CHAPTER VII.

IN COMMAND.

OW it was that Ben had time to look about him, and
consider the situation.

The indications were that the weather would hold fine,
and the breeze, which was carrying the brig along at the
rate of two or three knots an hour, could be depended
upon until morning, therefore, so far as the safety of the
vessel was concerned, the young captain had no cause for
fear.

Had there been a full crew on the Progressive Age,
every inch of the canvas would have been spread to the
breeze, and the short run to Hong Kong might have been
made in twenty-four hours; but instead of a dozen men,
the young captain himself was the only one who could be
relied upon implicitly. Old Eliphalet, save for his work
in the galley, was of no value whatever, and whether the
prisoners could be forced to do seamen’s duty yet re-
mained to be seen.

Probably an older man, who understood thoroughly all
the difficulties which might be encountered, would have
been disheartened; but Ben, flushed with the success of
having got the brig under way in time to escape from the
pirates, and eager to win the first step toward a captain’s

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