“Yes, sir,” said Roylance.
“May I go, sir?” said Syd, tentatively.
But the lieutenant did not appear to have heard him, and stood giving order after order to the officer and the boat’s crew, asking endless questions about the stores they had on board.
“And I should so like to have gone,” thought Syd, as he gazed longingly at the rock, standing up grey and brown and green against the deep blue sea, whose waters washed with creamy foam the bottom of the huge mass of stone.
He turned with a sigh to watch the first lieutenant, who was now busily talking to Lieutenant Dallas and Roylance, and Syd knew that in another minute or two the boat, would be pushed off, when the boatswain came up behind him.
“Aren’t you going with us, Master Syd?”
“No, Barney,” he replied, sadly; “I’m not going.”
“Why don’t yer ask the luff to let yer go, sir? Be a bit of a change.”
“I did ask him, Barney.”
“And did he say you warn’t to go, sir?”