Charley Laurel | Page 9

Charley might get out of his basket and tumble overboard, to make
such an accident impossible, he tied him down by the legs in such a
way as to allow the child to sit up when inclined, and look about him.
Poor Dick, who was getting very weak, was lying down asleep with his
head on the edge of the basket, when he heard Charley's voice sing
out--
"See, see--what dat?"
Dick opened his eyes, and casting them in the direction the child
pointed, caught sight of a large vessel under all sail running down
before the wind, which she brought up with her.
"A ship, Charley, a ship!" cried Dick. "And we must do what we can to
make her see us, or she may be passing by, and we shall be no better
off than we are now."
He instantly took off his shirt, which he fastened by its sleeves to the
pole. Holding it aloft as the ship drew near, with all his strength he
waved it to and fro, shouting out in his anxiety, and not aware how low
and hollow his voice sounded. Charley shouted too, with his childish
treble, though their united voices could not have reached by a long way
as far as the ship was from them. It seemed to Dick that she would pass
at some distance: his heart sank. Presently his eye brightened.
"She has altered her course; she is standing this way," he cried out.
"Charley, we shall be picked up!"

"Then I thank God--He hear my prayer. I ask ship come--ship do
come," said Charley.
"You are right, boy--you are right!" cried Dick. "And I was forgetting
all about that prayer of yours."
The tall ship glided rapidly over the ocean, the surface of which was
now rippled with miniature wavelets as the freshening breeze swept
across it.
"To my eye, she is a foreign ship of war," observed Dick. "But a friend
in need is a friend indeed, and we may be thankful to be taken on board
by her or any other craft. Even if a `Mounseer' had offered to pick us up,
I would not have refused."
The ship approaching was hove-to, a boat being lowered from her,
which, with rapid strokes, pulled towards the raft.
CHAPTER FOUR.
THE PIRATE SHIP.
Dick and the little boy were lifted off the raft, with the basket and cask,
and placed in the stern of the boat. The crew were swarthy fellows with
red caps, and Dick at once saw that the uniform worn by the officers in
command was neither English nor French. They appeared to be talking
gibberish, but such indeed were all foreign languages to him. He asked
Charley if it was the French lingo.
"Not know what they say," answered Charley.
"I suppose, however, that they will give us something to eat and drink,"
observed Dick. "And so, whoever they may be, we shall be better off
than on the raft."
On getting alongside, Dick was hoisted on board, and one of the men
carried Charley up in his arms.

Numerous questions were at once put to Dick, every one seeming
anxious to know how he and the boy came to be on the raft. He replied
by pointing to his lips, and showing by other signs that he was hungry
and thirsty. When it was discovered that he was either too weak to
speak, or that he did not understand their language, he was carried
below and placed in a hammock, while the officers took charge of little
Charley, who was soon at home among them. A rough-looking fellow
brought Dick a mess of some sort in basin, and a horn cup filled with
stiff grog. A sailor seldom refuses a glass of grog, and although water
was what he then wanted, he drank the spirit off, and ate some of the
food. The effect of the grog was to send him into a sound sleep, from
which he did not awake till the next day. He felt by that time pretty
strong, and, turning out, went on deck. He found that he was on board a
flush-decked ship-rigged vessel, heavily armed, with a numerous crew
of dark-skinned savage-looking fellows, most of them wearing long
knives or daggers in their belts. He thought that perhaps they might be
Spaniards or Portuguese, then the idea occurred to him that they were
Algerines or Salee rovers, of whom he had heard. However, seeing
some of them with leaden crucifixes round their necks, he came to the
conclusion that they were Spaniards. Not one of them could speak a
word of English, and Dick was ignorant of every language except his
own.
The ship lying becalmed, the crew seemed to take it very easily, some
sitting down between