For I felt no animosity about Smith, and as for Tanner I should have felt delighted to have him there to join our picnic dinner.
I suppose I had a bad temper, but it never lasted long, and after a quarrel at school it was all over in five minutes, and almost forgotten.
I was so deep in thought that I came suddenly upon Mr Brooke, seated near where the men were keeping their look-out. He was carefully scanning the horizon, but looked up at me as I stopped short after nearly kicking against him.
“Any sign of the Teaser sir?” I said.
“No, Herrick. I’ve been trying very hard to make her out, but there is no smoke anywhere.”
“Oh, she’ll come, sir, if we wait. What about the junks?”
“I haven’t seen a man stirring oh board either of them, and they are so quiet that I can’t quite make them out.”
“Couldn’t we steal off after dark, sir, and board one of them? If we took them quite by surprise we might do it.”
“I am going to try, Herrick,” he said quietly, “some time after dark. But that only means taking one, the other would escape in the alarm.”
“Or attack us, sir.”