When I finished, he said not a word.
There remained one resource, to speak English.

Perhaps they would know this almost universal language.

I knew it--as well as the German language--well enough to read it fluently, but not to speak it correctly.

But, anyhow, we must make ourselves understood.
"Go on in your turn," I said to the harpooner; "speak your best Anglo-Saxon, and try to do better than I." Ned did not beg off, and recommenced our story.
To his great disgust, the harpooner did not seem to have made himself more intelligible than I had.

Our visitors did not stir.