After that came several days of light, baffling winds, alternating with
calms. The sun, as they drew nearer the equator, became more and more
unbearable.
In the close hold the heat and stench were frightful. The constant
cries for water rendered the crew nervous and the captain irritable.
He now punished the men severely for the slightest infraction of duty.
"If we don't reach the Verdes," said Duff to Ralph one day, as the lad
was sweeping the cabin, "there will be an outbreak of some kind. Come
to the gangway and listen."
The second mate, who still remained below--his place being taken by
Bludson after a fashion--now led Ralph to the grated door where stood
the loaded howitzer. The sentry was not there; another sign of the
crew's demoralization. He had slipped into one of the store rooms, now
left unlocked, to tap a water butt unseen, for all hands were on short
water rations.
When Duff and the boy halted, they could hear a sort of rasping sound
from underneath like the boring or cutting of wood.
"What is that?" asked Ralph.
"Mischief," said the mate sententiously. "Those wretches in the hold
are up to some trickery. These stupid sentries are too dull or
careless to investigate. They are crazy for water in there, and it is
my opinion they have got hold of something and are trying to cut a way
out--God knows where!--perhaps through the bottom of the vessel."
"Suppose you tell the captain."
"He is that obstinate he'd simply curse me, and probably give no heed.
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