It had the desired effect, and soon those innocent children were lulled to dreamless slumber.
Then the little brown captain scrambled on deck once more.
The storm still raged on unabatedly; there was not a star to be seen. All around the dark horizon seemed close aboard of them, and nothing was visible save the white caps of the wind-tossed waves.
Antonio found that poor young Davie Drake had gone to sleep forward with his head on a coil of ropes; but Pandoo had covered him entirely up with a tarpaulin.
All that night long, the Grebe went scudding on before the gale; but when daylight appeared, grey and uncertain, the clouds began to lift in the west, and by-and-by a red saturnine light in the cloudland of the east showed that the sun had already risen.
And lo! land was in sight.
Only like a cloud as yet, far away on the eastern horizon.
So on and on flew the saucy Grebe, and hope, that had almost sank in the breasts of the three men on deck, began to rise.
In two hours more the vessel was nearly abreast of Dieppe.
But worse was to follow. At sea, there is nothing certain except the unexpected.