Bob Hampton grasped the fact though, for he laid his hand on my knee, and whispered excitedly—
“Why, Mr Dale, sir, he’s gone up to fetch Mr and Miss Denning, and he can’t find ’em.”
To endorse his words Jarette appeared the next minute at the stern-windows and cried—
“Did any of you see those passengers?” There was of course a chorus of Noes, and the man ran back again shouting Mr Denning’s name, and we could hear the banging of cabin-doors. Then I saw the man’s shadow as he came back into the captain’s cabin to fetch the lamp, with which he went back, and, as I judged, ran from cabin to cabin. The next minute he appeared upon the poop-deck, his figure thrown up by the light and plainly seen as he ran here and there, and then disappeared, to be seen at the stern-window.
“They’re nowhere about,” he cried.
“How rum now, aren’t it?” muttered Bob Hampton. “Now I do call that strange.”
“Didn’t either of you see them?” shouted Jarette.
“No.”
“Did you go into their cabin?”
“No, no.”