Jules Verne For Children: 16 Incredible Tales of Mystery, Courage & Adventure (Illustrated Edition). Jules VerneЧитать онлайн книгу.
suddenly, the dog’s manner changed. Furious barks succeeded its first barks inviting the rescuers to come. The most violent anger excited the singular animal.
“What can be the matter with that dog?” said Captain Hull, while the boat was turning the stern of the vessel, so as to come alongside of the part of the deck lying under the water.
What Captain Hull could not then observe, what could not be noticed even on board the Pilgrim, was that the dog’s fury manifested itself just at the moment when Negoro, leaving his kitchen, had just come toward the forecastle.
Did the dog then know and recognize the master cook? It was very improbable.
However that may be, after looking at the dog, without showing any surprise, Negoro, who, however, frowned for an instant, returned to the crew’s quarters.
Meanwhile the boat had rounded the stern of the ship. Her aftboard carried this single name: Waldeck.
Waldeck, and no designation of the port attached. But, by the form of the hull, by certain details which a sailor seizes at the first glance, Captain Hull had, indeed, discovered that this ship was of American construction. Besides, her name confirmed it. And now, this hull, it was all that remained of a large brig of five hundred tons.
At the Waldeck’s prow a large opening indicated the place where the collision had occurred. In consequence of the capsizing of the hull, this opening was then five or six feet above the water—which explained why the brig had not yet foundered.
On the deck, which Captain Hull saw in its whole extent, there was nobody.
The dog, having left the netting, had just let itself slip as far as the central hatch, which was open; and it barked partly toward the interior, partly toward the exterior.
“It is very certain that this animal is not alone on board!” observed Dick Sand.
“No, in truth!” replied Captain Hull.
The boat then skirted the larboard netting, which was half under water. A somewhat strong swell of the sea would certainly submerge the Waldeck in a few moments.
The brig’s deck had been swept from one end to the other. There was nothing left except the stumps of the mainmast and of the mizzen-mast, both broken off two feet above the scuttles, and which had fallen in the collision, carrying away shrouds, back-stays, and rigging. Meanwhile, as far as the eye could see, no wreck was visible around the Waldeck—which seemed to indicate that the catastrophe was already several days old.
“If some unhappy creatures have survived the collision,” said Captain Hull, “it is probable that either hunger or thirst has finished them, for the water must have gained the store-room. There are only dead bodies on board!”
“No,” cried Dick Sand, “no! The dog would not bark that way. There are living beings on board!”
At that moment the animal, responding to the call of the novice, slid to the sea, and swam painfully toward the boat, for it seemed to be exhausted.
They took it in, and it rushed eagerly, not for a piece of bread that Dick Sand offered it first, but to a half-tub which contained a little fresh water.
“This poor animal is dying of thirst!” cried Dick Sand.
The boat then sought a favorable place to board the Waldeck more easily, and for that purpose it drew away a few strokes. The dog evidently thought that its rescuers did not wish to go on board, for he seized Dick Sand by his jacket, and his lamentable barks commenced again with new strength.
They understood it. Its pantomime and its language were as clear as a man’s language could be. The boat was brought immediately as far as the larboard cat-head. There the two sailors moored it firmly, while Captain Hull and Dick Sand, setting foot on the deck at the same time as the dog, raised themselves, not without difficulty, to the hatch which opened between the stumps of the two masts.
By this hatch the two made their way into the hold.
The Waldeck’s hold, half full of water, contained no goods. The brig sailed with ballast—a ballast of sand which had slid to larboard and which helped to keep the ship on her side. On that head, then, there was no salvage to effect.
“Nobody here,” said Captain Hull.
“Nobody,” replied the novice, after having gone to the foremost part of the hold.
But the dog, which was on the deck, kept on barking and seemed to call the captain’s attention more imperatively.
“Let us go up again,” said Captain Hull to the novice.
Both appeared again on the deck.
The dog, running to them, sought to draw them to the poop.
They followed it.
There, in the square, five bodies—undoubtedly five corpses—were lying on the floor.
By the daylight which entered in waves by the opening, Captain Hull discovered the bodies of five negroes.
Dick Sand, going from one to the other, thought he felt that the unfortunates were still breathing.
“On board! on board!” cried Captain Hull.
The two sailors who took care of the boat were called, and helped to carry the shipwrecked men out of the poop.
This was not without difficulty, but two minutes after, the five blacks were laid in the boat, without being at all conscious that any one was trying to save them. A few drops of cordial, then a little fresh water prudently administered, might, perhaps, recall them to life.
The Pilgrim remained a half cable’s length from the wreck, and the boat would soon reach her.
A girt-line was let down from the main-yard, and each of the blacks drawn up separately reposed at last on the Pilgrim’s deck.
The dog had accompanied them.
“The unhappy creatures!” cried Mrs. Weldon, on perceiving those poor men, who were only inert bodies.
“They are alive, Mrs. Weldon. We shall save them. Yes, we shall save them,” cried Dick Sand.
“What has happened to them?” demanded Cousin Benedict.
“Wait till they can speak,” replied Captain Hull, “and they will tell us their history. But first of all, let us make them drink a little water, in which we shall mix a few drops of rum.” Then, turning round: “Negoro!” he called.
At that name the dog stood up as if it knew the sound, its hair bristling, its mouth open.
Meanwhile, the cook did not appear.
“Negoro!” repeated Captain Hull.
The dog again gave signs of extreme fury.
Negoro left the kitchen.
Hardly had he shown himself on the deck, than the dog sprang on him and wanted to jump at his throat.
With a blow from the poker with which he was armed, the cook drove away the animal, which some of the sailors succeeded in holding.
“Do you know this dog?” Captain Hull asked the master cook.
“I?” replied Negoro. “I have never seen it.”
“That is singular,” murmured Dick Sand.
CHAPTER IV
The Survivors of the Waldeck.
The slave trade was still carried on, on a large scale, in all equinoctial Africa. Notwithstanding the English and French cruisers, ships loaded with slaves leave the coasts of Angola and Mozambique every year to transport negroes to various parts of the world, and, it must be said, of the civilized