“Yes, my lad, and we’ll see if he comes back.”
“He will if he can, I’m sure,” I cried. “Well, we shall see.”
“I am sure he has got into some trouble; I am certain of it. Ah, here he is!”
For the door opened at that moment, but it was not Esau, only the landlady, who in broken German-English, told us that a message had arrived from the captain to say we were to go on board.
“Thank you. Gut!” said Gunson, laconically. And then, as the woman left the room, he continued, “Well, I’ll take your view of it, my lad. We’ll say he has got into some trouble and cannot get back.”
“Yes; I’m sure of it,” I cried. “Very well, then, we must get him out of it. Of course it is no use for us to waste time by going from house to house. I’ll go and see the chief man in the police, and see if they can find him for us.”
“Yes,” I said, eagerly; “come on.”
“No, no, you stay. He may, as you say, return, and you must be here to meet him, or he may go off again, and matters be worse.”
“He’d go to the schooner then.”
“If the schooner had not sailed. You stop, and I hope he will turn up hero.”