CHAPTER III.
THE WRECK.
Dick Sand's cry brought all the crew to their feet.

The men who were not on watch came on deck.

Captain Hull, leaving his cabin, went toward the bow.
Mrs.Weldon, Nan, even the indifferent Cousin Benedict himself, came to lean over the starboard rail, so as to see the wreck signaled by the young novice.
Negoro, alone, did not leave the cabin, which served him for a kitchen; and as usual, of all the crew, he was the only one whom the encounter with a wreck did not appear to interest.
Then all regarded attentively the floating object which the waves were rocking, three miles from the "Pilgrim." "Ah! what can that be ?" said a sailor.
"Some abandoned raft," replied another.
"Perhaps there are some unhappy shipwrecked ones on that raft," said Mrs.Weldon.
"We shall find out," replied Captain Hull.

"But that wreck is not a raft.

It is a hull thrown over on the side." "Ah! is it not more likely to be some marine animal--some mammifer of great size ?" observed Cousin Benedict.
"I do not think so," replied the novice.
"Then what is your idea, Dick ?" asked Mrs.Weldon.
"An overturned hull, as the captain has said, Mrs.Weldon.It even seems to me that I see its copper keel glistening in the sun." "Yes--indeed," replied Captain Hull.