[CHAPTER XXI]
REUNITED
Jerry Hopkins, disturbed at his lonely meal by the sound of something or some one moving on the deck of the derelict, started slowly and cautiously toward the companionway.
“If it’s one of the crew of this ship or some of the passengers, I’ll be all right,” he reasoned. “But if it’s one of some beastly German submarine crew——”
He did not finish, but looked around for some sort of weapon. He saw a small bar of iron, which might have been used by the cook for a fire poker, and with this in his hand Jerry cautiously went up on deck.
“Anybody here?” he called, as he carefully thrust up his head. He held the iron bar in readiness. There was no answer, and as Jerry felt the cold, clammy air on his face and smelled the fog, he knew that the derelict was still enveloped in the mist.
“No one seems to have boarded me,” he mused, as his eyes searched the whiteness for a glimpse of some other craft. “If any one is here besides myself he must have been in hiding. Hello!” he cried as loudly as he could. “Anybody at home?”
There was no answer. There was only the swish and swash of the heaving ocean against the sides of the derelict and the rattle and bang of some loose gear, as a swell gently careened her to and fro.
“Nobody here,” mused Jerry. “What could that noise have been?”
He looked about, at first warily, for he half expected to have to engage with some German, as he and his chums had engaged in the trenches in France. Then he became convinced that he was all alone on the craft, and, though he had a realization that this would react dreadfully on him later, for the time being he was thankful that there was no one with whom to contend.