“Silence there, my lads,” said the skipper sternly, and Rodd noticed the gloomy look upon his countenance as he turned his back to the doctor and walked to the side to stand gazing at the distant ship.
Many minutes had not elapsed before Rodd, who had turned his back to the men so as not to see their faces, and to hide his own, saw through the telescope he was busily using, something moving at the side of the sloop—a something which glided down her side and which was soon afterwards succeeded by a faint glitter as of the movement of rays.
Then there was a splash, followed by the regular dipping of oars which seemed to throw up so much golden spray on either side, and the boy could plainly make out the sloop’s boat being rowed out clear of the man-of-war, and gradually increasing its distance.
Rodd watched them for some time, and what was but a speck to his naked eye plainly showed in the field of the glass the regular movements of the men, and now and then a flash suggestive of the rowers wearing something brightly polished.
There were more flashes too caused by the sun’s nearly horizontal rays, and these came from right astern, where the golden orange sunshine seemed to be intensified, looking wonderfully red; but ere long the watcher had grasped the fact that he was looking at the bright scarlet coats of so many marines, and then he was able to note the figures of two of the boat’s occupants seated together.
“The officers in command,” he said to himself.
It was a long row from vessel to vessel, and the sun had begun to dip, and sank quite out of sight as the sloop’s cutter came alongside, the men tossed up their oars, and a smart-looking officer of about thirty sprang up the side, followed by a lad of Rodd’s own age, who took his attention from the first.
The officer was received at the side by the doctor and captain, Rodd standing slightly behind looking hard at the midshipman, who stared harder, frowning and putting on an air of the most consequential kind, while, presumably involuntarily, his left hand played with the ivory and gilt hilt of a curved dirk, suggestive of a strong desire to draw it out of its sheath and flourish it before the schooner’s crew.
The officer nodded importantly at the doctor, and then turned frowningly upon the skipper with the angry question—
“What’s the reason you didn’t heave to?”