Page:Dick Sands the Boy Captain.djvu/141

 ROUGH WEATHER. I15 CHAPTER XL ROUGH WEATHER. DURING the ensuîng week nothing particular occurrcd on board. The breeze stiil freshened, and the"Pilgrim" made on the average 160 miles eveiy twenty-four hours. The speed was as great as could be expected from a craft of her size. Dick grew more and more sanguine în his anticipations that it could not be long before the schooncr would cross the track of the mail-packets plying betwccn the eastern and western hémisphères. He had made up his mind to hail the first passing vessel, and either to transfcr his passengers, or what perhaps would be bcttcr still, to borrow a few sailors, and, it might be, an officer to work the " Pilgrim " to shore. He could not hclp, however, a growing sensé of astonishment, whcn day after day passed, and yet there was no ship to be signallcd. He kept the most vigourous look-out, but ail to no purpose. Three voyages before had he made to the whale-fishcries, and his expérience made him sure that he ought now to bc sighting some English or American vessel on its way between the Equator and Cape Horn. Very différent, however, was the true position of the " Pilgrim " from what Dick supposed ; not only had the ship been carried far out of her direct course by currents, the force of which there were no means of estimating, but from the moment when the compass had bccn tampered with by Negoro, the steering itself had put the vessel ail astray. I 2