“I say, Mr Mark, sir,” he said in a whisper, “do you expect to meet them all as they comes back?”
“Yes.”
“But Billy Widgeon told me this morning when they started as they was coming back t’other way.”
Chapter Forty Two.
How they struggled to Crater Bay.
The stowaway’s news fell like a thunderbolt, and Mark felt a curious chilling sensation come over him, as he tried to keep it from his mother and Mrs O’Halloran. But the latter was quick at seeing there was something wrong, and she stopped and asked what it was, and wrung it unwillingly from the lad.
“That’s bad,” she said quietly. “What do you propose doing?”
Mark stared at her in surprise to see how calmly she took the announcement of what might mean destruction, certainly a temporary separation from their friends.