A jolly and bluff-looking seaman, well tanned by exposure to the weather, and well whiskered; squat in figure, merry in eye, and hearty in voice, wearing a straw hat and pea-jacket, with a handsome gold ring to secure the ends of his black silk neck-tie, was holding back the green curtain, and surveying me with some solicitude of manner.
"How do you feel yourself now, my lad?" he asked.
"Weak--giddy--ill--Hartly--Bob Hartly, keep her head to the break of the sea, or we shall be swamped," said I, incoherently.
"By Jove, I thought the mulled port would bring you up with a round turn and make you speak if nothing else would."
"Where am I?" said I, partially recovering again.
"Thank God--thank God!" I exclaimed; but though my breast heaved with wild emotions of joy, not a tear would come, for even that fount of tenderness seemed dried up within me.
"We picked you up when in an awful plight, my poor fellow! Your boat was half full of water, with two dead bodies washing about in it."
"Yes--two, and you were lying in the stern-sheets looking as pale and as stiff as the others. We were just about to send you over to leeward with a cold shot at your heels, when, fortunately, some signs of life escaped you."
"Am the master of this craft--Captain John Baylis--I think you won't forget the name," he added, smiling.
"Forget it! Oh, sir, how shall I ever forget it?" I groaned. "But Hartly--poor Bob Hartly!"
"He was Master of the _Leda_, and my dear friend. She foundered in a tempest, and those you found in the longboat were the last of twenty-five stout fellows who sailed in her from St. John's, Newfoundland, on the 17th of March."
"Is he about my size; with very dark whiskers and short curly hair?"
"Then he is getting on famously, and lies in my chief mate's berth--but you must not speak any more at present, try to sleep; a little time, and I will be with you again."
In short, I learned by degrees that Hartly and I were the sole survivors of the crew of the _Leda_. Paul Reeves and Jones the seaman had been found dead in the long boat by the crew of the barque, who buried them in blankets, each with a heavy shot at their heels. After this they scuttled the boat, as the sight of her suggested unpleasant ideas.