Captain Hull, Dick Sand and two sailors got into it at once.
The dog barked all the time. It tried to hold on to the netting, but every moment it fell back on the deck. One would say that its barks were no longer addressed to those who were coming to him.
Were they then addressed to some sailors or passengers imprisoned in this ship?
"Is there, then, on board some shipwrecked one who has survived?" Mrs. Weldon asked herself.
A few strokes of the oars and the "Pilgrim's" boat would reach the capsized hull.
But, suddenly, the dog's manner changed.
Furious barks succeeded its first barks inviting the rescuers to come.
The most violent anger excited the singular animal.
"What can be the matter with that dog?" said Captain Hull, while the boat was turning the stern of the vessel, so as to come alongside of the part of the deck lying under the water.
What Captain Hull could not then observe, what could not be noticed even on board the "Pilgrim," was that the dog's fury manifested itself just at the moment when Negoro, leaving his kitchen, had just come toward the forecastle.
Did the dog then know and recognize the master cook?
It was very improbable.
However that may be, after looking at the dog, without showing any surprise, Negoro, who, however, frowned for an instant, returned to the crew's quarters.
Meanwhile the boat had rounded the stern of the ship.
Her aftboard carried this single name:
"Waldeck."
"Waldeck," and no designation of the port attached.
But, by the form of the hull, by certain details which a sailor seizes at the first glance, Captain Hull had, indeed, discovered that this ship was of American construction.
Besides, her name confirmed it.
And now, this hull, it was all that remained of a large brig of five hundred tons.
At the
"Waldeck's" prow a large opening indicated the place where the collision had occurred.
In consequence of the capsizing of the hull, this opening was then five or six feet above the water—which explained why the brig had not yet foundered.
On the deck, which Captain Hull saw in its whole extent, there was nobody.
The dog, having left the netting, had just let itself slip as far as the central hatch, which was open; and it barked partly toward the interior, partly toward the exterior.
"It is very certain that this animal is not alone on board!" observed Dick Sand.
"No, in truth!" replied Captain Hull.
The boat then skirted the larboard netting, which was half under water.
A somewhat strong swell of the sea would certainly submerge the "Waldeck" in a few moments.
The brig's deck had been swept from one end to the other.
There was nothing left except the stumps of the mainmast and of the mizzen-mast, both broken off two feet above the scuttles, and which had fallen in the collision, carrying away shrouds, back-stays, and rigging.
Meanwhile, as far as the eye could see, no wreck was visible around the
"Waldeck"—which seemed to indicate that the catastrophe was already several days old.
"If some unhappy creatures have survived the collision," said Captain Hull, "it is probable that either hunger or thirst has finished them, for the water must have gained the store-room.
There are only dead bodies on board!"
"No," cried Dick Sand, "no!
The dog would not bark that way.
There are living beings on board!"
At that moment the animal, responding to the call of the novice, slid to the sea, and swam painfully toward the boat, for it seemed to be exhausted.
They took it in, and it rushed eagerly, not for a piece of bread that Dick Sand offered it first, but to a half-tub which contained a little fresh water.
"This poor animal is dying of thirst!" cried Dick Sand.
The boat then sought a favorable place to board the "Waldeck" more easily, and for that purpose it drew away a few strokes.
The dog evidently thought that its rescuers did not wish to go on board, for he seized Dick Sand by his jacket, and his lamentable barks commenced again with new strength. They understood it.
Its pantomime and its language were as clear as a man's language could be.
The boat was brought immediately as far as the larboard cat-head.
There the two sailors moored it firmly, while Captain Hull and Dick Sand, setting foot on the deck at the same time as the dog, raised themselves, not without difficulty, to the hatch which opened between the stumps of the two masts. By this hatch the two made their way into the hold.
The "Waldeck's" hold, half full of water, contained no goods.
The brig sailed with ballast—a ballast of sand which had slid to larboard and which helped to keep the ship on her side.
On that head, then, there was no salvage to effect.
"Nobody here," said Captain Hull.