“You’re a sheep yourself,” replied Eugene, looking up, just in time to catch a line as it came whirling down to him, and to see half a dozen sailors in striped shirts and tarpaulins, leaning over the brig’s rail. Seizing the line with both hands he was drawn out of the water, and in a few seconds more found himself sprawling on the vessel’s deck in the midst of the sailors, who greeted him with jeers and shouts of laughter.
“Now, perhaps you see something funny in this, but I don’t,” exclaimed Eugene, as he scrambled to his feet and looked around for the Banner. “Do you see that craft out there? She belongs to my brother, and those fellows have stolen her and are running away with her. I am a stranger to this country, and its laws and ways of doing business, and I don’t know how to go to work to get her back. Perhaps some of you will be kind enough to give me a word of advice.”
The sailors ceased their laughter when he began to speak, and listened attentively until he was done, when they broke out into another roar, louder than the first. The one who had thrown him the rope slapped him on the back and shouted “Sheep ahoy!” while another offered him a plug of tobacco. The truth was, they had seen Eugene jump overboard when Tomlinson came aft to seize him; and, very far from guessing the facts of the case, they believed him to be one of the yacht’s boys who had taken to the water to escape punishment for some offence he had committed. They could not understand English, and there was only one among them who could speak even a word of it; and all he could say was “Sheep ahoy!” (he intended it for “Ship ahoy!”) which he kept repeating over and over again, without having the least idea what it meant. They thought that Eugene was trying to explain to them how badly he had been abused on board his vessel, and his vehement gestures and angry countenance excited their mirth.
“Get away with that stuff!” cried the boy, hitting the plug of tobacco a knock that sent it from the sailor’s hand spinning across the deck. “Stop pounding me on the back, you fellow, and shouting ‘Sheep ahoy!’ I’m no more of a sheep than you are. Is there one among you who can talk English?”
“Sheep ahoy!” yelled the sailor, while his companions burst into another roar of laughter, as the owner of the tobacco went to pick up his property.
