Although the cabin had seemed but poorly lighted, the contrast to the darkness of the promenade deck was very pronounced. Clouds covered the sky, and so what light might have come from that source was shut off to a great extent. Then, too, the shadow cast by the overhanging hurricane-deck above added to the general gloom.
At random, Tom started forward. It seemed as though the chances of coming upon his comrade would be stronger if he took that direction. People were more apt to saunter toward the stern of the boat; and besides, the crew of the quick-firing three-inch gun usually gathered there, close to their “pet,” which was covered at times with a tarpaulin, though ever ready for instant use in emergency.
The agitated girl kept at his side. Tom never once doubted the genuine nature of Bessie Gleason’s emotion. She had hugged her fears to her heart until they could no longer be endured in solitude, and had then insisted on coming up from below, in company with the kind Red Cross nurse, to find her new friends and warn them of the impending peril.
The pair were soon well up forward, at least as far as the promenade deck was now open to the passengers. In ordinary times it would have been possible to go along to the captain’s cabin and the wheel room, and look down upon the lower deck.
Tom’s eyes were not those of a cat to see well in the dark; but by this time he had grown a little accustomed to the semi-gloom. Besides, the clouds overhead chanced to lighten, as if in sympathy with his eager desire to see, and so it came that he suddenly discovered a dark object lying on the deck that moved a little even as he looked.
The girl too had been straining her eyes, and just as he noticed the object she whispered close to Tom’s ear:
“Look! Oh, look there! Isn’t that something moving, Tom?”
Before Tom could make any reply they both distinctly caught what sounded like a groan.
“Jack, is that you?” exclaimed Tom feverishly, still advancing as he spoke.
“Guess so, as far as I can tell,” came the reply, that filled his chum’s anxious heart with sudden relief.