The captain spurred his horse across the stones and shouted, loud enough to be heard above the roar of the waves:
"Has the yacht come in?"
Willie Sanderson shook his head, and significantly pointed seaward.
Jem Starling came up and touched his hat and, bellowing hoarsely in the captain's ear, said:
"No, she ain't come in, sir, and these chaps be all in a regular state about her. They say——"
But the captain was too anxious as to the situation to receive anything second-hand, and beckoned imperiously to Willie Sanderson, who came up to him.
"Do you think there is any danger?" asked the captain, in a voice slightly tremulous.
Willie Sanderson shook his head gravely.
"Can't say exactly, sir. All depends upon where she be. I knows as the skipper said they were to sail south and tack round. If so be they have, why then they're close agin' the North Reef by now, and——"
"Well, well?" asked the captain, with feverish eagerness.