. We found, however, that we had a long and, from lack ofsufficient timber, a difficult job before us; and as the morning wore onit was made additionally so by the appearance of several ravenous sharksclose to us, which were only restrained from making an attack by anincessant splashing maintained by all hands except the half-dozen wecould spare to get on with the work.

  At length--it was getting well on in the afternoon, by the appearance ofthe sun--when, in despite of all our difficulties, we were beginning tobring our raft into something like shape, we were suddenly startled fromour work by the hoarse cry of "Sail ho!" raised by one of the men; and,lifting our eyes from our work, we waited until we rose to the top of awave, when there she was, sure enough, a large ship apparently, undertopsails, approaching us from the southward and westward, and only aboutfive miles distant. A hearty cheer was at once raised by all hands atthis unexpected prospect of rescue; and then we went to work once morewith renewed vigour and activity to establish a means of making ourpresence known, as we felt convinced that, though she was headingstraight for us, we had not yet been discovered by her.

  It will be remembered that, when making preparations for the gale, wehad sent down our topgallant and royal-yards. When the project ofcutting away the masts to serve as a last retreat for the crew had beencarried out, somebody had had the forethought to get these sparsoverboard and secured to the wreck of the foremast; and in subsequentlyplanning our raft it had been our intention to get the topgallant-yardon end to serve as a mast, with the sail as our means of propulsionthrough the water. Our plans were not carried out to such a stage ofcompleteness as this when the strange sail hove in sight, and all ourenergies were now employed to get this part of the work done forthwith;as I felt convinced that, lying so low in the water as we were, we mightbe passed at a very short distance unobserved, unless we could raise aspar of some sort to attract attention.

  But, owing to our very limited amount of standing room, and theaggravating way in which the water still washed over our structure, thisparticular task of getting the topgallant-yard on end proved mostdifficult; and we were still struggling ineffectually for success when aloud groan of disappointment, instantly followed by a frantic hail, toldme that something was wrong; and, looking again toward the ship, nowdistant only some two miles, we saw that she had altered her course acouple of points, by which proceeding she would pass to the southward ofus without approaching any nearer.

  For a minute or two something very like a panic took possession of allhands, and everybody began to shout and gesticulate to the utmost of hisability without reference to the efforts of the
rest. At length,however, Woodford and I managed between us to secure silence; upon whichwe directed that, whilst as many as could do so should stand up and wavejackets, shirts, or any other article most handy, the whole should at agiven signal unite in a simultaneous hail. This we did, waiting eachtime until we rose to the crest of a sea; but it soon became evidentthat our voices were not powerful enough to reach the ship--I neverexpected that they would be--for she swept on unheeding, and was verysoon to the eastward of us, increasing her distance every minute.

  This most disheartening state of affairs continued until she had runabout three miles to leeward of us, when we suddenly saw her round toand back her main-yard. I ought to mention, by the bye, that we had erethis discovered her to be a full-rigged ship--and not the _Dido_, assome had at first declared her to be--with her mizzen-topmast and foreand main-topgallant-masts gone, showing that she too must haveencountered the hurricane which had proved so disastrous to us. She wasevidently a foreigner; many of us pronounced her to be a Spaniard; and Ithought that, if so, it was more than probable she was the identicalvessel we had been sent out to look for.

  "Hurrah!" shouted Tompion, as the stranger rounded to, "she sees us, myhearties; and--look, if my eyes don't deceive me, there goes one of herquarter-boats down into the water. Now, ain't that just like a lubberlySpaniard, to lie there with his main-topsail to the mast and give hisboat's crew a three-miles pull to windward when he might just as wellmake a couple of short boards and heave to within a cable's length ofus?"

  By this time I had scrambled to my feet, and was with half a dozenothers watching with mingled curiosity and apprehension the movements ofthe stranger, which were certainly not such as I should have expectedher to make had her object in heaving to been _our_ rescue. A boat hadcertainly been lowered, but we had not as yet caught a glimpse of it,from the exasperating circumstance that whenever we rose upon a sea theboat happened to be sunk in a hollow. At length, however, we got amoment's view of her, and not only of her but also of something elsewhich looked remarkably like another raft or a piece of wreckage, and itwas toward this that the boat was steering and _not_ toward us.

  "By heaven!" I exclaimed, "they have _not_ seen us after all; they arenot coming here, and unless we can make them hear us within the next tenminutes our chance will be lost. It is a piece of wreckage--possiblypart of the poor old _Dolphin_--that they have stopped to examine. Wemust shout, lads, and with a will, the ship is to leeward of us and_may_ catch the sound. Now then, when we rise stand by--one, two,three, _Ship ahoy_!"

  We shouted as we had probably never shouted before, not once but atleast fifty times; we shouted ourselves hoarse, and at last had thevexation to see the boat being again hoisted up. We now fully expectedto see the ship immediately bear up on her course, but she did not; hertopsail remained aback for nearly ten minutes longer, during which wecontinued to shout and wave for our very lives. At length, however, theponderous main-yard swung, the square canvas was braced sharp up, andthe ship gathered way. A breathless half minute passed, during whichevery eye among us was unwaveringly fixed upon the distant ship, exceptwhen she vanished behind a wave-crest, and then a joyous shout went up.

  "_Now_ she sees us! she is standing this way, hurrah! hurrah!" And inthe midst of it all the boom of a gun came sullenly up against the windfrom the stranger, as an assurance of help and rescue.

  Oh, how anxiously we watched the noble fabric as she ponderouslyploughed her way obliquely toward us over the liquid ridges, nowplunging to her hawse-holes and rolling heavily to leeward as she divedinto the trough, and anon raising her dripping bows, richly carved andgilt, high in air as she slowly climbed to the surge's crest! Hermotion was slow and stately, for the wind had dropped very considerably,whilst, owing to the loss of her upper spars, she was under shortcanvas, and her approach consequently seemed to us most tediously slow.At length, however, she arrived within a biscuit-throw of us, backed hermain-topsail again, and once more lowered a boat, which a dozen oar-strokes sufficed to bring alongside our raft. The bowman laid in hisoar and hove us a rope, and as he did so the officer in charge of theboat--a young man in the undress uniform of a Spanish naval lieutenant--rose to his feet in the stern-sheets and, raising his hat to the littlecluster of uniforms he saw among us, said in Spanish:

  "Are you a portion of the crew of the _Dolphin_, British cruiser, whichfoundered last night?"

  "We are," I answered, very much surprised at the question, and wonderinghow in the world he came to know anything about the _Dolphin_ and herhaving foundered.

  "Then," said he, "you will be gratified to learn that we have alreadypicked up twenty-six of your company which we discovered about threemiles to leeward, floating on a portion of the ship's deck; and it wasin consequence of the representations made to my captain by one of yourofficers picked up by us that an examination of the sea was made fromour mastheads, resulting in your discovery. But I will not waste timeby entering into further explanations at present; have I the honour ofaddressing the captain of the _Dolphin_?"

  "I was her commanding officer," I replied; "and I thank you greatly forthe pleasing intelligence you have so promptly afforded us. How many ofus can you take at once?"

  "I am afraid we dare not venture alongside with more than twelve inaddition to the boat's crew; the swell is still very heavy. Will youhave the goodness to tell off that number for our first trip?"

  I called out the names of the men, one by one, as the boat was broughtcautiously alongside the raft, and in a few minutes her complement wascomplete.

  "Adieu, Senor Lascelles," said the young officer, raising his hat againas he shoved off; "we will not leave you in your present uncomfortableposition one moment longer than is absolutely necessary."

  I mechanically returned the salute, again wondering where he had pickedup my name, until it occurred to me that he must have heard it mentionedby some of the party taken off the floating deck. The news that ourloss was not as heavy by twenty-six as I had supposed it to be wasintensely gratifying, and my spirits rose under its influence to a pitchof almost extravagant hilarity. Twenty-eight poor fellows stillremained unaccounted for, and they had undoubtedly gone down with theschooner; but the loss was, after all comparatively trifling, takinginto consideration the suddenness and completeness of the disaster, andI was inexpressibly thankful that matters had turned out to be no worse.

  The boat was soon alongside again for a second moiety of my companionsin misfortune, and a third trip sufficed to clear the raft of its livingoccupants, I, of course, as in duty bound, being the last to leave theclumsy structure which had served us in such good stead.

  As I sat beside the young lieutenant in the stern-sheets of the boatduring our journey to the ship--which occupied about a quarter of anhour, she having drifted considerably to leeward during the process oftranshipment--he asked a few questions which elicited from me theleading particulars of our mishap; and having learned these he informedme that his ship, the _Santa Catalina_, had sailed four days previouslyfrom Cartagena for Cadiz, that she, like ourselves, had been caught inthe hurricane, from which, however, she had escaped with only the damageto her spars already referred to. As we approached the ship's side nearenough to discern the crowd of curious faces peering at us over thelofty bulwarks, my new friend remarked with a peculiar smile:

  "You will find among our passengers two former acquaintances of yourown, unless I am greatly mistaken."

  We were alongside before I had time to ask him the names of these twoformer acquaintances, and in another moment, accepting the precedencewhich the courteous young Spaniard, with a graceful wave of the handaccorded me, I found myself on the side ladder of the _Santa Catalina_.

  As I stepped in through the entering port a small, withered-up, sun-dried, yellow-complexioned man in full captain's uniform met me, and,introducing himself somewhat pompously as Don Felix Calderon, thecaptain of the _Santa Catalina_, bade me, and through me my companions,welcome on board his ship, congratulating us upon
our speedy rescue, andexpressing the gratification he felt at being the means of saving somany gallant _enemies_ from a possible watery grave. I made myacknowledgments as gracefully as I could under the circumstances, andwas about to proceed with an inquiry relative to those previously pickedup off the floating deck when the ring of people who had gathered roundus during our somewhat ceremonious exchange of compliments was abruptlybroken through by a female figure, and in another instant my neck wasencircled by a pair of lovely arms, a beautiful head was laid lovinglyupon my breast, and the clear silvery notes of Dona Inez de Guzman'svoice sobbed out:

  "Oh, Leo, Leo, my darling! what joy is this to meet you so unexpectedly,when I feared that fate had separated us for ever!"

  I was about to reply when, to my horror I must confess, my eyeencountered that of Don Luis, Inez's father, as he stepped forward andlaid his hand somewhat sternly on his daughter's shoulder.

  "There, Inez," said he, "that will do. You are doubtless overjoyed toagain meet a friend who possesses so large a share of our regard; but donot allow your enthusiasm to carry you too far. Senor Lascelles issuffering from the effects of a long immersion in the sea; he isdoubtless both hungry and thirsty; and he is also undoubtedly anxious tomake arrangements with Don Felix as to the disposal of his men. Come,my dear girl, let us return to the cabin for the present; when our youngfriend has refreshed himself and is at liberty we shall both be glad ofan opportunity to renew our acquaintance and to have a littleconversation with him. Senor," he continued, turning to me and offeringhis hand with a stately and somewhat distant bow, "accept myfelicitations upon your most fortunate escape."

  My beautiful Inez upon this released me and retired, somewhat abashed,with her father; but as she went she managed to throw back a partingglance from her brimming eyes which assured me that my hold upon heraffections was still as firm as it had ever been.

  This most unexpected meeting with Inez and her father, with therestraint and coolness of the latter's manner to me, coming as it didclose upon the heels of several hours of exposure and, what was worse,extreme excitement and anxiety of mind, rather pushed me off my balance,and for a moment or two after my lady-love vanished into the cabin Iscarcely knew where I was. Don Felix saw this, and coming forwardplaced his hand under my arm and very kindly invited me to accompany himto his private cabin, delicately suggesting that I appeared to be muchexhausted, and that a glass of wine would do me good. Like mostyoungsters, however, I was too proud to yield to the weakness which hadmomentarily overpowered me, so, rallying with an effort, I murmured thatit was a mere nothing, and turned the subject by asking his permissionto muster my men in the waist that I might ascertain exactly who werethe missing ones. The permission was at once accorded, and I thendiscovered that, of the entire crew of the _Dolphin_, the surgeon, Boynethe senior mid, and twenty-six men still remained unaccounted for.

  The question now arose: In what light would Don Felix regard us, and howdispose of us? I thought it desirable that this question should besettled at once; and I was about to submit it to the Spanish captainbefore dismissing the men, when the individual most concernedforestalled me by calling me aside to the quarter-deck, where he andseveral of his officers had been in apparently anxious consultationwhilst I had been mustering the remnant of the schooner's crew. Heinformed me, upon my joining him, that, pleased as he was to have beenthe means of rescuing us, his duty to his government left him noalternative but to regard us as prisoners of war; and, whilst he shouldbe pleased to receive my parole and that of the other officers, hefeared he would be compelled to put the seamen in close confinementbelow--unless I would undertake on their behalf that no attempt shouldbe made by them to capture or otherwise interfere with the _SantaCatalina_ and her crew, in which case the confinement should be merelynominal.

  I could scarcely refrain from smiling at the suggestion thus thrown out,for the Spaniards mustered twice as strong as we did; and they weremoreover armed, which we were not. But, preserving my gravity, Iunhesitatingly replied that gratitude alone for the important servicerendered us would have sufficed to prevent any such attempt as thathinted at, and that I therefore cheerfully entered upon the requiredundertaking.

  This matter satisfactorily settled, I retired below with the youngofficer who had had charge of the boat which effected our removal fromthe raft. His name, he informed me, was Silvio Hermoso Villacampa yAlbuquerque; he was second lieutenant of the ship; and being very nearlymy size and build he had very kindly proffered me the use of a suit ofhis clothing with which to replace my own drenched garments. He was avery pleasant, chatty young fellow, remarkably free and unreserved inhis manner--for a Spaniard--and whilst I was shifting my rig, andsubsequently partaking of some refreshments which had been laid out forme upon the ward-room table, I learned from him a great deal about theship and her skipper, one item of my acquired information being the factthat the _Santa Catalina_ was undoubtedly the identical vessel which Ihad been despatched to look out for. I learned that Don Felix, though agood enough man in the main, was not very greatly respected by hisofficers, who found him very deficient in seamanship, and suspected himof being also somewhat wanting in courage. He was new to the ship, itseemed, this being his first voyage in her; and young Albuquerque morethan hinted his suspicion that Don Felix owed his command a great dealmore to influence than to merit. My meal ended, I returned to the deck,and was then introduced in due form to each of the quarter-deck officersin succession, more than one of whom were polite enough to compliment meupon my Spanish.

  When I had time to look about a bit I was greatly surprised to noticethat no preparations were going forward to replace the spars lost by theship during the hurricane; and upon my noticing it to the firstlieutenant he replied, with rather a contemptuous shrug of theshoulders, that it was Captain Calderon's intention to put into Cumanato refit, and also to land us Englishmen.

  This was by no means pleasant news for me. I was in hopes we shouldhave been carried across the Atlantic, which would have afforded us atleast a chance of recapture by one of our own men-of-war; moreover Inezand her father were on board, and though I augured ill from the studiedcoolness of the latter's reception of me, I thought I should never havea better opportunity than that afforded by an Atlantic voyage foringratiating myself with him and forwarding my love affairs. I thoughtmatters over a little, and at length hit upon a plan which I thoughtmight serve to render our visit to Cumana unnecessary, at least so faras the spars were concerned. I knew that a quick passage was regardedby the authorities as of the most vital importance, for my friend thesecond lieutenant had told me so; I therefore awaited my opportunity,and, taking advantage of a moment when Don Felix and several of hisofficers were chatting with me, I suddenly changed the topic ofconversation by thanking the captain for the arrangements he had madefor the comfort of myself and my men, which I begged he would allow meto acknowledge in the only way I then could, namely by assisting hiscrew to replace the lost spars of the ship, which I assured him we couldand would do, unaided if necessary, before noon next day. He flushed upa little, stammered something unintelligible, and finally declined theassistance rather curtly.

  I saw no more of Don Luis or his daughter until after the commencementof the first watch that evening, when the former joined me and proposeda little private chat on the poop.

  I of course acceded to the proposal at once and followed my statelyfriend to the poop, fully expecting to be severely reproached for havingpresumed to entangle the affections of his daughter.

  I quite looked for an exhibition of righteous anger; but in this I wasagreeably disappointed. Whatever Don Luis' feeling might have been heremained, outwardly at least, perfectly calm, speaking throughout ourshort interview in a low, sonorous, and steady voice.

  "Since meeting you so unexpectedly on the quarter-deck this afternoon,"he commenced, "I have had a private conversation with my daughter, whichhas resulted in a full and complete explanation by her of the singularscene I then witnessed, and of all that ha
s led up to it. I will notreproach you with anything that is past, because I feel that it isreally _I_ who am more to blame than anybody else for it. I have neverthought it necessary to provide my daughter with any staid femalecompanion--any duenna--to watch and control her actions; she has beenallowed to run wild about the place from her infancy, and to have herown way in everything. I ought to have remembered this, and to haveprovided against all that has happened, before I ventured to introducetwo young men beneath my roof. However, there is no very great harmdone, so far--a few love-letters, and so on, but nothing serious. Now,young sir, I wish you to understand me clearly; I am quite willing toforget everything that has happened--but so must you. I am fully awarethat, so long as we all remain on board the same ship, it will be quiteimpossible that you and my daughter should avoid meeting more or less;and after the scene of this afternoon on the quarter-deck I do notchoose to excite comment and curiosity by forbidding your speaking toeach other. But let me remind you that I am a parent, and that Ipossess rights which no _gentleman_ will for a moment dream ofinfringing or disputing; in virtue of these, therefore, I must insistthat, henceforward, you never presume to address my daughter in thelanguage of love. Nay, do not look so angry, my young friend; I meantnot to speak quite so harshly, but I was and am most anxious you shouldunderstand that there must be an end to all this business."

  "May I venture to ask your grounds for insisting so strongly on whatwill inevitably wreck the happiness of one if not of two persons!" Idemanded, not quite as respectfully as I ought, I am afraid.

  "Assuredly," answered Don Luis; "it is the difference in position--thedifference of rank--which exists between yourself and my daughter. Inevery other respect I have not a fault to find. You are a fine, gallantyoung fellow--your fame has reached even to La Guayra, I may tell you--Ibelieve you to be perfectly honourable, honest, and straightforward, andI feel sure that you will advance rapidly in your profession; but, mydear young friend, you are not _noble_; and you are consequently quiteineligible--"

  "Not noble--ineligible!" I interrupted. "Have you forgotten that I aman officer of the British navy? Or is it that you are unaware of thefact that every wearer of our uniform--"

  "Is qualified by it to stand in the presence of kings?" retorted he witha laugh. "Oh, yes, I know all this; but it does not alter facts oneiota.--There," he continued, "we will say no more about it; we quiteunderstand each other, I am sure; I have demanded that you will respectcertain rights of mine, and you _will_ respect them, as any othergentleman would. Now let us talk about something else."

  "One moment, Don Luis," said I, "and then, if you choose, we will dropthe subject for ever. I acknowledge your rights, and will respect them.But--understand me, sir--I will _never_ give up the hope of winningyour daughter--with your approval--until I learn that she is wedded tosomeone else. And I shall most assuredly tell her so, before I fallback into the position of a mere ordinary acquaintance to which you wishto relegate me."

  Don Luis laughed a little, said that, after all, what I insisted uponwas perhaps only fair, and then the subject was dropped and we had along and quite friendly chat about other matters. I then learned thatthe poor fellow was in trouble with his government, and was going home,in something almost like disgrace, in obedience to an unexpected andmost peremptory message from Spain. He attributed the whole business tothe machinations and misrepresentations of certain enemies in La Guayra;and complained bitterly that if he had been allowed a little more timehe could have collected an ample sufficiency of evidence to have refutedevery one of the charges against him. He explained the whole affair tome in full detail; but as it has no direct bearing upon my story I shallnot inflict the particulars upon the reader.

  Upon our separating, somewhat late, I was intercepted by a messengerfrom Don Felix, who, I was informed, wished to see me in his privatecabin. I joined him at once; and found that the business was that,after thinking matters over further, he was now prepared to accept myoffer of assistance in the replacing of his spars if I would waive hisformer refusal, which he now endeavoured to explain away, and for whichhe very handsomely apologised. I assured him that I should still bevery happy to be of any service I possibly could; upon which it wasagreed that the work should be commenced immediately after breakfast onthe following morning; and I then retired, quite worn out, to thequarters allotted to me.