Page:Dick Sands the Boy Captain.djvu/178

152 DICK SANDS, THE BOY CAPTAIN. Tom, sometimes Hercules, or,one of the others would be sure that a distant speck they had descried was assuredly a mountain ridge ; but the vapours were contînually gather- îng in such fantastic forms that their unexperienced eyes were soon deceived, and they seldom had to wait long before their fond delusion was ail dispelled. At last, the expected longing was fulfilled. At eîght o'clock one morning the mists seemed broken up with unusual rapidity, and the horizon was singularly clear. Dick had hardly gone aloft when his voice rung out, — «Land! Land ahead!" As if summoned by a spell, every one was on deck in an instant : Mrs. Weldon, sanguine of a speedy end to the gênerai anxiety; little Jack, gratified at a new object of curiosity ; Cousin Benedict, already scenting a new field for entomological investigation ; old Nan ; and the negroes, eager to set foot upon American soil ; ail, with the excep- tion of Negoro, ail were on deck ; but the cook did not stir from his solitude, or betray any sympathy with the gênerai excitement. Whatever hésitation there might be at first soon passed away ; one after another soon distinguished the shore they were approaching, and in half an hour there was no room for the most sceptical to doubt that Dick was right. There was land not far ahead. A few miles to the east there was a long low-lying coast ; the chain of the Andes ought to be visible ; but it was ob- scured, of course, by the intervening clouds. The " Pilgrim" bore down rapidly towards the land, and in a short time its configuration could be plainly made out Towards the north-east the coast terminated in a head- land of moderate height sheltering a kind of roadstead ; on the south-east it stretched out in a long and narrow tongue. The Andes were still wanting to the scène ; they must be somewhere in the background ; but at présent, strange to say, there was only a succession of low clifTs with some trees standing out against the sky. No human habitation, no harbour, not even an indication of a river- mouth, could anywhere be seen.