“What?” asked Rouget, who stretched his limbs.
“A cask.”
Rouget and Fouasse were at once on their feet, their eyes gleaming, sweeping the horizon.
“Where is it, lad? Where is the cask?” repeated the boss, greatly moved.
“Off there—to the left—that black spot.”
The others saw nothing. Then Rouget swore an oath. “Nom de Dieu!”
He had just spotted the cask, big as a lentil on the white water in a slanting ray of the setting sun. And he ran to the “Baleine,” followed by Delphin and Fouasse, who darted forward tapping their backs with their heels and making the pebbles roll.
The “Baleine” was just putting out from the harbor when the news that they saw a cask out at sea was circulated in Coqueville. The children, the women, began to run. They shouted: “A cask! a cask!”
“Do you see it? The current is driving it toward Grandport.”
“Ah, yes! on the left—a cask! Come, quick!”