The purser was telling him, when the captain, who was standing on the upper deck, by the pilot-house, sung out: "Hurry up there, now, and don't keep this vessel here any longer.

Get 'em out as quick as you can, Mr.Brown." The boys didn't stop to have this kind invitation repeated, and Scott scuffled down the stairs into the boat as fast as he could, followed closely by Harry Alden.

Tom Myers and his brother George stopped long enough to bid each of us good-bye, and shake hands with us, and then they went down the stairs.

They had to climb over the railing to the platform in front of the wheel-house to get to the stairs, and as the steamer rolled a little, and the stairs shook, they went down very slowly, backward, and when they got to the bottom were afraid to step into the boat, which looked pretty unsteady as it wobbled about under them.
"Come, there! Be lively!" shouted the captain.
Just then, Rectus made a step forward.

He had been looking very anxiously at the boys as they got into the boat, but he hadn't said anything.
"Where are you going ?" said I; for, as quick as a flash, the thought came into my mind that Rectus's heart had failed him, and that he would like to back out.
"I think I'll go back with the boys," he said, making another step toward the top of the stairs, down which the man from the pilot-boat was hurrying.
"Just you try it!" said I, and I put out my arm in front of him.
He didn't try it, and I'm glad he didn't, for I should have been sorry enough to have had the boys go back and say that when they last saw Rectus and I we were having a big fight on the deck of the steamer.
The vessel now started off, and Rectus and I went to the upper deck and stood and watched the little boat, as it slowly approached the schooner.