“A light—some ship, sure,” replied the boatswain, pointing into the darkness.
“Did you see it?”
“Yes; it comes and goes yonder. I keep the open end of the cask in that direction, and if they see the light we may be rescued.”
“But you’ve thrown away the water, and if we shouldn’t be seen?”
“It’s raining. We can get plenty more.”
Jack kept feeding the fire with broken pieces of the grating. The open end of the cask gave the light quite a focus; but Will, scanning the horizon, could see no indication of the light Jack claimed to have discovered.
The cask itself had begun to burn and would soon fall in and no longer confine the fire.
In the glare Jack’s face looked seriously disappointed.
“The light I saw is gone, sure. The ship may have turned so we can’t see it.”
“Maybe it was a star.”