“Well, then, let it have my soup,” cried little Jack.  “I can do without it very well.”

At that moment the barking was more distinctly heard.  Three hundred feet, at the most, separated the two ships.  Almost immediately a dog of great height appeared on the starboard netting, and clung there, barking more despairingly than ever.

“Howik,” said Captain Hull, turning toward the master of the “Pilgrim’s” crew, “heave to, and lower the small boat.”

“Hold on, my dog, hold on!” cried little Jack to the animal, which seemed to answer him with a half-stifled bark.

The “Pilgrim’s” sails were rapidly furled, so that the ship should remain almost motionless, less than half a cable’s length from the wreck.

The boat was brought alongside.  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.