Читать книгу The Secret Chart; or, Treasure Hunting in Hayti онлайн

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Andy looked from the captain to the key in a sort of bewilderment, and one of the sailors, who stood near him, said:

“You’ll have your hands full now, cookee, for we’re likely to add twelve or fifteen to this schooner’s crew.” Andy raised his arms above his head, as if in despair, and then turning suddenly, ran below to the galley, from which place he did not emerge again until it was time to serve dinner.

The schooner was hove to, when it seemed to the boys as if she was a very long distance to the eastward of the key; but, as a matter of fact, she was on the edge of the bank, and as near in shore as it was safe to venture.

One of the small boats was lowered, and two sailors rowed toward the shore.

The mate of the yacht—Job Jenkins, a young man not more than twenty-five years of age—was leaning over the rail near where Gil and Nelse stood, and after watching the men as they pulled the tender around to the western shore of the key, to avoid the heavy breakers, he said, petulantly:

“I ain’t a-sayin’ but what it’s our duty to take that crowd off; yet it’s bound to use up the rest of this day, and by sunset there won’t be so much as a breath of air stirring.”