Hemming also kept pacing the deck all night long, looking out on every
side, like a good officer, as he was, who felt that the lives of the
people with him were entrusted to his care. He did not dread any attack
from boats, but he knew that armed slavers might be attempting to run in
or out of the river while the brig was away, and that if they attempted
to molest him, he should find them very difficult customers to dispose
of. Still he was not the man to allow a slaver to pass him without
attempting to capture her, inferior as he might be to her in force. The
night was very dark, now and then a few flashes of phosphorescent light
played over the ocean, or were stirred up by the bows of the schooner,
as she slowly worked her way through the water; but even the sharpest
eyes on board could scarcely distinguish anything two or three hundred
yards off. Terence and Alick could not bring themselves to lie down nor
take any rest, even though Hemming urged them to do so. They were
leaning together over the bulwarks. They neither of them could have
said whether they were asleep or awake. The wind had dropped
considerably, and at intervals the sails shook themselves and gave a
loud flap against the masts. Terence felt a hand suddenly resting on
his shoulder.
"What is that? Do you hear a sound? Did you see anything?" said a
voice in his ear.
The voice appeared so deep and hollow and strange, that he did not at
first discover that it was Murray speaking to him. Alick repeated the
question twice before he replied. He had, in truth, been fast asleep,
but he did not know it.
"No--what? see, hear what? I don't see anything," was his somewhat
incoherent answer.
"There it is again; music--some one singing," continued Alick. "Can you
see nothing?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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