Across the Spanish Main: A Tale of the Sea in the Days of Queen BessCollingwood, Harry
General
Across the Spanish Main: A Tale of the Sea in the Days of Queen Bess
Collingwood, Harry
Adventure stories; Boys -- Juvenile fiction; Sea stories
He looked round to see if any of the other men had observed anything,
but they were all much too intent on the work in hand to take notice of
anything else; and his friend Harry was just as busy as the rest of the
men. He therefore dismissed the matter from his mind, thinking that his
eyes might perhaps have deceived him, and set to work again with the
other men.
The hole was soon dug and the anchor deposited therein, planks and
baulks of timber being laid upon it as before. The sand was filled in
and a mound raised above the work, and it only remained to further
secure the anchor by putting a spring on to the cable, and fastening to
a palm-tree as before.
As this last part of the work was being done, and the spring being
lashed round the palm-tree, one of the seamen, named Martin, grasped
Roger by the arm.
"Do you see that, Master Trevose?" said he, pointing.
"What do you mean, Martin?" answered Roger.
"Why, over there, sir," said the man, pointing in the same direction as
that in which Roger had seen the peculiar movement of the foliage some
little time before. "I be sure I saw something shining among the trees
just now. What d'ye think it can be? I only just caught a sight of it
for a moment; but I be sure I beaint mistaken."
Roger looked in the direction indicated by the seaman, but could
distinguish nothing.
"Are you sure, Martin?" asked he. "Because I fancied that I, too, saw a
peculiar movement among the trees over in that direction a little time
ago."
"Yes, I be sartin sure, master," replied Martin. "I only see'd it for a
minute, 'tis true, but there warn't no mistake about it; and it seemed
to me to be very like the glitter of steel."
Roger was much puzzled, and also somewhat perturbed; he therefore
determined to inform the captain of what he and Martin had observed,
immediately upon his return to the ship, but to say nothing to the men
until the work on shore was finished, for fear of distracting their
attention from the task in hand.
This was soon completed, and Roger, calling the men together, got them
into the boats and they pulled back to the ships, leaving the party of
men from the _Tiger_ upon their own vessel, and taking his own crew on
board the flag-ship.
He then sought out the captain, and found him seated in his cabin
working out some observations. The lad duly reported that the work he
had been sent to execute was completed satisfactorily.
"Very good, Roger; very good indeed!" replied the captain. "I will come
on deck presently and see how the tide serves; and if it is suitable we
will haul in at once. For I am anxious to get these repairs effected as
soon as possible, and the sooner we start the sooner we shall be
finished. By the way, Roger," he continued, "as you know, we are
somewhere on the eastern coast of the Spanish island of Cuba; and while
you were ashore with the men just now I have been busy working out our
exact position on the chart."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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