Пятнадцатилетний капитан / Dick Sand. A Captain at Fifteen. Уровень 2

“Negoro, one act, one word of insubordination, and I blow out your brains!”

Negoro had no time to reply. Hercules grasped him by the shoulder.

“Maybe to put him overboard, captain?” said the negro, with a grin of contempt.

“Not yet,” quietly answered Dick.

The giant removed his hand, and Negoro stood upright again, and began to retreat to his own quarters, muttering, however, as he passed Hercules,

“You will pay for this!”

The young captain could not shake off the suspicion that Negoro was concerned in the loss of the first compass, and had some further designs upon the second.

But what possible motive could that man have?

A week passed, and the barometer continued to fall. The “Pilgrim” still made its way northeast. Its speed could not be less than two hundred miles in twenty-four hours. But no land appeared. Dick was perpetually asking himself: was he sailing in a wrong direction?

But no: he was convinced there was no error in his steering.

But where is America? Where were they? Why did not the expected coast appear?

To all these bewildering inquiries Dick could find no answer. He studied his chart; but all in vain.

One morning about eight o’clock, Hercules suddenly shouted,

“Land!”

Dick Sand hurried forward to the bow.

“Where’s the land?” he cried.

“There! Look there!” said Hercules, nodding his head and pointing to the north-east.

Dick could see nothing.

Mrs. Weldon heard the shout.

She left her cabin. She scanned the horizon in the direction indicated by Hercules. But all to no purpose.

Suddenly, however, after a while, Dick raised his hand.

“Yes!” he said; “yes; sure enough, yonder is land.”

Mrs. Weldon strained her eyes yet more vehemently. Beyond a doubt an elevated peak was there. It was about ten miles to leeward. Dick went back to the wheel. Here was the land!

Negoro appeared on deck; he nodded to the peak familiarly, and retired.

Two hours later, Dick Sand failed to discover any further indications of a coast-line. His only increased; the horizon was clear. Dick took up his telescope again and again; but there was nothing. No indication of the shore.

Dick Sand uttered a sigh of mingled amazement and relief. He went into Mrs. Weldon’s cabin.

“It was only an island!” he said; “only an island!”

“How? Why? What island? What do you mean?” cried Mrs.