"Well," continued Jack, "you may guess my consternation when you did
not answer to my halloo. At first I imagined that the pirates must have
killed you, and left you in the bush or thrown you into the sea; then
it occurred to me that this would have served no end of theirs, so I
came to the conclusion that they must have carried you away with them.
As this thought struck me, I observed the pirate schooner standing away
to the nor'ard, almost hull down on the horizon, and I sat down on the
rocks to watch her as she slowly sank from my sight. And I tell you,
Ralph my boy, that I shed more tears that time at losing you than I
have done, I verily believe, all my life before--"
"Pardon me, Jack, for interrupting," said Peterkin; "surely you must be
mistaken in that: you've often told me that when you were a baby you
used to howl and roar from morning to--"
"Hold your tongue, Peterkin," cried Jack. "Well, after the schooner had
disappeared, I dived back into the cave, much to Peterkin's relief, and
told him what I had seen. We sat down and had a long talk over this
matter, and then we agreed to make a regular, systematic search through
the woods, so as to make sure at least that you had not been killed.
But now we thought of the difficulty of getting out of the cave without
your help. Peterkin became dreadfully nervous when he thought of this;
and I must confess I felt some alarm, for, of course, I could not hope
alone to take him out so quickly as we two together had brought him in;
and he himself vowed that, if we had been a moment longer with him that
time, he would have had to take a breath of salt water.
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