Page:Dick Sands the Boy Captain.djvu/59

DINGO'S SAGACITY. 45 CHAPTER V. DINGO'S SAGACITY. Meantime the " Pilgrîm " pursued her course, keepîng as much as possible to the east, and before evening closed in the huU of the " Waldeck " was out of sight Captain Hull stîll contînued to feel uneasy about the constant prevalence of calms ; not that for himself he cared much about the delay of a week or two in a voyage from New Zealand to Valparaiso, but he was disappointed at the prolonged inconvenience it caused to his lady passenger. Mrs. Weldon, however, submîtted to the détention very philosophically, and did not utter a word of complaint. The captain's next care was to improvise sleeping accommodation for Tom and his four associâtes. No room for them could possibly be found in the crew's quarters, so that their berths had to be arranged under the forecastle ; and as long as the weather contînued fine, there was no reason why the negroes, accustomed as they were to a somewhat rough life, should not find themselves sufficiently comfortable. After this incident of the discovery of the wreck, life on board the " Pilgrim " relapsed into its ordinary routine. With the wînd invariably in the same direction, the sails required very little shifting ; but whenever it happened, as occasionally it would, that there was any tacking to be done, the good-natured negroes were ever ready to lend a helping hand ; and the rigging would creak again under the weight of Hercules, a great strapping fellow, six feet