“Yes, plainly enough.”
“And the rush of quite a large herd of scared animals? They nearly ran us down and would, if it had not been for the shelter of some rocks. I am glad to get back. We had an awful job to carry those two little bucks.”
There was a merry supper that night, and on the strength of Drew’s information, the watch was somewhat relaxed, while it was late when they assembled for breakfast that morning.
“Eh? What’s that?” said Mr Rimmer, as the cook and Smith came to the cabin door.
“Want you to come and have a look, sir,” said Smith.
“Look? What at? Is anything wrong?”
“Well, sir, seems to me as it is a little bit not quite what it oughter be,” said Smith.
“There, don’t talk in riddles, man,” cried the mate, and he strode out to the deck, followed by Drew—Panton and Lane following to the door to see.
Smith led the way to where a group of the men were standing, some with buckets and swabs, but waiting before using them until their officer gave orders.
The sight that met the eyes of the new arrivals was not pleasant, but it was startling, for there was a patch of blood upon the deck, and signs of something bleeding having been dragged for a few yards to the starboard bulwarks, and then drawn up and over them, the ugly stains being on the top of the rail as well.