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134 DICK SANDS, THE BOY CAPTAIN. " Sball I put him overboard, captain ? he will make a meal for the fishes ; they are not vety particular what tbcy eat," s^d the negro, with a grin of contempt. " Not yet," quietly answered Dick. The giant removed fais hand, and Negoro stood upright agaio, and began to retreat to his own quarters, muttering, however, as he passed Hercules, — " You cursed nigger ! You shall pay for this ! " The discovery was now made that the wind apparently had taken a sudden shiftof no less than forty-five durées ; but what occasioned Dick the greatest perplexity was that there was nothing in the condition of the sea to correspond with the altération in the current of the air ; instead of being directly astem, wind and waves were now beatïng on the larboard, Progress in this way must necessarily be full of danger, and Dick was obliged to bring his ship up at least four points before he got her straight before the tempest The young captain felt that he must be more than ever on the alert ; he could not shake off the suspicion that Negoro had been concerned in the !oss of the first compass, and had some further designs upon the second, Still he was utterly at a loss to imagine what possible motive the man could hâve for so criminal an act of malevolcnce, as there was no plausible reason to be assigned why he should not be as anxious as ail the rest to reach the coast of America. The suspicion continued, however, to haunt him, and when he mentioned it to Mrs. Weldon he found that a similar fecling of distrust had agitatcd her, although she, like himself, was altogether unable to allège a likely motive why the cook should contemplate so strange an act of mischief. It was determined that a strict surveillance should be kcpt upon ail the fellow's movements, Negoro, however, manifested no inclination to disobey the captain's peremptory order ; he kept strictly to his own part of the ship ; but as Dingo was now regularly quartered on the stern, there was a tolerably sure guarantee that the cook would not be found wandering much in that directioa.