Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 2.djvu/243

Rh "It looks to me very much as if they were all going to Old Nick," said an incredulous listener.

"And did you ever hear of such wages?" continued Clifton's friend. "Five times more than the common pay! Ay, if it hadn't been for that, Dick Shandon wouldn't have found a man to sign the articles. To make a voyage in such a queer-looking ship, bound for nobody knows where, and coming back nobody knows when I must confess it wouldn't suit me."

"It doesn't matter much whether it would or not, old fellow, for you couldn't go; they wouldn't have you on board the Forward," said Cornhill.

"Pray, why not?"

"Because you can't meet one of the conditions required. I am told that all married men are ineligible, so you are shut out."

"There's so much bounce about the brig altogether," Cornhill went on, "even down to the very name, the Forward. Forward where to? And then there is no captain!"

"Yes, there is," said a frank, boyish-looking young sailor.

"What! a captain has turned up?"

"Yes, a captain."

"You are fancying, youngster, that Shandon is the captain," said Cornhill.

"But I tell you," returned the lad, " that"

"And I tell you," interrupted Cornhill, "that Shandon is the mate and nothing more. He is a brave hardy sailor, an old hand in whaling expeditions, and a thorough good fellow, quite fit to be captain, but captain he is not, any more than you or I. He doesn't even know who is to take the command. At the right time the real captain is to make his appearance, but when that is to be, or in what part of the world, no one knows, for Shandon has not said, nor is he allowed to reveal the ship's destination."

"All that may be, Master Cornhill," replied the young sailor, "But I assure you that at this very moment there is someone on board, someone whose arrival was announced in the very letter which contained the offer to Mr. Shandon of chief officer's berth!"

"What!" retorted Cornhill, frowning angrily at the