Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 2.djvu/244

216 audacious youngster. "Do you dare to stand out that there is a captain on board?"

"Yes, certainly, Master Cornhill."

"You say that to my face!"

"Of course I do; I had it from Johnson, one of the officers on board."

"From Mr. Johnson?"

"Yes, he told me himself."

"Johnson told you, did he?"

"He not only told me, but showed me the captain."

"Showed you the captain!" repeated Cornhill in blank amaze.

"Yes! he showed me the captain."

"And you really saw him?"

"Yes! with my own eyes."

"And who is it, pray?"

"It is a dog."

"A dog?"

"A dog with four feet?"

"Yes!"

The sailors of the Nautilus seemed stupefied. Under any other circumstances, such a declaration would have provoked shouts of laughter. The idea of a dog being captain of a brig of 170 tons. It was too ludicrous. But there was something altogether so extraordinary about this Forward that one need think twice before denying or even ridiculing the boy's assertion, and instead of laughing, Cornhill said gravely:

"So it was Johnson who introduced you to this novel sort of a captain, and you actually saw him?"

"As plain as I see you."

"Well, Cornhill, what do you think of that? " asked the sailors, eagerly.

"I think nothing," replied Cornhill, roughly, "except that the Forward either belongs to the devil, or to some fools let loose from Bedlam!"

The crew continued silently gazing at the wonderful brig, watching the final preparations for departure, but not one among them dared to say, or even so much as pretended to believe, that Johnson had been only making a fool of the boy, and imposing on his credulity.

The story of the dog had already got abroad, and more