For every hour was carrying him
farther from the scene of action.
His only hope was that the _Nancy Hanks_ might put in at the
Hawaiian Islands, from which place he might get a chance to write,
or, better still, to cable the reason of his absence. Captain
Green himself wiped out this expectation. He jocosely intimated to
Farnum one afternoon that he had no intention of calling the
Islands.
"When we get through this six months' cruise you'll be a first-
rate sailorman, son, and you'll get a sailorman's wages," he added
genially.
The shanghaied man met his eye squarely. "I think I could arrange
to draw on Verden for a thousand dollars if you would drop me at
the Islands."
"Not for twenty thousand. You're going to stay with us till we get
to the Solomon Islands, and don't you forget it."
Bully Green had taken rather a fancy to this amiable young man who
had taken so sensible a view of the little misadventure that had
befallen him, but of course business was business. He had been
paid to keep him out of the way and he intended to fulfil the
contract.
"Here I'm educatin' you, makin' an able-bodied seaman out of you,
son. You had ought to be grateful," he grinned.
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