.

"_Meget vel_," laughed the professor.

"I am satisfied, Ole. Now, have you concluded to tell me how you
happened to be in that boat, so far from the land."

The waif counted the seams in the quarter-deck, but nothing could
induce him to answer the question.

"I have given you a suit of clothes, and I desire to be of service to
you."

"I thank you, sir; and a good supper, the best I ever had, though I
have often fished with English gentlemen, even with lords and sirs."

"If you will tell me who your friends are--"

"I have no friends, sir."

"You lived on shore, or sailed on the sea, with somebody, I suppose."

Ole looked down, and did not deny the proposition.

"Now, if you will tell me whom you lived with, I may be able to do
something for you."

Still the waif was silent.

"Berth No. 72 in the steerage is vacant, and I will give it to you, if
I can be sure it is right for me to do so."

But Ole could not, or would not, give any information on this point,
though he was earnest in his desire to remain in the ship.

"Very well, Ole; as you will not tell me your story, I shall be
obliged to leave you on shore at Christiansand," said the principal,
as he walked away.

Dr. Winstock also tried to induce the youth to reveal what he plainly
regarded as a secret, but with no different result. Ole passed from
the officers to the crew again, and with the latter his answers were
like those given to Sanford and his companions. He invented strange
explanations, and told wild stories, but not a soul on board was the
wiser for anything he said. The waif was permitted to occupy berth No.
72, but was distinctly assured that he must leave the ship when she
arrived at Christiansand.

The wind continued light during the night, but at four o'clock in the
morning the squadron was off Gunnarshoug Point, and not more than four
miles from the land. The shore was fringed with innumerable islands,
which made the coast very picturesque, though it was exceedingly
barren and desolate. Most of the islands were only bare rocks, the
long swells rolling completely over some of the smaller ones. The
students on deck watched the early sunrise, and studied the contour
of the coast with deep interest, till it became an old story, and then
whistled for a breeze to take them along more rapidly towards their
port of destination. The fleet was now fully in the Skager Rack, or
Sleeve, as it is also called on the British nautical charts.