“Do you think——”
“Listen! What’s that?” Captain Bluntt held up his hand.
Faintly they heard a rifle shot in the fog, and in a moment another, fainter and hardly distinguishable.
“Tom Hand! Jake Griggs! Here, you fellows! Man a boat! Be smart now!”
With quick, gruff commands Captain Bluntt had a boat in the water, with four seamen at the oars and another at the tiller, as quickly as man could do it.
“Pull for your lives now! Pull for your lives! Save those lads! Pull, pull, you men!”
“Get your gun, sir! Get your gun, and shoot signals!” he commanded Remington, and in a moment Remington had his rifle on deck, shooting at regular intervals.
Two or three shots were heard far away, and very faint, and then came silence. Remington, Ainsworth and Captain Bluntt, in a state of intense suspense, listened between the shots that Remington fired, and waited.
An hour passed, and another hour before they heard the clank of oarlocks, and presently the boat loomed up in the fog and gathering dusk.
“Did you find them? Did you find them, Tom Hand?” shouted Captain Bluntt.