"Heavens!" he exclaimed. "Is the ship on fire?"
"Fire!" cried Wade excitedly, catching at the last word: "did you say fire?"
"No, no!" exclaimed Kit. "It's nothing—nothing—but daybreak!"
"It's only one o'clock," said Donovan, willing to keep them in doubt.
Capt. Mazard was rushing about, looking over the bulwarks.
"There's no fire," said he, "unless it's up in the sky. But, by Jove! if you aren't a red-looking set!—redder than lobsters!"
"Not redder than yerself, cap'n," laughed Donovan, who greatly enjoyed their mystification.
"The sea is like blood!" exclaimed Wade. "You don't suppose the day of judgment has come and caught us away up here in Hudson's Straits, do you?"
"Not quite so bad as that, I guess," said Raed. "I have it: it's the aurora borealis; nothing worse, nor more dangerous."
I had expected Raed would come to it as soon as he had got his eyes open.