Other smaller pieces of
wreckage dotted the waters, while innumerable spars and packages were
littered over the sands. These were being drawn up and collected in a
place of safety by gangs of peasants. I noticed that a couple of
broad-winged gulls were hovering and skimming over the scene of the
shipwreck, as though many strange things were visible to them beneath
the waves. At times we could hear their raucous voices as they cried to
one another of what they saw.
"She was a leaky old craft," said the captain, looking sadly out to sea,
"but there's always a feeling of sorrow when we see the last of a ship
we have sailed in. Well, well, she would have been broken up in any
case, and sold for firewood."
"It looks a peaceful scene," I remarked. "Who would imagine that three
men lost their lives last night in those very waters?"
"Poor fellows," said the captain, with feeling, "Should they be cast up
after our departure, I am sure, Mr. West, that you will have them
decently interred."
I was about to make some reply when the mate burst into a loud guffaw,
slapping his thigh and choking with merriment.
"If you want to bury them," he said, "you had best look sharp, or they
may clear out of the country. You remember what I said last night?
Just look at the top of that 'ere hillock, and tell me whether I was in
the right or not?"
There was a high sand dune some little distance along the coast, and
upon the summit of this the figure was standing which had attracted the
mate's attention.
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