Dick Sand could not yet think of using any sail.  The smallest sail would be carried away.  However, he hoped that twenty-four hours would not elapse before it would be possible for him to rig a storm-jib.

During the night, in fact, the wind went down quite noticeably, if they compared it to what it had been till then, and the ship was less tossed by those violent rollings which had threatened to break her in pieces.

The passengers began to appear on deck again.  They no longer ran the risk of being carried away by some surge from the sea.

Mrs. Weldon was the first to leave the hatchway where Dick Sand, from prudent motives, had obliged them to shut themselves up during the whole duration of that long tempest.  She came to talk with the novice, whom a truly superhuman will had rendered capable of resisting so much fatigue.  Thin, pale under his sunburnt complexion, he might well be weakened by the loss of that sleep so necessary at his age.  No, his valiant nature resisted everything.  Perhaps he would pay dearly some day for that period of trial.  But that was not the moment to allow himself to be cast down.  Dick Sand had said all that to himself.  Mrs. Weldon found him as energetic as he had ever been.

And then he had confidence, that brave Sand, and if confidence does not command itself, at least it commands.

“Dick, my dear child, my captain,” said Mrs. Weldon, holding out her hand to the young novice.

“Ah!  Mrs. Weldon,” exclaimed Dick Sand, smiling, “you disobey your captain.  You return on deck, you leave your cabin in spite of his—­prayers.”

“Yes, I disobey you,” replied Mrs. Weldon; “but I have, as it were, a presentiment that the tempest is going down or is going to become calm.”

“It is becoming calm, in fact, Mrs. Weldon,” replied the novice.  “You are not mistaken.  The barometer has not fallen since yesterday.  The wind has moderated, and I have reason to believe that our hardest trials are over.”

“Heaven hears you, Dick.  All! you have suffered much, my poor child!  You have done there——­”

“Only my duty, Mrs. Weldon.”

“But at last will you be able to take some rest?”

“Rest!” replied the novice; “I have no need of rest, Mrs. Weldon.  I am well, thank God, and it is necessary for me to keep up to the end.  You have called me captain, and I shall remain captain till the moment when all the ‘Pilgrim’s’ passengers shall be in safety.”

“Dick,” returned Mrs. Weldon, “my husband and I, we shall never forget what you have just done.”

“God has done all,” replied Dick Sand; “all!”

“My child, I repeat it, that by your moral and physical energy, you have shown yourself a man—­a man fit to command, and before long, as soon as your studies are finished—­my husband will not contradict me—­you will command for the house of James W. Weldon!”

“I—­I——­” exclaimed Dick Sand, whose eyes filled with tears.