Пятнадцатилетний капитан / Dick Sand. A Captain at Fifteen. Уровень 2

”

The boat was lowered, and the captain and Dick, with a couple of sailors, went on board. The dog was yelping. All at once the animal become to bark with violence and furious with rage.

“What ails the brute?” exclaimed Captain Hull.

The boat was on the farther side of the wrecked ship, and the captain did not see that Negoro the cook came on to the schooner’s deck. The dog was against him. Negoro approached, and nobody saw him. Without a word or look of surprise, Negoro gazed a moment at the dog, knitted his brow, and retired.

As the boat rounded the stern of the drifting hull, the men observed that the one word “Waldeck” was painted on the aft-board, but that there was no intimation of the port to which the ship belonged. To Captain Hull’s experienced eye, however, certain details of construction gave a confirmation that it was an American ship.

The large hole near the bows indicated the place of the disastrous shock, but this aperture was five or six feet above the water.

Meantime the dog got to the centre. Here it continued to bark.

“Look at that dog!” said Dick; “I begin to think there must be somebody on board.”

“If so,” answered the captain, “he died of hunger.”

“No,” said Dick; “that dog is barking, so somebody there is alive.”

The captain and Dick called and whistled repeatedly to the dog, which jumped into the sea, and began to swim slowly towards the boat.

“The poor wretch is dying of thirst!” said Dick.

Captain Hull and Dick clambered the “Waldeck”. The dog was accompanying them.

“There is nothing here; nobody here,” said the captain.

They ascended the ladder, but the dog, barking irrepressibly, began to drag them towards the stern.

They followed the dog to the poop, and there Captain Hull saw five bodies, motionless and apparently lifeless, stretched upon the floor.

Dick hastily examined them all, and emphatically declared, that they could breathe. The five unconscious men, who were all negroes, were brought safely to the boat. The dog followed, apparently satisfied.

The boat made its way back again to the “Pilgrim”. The unfortunate men were raised to the deck.

“Poor things![10 - Poor things! – Бедняги!]” said Mrs. Weldon, as she looked compassionately on the motionless bodies.