The men laughed, and Soup looked round sharply and wonderingly.
“No, no,” cried Mark, “I don’t want you yet. Go back to the others.”
He pointed, and the man obeyed on the instant, while Mark used his glass to have a good long look-out for help, but only closed it again with a shake of the head; for there was the far-stretching sea and the long line of coast without sign of human habitation. Nothing more, save that the sun was sinking, with its lower edge close to the horizon, while the sea and sky were glorified by the wonderful colours that spread far and wide.
Mark walked right aft now, and hailed Dance on board the other schooner to find that there were cheery answers, and all appeared to be right there, the blacks crowding into the bows to shout and wave their hands to him whom they looked upon as their preserver.
“I’m glad, after all, that Bob isn’t here,” thought Mark; “he’d be as jealous as could be, and say I was as cocky as a lieutenant who had just received his promotion. Am I? One can’t help feeling a bit proud, but it was as much Tom Fillot and the boys as it was I, and they got all the hard knocks.”
“Any orders about the watch, sir, or making or taking in sail?” said Tom Fillot, meeting him as he turned, and touching his hat respectfully.
“N–no,” said Mark, giving a quick look round aloft and slow. “Everything seems to be right.”
“Did what I thought was best, sir.”
“You say the men below have had their rations?”
“Yes, sir; and I lowered ’em down some meat as well, but they never said thankye, sir.”