Page:Last Cruise of the Spitfire.djvu/153

Rh "We've lost one man; I don't intend to lose two," said the captain. "Take him below."

I thought I was to be pitched again into the hold, but this time I was mistaken. Lowell led me to a small room situated in the extreme bow.

"You'll spend a day or two here," he said, as he locked me in. "Perhaps when you come out you won't be so disrespectful to your superiors."

The room was not as bad as the hold had been, there being a little light and ventilation. At one end was a small bench, and on this I sat down.

I was left entirely to myself. Evidently all the sailors had been forbidden to come near me. Hour after hour went by, yet no one appeared.

I wondered why Tony Dibble did not manage to send me word of some kind. I did not know that the honest old sailor was at this minute on the dock at New Bedford, speculating on what had become of the Spitfire.

At length towards evening Lowell came with a tray of food which he set down on the floor of my prison.

"You want to make the most of it," he said, as he walked away. "It has got to last you till tomorrow noon."

The food was not of the best and daintiest kind, but I was hungry, and even at the risk of starving