As if in response to my wish there was a faint gleam out in the darkness just like a pale star, and then a blue glow which lit up the scene with a curiously sickly glare.
It made everything very plain, and by this light we could see that there were three crowded boats out in the blue circle of light, while we could just see the fourth beyond them upside down, the keel just above the water, and three men seated astride.
“Regular capsize,” said our foreman. “Hope none of the wounded chaps aren’t drowned. Don’t mind about the rest.”
The blue light burned out, but not before we had plainly seen that it was burning in the bows of the largest boat, and that the men on that capsized had been dragged into one of the others. Then, as we listened, the babble of voices ceased, the plash of oars recommenced, and gradually died away.
“Well,” I said, “we may as well go back and report what we have seen. They’ve gone now.”
“Yes,” growled our foreman, holding his hand to his wound, “and they’ve left their marks behind.”