"You didn't see any lights?"
"No, but I could make out her masts and rigging."
The two men went on, and Jack heard no more.
"There has some vessel come in through the reefs," he said to himself as he sat up in bed. "I must try to find them to-morrow. I have always said that I thought it possible for a vessel to get through if one knew the passage, and this shows that it has been done. No wonder these men thought it was a phantom ship."
Partially dressing himself he went on deck, and looked around him.
He could see nothing, and he hardly expected to do so, but had yielded to impulse and had come on deck.
Ben Bowline presently came up, looked at him, touched his grizzled forelock, and said:
"Sir to you. Come up to get the air?"
"Yes," Jack answered shortly.
"Kind of a pretty night, don't you think, sir!" the old sailor said after a pause during which he stood balancing himself first on one foot and then on the other.